"Oh, don't you just love this weather!" Nene squealed as she laid back in her chair, basking in the mid-May sun. "Soooo much better than wearing jeans and a coat all the time, that's for sure."
"Don't redheads burn easily?" Mom teased, testing the water in Sylia's pool with her toe before jumping in.
"Yeah," she shot back. "I'm not dumb enough to enjoy all of this sun without loads of sunscreen, you know."
"This is great," I breathed to myself, leaning back on the towel I had sprawled out on the ground, closed my eyes, and let the heat of the sun cover my body. This was one of the few instances I'd allowed myself to relax lately, truly relax, and just let my worries float away. To feel normal, just for an instant, was all I wanted, and I hadn't been able to feel that way, not since the Boomer summit.
"I think your skin's dark enough, Yumeko," I heard Linna quip. "With that natural tan, I don't think it can get any darker."
"Is that a challenge?" I dared, grinning behind my sunglasses.
"Here's some refreshments," Sylia said, coming outside holding a tray with glasses of lemonade. Nene got up and snatched up a glass while Mom opted to remain in the pool, floating on her back. As Sylia sat down at the table and took a glass herself, she looked down at me and said, "Yumeko, do you want a glass?"
"No thanks, I'm ok," I responded, stretching my limbs, which in turn made my bad leg twinge a little.
"You know, since it's almost summer, I believe this would be a good time to start some water therapy."
"Water therapy?"
"Doing some exercises in the pool, like kicking your legs."
"I wouldn't mind that." I sat up. "Better than being cooped up in a sweaty gym for a few hours every day."
"You look a little nervous," Linna pointed out.
"Well…I'd be fine with some water exercises, as long as…nobody tries to dunk me." Linna laughed out loud.
"I thought you got over that little fear."
I paled. "I can't help it if I don't like practical jokes being played on me in water."
"Let's try out some exercises now," Sylia said. "This is as good a time as any."
Linna bent down to help me to my feet, but I shook my head and stood up myself, on wobbly legs. I took one step forward, and then one with my bad leg. It trembled under the weight, but didn't buckle on me. After a few slow and very wobbly steps, I made it to the pool, my leg protesting the effort of just walking the few meters there.
"Doing pretty good for not even having your brace on," Nene exclaimed, sipping her lemonade through a straw.
"Need help getting in?" Mom asked, now at the edge of the pool.
I shook my head. "I can do it," I assured her. I bent down on my good leg and eased my other leg into the water. I gasped with how cold the water was, but after sitting there for a few seconds, letting my leg get used to the temperature, I eased the rest of my body in.
"Ok, now just hang on to the edge of the pool, and let your body float," Sylia said. I obeyed. "Now kick your legs just like when you're swimming."
"Ow," I said when I tried doing the kicking motion with my bad leg, but I figured the sooner I got this done, the better, so I kept on kicking. But, well, every time I did kick with that leg, I'd be saying, "Ow. Ow. Ow." And so on.
"You're doing fine, Yume," Mom said.
"I think my leg's starting to stiffen up," I groaned after I'd been kicking for about two minutes. "It feels heavy."
"That should be enough," Sylia said after another minute or so. Mom helped me out of the pool, and once I was out, I started rubbing my sore leg. It certainly wasn't used to that kind of treatment, and so naturally, it didn't really want to bear much weight at the moment. So when I started swaying a bit, I wasn't surprised. I WAS surprised, however, when I suddenly lost my balance and fell backwards, right back into the pool.
I felt the water whoosh in over my head as I went completely under. I waved my arms in panic, trying to grab onto something and try to keep from gagging on the water that rushed into my mouth and up my nose. I tried to swim upwards, or at least in the direction which I thought was up, when I felt someone grab me by the arm and pull me up.
"You ok, Yumeko?!" Nene asked as Mom dragged me back onto the poolside and wrapped my towel around me.
I coughed. "I g-guess I'm ok now," I sputtered. "Didn't…I say I didn't want anyone dunking me?!"
"Nobody dunked you though," Linna said, then smiled. "It's strange. You're hydrophobic, yet when that one Boomer dragged Nene underwater, you didn't hesitate to jump in to save her."
"That was different," I spat. "She was in trouble then. I DID hesitate though, at first, but saving her was more important than my fear of having water over my head."
"I thought that woulda been enough to help you conquer that little fear," Nene joked, although she had paled at the memory.
"Like hell it was," I grumbled, then calmed down as I thought of something else. It was mid-May, right? That meant that Mom's birthday was coming up, and Sylia's as well. I still needed to get them something…
It also made me realize something else: it had been just over two months since the Boomer summit attack. I hadn't dared take a look at my hardsuit since that day; I didn't want to know how badly I'd really been beaten up. Mackie had told me a couple days before that they hadn't repaired mine yet, in case I wanted to see it, but I still had mixed feelings about it.
"Two months," I muttered. "It's been two months already…"
"Yeah…" Mom admitted, her eyes growing hard.
"Hard to say whether it seems like forever since that day, or whether it just seems like yesterday, isn't it," Linna wondered aloud.
"Well…after two months, I can manage to walk with that brace," I said, "so how about this? I'll bet you that by six months, I'll be walking on my own."
"That leaves you four months," Nene said. "You'll probably have to work hard at your therapy sessions to make that date."
"I'm trying to be realistic here," I reluctantly admitted. "I…I know it's probably bullheaded of me to think I could walk on my own by next month, even though I'd love to be able to."
"If you work extra hard," Sylia said, "you just might be able to do that by the five-month mark."
"That soon?" I asked.
"That's what the doctors said."
"Yeah!" Linna exclaimed. "I told Priss that night that that just means without ANY support, meaning we could have you in just a leg sleeve by the three- or four-month mark. But of course, that means you'd have to work extra extra hard."
"Bring it on," I encouraged, clenching my hands into fists. "It's nothing I can't handle."
She grinned evilly. "Oh, you sure about that? 'Cause I know some stuff that'll whip that leg into shape real quick. It'll work out your whole body, too. Can't just concentrate on your leg, y'know."
"Oh, I know. I've been doing some weight training in the weights room at my school during my gym class, since I can't go out with the other kids."
"You thought that pansy stuff we started with at the beginning was tough? You ain't seen nothin' yet."
I scratched the side of my head. "Is THIS what you meant by the 'hell on earth' you were talking about early on?"
Linna responded by merely grinning.
"I showed her some information about the training that Navy SEALs do," Sylia said. "Some of the exercises you do will be the same ones they do."
"You were in on this too?!" I shouted, hardly believing it, yet it seemed just like Sylia to do just that.
"We need you back in shape. Four Knight Sabers aren't as effective as five are, even with the Motoslaves."
"I…I'll try as hard as I can, Sylia," I swore, looking at the faint scar that now was across the back of my hand. "Those bastards won't know the meaning of fear until they've seen me back in action. I can promise that."
"I think I know what I can get Mom for her birthday," I told myself as I pulled on a sports bra and some shorts, then strapped on my brace. "Only one thing she'd want…"
I was so excited about going out and looking for a present for Mom that I practically skipped down the stairs, even though my brace prevented me from doing much other than limping along. Something about the summer air, I suppose. It made me real excited, made me want to just get out and do something besides lay around and sleep the day away. As I limped down the street towards a bus stop – I wasn't able to ride my motorcycle just yet – I rattled off in my head the things that I could get Mom. A guitar, maybe a new jacket? Hmm, I'd have to see what the shops in Ginza offered before I could make any decision.
