CHAPTER 11 - KNOWLEDGE IS POWER
"You promised to marry me!"
Oh, Maria! If you only knew how many promises I made to you since you were born, even though I knew it would be impossible to fulfill them...
Yes, of all the things she could talk about, the first topic had to be this. I see her with small clenched fists and wonder what she thinks she can do with them. Therefore, I wonder if this is how Ren sees me when I challenge him and an unpleasant feeling settles in my chest.
As much as I want to postpone what awaits me, I long ago discovered that postponing the inevitable only brings more suffering.
They gave me two days to recover before assuming my position in the Tsuruga Clan. I do not need so much time, but I imagine they have included Maria in their calculations. I thought she would be mad at me; after all, I lie to her since ever. But then, I remember it's Maria I'm talking about, with her unique ability to feel the real intent of people, so maybe she'd always known I was hiding something from her.
Maybe she even knows who I really am.
"I did not promise to marry you: I said I would marry you if I could." I make a wide gesture with my hands, indicating my whole body. "Well, as you see, I cannot."
She gets furious and I almost smile. Then she relaxes and fury turns to sadness.
"Is it so important to keep me away?"
It's almost like a punch in the stomach. Maria's ability is growing stronger every day.
I come down before her, as I have so often done as Rat, and I hold her by the shoulders.
"Maria, listen to me. This is very important"
I wait for confirmation from her. Maria loves when the situation seems solemn, as if we were two people of extreme relevance about to save the damn world. After a nod, I press on with my warning.
"About what you do, of feeling people's intent... does anyone else know about it?"
She shakes her head. Too quick a response, especially from a five-year-old, for me to think of it as minimally reliable.
"Think well, Maria! I want the correct answer, not the answer you know I want to hear!"
Okay, too hard for a kid. I think a little, maybe if I rephrase the question...
"Maria, about the people you're living with... what do they want from you?"
She tilts her head to the side. Now, I know what she's thinking.
"Well, Lina wants a baby"
Yes, very good. It seems that now she understood my question.
"Kouki wants me to make Lina happy"
Okay, he's not the most zealous father, but as long as he does not want to hurt Maria, I'll be satisfied. For a while.
"Lory wants a lot of things from me"
Oops.
"Lots of things?"
"Yes! He wants me to call him Grandpa, call Kouki Daddy, and call Lina Mommy. He also wants me to trust him"
"And you don't trust him?"
She shakes her head.
"Why not?"
Maria just shrugs, as if she does not know how to respond. Warning signs flash in my head, and I think I need to get Maria out of here after all.
"But he won't do me any harm"
Oh?
"I know you want to know if I'm in any danger here. I know you're scared that something bad will happen to me"
I cannot deny what to Maria is obvious. In fact, it was because of my desire to protect her and to have her around that Maria put herself in danger by following me through Kotonami District.
"Lory is also afraid that something bad will happen to me"
"Is he?"
Maria's answers don't cease to surprise me.
"Yes, he wants to protect me just as much as you do!"
Now my head is seething. Wait a second... Lory wants to protect Maria?
Lory wants to... protect Maria.
Lory. Wants. To. Protect. Maria!
My breathing is short and fast. Of all the plans, among all the hypotheses...
Thus, the blackmail was a bluff! My cooperation as Ren's procreator in exchange for Maria's safety relied on an empty threat of surrendering her to the Fuwa Clan!
"Wait, Maria. You say he wants to protect you, but you also say that you don't trust him"
"Yes, he... thinks too much? Hmm... a lot going on here"
She points to her own head. Makes sense, Lory seems the kind of person who is always scheming.
"So much, it's hard to keep up. He... changes his mind all the time. Lots of concern, too. But with Maria it's always the same: he wants to protect me"
"But you don't trust him?"
I must insist on this point. Maybe there's something she doesn't know how to tell me.
"I don't know why I shouldn't trust him, but you told me to rely only on you, so I only trust you. Even if you too think too much and hide a lot of things from me"
Ouch. That's true.
Relief floods me, and Maria smiles. If a Clan Master and Council member wants to protect her, I can focus on other fronts.
The battle is just beginning.
