Welcome back, everybody! So, last time, Toshiro started investigating about the Blank Fortnight and the mysterious anniversary all the village residents keep talking about. Plus, he found out that the hidden village, Redwood, exists. But, where is it? What is the Lady Jane Institute? Who is C12? What is the anniversary for? The answers will come soon, my friends. The question is…can Toshiro and the others handle it?
Chapter 28
C12
"Wait, I don't understand. How-"
"There are millions of websites on the web." Ren interrupted quickly, looking visibly fatigued, while Toshiro was staring straight at the screen of the laptop.
"But how did-"
"This house has a strong Wi-Fi."
"What's a-"
"It's what we call an internet connection in different buildings. These days, almost every public place has a Wi-Fi, but some internet connections cost you."
"And what are-"
"Those just show how many pages of search results there are."
"Okay, but what's-"
"That's just an ad. They pop up from time to time. Just ignore them or this thing will have a crapload of viruses."
"And why is-"
"Because Google sounds like Googol, and it's a huge number."
"Oooh, I get it now!" Toshiro said, tapping a fist on his palm.
"Finally!" Ren exclaimed, throwing her arms up in the air.
"What? It didn't take that long." Toshiro said defensively.
"Really? The ice cold tea says otherwise."
"…" Toshiro held the mug of tea. Indeed, it had gone ice cold.
"And so does that clock." Ren pointed at the clock on the wall. It read 7pm. They had been like this for four hours.
"Ah." Toshiro said a little meekly. "Sorry, Ren."
"Well, as long as you know the basics." Ren said, slumping in a chair with a sigh.
"I just need to confirm one more thing…" Toshiro started.
"Oh, would you look at the time?!" Ren said loudly, jumping out of her chair and walking extremely quickly out of the room. "I have to write my hair and wash my essay!"
"It's the other way around!" Toshiro shouted after Ren.
"Whatever!"
"Honestly…" Toshiro turned back to the laptop screen. It was back to the Google homepage, and the little black cursor was blinking on the search bar, almost like it was beckoning Toshiro. And it was working. Toshiro reached a hand out to the keyboard, but paused and clenched the hand into a half-fist. The computer was right here. He knew how to use it. If he wanted to, he could search for anything and everything he wanted to know about the anniversary, the hidden village, the Blank Fortnight, the Lady Jane Institute; everything. It was just a few clicks away. But, Toshiro was rather hesitant to do so. He unclenched his hand and reached towards the letter R, but at the last second, he pressed the power button of the laptop, and within a few seconds, the screen went black. It was off.
"Not tonight." He said quietly, closing the laptop. He stood up out of his chair, the legs scraping across the ground. "I don't want to deal with anymore of this nonsense today." Toshiro picked up the ice cold tea and poured it into the sink as he walked back through the kitchen, placing the now empty mug on a kitchen counter. The moment Toshiro heard the tea go down the drain, he couldn't shake off the feeling that, soon, he was going to encounter something that not even a hundred mugs of tea could fix.
The next day, 4th March, 7:30am (3 days until the anniversary)
"He wants to see me before school?!" Ren exclaimed, staring at her phone. "Son of a mother-Grrr!" Ren cut herself off with a growl and shoved her phone back into the pocket of her school blazer with such force, she almost tore a hole straight through it. "Can't he keep a regular schedule?! Shiro, I'm going! I'll see you later!" Ren grabbed her school bag and left the house without waiting for a response.
"Um…bye?" Toshiro eventually said, peering around the corner from the kitchen. "She was in a hurry. Must be Altair, judging by her mood. She didn't make me leave with her. Ren really is just letting me investigate." Toshiro went back into the kitchen and straight towards the laptop, which was still sitting on the table. "Better not let this go to waste." Toshiro sat behind the table, lifted the laptop and switched it on. While it loaded, Toshiro tried to remember everything Ren had taught him about computers, which in truth wasn't really that much. But, like she said, it should be enough to use the internet at least.
Okay… Toshiro thought as soon as the computer was fully switched on. I think this little square is the mouse. Toshiro tapped the square and the little white arrow on the screen twitched. Right. And over here is the internet. I think…Please work…Yes! Toshiro felt a moment of triumph as soon as he saw the homepage of Google. Now…Toshiro got the notes out of his pocket and placed it on the able, smoothing out the many wrinkles with his hands.
"I thought you guys were meant to be tech savvy." Zena said, appearing beside Toshiro with folded arms and a smile.
"Where I come from, the only computers we have are in Squad Twelve. I've seen them in the World of the Living, but I've never used one before." Toshiro explained, trying to find the enter key. Zena pointed it out, and he uttered a quick thank you before looking back at his notes.
"So, what are you gonna do?" Zena asked, leaning over to look at his notes. "Wow, you got a lot there. Looks like someone's been busy, eh?" Zena nudged Toshiro playfully, her bony elbow being felt clearly on Toshiro's right arm.
"Lay off." Toshiro shrugged off her arm.
"What are you going to start with? Lady Jane Institute? The Thornton family?"
"Later. I want to find out about Redwood first and see if I can find its location." As he spoke, Toshiro had already typed in the name 'Redwood' and pressed Enter, immediately displaying the results. "Hey, that's pretty impressive. It wasn't even one second."
"Let's see…Sequoia? What's that?"
"It's a type of tree." Toshiro answered.
"Oh. What else is there? Scroll down."
"Hang on, hang on, I haven't…there…trees…trees…almost all of these are about trees."
"Try making it a little more specific."
"Right." Toshiro scrolled back to the search bar and typed in 'village' next to the village name and pressed enter, bringing up new results. "Now it's going on about this place in America."
"We're in England, right?" Zena asked, an innocent expression on her face.
"Your descendant has a British accent and we are in a country where it could start raining at any minute. You tell me."
"So, yes." Zena said, completely ignoring Toshiro's sarcasm. "And, Ren speaks more like an American than a Brit. Speaking of which, have you found out anything else about her and 2006?"
"Yeah. The fact that she was part of a swimming team is true. I found more information about it when I went to the storage room early this morning. Ren was the only one there who could swim underwater for a prolonged period of time. Take a guess how long for."
"One minute?"
"Try three minutes."
"Has she got gills?" Zena asked, amazed.
"Zena, you know she doesn't have gills. Although she was nicknamed "The Gills", so you're not far off."
"Did you find anything else?"
"No. That was all I could dig up. And now this." Toshiro beckoned the computer screen and rested his head in his hand, trying to think of something else. It seemed that every time he thought he had a lead, the tracks were quickly wiped out. The fact that all he could find out about a twelve year old Ren was a nickname in a sports team really showed how low his results were sinking. "Now what?"
"Why don't you try looking for it on the map? See? There's a map tab there." Zena pointed at the screen.
"Search for the village manually. Of course." Toshiro clicked on the maps tab. "Okay, so the villages should be in the south-east of England, which is…here." Toshiro zoomed in on that area. "That's the city where Ren's school is, so if I go this way, I should find Hazelford…A little more…there it is." After finding the first village, Toshiro started moving the map around to find the other villages. If they were this close together, then Redwood couldn't be that far. "There's Woolfield, right next to Hazelford. That's where Tom and Stephanie live. Then there's Oakworth, where Nathan lives. Millsdale is there…There's Portsbury…And Redwood is right…" Toshiro scrolled through the map, trying to find the village. He passed over the same villages a couple times, but nothing. There was no other clump of buildings on the map. "It's not here."
"What? It should be."
"Well, it's not." Toshiro zoomed out so that there was a view of all five villages. "All five villages are right here, but there's no sign of a sixth."
"Are you saying it's not on the map?"
"I am." Toshiro nodded.
"Wherever that village is, it's either abandoned, or the village heads are that determined to keep something secret."
"Like the anniversary." Toshiro said.
So Redwood really is connected to it somehow. Toshiro thought.
