Chapter 5: Unstable Heartbeat
The carnage in front of Luka in Duke Ueki's dining room struck her as out of proportion to the events she'd been informed of. When she'd gotten to the closest telephone to call her central contact, Iroha had reported that the Prince and the Cendrillon she sought were within Duke Ueki's home and would be dealt with by the Cendrillon posted within the home. She'd expected to simply confirm the bodies were the people she sought.
Now, mere hours later, both targets had vanished into thin air with the Duke's butler, and the Duke lied violently stabbed to death in the dining room as the police wandered through his home looking for more clues.
She stayed out of the investigation with ease – the police had been informed of her presence through her contacts, letting her glide in after she answered a few basic questions. Nobody paid any attention to her as she sought out the true answers to the dreadful events.
And eventually she found the maid, Akiko, fussing around the kitchen as she tried to keep herself together. The girl wore her hair up in a great, reddish pink bun, and she kept fiddling with the white apron on her blue and white striped dress. As Luka approached her, the girl turned her head up, looking weary. "Are you the next investigator?"
Luka ensured she was out of earshot before she whispered a few words into Akiko's ear.
"At the stroke of midnight, the carriage becomes a pumpkin."
Akiko's tears broke. She stood up quietly and led Luka away from the busy investigation. Soon they were outside again, as she and Luka entered a garden shed together.
Finally out of sight of the police, Akiko's guise dropped, her animated tears and nervous habits fading. "You must be the one Iroha sent over. As you can see… the Duke utterly failed in handling them."
Luka leaned against a wall just near the garden tools, the sharp hedge clippers just near her shoulder. "And Cendrillon killed him on the way out?"
The maid looked terribly unconcerned with the fate of her "boss". "The butler must have gotten wind of the plan and locked me in the closet. By the time I'd gotten out, all three of them were gone and the Duke was stammering with excuses. I didn't kill them right away at his insistence – and Iroha wanted me to follow his orders while he was still on our side. But then I learned he was trying to sell them to the highest bidder… so I took care of him. Iroha told me to eliminate him if he got in the way."
As expected, the "maid" shared no emotions over the killing. "It will be easier to catch them if we can set the police on them as the murderers of Duke Ueki. It will greatly limit their avenues of escape."
She crossed her arms as she looked to Luka for further instructions.
"For the time being, you should stay here and monitor the investigation. Cendrillon is my task. Iroha will contact you when she has your next assignment."
"Acknowledged," the girl stated. "If Len Kagamine ran away… he likely took them to the Rust District. He has friends out there, in the underworld. What you need to look out for are the Loyalists. Len would have that intelligence… so the Prince may attempt to seek them out soon."
Luka looked incredulous. "I can't simply search the entire Rust District… but I suppose we can't let the police just stumble onto the person he escaped with… they still believe him dead…"
She was already plotting how to tighten her net… the escape had taken place so shortly before, so someone would have seen them enter the district. Someone would know, even innocently, about three missing people. The police would distribute photos to the press, at least of the butler… Akiko would know to leave out an accurate description of the Prince lest questions about the legitimacy of his assassination arose…
The question was… were they planning to meet up with the other missing Cendrillon? She wondered how much of a coincidence the butler sharing such a unique surname with the other Cendrillon could be.
'No… that's not important now. Only finishing the last job.'
Miku pulled the ragged blanket closer. She hated the cold more than anything in the world. While the rundown home she and her compatriots had taken refuge in did possess a radiator, the old thing barely felt like enough heat for her. The poison seemed to leave her shivering as its final effects passed through her.
Her body had purged the toxic meal not long before, as she'd doubled over and wretched before entering the house. Kaito had looked almost as sick as she felt, but he still dutifully carried her inside. Len had tried to talk her into seeing a doctor in the makeshift medical camp, but she'd insisted otherwise.
Just as she'd carried him… after she'd stabbed him…
Kaito never strayed far from her bedside, constantly checking on her condition. He seemed so worried… and she hated that. She despised that he cared so much for her fate when she didn't deserve it. He didn't speak – maybe he assumed she was trying to sleep? He'd laid her down on the rusty bed, and taken to sitting in a wooden chair. If he was tired, he wasn't willing to sleep.
Len was already gone, trying to get his bearings for news, information on escape routes, and any potential supplies they could gather in case they were trapped inside the city. Doing a better and more responsible job than Miku had.
The poisoning was what she deserved.
She deserved this.
It was hardly the first time she'd been poisoned, but it was the first time she'd taken an intentionally lethal dose. 'If Kaito had taken this, I don't know that even the charcoal would have stopped it from killing him…'
The shivering intensified as Miku curled up to try and stop it. She felt a jacket drop over her and looked up to see Kaito pulling his own long white coat over her body. "Ah… I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake you…" he whispered.
She nodded and rolled away, not having the courage to look at him. He spoke no further as she slowly drifted into an uncomfortable sleep. A wretched dream began to take hold as she left the bed, her rags transformed into white fineries. A pumpkin-shaped coach awaited her as she rode through the golden streets that shone with the blinding light of the moon. Soon she was inside the castle, in a room full of people with white masks, their wretched smiles filling her with fright.
The prince turned and he alone bore a true smile, without concealment. He kissed his masked mother lightly on the cheek, patting his masked father on the shoulder. "I must dance with that girl, she's the most beautiful woman I've ever seen!"
The two waltzed across the ball room, a sea of white masks jeering at her, trying to overpower the innocent kindness of the prince. "It's fine… no one can hurt us here. This castle is safe."
