Chapter 3: Ayame's Resolve
It had been three days since he had the encounter with the leaf ninja. And despite Arashi having given the man his answer, he just couldn't stop thinking about it. It had been eating away at him. It looked like Ayame has noticed as well because she kept giving him weird looks and was unusually quiet.
Arashi was in the place he always was when he wanted some time alone. He sat with his feet dangling over the ledge of the old lighthouse. Ever since the city built the new, bigger lighthouse across the harbor, the old one hasn't been used. He had heard the sailors talk about how the old one was too small and when you approached the harbor from the south, the mountains along the coast hid its light. Arashi thought it was a waste. The original lighthouse had been one of the first buildings constructed when the city was founded. It had stood guard for so long withstanding the endless onslaught of the sea, welcoming home weary sailors. For something so old and historied to just be forgotten, left to crumble until it was no more seemed like such a dishonorable thing to do. Now Arashi was the only one who got any use out of it and to him, it was plenty tall. Tall enough to see the entirety of the slums and harbor.
Arashi gazed over to the market to see some orphans fleeing from a merchant. No doubt they had just stolen some food and were making their getaway. The ninja had called them 'rats crawling through the streets' and from up here, the ninja was right. They certainly did look like rats.
The past three days had been the same as always. Wake up, eat a pitifully small breakfast, go look for more food on the streets and then end the day under the tavern.
Like every day.
Nothing new.
Was this it? Was the slum all there was?
About a month ago, one of the older boys from the orphanage had aged out. Finally, free from the orphanages care. He had excitedly yelled that he was going to leave the slums and get rich. Not a week later, Arashi saw him running from the baker with a loaf of bread. Just like the one Ayame had stolen. He hadn't gone anywhere. The kid didn't even move to the other side of the slums. He had been sleeping in an alleyway not even 4 blocks from the orphanage.
Arashi was starting to realize no one left the slums. No one teaches them how to read or write. None of the middlers take on apprentices from the slums. The nobles don't even acknowledge their existence. Like they were a different species. Perhaps like rats.
This is not what he wanted.
"I thought you'd be up here."
With a flinch, Arashi looked behind to see Ayame climbing up the last couple of spiral steps in the lighthouse.
"Hey Ayame." He says as she sits down next to him.
"You've had the look on your face for the past couple of days. That's why I knew you'd be up here. You always have the look when you're thinking of something big."
Arashi smiled. She knew him too well. There is no way he could ever get away with hiding something like this from her.
"I met a Ninja yesterday." He saw a small flinch from the girl.
"And what did he want with you?" Ayame asked.
"He said he'd been watching me." With a short pause he continued, "he said he thinks I've got what it takes to be a leaf ninja and that I should leave the slums and go to the leaf village."
Arashi looked over to see the girl let go of a pained breath. Like it's been hurting her to breathe. Like she has been holding it for days.
"What did you tell him?"
"I said no, but ever since then I can't get it out of my head." Arashi took a raspy breath, trying in vain to hide the quivering in his voice, "I…I… don't want to die here Ayame. I don't want to slowly rot away in these slums and die not knowing anything else."
He looked over again and winced. Ayame had her knees pulled into her chest and was hugging them. She looked so small, so scared. Her eyes closed, trying to hold back tears. Then she opened them. Renewed strength holding back the emotions. She took a big breath and appeared to calm whatever doubts she had in her head.
"Your different, Arashi. You've always been different."
"What?" he said.
"Ever since the first time I saw you in the orphanage, I knew you were different. You were quicker, not just your body, but in getting things. You did things on your own that the others didn't do until they were twice your age. The caretaker noticed it too. She hardly ever looks for you or worries about you because she knows you're alright."
"Hold on Ayame, what are you saying?"
"I'm saying you don't belong here. I'm saying the ninja is right." She paused, wiping a stray tear from her cheek. The previous resolve she had shown all but disappearing. "I'm saying you'd be an idiot not to go."
Arashi stared at her in disbelief. "I can't go! What about you! I won't leave you here all alone in this place."
"Arashi!" The sudden tone change from fear to anger jolted Arashi out of his thoughts.
"You remember that first time when we found the crawl space under the tavern? The first time we had heard all those stories about places other than here? Some of them sounded awful or scary, but it didn't matter to us. It was someplace other than here and that's all that mattered."
"I remember Ayame." Arashi shakily said.
"We made a promise to each other. We pinky promised that the first chance we got to leave this place we would. You can't break a pinky promise!" Ayame yelled.
"But Ayame! We were supposed to leave together."
"If you don't go, I will never forgive you!" Arashi stared at the girl in shock. She was shaking, tears freely flowing from her eyes.
"I won't let you throw away this chance to leave this place because of me! I won't be the reason you stay here any longer."
She took another raspy breath. "You hate it here. You hate being around the other orphans who have just given up. You may try to hide it, but I know you. I may not be as special as you, but I can see the way your smile fades when you think no one is looking. How you escape up here more and more because you can't hide it anymore."
"Ayame that's not…"
"Don't lie to me Arashi!" She yelled as she stood up, her messy bangs draping over her eyes, casting them into shadow.
She started to turn and walk towards the stairs.
"Tomorrow you will find that ninja and tell him that you will go to the leaf."
She continued towards the stairs, "if you don't, then this is the last time we will talk."
Arashi watched as her head disappeared below the stairs, and the noise of her footsteps slowly disappeared.
Wiping a tear from his cheek he didn't know he had shed, Arashi turned his gaze back to the market, seeing the same scene play again. A different pair of orphans scampering away from a merchant.
The same thing. Over and over again. Like little rats running through the streets. While you were in Tekan, the rules never played fair. The slums always won.
The endless mazes and dead ends of the slums always claimed its rats. As soon as you thought you inched out a lead, there was another dead end.
From above up in the lighthouse, it was all clear to Arashi. The slums were a slow death. Eventually, he wouldn't be able to cheat his way out of a dead end.
He had to get out.