Chapter 6: Surging Emotion
Luka kept her pace behind the doctor. Blending into crowds and shadows was exceptionally easy for someone like herself. Gakupo walked with a slow pace, far too absorbed in the thoughts of the day they'd shared for him to even think of himself as being stalked.
She kept her fingers on the throwing knives in her shirt. When he caught up with Rin, she'd throw just two – one for each.
That would be all she would need.
Then she could move on. She needed to move on.
She recognized the boarding house he was approaching – she'd passed it on her way into the district. Before he got inside, fortunately, Rin hobbled outside on her crutch. "You made it back! I didn't want to start dinner without you…"
She saw his head raise up and it was as if just the sight of the girl forced him to hold his emotions in check again while a smile spread along his face.
"Oh, you didn't have to do something like that! It's not very healthy to wait so long to eat!"
"Yea, but after today… you probably could use a warm meal more than the cold one."
"Ah now, it wasn't so bad! I had a lovely companion after all."
Luka slipped into a better position to make sure her two throwing knives would land on the first throw.
"Oh, Leia… right? You aren't crazy enough to hit on a nurse are you?!"
Gakupo laughed nervously, rubbing the side of his face. "N-now Rin, why would you think I would…"
"Just tell me the color of her eyes already."
He released a long sigh. "Blue, glowing like the midday sky… with the depths of a thousand years!"
Her hands were shaking again… she'd let the day's events rattle her too much. She had a job, she had a task, she was an instrument… she couldn't accept just letting them go!
"So, any sign of that brother of yours? Len?"
Rin leaned on her crutch. "Nothing. I hope he's still here…"
"Now now, you can't lose hope! Look, if Leia comes back tomorrow, maybe you can spend more time on the search!"
"The hospital won't miss me?"
He clapped her shoulders. "Rin… it's not that saving lives is meaningless but… you've been separated for far too long. You have to take this chance to get your old life back. You can come back to nursing when you're done. All right?"
'Of… of course… I can't kill them yet… because…'
Luka slipped the knives back into her coat as her targets entered the boarding house for the night. '…because they're going to lead me to Len Kagamine. And he will lead me to the Prince.'
How thoughtful of her to hold back on killing them for now – letting them live would only make things easier.
And when she killed the Prince…
… she could finally lay the remnants of the past to rest in the ashes.
The door slammed behind Len as he entered the shack again, clutching a checkered bandana in his hand. The radio was blaring out a news report on the bombing.
"-50 confirmed casualties so far, with 15 fatalities! Blood and smoke in the sky! Thanks to the quick work of local medical personnel, far less of the children passed on in the aftermath, but there were many dead from the initial blast!"
Len saw Miku and Kaito seated at the table, their soup barely touched, as they stared at him. "Did you hear it out here?"
Miku answered first. "And we saw the smoke…" she whispered.
Len looked himself over – there was still dried blood on his knuckles.
"Were you… there?"
Kaito's question barely described him in the aftermath. Len had finally caught up to his target, pouncing on him and trying to pin him to the ground. Even if the man was bigger than him, Len had knocked the wind out of him, slammed them down so hard the autumn leaves had scattered every which way around them.
He demanded to know who was working with.
Screaming for a reason.
"… was it the Loyalists?"
Len grabbed for a cloth to clean his hand off. "I… almost had the guy that did it too… Chased him right into an empty park… He said… sacrifices had to be made so the enemies of the Shion family had less to fight with…"
He'd thought he could be rational – they needed the Loyalists. But when those cruel words flew from the silver-haired man's mouth… Len had lost his composure and started punching him. That was when he'd been thrown off and the man had landed a few punches of his own before escaping.
Len still had his bandana and nothing else.
"You still want to talk to them…?"
The Prince slumped in his chair. "You really want to say these are the kind of people you want to work with?!" Len reiterated.
"… I must meet with them."
Len gritted his teeth. Did he think he could try talking them down? He'd already seen how that would turn out.
"… I don't expect to easily dissuade them from this path. But if they're so obsessed with my family, they may yet listen. If not, we could at least learn who's giving them orders… try and deal with it from the source."
Miku was having none of this. "Kaito! They won't just listen to you begging for peace!"
Kaito was shaking. "I… I don't intend to do that. Not after what happened with the Duke. But I can't simply hide out here and ignore what's happening. People are dying at the hands of people purporting to restore my crown. How could I possibly retain my legitimacy as a Prince of Estmarch if I allowed that to continue?"
'He's nuts… but… he's not wrong either…'
At some point, the rest of the kingdom would figure out that their Prince yet lived. If a group like this was running around creating chaos, it would only make his ultimate goal harder. And to be truthful… Len himself was tired of turning a blind eye to suffering as he'd done for so many years. He could justify itto himself before when he thought he had nothing to live for. But if Rin was still out there…
He had to be able to look her in the eye when he found her.
"If we get to the Loyalists… we might at least be able to get them to help us out. If we let them run wild, we might have them as an obstacle. But if we can get them to follow you, they might leave Zweissen alone. At least in the short term."
The Prince seemed far more comfortable with this direction. "Right. If they happen to be so fanatical that they're willing to blow up industrial zones, they might be fanatical enough to refocus their attention on me."
While Kaito seemed okay with this plan, Miku was still clearly worried. "You have to think of yourself too Kaito! What if they think you're lying or an imposter? What if they're just pretending? What if…"
"Miku."
His voice grew firm. "I will not let my people die pointlessly. Not if I have even a small chance of changing that."