A woman with pink hair passed her by, shattering her enchantment. "Take your blade and steal everything from him," she whispered, disappearing again into the sea of masks.
The bell tolled and an impulse ran through Miku's body. She began to cry as the prince kissed her tears away, but it was too late. "NO!" she shouted as she thrust her knife deep into his body.
The red light from the stained glass window cast down upon the both of them as he collapsed upon the floor. She had done this, she had taken his life, and now she only wanted to stay with him, counting out his heart beats, waiting for the warmth to leave him even as her fingers turned red from the blood running out of his wound...
Luka walked with the endless march of workers returning to the Rust District at the end of the day. It mattered not to them that another ruler had been brutally assassinated. The factories still functioned and industry still marched on.
They were blunt tools in complex machines.
Like her.
'The Prince is injured, and one of them took poison. There aren't proper hospitals out here, but there are medical services.'
With the violence approaching the city thanks to the Loyalist uprising, she expected the flow of new people to only intensify. For the moment, Zweissen was a tight trap, but if conflict broke out, her targets could be savvy enough to try and reach them.
'They won't be the only ones with intel in the underworld… we just need to be careful about how I reach them.'
Iroha had scolded her on the phone – Cendrillons turning were rare, but now Luka had confirmation that two people she'd mentored had abandoned their posts. She needed to get them both to wipe her slate clean.
'Iroha tipped me off to an abandoned bakery I can make use of… it would be wise of me to set up in there during my investigation…'
Her path took her into a district with fewer inhabitants, and less light. She recognized the broken building at once, the faded sign announcing its use. Another victim of the fast-moving economy. She tried the back door – locked. No deadbolt – she could pick it then.
Lock picking was basic.
The door swung open and she slipped a hand under her coat, wrapping it around a knife handle as she entered the building. The door creaked shut behind her as she observed what remained of the old bakery. A thin layer of dust coated every surface. A wooden table rested in the kitchen with a metal stool, the only real furniture she could see so far. She walked inside, running her fingers along the ancient baking oven. A newer kitchen would have electric appliances, but this one would require wood.
For a moment, the kitchen drew another familiar scent to her – the memory of fresh crescent bread chocolate in the window sill. Of tasting pain au chocolats first thing in the morning. Of a song surrounding her while stirring the melted chocolate. The melody danced around her head, for just a moment, but the lyrics didn't quite emerge.
'Where did I even hear that?'
The memories faded as Luka's mission returned to the front of her mind. She marched into a back room, finding a small mattress, a cracked mirror, and an old telephone. "So… this is it then…"
It would be enough.
Her next step was to find a newsstand. The Duke's murder would make the papers, and while Luka already knew the facts of the matter, knowing how it was to be presented publicly would aid her search.
She sat down on the mattress, hearing the coils squeak as she did so, and picked up the telephone. She gave the operator the false name – Catherine Noir – and after a few minutes of connections, she heard Iroha's voice on the other end.
"Luka Megurine. I've arrived at the drop point."
The girl practically purred into the phone. "The city should be sealed off. There's nowhere to run for our little lost Cinderellas."
Unlike most of the Cendrillons and Godmothers, Iroha spoke with playful emotion. "We'll be watching you, Luka. We're already quite concerned that two of your Cinderellas have escaped under your watch. Tie up the loose ends and come back to the capital, lest we run out of use for you."
"Of course."
She'd expected the reprimand.
"Ohhhh! And please don't forget… you're not supposed to be dealing with your vendettas. Just kill the Prince quickly and cleanly, yes?"
Her fingers curled tightly around the receiver. "Of course," she repeated.
As her superior hung up on the other end, Luka slammed the phone down.
What did it matter how he died, so long as he did die?
She didn't intend to enjoy his death. Only… she wanted it to fill the emptiness left behind from the smoke and ashes.
For a moment, Luka started to try and recall the melody from the bakery of her dreams, but once again it evaded her.
As she imagined being the one killing the Prince, her heartbeat quickened. She was supposed to be unemotional, but killing a Shion Royal had been her only goal in life since the day Sudland fell. She yearned to be the one given the assignment, only to be passed over for her student. Now it was finally hers. How she imagined thrusting the knife in again and again, filling him with the pain she'd used to fuel her ever since the fires came for her home.
When he was dead, nobody would even care about her being humiliated by an idiot doctor and a reckless chloroform bomb.
She took a few moments to rest on the mattress. She didn't need much sleep. She never slept much anyway. The past would overtake her slumber, and she'd always awaken within a few hours as the nightmares of escaping the fires that consumed her old life threatened to overtake her…
"Miku? I'm sorry to wake you, but there's some lunch waiting for you."
As Miku awoke from the nightmare, she was aware of the bright light in the room for the first time. Her eyes wandered up to Kaito, who stood incredibly close by. "Um… I guess only if you're hungry… I mean I guess you were rather ill before, maybe you can't…"
But a roaring emptiness in Miku's stomach made her push herself up and out from under the blanket and Kaito's coat. He extended a hand and she took it, steadying her feet with the Prince's aid. The worst of the poison must have finally passed because she didn't feel anything more than a few traces of dizziness left. The charcoal and purging had done its job.
"Do you need help walking?" Kaito asked.
The girl shook her head and released his hand, taking solid steps forward into the small kitchen. The dingy wooden table had three bowls of soup on it, laid out so precisely with the rusted silverware that Miku assumed Len must have set it all up. But she saw the blonde haired boy in a corner near a scruffy sofa, tuning a massive radio unit, cursing under his breath as nothing more than static emerged from it. "Come on… maybe if the antenna goes like this…"
"Len, perhaps you can take a short break and eat? It might help you out to have another perspective on it."