As I climbed onto the bus, I went and took one of the few empty seats left. It didn't take long before the other passengers started gawking at me. They tried not to make it too apparent, but their gazes, then quickly turning away and whispering to the person next to 'em while pointing at me got a bit annoying.
"Do you have a problem with my scar?" I grumbled, crossing my arms over my chest.
"How…did you get it?" one guy asked, pointing at my stomach.
"I got attacked a couple months back. Got cut across the stomach and nearly bled to death," I said quickly.
"And, um, why do you have that thing on your leg?"
"I was shot there by the same bastard that cut me. Any other questions?"
The crowd quickly grew silent and looked away, and we all sat there occupied by our own thoughts until we each got to our respective stops.
Once I got off at my stop, I was immediately greeted by the rushing crowd, getting shoved about almost the instant I stepped off the bus. I slowly shoved my way through and went down the street towards Guitar City. Mom had said that they had some of the best guitars in town, and although I wasn't a guitar buff, I figured she'd know as well as anybody which shops to go to when it came to instruments.
As with on the bus, people in the crowd took second glances at me when I passed. A few even looked like they felt a bit sorry for me, like they were wondering why a teenager was walking around with a brace on her leg. For a moment, I wondered the same thing. Hey, it's not like I want to be wearing this thing either, I wanted to tell them.
I arrived at Guitar City and walked inside, expecting a fair-sized crowd. And there was; about fifteen or so people were scattered through the store, looking at this model of guitar or that. I limped slowly towards the back of the store, where the nicer models were usually kept. A few guys at the rack I was heading towards looked back towards me, and once they saw my brace, immediately backed away and let me through. I didn't say anything, but kept my thoughts to myself. I didn't want them treating me any different just because I was in a brace, but then again, at least I wouldn't have to fight to look at the guitars I wanted to check out.
"Do you need help with anything?" I heard a man ask. I turned around and saw a guy standing there wearing a rock shirt with a name tag on it. I assumed he worked there.
"Yeah, actually I do," I admitted, turning to look at the guitars again. "I'm looking for a nice guitar for my mom, for her birthday."
"What kind does she like?"
"Well, she's not gonna want a banjo or yukelele," I quipped. He laughed.
"An electric guitar, perhaps?"
"Yeah, she'd probably want one of those."
He looked at me intently, then said, "You look kinda familiar. Who's your mom?"
"Priss Asagiri."
"Oh, the Replicants singer!! I KNEW you looked familiar!!" He grinned. "Yeah, I think I know which guitar she'd like best."
"How would you know?"
"I've seen her in concert and listened to her CDs and stuff. I can tell she doesn't settle for any cheap-ass shit from those second-hand shops."
My eyebrow twitched. This guy knew about what kind of guitar Mom would use more than I did? "Well, no, she usually wants the best of the best, I'm sure," I said, getting annoyed.
"Here's one she'd like," he said, taking a green-and-black model off the rack.
"Not that one," I said quickly.
"Huh? What's wrong with it?"
"The colors. I doubt she'd use a green and black guitar. I'd say more like a red-and-black one, or a red-and-white one."
"Here we go, then," he said, putting the first one back and taking out a red-and-black one. It reminded me of one of those old V-shaped guitars that used to be popular before I was born, but it certainly did look like a guitar Mom would like.
"Let me try it out," I said, taking it from him and hooking it up to an amplifier. I strummed on it one string at a time, and the sound came out loud and clear, but a bit harsh. I tightened the strings, then tried again. "Hey, this one's pretty cool."
"Ok then. Lemme go get the case for it." He trotted off to a back room to get the case while I decided to take a look at the price tag.
"Shit, 50,000 yen?" I groaned. I knew it was too good to be true. But then again…I'd seen guitars before that were 90,000 yen – in other words, complete ripoffs – so 50,000 for one like this didn't seem too bad.
The guy came back with the case. "So, just to be sure, is that the one you want?" he asked.
"Yeah, this'll be fine," I said.
"All righty," he said, walking over behind the main desk to the cash register. I followed, and after he put the guitar in the case, I forked over the money. As I took the case in my hand and tried to head towards the door with it, I nearly fell over; my lame leg didn't like carrying so much extra weight.
"Think you'll be ok?" he asked.
"I'll be fine," I said, opting to carry the case with my right hand instead my left, and limped out the door, several of the other people in the store snickering at the sight of me at the same time. Assholes, I thought as I left the store and headed down the street towards the bus stop again.
I was almost there when I suddenly just started feeling uneasy. Something about all the peacefulness of the moment, I suppose, but for some strange reason, I felt the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. Something didn't seem right. It felt like someone was watching me. I looked behind my back to look for anyone suspicious-looking, but there was nobody that looked out of the ordinary. I sighed and got on the bus home.
As the bus rumbled down the street, I looked out the window to the sidewalk I'd just been on. Turning onto a different street was a tall boy with a familiar black ponytail.
"Ok, what's with all the secretiveness today?" Mom inquired when I wouldn't stop grinning like a moron.
"No reason," I said. "Why do you ask?"
"You just seem like you've been hiding something, what with all the grinning and fidgeting and all," she replied, smiling.
"Oh, no, just excited that it's your birthday today, that's all."
"You act like it's YOUR birthday today! You're that hyper, I swear."
"Nah." When is she gonna get here?, I wondered. It was five in the afternoon now, and I'd been killing myself trying not to spoil anything for Mom. I just knew she'd love that guitar I bought her, and I suppose she was right when she said I was more excited than she was. I looked out the window towards the parking lot, but nobody was there. I sighed.
"Waiting for someone?"
"Just, ah, wondering when the others are gonna get here."
"You didn't have to throw a whole party for me," she said, indicating the kitchen. I'd blown up some balloons and let them float around the apartment, and I'd also bought some birthday plates and a cheap birthday tablecloth. The cake was still in the oven, and the smell of German chocolate cake permeated the air.
"I'm…just in a festive mood," I said quickly, giggling. "A birthday is an occasion worthy of celebrating, right?"
"I find nothing about turning forty-two worth celebrating," she joked. "Besides, you'll be seventeen soon, we shoulda kept the party favors packed up till THEN."
"Well, too late now," I joked. I took a peek outside the window, and just at that moment, I saw Linna's van pull into the parking lot. "Be right back. I'm gonna go for a walk."
"Sure you are," she said, winking. I limped out the door and hurried as fast as I could – which, well, wasn't very fast, obviously – down the stairs and out to the parking lot. The side door of the van then opened, and Michiko peeked her head out, looking around.
"Is it ok?" she asked. I nodded, and she quickly stepped out, the guitar case in her arms. I motioned for her to run inside, which she did instantly. After Michiko was out of sight, Nene stepped out of the van, and Linna came out of the other side.
"Thanks, you guys," I said.
"I'm sure Priss is just THRILLED about you deciding to throw a party for her," Nene said sarcastically.
"Oh, she is," I said with much the same tone. "And Sylia's birthday is in another four days. Just wait till then!!" I laughed at the thought.
"And then there's yours," Linna added, winking. "What do you want, by the way?"
"How long should I wait here?" I suddenly heard Michiko yell from the doorway.
"What I want…is to see the look on Mom's face when she sees the present to her!" I wisecracked, grinning widely.
"My arms are starting to hurt!" Micchan jokingly groaned.
"We should get inside before her arms fall off," Nene deadpanned as we all walked inside. While everyone else was walking down the hallway and up the stairs at a brisk pace, I was left hobbling behind.
"Wait up," I said. "Since when did you all start walking so fast?"
"This is how we normally walk. It's just that you're so slow," Linna laughed.