"If I can't even protect a few dozen children… how can I possibly protect a kingdom?"
"Kaito, you can't protect ANYONE if you're DEAD!"
Miku's fearful outburst even startled Len. She clutched her hands close to her chest. "Fine… I… If you're so determined to try this… then… I'll go with you so they can't… dispose of you."
"Good, then it's settled."
Kaito seemed to brush off Miku's emotional state as he went back to preparing their meal. "Starting tomorrow, Miku and I will go out with you. You can't risk this alone anymore, and if the Loyalists are getting this desperate, it's only a matter of time before they draw too much attention to our hiding place."
Miku returned to her seat, folding her hands up in her lap and trying to look away from the other two people in the room with her.
'Sheesh… I really don't know anything about them, do I?'
"I can't imagine this many minerals in the air is healthy for my patients!"
Gakupo sniffed as the wretched morning smog tainted the air. "Perhaps when this nasty business is over with, we should set up some kind of nice mountain retreat for the factory workers to recuperate in!"
Rin smirked at him. "You just want a nice nap in the Alpines!"
"Hmph… I think it'd be good for the doctor too… which would also help the patients!"
He managed a chipper laugh for Rin's benefit. The week since the terrorist attack on the glass factory had taken a toll on him. It wasn't that he never focused on his job – he always pursued medicine so fervently out of an urge to save lives.
But despite the fact he'd had training as a medic in the military before he abandoned his old life, he'd been fortunate to "only" treat patients with normal diseases and injuries. Not the victims of active violence.
Not children…
"The newspaper said the Emerald Dawn's army clashed with the Loyalists again last night… I hope they don't come back in here again…"
Rin sounded just as worried as Gakupo was. "You sure you don't need me there? I mean… I know what you're trying to do… but… you're taking so many risks…"
He knew what Rin was implying. He wasn't a soldier – he was useless with a weapon and only survived his first real fight by thinking outside of the box. He was gambling with his life every day he kept exposing himself as he was right now.
'Ah, well, I can just be clever with the tools again! But away from the injured children, I suppose...'
"How's the leg today?"
Rin didn't seem to be nursing the crutch as hard. "I'm not sure it's a fighting leg yet, but I did practice working the crutch into a sneak attack if I have to!"
Gakupo cracked a smile at the idea of Rin attacking a sneaky Cinderella out to get them. "Let's hope you don't have to!"
As the familiar sights of the medical tents entered Gakupo's view, he felt a tug at his hand. "Gakupo… I know what we talked about… and… I know you can't just give up… but…"
He shot Rin as confident a smile as he could manage. "I know I'm making progress. I have to find out how much, right?"
She let his hand go once more. "I won't be that far… okay?"
Gakupo entered the tents and as expected, there was Leia already waiting for him – dressed perfectly, veil and all. He noticed some dark circles under her eyes. "They didn't call you in, did they?"
Her blue eyes looked away from him once more. "No… it was pleasantly peaceful for once. But I have been having trouble with sleep again."
The doctor laughed as he picked up a clipboard. "We could prescribe you some sedatives if you'd like!"
The frustrating part of Leia never parting with her mask was that Gakupo could never entirely know if she found his jokes even slightly humorous. Her eyes didn't give that much away.
"Let's get to work, doctor."
Miku tried to keep up with Kaito in the streets, but for some reason this morning he had so much more motivation. "Slow down, 'Naoto!'" she called out, "You're going to leave me behind!"
The Prince slowed his pacing just enough for Miku to catch up. "What's got you so excited?"
"It's been too long since they made their move… we need to find them before they…"
Kaito just couldn't let go of this. It seemed to be more than just honor motivating him, and Miku didn't know how to get him off of this idea. If he exposed himself too broadly, his enemies would find him.
Every night she was still haunted by the nightmares. The pink-haired woman giving the order, whispering in her ears of the Prince's death. The white-masked nobles, all watching and waiting for Miku to hurry up and kill him. Driving the knife in and staying by his side as he died…
And every day she had to stand with the living Kaito of her reality as they fruitlessly scoured what leads they had. Newspapers, bars, the factories… Every day trying to keep her eyes peeled for whenever the Godmothers would finally strike again…
With the reduced police presence and clues still thin, Len, Kaito, and Miku had decided they had to make some investigation of the site of the attack on their own. Given the suddenness of the attack and how spread thin the police were given the chaos in the Rhune Valley as a whole, there wasn't much choice.
They had to try and find clues here.
Miku spotted Len leaning into one of the torn down gates, his long hair tucked into a brown cap, his red scarf close to his face. With his long brown coat, he didn't look that different from any of the other Rust District regulars. 'He's good at this… even as a wanted man, he doesn't stick out… he should really start teaching Kaito more of that.'
"Morning, 'Shimoda,'" Kaito said without skipping a beat.
"Naoto, Saki. Perfect timing."
It had just been simpler to use false names for all of them when surrounded by people. Fortunately, Kaito never slipped up.
Len gestured back to the factory site. "The cops are still keeping the entrance tightened up. I don't think we'll have much luck with that. But I can at least run you back over where I chased that guy… maybe he left something behind."
Miku looked the blown-out factory over carefully. "I could slip in myself…" she murmured.
Len's head jerked forward under his cap. "Really?!"
"If anyone could get somewhere like that… Saki could!" Kaito said happily.
Len try to compose himself. "It's just… well… I mean… yea, if you're okay with me and Naoto going off on our own…"
"You both have your pistols. And I won't be gone long."