She checked a clock on the wall and saw to her consternation it was already noon. "Did either of you sleep?" she asked with worry.
"Yea, Kaito and I took shifts on the couch so one of us was always with you," Len said as he released the radio dials, wandering over to the kitchen table and grabbing himself a seat, "Mostly him though. I kept telling him to try and sleep, but he wouldn't hear of it… I came back with all these vegetables too and I was all set to make something, but the Prince here wouldn't even let me near the stove…"
Kaito beckoned for Miku to sit. "It's only proper that I do my part," he said nonchalantly, "You are both risking your lives for me, taking up some of the simpler tasks is the least I can do to show my gratitude."
Miku took her seat as Len plopped down into a chair for himself. "It's pretty impressive to get a meal served by the Prince of Estmarch!" the boy said with a broad smirk.
For all the ribbing he was getting, Kaito seemed to be taking the jokes in stride as he tasted his own cooking. Miku dipped her spoon in the broth. Nothing seemed terribly amiss. She swallowed the first bite and to her surprise… it was actually reasonably good. Nobody would mistake it for the work of a master chef, but it was clear Kaito had put some effort into cooking at some point in his life. "Ah… it's not the same way Alys makes it, but I guess I did an admirable job of it," Kaito said wistfully.
"Alys?" Len asked, "Does your Highness often make friends with his staff?"
Again the Prince received the joke well. "Given how much time I spent stuck in the castle," Kaito said, "I had more than a bit of time to myself. When I was free of studies, I had little true duties and no access to the outside world, so I had to make do with whomever I could find. I discovered many of the people within the castle were far more pleasant to deal with than the nobles, and far more useful teachers of certain practical skills. I learned a little of cooking, cleaning, and even some gardening so I could tend to grandmother's roses…"
Miku had an odd mental image of Kaito, in his princely garb, bustling around a hot kitchen like he were a common servant. Certainly nobody would stop the Prince from asking to partake in such drudgeries, though she could already imagine the shock on their faces when such a powerful person asked to wash the dishes. "Did your parents ever object to you spending your time like that?"
The Prince laughed again. "Oh, I think they were surprised but they never stopped me. They were always so busy with… political meetings… that I wasn't allowed to be a part of anyway."
Kaito let out a sad sigh. "I… I only hope the servants escaped safely… they must have been taken by surprise as well. Perhaps the Emerald Dawn would let them live given their lack of status."
For a few moments they ate in silence. Miku guessed that Len was thinking along the same lines as her – perhaps the Emerald Dawn wouldn't specifically target a gardener or a cook, but if they were planning a proper takeover, they wouldn't go out of their way to spare them either. 'It sounds like Kaito was particularly close with some of them… were they his only real friends?'
She didn't want to plant the idea in his head that his losses could include a beloved friend as well.
As the meal finished, Kaito began to reach for the empty bowls before Len stopped him. "Come on, at least let me feel like I'm doing something here!" the former butler argued as he pulled Kaito's bowl and spoon from him, "You're not the only one that needs to pull his own weight!"
Kaito gave in and let Len finish cleaning up the table. "By the way, while you were sleeping off that poison, Kaito told me where the two of you are heading. So while I was out, I started trying to gather some intel…"
"Well I'm well enough to travel now if we want to head out…" Miku started to say.
"Ehhhh… that's not going to be so simple…" Len interrupted, "The Duke was murdered after we escaped. I know Akiko must have done it, but they're pinning the blame on me. The city is locked down and they're controlling traffic in and out."
'What a wretched turn of events,' Miku thought to herself, 'They must be doing it to squeeze us out too.'
"So that means it would be best for you to keep a lower profile," she said.
"Yea, I have my contacts out here and I'm sure I won't get sold out, but better to not take chances."
Done with the dishes, Len wandered back to the radio and started turning the dials as he tried to get some sound. "We also haven't run into whoever the Godmothers sent after me yet," Miku said, "They can't be far behind, and if Akiko works for them, they already know Kaito is in Zweissen, if not the Rust District itself."
"Len assured me we're quite remote," Kaito said as he watched Len hard at work, "That means it's unlikely anyone saw us come here. If there is a fairy godmother, she isn't close. Yet."
"So for now… our plan is to hide out until we find an escape."
Miku didn't like the plan she'd voiced, but she didn't see any other options. Duke Ueki had been her last lead and he'd betrayed her. She hoped she could keep trusting Len… and then she and Kaito would escape when he found a way out.
The radio finally crackled as Len centered on a band with voice. "Ah, finally! We've got something!"
"… our empire grows stronger as the emerald light illuminates Estmarch in a glorious future! As we speak, our foes grow desperate as just before Zweissen came into our fold, they attempted to murder its ruler and hold off our glorious march!"
General Tonio's blustering voice filled the room, bringing down everyone's mood at once. "Aw, that blowhard?!" Len fumed, "How he'd get put in charge anyway?"
"Isn't it obvious? He must have been leading the Emerald Dawn right under my parents' noses all this time."
Miku observed as the Prince's expression grew darker. "He served my family for years. He was supposed to be their most loyal advisor. He survived so many administrations and yet… he took advantage of them to claim the throne for himself."
Was that truly all? It sounded so wonderfully simple.
'He did meet me at the ball that night… he was my contact.'
And yet something didn't seem right about that story. Why even involve the Godmothers in such a revolutionary act? He didn't seem a great strategist the way he bellowed over the radio.