"You're going to do something foolish, aren't you?"
Her sadness is back. If I could choose, I'd tear my right hand apart before letting Maria down. However, I made a choice a long time ago.
"Yes, Maria. So I need you to be a good girl for now"
"For how long, exactly?"
"I am not sure. A few years, maybe. If we're lucky. Forever, if I fail"
"Forever?"
Great, now she's crying.
"But I do not intend to fail! I have a plan this time. A risky plan, it's true, but if it works…"
"If the plan works, will you come and get me?"
"Maria, if the plan works, they will have no choice but to give you to me!"
We're smiling at each other like two idiots. These precious moments are rare, in which we dare to dream that everything will work out.
"I'm counting on you, Maria, to help me with the plan. All you have to do is be a good girl, especially to Lory, but do not let anyone know what you can do, or their intention with you can change, do you understand me?"
She nods solemnly. Great, I already have some precious information. Time to figure out what else I can draw from the situation.
Time to consult my valuable informants.
###
Brothel, whorehouse, cathouse, House of Prostitution: that's how the ancestors called these places; now, they have the ironic name of "center of human reproduction."
Centuries ago, women used to be paid for her "services"; nowadays, they only receive shelter and food, a.k.a., the chance to remain alive.
I greet Sawara and ask for the usual two girls for an hour. He makes a murmured comment about the vigor of youth and asks the assistant to warn Kanae and Chiori. "The usual room," he tells me. I pay and leave.
Their eyes light up when they see me. It was not always like this. At first, I came to see only Kanae. I was the boy whose sister had been adopted by her extended family, so on the first day she was disappointed that I had chosen her.
A misfortune brought her here, like most girls. As soon as she was sixteen, she was chosen as a procreator for the Koenji Clan, but Erika felt threatened by her rival's beauty and opened a deep cut on Kanae's face, disfiguring her. I think she remains beautiful, but to the nobles she is a defective merchandise.
Similar fate befell Chiori: as a young girl, she was involved in a fire in the district where she lived with her family. A little burn, and this is it. A scar on your face, and you are done. Men may be toothless, flabby, stupid, smelly, and yet good enough to label youngsters like Kanae and Chiori as "unfit for marriage."
Ok, that's not how they are officially called, but could be: good enough to fuck and get pregnant, tainted enough to never become wives.
I don't know how the Monster can want me after he saw the scar I have. Probably he just wants to have me around to find out what I can do and get some edge with my ability.
Back to Kanae, I looked specifically for her because she intrigued me. She thwarted her family by accepting the Koenji Clan's proposal to be a procreative. Likewise, it was her choice to come to the human reproduction center of Sawara, ironically called Love Me by none other than Lory. Both invitations were accepted to escape from her extended family, she claimed, but I suspect she just wanted to avoid being a burden her large family would need to wear and feed. The children they always refused to sell to the nobles needed care, after all, and Kanae did not want to be another expense.
We had barely turned seventeen when I looked for her here.
Nobles speak. Or, as Chiori likes to say, "they do not know how to properly use their mouths." A bunch of illiterate whores hear every kind of appetizing secret that can turn the balance of power, since customers find them too stupid to comprehend the seriousness of what they are revealing.
Therefore, when I told Kanae that I just wanted to know what she was hearing, she was relieved by the news. Then came the fear.
"What do you want to do with such information? Don't tell me you're with the rebels!"
I wanted to laugh. Me, with the rebels? A bunch of amateurs hiding in the desert, trying to create an alternative society based on equality, what a joke! Unsatisfied Exiled, people accused unjustly, homosexuals... anyway, everyone the society despises is piled up in the desert under the stupid codename of Bridge Rock, thanks to the rock formation that serves as reference point to their hiding place.
Me, with them?
I told Kanae I'm not with them, but she did not believe me. She refused to help me, claiming it would be too risky for her. I might already have the rope around my neck for getting involved with such guys, but she was not stupid to accompany me to the scaffold.
Yes, she was not stupid. So, I offered her what no one would ever offer: knowledge.
