Slowly, Zack began to stir in bed with slight motions, moving a finger here and there, turning his head on the soft, white pillow. He groaned in lethargy, feeling his consciousness layer on top of him, as if playing his body amusingly. His conscious shifted and wavered into his body, getting his mind pumped up until he realized where he was and achieved focus. He woke up with a gasp, feeling the fresh air fill his body, only bringing him closer back to earth from the land of his own dreams. He opened his eyes slowly, his eyelids still weighing ten tons from the long snooze. What time was it? was his first thought. Was it morning? Was it still night? He couldn't tell. But for some reason, he felt like it was morning.
Overtime sand filled eyes made them more resistant to keep open, but he knew that if he ever shut them, he would immediately go back to sleep and not wake up again for another five hours or so. Zack thought back to what happened before he went to sleep. His arms felt less sore from being cut with the wind, and a bandage patch clung to the side of his face, like a kind of leech that healed you. He remembered Daniel and his sudden change in attitude when Hyoumaru entered the room with his brother's weak, unconscious body.
. "If you kill him…" Daniel's voice came out from the other side of the room clearly and seriously. Shintenmaru had his interest piqued and listened carefully along with the others in the room. "If you kill my brother…I won't forgive you. Understand?" Shintenmaru gave a solemn look.
Daniel had said these words to Shintenmaru, a promise he seemed like he was willing to keep. He had gripped his fists so tight then, he had been in so much anxiety and anger, so much pain and thoughtlessness. I should've imagined how he felt, Zack realized in guilt. I should have understood, instead of caring for my own glory.
"I don't care who you are. If you ever harm my brother so much to the point that he can't even move one body part, I'll track you down and do the same thing to you as you did to him."
Zack reminded Daniel's words again, his threatening words of confidence, something he rarely had. Zack took in a deep breath and closed his eyes for only an available second, feeling his chest rise, but also feeling the rise being constricted by something solid that kept him to the bed. He wondered in the back of his mind what was keeping him so locked up, and realized that he didn't feel right. His body – every point of his entire body didn't feel familiar, as if he had switched bodies overnight. Unformed thoughts rushed in the back of his mind, as if indecisive of which one to be thought first. Zack peered down to the sheet covering his body, his head only able to bend a little.
Down to his waist, he saw a thick strap of fabric taping him to the bed, like a constricting tentacle that refused to let him breathe. He felt the lack of air begin to consume him mentally, and he also found something new on him as well. Something he of course didn't recognize – which was what caused the unfamiliarity in his own clothes. From what little part of his body he could see away from the covers, he found himself wearing something else. He was no longer wearing his shirt, or his any of his original clothing. He was now donning a shirt that was half opened, revealing nothing beneath it but the midsection of his own chest. His arms were locked up and he couldn't move, nor could he twitch.
"What the hell?!" he cried out in arising surprise and shock, his face going comical as always. His screaming roar of alarm echoed off the walls and seemed to shake the whole room, like a mini earthquake preserved in his room. Zack looked around to the sides of the bed to see any signs of his original clothing, but he could find none. He continue to move in restraint, sweeping his legs wildly in the air in a panic, kicking the white sheets around crazily, his face structure growing more and more tense.
"Hey, what's with you and causing commotion?" a voice he didn't realize that was there chimed in. Zack stopped kicking crazily and froze his expression in acknowledgement. He turned his head to one side of the room, racing the door when he found Madasora standing comfortably a few feet away from him by the bed.
"Commotion? What commotion!?" Zack roared loudly, his voice shaking the bed indistinctively in constant restraint.
Wow, he doesn't even realize that he's doing it, Madasora thought with a disappointed look painted on his face. Either that or he just doesn't know what commotion is…How slow is this guy? "Calm down!" Madasora demanded. The Wind Council was tired as well. He didn't get much sleep, since he had to make up a lot of working from training the slow one for so long. "You've had more rest than me, so be quiet!" Madasora informed again. His attitude was cross that late morning, and he folded his arms together, intertwining them in a lock in front of his chest. He sighed sleepily as he tried to prevent himself from fainting to the floor and just fall asleep right there. Madasora felt like he could hibernate a million winters. Bold, shadowy lines covered the under part of his eyes, showing no signs of rest whatsoever.
