Damn... stupid me uploaded the unfinished chapter the first time, so here is the completed version! Happy reading!
Girl in Gaea: The Untold Story
By Brenli and AmetrineButterfly
Chapter 7
"How did you sleep, Okami?" Allen asked, watching the blonde-headed woman sharpen her sword.
"Pretty good. It was hard through Millerna's snoring though!" Giggling, she pointed at her new roommate.
Millerna turned red. "I do not snore!"
"Don't lie!" Okami laughed, liking her new comrades more and more with every passing moment. They were serious about destroying the Black Dragon Clan, and when they weren't thinking about battle strategies, they were having fun. Joking around, play sparring, or just talking. Okami really felt as though this place was home, no one looked at her with fear or contempt. True, that was because she hadn't told them what she was. They would find out eventually. Hopefully, they wouldn't think of her as a bad person when they did.
"Okami?" Allen interrupted her thoughts when he placed a hand on her shoulder.
"Yes?"
"May I speak to you in private?" Allen gestured to the hallway.
"Sure." Okami, wondering what Allen could possibly want to talk about, followed him out into the hallway.
Allen closed the door behind them. "It's not usually our policy to ask questions about the pasts of our soldiers. But I have to ask… where do you come from?"
Okami felt her heart sink. She wasn't familiar enough with Gaea to just name a country or city. So she decided to improvise. "I want to forget where I came from. I left that life behind, and that's where I want it to stay."
A look of sympathy flashed across Allen's face. "You've been hurt… haven't you?"
"I'd rather not talk about it." Okami immediately dismissed the subject as she could hear Dilandau's voice in her head. 'Forgive me…'.
Allen nodded. "Alright then. I trust you, Okami." He turned away. "You may want to be prepared. The Black Dragon Cavalry will most likely return for the Wing Goddess."
"But… she's not here… is she?"
"No, but they don't know that, do they?"
"Oh… right." Okami's mind began to wander to where she could barely hear Allen's words.
"Try not to get yourself killed Okami." Allen left.
The Dragon Cavalry. Okami would have to fight them soon? She didn't want to, but what other choice did she have? They were on opposing sides, she understood that the second she joined the Abaharaki. When the Cavalry attacked, its members would die by her sword.
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Kitsune remained removed from everyone, including Dallet, who had become her sole companion now that Okami had left. The ride to the canyon was all blurry and quick to her. Dilandau's words were fuzzy, but she heard that Dallet would be one of the first to charge into battle. She'd turned her eyes towards him, and Dallet had already maintained a fixed gaze on her. She blushed madly, but it only made Dallet break into a wide smile and he mouthed, "Bow," and winked. She stuck out her tongue and refused to bow just to spite him. He pouted.
"Dallet, what the Hell are you making googly eyes at?" Dilandau snapped. "Save it for another time!"
"Yes, sir!" Dallet quickly responded, and Kitsune watched that trained, expressionless, soldier's face come over him like a professional mask. His stance changed, and suddenly he wasn't the Dallet that called her Kitsune, the girl who always blushes and bows. He was the Dallet that could make blood spill if properly ordered or provoked.
It scared the shit out of Kitsune.
And then she blinked. Dallet was no longer on his horse, but on his feet inside the caravan, dueling with none other than Okami. He was valiant and brave, but unable to match up to Okami's energy waves, unable to catch himself and bring himself up in time to defend against the blow that came down on his head.
"Wait…!" Kitsune cried. Dallet was already gone. "WAIT!" She couldn't help herself. She knew she was weak and powerless and literally making a death wish by leaving her spot. She did it, anyway.
She charged after Dallet, watching him slash his sword, watching the blood spray over him. He was not Dilandau, but he maintained a cruelly apathetic frown and angry eyes that made him frightening to behold. In spite of this, Kitsune could still find him attractive. Dangerously attractive, no man of comfort but a wild man, instead.
She wanted to call out to him, but she didn't want to make him lose his guard. Kitsune was amazed that no one thought to move after her, even though her horse was a dead giveaway of whose side she was on. But she was grateful for it.