"Well, there's nothing I can do about it now." Toshiro quickly went back to the homepage. "Let's try something else."
"What are you going to do now?"
"I'm going to find out more about the Lady Jane Institute. If I can find its location, or even any staff that used to work there, I can find the identity of C12, and warn her about the future."
"She might not believe you." Zena said as Toshiro typed in the name of the institute.
"I have to try." Toshiro pressed enter, and was met with results immediately. "Now, this is more like it. The first one looks promising." Toshiro clicked on it, and it opened up what looked like an information page on the building, complete with a picture. It was a large, white bricked building with a rectangular structure. It looked a lot like a school, or even a hospital. "It says here that it's located within the city, it was founded in the 1800s…" Toshiro scrolled down. "And…it's closed?"
"Huh?"
"It says right here that the institute was shut down in August 2006."
"That's after the anniversary, right?"
"It is. There's gotta be more here." Toshiro scrolled down again, and found some more text. "Pay-dirt!" Toshiro read the rest of the text. "The Lady Jane Institute shut down in August 2006 after years of service due to the director Dr Cyrus Shepherd resigning his position, and nobody else was suited to fill the role. However, late research shows that this was not necessarily the only reason why the institute was shut down. Behind closed doors, the institute was known for its unorthodox, and sometimes inhumane, methods, which stem back to its founding days when it was given a different name…" Toshiro's eyes widened as he read the next words. "Rock Ledge Asylum."
"An asylum?" Zena gasped. "Lady Jane Institute is a mental hospital?"
"It would seem so." Toshiro carried on reading. "The Rock Ledge Asylum was known for its inhumane treatments of patients, electroshock therapy and leeches among them, with evidence that lobotomy was practiced on former patients. And even in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, these treatments continued without anybody finding out until 2006, where the Lady Jane Institute was dealing with its final, and most challenging, patient. Confidentiality means that we cannot put the name of this patient up here, but even in the institute, the patient went by the name C12."
"C12? That's the girl! Great, our lead is a lunatic."
"Was." Toshiro corrected. "This place was shut down six years ago. If C12 is still alive, she should be the same age as Ren, if the picture of her is anything to go by." Toshiro held his chin. "But why was she in a mental hospital? And why was a younger version of her in a vision about the future?"
"It says here the director lives in Portsbury." Zena said, reading the rest of the article. "That's one of the villages. His name is Cyrus Shepherd, right?"
"And if he lives in the villages, his name should show up on the records. I've got the 2006 records in my room."
"I'll get 'em!" Zena said enthusiastically, vanishing from the spot. When a few seconds passed, Zena appeared again, holding a green rucksack in her arms. "Is this it?"
"That's the one." Zena dropped it on the ground. "Hey, don't be so rough." Toshiro said, riffling through the files to find the one he was looking for.
"Sorry…" Zena apologised sheepishly as Toshiro pulled out the dossier he was looking for.
"Let's see…Shepherd…Shepherd…Sharrow…Shearman…Shelby…Shepherd! There it is!" Toshiro finally found the surname he was looking for. And the first name right next to it was Cyrus. He had found the director. "There's an address here. Number 4, Poppy Drive."
"Let's go!" Zena yelled cheerfully, already jogging off.
"Hold it."
"Eh?" Zena stopped mid-run, her arms and legs still raised. She looked over her shoulder at Toshiro. "You're not going yet?"
"Not yet, no." Toshiro shut the dossier and placed it back with the others. "We have to tread carefully. This is the doctor of a former asylum we're dealing with. Who knows what he saw? I wouldn't be surprised if he was as deranged as the patients he dealt with. Plus, there's the file on C12. I want him to answer a few questions about it. Zena, could you get it for me? It should still be on my desk."
"Be right back." Zena vanished, and in an even shorter amount of time than before, she was back again, holding the document in her hand.
"Thanks." Toshiro stood up and took it out of her hand, opening it up.
"What do you want to know about it?" Zena asked. "Everything should be there, right?"
"Wrong. This file is about the most challenging patient Lady Jane has ever had. And if she was mad enough to have been given a code name, there must be more about her." Toshiro snapped the file shut. "So then, why is this file so thin?"
"I hadn't thought of that." Zena said thoughtfully, amazed at Toshiro's level of intelligence.
"It gives details of the girl's age, education, profile, the date she checked in and the date she checked out." Toshiro said, listing off the information on his fingers. "But it tells me nothing about where she lives or why she was even there. And if anyone knows about C12…" Toshiro pointed at the webpage on Lady Jane Institute with the folder. "It's the director."
"Let's go?" Zena suggested, poised to run off again.
"No." Toshiro said, turning back around to place the file on the table and ignoring how Zena fell over after being balanced on one leg, but she simple floated back up again. "I don't want to cause anymore suspicion than I already have." Toshiro pulled a half-knotted tie out of his pocket and looped it around his neck, folding the collar over it and tightening the knot a little.
"You're going to school?"
"Like I said, I'm trying not to look suspicious. I already skipped school and Ren's friends are noticing my investigating. If I keep this up I'll be caught before I'm even done." Toshiro zipped the rucksack shut and got a paper timetable out of his pocket. "Today is Thursday, so I'll act as normal as possible until the end of Friday. Ren and I have free periods all afternoon, and she usually goes home early because of it. I can resume my investigations then."
"So, you're gonna be all stealthy like Mission Impossible?" Zena asked with a smile.
"Uh…sure." Toshiro said, not sure how to respond to that. He re-pocketed the paper schedule. "I'll find Dr Shepherd on Friday and get him to tell me what he knows." Toshiro focused on the laptop and cleared the history before closing the browser. "Hopefully, he'll fill in some holes on the identity of C12. Then, I'll find Redwood."
"A man with a plan!" Zena said enthusiastically, snapping her fingers.
"Whatever." Toshiro started to leave the room. "If you want to be useful, put this stuff back where you found it."
"?" Zena looked back and forth between the stuff around the table and the retreating back of Toshiro. "Wait a minute; shouldn't you turn this thing off?" She said, pointing at the laptop.
"Oh. Right." Toshiro came back, pressed the off switch and closed the laptop before leaving the house without another word.
"Um…bye?" Zena said, mirroring exactly what Toshiro did when Ren left the house earlier.
…
"This was a bad idea." Toshiro said, an extremely annoyed look on his face. Toshiro was stood in a storage room full of gym equipment, and he was holding a bunch of basketballs in his arms. "Why am I tidying up after everyone?!" He exclaimed.
"Shiro, it's a routine deal." Ren explained, walking while dragging a bench inside the room. She was still dressed in the P.E. kit of the school, which was a white polo shirt with the school crest on the left breast and black school shorts, with her usually loose hair tied up in a loose ponytail. "Everyone has to do it sooner or later."
"Yeah, but why me?" Toshiro asked, dropping the basketballs into a basket. "I didn't even do gym today." He tugged at his shirt to point out the lack of a P.E. kit.
"Punishment?" Ren suggested, shrugging her shoulders with a smile. "And it's not gym. It's called Afternoon Activities. All Sixth Formers have to do it, including you. Guess Feather hunting was a good excuse for the others to skip out." Toshiro grumbled under his breath, making Ren giggle a bit before moving the bench back with the others. "Although, I suppose I can sympathise with you a little. I had to do this a lot when I was younger. I was always grouped up with some lazy boy." Ren looped some hair behind her ear. "Most I had ever lifted was a box of books, and they expected me to drag a damned trampoline?"
"A trampoline?!" Toshiro shared Ren's annoyance, with a bigger hint of surprise. Ren had to carry a trampoline? He saw those things, and they were huge.
"Yup." Ren nodded. "But, I persuaded them to help."
"How?"
"Oh…" Ren tapped a fist in her palms, giving a cheerful yet dark smile. "I had my ways." Pause. "I threatened to give 'em FaceTime with Dr Fist and Sir Brick!" Ren said happily, throwing her arms up in the air.