She wasn't sure she felt comfortable leaving Kaito alone like this but… she trusted Len… and she was the only one good enough at sneaking around. She was trained for this. Already she was planning her route past the police guarding the site…
"I'll meet up with you…"
She scanned the area for an obvious landmark…
"Saki, how about the statue of Duke Ueki in the square?"
She looked to Len and nodded. "I'll be able to find that… you two just… please… stay careful and out of sight…"
She started to take a few steps away from Kaito and her fear began to overtake her. An omen? She could still see the pink-haired woman in her mind… how close by was she?
"Saki, please, I'll do my best to take care of myself. Don't worry over me. I have a good companion, and my weapon at my side as well."
Kaito trying to reassure her somehow made it a little harder… but she couldn't linger. The opportunity would be gone soon.
"All right, Naoto. The Duke's statue. It shouldn't take me too long."
The crisp November wind made Kaito pull his scarf closer to try and ward away the chill. 'Thank goodness we've no snow yet…'
Len guided the two through a thick cluster of trees. By now they were nearly bare, as the scattered piles of brown and orange leaves along the grown told him. But there were no people around at least…
"So first he took me through these trees… here…"
Kaito tried to keep up with Len's pace. At least his stitches were still holding with all the exercise he was engaging in.
"Then I tackled him right here! We had a fight before he knocked me down and got away… I would have stuck around a little longer, but the police started chasing us and I had to make myself scarce…"
"So you think he might have left some clues behind? Besides that bandana you made off with."
Kaito started to scan through the grass. "I hope the police haven't already gathered everything of worth."
He kept wandering through the shady park, looking for anything that stood out. He had to find something. Every other trip out this week had been fruitless – he needed something to show for his efforts. Someway to strike back at the people committing such evil in his name.
"Kaito… I hate to spring this on you, but getting you alone is hard enough… so I'll take what time I have…"
Kaito stopped from his searching to address Len. The boy looked oddly suspicious of him. "You keep getting evasive on how you met Miku. You kept saying she helped you escape the fall of the capital, but… I read the reports out of the capital. You were 'assassinated' at a ball, by a mysterious young woman who was supposed to be your dancing partner."
"Obviously, the account is false given that I'm alive right now." Kaito didn't want to speak of this event right now. All he wanted to think about was the Loyalists.
"Was Miku the one sent to kill you?"
To be that blunt… well, it was Len's way. Now that he'd tossed away the mask of needing to please others.
"Why does this matter now?" Kaito continued in annoyance.
"I need to know what happened. I'm trying to keep you alive, and I want to understand her. You don't think she's just a little too obsessive over you? That's not the actions of someone who's just a bodyguard. And she didn't deny being a Cinderella."
Kaito let out a huff. "I do not intend to be so coarse as to divulge Miku's secrets outside of her presence. If she has chosen to keep her circumstances discrete, she has that right."
Why was he getting so defensive about Miku? This wasn't like him to be so rude… He tried to soften his response. "I realize the circumstances of my survival are… unusual. But I have absolute faith in her so far."
Len furtively adjusted his cap. "Okay, maybe I came at this wrong… Look, I just want you to be careful. The way she's acting around you just isn't healthy. They do terrible things to those girls to make them so easy to command. Even if Miku turned on them to help you, that doesn't mean everything she's undergone isn't still affecting her."
Certainly Kaito could be aware of that but… he thought forgiving her would be enough. Letting her release that burden. "I've already told Miku that what came between us is in the past."
Len sighed, seemingly let the matter drop. "Hey! I think I found something!"
Grateful to leave the more unpleasant conversations behind, Kaito joined Len as he dug through a pile of leaves and pulled out a small pendant with a wolf's crest on it. "What do you make of this?"
Kaito looked it over. "I recognize this pendant… it's from House Grauwolf. Did it fall off the man you attacked?"
He turned it over in his hands, reciting the name engraved on the back of it. "Dex… Grauwolf… Len, did your assailant have silver hair? And yellow eyes?"
"Yea! You know the jerk?"
Kaito clutched the pendant tightly. " His father was close to the crown. He's about my age, but he was schooled out of the country. I suppose… it's not impossible he might be involved in an organization like this."
Len dug through the leaves some more. "There's nothing else… well, that gives us a start. You know what he looks like."
Len pointed out to the square. "I'll take you to the statue. It'll be hard to miss… Duke Ueki wasn't known for his subtlety."
Luka checked on the bandages for Ryuto as he laid in the stretcher. "You're doing so well today," she said tenderly.
"Thanks, Miss… umm… is my face going to be okay?"
She wanted to spare him the truth. "You'll be just fine when the burns heal."
The sight of him innocently smiling at her made her feel ill.
This wasn't her place, but she was still no closer to her target masquerading as a nurse than she was in her nighttime exploits of trying to tear the city apart and find the Prince. And the longer she stayed here, the more she felt interference with her dedication to her mission.
This wasn't working the way she needed it to.
She needed to leave.
She thought she should at least bid him goodbye. 'No! It doesn't matter!'
"Goodbye Ryuto."
She sighed and left the tent with the doctor. "You've done a lot of good here, Leia."
"Yes, Doctor."
She followed her purple haired benefactor through the camp – Ryuto was their last patient of the morning. She just had to wait the rest of the day out… see if Rin would appear with the news she looked forward to… and then…
"Doctor… I regret to inform you that this will be my last day."
Gakupo looked at her in surprise. "Really? But you're so dedicated!"
Leia set her things down in the break tent. "And I daresay the children are going to miss you… but if you've a calling elsewhere…"
Perfect. He'd even unintentionally provided a proper excuse so she could leave without a trace.
