CHAPTER 4 - HOW KUON WAS BORN
"Ruto, no!"
I watch in slow motion the once agile body completely lose muscle tone and, thanks to the momentum of the escape, collide strongly against the wall. I do not know what substance Ruto got into the dart he used, but right now, I try not to remember that he is an extremely efficient killer and I wish it were only in a tranquillizer.
I sense him watching me as I raise the limp body in my arms. There are murmurs around us, which reminds me that we have spectators and makes me correct my own movements: I was about to carry her in my arms, when I realized that it would not be wise to treat her as a woman. I simply toss her over a shoulder and leave as quickly as possible for Ten's quarters, whispering to Ruto to fetch her.
I know the first thing he'll do is look for Lory. As Lory's Counselor, his two main functions are to intercept any threat against the Clan and to take care of the Master's safety, necessarily in that order. With Kyoko unconscious ("not dead!" I repeat to myself), I know he will immediately check that Lory is well, which also serves my purpose. I am sure that Lory will guess the reason why Ten is asked for and will understand the urgency.
On the way, I ignore the questions and comments of the onlookers who hinder my departure. I saw Yashiro come up, probably released thanks to Kyoko's unconsciousness, and, as if reading my thoughts, start scattering the crowd.
Such ability, he has. I've never been able to figure out whether it's his voice or his eyes, but there's something hypnotic about the way he shapes people's moods, convincing them to behave exactly as he wants. Which is very convenient to him, since he rarely needs to use his esteemed collection of knives. Yashiro loves the blades, but he loathes the dirt they make.
Julie never understood why I chose him to be my counselor. She would certainly prefer it if I had someone with Ruto's abilities at my side, but what she does not know is that I do not need a killer at my command; not when I'm my own killer. And extremely good at it, by the way.
No, from Yashiro I only need cunning and strategy, a calm mind to counterbalance my impulsiveness. However, this is not something I'm going to tell the woman who took me and my older brother Rick out of a Shantytown of Exiled and raised us up as if we were her own children...
When I finally reach Ten's private quarters, I lay the light, irresponsible body on a cot and remove the helmet.
I... I did not expect that. For six years, I was tormented by thoughts about Kyoko, but only in front of her face did I realize that she never had a face to me.
In spite of her hate for her own hair, judging by the very random manner in which she cut it, her features left no doubt that she is a woman. The shock paralyzes me. A woman, really a woman. She can only be Kyoko; the suspicion finally comes true.
The living proof of the Fuwa clan's crime.
A woman. A 20-year-old woman still not taken as a wife, nor as a procreative.
A woman living alone in a slum.
A woman standing as a Digger.
Damn it, she can break many social taboos by herself. If I am astonished, what would the Council say?
Holy shit, the Council!
Holy shit, Sho is here, in Lory's palace, as a representative of his Clan!
"Oh? I agree that she is beautiful, Ren, but if you do not get out of the way, Ten will not be able to help her! "
I come back to reality to realize that Lory, Ruto, Ten and Yashiro are all around me, watching me with distinct expressions as I hold Kyoko's head in my hands, staring at her in astonishment.
I release her as if she burned me and I regret immediately for the lack of delicacy. Lory's consort does not waste time asking only for Yashiro's presence in the room and expelling all the others. I still stand still for a few seconds, watching Ten trying to remove Kyoko's overalls and shouting instructions to Yashiro about which ingredients to separate.
When Lory returned to the room to take me away, Kyoko's skin was a sickly greyish tone.
"Let Ten and Yashiro take care of her, Ren. The three of us are in no position to help. Probably, we would only hinder them"
I only understand Lory's words when I look at Ruto. As if the surprises of the night were not enough, there was the once stoic counselor displaying nothing less than a facial expression.
Hell, no matter what his expression is: Ruto is simply demonstrating something, which is disturbing and in many ways, scary.
Lory look at him ruefully.
"It's not your fault. You didn't know"
As I expected, Ruto says nothing. He just stands by the door that separated us from Kyoko, probably in penance for attacking a woman.
I wonder what was supposed to be going through his mind: maybe she was the next maintainer of humanity, or, in other words, the next woman to get pregnant. Kyoko was a new possibility; perhaps she was a hope of non-extinction of the human race.
With relief, I hear Lory explain that the dart used against her contained only a tranquillizer, but as is normal in this fucking world, my relief is short-lived. Only until Lory commented that Kyoko's unhealthy appearance was due to the dosage Ruto used: not knowing the invader was a woman, he used enough to knock down a man.
And not a "Trivial" man, but an "Exceptional."
"But do not worry, Ten will know how to deal with the overdose"
Dammit, should that reassure me? I have a lot to lose if she does not escape alive again, to fall easily into Lory's motivational shit.