"Ha! I would have liked to see that!" Toshiro said, cracking a smile.
"Yeah! It was hilarious!" Ren laughed behind her hand. Toshiro found himself still smiling as he left the room to get the rest of the basketballs. When he was with Ren, he felt like he could tell her anything, and she would never think less of him. Around Ren, Toshiro felt different. He felt like…himself.
"Just these balls left? Wow, we're good."
"This would be done a lot faster if you used telekinesis." Toshiro said, picking up a couple basketballs.
"Dame, dame." Ren insisted, wagging her finger with every syllable. "Just because we have powers doesn't mean we should use them whenever we want, even if nobody is looking." Ren flicked a ball up with her foot and caught it in one hand. "If I did, then I'd get lazy."
"That's a fair point." Toshiro agreed. "By the way, what's FaceTime?"
"It's a type of web chat. You know, where you talk to people and see their faces at the same time?"
"Oh, I get it."
"You really are out of touch with the twenty first century, aren't'cha?"
"Hey, I'm from a completely different world, remember?"
"Hai, hai!" Ren said dismissively yet cheerfully, dumping the rest of the balls in the storage room. "Right." Ren placed her hands on her hips, surveying the basket. "That should be all of them."
"Not quite." Toshiro dropped some more basketballs into the basket.
"Okay, now that's all of them." Ren corrected. "Oh, wait. The balls go in here." Ren went to a door inside the storage room, twisting the key that was already in it and opening it up. As Ren went back to the basket, Toshiro went to the room to try and find some form of light switch. Nothing. Toshiro backed out, but stopped. He was drawn to the massive crack that was on the inside of the door and ran from the top to the left. Toshiro looked at the other side of the door. The crack wasn't there, but there were small gaps where the crack would be.
"Hey, Ren?"
"Yeah?" Ren said, looking up from the basket.
"Was this crack always here?"
"Eh? Oh, that? Yeah, that's been there for as long as I can remember. It's never been fixed, and as far as I can tell, it never will."
"So they can repair an entire science block, but not a door?" Toshiro grumbled.
"Yup." Ren nodded.
"Freakin' cheapskates."
"Oops." Ren watched a basketball drop out of the basket and bonce away from her before she could catch it, but luckily, Toshiro was there to catch it. "Aw, thanks, Shiro. I'm such a klutz."
"Happens to anybody." Toshiro reassured, tossing the ball into the basket with the others. "Is there really no light switch in there?" Toshiro went into the room with Ren. It was considerable smaller than the rest of the storage room, and with the shelves of various sports balls and smaller equipment, Toshiro and Ren barely had a metre to themselves. "It's so cramped, too."
"Well, nobody saw the point of having a light in here, since the storage room light is pretty bright. Plus, huge baskets aren't that difficult to see."
"But, I can barely see what I'm doing." Toshiro got his phone out of his pocket and used the light from the screen to light up the room dimly. He used it like a torch to survey the room. "How can anyone use this? Wait a minute…What's this?" Toshiro got down on one knee after some shuffling in the cramped room and after moving around a couple baskets.
"Shiro? What is it?" Ren leaned down with her hands on her knees.
"There's something carved into this shelf." Toshiro held the phone closer to the lower shelf with one hand and balanced himself on the floor with the other. Sure enough, there were some scratches on the flat edge of the shelf, but it looked rather thick to be done with a knife. Maybe it was with scissors? But, this writing wasn't in English. In fact, it didn't even look like writing. It was just some unreadable gibberish.
"Hey, is it just me, or does it look like hiragana?" Ren asked.
"What?" Toshiro took a closer look. Ren was right. It was a little hard to tell in the dark, but these scratches did look a lot like Japanese hiragana.
"What's it say? What's it say?" Ren asked.
"Hold on, the lights not bright enough. I can't see what it says very well."
"How's this?" Ren pulled her phone out and shone it in the general area, making the scratches just that little bit more visible.
"Ren, where were you storing your phone?"
"Same place any girl does when they don't have pockets." Ren answered. "And that's for me to know and you to never find out."
"Right." Toshiro, deciding to completely forget about that spurt of Ren's logic, focused on the scratches. It looked a lot clearer now. It looked like he could actually read it.
"Let me out…"
"Eh?" Toshiro looked behind him.
"What's up?"
"Did you hear that?"
"Hear what?"
"Nothing." Toshiro quickly dismissed it, passing that strange whisper off as paranoia. Now, back to the scratched graffiti. "Let's see…" Toshiro squinted a little at the characters. "Um…Ta…Su…A little light this way, Ren…Tasu…Ke…Te." Toshiro had read the whole thing. A silence passed through. Toshiro placed his hand on the carving. He knew what those words meant, but Ren was clueless.
"That's no word I've ever heard of." Ren said, folding her arms and sitting up, while Toshiro didn't more from that spot. "Tasukete? What's that mean?"
"Tasukete…" Toshiro repeated without turning around, getting Ren's attention. "It means 'help me'."
"…" Ren said nothing, staring blankly at Toshiro's back. Help me? Who needed help? What did they need help from? This room was clearly a darker place than she thought, both figuratively and literally. Toshiro stayed quiet. Ren tried to say something, but all she could say was a soft "Oh."
"Let me out."
"!" Toshiro heard the voice again. It was a little louder and more urgent. And it sounded like a girl.
"We should probably go, Shiro." Ren said quickly. All of a sudden, this place was giving her the chills. Ren was quick to leave the room, and she was almost out of the storage room and back in the sports hall when she realised that Toshiro wasn't with her. "Eh?" Ren turned around. The door to the smaller equipment room was still wide open. Was Toshiro still in there? "Shiro?"
"…" Toshiro hadn't noticed that Ren had left. His grip on the shelf had tightened, and he looked a little fearful. That girl's voice was getting louder and louder, repeating the same words over and over again. And all this time, he never lost his grip on the carving pleading for help.
"LET ME OUT!"
"AH!" Toshiro recoiled back, letting go of the shelf and landing flat on his butt, still staring at the carving. Even in the darkness of the room and the faint light of his phone, the graffiti was all too clear to him. And the moment he had touched it, the voices were louder and clearer, and he felt fear and sadness at the same time. And his back burned, too. Why?
"Shiro!" Ren ran back into the room after hearing Toshiro yell. She saw him sitting on the ground with his back turned to her, and she got down on one knee by his side. "Are you okay? Come on, let's get out of here." Ren helped Toshiro to his feet and led him out of the room. She all but slammed the door and locked it, tugging on the handle to make sure it was locked. Feeling that wasn't enough, she guided Toshiro out of the storage room completely and into the sports hall, sliding the door behind her and going back into the hallway that led to the office of the P.E. staff and the changing rooms. "That's creepy, dude." Ren muttered, feeling a shiver go down her spine.
"…" Toshiro didn't say a word, an expression of blank shock on his face. He just couldn't shake the carving and the emotions out of his mind. "Tasukete…" Toshiro muttered, still unable to comprehend what that word meant and why it was in there.
"You say something?" Ren looked at Toshiro. "Nya!" She suddenly recoiled away from Toshiro, an aghast look on her face.
"What? What is it?"
"Shiro, what wrong with you?!" Ren exclaimed after rubbing her eyes with her fists. "Are you okay?!"
"I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?" Toshiro asked, confused about Ren's behaviour.
"You mean you haven't noticed?! Look!" Ren turned Toshiro around so that he was facing a decorative mirror on the wall.
"Huh?" Toshiro finally realised what Ren was so freaked out about. He hadn't noticed, but his face was stained with tears, and there were more falling from his eyes. He was actually crying. "Huh?!" Now it was Toshiro's turn to be aghast. He was crying?! He hadn't cried for a long time. It just wasn't him! No wonder Ren was so freaked out.