"It is most unfortunate. I shall see out my tasks for today, and then depart."
Gakupo took a seat and started to mix a cup of coffee. "Well, regardless, I hope you don't forget about this. You saved lives here, Leia."
She turned on the radio, tuning the dial for local news. She may as well get a jump on the day.
"…and as the Emerald Dawn is taking its rightful place in control of the Rhune Valley's mighty arms of industry, those that continue to resist our light strike without mercy! The old corruption of the Shion House knows no end!"
General Tonio, making another speech. She didn't know the origin of the orders she gave to Miku that night – but she was certain they weren't from him. How he came to power… that was an interesting question, wasn't it?
'I wouldn't put it past Iroha to have found him useful. The Grand Godmother must be letting him play at General until the regime is overthrown.'
Whatever the Grand Godmother was plotting wasn't her concern… only finishing the mission passed through her hands.
"… no matter who gains power, it seems that the same people always suffer."
Luka turned to the doctor, who showed a surprising amount of emotion. "You're still upset about the children?"
"The children, the poor, the weak."
A curiosity overtook her… not a useful one. But she wished to satisfy it before leaving him for good.
"Gakupo, how did someone like you come to be a doctor? You always seem so much more obsessed with… well… napping. And women. But when you approach an operating table, you're a completely different person."
He turned the volume down on the radio. "… I don't like wars. I don't like watching people suffer. But the irony is, I'm the son of a long line of decorated soldiers. My father being one of them. He fought every one of the Rose Wars, with honors."
Luka's fingers twitched. If his father fought in those wars… there was a chance her father was on the other side of the Sudland conflict.
"He'd speak to me with such pride about the deaths he inflicted for the glory of Estmarch. The battles he lived for. But it made me sick to think that was supposed to be my path. I couldn't imagine taking lives like he did."
Luka recalled the conclusion of their first encounter. Gakupo had blamed his lack of killing her on a devotion to his medical oath. But was that truly all there was?
"My father would have been mortified if I'd brought dishonor on us by refusing to serve at all. Regardless of our rather… distinct… differences of opinion, I still wanted to prove myself worthy of him. So I found a way to serve my country without upsetting my ideals. I became a surgeon so I could serve as a combat medic."
The "idiot" could be surprisingly clever when he wanted to be. "And did your father go along with that?"
"He put up a fight at first… swore that I was taking a coward's path. That I would never understand until I had the courage to take a life for the greater good."
"So he didn't support it, and you did it anyway."
There was a surprising amount of guts in this doctor.
"Well he did send me a letter of congratulation from the front lines upon my graduation. Unfortunately, he didn't come back from that war… he died as he lived, in the heart of battle."
"So the Shion Royals sent your father to his grave… for what?"
Gakupo looked unusually pensive. "I've found myself asking that question myself, many times. I never had to serve as a combat medic either… I turned my skills to be a doctor of the people instead."
Luka tried to keep her calm, but she began to wonder if this was what led the odd doctor into Rin Kagamine's path. As far as Luka knew, Rin's assassination that night had been successful in that she killed the target… but her getaway had not been clean. There had been suspicion about the report of her death given the lack of a body, but one dead Cinderella didn't seem unlikely.
But this man would have stumbled onto a bloody girl, obviously the perpetrator of a crime… and saved her life.
'Idiot. He's lucky she didn't turn around and kill him.'
He was too soft-hearted to even be a doctor let alone a combat medic. But somehow… he'd managed to turn a once-successful Cinderella from her rigid path of death to one filled with life.
She realized she would have to be cautious lest the same fate befall herself as well.
Rosensquare seemed to sum up the Rust District in one hearty statement. While it may have once had a rather pleasant small town charm, with its white stone benches and cobblestone paths, the decay had since set in. Kaito observed what were once well crafted brick walls covered in creeping weeds, benches of rotting wood. He wondered what this town was like in the past…
Duke Ueki's gaudy statue stood tall over the ruin, covered in flaking gold paint. Kaito glared at the statue, remembering the contemptible man in life. "He was really something, huh?" Len muttered.
Kaito touched the fading plaque. "That such wretched people could flourish so easily…" Kaito murmured.
"…he knew how to make use of people, that's how he moved up in the world. I can't say I'm innocent either… I used every one of my talents to help him out and keep my head down. Helped him do everything short of killing people. And I still only had the 'glory' of being a butler."
So many people turned to slaves, manipulated into committing wicked acts. Len clearly seemed to have his heart in the right place, but he was still trapped in regret. And Miku… she hadn't wanted to be a killer… she had only barely evaded her fate through sheer force of will…
Kaito found himself feeling so defensive over Miku. Such an odd turn of events, but he couldn't help but feel pity for her.
Maybe… more?
He pulled out the medallion and tried to think back on what he remembered of its owner. 'Dex never appeared so violent… he was a soldier, but not a murderer. What changed? Who put him up to this?'
The Loyalists representing his family, were they affiliated with his parents? Did his parents really intend to attack their own people just to maintain power?
He could still recall how his mother's warm hugs granted him comfort when he was so young. The way his father's imposing presence melted when he saw his saw his child. They thought nothing to dropping everything to spend time with their only son – he was never alone on holidays or birthdays, nor neglected for business. He always felt loved.
His drive to become a great and compassionate ruler came from his urge to live up to them. To see truth after unpleasant truth opening in front of him made his dedication waver. Could he truly claim to be a good and kind King if his own parents had committed great evils to secure his throne?