"Oh, ha ha. Well, 'scuse me for having a lame leg…" I then noticed that Michiko was carrying something in her hand besides the guitar case. "What's with the branch?"
Michiko smiled. "It's a cherry blossom branch. They bloom about this time of year, right? So I figured I could give Priss one."
"I dare you to call her Sakura." Michiko doubled over in laughter; 'sakura' means 'cherry blossom', so I figured it'd be more than appropriate to try to call her by that name. Both Nene and Linna grinned at the thought.
When we arrived at the door to my apartment, I shushed them and told all three to stand aside and out of sight. I opened the door and walked in, acting as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.
"Enjoy your walk?" Mom joked.
"I did, actually. Just needed some fresh air, that's all." I cleared my throat loudly.
"You ok?" she asked, raising an eyebrow and getting that mischievous twinkle in her eye that said she was on to me.
"Yeah, I'm fine. What's wrong with clearing my throat?"
I heard a knock on the door, and rolled my eyes sarcastically. "Now, who could that be?" I said in a very overly curious tone.
"Gee, I wonder," she said, walking to the door. When she opened it, there stood Linna and Nene, not looking too much out of the ordinary, except that Nene couldn't keep a silly grin from spreading across her face. "Heh, what's up? Finally get some last night, Nene?"
Nene turned as red as her hair. "What…what's that mean?!"
"We just, ah, wanted to wish you a happy birthday, Priss," Linna said.
"What timing. Yume just got back from a walk, too," Mom said, grinning and eyeing me. "You didn't happen to meet up with each other, did you?"
"Nope, didn't see her."
"Nope," Nene said, still blushing like crazy. "We didn't see her at all."
"Well, while you're here, how about we have some cake?" I said, then quickly looked at the timer on the stove. One minute left before the cake was done. Perfect.
"What kind?" Nene asked, her eyes brightening.
"German chocolate."
"I…LOVE…German chocolate!!" I heard Michiko exclaim, wheezing as she came to the door, exhausted from holding the guitar case for so long. I noticed she wasn't holding it now, but after cradling it for so long, I'm sure her arms musta been killing her.
"Heh, and I suppose you just 'happened' to stop by and pick Michiko up too, Linna?" Mom asked slyly.
"Yeah," Linna said, walking inside to help me take out the cake from the oven when the timer went off.
"This…this is for you," Michiko told Mom, holding out the cherry blossom branch.
Mom took it in her hand and stood there, looking at the blossoms. "It's…pretty."
"I figured you would like it," she said, grinning. "They're the prettiest at this time of year."
"Thanks."
"Um…Yumeko got something for you, too." Michiko stood there awkwardly, twirling her necklace around her finger while looking at me to see if it was ok to say anything. I mouthed, "It's fine," to her and set the cake on top of the stove to let it cool.
"Oh, she did?" Mom looked at me out of the corner of her eye, like she was asking, "Ok, what did you get me, Yume?"
"Yeah. Do you wanna see it?"
"Sure, why not?"
"Ok, lemme go get it." She darted out the door to get the guitar while Nene came into the kitchen to help Linna and me with the cake.
"So…what did you plan now, Yume?" Mom asked.
"Oh, nothing," I said innocently.
"Well, Michiko seems excited enough about it. Must be something good."
"She gets excited over everything," I laughed.
"Here we go!" Michiko squealed as she reentered the apartment, cradling the guitar case in her arms. Mom raised an eyebrow at the sight, and slowly walked towards her. "This is from Yumeko, Priss. She and I both think you'll just love it."
Mom took the guitar case from Michiko and set it down on the floor, opening it up. When she saw the guitar, a huge grin spread across her face. Mission accomplished.
"Like it?" I asked, grinning widely. Mom mouthed something to herself in response, and judging from how they moved, I'd guess she'd said, "Kick ass!" or something similar. She took it out of the case and hooked it up to the amplifier. She strummed on it a few times, then chuckled.
"You really know how to pick out guitars, I must say," Mom said, playing a section from one of her songs.
Michiko recognized the part instantly, and started singing the lyrics that went with that part. "Anata no egao o…"
"…Omoidashitai, Forever More," I finished. Mom, Linna, and Nene all grinned in response. Mom continued to play the part, and Michiko and I both decided to keep singing.
"First Kiss o omoidasu no ka? Are wa anata o aishita sono toki ni."
Mom took over the rest of the verse, singing, "Anata o aishita, dakara…watashi o aisuru dekinakatta naze ka?"
"I didn't expect this to turn into Karaoke Night," Nene said, laughing and clapping at the same time. "It's almost like…" She stopped talking and covered her mouth, looking down meekly at the floor.
"Like what?" I inquired, curious.
"Like…like nothing," she said hurriedly, trying to cover her tracks. I looked over to Mom, who was looking away from everyone with a look in her eyes I'd come to know over the past few months. It was the same look she got in her eyes when she told us she'd been stabbed by the guy that had attacked her all those years ago. I sighed at the sight and mumbled to Nene, "Don't say anything else, Nene. You got her upset now."
"I didn't mean it," she said in a low voice.
"What are you guys talking about?" Michiko asked.
"I'll explain later," I told her.
After Mom calmed down and Nene apologized about thirty times, we were able to decorate the cake and sing Happy Birthday to her. She opened the presents she got from everyone else, and thanked them. But somehow, I could still tell she was still more than a bit disturbed at what Nene brought up. After everyone left, I asked her about it, not expecting a complete answer. Boy, was I surprised when she revealed as much as she did.
"That night…Linna, Nene, and I had gone out to Hot Legs to party. I'd just gotten home from my tour a couple weeks before, as you know, so I wanted to do something fun. We went there, and it was Karaoke Night, which was something the people there had started to do recently. I had a few shots, and figured I'd give the karaoke bit a shot. Everyone hooted and hollered, of course, since I was the most popular singer anywhere at that time, and who woulda expected ME to be doing karaoke? I did a few of my songs, including Konya wa Hurricane at least three times, 'cause people just love that song."
"I suppose I don't have to ask which night it was?"
"No, you don't," she said flatly. "That's why Nene stopped talking about it right away. You probably figured that out by yourself."
"Yeah."
"Well, after a few rounds, Nene was pretty much plastered, and was starting to do her stripping thing, when Linna decided to drag her home before she did anything really stupid. I told 'em I'd stay a little while longer, so they left and I was there by myself. After I'd had enough of doin' karaoke, I was sitting there at the bar, sipping on a margarita, when this guy sits down next to me and starts hitting on me. I tell him to go play with himself rather than with girls' hearts."
I grinned. "I can see you doing that."
"Heh, I bet. Well, some other guy from across the room starts yelling for me to get back on stage to sing some more. I turned and told him no, then sipped on the drink some more, and that's when I figured something was wrong." I noticed she was starting to shake.
"Did that guy slip something in the drink?" I asked, my heart pounding.
"It took me a few minutes to notice it, but once I started feeling dizzy, I figured that's…that's what it was. So what I did was stick my finger down my throat to make myself throw up, and I ended up puking all over that guy's jacket."
I laughed nervously. "Good move."
Mom laughed in much the same way I had just laughed, and paled a bit. "I was still more than a little dizzy after that, so I thought that riding my bike home would be a bad idea, so I decided to walk and take the bus or something. I walked for a bit, and after I turned onto the last street home…" She started shaking even more than she already was.
"M…Mom?" I asked. "You don't have to finish if…if it makes you nervous talking about it."
"It's…ok," she tried to assure me. "You…should consider yourself lucky. Nobody else except…except you knows what happened after Linna and Nene left. Nobody knows anything."