For a few minutes, Kyoko was real and no longer the fruit of my mind. For a few minutes, I glimpsed what life would be like without the weight of her death on my shoulders; without the torment of remembering the only crime I did not solve and dreaming of her body being ripped apart by aquatic beasts.
It will not surprise me if the damn life just wanted me to feel the sweet taste of redemption so I know exactly what to regret when Kyoko is taken away from me.
Trying not to embark on such thoughts, I take the opportunity to ask Lory how he discovered that the Digger was Kyoko. I know he has the exceptional ability to see through stories and people, what he calls "keen intuition," but to unravel the whole situation and so quickly was an extraordinary achievement even for him.
"Well, like I said, it was a bold guess. The first information I had when I looked at him with Maria was that it was a boy, since no grown man is so small. I was not surprised that the Exceptional Unknown was young; after all, the Council tries to locate and identify all the Exceptional, preferably from birth, since the Clans dispute them fiercely. Someone with high skills represents a gap in the balance of power, a potential threat to the other Clans, and you know that well, Ren. However, someone having the furtive ability to fool Ruto and remain Exiled caught me totally by surprise. I mean, if you have something that the Clans value, you certainly will not want to live in the slums, right? No, you will not; you will look for a Clan, show your talent and be welcomed to be trained as a Counselor, Assassin, Judge or any other function that guarantees you a minimally comfortable life. So, I began to consider the possibility of being someone whose need to hide would overcome the desire to enjoy the benefits that only a clan can offer, something like a wanted criminal, but I could not think of anyone. At least no one so young or so small.
Another problem was the fact that no wanted criminal has the profile to make friends with a little girl, least of all to run the risk of being caught just to see her. This requires an ability to feel that criminals do not possess.
I went back to my sketches. Someone small, highly skilled, who needs to hide at all costs, capable of liking a girl and, finally, educated. Not the basic education taught in haste, but that of someone who had access to diverse collections. Someone who read absolutely everything that passed through his hands. He was a Digger and an Exceptional, so I was not surprised that he had had contact with several relics, but the fact of knowing how to read the languages of the ancestors indicated to me a person who somehow grew up inside a Clan or Guild , for only these are taught to read.
I had already traced much of the profile of our intruder, but there was still one issue troubling me: age. A sixteen-year-old boy, even educated in a Clan, does not have the level of knowledge the Outsider was showing, especially since the works 'Romeo and Juliet' and 'Othello' were unearthed four years ago. Why, then, did a twelve-year-old boy find the works, translate them, understand them, and sell them to me? Not that it was impossible, but it was highly unlikely!
That's when a new possibility came to me: he is not only sixteen. You need to be older to raise such a level of knowledge nowadays, but an older boy would not be so small!"
"That's when you thought he was a woman"
It's not a question, and Lory knows it.
"Exactly. Except that for a woman to be able to hide herself, even though she is Exceptional, it is extremely difficult, after all, they all belong to someone, and the owner simply would not stand idly by waiting for her to appear. No, there would be a fuss and we would know. Unless-"
"Unless they considered her dead." I know I'm being rude interrupting Lory's story, but now that the pieces fit together, I wonder how I failed to see exactly what he saw.
Every discovery becomes obvious after the discovery.
"Indeed! Therefore, I just searched in my memory for women raised in a Clan or Guild, who had a reason to hide and were given as dead for Kyoko's name to emerge. After all, how can I forget the countless times when you have profaned my ears shouting obscenities at the Fuwa Clan? "
He did not need to bring this up, did he?
The door of the room opens and Yashiro comes out, warning us that Ten wants to see us. Only Ruto remains at the door, I imagine, ensuring, after hearing the story revealed by Lory, that no stranger discovers the sensitive information we are hiding.
###
"I've never seen anything like this in my entire life!"
Ten's astonishment faithfully reproduces what I'm feeling. Except for her breasts and hips tightly bound with cloth strips, Kyoko is a bare, pale, motionless image on the cot. In the upper abdomen, the ugly burn mark answers the last doubt I had about what happened at the fateful dawn when she was attacked: the Exiled who saved her, whether or not knowing what he was doing, resorted to the barbaric method of cauterization to close the wound.
Correct or not, the procedure had worked. It remained to know if she would also survive the damage done that night.
"I did everything I could, now we just need to keep her hydrated. She'll vomit a lot, and the situation will get worse before she gets better, but maybe she'll survive. If she survives tonight, she'll live "
"Maybe she'll survive." "If she survives." All I can hear from Ten is death possibilities.
"Get out. I'll take care of her tonight "
"Hm? But Ren, she- "
"Alright, Ten. Let's let Ren take care of her"
I do not want to look at any of them. I do not want to see what expressions they have at the moment. Even if I wanted to explain, they would not understand. In this fucking world, my life would have no meaning if it were not for Kyoko. Her story was what gave me a greater purpose, something beyond the "survival of the species" they preach all the time.