Dallet was the first to make it to the caravan and swing himself inside, his dark eyes scanning the area quickly for any person at all. Vaguely he thought he could hear Kitsune cry out for him, but he dismissed it. He knew Kitsune was far from any of this harm, not watching him kill so mercilessly. He was glad for it. It was a side of him he wasn't sure Kitsune was ready to accept, and until she was, he would try to keep that side of him far away from her.
Unbeknownst to him, Kitsune had also swung herself into the caravan, but by now, Dallet was somewhere else, still searching for what he could find. "… DALLET!" She cried out with a ragged breath. "DALLET, WHERE ARE YOU?" She began a desperate search for him, calling for him.
Kitsune couldn't breathe right. The vision was playing again. Playing in her head like a sick movie! Where was Dallet? Was he already dead? The tears clouded her vision as she ran forth. "DALLET!" She ran into a dark block before her.
"K-Kitsune…!" She heard Dallet cry out and could feel his bloody fingers brushing aside her tears. The dark block before her became Dallet's chest.
"Dallet… You need to get out of here…!"
His bloody fingers pressed against her cheeks as he forced her head up to look at him. His face was red with blood and angry shock. "What are you DOING here, Kitsune?"
"Don't stay here…! Don't fight her…! You're going to die!" Kitsune cried.
"Nani?" Dallet asked, bewildered. This was too much. He was torn between being a killing machine and being a caring man. "Kitsune get OUT OF HERE!"
"I'm not leaving without you! You can't stay here! She's going to kill you!"
"Kitsune, what are you TALKING about?"
Had he forgotten she could see visions? She wanted to slap him into listening to her, but before she could even reject the idea, the body of one of the Dragon Cavalry came flying through the door and landed in a bleeding mass before them.
"R-Ryuon!" Dallet cried out, angry at the sight of his friend dying before him. Kitsune's eyes were wide with shock.
The dying corpse of Ryuon looked up at the blood-smothered man that was Dallet and then pointed a weak, trembling finger his killer before collapsing with a final breath.
Kitsune and Dallet turned their stunned eyes to the door Ryuon had burst through. The top of a blonde head was visible, followed by dark, hazel eyes, a feminine jaw-line, black clothes, a slim, curvaceous figure, and a bloodied sword in hand. It was Okami, splattered slightly with blood as she ascended a staircase and walked through the door. Her face was set in an almost in a determined glare, and an asymmetrical smirk appeared on her face when she saw the pair. "Well well well?" She laughed maliciously. "What have we here? A fledgling Star and her Delivery Boy. How precious." Blood dripped from her sword as she placed a hand on her hip, surveying the two as Dallet stepped protectively in front of Kitsune. "Pathetic… the Light Star, hiding behind a powerless human? What a shame… I would have expected better from you, Kitsune."
"She hasn't awakened yet, Okami," Dallet said darkly. "She's not even supposed to be here…" He whispered over his shoulder at Kitsune, "Leave. Right now."
"Iie." Kitsune refused.
"Is your Awakening such a frightening thing, Kitsune?" Okami giggled again. "It only hurts for a second. But that's beside the point… Dallet… I do believe that the two of you are invading my caravan. I think I'll have to kill you now."
To Kitsune's utter shock Dallet took up his sword and prepared to fight. "Dallet!"
"KITSUNE, GET THE FUCK BACK AND STAY BACK!" Dallet commanded angrily, abandoning any bit of kindness in himself.
"How sweet. The noble hero protecting the damsel in distress." Okami scoffed. "Please gag me now…"
Raging, Dallet charged blindly forward, consumed by nothing but his desire to protect Kitsune. Protect her from harm, to protect her from her destiny to fight Okami.
Okami did nothing but roll her eyes. "Oh this is a waste of time." Dallet was brought to the floor before he could even put up a meager protest. Okami raised her sword, ready to make that fatal blow.
Kitsune ripped a metal torch off the wall, rushing towards Okami's back. Perhaps Kitsune didn't know how stupid a move she was making when she senselessly charged forward, but it rapidly became obvious when Kitsune's neck was caught in Okami's iron grip.