"Why are you crying?! Did you get hurt?! What's going on?!" Ren kept asking, questions marks flying around her head.
"I-I-I no clue!" Toshiro stammered stupidly, looking just as confused as Ren. "I was just thinking about that message and I…damn it!" Toshiro started to furiously wipe the tears away with his arm. It was just a relief that Ren was the only one who saw and not anybody else. Which reminded him… "You saw nothing." He warned, glaring at her over his arm before resuming regaining some dignity.
"I'll take it to my grave!" Ren swore, placing a hand on her heart and doing a Scout's salute with the other.
"Good." Toshiro looked at himself in the mirror again. His eyes were dry, but his face was still a little tear stained. Then, a handkerchief came into view and started gently wiping away the tear stains on his cheek. It was Ren.
"Are you sure you're okay?" Ren asked, now significantly calmer.
"Yeah, I'm…I'm fine." Toshiro answered, taking Ren's handkerchief and wiping the rest of his face dry. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He opened them, and he was back wearing his neutral expression as if none of that had ever happened. Toshiro handed Ren back her handkerchief. "Sorry about that."
"Hey, don't worry about it." Ren said with a smile, taking the handkerchief. "Sorry, but I've gotta change back into my uniform. I'll be quick, promise." Toshiro simply beckoned towards the changing rooms, silently telling Ren to go ahead. "Thank, Shiro. Sorry. You go on ahead, and I'll catch up." Ren said as she trotted off down the hall towards the girls changing rooms.
"Okay." Toshiro said, just as the door to the changing room closed. He was on his own. "She really needs to stop apologising so much."
"Habits aren't easy to break, Toshiro."
"Yeah, yeah." Toshiro said out loud, knowing that nobody was there to hear him talking to what seemed like himself. "So, you saw that carving in the closet, didn't you?"
"I did."
"Thoughts?"
"I haven't the faintest idea who put it there. Although, I am intrigued about your reaction just now."
"What of it?" Toshiro said defensively, feeling embarrassed that Zena saw him cry, even if she wasn't physically in the room.
"Sometimes, when a Cielvian has a vision, it is not uncommon for them to have the emotions felt at the time, be it past or future, to be projected through the person having the vision. Clearly, when you were in that room, you felt their pain. Their sadness. Their suffering. This empathy is considered a side effect of any visions a Cielvian may have, and to even hear the voices and sounds that had or will happen."
"Now that you mention it, I did hear a voice in there." Toshiro said, following what Zena was saying. "It kept saying "let me out", and I think it was a girl saying it."
"A girl?"
"Yeah. I didn't recognise it, though."
"So much for that…" Toshiro could hear the disappointment in her voice.
"And about what you saw…" Toshiro started, but he heard a chuckle.
"Don't worry. I won't say a word. Ryuki would get like that sometimes, too. It would embarrass him, especially if it suddenly happened in public. So, you're not alone."
"I can sympathise with that."
"But still…"
"Hm? What is it?" Toshiro asked.
"It's nothing, I just…I just can't shake off the feeling I'm missing something."
"Like what?"
"I don't know…Do you ever get the feeling you're forgetting something?"
"…No." Toshiro said slowly.
"Yeah, it's just me. Forget it."
"Whatever." Toshiro said, having already been accustomed to Ren's eccentricity and her occasional airheaded ways. And Zena was no different. A door creaked open, and Ren left the room, fully dressed in her uniform and carrying her school bag on her shoulder, along with a blue and black sporty rucksack on her back.
"Eh?" Ren blinked. "You're still here?"
"Oh, that was fast." Toshiro said, surprised at how quickly Ren got dressed.
"Yeah. The girls usually chat for a hella long time while getting dressed. But noooooot me!" Ren said happily, pointing at herself with her thumb and wearing her usual smile. "In fact, there's still in there, yacking away!
"What? But, we were in there for about ten minutes."
"I know, right?" Ren hooked an arm around Toshiro's shoulders. "Now, what say you and I get to the canteen while they're distracted? It's Thursday, so you know what that means. Chinese food!" Ren sang, throwing her other arm up in the air.
"Right." Toshiro said, still thinking about what Zena said earlier.
"Hey."
"Hm?" Toshiro looked at Ren, who continued to smile at him.
"You know I'm always here for you, right? If you ever feel like talking, or whatever, I'll always be here."
"…" Toshiro nodded.
"Like I said…" Toshiro heard Zena say in his head. "You're not alone."
"…" Toshiro smiled. "Tell me something I don't know." He said to both Ren and Zena.
"Great! Now, let's get cracking! I don't wanna miss a single prawn cracker!"
…
"Aaaah! Friday's!" Ren sighed, stretching her arms above her head and spinning in the road of Hazelford. Toshiro simply watched her, still sheltered underneath the bus stop. "Don'cha just love 'em?"
"I'll admit that it's nice to leave school early." Toshiro agreed. "But, should you really be standing in the middle of the road like that?"
"Ii kara, ii kara." Ren said dismissively. "This is the countryside, remember? We seldom get a car running through. At night, the roads are practically deserted!" Ren turned around and started marching up the road. "Now, I gotta see that old bastard Altair. I'll see you back home, 'kay, Shiro?"
"Wait."
"Eh?" Ren stopped walking and looked over her shoulder.
"Which way is it to Portsbury?" Toshiro asked. He may have found out that Redwood was not on the maps via the internet, but he was absolutely clueless on using them to get directions. So, he would have to ask Ren. It was a good thing she didn't ask questions.
"Oh, it's that way." Ren pointed straight ahead of her down the road. "It's about a ten minute walk; not too far."
"Thanks."
"Well, gotta run. See ya!" Ren trotted off cheerfully, despite the fact that she was seeing somebody she clearly didn't like. Toshiro watched her go, and when she turned the corner and was gone, Toshiro was assured that he was alone. Now was his chance.
"Zena."
"You called?" Zena said, floating a little way above his head and her hands behind her back.
"Did you get the file?" Toshiro asked.
"Right here." Zena held it out and Toshiro took it from her hand without looking, tucking it under his arm and placing his hands in his pocket. "Back in action, are we?"
"Yes." Toshiro answered, already starting to walk down the road, Zena floating close behind. "I seem to have thrown off the suspicions for now. And with only two days until the anniversary, I have a few more loose ends to tie up."
"And they are talk to Dr Shepherd, find out who C12 is and find the Hidden Village Redwood." Zena said, listing them off on her fingers. "Right?" Zena turned to Toshiro, who nodded.
"If I can just get those answers, then maybe I can find out what this anniversary is all about."
"But what if it's more than you can handle?" Zena asked, hovering in mid-air while Toshiro kept walking. "What if the truth was, shall we say, horrifying?" Toshiro said nothing, and continued walking. "Hmph." Zena smiled. Tenacious. Just like Ryuki. "So that's how it is." Zena floated through the air until she was by Toshiro's side, landed and walked beside him.
…
"Here we are…" Toshiro stood in front of a stone statue of a cross, dividing into two roads leading to different sides of the village, and houses were visible on both sides of the roads. Toshiro chose to take the left fork first, so he wandered down that road. It didn't look that different from Hazelford; small, quiet, modest. It looked the same as any village would. Although, he couldn't help but notice how some of the houses were white, and almost all of them had some form of anchor decorating it, whether it was painted directly onto the house of a garden ornament.
"So this is Portsbury?" Zena said, hovering over the many gardens. "Seems pretty nautical, don't you think? Makes sense, though. You know…Anchors…Ports…" Zena trailed off, noticing how Toshiro wasn't paying attention to her. "Hey, hey, hey." Zena floated in front of Toshiro, but he continued to walk, looking at the file while he walked. "I thought you engaged with pointless conversations with Ren all the time."
"Yes. With Ren. You are not Ren."
"Hm. True." Zena folded her arms and nodded her head in agreement. "But, you can pretend I'm Ren just as easily, right?"