A fair exchange: she gave me information, I gave her information. Shortly after, Chiori was included in the scheme. "To make it easier for us to meet," was how Kanae justified, but I suspect she only wanted to help the girl of fate resembling hers. On the other hand, it was a satisfactory decision, since now I had four shrewd ears bringing me information that I would not get otherwise.
They never asked me how a Digger learned to read and write. I think it's the kind of information they considered safer not to have.
I'm pretty sure they think I'm a gay boy who collects information for the rebels, which made me laugh on my own a few times. Hikaru also thinks I'm a gay boy, judging by the number of times I caught him looking at my ass, but for that fact I never laughed. It is not funny to be more of a disappointment to a person that life has already taken care of fucking in every way.
I return to the present moment as the two take their usual positions, looking at me anxiously. Unfortunately for them, today I do not bring literature, philosophy or mathematics, just the usual questions and a bold proposition.
They tell me about the elevation of Ren to Master of Clan and the discontent that this maneuver provoked. The Tsuruga territory is nothing more than an expansion of the Takarada and Hizuri territories, nothing that some Nobles understand as a conquest of Ren, which only made it obvious that Lory and Kuu wanted one more voter in their favor on administrative matters.
They're divided, the motherfuckers. The Takarada and Hizuri Clans, despite having larger and richer territories, are hindered in voting because of the alliance formed by the Fuwa, Morizumi and Koenji Clans. The solution was to grant land to Ren to work on them until they became self-sufficient, and as a reward, Ren was elevated to Master, a Council decision. That is, above the jurisdiction of the rival alliance. Too distant for Fuwa, Morizumi and Koenji, but within reach of Lory's hands.
With the score always tying in 3X3, it's up to the Council to decide, and there's Lory, once again. Pft, Master Fuwa must be so pissed!
But...
"Wow, does she really need to scream?"
As usual, while Kanae recounts what she understood from the complaints and comments of the past few weeks, Chiori pretends that we are doing what people do there, usually. If someone came in by surprise, despite the suggestive sounds, the person would see Chiori casually picking her nails and sporadically paying attention to what Kanae and I talked to at the foot of the bed.
"Believe it or not, she's a favorite here because of that"
Looks like I'm torturing the poor girl. I've never understood how security guards can allow such atrocity and do nothing. I mean, they're supposed to protect the "commodity", right?
When Kanae finishes her report, Chiori comes to the end of her very vocal climax. They shift places, and I thank any deity existing for the fact that Kanae is adept of the low moans and sighs.
Chiori also has news about the Tsuruga Clan, which is not surprising since it was the most important event of recent times.
"I hear Morizumi Clan is furious!"
Okay, no news here. Those who hold power rarely want to divide it.
"It looks like the Monster has found a new procreator, coming directly from the shantytown of Tsuruga territory, and he did not even wait for Ruriko and Kimiko's deadlines to end before announcing her arrival"
Holy shit. What the hell is going on?
"And she is not the standard age of sixteen, but twenty years! Can you believe it?"
Two days, only two days and I'm already a gossip?
"Who told me was very curious. After all, if she were a beauty, she would have been recruited four years ago, so Master Tsuruga must have some bizarre fetish that the nobles are crazy to discover!"
Oh yeah. Fetish sets well.
They are two jewels, my informants: while Kanae focus on the politics, Chiori prefers to comment on social games. Both are very smart and the news they bring complements perfectly. They may be the only women in the world with the ideal skills to do the trick of uncovering information. It was also a pleasant surprise to find that Kanae remembers absolutely everything she reads, and Chiori can write at an alarming speed. Together, they are the perfect reproducers, and the irony makes me smile: I don't want them for human reproduction, but for the reproduction of ideas.
Our time is running out.
"I have a proposal to make to you two"
###
She's almost six hours late. I know it's unlikely she will miss the deal, since we're using Maria as a blackmail, but six hours is too long.
What if something happened on the way here? What if she got sick? What if she was discovered?
Lory assured me that it would be safer for her to come alone. As we planned, it seemed reasonable to conclude that she would draw less attention if she came alone and in her usual disguise. We also consider the fact that she probably knows inconspicuous ways of traversing the distance separating Takarada territory from Tsuruga territory, but in the face of delay I can only think that our planning failed.