I wished I had saved her six years ago. I wanted to take her with me if I found her alive. I cursed the Fuwa Clan for the life they took. I could do nothing else, so I hated myself for my impotence.
Now that she's here, as long as she's breathing, there's finally something I can do for her, not anymore because of her.
###
"Ruto, no!"
Total darkness. I am accustomed to the pitch, the confinement, the silence. Nothing besides me and countless creatures that I command with a simple thought. They whisper in my head about buried treasures, people waiting in lair and dead-ends. Recite the entire path that I need to take to reach my destination, find treasures and return safely to my hiding place.
They are projections of me, able to cross the thickest walls and tell me what's on the other side. Able to show me lost secrets of this world. Relics that will help me in my revenge plan, important enough that I crawl through tiny spaces in dangerous ruins.
I wish I had such skill before the attack. It is said that the abilities of the Exceptional are awakened at the right time, but for me the timing was too late. We did not save Kyoko.
Six years ago
"Are you listening to me, girl? Do not die! Do not you dare die! "
Who are you?
"Holy shit, there's blood everywhere. Do not die, do you hear me? "
Blood? Whose blood?
"You're fucked, girl. And now they're going to fuck me too. I'm already a dead man, but you can live"
You talk so many obscenities. Who are you?
"Survive, girl. Survive and fuck all of them! "
Them… who?
"Do not let them know that you are a woman, this is very important, do you hear me? They can not know! "
I am… what?
"Oh, you're up. What's your name, girl? "
"K -... ooouuuch!"
"Kuon? What the fuck's name is that? But that's okay, it looks like a boy's name. Well, Kuon, you're my son, can you hear me? "
It hurts, it hurts a lot!
"You are Kuon, my son. A Digger. Yes, a Digger. Keep those breasts tied, understand? And do not spread your legs around! No one can know that you are a woman, or they will kill you and my sacrifice will be in vain! "
"Sacrifice... father?"
"Yes, Kuon, my son. They called the Tsuruga Monster to finish me off, but look, I got this Digger outfit for you. I'm going to take the blame for the fuckers that fucked you, and in return I ordered this outfit for you to hide from them. So you owe me, Kuon! You owe me! I am all you have, and they will take me away from you! Avenge me, Kuon! Avenge yourself!"
Yes, father. They will never know. I'm going to break them all for you, Dad. For you and... for the girl they fucked. What was her name? Kyoko! Yes, it was Kyoko. Poor Kyoko, so innocent... she did not stand a chance. But I'm going to stop them, Dad. For you and for her.
"Hold still here. Do not let them know who you are. Stay covered, understand?"
Yes, father. I'm Kuon, your son. I'll be hiding. I swear, I'll stay hidden. And I'm going to end them all.
Current moment
What's happening to me? Did I come back to that day? Who's touching me?
"Father?... You came to get me?"
"Shhh, do not talk"
It's not my father's voice. This voice...
I start to struggle, something is wrong and telling me to get away. Strange hands hold me and the voice tells me to be calm, to save my energy. "Fuck you, do not tell me what to do!"
"Your mouth is dirty to the brink of death, Kyoko?"
Kyoko? Who is Kyoko?
Something goes up through my gut and out through my mouth. My whole body hurts and burns. Why do not I die right away?
Hands are back, but I have no strength. Something soft and warm covers my mouth, but I'm too weak to turn my face. A liquid goes down my throat and I know I know the flavors, but I can not remember the names of the ingredients.
I scream as I feel the red iron mending my tissues again and I vomit. I listen again to my father's voice telling me to be quiet, or else they will kill us both, and I bite harder the roll of cloth that he placed between my teeth, except that it is not my father's voice, no one is shutting me and in my mouth there is only the taste of blood.
"Kyoko, hold on. Please hold on"
Who is Kyoko?
"Hold on just tonight, please... Come on, just one night!"
Hm?
Six years ago
"Come on, just one night!"
"No! Take your hands off me!"
"You're going to be mine anyway!"
"Sho, stop!"
"Argh! You bitch, you scratched me!"
Current moment
"Sho, stop!"
I'm struggling again, which makes me throw up again. How many more times will I vomit?
I fight the hands that hold me with the ferocity of a woman who expects to feel, at any moment, the punch that will leave her groggy and the piercing pain between her legs that will make her lose consciousness, but nothing happens, just the strange voice that says everything's okay, that I'm safe.
The hell I'm safe! Safe I'll only be when I'm dead, and by the pain I'm feeling, life keeps pissing me off!
I am weak again, and once again, I feel the soft pressure. The difference is that now I anticipate the liquid that I know will descend next through my parched throat. I'm thirsty, so I sip and suck and lick greedily. I hear a strange guttural sound, but I can not figure out what it is, because soon the darkness comes back to envelop me.