"That's what Linna told me."
"They don't need to know the specifics. It's not…their business."
"They're your best friends! They should know!"
"All they know is that I was badly beaten up and that you were a result of what happened that night. The specifics…aren't…important!" Mom was shaking to the point that she needed to sit down in order to control herself. I went and got her a glass of water to calm her nerves.
I'd been quick to notice she avoided the word 'rape' to describe what happened to her. Was this a reason why she never wanted to tell me what exactly happened? Was it because she was afraid that it would ruin my image of her? She doesn't need to worry about that, I thought as I watched her gulp down the water. Nobody's unbeatable. She shouldn't try to act like she's Macho Mom or anything. She's just gonna end up hurting herself.
"Yumeko…"
I heard the voice echo all around me, saying my name.
"Who is that?" I wondered aloud, looking all around me. There was no answer, except for the repeating of my name again. I walked down the empty hallway I'd found myself in, looking around for where that strange voice could be coming from.
"Whoever's here, you better come out," I warned, clenching my hand into a fist.
"All right, I will," the voice said from in front of me. I peered down the hallway, and out from the shadows stepped a large bluish-black figure.
"It's…it's you!!" I gasped.
"This scene is familiar, isn't it," the Boomer said, popping out its lasersword. My body started to tremble all over. Hadn't this thing been killed?!
"You're…you're supposed to be dead!" I said. "You couldn't have survived that explosion!!"
"You weren't supposed to survive it either, but look at you," it snapped back. "But now's the time for retribution. You don't have your friends here to help you this time. You don't even have your armor now!"
I backed up against the wall, petrified. What was I supposed to do?! The bastard was right, after all. "They'll…they'll come. They did so before, and they will again!! And this time, they'll make sure you're roasted!"
"I doubt that," it said, pointing to the wall on its right. I looked at it, and it suddenly disappeared. On the floor was Mom, laying in a pool of blood.
"M…MOM!!" I screamed, starting to run towards her, when the Boomer stepped between Mom and me.
"It's no use, Yumeko," the Boomer sneered. "You're dead."
"You…you killed her!!" I spat at it. "You son of a bitch!!" I swung my fist at its head, even though I didn't have my hardsuit on, but it grabbed me by the wrist and then thrust its knee into my stomach. I collapsed on the floor, holding my stomach in pain.
"No one can help you now," it chided, standing over me like a statue. "Take another look."
I slowly looked around me, and out of nowhere, the bloodied bodies of Linna, Sylia, and Nene appeared, laying all around me.
"No…no…" I moaned, squeezing my eyes shut. "This isn't real…"
"It's as real as real is going to get. Now die!!" the Boomer yelled, bringing its lasersword down on me.
"NO!! NO!!" I screamed, tossing and turning, trying to block all of this out. I screamed again as suddenly, I fell down.
"Huh?" I stopped thrashing, and looked around me again. I was in my bedroom. How had I ended up here? I thought about it for a moment, then sighed. A dream. The encounter with the Boomer had been a dream. I sat up, tangled up in my bedsheets, and ran my fingers through my sweat-drenched hair to get it out of my eyes. And then, I started crying, my body trembling all over again.
Even in my dreams, the bastard won't leave me alone, I thought, wrapping my arms around my legs and letting it all out. Why won't it just leave me alone?! I hate being like this!!
I wiped the tears from my eyes and looked over to Mom's bed. "Mom?" I said, my voice shaking. After I didn't get a response, I crawled a little closer, and noticed that the bed was empty. Where would she be at this hour?
"Oh no," I said aloud. Not another… "SHIT!!" I yelled, trying to stand up, only to find my bedsheets were more tangled around me than I thought, and I went crashing to the floor. I untangled my legs from them and changed into a sweatshirt and jeans. Mom might've needed my help, and after the dream I'd just had, I was even more frantic to go help her if she needed it.
After strapping on my new leg brace – I didn't need that huge one anymore, since I could more or less walk fine now with a smaller one – I limped out the door and down the stairs to the parking lot. It was then I noticed it was raining outside, and heavily too. "Just great," I groaned as I blinked away the raindrops that fell into my eyes.
"Hey!" I heard a guy yell from the street. I looked over to where his voice had come from, and saw a familiar boy's head poking out from a black car.
"B…Boh?"
"Goin' somewhere?" he inquired with that impish grin of his. "I could give you a ride."
"What are YOU doing out here at this time of night?!"
"I was going to ask the same thing. Now get in before you get drenched."
I reluctantly went over to his car and got in on the passenger's side. As Boh put the car into gear and started driving down the street, I asked again why he was out this late.
"I just got off of work," he said.
"At 2 AM?"
"It's not as bad as you think. I can handle it alright. So where are you going?"
"Ah…well, my mom's hanging out with her friends at a nightclub, and I was…just going to see if they were ok."
"Your mom's a big girl," he joked. "I'm sure she can take care of herself." He looked over to me, his expression still as unchanging as stone, and said, "You're shaking all over."
"I…I'm ok, just had a weird dream."
"Ohh. So I suppose you're running to mommy just so she can kiss you and assure you everything's ok?"
I frowned. "Hell no. Geez, you can really be a pain in the ass sometimes."
We continued heading down the street in total silence, and that's when I noticed Boh didn't have his radio tuned in to the usual rap stations that other kids usually listened to.
"Isn't this Moonlight Sonata you're listening to?"
"Yes, it is. What of it?"
"I don't see very many kids that listen to classical music, that's all. It's just a surprise."
"The 'normal' music others listen to doesn't appeal to me. It all sounds the same to me. The other kids listen to it to get their rage out, I suppose, but classical music does more for me than that junk. Not that I hold anything against your mother's music, though."
"I'm sure she'd be flattered to hear that," I said dryly.
"So where am I driving you to, exactly?" he asked. I flushed, realizing I hadn't even told him where I wanted him to drive me to.
"Uh…the En Vogue nightclub, in district 3."
"That's a risky drive."
"Why's that?"
"There's a couple Boomers on the rampage in Shinjuku. That's pretty close to district 3, isn't it? We'd be driving right into the thick of it."
I thought for a moment, then said, "Well, you can let me out before we get there, then."
When we stopped at a red light, Boh looked down at my leg, taking notice of my new brace. He sat there unblinking and said, "Got a new brace, eh?"
"Yeah. It's much more comfortable than that hip-to-ankle one I had before. Linna adjusted it so that I can bend my leg a little bit with it, too." I demonstrated for him.
"How much can you bend your leg without it?"
"About thirty degrees, I think."
"That's good, considering you were only injured two and a half months ago, right?"
"No kidding. I'm hoping to be able to walk without it within the next couple months."
"You gotta keep in mind that your muscles only heal so fast," he reminded me as we started heading down the street again. "If you rush it, they won't heal as fast as they would if you hadn't tried to get ahead of yourself."
"Everybody's already told me that about twenty times," I grumbled.
"I'm sure," he said, smirking. "I think I can understand why, though. I mean, you were ranked number three in the world before you were injured, right?"
I sighed. "Yeah. I hope I can get back up there again, get recovered enough so that I can go to the Olympics next year, but…at the same time, I don't want to fool myself into thinking that that's definitely going to happen. The doctor DID say the leg might not ever get its full strength back…"
"But then again, 'full strength' for you is pretty strong, I bet."
"Yeah, compared with everybody else," I chuckled, then remembered my dream. I had to make sure that what had happened then would never come to pass. I'd never forgive myself if I did. And appropriately enough, the CD Boh had in the CD player was now playing Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. "Stop the car here," I said suddenly. "I can walk from here."