"Zena, focus." Toshiro said harshly, taking Zena aback a little. Toshiro had always been a little cold, but not like this. This mystery must really be getting to him.
"I think it's that way." Zena said, pointing down another road.
"Huh?" Toshiro looked at the road sign. Poppy Drive. "Here it is. Thanks, Zena."
"Oh, now you're nice." Zena grumbled.
"You say something?" Toshiro asked, looking over his shoulder.
"Nothing." Zena said in a sing song voice.
"Number 4 is the house on the end of this road. Finally, I can get some answers." Toshiro looked up from the file…and was stunned at what he found. The house was right there. It was an ordinary, two storey house that could easily accommodate a small family. Or, at least, it was normal. Now, it looked almost abandoned. The paint was peeling, there was visible weeds in the garden, and was that a broken window.
"Yeesh." Zena pulled a face at the state of the house. "Well, guess he's not home. Let's go!" Zena encouraged Toshiro to turn around and walk away, since she was getting a very bad vibe from that house. But, Toshiro was undeterred. He opened the low wooden gate with a creak and walked up the path towards the door. "Guess not." Zena floated beside Toshiro when he reached the door. "Alright, now be polite."
"Yeah, yeah." Toshiro found the doorbell and pressed the button, almost surprised to find that it still worked, despite the fact that not everything in the house worked, either.
"Hold on, I'm coming."
"Good luck." Zena whispered some final words of encouragement before fading away, just as the door opened a crack. Toshiro peered into the crack, and saw the wide, almost blood shot grey eye of a man. He could see a little of the man's face, and he clearly looked older than he actually since, since Toshiro knew for a fact this this man was no older than fifty years old. Even his hair was more white than black, and he had visible wrinkles on his skin and bags under his eyes. Not only that, but he even had a small hunch in his back. If it were any bigger, this man would probably be the same height as Ren.
"What do you want?" The man asked in a gruff voice.
"Cyrus?" Toshiro said, not entirely sure if this was a doctor or a homeless man. "Dr Cyrus Shepherd?"
"Yeah. That's me."
Oh, good. Toshiro thought. It's him. Although, he had no idea why he was relieved. He was right; this man looked about as deranged as any mental patient.
"Who wants to know?" Cyrus asked, showing no signs of letting Toshiro in.
"My name is Toshiro Hitsugaya. I live in Hazelford, just down-"
"I know where it is." Cyrus interrupted. "Get to the point."
"Right, um…I'm here to ask you some questions."
"…" Cyrus narrowed his visible eye suspiciously. "Shouldn't you be in school, kid?"
"Shouldn't you be at work, old man?" Toshiro retorted without missing a beat.
"What did I just say?" Toshiro heard Zena's annoyed voice say.
Not now, Zena. He thought back.
"Touché." Cyrus said, opening the door a little more, but not enough for Toshiro to enter. "What do you want to know?"
"I want to know about your work in the Lady Jane Institute, specifically on a girl who went by the name C12."
"Go somewhere else." Cyrus demanded, starting to slam the door, but Toshiro quickly jammed his foot in the door. He wanted answers, and he was going to get them, damn it. Besides, he had a way for him to tell him exactly what he wanted to know.
"I don't think I properly explained who I am." Toshiro said, pushing the door open a little way and entering the dingy house, while Cyrus walked a few paces back from him, feeling a little intimidated by Toshiro's unnatural strength, and not noticing the small white stars shining around the door ever so briefly. "You are in no position to refuse my request."
"Why's that?" Cyrus challenged.
"Because I am a member of the Conner family." Toshiro answered, showing Cyrus the seal of the Conner family as proof. Cyrus' eyes widened even more, if that was even possible. Cyrus closed his eyes for a few brief seconds before opening them, and clutching his arms behind his back.
"Very well. Follow me." Cyrus turned around and walked through the hall of his house, Toshiro following. He certainly wasn't expecting to need to use his telekinesis like that, but that man looked determined. Which could only mean one thing; whatever this old man was hiding, it was big. Until they reached the living room, Cyrus and Toshiro didn't say a word. Cyrus went to an old looking armchair and sat down in it. He pointed at a sofa in front of him, so Toshiro sat down. There were a few tense seconds of silence, and Toshiro dared not say a word.
"You don't look like a Conner." Cyrus finally said.
"That's because I'm a distant cousin of the Conner family. I was adopted into the family but uh…my father died and there was nobody else to look after me, so I was sent to live here." Toshiro answered, trying to recall the backstory Ren came up with.
"Ah, yes. I've heard about you from the villagers. The Japanese boy, right?"
"That's me."
"My condolences."
"Huh?"
"Your father."
"Oh, uh, thanks." Toshiro said quickly, trying his best to look honest. Usually, he was calm and collected, especially when it came to interrogations and, if need be, lying. But, around this man, Toshiro could feel his nerves shaking. This man, and this house, was seriously creeping him out. There was another silence.
"So?"
"What?"
"Didn't you say you had some questions to ask me?" Cyrus said. "Or are you just here to waste my time?"
"No, of course not." Toshiro insisted. "Sir." He added as an afterthought, remembering what Zena said about being polite.
"You want to know about the Lady Jane Institute, don't you?" Toshiro nodded. "That is not an easy subject for me. Those patients…they truly were the worst of the worst. Some of them were damaged beyond repair. Others were 'cured' and left even more broken than before." Cyrus placed a hand over his eyes. "It's really taken a toll on me."
"I noticed." Toshiro muttered, certain that Cyrus couldn't hear him.
"But the most difficult patient I ever saw was unbelievable. They occupied almost every single staff member, withstood every kind of treatment we threw at them and got the attention of the villages. All this fuss…" Cyrus peered through his fingers at Toshiro. "For a little girl."
"C12." Toshiro said. Cyrus nodded. "Look." Toshiro slid the file across the coffee table for Cyrus to look at. "I found this. It says next to nothing about C12. I assumed you had the rest."
"I do." Cyrus said, reading through the little information Toshiro had on C12. "Where is the photograph?"
"It must have fallen out." Toshiro lied.
"Well, it doesn't matter. C12 will look almost nothing like the photograph now. It's been six years. She'll be eighteen years old by now." Cyrus pushed himself out of the armchair, which groaned and creaked in response. He ambled towards some shelves, flicking through all the books and papers wedged inside it. "C12 certainly was interesting. But, she didn't seem insane to me. If anything, she was scared. Very scared. She had just been through Hell, and she was shut away for reasons she didn't understand. I tried to persuade the higher ups to release her, but Altair was having none of it."
"Altair?" Toshiro repeated.
"Yes. In the villages, his word is law. He always believed that C12 was insane, despite her release after several months. It was at that point that the Hell hole we called a hospital became a joke to me. So…I let the secrets we kept buried out."
"And you stepped down as director and shut yourself away." Toshiro finished for him.
"You're a bright one, aren't you?" Cyrus pulled some sheets of paper out of the bookshelf and started skim reading them.
"But why was C12 in that hospital to begin with?" Toshiro asked.
"As I said, she had just been through Hell. I don't know the details, but apparently, there was an incident with an arsonist. A lot of property was damaged, and a lot of people died. That girl was one of the few survivors. She was right there when she saw those people get burnt alive."
"That's awful…" Toshiro said quietly. Hearing those words reminded him of the visions he had. He could easily recall the smell of humans being burnt alive, and immediately understood how difficult and scary it must have been for C12. No wonder she was so scared of the mental hospital.
"But the interesting thing is…she had no recollection of the events that took place." Cyrus put the papers back and got out another bunch, and skim read those, too. "In fact, she couldn't remember an entire fortnight. She had her connections with the villages, so when she was released, the village heads did everything they could to hide that fortnight from her for fear that she would remember."
"The Blank Fortnight!" Toshiro realised. So that was why he couldn't find any records of the Blank Fortnight. It totally made sense!