I hear Maria's tearful voice. Sons of bitches, if they hurt Maria, I'll wipe them out!
There is something soft and cold running through my body. It's nice. What's the word, again?
Oh yeah. It's "refreshing".
###
It was the worst night of my life. Worse than the five days following the butchering traces of the Butcher Brothers. Worse than spending the night with Yashiro and Rick in the desert waiting for the child traffickers to come out of hiding. Worse than training with Lory and Kuu.
I've never been so terrified in my whole life. Nor so emotionally tired.
For twelve hours, Kyoko stammered, shook, vomited, bit, moaned, screamed, punched, cursed, debated. When I thought nothing could be worse, she stood still.
Yes, motionless was much worse. She seemed dead.
I saw no alternative but to call Maria. Maybe the girl's voice could pull Kyoko's reaction, any reaction that told me she was fighting, but I could only hurt both: Maria cried, whether because of her friend's condition or because she felt betrayed by the secret Kyoko kept, I can not say, and the only reaction Kyoko sketched was a lonely tear.
Ten took Maria out of the room, not before looking at me as if castrating me, astonishing me. Curious that before she knew about Kyoko's story, Lory's consort represented the ideal image of woman: docile, modest, timid. It was enough to know that there was an adult woman living alone and working as a Digger to Ten raise her eyes from the ground and start saying some defiant phrases.
Hours. It's been hours since Kyoko's existence was revealed for a change of sorts to take place. As I predicted, the "Kyoko situation" needs to be approached with caution.
For lack of a better idea, I dry the tear trail with my finger and feel her face warm and sticky. With a damp cloth, I start to clean her, trying to lower her body temperature and make her more comfortable. I struggle with myself not to think about the intimacy of what I am doing, nor to remember how her mouth devoured mine hours before, while I made her swallow a little more of the medicine prepared by Ten.
I'm a pervert son of a bitch, to get excited in such a moment.
At least she sighs, which is a reaction. Any reaction is commendable.
A few purple marks begin to appear, especially in her arms, courtesy of my attempts to stop her from struggling so as not to injure herself. I thought about tying her up, but what if she woke up? What could she think had happened to her?
Constriction marks disappear in a short time, which can not be said about the emotional damage by imagining herself violated again.
I sit next to her again and soon Yashiro reappears, asking me about her.
###
Ren is worse than when he finally managed to locate the Butcher Brothers and finish them off. Worse than when he eats the terrible food that Julie prepares, purposely bad to prevent Kuu from eating alone the whole supply of the world.
Anything above unpalatable, and Kuu eats the equivalent of an entire Clan.
He spent the night awake, and by the bandaged hand I deduce that Kyoko bit him. She would probably bite her own tongue, were it not for Ren to stick his hand in the middle and stop her.
Blessed agility.
He is a rag and I hope Kyoko survives, otherwise I do not know what will become of him. I remember how he was when he returned from Fuwa territory and how he stayed for weeks after receiving the honors for having punished the Exiled who raped and killed her. He did not have to tell me to deduce that the real guilty had slipped through his fingers, let alone that his effort to become a Clan Master came from the deep discontent he had felt ever since.
I ask how she is, and he responds with a simple nod. That bad, huh?
Ren is grumpy, Maria refuses to eat and to talk to her parents and grandfather, Ten is looking the men in the eye when talking to them and Ruto stays in the door as if Kyoko was the real Clan Master.
I almost could not suppress the laughter. If Ren heard me laugh in a situation like this, he would break my neck like a stick. Well, it's funny. It's funny how Kyoko has no idea of the turnaround she's provoking in Lory's palace. Unconsciously and in a few hours, she has succeeded in subverting an order carefully instituted for years, decades, centuries of strategically articulated social division and has two Clan Masters and a Counselor / Assassin at her mercy.
"What a scary woman!"
I was about to tell Ren to rest, maybe eat something while I would watch Kyoko, even though I knew he would refuse the offer for the sixth time, when a babble coming from the cot next to us attracted our attention.
"Oh yeah. It's refreshing"
Eyelids open slowly and golden eyes land on us.
N / A - Erza, I can not even think of SB! without thinking about Kyoko / Ren XD
I hope the transitions are clear. Kyoko confused the past and the present and lost consciousness and the notion of time several times. In italics are the thoughts, which she was too weak to put into words.
In the chapter, I do not know if it was clear, I tell you how "Kuon" came about. There is no Kuon / Ren here, only Ren. On the other hand, there is Kuon / Kyoko, since Kuon is the male version that Kyoko created to pose as a man for six years.
I'm on vacation and I'm going to spend a week traveling, so the next update will take a little while.
As always, thanks for coming with me! XO