What did the Godmothers want out of the chaos?
Technically none of this mattered to her goal of keeping Kaito alive – only escaping Estmarch mattered.
But knowing about the Emerald Dawn… knowing where they came from, what was driving them…
Why she was ever part of it…
… couldn't that help as well?
"Ah, enough of this jerk! Maybe there's something better than propaganda, like something on the Loyalists…"
"Who are the Loyalists?" Miku asked.
"Oh, they're what's left of the army that's still loyal to the Crown."
"WHAT?!"
Kaito bolted up. "If they're loyal to the Crown, why aren't we seeking them out?! I'm the prince after all!"
Len shrunk back at Miku's sudden outburst. "Well… they're not easy to find… and…"
"But my parents are still alive!" Kaito interrupted, "What if they're leading the Loyalists somewhere?!"
"Hey, I'm not saying it's pointless!" Len argued back, "But we never got a lot of intel on them. They might not even believe you if you show up. And they've been doing all kinds of crazy stuff trying to secure territory that's still under the crown!"
"So what you're saying is… Estmarch is being caught up in a civil war."
Kaito slumped a little in his seat. "How many people are going to be killed before we find a way to stop it?"
Miku wasn't sure what else to offer to Kaito. He really did care about his subjects, but even if they made it to Westheim and raised an army, there was no question that there would still be deaths. There was no avoiding it.
'How do I get him to understand that… without doing exactly what these other people are planning? Of devaluing their lives?'
Len finally got the radio over to a station playing music. "The curtain had fallen before I knew it and scattered scraps echo! The days of parting we drew out are the same as the eternity once we pledged…"
Miku recognized the female singer's voice – it was Meiko again.
"Meiko… she was in the capital when the Emerald Dawn attacked…"
Kaito swallowed. "She was there because of me. I just wanted some way to fix things with Estmarch and Nordland… and she could be dead because of it…"
Len leaned against the kitchen wall, as the phantom voice serenaded the broken group.
"Can I fix any of this?" he murmured.
"All I have to do is writing all the lies, the regrets and the promise that never comes true as a fairy tale…"
Something about Len's face recalled someone else to mind… Miku began to recall the conversation in the car as they fled and she was just barely lucid enough to recall Len's words. She took one more long look at his face.
… and finally saw a reflection of another person she'd met in perfect clarity.
"Len… I hate to bring up unpleasant memories but your sister… was she… your twin?"
Len shot her such a shocked look she didn't even need his answer. "Yea! Rin, Rin Kagamine!"
"I stop dead on the stage, as the story line and the end are ambiguous… Even so, the curtain will rise again! I'll take someone's hand and start dancing!"
The sudden change in conversation seemed to have altered Kaito's focus as well. "Miku, how did you know something like that?!" he asked.
Len's swagger disappeared. "You were a Cinderella, right? Rin… Rin was too… is that how you met?"
The boy's voice trembled. "Please… do you at least know how she died? I… I just want to know…"
Finally, Miku had some good news to deliver to someone. "She didn't die, Len. She's alive."
He turned a few shades paler. "Are you serious?! I saw her death certificate! I… I was supposed to be the one to tell mama and papa, but… I couldn't… I…"
"The undiscovered wilderness each of us reached will be the utopia once we were heading to…"
A few tears escaped his eyes. "You're not lying just to make me feel better, are you? I just want the truth."
"Kaito technically met her too, but he was unconscious at the time. She's a nurse in Vedunia, working in a slum clinic. She helped save his life."
Miku recalled her flight from the capital that night and realized it was unlikely Rin or Gakupo would have stayed behind, even if they had donated their car. "She's probably not in the capital anymore given everything that happened, but if she survived this long…"
"The days of parting we drew out are the same as the eternity once we pledged… All I have to do is writing all the lies…"
Len's tears flowed more freely. "I… I gave up on her… and she was there all that time…"
"Len, don't blame yourself! Rin would have had to fake her death to keep the Godmothers away!"
To forge a death certificate would have required aid from the doctor. 'Then there's no way he doesn't know about us… that explains how she could hide so long without being caught. Did the Godmothers realize she was there? No, they couldn't have… otherwise she would have finished Kaito off instead of helping save his life.'
Miku recalled her intel had only included a talented professional who'd lost the will to operate after losing a patient… that turned up quietly in the slums. He'd had to have been there a few years at least without the girl catching anyone's eye. "I'm sure the two of them got out of the capital before it was locked down. If they escaped the notice of the Fairy Godmothers this long, an armed invasion is comparatively simpler."
Kaito walked over and put his hand on Len's shoulder to comfort him as he still kept muttering under his breath, the shocking nature of the revelation still rattling him. "I should have kept looking… I shouldn't have given up… god the things I've done since…"
"…she's alive. You have another chance."
Kaito tried to smile for him. "You're both alive… that means somewhere out there, she might well be looking for you too."
Len wiped his eyes, nodding his head. "Yea… yea, you're right! Heh… I guess now instead of doing this in her memory… I'll get to tell her all about it…"
In the middle of all the darkness, a little blossom of hope began to open.
"All the passions, the sins and the flower that blooms fleetingly will regenerate as a fairy tale…"
Gakupo was relaxing in the break tent with a cup of coffee after having spent a morning strolling through the various tents in the medical camp. These people needed a proper hospital, but tents and second-hand medical equipment was the best this poor establishment could scrape together. It looked more like a war field hospital.