"I see you're familiar with it." Cyrus said nonchalantly. "But based on your reaction, I guess the Conner family didn't fill you in."
"Of course not. I may be a member of the family, but I'm still considered an outsider."
"Oh, well. You know now." Cyrus turned back around and slowly walked back to his armchair. He placed some sheets of wrinkled paper on the coffee table, which Toshiro took. "There are the missing pages. How the village heads didn't notice they were missing, I'll never know."
"Thanks." Toshiro started to read through the files. There was still no real name for C12, but at least he could find the reasons why she was there.
"Although, I can't say that I feel sorry for the victims."
"Huh?" That sentence was more than enough to bring Toshiro's attention away from the sheets of paper. Cyrus had gone to the window and moved aside a moth-bitten white sheet of a curtain to look out the window.
"I don't sympathise with those foolish youngsters one bit. They knew the whole time that they were playing with fire, yet they persisted. And that Thornton man did nothing to stop his daughter." Cyrus pulled the curtains shut and spun around to face Toshiro, anger evident on his face. "Her father is NOT a nice man!" Cyrus suddenly quietened. "And she is not a nice girl."
"…" Toshiro said nothing, feeling that Cyrus' words alone were answering some questions. He was right to come here.
"I do not feel pity for them. For anybody in the Thornton family." Toshiro's eyes widened after hearing that name, and Cyrus noticed this, so he continued. "I'm sure you know about the Thornton family."
"Yes. They are the head family of Redwood."
"Correct. All five villages loathed the Thornton family and most of the villagers in Redwood. Despised them, even. But, they ruled with an iron fist, and nobody dared oppose them. They spent a lot of their time tormenting that girl." Cyrus pointed at the papers Toshiro still held in his hand, which Toshiro had somehow almost completely forgotten about. Toshiro immediately went back to reading them. It seemed like the daughter of the Thornton family had become a victim of arson, along with some friends of hers, and C12 was the only survivor. Concluding that that was the only logical explanation he could think of so far, Toshiro finally got to the diagnostics page. "The moment the Thornton daughter died, their family fell, and the villages were freed from their grip. Any businesses they owned were divided up equally between the remaining village heads." Toshiro looked up from the papers, feeling that this needed his full attention. "But, they were still grief-stricken at the loss. Many people had lost their neighbours. Their families. And, even, their friends. So, they vowed that their memory would not be forgotten."
"And that's why they have the anniversary." Toshiro said.
"Smarter than you look." Cyrus said, confirming what Toshiro said. Toshiro turned his attention back to the information on C12 once again.
"Amnesia, survivors' guilt…" Toshiro read aloud. "Panic attacks, hallucinations, violent outbursts, post-traumatic stress disorder…possible schizophrenia?!" Toshiro almost exclaimed the last one. "Good Lord, this girl is a basket case."
"That's no way to speak of your cousin." Cyrus said cryptically.
"I know, but I can't deny that fact that…" Toshiro stopped himself mid-sentence, doing a mental backspace and thinking about what Cyrus just said. "Hold on…" Toshiro placed the papers on the table, just barely stopping his hands from shaking. He looked at Cyrus, a look that was a mix of horror and disbelief on his face. He didn't want to believe it, but it was true. The evidence was there. "What did you say?" Toshiro asked, wanting to confirm what he thought Cyrus said, and silently praying that he misheard.
"I said…that's no way to speak of your cousin." Cyrus repeated. Toshiro's heart sank. He had heard correctly
"You mean…"
"Yes." Cyrus nodded. "When making the codename, we took the initial of her last name, and added her age at the time she came into the institute."
"No…" Toshiro muttered. He remembered picking up the prescription bottle of pills. He remembered the sudden headaches. He remembered learning about the amnesia.
"I'm amazed you don't know about this." Cyrus continued, completely ignoring the horror on Toshiro's face.
"…" Toshiro felt his back burn a little, and the vision he had a few days ago flashed before his eyes. It was the girl standing in the flames. The long, blonde hair. The lower school uniform of King's. It was definitely that vision. But, it carried on. As the flames flickered, the girl started to turn around. Then, she was turned around enough for Toshiro to see her face. She was looking straight at him, as if she knew that he was there. It was unsmiling, but it wasn't angry or sad. It just looked neutral. Empty. Her face was pale. Her blue eyes were almost lifeless. It was C12.
"The true identity of C12…" Cyrus said, as if knowing Toshiro would want the confirmation of what he had already figured out to be said out loud, even if the truth was horrifying to him. "Is Ren Conner."
"No, it can't be!" Toshiro shook his head, stubbornly refusing to believe that Ren was insane. Not Ren. Not that cheerful, optimistic girl. Not the best friend he could ever ask for.
"It's true, Toshiro." Toshiro didn't need to look behind his to know that Zena had appeared sitting next to him on the sofa. Toshiro glanced at her. She wasn't smiling, and her voice didn't carry the same sing song cheerfulness that was so different yet so similar to Ren's. "I realised it the moment I saw her picture. She looks almost exactly like I did when I was twelve."
"?" Toshiro noticed how the picture had suddenly appeared in the folder, a tiny corner sticking out. Toshiro pulled it out and looked at the picture of the pale, gloomy little girl.
"Look into her eyes and tell me that isn't Ren." Zena said. So, Toshiro did. He looked the picture of C12 straight in her eyes. The eyes looked back. Toshiro instantly felt a wave of recognition pass over him. This girl was significantly paler and skinnier than Ren, and her hair was much longer than Ren's, but he couldn't deny it any longer. The eyes truly were the window to the soul. C12's carried tones of sadness, anger and resignation. But, they also had a spark of determination to them. A spark of life. The same spark he saw in Ren's eyes. He couldn't deny it, no matter how much he wanted to. C12 is Ren, and Ren was C12.
"You're right." Toshiro said quietly. He closed his eyes and placed the picture back with the file and sheets of paper. "You're right." He said again, resignation and sadness evident in his voice.
"I'm sorry, kid." Cyrus said, feeling an odd hint of sympathy for this white haired boy.
"No, it's…it's okay. I'm glad you told me." Toshiro stacked the papers together and placed them all in the file. He had got the information he needed. It turns out Zena was right. The truth really was too much for him to handle. He picked up the folder and stood up. "Thank you for sharing your knowledge with me." Toshiro walked slowly towards the door, it creaked open and then creaked shut behind him with Zena simply floating through it, leaving Cyrus alone with his thoughts.
"Hey, kid, wait!" Cyrus said loudly, opening the door. Toshiro stopped walking up the path and turned to look at him. Toshiro felt so down trodden right now, he didn't even have the heart to correct him and say he wasn't a kid. "Just…Don't try to find the village of Redwood. If you feel this disheartened about this, then you haven't seen anything yet."
"Why?" Toshiro asked.
"I cannot say."
"…" Toshiro looked away and started to walk again.
"But…" Toshiro stopped. "You should know that…that Ren isn't the only one we're protecting."
"Goodbye, old man." Toshiro said. He walked up the path, out of the gate, down the road and out of sight. Zena floated with him, confident that nobody would be able to see her.
"Well…That went better than I thought. It looks like some of your questions have been answered." Zena said, trying to lighten the mood. Toshiro said nothing, continuing to trudge the way he came. "I mean, we found out that the Thornton family were not very well liked, and the fall of their family was pretty much a celebration for all five villages. The anniversary is to commemorate the ones who died in that arson, and Ren is the sole survivor of that incident." Zena stopped mid-way through summarising what they found out after Toshiro still didn't give a response.
"Why?" Toshiro said. He looked up at Zena. He didn't look sad, or angry. Instead, he almost looked betrayed. "Why didn't you tell me you knew who C12 was?"
"Because…" Zena looked away. "Because I didn't want it to be true." She answered, sadness evident in her voice and face. "And I knew you wouldn't want to believe it, either."