"Can you?" he mimicked, noting the brace.
"I'll be fine," I snapped as he stopped the car. I stepped out onto the street, the rain still coming down heavily and starting to drench me yet again.
"Tell your mom and Miss Yamazaki I said hi," he said, closing the door after I got out.
"I'll be sure to," I responded flatly as I headed down the street on foot.
"Oh, and watch out for any rogue Boomers," Boh warned me, half-joking, before he drove out of sight.
Mom, I thought as I made my way slowly towards Sylia's Lady 633 building, Please say that you're ok. That's one dream I never want to come true…
"Priss, what's your situation?" Sylia asked over the comm as I stood there atop a building, keeping a lookout for any of the rogue Boomers out.
"Damn it," I muttered to myself; I couldn't seem to find any of them, even with the scanner on the search for them. I was hoping it wasn't the same as it was with the Boomers we'd fought at the summit. "I can't find 'em, Sylia. Do you suppose they're the same kind as the ones we—"
"They're not the same," she assured me. "I got word all three of them are BU-33Bs, so they're certainly not the same." It wasn't like that helped any, either. We'd had trouble tracking that kind down too. I remembered that battle all too well; Linna and Yume getting ambushed because they couldn't scan for it, and getting beat up as a result.
"What the hell happened, Linna?!" I'd asked her while helping her up.
"We…we couldn't find it…I got ambushed, and…and Yumeko did too when she came to help me out," she'd said, her hand to her bleeding shoulder. "I don't know…how they could've eluded our scanners…"
I was determined not to let that scenario play out again. And considering there were three of them this time instead of one, we had to be extra careful, especially since Yume wasn't out with us this time as well. When the Boomers came out this time, Sylia had warned me not to let her know about it, 'cause she'd only want to go along, bad leg or no bad leg. "She'll only get in the way," she warned. "She's not ready, physically or mentally."
I heard some police sirens sound out behind me. I turned around and saw a horde of police cars race down the street towards a monorail track.
"I think they found one, Sylia," I said, activating my jumpjets. "I'm goin' in."
"PLEASE hurry up!!" I heard Nene beg, followed by a few gunshots from what I assumed was her machine gun. "This thing doesn't wanna die!!"
"Hold on!" I told her, leaping from building to building, following the police cars at first, then passing them. As I got closer to where the Boomer was, I heard a few faint booming noises, followed by smoke swirling up into the night sky. A moment later, the Boomer came into view, firing blasts at a familiar red-and-pink hardsuit, who was darting to the side of each one fired at her. To my amazement, she actually didn't run away. Instead, she took aim with her machine gun and fired away at the Boomer, not doing much damage.
"Time to fight me now, you bastard!!" I yelled at it as I leaped down from the building I was on and into the street. It turned to face me, growling much like a dog. When it started to charge at me, I did much the same, ducking its heat cannon blast before punching it in the chest with my Knuckle Bomber. It stumbled back a few steps, then quickly recovered and came at me again. I jumped over it and while doing so, I fired a few of my needles down into its head and shoulders. It howled in rage as it tried to rip them out, and I couldn't help but smirk as I watched it try.
"I don't know how you do that, Priss," Nene said from behind me, her voice trembling with excitement.
"Practice," I muttered as the Boomer turned to face me again. "Oh, ready for more?"
The Boomer fired its mouth cannon at me, which caught both Nene and me off guard. We both barely managed to dart out of its path in time before it went barreling into a car and blowing it up. As I got back into position, Nene got down on one knee and started firing her gun like crazy, which only served to annoy and piss off the Boomer more than anything. When it started heading towards her, I followed, but when I was about to deck it in the head with my Knuckle Bomber again, it suddenly spun around and grabbed me by the neck.
"Priss!!" Nene yelled as I struggled to get some air in. Not so fast, you son of a bitch, I thought as I jumped – while it was still holding me by the neck, even – and had just about kicked it in the arm with my Leg Bombers when it spun around again and threw me into the air.
"Wha--?!" I started to say. The Boomer activated its own jumpjets and came up after me, punching me in the stomach and swatting me onto a monorail train that was passing by before I could even react.
"You gotta get offa there!!" Nene yelled over the comm. "There's people on that train!!"
"Well, no shit!!" I shot at her, just getting to my feet again. The Boomer, jetting towards me still, started firing its mouth cannon again, followed by its heat cannon. I tried jumping out of the way of the mouth cannon blast, but it was too late; after I did, I felt it slam into my side. I screamed with the pain, but then I felt the train jerk beneath my feet as the heat cannon hit it.
"Priss!!" I heard Nene scream again as the train car I was standing on blew up.
"It was that easy? …I didn't expect it to, especially if it concerns you, of all people."
"Oh, shut up."
"But of course, who am I to judge? If I could take you down, so could that son-of-a-bitch Boomer."
"That…that was a fluke."
"Oh? So, I suppose if you hadn't been at the club that night with your friends, I couldn't have gotten you pregnant with that red-eyed brat?" The man in the shadows held up a bloody knife. "This looks familiar, doesn't it?"
"Of…course it does. You stabbed me with that." I could feel the blood, making my clothes stick to my side.
"Yes, I did." He stepped closer to me, my feet refusing to budge. He held up a brick in his hand. "Time to teach you a real lesson now."
"Priss…Priss!!"
"Wha…?" The high-pitched voice blared in my ears, making my head pound. I put my hand to my head and slowly got up, sitting up on my knees. "What the hell…?"
"Priss, the Boomer!!" Nene yelled. I remained sitting there for the moment, trying to shake off that moment I had just remembered in that dream. I put my hand to my side, and when I looked at it, it had my blood on it. Just like…like that night, I thought. I closed my eyes, and could feel the jerk of my body and the sharp pain in my side when he'd plunged the knife there. "No one, and I mean no one, brushes me off like that," he'd spat as he drove the knife deeper.
I hollered in rage and jumped up, only to come face to face with the Boomer again. "You bastard!!" I yelled, punching it with my Knuckle Bomber and firing several needles through it before it could even respond. I ran up and kicked it in the head with my Leg Bombers, then slapped an S-Mine on it, leaping out of what was left of the train before the Boomer exploded.
"Priss, are you ok?" I heard Nene ask meekly when she ran up to me.
"Does…this…look like ok to you?!" I snapped, pointing out my bloodied side.
"We need to get you back, quick."
"I'll live," I groaned, putting my hand to my side to stem the bleeding. We both stood there for a few seconds, just gazing at the burnt twisted metal that was the monorail train, when I heard some soft crying. "Do you hear that?"
"Y-yeah, I do," she said softly. She walked over to the pile of scrap metal and lifted off a few pieces, then gasped when she saw a little child underneath, crying and moaning. My eyes widened as I slowly ran to help her.
"Hey…hey, you ok?" I asked the girl.
She looked up at me with huge eyes and cried, "No."
"Lemme help you," I said, lifting off the last piece that was pinning her down, then lifted her up and cradled her in my arms.
"My mommy…" she moaned, starting to cry again. Nene reached her hand to lift up her visor to get a better look at the girl, then stopped.
"She…" Nene started to say.
"We gotta get her some help. She's not safe here," I said slowly, my head starting to spin again. I shook my head to make it stop, but that only made all the pain worse, and my legs started to wobble in the effort to keep me up.
"Don't push yourself," Nene warned, starting to look around for a police car. "So…how DO we get her some help, anyway? We're not exactly friends with the cops as it is."