What would he do when he finally met them again? Kaito wasn't a king yet, and he couldn't claim to be the true ruler of Estmarch if the King and Queen still lived. So it was truly only a matter of time before he found himself back in the presence of his own parents, and he would have to demand the truth from them.
'Is it our fate to become enemies?'
"Wait… that's him!"
Kaito snapped back to attention and scanned through the crowd. The silver-haired boy stood out easily slipping through the crowd of people. For a second Kaito almost called his name out, but he held his tongue. He slipped the medallion in his pocket. "We should pursue him… discretely…" Kaito said.
Len slipped his hat down his face and Kaito followed him into the crowd.
Miku carefully slipped through the girders in the ceiling as she searched for the clues Kaito sought. She tried to calm her pounding heart – leaving Kaito alone like this didn't feel right. He needed to be safe and…
'But I haven't kept him safe, have I?'
A blast of heat from the glass blowing equipment below her caused sweat to build up along her face. 'The explosion site should be close by…'
She slowed her crawling as she spied the familiar uniforms of the Zweissen police. 'Still guarded… great.'
Continuing her progress above their heads, she tried to keep her ears open for anything useful. Maybe a clue as to what they intended to do next or any clues they had already found…
"Between this and the Duke's murder, we're overworked! Aren't they closing in on the assassin at least so we can have something to show for all this crap?!"
Miku's ears pricked up. "Yea, we had a tip come in this morning. Three suspicious people hanging out in the old milling district. Two guys and a girl. Sound familiar?"
"Yep… shouldn't be too hard to book em' all. We'll get em' by sunset… let's just hope they're not Loyalists too, we've got enough problems here now that the Dawn's in charge."
She began to back away carefully. They still didn't have a path of escape, but the police had already tightened their net. The Emerald Dawn controlled the police. Now it didn't even matter if she had a Godmother on her tail, she needed to escape.
She slipped along the girders. While she hadn't gotten the information she'd set out for, her journey had in fact proven useful. It would save all their lives.
'I just have to find them in time… we should still be able to get our things…'
"Okay, creep, you're cornered!" Len shouted to his quarry.
Kaito clutched at his side as he and Len pressed Dex closer to the wall in the alley. In spite of how much his wound felt ready to split open, the adrenaline from the chase was keeping him focused as he pulled out his pistol and kept it trained on his old comrade.
The young man looked like a cornered wolf, ready to lunge, but he held steady. "What do you want!? Are you planning on turning me in to the Emerald Dawn as well!?"
"It's your lucky day… because we were looking for a lead on the Loyalists. And even after what you did to those kids, you're a best shot."
Kaito hoped Len could keep his anger in check. He could still see remnants of bruising on Dex's face from Len's brief spat with him.
"If you think I'm going to give away my countrymen, you've chased me down for nothing."
"I'm not here to fight you, Dex. I'm searching for a way out of the Rhune. And… I must ask that you cease these dangerous assaults on innocents."
Kaito was hoping a little diplomacy might finally serve him well. "I understand your intentions in fighting the usurpers, but choosing their methods will not serve your cause."
"And who are you to talk to me like that?!" Dex growled, "Some other runaway noble looking for scraps?"
For a moment Kaito felt hesitation. Of course, his plan had involved allowing the Loyalists to learn his identity but trusting it to just one man… was that wise?
"Why did you attack that factory? They were merely glass blowers! Mostly children… did your superiors know?"
Kaito kept his gun ready as Dex twitched. "You wouldn't understand! We had to make a sacrifice to stop the Emerald Dawn! Do you believe that wouldn't choose even harsher tactics?!"
As he tried to shift around, Kaito refused to lower his pistol as his anger built up inside of him. "Now, you tell me! Who are you and what right do you have to make demands like this of me?!"
Kaito glanced over to Len. "Up to you, 'Naoto,'" he said, "I think this guy's a little unhinged though."
'It's now or nothing…'
As Kaito pulled his scarf down, Dex's suspicions faded as he recognized the person in front of him. "It… it can't be… you must be an imposter or…"
'I hope I haven't already given too much away.'
"I survived the fall of the capital. I could tell you more of it, but I'd much rather know who is currently leading an army of apparently terrorists across the continent in my family's name."
"…. What could someone like you understand…" Dex growled as his shock began to wear off, "I was born to be a soldier, just like my father wanted. I had expectations! You were pampered and hidden away… do you even know how to fire that pistol!?"
For just a second, an impulse flew through Kaito as he imagined pulling the trigger and letting a bullet pass right near his surly opponent's head. But he stopped as reason overtook him – a gunshot would draw too much attention. "Dex, the last time I saw you, we engaged in a shooting match. I don't think I need to remind you that I won."
"You were shooting straw dummies. Do you have the nerve to shoot a living person? Would someone like you understand sacrifice?!"
Already Kaito's attempt at diplomacy lay crumbling before him. What wasn't he understanding? He knew Dex before, he'd never seemed a remorseless killer! What had gotten into him to make him so much more callous?
'Why can't I break through to anyone? Will it always turn out like this?!'
Before Kaito could compose a true response, the sounds of a commotion in the square drew his attention. "They wouldn't dare….!" "A firing squad?!" "Serves em' right!"
Luka marked up the last of the patient charts. 'Good riddance,' she thought, though she hesitated as her fingers traced along the name of Ryuto.
Now that the song of her childhood had set in, her resolve had only strengthened. She'd spent so long with the Godmothers that she'd allowed herself to be chiseled into her barest elements. Willingly, because it would give her the means to strike back. But now she was questioning that method. Making her emotionless might have dulled her reasoning.
