Disclaimer: See Chapter 1, I really should reprint it, but I'm just feeling lazy right now.
Ok for anyone read up to this point, sorry for the really long delay, I just had no will to write lately.
Other than that same a before, sorry of any spelling/grammar mistakes.
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"Who goes there?" the man cried out in alarm as a sound came from just beyond his position.
"Get that damn rifle out of my face before I ram it where the sun don't shine." Spook growled back clamoring over the rubble with Motoko quickly following after him.
"Who's on charge here?" he asked angrily, dusting him self off and looking about at the "lost company". The park was littered with men trying to A get some sleep or B watch the perimeter.
"Don't know" the solider answered. "We're kind of jumbled."
"Well then it looks like your lucky day," Spook answered cinchy "I seem to have seniority…."
Blade stood in the entranceway of the Hinatasou, staring blankly out into the black oblivion of night. He sighed at both his thoughts and the lack of view. He heard footsteps behind him so he stepped aside to allow who ever it was to pass. He looked over his shoulder when no one walked by.
"Hey you two," Blade said acknowledging Jenn and Rossy.
"You really look depressed." Jenn observed walking up and pulling herself against him. Blade didn't respond just continuing to lean on the door frame and stare outward.
"Is there any reason for me not to be?" Blade asked letting his head hit the door frame with a loud thwack. "A lot of people died today."
"That happens in war man." Rossy countered.
"I know that." Blade shot back crossly. "How many didn't have to?"
"This coming from the man that said there is no room for emotions in war." Jenn responded sarcastically
"There is no room to act on them." Blade quoted himself, kind of hurt at being that miss interpreted. "It's impossible not to feel them." There was a silence following that thought that cut through the trio like a hot knife thought butter.
"Hey how's that friend of yours? Naru was it?" Rossy said ideally trying to break the quietness.
"I don't think she's going to make it. In all honesty it's a miracle in itself that she lasted this long. With the amount of lead she took, something important had to have been hit." Blade concluded, he sighed heavily, uncrossing his arms and wrapping one around Jenn's waist. "Just like old times huh?"
"Yup exactly like old times." Rossy said crossly grimacing into the ground.
"They send us out, only us core come back." Jenn finished for him. Blade nodded unseen in the dark
"That's how it works, but what the hell maybe we'll get lucky." Blade said hopefully. "Maybe a few more will come back this time, or maybe the army…" Blade stopped, realizing he was rambling. "It's hopeless"
"When is it not?" Jenn countered
"Ya man, we've all ways faced thousand to 1 odds." Rossy added trying to cheer Blade up just a little.
"True but it's always been on someone else's turf. Not here, not in front of our homes. These people beside us aren't soldiers, they're civilians, they're everyday men and women, they have lives and families. They have something to defend, something to hold on to. In the end I guess that makes this all the more valiant an effort, but when it's all over the results are always the same. People fight, one side wins or loses, and people die. It's the way of the world works I guess but still hurts." Blade bespoke, removing his arm from Jenn, and stepping forward into the open a few paces.
"Well that's the only thing that sets us apart." Ross continued Blade's speech "that we ignore it. We cut out the fear and the pain and just do it, keep going on despite whatever part of us doesn't want to. We move pass the grief of the dead and the fear and just….. Get the job done." Blade let this soak in, simply nodding in answer. Blade sighed and moved off out of sight. Never saying a word.
Kitsune wore her fear and pain openly on her face as she watched the scene before her. The cave was littered with the dead and wounded. She stood where her feet lay surrounded by those battling for their last breaths on this earth. The soil was stained red but even in this sea of tragedy and despair hope and humanity shone through. Beside most cots where a comforting face and a hand to hold, some friends and family, but for the most part complete strangers, men and women who had meet only hours ago on the field of battle.
Kitsune looked back at the damsel she had force her eyes away from. Naru lay on a cot wrapped up in fresh dressings and not looking any better. Her breaths were quick and harsh. The bandages were not holding on to even a hint of the white they used to be, and twice she had coughed up blood. You didn't need to be a doctor to know that was never a good sign.