At Madasora's shoulder, his pet bird, Minasan, chirped a happy song of mockery. It seemed to have a great time, always feeling so comfortably and rested.
The bird's laughing at me… Zack realized from his imprisoned place in the bed, his eyebrow twitching above his belittled stare. "Okay, listen! Can you just release me from this stupid -?"
Zack's words were cut off. Madasora cleared his throat loudly, calling upon the Minor's attention. Zack stopped in the middle of his sentence to find Madasora pointing at the position where the strap was. Zack peered down to it, and found the shredded pieces of fabric cut up beside him and on top of him. What the…? Zack thought in his constant humorous expressions. When did he…?
As if reading his mind, Madasora replied, "I did it when you were screaming your lungs out for no apparent reason. God, you really are slow." Madasora spoke his words out with a smile.
Zack scoffed ignorantly. "Whatever," he noted calmly, a personality not known to him. Zack easily shifted his position so he sat up on his bed, his bare feet touching the cool plaster surface of the floor. Early began to surround his body and skin, creeping through the openings of his half open shirt with the huge sleeves that stretched a little past his elbow, and the large collar that covered the entire back of his neck. The shirt was white, and practically showed too much skin, but came together from the torso down. The cold air filtered through his slightly tanned toes, creeping up the new long shorts he was in, that went down to the middle of his forelegs. The pants were gray, and also baggy at the bottom, yet tight at the waist. The shirt was long as well, and as pale as the white snow you find in Hanayuki.
Feeling free, Zack rubbed his eyes arrogantly, taking out his anger on the sand in the deep corners of his eyes that seemed to become lighter and lighter in weight by the second. Cool air brushed against his feet, and he felt too chilly. After giving a big yawn into the palm of his hand, he gave an angry look Madasora. "Hey, how the hell did I get in these?" he asked, irritated.
"Oh, come on, how do you think? We dressed you guys in the middle of the night," Madasora explained, letting a shocked, angry expression portray on Zack's face.
"You dressed us in the middle of the night?! What the-?" Zack said loudly, getting cut off again.
"Calm down. It's not like we did anything bad. Don't you trust us?" Madasora complained with eyes that seemed to grow heavier, the dark spots beneath them growing darker and darker.
"Yeah, I know, but the fact of another guy touching me in the middle of the night when I'm not awake is just…" Zack said to himself under his breath, looking the other way with a sweat drop forming down the side of his face.
"Did you say something?" Madasora interrogated, his face coming close to Zack's, scaring the seventeen year old boy. Madasora painted a suspicious and annoyed face on his as he neared Zack, a little too close for comfort.
"Oh, nothing, nothing," Zack said comically, waving his hand in the air in a humorous way of apology, his eyes closed in forced cheerfulness as he motioned to go past that to another subject. "Just one question," he asked, turning serious.
Madasora gave an acknowledged look, raising one eyebrow. "Where are my shoes?" Zack asked, feeling a bit foolish for asking such a question, turning unserious with the look on his face. Madasora seemed to mimic the same look.
"I'm not sure if you're going to like this but…" Madasora sighed exhaustively.
"What? Are you telling me that I have to walk barefoot?" Zack interrogated with tolerance, feeling it about to break down.
"No, it's just… well…." Madasora decided not to continue the rest of his sentence, and pointed to the corner of the room far away from the two people. Zack followed the finger to find a pair of old Japanese style wooden slippers resting on the floor solemnly, as if waiting for someone to pick them up. Madasora felt the sweat drop full of humor run down the side of his face.
"You're kidding," Zack said, tolerating it with the least amount. Madasora just laughed nervously. Zack gave a loud sigh as he finally accepted, "Okay." Zack walked to the corner of the room to pick them up, the room somehow lit up without windows so that he could see clearly. The cold plaster felt cooling to his warm feet. A nonexistent breeze caressed him through the openings of his shirt. "And what's the point of wearing these things? My clothes look so… old and too Japanese now." Zack said as he slipped the last foot into the wooden slipper, suddenly feeling taller, yet at the same time not tall enough.