She dearly missed the woman in her past, but recalling that past and the pain was proving far stronger a motivator now. He represented everything they'd died for. And she would strike him down in return.
There was still time to get them back. She flipped through the notebook one last time before the amplified voice of a woman shouting through a speaking trumpet pierced the calm. "Citizens of Rosenstadt! Before you stand the criminals still clinging to the old ideals! Those who refuse to release their loyalty to the corrupted crown!"
"Is that coming from the square?" Gakupo asked, "What in the world are they doing?"
Luka suspected she knew what they wanted, but held her tongue. "As the Loyalists refuse to step forward, we've been forced to find them ourselves! To make an example of them before everyone in Rosenstadt! Dissent will not be tolerated!"
"Public executions…" Gakupo murmured, "How dreadful."
"They weren't so uncommon in Sudland," Luka spat, "When they wished to shatter the Condefere de Lys, they made quite a show of lining them up in a firing squad."
For a moment, Luka recalled Gakupo's father had been a soldier. What if he'd served on one of those squads?
Maybe they really were enemies.
But for some strange reason she was having trouble assigning the same level of guilt to Gakupo that she could for the Shion Prince.
Gakupo's hands twitched. "Should we do something?" he murmured.
"There's likely not much we can do, unless you intend to shoot your way through."
She doubted he had the nerve… but she watched him stand up and start wandering towards the edge of the hospital camp. Luka's curiousity got the better of her as she followed him, grabbing a few necessary supplies along the way out of the camp.
"Friends of yours, Dex?" Len asked sarcastically, adjusting his hat.
The silver-haired Loyalist sniffed. "Are you completely daft? I wasn't in this city just to draw attention… I was trying to find out what the news about the execution was. They're supposedly about to execute several of our number to make a point."
"The Duke's old men?!" Len exclaimed.
"No… the Emerald Dawn."
If they were so close… Kaito realized he might have already lost his chance to escape. "Naoto, we need to run!"
Kaito lowered his pistol. This was already pointless. "Are they really working with you?" he questioned his enemy.
"No… none of them are. It's to make a point. They understand. They're willing to sacrifice a few people that don't matter to try and scare us into coming forward."
Dex blew a few silvery wisps of hair out of his face. "We can't give in to people like that. They'll get theirs in time."
Again Kaito felt his finger twitching on the trigger. He'd been counting on people like Dex to help himself and Miku escape, but now he felt disgusted with it. "No, you know nothing of sacrifice," he said gruffly, marching out of the alley.
"Wait, Kaito, where are you going?!"
Len ran out in front of him. "We need to duck out of sight! We need to hide! We…"
"I am through hiding."
He brushed Len out of his path as he entered the crowd of onlookers. He elbowed his way through, gasping as he felt someone jab his stitches. But he knew what he wanted to do. No matter how dangerous it was.
"…since not one soul has come forward to claim these criminals as their own… we've no choice!"
A woman with green hair tied up into a messy ponytail stood on a raised platform, shouting into her speaker-trumpet. She and her companions still wore the white uniforms of Estmarch, but the green bands on their arms depicted their current loyalty. Kaito gazed out and saw the gangly group of innocents rounded up to die in his stead. If he felt any hesitation about what he was going to do… he lost it now.
He felt an arm around his. He looked down to see Len again. "You're serious about this, aren't you?" he hissed.
"I can't let them die…" Kaito whispered.
Len craned his neck to get a better look at the soldiers. "Okay… the woman with the trumpet, Sonika… she's probably not a party diehard. She'd at least arrest you instead of just shooting you on sight. If they do that, I know where they're going to take you."
Kaito eyed a large vehicle… big enough to transport prisoners. "I'll grab Miku and we'll head the car off!"
He nodded to Len. "Thanks for understanding."
"Since no one is stepping forward…"
Kaito watched the soldiers raise their guns and the crowd went silent in fear. This was his last chance…
"I am!"
Miku shivered as she heard Kaito's voice break out in the crowd. Why?! Why was he doing this!? Didn't he value his own life and safety?!
She tried to get through, already trying to plot how fast she could disable the soldiers and get him away regardless of how exposed they were…
Emerging from the crowd, she saw Kaito marching forward, undoing his hood and pulling his scarf down clearly.
"Isn't… isn't that…"
"No! It can't be!"
"He's alive?!"
Kaito's presence seemed to unsettle the woman with the bullhorn. "Are… are you identifying yourself as one of them?! One of the… the terrorists?!"
Her strong composure vanished as Kaito climbed the platform. "I'm identifying myself as Prince Kaito of House Shion. And I demand that you release these innocents at once!"
Miku's anger and fear were tempered at seeing the determination in Kaito as he stepped forward into the line of sight of people working for the organization that burned his home. She didn't want him to be so reckless but… it would have been unlike him to turn his gaze away. To refuse to act.
"You… you expect me to believe you're the dead Prince?! We already received confirmation of his demise!"
But Kaito held firm. "The last Prince of House Shion stands before you. You asked for the Loyalists to take responsibility. Since they've chosen to act in my name before, then I will do so for them now. So no innocents have to die today."
Miku pulled her pistol out… she could probably take out the commanding officer before she gave the order to execute and…
"… then you agree to surrender. Release the prisoners and remand this man into custody!"