"…" Toshiro turned away. He had forgotten that he wasn't the only one who was feeling the strain of this investigation. Zena must be feeling something too. After all, the girl in the middle of it all was her mirror image. It was hard not to feel something for somebody who looked and acted just like you. Of course, Toshiro wouldn't understand fully, since he had never met the person he was reincarnated from face to face. He felt something cool drip onto his hand. "Eh?" Toshiro looked at it. It was a drop of water. Another drop landed next to it. And another. Toshiro looked up at the sky. The clouds were a dark grey and almost completely obscured the blue sky from view. Toshiro felt another drop land on his face, barely missing his eye.
"Huh. It's raining." Zena said nonchalantly.
"Damn it!" Toshiro ran off the side of the road and into the trees lining it, hoping they would shelter him. It was useless. Cursing, Toshiro ran through the fields, completely ignoring the road and trying to find someplace he could escape from the rain. But, there was nothing and nobody in sight. So, he just ran through the fields as the drops became even more numerous, until it turned to a shower, then rain, and then a torrential downpour. Within minutes, Toshiro could feel his shirt get wet. If he stayed out here any longer, he was sure to catch his death of cold. But, he found no need to despair. There was a thick forest up ahead. Perfect!
"In here!" Zena beckoned a gap in the trees. Toshiro immediately ran through, and sure enough, he could no longer feel the rain beating at his skin and clothes. He ran through the trees and onto a dirt path, placing his hands on his knees to get his breath back. "That was close."
"Yeah." Toshiro said, squeezing some water out of his shirt.
"Is the file wet?"
"A little." Toshiro flicked some water off it. "Zena, could you hold onto this?"
"Sure." Zena took the folder out of Toshiro's hand and placed it inside her school blazer. Toshiro looked around his surroundings, flicking some water out of his hair.
"Where are we?"
"I'm not sure." Zena answered, landing on the ground beside Toshiro. "Ren's never been here before."
"Me neither. But…it still looks kind of familiar." Toshiro looked up at the sky. He couldn't see any clouds, or even any sky. The trees were so thick; the sky was completely obscured from view, like the red leaves were more a ceiling than leaves. Hang on. Red leaves?
"Is this…" Toshiro looked around his surroundings again. "It is. This is the forest Harley told me about. I shouldn't be here!" Toshiro saw an exit to his left and made a dash for it, but after seeing the heavy rain, he stopped. "Forget that." Toshiro turned back around and went back to Zena, who hadn't moved from that spot.
"So, I guess we're staying here until the rain passes."
"Looks like it." Toshiro said. "Hey, wait a minute, the rain just passes through you."
"Oh, yeah!" Zena said, tapping a fist on her palm.
"Idiot." Toshiro grumbled, walking down the dirt path.
"Where are you going?"
"I'm going to try and see why everyone is so afraid of this place."
"Good call." Zena floated after Toshiro until she was by his side, landed on the ground and walked beside him. Footsteps approached the entrance of the forest, but Toshiro and Zena didn't hear them. The person making them walked past the clearing, and stopped as soon as she saw somebody walking up the path. It was Katelyn, and she had just come from school, dressed in her school uniform and carrying a school bag on her back. She held a purple umbrella in her hand. She squinted down the path, trying to make out the person.
"Toshiro?" Katelyn looked left and right, and upon being reassured that nobody else was here, she jogged lightly into the forest, sticking to the trees so that she wouldn't be seen and shaking off excess water from her umbrella.
"As I was saying earlier, a lot of our questions have already been answered." Zena said, not noticing their spy.
"It would seem so." Toshiro agreed. "What doesn't make sense is why I saw a twelve year old Ren in my vision. Unless…"
"Unless what?"
"Zena, what if, and bear with me on this…what if they weren't visions of the future?"
"What are you saying?"
"I'm saying that, maybe, the visions I've been seeing these past few days weren't of the future…but the past."
"The past…of course!" Zena said, snapping her fingers.
"Eh? Am I right?" Toshiro asked, surprised that his crazy theory was correct.
"Yes, you are!" Zena said happily. She hovered down to Toshiro and clutched his shoulders, making him stop in his tracks. "You've just unlocked another of Ryuki's abilities!"
"Another one?! Geez, how many powers does this guy have?!"
"I'm guessing you'll want an explanation." Toshiro nodded. "Very well." Zena hovered up into the air and floated beside Toshiro as he carried on walking. "Back when Ryuki was still a soldier, he had limited use of his Ice Shackles, but they still make him formidable. He earned the nickname The White Dragon shortly after he became a captain. But, that was a second nickname. Before that, he was known as The Time Master."
"Why's that?" Toshiro asked.
"Because Ryuki's abilities gave him control over all three elements of time. With his Ice Shackles, he could freeze the present. As you already know, he would experience visions of the future, and he had trained it so that he could have most visions willingly. And, as you have just found out, he could see into the past, and sometimes…" Zena floated in front of Toshiro, her face serious. "He could enter it."
"Enter the past?"
"Yes. He'd only be a spirit, so he could not interfere with the past. But, if he had enough strength and willpower, then he could interact with the past whenever he wanted."
"The Time Master, huh?" Toshiro muttered. "So that's why I had those visions, then. I was seeing into the past." Toshiro remembered the deceptively innocent diary from the storage room. "Like that diary."
"When you first experienced this power, I was surprised that you passed out, since that had never happened whenever you saw into the future. It's only now that you've brought it up that I realise why it happened." Zena floated up by Toshiro's side again. "Do you remember what happened before you passed out?"
"Yes. Ren was leaving to see Altair, and she had a headache. She brushed against me, my back burned and…and that's it."
"In that moment when you made contact with Ren, you saw what was going through Ren's mind at the time. In other words, you saw her forgotten past. It was your first time seeing into the past, and the emotions and images you saw and experienced were so shocking, and so damaging, that you blacked out."
"And that's why Ren sees Altair. He's making sure that Ren's forgotten past stays forgotten!" Toshiro realised. After days of investigating, everything was finally starting to fit together.
"Precisely." Zena confirmed.
"And the anniversary is meant to be in memory of everyone who died in that arson incident. The death of the village head's daughter benefited everybody, yet they still wanted to commemorate their lives. If that old man's word is anything to go by, then the daughter must have tormented Ren in some way. Yet, Ren was right there when she died." Toshiro slowed his walk down a little as he went back onto his train of thought. "Now, there are only a few more questions left to answer."
"And they are…" Zena trailed off.
"Why was Ren there when the village head's daughter died? What did she do to Ren? Who is that ghost I saw in the village tunnels? And, most importantly, where is Redwood?"
"And you don't have long. The anniversary is in less than two days."
"Tell me something I don't know."
Who is he talking to? And what is he talking about? Katelyn thought, hearing Toshiro's voice from a distance, but not quite making out what he was saying. She thought she saw something blurry flitting around him, but that must have been just her eyes playing tricks on her. The again, with this business with White Raven, Katelyn logically concluded that this must be some kind of spirit he was talking. Although, right now, she didn't really care. She just wanted Toshiro to get out of this forest!
"I'll see what I can find once I get back to Ren's house, depending on how long this rain lasts. Maybe I can-Ngh!" Toshiro flinched and stopped walking.
"Toshiro?" Zena immediately went in front of Toshiro, concern written all over her face. "What's wrong?"
"?" Katelyn noticed this strange behaviour. This time, she was close enough to hear what Toshiro was saying.
"My back…It's burning…" Toshiro answered in a pained hiss. "There's something Cielvian here."
Okay…You sensed something bad. Katelyn thought. Now…walk away.
"Are you alright?"
"I'll…I'll be fine." Toshiro answered. Toshiro straightened himself up and carried on walking, going straight through Zena as a result.
"Hey, that tickled!" Zena protested, floating after him.
Damn it! Katelyn thought, frustrated. She continued to follow Toshiro, and the invisible being, through the forest, being sure to stick to the tree line and make as little noise as possible.