"I don't care about the cops," I said bluntly. At that moment, coincidentally enough, police cars started showing up, and when they caught sight of Nene and me, they came even faster, and in a matter of seconds, we were surrounded. Nene scratched the side of her head – where it would be if she didn't have her helmet on, anyway – while I just stood there, trying to keep from collapsing while holding this little girl in my arms at the same time.
"Freeze!!" they said, jumping out of their cars and aiming their guns at us. To us Sabers, seeing this was quite a comical sight.
"Do they honestly think they can hurt us with those little pistols?" Nene asked, dumbfounded.
"Apparently so," I replied dryly.
"Let go of the kid!!" one officer ordered, pointing his gun at us.
"You actually think I was gonna hang on to her?!" I snapped, starting to walk towards them.
"Priss…!" Nene whispered behind me.
"I'll be fine," I assured her. As I walked slowly towards the officer, the others kept their guns pointed at me. Undeterred, I continued walking, and when I reached the officer's car, I bent down and set the girl down. "Take her," I said.
The officer looked at me, raising an eyebrow, as if he'd expected something else. "She needs to get to a hospital," I said tiredly, my head and side hurting like hell. "I can't do anything for her."
"L…Lady?" the girl said, looking up at me. "T…thank you…"
I smiled, even though she couldn't see it, and said, "It's my job." I turned around and walked back to Nene while the officer went and snatched up the kid in his arms. The other officers looked stunned to see me act so casually. And why else would I? It's not like they posed any actual threat at the moment.
"How about we get outta here about now?" I inquired to Nene.
"Y-yeah, let's."
We both activated out jumpjets and casually just flew over the officers and up to the roof of a nearby building. They all yelled for us to stop, but of course, we didn't. After we leaped to and from a few different buildings, my body decided it couldn't take much more of this. My knees were starting to buckle when Nene put an arm around me for support.
"Hey, it's ok," she said.
I moaned and put a hand to my side again; it had stopped bleeding, but now it was burning like hell. "T…thanks," I reluctantly said, wincing at the pain.
"Sylia," Nene said over the comm, "Priss and I are on a building overlooking 17th Street. You can come to pick us up whenever you can."
"I don't need to be picked up," I protested weakly.
"You two ok?" Linna asked.
"Priss' hurt, the Boomer's dead…nothing out of the usual," Nene joked. I clubbed her over the head. "Hey!!"
I heard Sylia stifle a laugh, then she said, "Ok. Just hold your positions until we can get there."
"Roger," I said as Nene rubbed the back of her head.
After hopping out of the equipment van, I headed towards the suit-up room, holding my side. If it had hurt before, it was just plain killing me now. The face of my attacker kept flashing in my mind as well, taunting me with his evil grin.
As soon as I reached the suit-up room, I yanked off my helmet and threw it against the wall, seething. Linna and Nene both jumped as it smacked against the wall and rolled to the floor.
"Priss, are you ok?" Linna asked, her helmet clasped in her hands. "And I don't mean your side, either."
"Am I ok? Why do you ask?" I inquired, my voice dripping with sarcasm.
"Well, you're shaking. You're not normally this upset from just a wound."
"I'm fine," I barked, rubbing the side of my head. I could still hear 'his' voice in my head, could still see him holding that brick in his hand.
"Hold still for me!" he'd yelled while on top of me, when I wouldn't stop squirming. He'd raised the brick up, then slammed it into the side of my head. And when I didn't stop struggling, he did it again…
I squeezed my eyes shut and yelled, kicking the wall.
"Priss?!" Nene said, putting her hands on my shoulders. "I…"
"It's not your fault," I said, wiping the sweat from my face. "Don't go thinking that it's your fault. I didn't get out of the way in time, and I paid for it. Ok?!"
Sylia, out of her hardsuit now, simply leaned against the wall, her arms crossed over her chest, looking at me, as if she understood.
The uneasy silence was broken when we heard the door beep, followed by it opening. We all looked over to it, and saw a drenched girl step through slowly. I blinked, then realized it was Yume.
"Yumeko, how did you…?" Nene started to ask.
Yume looked to her, her face completely blank, then looked at me, not even taking notice of the gaping wound in my side. She wiped her soaked bangs from her eyes, then walked towards me. We locked gazes for a moment, then she started to tremble, whether from cold or being worried or a combination of the two. Then, she hugged me tight and started to cry.
I started to yell in pain, but then stopped and slowly looked down at her. "Hey…"
Yume mumbled something in English, still crying, and I looked to Linna for a translation. She repeated it so I could understand: "I'm so glad you're ok."
"Yume, I…"
"You…you coulda at least told me you were going out," she said, looking up at me. "I don't want to lose you again, I don't…"
"It was to make sure you wouldn't try to tag along," Sylia said bluntly.
Yume let go of me and faced her. "You think I'd be crazy enough to go out like THIS?" She hit her leg with her fist. "I know better than that! I…I know I woulda just gotten in the way. And besides, I couldn't have, even if I wanted to. My hardsuit's not repaired yet." She suddenly realized what she had just said, and paled a bit. "Um…speaking of which…I'd like to see it."
Nene fidgeted. "You sure you want to see it now?"
"Better now than later," Yume said.
"It's behind Linna," she said, pointing behind her. Linna stepped out of the way for Yume to get a better look.
"My suit…" Yume mumbled as she bent down to inspect it, grimacing when she bent down with her bad leg. "It's a wreck."
"Yeah…" Linna agreed, her face turning hard.
Yume put her hand over the slash on the stomach armor, feeling the dried blood with her fingers. Her eyes narrowed as she seemed to recall when that happened. She then demonstrated how it was done, mostly for herself, putting her fingers together like it was that lasersword, then repeated the swooping motion the Boomer had done.
"You remember a bit, don't you," Sylia inquired.
"A bit," Yume repeated, looking down at the hole in the leg armor. Her eyes widened when she saw all the cracks around it, and the dried blood. She moved around to the back of the suit, and looked at the hole on the other side. "I remember that, too…" she breathed. "It went through me…like I hadn't even had the suit on…"
"I did a few tests on that," Sylia said, "based on the size of the bullet and the velocity at which it was going. I can say that, if you hadn't had your suit on, it'd be quite likely you wouldn't even have a leg now."
Yume smirked in response, which threw me off a bit. Didn't she even understand what Sylia had just said? "Is that so…" she said. "Didn't seem like it…"
After looking at the leg armor, she looked at the armor for the torso. Her flight wings were totally crushed from the Boomer stomping on her, and the sides were riddled with numerous cracks as well.
"I don't know what to think," she admitted, shaking her head slowly. "I'm…I'm kinda numb right now… This brings back so many memories…"
"It's to be expected," Sylia said.
"I want the suit repaired," Yume said. "I need to get back into battle."
"What?!" Nene exclaimed.
"It can't be put off forever," she snapped. "You guys are probably needing my help as it is… I can't stay out forever…"
"Your leg's still pretty weak," Linna said. "It's still gonna be a few more months at least."
"At least I'm not in much pain anymore," Yume said, grinning evilly. "Stiffness, weakness, that stuff I can deal with. The pain was the hardest part. This other BS should be easy enough to deal with."
"You'd think that."
"Yume, you still gotta take your time with this," I spoke up. "You know it's not gonna get better overnight."
"Yeah, Mom, I know, but…I'm not the only one to worry over. There's you too." She pointed to my side.
"Thanks for the reminder," I groaned, my side incidentally starting to throb again.
"It's been a long night," Sylia said. "I think we should all go home now and get some rest."
Nene yawned. "I'm all for that."