"You know something, Kitsune?" Okami sneered through Kitsune's choking. "You really make me sick. You act like you're such a good girl. Like you're a slave to your own heartfelt emotions." She tightened her grip and Kitsune choked again. "You think that I am the evil one? Take a look at yourself, Miss Perfect. Have you forgotten about Toshiyo? Your boyfriend of four-and-a-half years? It certainly seems like you have, the way you go off about how Dallet is 'Mr. Pure Sex'. Have you ever even thought about what Toshiyo would say if he saw you now! You're such a whore it sickens me to look at you!" Kitsune was sent sprawling on her back when Okami threw her to the ground like a rag doll.
Dallet was immediately lost in a state of astonishment. Dallet… Pure Sex. What? He didn't get it. Oh, he got it, but then… boyfriend, Toshiyo. Four-and-a-half years. This AND himself…? It didn't click. He couldn't even think in coherent phrases. Kitsune, whore… that had to be untrue. But the incomplete phrases kept repeating in odd ways. Dallet… Toshiyo… Kitsune… Whore… Pure Sex? What?
It was hard for him to figure out what to do when he stared at Kitsune, gasping on the ground. Part of him wanted to try and behead Okami. The other part wanted to throw himself in front of Kitsune before she was killed. He wanted to do both. He tried to do both, bringing himself in front of Kitsune and brandishing his sword once more.
"Dallet, Dallet." Okami clicked her tongue. "What do you think you're doing? You think you would have learned that you don't stand a chance against me."
"... I don't care... I'll do what I can to protect the Light Star. I will die to do it."
Okami chuckled. "I'll be holding you to that." Her blonde hair floated about her in a dark, hazy aura. Even her sword seemed to radiate her growing power as she prepared her fatal charge.
Dallet felt pangs of frustration ring through him as Kitsune pulled foolishly down on his sleeve. "Onegaishimasu! Stop this!" She cried, and Dallet almost wanted to. Only almost.
If Okami had been paying better attention, she would have sensed the wave of green energy sent in her direction. Without setting up an adequate shield in time, the wave hit her. She fell, barely managing to keep a hold on her sword as she hit the ground. "God dammit!" she shrieked, jumping quickly back to her feet to see the wave's owner. It was Dilandau. "You son of a bitch!" She held up her sword.
"Dallet!" Dilandau barked. "Get the Light Star out of here! NOW!"
Kitsune didn't need telling twice. She grabbed Dallet's arm and pulled him out of the room, and as far away from Okami as possible.
Okami glared as the pair fled. But she didn't really care. The real one she wanted to take out was now alone in the room with her. "I was hoping I would run into you… Dilandau."
Dilandau stood casually, resting his sword at his side. "Stop this foolishness Okami. Come back to the Black Dragon Clan. You know that's where you belong."
"Bull shit!" Okami tightened her grip on the hilt of her sword. "I belong wherever I want to belong!"
"Okami, you're too crooked now to know where you belong…" Dilandau said, knowing full well the impact his words would make.
Okami felt like her chest had been pierced with a cold spike. It wasn't true, it couldn't be true. Okami wasn't crooked, the Black Dragon was! "You bastard…" She charged, letting her anger fuel her energy. Dilandau blocked with some difficulty, dodging another swift attack after the first.
"Okami, stop it!" Dilandau ordered. "Come back with us. Folken-sama won't try to hurt you if you're on his side!"
"Get real!" Okami paused the fighting, standing a good distance away. "Folken doesn't really seem to be the type who would want ANYONE in his organization whose power exceeds his own. If I go back there, then I'm putting a nail in my coffin!"
Dilandau frowned. Of course it was true, but he couldn't help but ask himself why he was trying to convince her to come back. Did he truly want her dead? No, of course not… He just wanted her to know the truth.
Okami charged again, locking blades with Dilandau and their fight continued. Okami could tell that Dilandau was holding back, because he wasn't striking. All he did was block her attacks. Frustrated, Okami slipped, she could tell the second she did, and so could Dilandau.
Before Okami knew it, her back was against the wall, and her sword far away from her. Cold steel was pressed against her neck and she felt it bite lightly into her skin. She thought this was the end, and she couldn't feel weaker. Squeezing her eyes shut, she waited for her world to go black… but it didn't.
"…Okami…"
Along with Dilandau's gentle voice, she felt the sword leave her neck. Opening her eyes, she saw him sheath his sword. Confusion wrote itself across her face as he just stared casually back. "Okami I told you, there's more to than just wanting to kill you." Dilandau turned away, heading towards the door.