… no, now she merely needed to chase down the car and disable it with Kaito inside. She eyed Len in the crowd and jerked her head away, planning to meet with him even as she saw cuffs put onto Kaito's wrists… She heard a flash bulb go off as a green-haired photographer grabbed a photo and she cringed – the last thing she wanted was press. But that mattered not – all she had to do was rescue Kaito before it was too late…
Gakupo looked to his nurse, waiting for some reaction as they stood at the back of the crowd – just barely able to see the event… but she remained still. Maybe he still had a chance. Just one.
"Luka. You don't have to do this."
Now she had a reaction, spinning his way as her eyes widened in shock. But that emotion faded into calm resignation. "How long have you known?"
"From the first day you showed up. I couldn't forget your eyes."
He tried to manage his most charming smile, but then he remembered Rin thought he looked rather silly when he was trying to be "charming" and tried to reel it in. He wanted her comfortable with him, not repulsed. Right now she didn't appear repulsed, but she seemed to be shaking from some emotion starting to take hold of her again.
"You put everyone in that hospital in jeopardy because you liked my eyes? I could have killed you and your Cinderella."
"But you didn't. After… after you saved all those lives, I wanted to give you a chance. I wanted you to know you have a choice. I know what they put Rin through, I don't believe you're the person they made you into. And… and Rin agreed with me. She wanted to give you the same chance."
He watched her hands twitch, balling into fists, before relaxing again. He wanted to make this count. "You have a choice… you can save lives. You don't have to take them. You can let this one go. There are people alive in that hospital because of you."
"I could just walk away from it all? Pretend his life is meaningless to me?" She began to approach him, her hands out in front… she didn't appear to be reaching for a weapon.
"Well, I suppose that's a colder way to put it, but…"
Gakupo barely had time to react before Luka lunged at him, slamming him into the ground. He tried to push her off of him before the flowery scent of chloroform rushed into his nostrils from the rag the "nurse" was pushing into his face.
"We Godmothers do not assign value to lives. I am a tool of their purposes, not a judge. His life is forfeit!"
The anesthetic forced his limbs to drop as the sleeping sensation started to take hold. "Choish… pleash…"
But just before he completely passed out, he felt the rag lift. In the drug induced haze he couldn't tell the difference between Luka's footsteps or the dispersing of the crowd around him. He became aware a few moments later of someone slapping his face and from the force he was certain it had to be Rin.
"Gakupo… Gakupo! Did Luka do it?! Where did she go!?"
"Schtop her… the police carrr…"
He was still slurring his speech, but the chloroform wore off enough that he could sit. He tried to control the numbing in his tongue. "She's still going to kill him… I couldn't talk her out of it…"
He looked into Rin's face and saw the sorrow in her eyes. "You did your best. Please don't feel bad. It wasn't meant to be for her."
She moved to prop him up but he lightly pushed her away. "No… you, Rin. Go after her! You could still catch her if you're clever…"
Rin appeared worried so Gakupo gave one more shot at the "charming" smile. "Oh no, don't make goofy faces at me! Fine, I'll go catch up to her! I think I know where the car is going so I can head it off!"
She propped herself back up on her crutch and hobbled away quickly as Gakupo woozily tried to stand. "I hope I didn't get one of my patients killed..." he muttered.
Kaito kept his head down in the backseat of the car, two burly men blocking him in as it rolled through the streets at high speed. Aside from being under military arrest, he wasn't too bad off aside from having one of the officer's guns prodding into his aching wound.
Being here might not be where he'd wanted, but for once he felt accomplished when he saw Sonika ordering the release of the innocently accused.
'Of course this may make the people believe I ordered those attacks… but better that then believing I'm such a coward I'd let others die in my place.'
All of a sudden the vehicle lurched forward as Sonika jammed on the brakes, sending Kaito sliding forward across the seat. "The hell?! Where did that car come from?!" one of the men shouted.
'Is that… Len?! Miku?!'
Kaito guards bolted from the vehicle as he saw a large truck spread out along the road, blocking any further traffic. Gunfire broke out as he saw signs of Len leaping out of the cab and sending Sonika nad some of the soldiers after him in hot pursuit. The nearby gunfire began to cease as he saw a whirl of green hair and knives approach what remained of his captors…
To Miku, normal soldiers were nothing. The door flew open and he saw her face. "You have a lot of explaining to do!" she shouted, but her gentle smile suggested her anger was rather mild, "We have to try and make a break out of town! We don't have a choice, they closed in on the house!"
"I don't suppose one of those men had a key?" Kaito said, holding up his cuffed wrists to make his point.
He slid out of the car as quickly as he could manage in his predicament, landing on his feet and managing to stand despite the awkward posture. He saw Miku quickly checking her down foes' pockets, but the sounds of more gunfire broke that up. "Never mind! I'll pick those cuffs with a hairpin when we get away from here!"
She gripped Kaito's arm and started yanking him through an alleyway. "We can lose them back this way! Len's making the diversion up and-"
Suddenly she shouted and clutched at the hand holding her pistol. The weapon spun away as Miku gripped Kaito and pressed him into a solid brick wall. Miku's actions made more sense when he saw a throwing knife bounce off the wall… and spotted the deep cut on her right hand from where the first one had hit her.
The owner of the knives leapt down from the roof, retrieving her weapon. She looked quite the sight in a nurse's uniform, hat and all, though her pink hair flowed freely behind her. "L-Luka… no…"
This was the first time Kaito could remember hearing Miku afraid…
"You've shirked your duty. I'm here to finish it."
"NO! I won't let you hurt him!"
Miku drew her dagger and lunged towards Luka. The elder Cinderella easily deflected her, delivering several brutal blows to the girl as she struggled with her. "KAITO! Get out of here, please!" Miku begged.