After we all changed back into our normal clothes, Linna and Nene went home, but Sylia wanted to keep me at her place overnight to take care of my wounds. As we were walking upstairs to her penthouse, I asked Yume, "So what's bugging you besides the fact we went out without telling you?"
"What…what do you mean?" she asked hesitantly.
"C'mon, I can tell something else is up. Fess up."
"Well…I…I had a nightmare."
"What of?"
"I dreamed that Boomer was alive again, and that it had killed all of you, and that…that I was the only one left."
I sighed and put my hand on her shoulder. "That Boomer's dead. And I can assure you that we're not gonna be going down that easily. We're gonna be here for as long as we need to be. Ok?"
She smiled. "I hope so."
"But right now…I need to get somethin' for this side," I admitted, wincing. "It's buggin' the hell outta me."
Yume laughed. "Yeah, I bet it is!"
When I woke up a few days after that little incident, I could practically see that cloud of gloom over my head. I felt depressed, but…I didn't know exactly why. Was it because I wasn't on the gymnastics team at this time of year, like I usually was? No, that couldn't be it. I thought I'd gotten over that a while ago, and yet…
I got dressed and went up to the roof, laying flat on my back to let the morning sun bathe me in its light. I closed my eyes and let my mind wander. Something just didn't seem quite right. Normally, it being summer again, and not to mention my birthday, would make me ultra-hyper, not being able to hold still. But on this day, I was just strangely depressed.
I counted back the months since the Boomer summit…since I'd been shot the first time…since… I opened my eyes.
"Ten months," I mumbled to myself tiredly. "It's been ten months…"
Ten months since that fateful night when I'd gone out to look for Mom. Ten months since that female Boomer ambushed me and was about to stab me when Mom came and killed it. Ten months since I became a Knight Saber.
"Ten…friggin'…months," I said out loud. Maybe that's what was bothering me; the fact I'd just wasted ten months of my life to help fight Boomers. Teenagers were supposed to spend their days and nights partying and studying and worrying about what to wear tomorrow, not putting their lives on the line for people who didn't even care about them. If I'd been told earlier that day that I would be a Knight Saber by the next morning, I would've told them to kiss off, but…sure enough, it was true.
Damn it all.
"Mama," I'd said one day when I was about six, "Me and my friends are gonna go play Saber games, 'k?"
"Saber games?" she'd asked.
"Yeah! We're gonna pretend we're the Knight Sabers! I'm gonna be the blue one!"
"The blue one?" I remember that grin she'd gotten when I said that. "Is that your favorite one?"
"Uh-huh."
"Y'know how you can make that game even more fun?"
"How?"
She bent down so she could look me in the eye, and said, "Well, I've heard that one of the weapons that the blue Saber had was something on her fist. Whenever she'd punch a Boomer, it would explode."
"Really?" I exclaimed.
"I wouldn't tell you that if it was a lie," she'd said with a twinkle in her eye. When I'd looked back on it before, I thought she'd just been going along with the game, trying to figure out ways to make it more fun. But once I discovered that Mom herself was the blue Knight Saber, I knew she hadn't been making it up, after all.
I wish the games had just stayed games, I thought, standing up. But then again…it's not like fighting real Boomers is any less fun, either…
I stretched and rubbed the sleepiness out of my eyes, then looked towards that cursed Genom Tower. Just looking at the thing made me sick. I just wanted to walk right up to Quincy's office, give him the finger, then spit in his face. Of course, if I did that in real life, then I'd never be heard from again. The Genom execs might as well say, "You can say whatever you want, except for this, this, this, and this." Bah. It was like Nazi Germany all over again.
I suddenly got a tickle in my nose, and I had to sneeze. Right when I did, though, I felt something whiz behind my head. I froze for a moment, wondering if that was my imagination, or if it was just the wind. I slowly stood up straight again and scratched the back of my head.
"I must be going crazy," I said to myself, then looked at my fingers. They had blood on them. And then, I felt the dull pain in the back of my head. My eyes widened as I realized what had happened. Someone had just tried to bump me off!!
I snatched my gun out of my jacket and cocked it. "Who's there?!" I yelled, looking around at the surrounding buildings for anybody that might be hiding. "Who the hell is it?!" My heart pounded as I scanned my surroundings again. Somebody'd shot at me, but from what I could see, there was nobody around.
"Damn," I muttered, putting my gun away.
I went downstairs back to my apartment, just staring at the blood on my fingers the whole way. Who would want me dead, and why? Certainly not a crazed fan; who'd ever heard of a gymnast getting killed by one? Sadly, I'd almost understand if someone tried to shoot Mom, but like she made clear long ago, "I'm not looking to become the next John Lennon, thank you."
"What's wrong?" Mom asked immediately when she saw me walk in the door.
"This," I said, holding up my fingers. Her eyes narrowed at the sight.
"So what happened?"
"Somebody tried to shoot me." I unconsciously scratched the back of my head again, only to wince when I scratched my fresh wound.
"Lemme see," she said quickly, turning me around so she could see. "What the hell?"
"That's what I thought. I looked around for somebody on one of the other buildings, but there was nobody there. Whoever it was probably coulda killed me too, if I hadn't sneezed."
"I guess it's Genom's way of wishing you a happy seventeenth birthday," she quipped.
I almost laughed at the thought, but quickly turned serious. "What…do you mean by that, exactly?" I asked as she washed the wound with some peroxide she'd gotten out of the cabinet.
"Sylia didn't tell you?"
"She hasn't told me shit about anything."
"I figured," she said in a low voice. "Look, you know that during that fight at the convention center, your faceplate was broken, right?"
"I don't remember when it was broken, but yeah, I know it was broken. Why?"
"Well…Sylia said that she thinks the people at Genom might know your identity as a Knight Saber."
I snapped my head at her. "What?! You gotta be kidding me!!"
Mom set down the bottle of peroxide and shook her head. "I wish I were. But Sylia said that the Boomer's eyes had transmitters in them or somethin', so that whatever it saw would be fed back to wherever it came from."
I paled. "No…friggin'…way."
"That's part of why I come to pick you up at school every day, to make sure nothing happens. Genom assassins usually don't cut people down out in broad daylight, but I suppose since you were alone on the roof, then that would be their opportunity."
"So…how would you explain that one Boomer nearly gutting me last year? You did say you thought it was originally after you, but you never did say if anyone knew you were a Knight Saber…"
She thought for a moment, her face still as stone, then shook her head. "I dunno how to explain that one… Largo figured it out, but he's dead now."
"How did he figure it out?"
"He threw me against a wall hard enough to shatter my faceplate."
"He was THAT strong?"
"Yeah," she grumbled, folding her arms across her chest.
I grinned evilly. "I almost wish I coulda met him. I'm sure we woulda just LOVED each other…"
She shook her head quickly. "No way. The only reason I lived through the battle with him is because the others arrived in time. And besides…he was just like that Boomer at the summit. He had a Black Box in him."
"A what?"
"The thing that gives 'em access to the beam satellites."
I paled again. "Kinda makes ya wonder why Sylia doesn't have control of one o' those things, eh?"
Mom smirked. "No kidding. I've been zapped by one twice now, after that bastard blew up the convention center."
"Twice? Yow."
"That's what I've been saying for the past three days," she quipped, referring to her side. "Now c'mere so I can get that wound bandaged up."
I laughed. "You don't have any Bactine, do you? That stuff's even worse than being hit by a beam sat."
She laughed as well. "Nah. You're safe."