"Naru" Keitaro whispered softly, grasping her hand for dear life. Almost as if he was trying to strangle back into it. "Come on now hang in there." Naru rolled her eyes a pone him, a gentle glaze in them, a combination of love and massive blood loss, mostly love. All she did was smile.
"She's not going to make it." Blade whispered in Kitsune's ear. She wheeled about turning on him
"How can you say that?" she screamed. There was a loud clapping noise as Blade blocked he slap. They stayed like that just staring at each other. Tears freely flowing down Kitsune's grim and dirty face, and all of Blade's emotion and pain locked behind a steely expression.
"Because it's true."
"What's true?" Keitaro asked looking utterly exhausted. Naru looked over at them, moving from Kitsune to Blade, some fear but mostly understanding and resignation in her face. She already new her fate. Blade looked away, shame racing through his veins.
"Keitaro." Naru whispered weakly. "I…. just wanted to…" Blade just walked away, unable to stay in their presence any longer. Blade left the cave tears threatening to drown his eyes. Blade paced back in forth in front of the cave. His arms crossed over his chest. Blade leaned against the wooden frames of the doors, sliding slowly to the ground. The sat there for what felt like forever, just gazing at the ground.
"Blade?" a voice pierced the night, showing concern for the man crumpled in the doorway. Blade refused to look up. He didn't process the will; to face anyone, especially her of all people.
"Blade?" Shinobu asked again, crouching in front of him. "Talk to me." Blade continued to stare at the ground, now occupied by Shinobu's feet.
"You'd better hurry, I doubt Naru's going to last any longer." Blade told her, continuing to look at the ground. Shinobu looked into the depths of the cave; she stood up to take off "come on." She commanded
"No. I've see enough death for one lifetime, hurts enough when it's a stranger." Shinobu tilted her head quizzically in silence, demanding a fast answer. Blade looked up at her, staring blankly into her eyes, he broke his lock and stared at the ground again. "I'm very familiar with death Shinobu, hell I've played gin with the Grim Reaper once or twice. That doesn't make any more bearable, just survivable." Blade paused letting out a breath, "In the time I've been here you guys have become a family to me, I just care to damn much to watch one of you go." Shinobu nodded and walked away, disappearing into the cavern, not truly understanding what he was saying.
"Well I really don't give a fuck for whatever your piety excuse is we are moving when I say so." Spook growled angrily at the man opposite him in the dark
"But…" the man's protests were cut short by the sound of Motoko's sword clearing its sheath and gently resting on his neck. "… Ok whatever I don't care anymore. Their deaths are on your hands." He answered; the man slowly backed away from the katana and vanished into the darkness.
"That went well." Motoko said sarcastically putting her weapon away.
"Yup." Spook replied turning to face the group that had watched the whole exchange from a respectable distance.
"I just hope they'll listen to orders now."
"No that's not going to do," Blade countermanded, looking up from his place on the ground. "We have a little more than an hour left until we move. We need as much firepower as we can muster. If we can't break through t as least to the roadway we might as well just shoot ourselves and save the enemy the trouble." The soul that had delivered the report shoulders slumped
"That's all we can get sir." The woman answered.
"Well it isn't enough, go tell Ross I need more or we can scrape this whole endeavor." Blade answered crossly. The woman hesitated then bowed and took off. Blade watched the young lady walk off. "She's young," Blade thought "or I that just me? She could be 20 for all I know." Blade looked into the cave searching for the echoing footsteps issuing from it.
"Kitsune?" Blade asked at the shadowy figure.
"Blade Naru she, she's"
"Gone." Blade finished for her. Kitsune nodded stopping several paces away, tears flowing down her checks in rivers.
"Well" Blade said standing up. "That sucks." He ended distancing himself both mentally and physically. Kitsune stared back at him in shock, anger slowly ebbing into her features.