Two days was the time we gave her to recover and, if she wished, to reconcile with Maria before assuming the position that we force her to accept.
If she had not hated me before, she certainly hates me now.
The wait makes me agitated. Yashiro is right: I've become paranoid over the years. Apprehensive enough to rethink incessantly all the negative scenarios that may have occurred to justify her delay.
"The security of your territory is precarious!"
As if to mock all my concern, there she was, in a corner of my room, quietly sitting on the floor. If I had not decided to take a cover to start a search for her, I would not have found her for the next three hours, at least.
"What are you doing there?"
I did not want to sound harsh, but she scared me when I was already upset.
"What? Wasn't this the agreement? Didn't you blackmail me into accepting... your care?"
Yes, she hates me.
"I'm referring to the fact that you're shrunken on the floor"
"Well, my clothes are filthy, and everything here is so... flawless"
Sharp pain.
"...Remove the helmet. I don't like to talk to someone I cannot see"
She cringed even more. Am I still being harsh?
"I really need to? You know, I thought I could keep the helmet... at least the helmet, I mean. Do you understand?"
Sharp pain.
"No, I do not understand".
Oh yeah, I understand, but I'm willing to be wrong.
"Well, it's not like you need my head to do... what you're going to do to me. So I thought about staying with the helmet. At least... with the helmet. Is it too much to ask? "
Sharp pain.
What's going on now? Where's the bravado? The courage? Or the mockery? The malice? It's like I'm talking to someone else! How many different people is she?
"Kyoko, remove the helmet"
Maybe I'm being cruel, but now, more than ever, I need to look at her.
I hear her resigned sigh. I can finally see her, but she refuses to look at me. Needless, though, since her eyes are huge orbits that reflects all the vulnerability she's feeling.
Somehow, I feel that I'm finally seeing Kyoko. The person in front of me, unlike all the others, fits perfectly in the survey I made on her six years ago.
"You're not used to interacting face-to-face with people, are you?"
She shakes her head uncomfortably. Everything about her is an enigma to me: fearless at one moment, vulnerable at the other. Sometimes provocative, sometimes shy. Before, willing to defy me; now, determined to merge with the wall.
My scrutiny is only making things worse.
"That door leads to the bathroom. Do what you have to do, but do not take long or I will seek you"
This is not how I would like to treat her, but she can't know that my wish is to hug her and promise that everything will be all right. For her safety, it is critical that she obey me. Even if she has to fear me for that.
"What if I don't want to?"
The rebellion started earlier than I expected.
"What do you mean?"
"What if I don't want to wash myself? What if I like being dirty and smelly?"
"So much the better for me"
She looks at me with a disgusted expression and I almost laugh. It's fun to deal with her when she's revealing everything she's thinking on her face. A grateful change, considering every time she ever deceived me.
Better clarify the situation before she believes I am against hygiene.
"Either you wash yourself or I wash you. I'm giving you the chance to choose. Of course, if it depends on me, I will bathe you with pleasure"
The disgust turned into shock, and the shock turned to dread. Seconds later, she ran into the bathroom.
I could not help laughing. In my defense, I never saw a person blush so hard.
A/N - I like to play with Skip Beat references and this fic gives me full opportunity for both. Maria's ability came from the chapter in which she says that people are false, always saying things different than they actually think. Kanae and Chiori's abilities are more obvious, are not they? XD
The "sharp pain" is from their play of Dark Moon.
"Bridge Rock" made its first appearance, here as the code name of the rebels, because obviously such a corrupt society would have some disgruntled ones, and I justified the name as a point of reference for the location of the group. And yes, here Hikaru is gay. And he's also in love with the Digger 47, not knowing he's a woman. Oh gosh. When I was imagining this parallel universe, I wondered how homosexuals would be seen in a society based on the survival of the strongest and the perpetuation of the species, so I automatically came across the idea of a sexist and homophobic society.
I bid you two good news: the next chapter is almost ready and the whole script of this fic is completely drawn in my head.
Fraternal embraces to my readers, constant supporters or not, anonymous or not! You are the best!