I stumbled into school the next day, the aura of pure exhaustion all around me. All the other kids in the hallway seemed to feel it too, for when I passed them, they stepped to the side, as if I might bite. It was one thing to have someone or something try to kill me in battle – it was a part of the job, of course – but to have it happen out of the blue like yesterday? It freaked me out, to say the least. And learning about Sylia's concerns about Genom possibly knowing that I was a Knight Saber didn't exactly calm my nerves. God, I hope they don't know. They better not know, I thought, paling at the mere thought of it.
I opened my locker and started taking out some of my textbooks when I felt someone flick their finger against the back of my head. I jumped and winced.
"Nasty scab there," I heard Boh note.
"Hi, Boh," I groaned, looking at him out of the corner of my eye.
"What happened to your head?"
"I just fell and hurt myself, that's all. Nothing too major."
"Is that a fact?" He leaned over my shoulder and looked at me, his expression unchanging. "You look like somebody tried to kill you or something."
"Do I?" I asked curtly. "Well, it could be because yesterday was my birthday, and I'm not looking forward to being older."
"So how old are you now?"
"Seventeen."
"Aw, no more being Sweet Sixteen, eh? Gonna miss it?"
Miss it?, I repeated in my head. After everything that happened when I was that age? "Ah…I dunno yet. I still need to test the waters of Seventeenism first."
He chuckled. "Ah, it'll be fun. I think that's the age when most people get deflowered."
I nearly dropped my books in surprise. "What?!"
"It's true though, isn't it?"
I blushed. "I…I don't plan on sleeping with anybody anytime soon, thank you!"
"Well, from what I've heard, it might be too late for you."
"What…what do you mean?!" I fired, still blushing.
"I've heard some things, rumors, if you will."
"About what?! If it's about Masahiro, he and I haven't even—"
"No, not about you and him."
"About who then?"
"Who do you think?"
I was about to answer him when I heard the bell ring. "I…I gotta go to class. I'm gonna be late."
"I'll go with you."
"Why?" I inquired.
He raised an eyebrow. "Well, we DO have the same first-period class."
"Oh, right." I smacked myself upside the head, which made Boh smirk in response.
Once we got to class, the teacher gave us each a blank piece of paper, and told us to write an essay about fate. Did we believe in it, or not? And why? At least two paragraphs long, with topic sentences and ending sentences and all that crap, and we had the whole period to do it. I sat there for the first few minutes, scratching the side of my head with my pencil. What WAS my view about this, anyway? I'd never really given much thought to it, despite what I'd been through recently. I looked behind me at Michiko, who was scribbling away, and at Boh, who was taking his time writing out his thoughts.
I finally decided to write this:
People have often debated whether the course of their lives is decided by their own actions, or by some higher being, or Fate. My opinion is that we ourselves decide our own course of action. It's like being on a river, and it splits into two separate entities. Naturally we'd have to decide which branch of the river to go down. The smooth one may look inviting, because it looks peaceful and undisturbed, but the rough one is exactly the opposite. It's wild and untamed, but like the old saying goes, "Sailors never got experience from calm waters."
When I was nearly killed when the convention center exploded a couple months ago, I questioned what I had done wrong, what I had done to deserve such a punishment. And then I realized, realized that I wasn't DESTINED to be like this, but that it was a result of my actions. Although it's claimed that the Knight Sabers attacked the convention center, I believe it was Boomers all along. And when they stormed the convention center, I wanted to stick around, to see how the Sabers would take care of them.
I stopped writing after I wrote that last sentence; I could hear everyone yelling orders and such again…
"There's an explosion at the convention center!!" Linna had yelled. "Priss and I are going to see what's up!!"
"What about me?!" I'd asked Nene while she suited up.
"Stay here!! This is probably going to get ugly."
"That's why I should come too!!"
"You have your orders!!" she'd snapped at me. I wonder…I wonder what would've happened if I hadn't been ordered to stay in the van, I thought as I felt the color drain from my face at the sheer memory of anything relating to that night. What would've happened if I hadn't jumped in to save Mom and Nene?
"You all right?" I heard the teacher ask. I jumped in surprise and looked up at him.
"Y-yeah, I'm ok," I responded. Michiko stopped writing and looked at me, concern lining her face.
"Yumeko?" she whispered.
"I'm all right, don't worry about me," I whispered back, looking down at my paper again. After the teacher went back to his desk, I sat there, tapping my pencil on the paper. What could I write without giving anything away? After I contemplated that for a few seconds, I continued writing:
I realize now that as a result of staying at the convention center, I was caught in the ensuing explosion and am left with a potentially crippling wound, and scars that will be with me for the rest of my life. Even now, almost three months after that night, I cannot walk without a leg brace, and the physical therapy I endure every day only serves to remind me of the consequences of my actions. My injuries were a result of my actions, and I take full responsibility for them. I wasn't fated to be like this, as some people may think. It's simply a result of the choices I made; it serves as proof that our lives aren't guided by some higher force, but by the decisions we make in our everyday lives.
I sighed and put down my pencil. I couldn't write any more even if I wanted to; the memories were flooding my mind right now, making it impossible to think of anything else. I rubbed my face with my hands, trying to clear my mind of that junk, but it didn't really help.
"Yumeko, you ok?" I heard Michiko ask again.
"Ms. Ishiodori!" the teacher snapped. Several kids snickered at her as she jumped and flushed a bit.
"Well…sir…she looks like she's gonna faint, that's all."
"I do?" I wondered aloud. Boh looked at me out of the corner of his eye, as if he was a bit curious as to why I was nervous, too.
"Are you done with your essay, Ms. Asagiri?" the teacher asked me.
"Yeah."
"Ok. Come out into the hall so we can talk."
"Uh-oh, she's in trouble!" I heard one boy joke. The teacher glared daggers at him as the two of us stepped out into the hallway.
"I'm sure this was an interesting subject for you to have to write about," he said.
I scratched the back of my head, making sure not to scratch my wound. "Uh…you could say that."
"I've heard a bit about what happened, and from the looks of it, it's a miracle you survived."
Miracle? That's an understatement, I thought. "Well…Mom did tell me my heart stopped twice on the operating table 'cause of all the blood loss, but…but I'm ok," I said, turning pale again.
"Have you gotten any counseling?"
"The principal asked the same thing," I groaned. "I'm fed up with doctors. I've seen too many of those white coats; I could puke."
"It might be beneficial if you had someone to talk to about these things, about the lingering trauma and such."
"I don't need anybody for that. I already have my mom's friends, and Micchan."
"Yes, but a professional would be better able to help you deal with the trauma."
I looked away. "Thanks for the concern, but…I'm all right as I am. All I'm really worried about now is learning to walk without this brace, and to get back to doing gymnastics again."
"Well, if you need anything, I'm right here."
I nodded acknowledgment, not looking at him. Not like I'd be talking to him about anything anytime soon, of course.
"So what did he wanna talk with you about?" Michiko asked as we were walking towards our next class.
"He was just wondering if I was getting any counseling."
"Are you?"
"No."
"Maybe it would be a good idea," she suggested. "I mean, I'd hate to see you go into one of your blackouts again."
"Don't remind me," I groaned.
"But still, y'know what was cool about you beating up Eiji? You really gave him what he deserved, and plus, everyone now knows to avoid you." She giggled. "They know not to push you too much now."
"I guess."
"Whaddaya mean you 'guess'?" she inquired, her eyes widening.
I wish I could tell you, I thought as we reached our next class. But…it can't happen again. If I say anything out of the ordinary, it'll give everything away. Even with Eiji, I cut it close. Wasn't much better with Ana, either. How much longer can I do this?