"Oh come off it Kitsune, what the hell am I suppose to do! Wallow in my own self pity? Cry and blubber like a child, none of us can afford to do that now! She is gone, get over it and move on. There is nothing any of us can do to bring her back"
"Do you feel anything at all?" Kitsune asked barely keeping her rage in check.
"I try not to, but that's truly impossible isn't it?"
"Blade you are a true despicable human being." Kitsune clenched and unclenched her hands.
"Maybe that's what makes me different, why I keep coming back." Blade stood up sticking his hands in his pockets, he turned to walk away.
"How can this not bother you Blade? This is just so…"
"Unfair?" Blade shoot back almost as a cruse. "She had a nice life, a peaceful one at least and she was so knocked up on painkillers she shouldn't of felt much pain if anything at all. She still had her child hood, and this hell hadn't become her life I call that pretty fair." Kitsune opened and closed, unable to say anything.
"There is no such thing as fair. The only fairness in life is that we all get dealt a hand at birth, and a chance to play it." Blade said turning away again.
"How could you…" Blade turned back to face the speaker. "How could you, turn your back on a friend like that?" Kietaro demanded. "How can you feel nothing at all?" Blade observed him quietly, him, Kitsune and Shinobu hiding in their shadows.
"She was already lost Keitaro, their was nothing I could of done or any benefit I could of given by being there. I'm a fighter, not a damn doctor." Blade looked at the ground, burning a hole into the dirt. "And when push comes to shove I cared too much to watch her die, just how I am."
"How can you care? You we're even there!" Keitaro accused "is their no heart in your chest?" Blade threw his head up staring Keitaro down through the darkness.
"Your blaming the wrong man Keitaro, I didn't pull that trigger." Keitaro's eyes narrowed and Shinobu looked from person to person, Sempi, Kitsune, Blade and Sempi again. "And you're trying to pin your guilt on the wrong man as well, I stopping feeling it long ago, along with other things." Blade smirked, it only lasted a second bought on by some happy memories. Keitaro shivered in anger, all of his emotions boiling to the surface.
"You heartless son of a bitch!" Keitaro screamed at him, charging Blade "Do you do but kill and destroy?" Kietaro's punch was cupped in Blade's palm.
"No." he said calmly, quietly so only he could hear him. Blade socked in response, following closely with a fist to the stomach and a shoulder into the chin. Kietaro sprawled across the ground, bleeding from his lip and nose. Keitaro lay on the ground, breathing heavy and heated, pinching his nose closed to stop the bleeding.
"Your angry and that's not going to get you anywhere, except maybe dead." Blade lectured. "She is gone Keitaro. Get up, and move on. There is no point or reason to dwell on bad memories and what if's. pick your happiest memories of her and hold on to them, because those are all you have left. All any of us have left of the dead" And with that blade walked away, leaving Keitaro and the others behind him.
Blade rounded the bend of the Hinatasou strolling into what was the front yard. Now it resembled its past look about as well as it did the surface of the moon. Potted with foxholes, craters, and covered in tired people. Blade sighed wearily drinking in what he could by dim house lights casting their warmth and comfort vainly into the deepened night. Blade slowing stepped his way around the exhausted shadows on the ground, making his way as far from the cave as he could. A lighting bolt lit the scene close enough for the bolt shape to be seen in the sky, immediately followed by its thunderclap. The rain poured down in such heavy sheets that dogs and cats would seek cover. Anybody in the open was soaked to the bone within seconds, those who didn't run to shelter rolled over and went back to sleep.
Blade turned his face skyward, letting the rain strike his face and roll off his body, drowning his sorrows and troubles. It felt good to let go, if only a little. In the cover of night masked by the rain on his cheeks Blade cried. His tears mixing with the rainwater and the grief he could never admit to.
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Ok that was originally part of the last chapter, but it kind of grew into its own here.
Please leave a review, maybe if I get one it won't take 21/2 months to write the next chapter.