Sometimes it served as one as well. Fighting had broken out at the edge of the Rust District for the third night in a row, and Gakupo had been yanked out of another pleasant dream along with Rin to tend to the injured. As much as he hated to lose precious sleeping time, the adrenaline had pressed him forward and not a soul had passed.
He and Rin had been in the Rust District for four days, and their lives had yet to calm down. The moment the news had broken out that the Duke had been murdered by a "Len Kagamine," the girl's entire focus had changed. All she wanted was to search every corner of the District for any scrap of information on her brother.
As she was doing now. Gakupo normally would have joined her, but after how much closer the fighting pulled to the city in the previous night, he worried leaving the medical camp short a doctor. Not that Rin's role was unimportant, but doctors were harder to find right now. If he absolutely had to… he could try and be his own nurse in an emergency.
'To think the answer to all of her questions could be right here, in the middle of all this nothingness.'
The capital slums had been bad enough, but the heart of industrialization seemed to flow with the lifeblood of the people it sucked dry. Keeping people alive mattered, but in quieter moments like this, he found himself at an impasse. He was only treating the symptoms of a disease, not the illness itself.
'Ah, this is when Rin would scold me for treating everything like it has a medical solution!'
He smirked to himself as he gulped down more of his hot coffee. "Ah… Gakupo was it?"
The melodic voice perked him up far more than the caffeine could as Gakupo looked over to see a nurse in full uniform, a mask on her face, her nurse's hat covering her hair in a long white veil. "The co-ordinator said you needed a nurse today?"
But more than anything, Gakupo was taken by the shade of her eyes. Brilliant blue.
"Well, I think I'd be lucky to have you today! We've still got several patients to check up on, and I'd feel quite a bit more comfortable having some support while my regular nurse is out!"
He gulped the rest of his coffee down and sprung from his chair with renewed energy. This would be a most unique morning indeed. "Given the uniform, are you with the Crimson Shield?"
He gestured to the familiar red shield emblem on her chest, hat, and arm band. "Oh yes… I'm a volunteer from Saint-Famille, and the current crisis drew my attention. I just wish to help as I can."
"Ah, that explains your accent!" he said happily, "I've always fancied that Sudlandian flourish!"
He grasped her hand. "I was just having my coffee break, but I have to do some rounds and checkups. That should help you familiarize yourself with our operation… miss… ah…"
"Leia. My name is Leia."
Miku carried her paper bag of groceries tight in her arms. The food wasn't great – obviously, the better food had been diverted to those with greater means. But with the cooking, they could somehow turn the shriveled carrots and celery into an edible soup again.
As she passed a news stand, she scanned the headlines – another front page on the search for the Duke's murderers, sharing space with the encroaching approach of the Loyalist and Emerald Dawn armies clashing. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a 5-mark coin. "Just… put it in here, please," she said, gesturing to her bag.
She carried the groceries back down the road, carefully keeping her eyes open for any signs of being followed. Of course she'd bound her hair up and tucked it carefully into a green hair scarf – she couldn't do much about how otherwise distinctive her hair looked.
But fortunately, nobody followed her as the buildings thinned out and eventually Miku made it back to her little shack unharmed. Out front she saw Kaito sitting under the overhanging roof, his long jacket zipped shut as he read a book.
"Oh? When did we get reading material?"
Kaito looked up from the novel and smiled softly as he closed it and rose to his feet. "Len brought it back this morning… it's nice to have a change from just whatever turns up over the radio."
Miku pitied the poor Prince. While Len was a wanted man, he was just average looking enough for a citizen of Zweissen to go unnoticed if he was careful. Kaito was just too high profile and…
… she didn't want to risk his life if she couldn't go with him to keep him safe…
"Oh, looks like more vegetable soup then… I hope you're not getting tired of it!" Kaito said as he examined Miku's bag of groceries.
"I'm just happy to have the regular warm meals!" she said with a little smile forming, "I'd figure you'd get bored of the same food over given to the variety you're used to."
Kaito took the bag from her, still trying to hang on to his book as Miku pushed open the door for him. When the prince brushed past her, she caught a brief look at the book's title. "Ash Maiden?"
Kaito hurried to set the bag and his book down on the kitchen table as Miku locked the door. "Isn't that a children's book?" she asked.
"It… ah… maybe…? W-well the story is certainly entertaining at least…"
Somehow, catching Kaito unguarded always gave Miku some small joy – the earnest embarrassment and good humor of the prince could always cheer her up when she could coax it out.
"Oh… the Loyalists are approaching again…"
Kaito spread the newspaper out in front of him as he took in the stories ahead of him. "Setting fire to the fields, interrupting supply? What do they intend to gain? Do they just wish to starve out the Emerald Dawn? They'll kill the populace first!"
"I guess that explains the quality of the vegetables I found," Miku said.
Kaito looked away from the papers as he went through the food. "Well… I have faith Len is on the right track… hopefully when he comes back tonight he'll have more leads for us."
Miku took a closer look at Kaito's book as she sat down at the table. Opening the cover of the red volume, she noticed a drawing of a lovely maiden in rags, covered from head to toe in soot as she prayed beneath the boughs of a hazel tree. A pair of doves stood watch over the lonely girl.
"Don't tease… I've just always had a bit of fondness for those old fairy tales, that's all."
Miku slapped the cover shut. "I wasn't going to… not again anyway."
The prince rested his head on his hand. "They make me nostalgic... my mother would read them to me every night when I was a child. I think she always was just as enraptured by the folklore as I was. The Cinderella tale was her favorite. 'Kaito!' she'd remind me, 'Never forget you're a prince. Everyone looks up to you. You're their shining jewel, their beacon. You have the power to change a common girl into a princess. You must be like Prince Charming – pure like a seraph, unceasing in his will.'"