"I won't leave you!" he shouted.
Miku managed to fight her attacker off of her, trying to get a good knife blow in before Luka did the same to her... the two women were clearly nearly evenly matched… Kaito tried to search for Miku's missing gun, but still being cuffed made it harder for him to maneuver. He couldn't defend himself like this, let alone help Miku out…
With one good throw, Luka gained the upper hand and tossed Miku off of her into a pile of crates, a loud crash sounding out. "Miku! No!"
Nothing stirred. "No… Miku… please… I didn't want to risk your life too… I just wanted them to be safe…"
"There is no safety for you, Prince Kaito."
He had never seen so much hatred in another soul as that which radiated from the woman before him. She dove on top of him and Kaito valiantly tried to press her away as she knocked him over. He let out a sharp shout as he felt the tearing sensation of his stitches finally giving out, but still he tried to keep the knife blade from plunging into his chest, holding up the chain of his cuffs to catch the blade fast…
"Over here! Now!"
Sonika's voice rang out as a canister of tear gas landed close by. As the smoke erupted, Kaito managed to push off his suddenly blinded attacker as his eyes began to sting. He tried to stand before he felt two strong male hands yank him up to his feet as he coughed. He couldn't even see the person that had grabbed him behind the gas mask on their face.
"Stand down! You will stand down!" He recognized that voice as Sonika's.
"Holy hell, look at that cut!"
Kaito was only barely aware of the warm dampness soaking through his coat…
"No idea if he's the Prince, but someone sure as hell wants him dead!"
"Stop gawking and get them back to the car before we lose anymore time! And get a doctor on the line to bandage him up, he can't give us any information if he's dead!"
Was he going to die? Was Miku even still alive? He couldn't even stand to open his eyes from the pain of the gas as he tried to gasp for breath, his lungs closing up as he kept inhaling it…
"Get her too! She must be his accomplice!"
'Miku?'
"Unhand me! You've no right!"
He heard the sounds of a scuffle as Luka, even disabled from tear gas, managed to hurl one of her attackers away from her. But a loud crack and her groaning indicated she'd been subdued again…
"We'll pen them both up and see what they know. Well, 'Prince', you've certainly got some strange allies."
They were about to jail him with his murderer.
Somehow… Kaito had made everything so much worse…
And all he could think of now wasn't his own life… it was the sight of Miku's body crashing through the boxes and his fear that he would never see her again…
As the gas cleared out, Len tried to make his way through the alley way, coughing as he felt the stinging in his face. He grabbed for Dex's bandana and tried to tie it around his mouth to keep his breathing steady from what remained. 'I can't believe they'd use tear gas even on civilians now…' he thought to himself.
His diversion had worked – he'd lost his pursuers. But when he'd arrived at the meeting spot where Miku was intended to bring Kaito… she hadn't arrived. That was when he heard the canisters firing and the gun shots.
But as he tried to search the alley way, he saw the signs of a much worse scuffle. Along with the empty canister, he recognized Miku's pistol, and a series of throwing knives.
"Godmothers?" he murmured.
He heard the sounds of coughing and he ran further through the alleyway… where he spotted a girl in a white dress hunched over what was clearly Miku's battered form, near a broken down set of boxes. A familiar mask was strapped around her face, but her blonde hair was unmistakeable.
"Do you think you can stand now? I work at the medical camp now, me and Gakupo can help patch you up!"
"K-Kaito… please, tell me what happened to Kaito…"
"I saw them load him into the car with Luka… he was bleeding from the surgery site, he must have torn his stitches… Luka wasn't conscious, I think they knocked her out…"
Len's first instinct would have been to call out to the girl, as she clearly wasn't harmful. But something about her voice made him lose his… because even though their separation had happened when she was so young…
… he couldn't forget the voice that tormented him every day with his failure.
As he stood closer to them, it was Miku that saw him first. She started to hail him, but coughed hard from the stress of talking again. But her shifted gaze alerted the nurse to his presence.
And as she turned her head, tugging her mask down… Len saw his mirror image. The same eyes, the same shape of her face, the same color of hair…
And right now, the same expression of shock… breaking down into tears as Len struggled to look her directly in the eye.
He knelt down to her, reaching out to touch her shoulder to assure himself he wasn't dreaming, but he still couldn't find his voice.
It mattered not, as the girl tugged him close to her in a tight, frightened hug.
Even if he didn't deserve to ever see her again… he clutched her tightly as well.
The Knight had finally found his Princess.
A/N:
Sorry for that one week delay, hope the latest nearly 10,000 word opus makes up for it.
I have to say writing a more grounded story with no magic is forcing me to be more creative in how I solve problems now. I can't rely on the same tricks I used to – everything must follow its own logic after all.
So, fun fact – tear gas was invented in the mid 1910s, and first used in World War I. It was banned after this as a chemical weapon… but in the 1920s it started getting used for riot control against civilians. That's right, tear gas is too cruel to use in actual war, but it's apparently fine to throw it at your unarmed rioting citizens. I swear, sometimes I don't have to make this up or make Tonio a thinly veiled character of someone whose name rhymes with Schronald Schrump just to make some actual cruelty realistic.
I hope the much awaited Len/Rin reunion is what you all wanted, I thought it was great how many people started anticipating them finding each other again.
Miku and Kaito's codenames are of course based on their voice providers, Saki Fujita and Naoto Fuga. I used the family name of the Kagamine's voice provider, Asami Shimoda, since obviously Asami is a very girly name.