Okami felt another stab in her chest. "Dilandau, wait!" She called out, a distant desperation ringing in her voice, and Dilandau paused. "When am I going to know what that something is!"
Dilandau searched for the right words. He wanted to tell her the truth, but for some reason his voice denied him. "…When you come back…"
"But…" Okami protested weakly. "I just… can't!"
Dilandau didn't respond, instead he left, taking the rest of the Cavalry with him.
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"Kitsune." Dallet said harshly, looking down into her blood-smeared face with disapproving eyes. "When someone tells you to stay out of trouble, you stay the fuck out of trouble. You got that?"
She bowed apologetically. "Hai."
"If I'm fighting you don't get involved unless I need help and you know DAMN well it's okay to help me out, you got that?"
"… Hai."
"Good." Dallet despised the rough tone to his voice, but let it flow out, anyway. "Why were you so worried, anyway? You've never seen me in a battle until now. Do I seem that incapable? Because I wouldn't BE here if that were the case!"
"… I saw you. Okami killed you. And I saw that." Kitsune responded weakly. Dallet was her only sense of security and here he was scolding her. She felt alone.
"What, one of your visions? Kitsune, if that happens you get someone ELSE to help me. Don't go running in there as you are. I'm surprised the only blood on you is from my own hands!" As Kitsune apologized softly he stared at the dried blood marks created from his hands with disgust. "… Go wash that shit off your face. It doesn't suit you."
Dallet watched Kitsune bow again and begin to leave. "Kitsune."
She stopped in her tracks, her eyes still turned down to the ground.
"… You weren't supposed to see me like this. It's an ugly side of me… I mean, look." He held out his bloodstained arms and watched her look over him with sad eyes. "I didn't want you to see… Not yet. That's all. … And I'm sorry."
He watched a faint smile curl into her lips. "That's okay." She turned to leave again and he watched her take a few steps.
"Hey, Kitsune?" He saw her freeze. "Sometimes it's a good idea to go walk around at night… To help sort your thoughts. I think we both need that…"
"Are you going for a walk?"
"When the sun sets, yes. Maybe you should come along… We can get to know each other better. And the air would do you good."
Kitsune looked over her shoulder at him, rubbing a hand over her bloody cheek. "… That sounds fine."
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Kitsune opened up the doors to her closet and stared into its depths with a freshly washed face. She could still, however, feel the pressing of Dallet's fingers against her cheeks. He'd been angry at the time he had touched her, but the feeling that lingered still made her feel wanted.
Wanted. Okami hated her because she was wanted and Okami was not. But for some reason, Dallet was the only one who made her feel as wanted as she was right now…
'He makes you feel more wanted than you've ever been before.'
Kitsune spun to Toshiyo's voice. Now the shoulder-length hair had lightened from black to brown. Even his body build had changed. Suddenly, the only things remotely like Toshiyo were the voice and his almond-shaped eyes. '… That's what it is, you know. Now he's even fought for you… Now he's taking you out for a walk.'
"… But that's nothing…"
'Oh, it is something. If he could, he would take you out on a date. The issue of warfare is the only thing that makes it out of the question.' Toshiyo gave her Dallet's smirk. 'It's not about whether you've been wanted before. Many people want you around. But that man…' His laugh sounded too much like Dallet's, 'That man makes you feel so wanted, you feel loved. Loved like only a man can love a woman…'
Kitsune felt the fear pinch and nip at her insides as she watched Toshiyo go on casually about Dallet, as though he didn't care at all that Kitsune was still his girlfriend. And she went on to say so. "Toshiyo, don't you care that I'm dating you? Don't you care that Dallet is threatening your position as my boyfriend?" She let the words fall from her, though she was afraid that she might know the answer already. She did.
'No. Not really.'
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"… So, the point of the walking thing is to be leisurely about it. Why are you pacing around me?" Dallet asked, confusion wrinkling his brow. He watched Kitsune turn her pacing direction away from him and onward, giving Dallet no choice but to follow.