He sighed. "She liked that name for me… 'shining jewel'… When I was a child, it made me feel loved. So many of the other noble children would be raised by their servants, sent away to boarding schools, but I lived with mine and saw them all the time. But… when I was older… being a 'shining jewel' started to feel like I was a possession…"
So much conflict in his heart. The Queen and King that Kaito knew seemed so different. Protective, overly so, but clearly loving and kind to their son. The Queen and King Miku knew were violent and greedy. Always trying to take and take. Homes, money, food… entire countries.
Now that Kaito had become aware of that, the dichotomy seemed to keep eating away at him.
She looked longingly at the book and something seemed to rise up from the back of her mind. She often had trouble recalling the days before she was a Cinderella – so much of the training was involved in erasing as much of her true self as possible, it was no small wonder her memories were a victim of this. Besides, many of them were painful and she wanted to leave them behind.
But it was so strange to realize she did have something in common with the 'shining jewel' of Estmarch.
"My mother read those stories to me too. She would always say… 'Miku, remember to be pious and good. The angels will always protect you, just like the ash maiden.'"
"I suppose it's been the other way around so far… I must admit right now, you've been the angel protecting me."
Miku didn't feel she deserved such praise. Not after what she'd done... she felt her hands trembling. She could still see herself holding the knife and driving it into his heart.
"Kaito…You shouldn't say such things about me…" she stuttered.
"Miku, I... I should have resolved this matter some time ago. Before you became so desperate as to consume poison for my sake."
She could still see his blood running…
"… thank you. For saving my life."
Maybe somewhere deep down, Miku had wanted to hear forgiveness. But she still didn't feel worthy of it. Not right now.
'I have to be strong for him… I promised to keep him alive until Westheim, I can't be fragile and weak right now."
She banished the dream from her thoughts and kept her expression calm. "I've done nothing yet. Not until you return to your uncle safe and sound."
Kaito crossed his arms over his chest. "I dispute that statement. Your methods are uncouth, but you still saved my life. From what I've learned about my current enemies, had they sent another person with the intent to kill me… they would have done so without hesitation. But they sent you… and we're both still alive now."
Miku hadn't even realized how tightly she was holding her chest, to the point she had her hands wrapped tightly around her elbows. "I don't know what they told you… but… your life is important to me. Please, the next time you sense danger like that… trust me. Don't… don't take such a terrible chance. I couldn't live with the guilt had you died in my name."
Kaito's voice trembled as he got out those last words. Miku felt selfish a moment, remembering how she'd stolen his happiness for inner strength when they'd met. She almost worried that she was still essentially tricking him now.
But she didn't like the idea of scaring him so much either. There was little she could do about the reality of their situation but… she could try to help him not worry so much.
"I promise, Kaito. I'll be more careful in the future."
Just like she'd suspected. This doctor was an idiot.
It was fortunate that Luka had been able to acquire nursing clothes that properly covered her most obvious features. Her rather distinct hair required she go so far as even a veil, and he'd already seen her face.
But she didn't need the disguise to last long. She'd planned to infiltrate the medical camp for signs of the injured Prince or his Cinderella, but she'd recognized the doctor doing rounds and decided to change tactics. She could examine the patients up close, go through his records, and maybe get some information from him… then she could take him out before the Cinderella had a chance to stop her.
Neat and tidy.
"Now Leia, this young lady suffered second degree burns yesterday… can you change her bandages for me while I conduct the exam?"
She had trained to pose as a nurse before – the Crimson Shield provided her with a reason for not being affiliated with a clinic and let her move around out of notice. And treating injuries was important to her actual profession – she'd certainly not gotten through years of assassinations without getting hurt. But this was the first time she was working on actual patients. She wouldn't have the doctor's intense medical knowledge, but she did understand how to wrap and unwrap bandages. "Kokone, this is Leia, she'll be taking Rin's place for me today!"
The girl had long brown hair and a pink scarf. Her orange eyes turned to Luka and she saw her expression. Trust.
Naïve.
"Hold out your hand, please."
The girl did as told. Luka pulled out the roll of bandaging and began her task. The skin under the old bandages had peeled back, still red and irritated from the heat. "Now, Kokone, how's your pain level today?"
"Ah… it's starting to sting again…"
"All right… morphine again then. We'll apply the antiseptics before we change the bandage."
The doctor may be an idiot in other ways, but he was at least professional. Luka pulled out the antiseptic lotion and began to casually apply it. Kokone yelped as the spray touched her fragile skin. "Oh, Leia, could you…"
"There's nothing I can do to make antiseptics hurt less."
She tried to control her tone. Even if this girl meant nothing to her, she was supposed to be a nurse.
"Regardless… it is… only a brief discomfort."
And soon the girl was distracted as the doctor began to ask her increasingly menial questions. The wound was quickly covered by bandages and the duo moved on to the next patient. Checking on a cast from a man who'd fallen in a steel mill.
Most of them were like this. The doctor seemed so eager to tend to the patients that sometimes he seemed to overtake her tasks. Which only made things easier for her. An occasional kind look from behind the surgeon's mask was all she needed.
By the time the rounds were done, the mid-afternoon sun hung lower in the autumn sky, and not one of the patients under current treatment were her targets. She needn't keep up this ruse much longer. Soon he'd be dead anyway. He plopped down into his chair and flipped through piles of paperwork. "Well I must say I was glad to have your company today, Miss Leia. Are you staying around here long?"