"And did you say you sensed something Cielvian here?" Zena asked.
"Yes. I felt it in the tunnel. Every time I'm halfway to getting to Redwood through there, my back gets so hot, I have to stop until it settles a little." Toshiro flinched again, but managed to suppress it well. "And the further up this path we go, the more my back burns."
"What do you mean, Toshiro?" Zena asked, still not following Toshiro's thinking.
"I mean that-"
Clang!
"Huh?" Toshiro stopped walking and looked down at his foot. The surface felt strange. It didn't feel gritty of have any ground up pebbles or dirt underneath it. It felt…smooth. Toshiro stomped his foot again. There was another metallic clang. Toshiro removed his foot from it and kneeled down on the ground, inspecting this strange object.
"What is that?" Zena asked, her hands on her knees.
"I'm not sure." Toshiro answered, trying to turn it over. He succeeded, but it was clearly futile. The other side was burnt and dusty beyond recognition. But, he could tell from the look of it that it was a sign. "I think it's a sign. But, I can't make out what it says." Then, he had a plan come to mind immediately. "Zena, do you think you could use your healing power on this sign?"
"Restore what is lost…" Zena muttered. "Toshiro, you're brilliant!" Zena immediately kneeled down on the ground. "Right, then." Zena's hand glowed the familiar healing glow, and she placed it on the sign. Katelyn, meanwhile, was dreading what Toshiro would find on that sign.
"Anything?" Toshiro asked, noticing how the sign didn't look any different.
"It's tough…" Zena said, her voice a little strained from the effort. "There seems to be something interfering with the process. Like…Like it's meant to be destroyed. I'll try it in a bigger burst." Zena's hand glowed even brighter, and all of the dust and burn marks seemed to literally burst off the sign, and it was good as new. Zena wiped some sweat from her ghostly forehead and read the sign. She gasped.
"I knew it." Toshiro said. "Like I said before, Zena, I felt the Cielvian presence in the tunnels, and now I'm feeling it here. It can't be a coincidence. It can only mean one thing; this path leads to Redwood. And…" Toshiro indicated the sign, which read 'Welcome to Redwood' clear as day. "I was right."
"Redwood is here?"
"Yes. The Hidden Village. Redwood." Toshiro stood up and looked straight down the path. "We've found it."
"By accident, no less." Zena added cheerfully. Zena noticed from the corner of her eye how the sign had a glowing outline that was the same colour as her healing aura, and within seconds, the damage was back, making the sign unreadable once again. "But, why did this happen?"
"I'm sure we'll find the answers when we get to the village. Come on." Toshiro walked further up the path, but at a much brisker pace. It was happening. He had finally found the mysterious village he had heard so much about, yet knew so little about it. All he knew was that there was nobody in the village that anybody liked, and the head family of Redwood bore most of the hatred. But, based on what Cyrus said about them, Toshiro wouldn't be surprised if the Thornton's didn't care about the hatred they received. After all, they were confident that nobody would go against them. That is, until that arsonist killed some Redwood citizens, the Thornton daughter among them. Now, all he had to do was find out how the Thornton child and Ren were connected. He would ask her himself, but that's impossible because, well, she's dead. And since Soul Reapers didn't really exist here, he saw no way of communicating with the spirits. It had been six years; they must have passed on by now. Besides, that ghost in the tunnel didn't have a chain attached to her chest, so if there were ghosts in this world, then they were obviously very different to the ones he was used to.
"Well, I'm sure the answers will come soon enough." Toshiro said out loud.
"Yeah, especially with the progress you've made." Zena quipped in happily. She noticed Toshiro flinching again. "Is your back burning again?"
"Uh huh." Toshiro answered, but that didn't stop his pacing down the path, and it didn't stop Katelyn from following them, either. And, she could still hear every word Toshiro was saying. "The Cielvian presence is getting stronger."
Turn around. Turn around! Katelyn thought as if trying to will Toshiro to walk away from this forbidden territory.
"It means we're getting closer, then." Zena said.
"Let's keep moving." Toshiro, undeterred, carried on walking, sensing that the mystery might finally be put to rest if he could just find the village and aske the citizens there about the anniversary. And after seeing a turning up ahead, Toshiro knew that he would get those answers. He almost ran up the rest of the path, and he turned the corner, ready to face the villagers and get them to answer his questions.
But, Toshiro never got the chance. He couldn't do it. Because, when he got around the corner, when he reached the lost village of Redwood, the scene before him had to be one of the most horrific things he had ever seen. And, he had no way of finding out what happened, or of finding out the answers to his other questions. There was simply nobody to ask. And so, as Toshiro entered the edge of the village, he completely froze on the spot, a look of unimaginable horror on his face. Nothing had, or could have, prepared him for this. Not for the sight of Redwood.
Or rather, what was left of it.
"What…" Zena started, staring at the sight before her and Toshiro, and speaking what Toshiro was too horrified to say out loud. "What is this?" She said quietly. What should have been an English village was just a scene of destruction. Everywhere Zena looked, all she could see was destroyed buildings, burnt grass, dead ground and plants, and the foul smell of burnt wood and some other smell Zena couldn't identify. All this destruction expanding through this huge clearing in the forest, and the only things that remained untouched from this were the trees surrounding the village. And, even then, Zena noticed how some of the tree trunks were splattered with blood. Just like Toshiro's vision of the past. Toshiro and Zena were off. Way off. The arsonist didn't kill a few people. They burnt down an entire village!
"This…It couldn't be…Is it…Redwood?" Toshiro said quietly.
"And what's that smell? It smells like…meat."
"It does." Toshiro agreed, knowing that it might not be meat that Zena and Toshiro had just smelt. He could vaguely recall the memory he saw in that doctor's office, and the sights and senses he experienced. The smell of burnt human flesh stood out the most to him, and this putrid smell was exactly the same as in the vision. He smelt the deaths of hundreds of people! "What the hell happened here?!" Toshiro yelled, staggering back, but stopped when he felt the heel of his shoe step on something. Something round and quite squishy. "Eh?" Toshiro turned around, and immediately regretted it. There, lying on the ground, was the body of a man. Or, what was supposed to be a man; the body was burnt so badly, Toshiro couldn't tell if it was a man or a woman, since the skin on the face was burnt clean off, as was the hair. In fact, the skin was so burnt that Toshiro could see traces of muscle tissue and even a few glimpses of bone every now and again. It was a corpse. And he had just stepped on its arm!
"UWAAAAAAAAAAHH!" Toshiro yelled, staggering back from the corpse. He wanted to look away. He tried to look away. But he couldn't. He just couldn't tear his eyes away from that corpse. That burnt, smelly corpse. He had dealt with dead people before, but not like this. Never like this! Just looking at it and catching its scent made Toshiro's stomach churn. He could feel the bile building up inside him, threatening to burst out at any minute. "Mhmf." Toshiro immediately clamped his hands over his mouth, resisting the overwhelming urge to vomit. He finally managed to turn his back to the corpse, but the image was still clear in his mind.
Alright, calm down. Toshiro thought to himself. Pull yourself together. You're a Captain. You can handle this. You have to find out why this happened. Just calm down! Toshiro closed his eyes tightly, literally swallowing his nerves, and when he was confident that he wasn't going to be sick anymore, he removed his hands from his mouth and planted them on his knees, gulping down fresh air and trying not to faint.
"Everything was going so well."
"!" Toshiro straightened up and turned around sharply. Katelyn was standing in the path to the destroyed village, wearing a sad yet shocked expression on her face.
"All you had to do was go about your life." She said sadly. "Why? Why couldn't you stay away, Toshiro?"
Redwood is destroyed! The anniversary is to remember its destruction! But, how did it get destroyed? Did Ren see who did it? The answers to this mystery will come next time, only here in Fate and Destiny. I'll see you then!