"I don't know why I'm pacing…" Kitsune said quietly, suddenly changing direction, heading right for him. She stopped when she could go no further, but her gaze remained locked to the floor. "… I'm scared." Kitsune bit her lip in an attempt to keep her tears back. "… I'm not cut out for this, Dallet… I'm frightened and weak compared to everyone! All I'm good for is volleyball and being an average, well-loved woman. That's it! And I could TRY to be more like everyone else… I could draw my sword and be just like everyone else, suddenly…"
"… But you're too scared."
"Too scared! Pathetic, but it's so true!" She spoke to the ground. "… Can't even look you in the eye when I say this stuff… Can't even handle all the visions I see… Not even the ones of Toshiyo!"
Kitsune turned away and kept marching on, but Dallet remained frozen for a moment. Toshiyo, her boyfriend of four-and-a-half years. The second time he'd heard his name. At last Dallet could make his legs move, and he followed Kitsune in silence before mustering up the courage to ask, "… Toshiyo?"
"You heard Okami mention him." Kitsune said bitterly.
"Your… boyfriend."
"My boyfriend from the Mystic Moon." Kitsune's body stiffened.
"You're having visions of him…?"
Kitsune dismissed the topic with a flourish of her quick hand. "They don't help me much. Nothing helps me much. All I keep thinking is, 'I'm not supposed to be here. I'm not supposed to do this.'" She pointed up at the Mystic Moon. "I had an okay life there, Dallet. It wasn't anything to get excited over, but I knew what I had going for me there. It was… a GOOD life. I had friends and a boyfriend and I didn't need anything else…! I didn't need THIS!"
"… But you do have this. That's all you have now… Your life on the Mystic Moon is –"
"I DON'T WANT TO BELIEVE THAT MY LIFE ON THE MYSTIC MOON IS DEAD! YOU CAN'T TELL A GIRL WHO HAD EVERYTHING TO LET IT ALL GO!" Kitsune cried, and she actually began to pound on Dallet's chest.
"Ow, ow, ow, stop it…!" Dallet said under a hissing breath as he caught her fists. "Kitsune, you DO have to let it all go…! You have no other choice in the matter!" Kitsune glared up at him with clear, dark eyes, but he met the gaze with an equally fierce look of his own. "Stop trying to run away from it…! We have all been there before! What makes you think you are alone in this?"
Kitsune pushed herself away from him, but he pressed on.
"Is it because of him…? Are you still tied to the Mystic Moon through your boyfriend?" He regretted how he spat the words out like they were poison to him. But honestly, they were. Kitsune had seemed like such a beautiful person to him, but as soon as it hit her that she had been ripped from one life and forced into another… WITHOUT her consent… she became so frightened she was no longer the Kitsune he had grown fond of. He missed that Kitsune. He wanted her back so bad he was almost willing to make her draw her sword right now. He wanted to make her take that sword and sever all ties to the Mystic Moon, become a woman of Gaea and Gaea only… But there was one tie to the Mystic Moon he knew he could never make her sever unless she wanted to.
"… Maybe I am." Kitsune talked to the ground, then to the Mystic Moon. Dallet wanted to blow the Mystic Moon out of the sky so that she would look at him, instead. "Four years is a long time… And now none of that is supposed to matter, anymore… Like Gaea is holding a gun to my head and telling me that Toshiyo doesn't matter anymore." She was silent for quite some time, letting the words ring through her: Toshiyo doesn't matter anymore.
"… But… Toshiyo… does matter to you, still." Dallet said quietly. He felt the waves of disappointment and jealousy wash over him, and he hoped that he wasn't easy to read.
"… Yes. Yes, he does." Kitsune tried convincing herself, ignoring the careless versions of Toshiyo she envisioned, denying the memories of the man with no smile and no effort to put into a relationship. She heard Okami call her a whore, call her a WHORE because she ran into a man that gave her the time of day… and she was still tied to the Mystic Moon! But what could she do, have a Gaea fling while Toshiyo waited in the belief that they were still together? Would that make her less whorish? No, she could only try to deny herself the better man. That was all she could do. "… I love him, Dallet. I love Toshiyo." She said firmly, convincingly.
Kitsune listened to Dallet say, "Good…" in a soft, sad tone that didn't sit right with her. And the only Toshiyo should could picture in her mind while she commanded herself to love him had long, brown hair.
To be continued…