"So long as there is need for me."
He laughed. "Well I suppose if my regular nurse is still busy, I will have need of you! I do wonder what kept her all day, I thought she would be in by this afternoon."
He was already hard at work filling out forms. This was her chance. "Oh Doctor, can I have a look at the patient records from the last day? It would help if I understood their histories."
"Ah, how silly of me!"
Gakupo pushed the papers to her without even a mild argument. As she thumbed through the records looking for anything suspicious, the doctor let out a dramatic sigh. "The night shift will want these done properly… tis a shame we're still so strapped. They're lucky I happened through."
'They'll have to find someone else. You're marked to die.'
It wasn't her place to worry about the staffing problems of the hospital. It wasn't her place to worry about anything.
It was her place to cut the loose ends and get back to her primary objective.
"So… ahhh… how did you happen to get into nursing… anyway?"
'Is he trying to make small talk?'
She could easily concoct a false life, that wasn't an obstacle.
"It was… an accident really. Not a terribly happy one either."
She looked out of the tent and watched the patients in the tent right near hers as they were attended to by another nurse. A woman with long lime green hair, pulled back in a ponytail. "Saint-Famille… burned. In the war. I lost my home. I lost… everything."
To make the emotions sound real…
"I was pulled from the ashes of my family's bakery."
… she would need a real story.
"The people who rescued me… rescued many such lost souls. I've never forgotten my debt."
"Hmmmm… the Crimson Shield did this?"
"Yes."
The only lie was who Luka owed her life too. Not the circumstances.
"It's sad that such a tragedy is what brought you into such a precious field."
She didn't want pity. She wanted revenge.
"But it is wonderful that you've turned that pain towards saving lives."
She didn't save lives. She ended them.
She was a blunt tool, and she prided herself in that.
A loud explosion sounded out in the distance. Was this a Loyalist attack? She had to be alert… if they were attacking, they could intercept the Prince! She needed to get to the site and…
"We have to go! That sounded serious! What if people were hurt?!"
Luka gasped as the Doctor grabbed her wrist and started to drag her off. "Wait a minute I-"
She had half a mind to knock him out. She began to jerk her arm back to flip him over when she saw another method. If she went to the explosion with him… if it was Loyalists…
If he was there…
"… I need to grab some more supplies!"
Len ran through the streets towards the explosion. He knew it was one of the glass blowing plants still running in the District. He had to know the cause. His leads on the Loyalists were so dead end that he'd even chance running into an obvious attack just to find anything while the scene was fresh before the police arrived.
He watched the people streaming past, covered in blood. He willed himself to look away. There was nothing he could do. He ran towards the smoke, hoping he wouldn't draw too much attention running into a disaster instead of away from it.
He could already see the blasted out wall, and swallowed hard as he leapt the fence. 'Oh no no no… please no… don't be what I think this is…'
He tried to hold in his bile as he ran past the bodies. Children's bodies.
'Right... the glass blowing plant employs all those kids… and…'
Some of them were already so pale and lifeless he suspected they'd already died.
Some of them were stumbling, sobbing in confusion.
'No… no I can't help them… I won't be able to… I…'
It was getting harder to steel himself the way he had for last two years, working as Duke Ueki's dog. He'd been dead inside then – nothing mattered but revenge, so he let himself be used.
But he had a reason to live now… he'd already done so many awful things for the Duke, he didn't want to leave them…
Someone moving in the blown out innards of the factory drew his eye. They scattered as he locked eyes with them – a boy with short white hair and gold tinted eyes, a yellow and black checkered scarf pull up over the rest of his face. Len reached for his pistol but the boy simply ran off.
'Yea that looks guilty as hell!'
The streets filled with smoke, the people screaming for their children…
Luka never expected to confront this again.
She thought her training had prepared her for it – the same training she'd given to the other Cendrillons in her care.
But somewhere in her head she could still remember the sound of parents sobbing as they realized their children were never coming home.
"Don't worry Leia, we just need to focus on triage! Come on, we can't let them down!"
Maybe if she were an idiot she would have an easier time burying all of it and focusing on her fake job.
She recognized some of the other doctors and nurses. The head doctor was already spreading them out. Gakupo ran forward and spoke to him as Luka tried to keep from breaking down in the sight of the flames. Sirens sounded out as the fire engines and police cars arrived.
She felt his hand on hers. "We've got our assignment. We need to prioritize… by… whoever we can save first."
"But of course, Doctor. We'll save as many as we can."
That was what a nurse was supposed to say, right?
Rin tried to hobble through the smoke and panic as quickly as she could. She was certain Gakupo was going to be there, and he needed his nurse! At least it would make up for her dried up leads about Len, right?
She gasped and panted, the crook of her arm in pain from trying to keep the crutch upright. A half-injured nurse trying to perform emergency care, who would believe her? 'But those people need our help… I can't let any of them down! Gakupo never does… and… and…'
Rin knew why she was a nurse. Why she wanted to save lives.
Because she'd taken them as well.
Paying the piper.
The factory grew closer to her sight…
Luka laid the mats out – there would be no properly sterile environment, not here. The firefighters brought the first patient her way, a green haired boy with buck teeth and serious burns up the side of his face. "Papa… papa where are you…" he murmured.
Papa, mama where are you?! Papa, mama!
She ran the antiseptic along his face as he cried out from the pain, but she had to treat it.
She cried as the hot embers fell along her arm, the fire eating its way into her home…
"Lucky, there's no shrapnel on him… what's your name? Please, tell me your name!"
"R—Ryuto…" he coughed.
"Smoke inhalation…" Gakupo murmured, "Can you handle the oxygen tanks, they're bringing a few more in just like him."
The smoke was so thick she felt her throat closing up… she couldn't even call for help…
She slipped the mask over the boy's face, trying to hold back the foreign sensation, that thing she'd tried to wrap up deep within her anger and fury at the people who'd done this…
Nobody would save her. She collapsed in the kitchen, where she'd spent so many happy days baking chocolates and pastries… she felt herself slumber and dreamt her mother was singing her to sleep…
The boy cried freely as Luka set the mask in place. Watching his tears fall, listening to the chaos and screaming and sobbing… she found herself gripping his hands and looking right into his bright green eyes.
"Dreaming chuchu, chocola-ta-ta-ta-ta… A sweetness that I've whipped together just for you… Dreaming chuchu, chocola-ta-ta-ta-ta… These feelings in my heart, I hope will reach you soon…"
Even as the words flowed from Luka's own mouth, in her mind she only heard her mother's voice.
"The beating of my heart is thumping rhythmically in time… The beating of your heart is syncing perfectly with mine…"
The oxygen seemed to be working… she pulled out a roll of bandages as she started to wrap Ryuto's facial burns to prevent infection... but she didn't stop singing as he stayed fixated on her…
"Son of a… bitch! You get back here!"
The boy was practically as fast as a wolf, Len's words having little effect on him. As he slipped out of an open window, Len followed, ending up outside and staring down a circle of squad cars, emergency personnel, and fire fighters.
As the boy backed up, Len realized he hadn't properly planned an escape either. He finally started running for the chain link fence, chancing being caught as he vaulted over it. Len heard the loud voices of policeman and cursed again. "Better follow him… try and catch something at least…"
Len easily scaled the fence, getting behind cover as he heard gunfire. "Dammit, I hope they didn't just spot me!"
He didn't even see the girl on crutches who stumbled through the crowd as he kept up his mad pursuit of the culprit…
Luka's hands shook as the last of her patients had passed. Even Gakupo looked exhausted… he'd somehow managed to save every one of his patients, but several of them had expired. The sight of so much death at once appeared foreign even to him as he hung his head.
As for Luka… the crisis was past. She'd kept her disguise long enough… she hadn't revealed herself…
"Gakupo… Gakupo!"
Luka recognized the voice and was careful to turn her head to avoid Rin getting a better look at her face – even with the mask, they'd known each other for far longer.
"Oh… I… I missed everything… didn't I…"
Luka glanced back and saw Gakupo try and force a smile. "I wouldn't have been able to save as many as I did without Miss Leia here… and I'm quite glad you're safe."
Rin surveyed the patients. "I'm sorry I wasn't here sooner… I could have helped you… or another doctor or…"
"You're a patient too, remember?" Gakupo said, trying to maintain some cheer.
"Don't remind me…" Rin said, rubbing at her bandaged thigh.
"Rin… why don't you go back home and get off that leg. Take it easy. I'm going to stay as long as I'm needed, all right?"
And just like that… Rin hobbled away, on the wounded leg that Luka had shot at.
Luka finally turned around and saw as Gakupo's more joyful demeaner seemed to temper. When he realized he was being watched, he buried that with another smile. "Thank you."
Luka tried to control her voice. "I only did what was asked of me."
He stepped closer to her and her heartbeat quickened. "You did more than that. These people today… they wouldn't be alive without you. You… saved their lives."
She wouldn't hear of it. She was a murderer, a tool of death that had taken countless lives.
"You did most of the work!"
"I wouldn't have pulled it off without you."
He sounded wearier. "I've never seen this… I've been lucky I guess. I've never had a patient die on me. I didn't have it today either but… if I'd been here sooner, maybe more of them would have survived…"
This man was not an agent of death. He wasn't built for it. She was.
"I kept focusing on your lovely song to keep working. To stay cheerful enough to not let the lives that were already lost prevent me from saving those who still survived. Because even if a nurse who'd suffered such bloodshed before had the wells of strength to sing for the sake of her patients, surely I could retain the strength I needed for those who relied upon us."
"So yes… you… saved lives."
Luka tried to let the thought settle into her mind. Deployed on a mission of death… she had preserved life instead.
What did that make her now?
A/N:
You know, I'm glad I made this an alternate history, because I've already made an anachronism. In my rush to show Gakupo was a good doctor in Chapter 3, I had him prescribe antibiotics… which were not even properly discovered until after WWI.
"Leia" is of course a reference to a Luka song of the same name.
"Pain au chocolats" is a pastry I've become acquainted to since moving to Quebec. It's a sweet roll with two sticks of chocolate in the middle, and even the cheap convenience stores around here carry them. In Quebec, they're called "chocolatines", and I actually debated which term to use because "chocolatines" is also used in southwest France. Apparently what you call this ubiquitous pastry is the French equivalant of America's "soda or pop?" debate. I ended up with "pain au chocolats" because it's the more "France French" name and Sudland is France, not Quebec ;)
As for the sole song, it's yuukiss' "Fairy-taled". Meiko's making up for being in four of my fanfics and never getting songs to herself in any of them by singing almost ALL of them. Luka is singing "Dreaming Chuchu"... a song I was kind of hesitant to include since it's about Japanese Valentine's day, but I gave in because it involves baking too and it's not a theme you find that much in Vocaloid songs. It's terribly cute also.