"Well, this is going to sound stupid… but it's supposed to help you guys to learn discipline," Madasora explained with no evidence. "I mean, the more old-time you look, the more respect and discipline you're going to have, right? Appearance affects the first stage of emotion sometimes. And trust me; you're the one who needs the most discipline."
"Most discipline?!" Zack protested angrily. "I know you're kidding about that! Let's just go and see what kind of ugly clothes the other guys are wearing, why don't we?!" he said declaratively, storming out of the room, feeling his unbalanced footsteps creeping across the room with uncertain clicks, opening the door wide and running out, getting his feet used to the wooden slippers.
Madasora sighed as the Minor's presence faded from the room, and the bird chirped at his shoulder, laughing a happy song of the morning to lighten things up. Madasora decided to follow, walking sleepily on the plaster ground, hoping that he was following his Minor counterpart in the right direction.
PoVS
Lights flickered in an eerie pattern above as blank thoughts circled Daniel Takiato's mind. What now? He thought. What now? Daniel watched his brother lie in bed with a grim expression locked on his face. Bandages covered different parts of his body, and a tray full of ice shards with blood stained edges lay by his side. His eyes were closed peacefully, like he was in a trance, a faraway trance that Daniel couldn't reach; a faraway trance that Daniel could never find. Different equipment surrounded his brother, a beeping heart monitor, a pale pole that stood high in the air, carrying a plastic bag of water with a tube stuck into Kenneth's arm. Darkness was swept into the back of the corners, and Daniel sat quietly in his seat by his brother.
Kenneth's face was covered with an oxygen mask, a steady, foggy breathing coming on and off the plastic mask that was connected to a machine through a tube. Daniel watched the plastic water back, the water coming down in drops through the tube. It was slowly dripping in patience, like crying into the water beneath it. It was almost like an hourglass – only with water, counting down the moments of death, until everything was over and taken away, everything that Daniel ever knew. The heart monitor beeped steadily, the scribbled lines symbolizing something that Daniel didn't know, as if a code, a message almost.
What is it? Daniel thought sadly with eyes that glittered with water. What are you trying to tell me? He thought as he stared at the zigzag lines of the heart monitor, repeating its message over and over again like an angel's whispered message. The dead beeping filled the room with dullness, and Daniel watched Kenneth's face. Please… Daniel thought. Please open your eyes, he begged, feeling his nose twitch from the inside in sadness. He felt the tears began to leak out form the sides, trying to resist them from coming out. Please…open your eyes for me, just one more time, I beg you…Just one more time, Daniel continued to beg.
The oxygen mask began to fill with fog, which was soon sucked back in and breathed back out. Kenneth's eyes were closed, unacknowledged of Daniel's desperate wishes of breaking hope. Please, just once more, once more for me, for your brother. Open your eyes….he pleaded, feeling the restraint on his tears begin to lose its grip. Daniel watched Kenneth's eyes remain still, feeling the desperateness through rejection, his inanimate eyes not as sprung to life as they used to be. His eyes used to shine so much, used to shine with the delicacy and hope of the moon, the kindness and bravery of the sun, and the patient, protecting stare of the heavenly clouds that guarded the azure sky.
The flickering continued as the equipment surrounding Daniel's brother continued their processes mindlessly, having no mind or care of what happens next. Daniel watched his brother, who's been the only one who supported him since childhood as he lay mindlessly on the soft bed mindlessly, as if his body frozen in time, and everything else around him acted for him. Kenneth nii-san…where have you gone? Daniel thought, losing hope. Kenneth again lay in his unavailable condition, his arms by his side with all the tubes circling him. It hurts me to see you like this, don't you know that? Don't you? Daniel thought, taking his brother's open hand that lay by his side and gripping it tightly, wanting to give him something as a token of hope, but had nothing.
"The others, they don't understand you. They don't know what we've been through together, they don't know anything," Daniel whispered softly, his brother's hand comforting to his own, the warm feeling giving some hope into Daniel's state. "Please, if you leave…" Daniel whispered again, his voice so low it sounded like an angel's voice. "If you leave me… I'll run. I'll run a hundred miles, a thousand miles, as many miles as it takes for me to get you back," Daniel explained, watching Kenneth's closed state of mind as he whispered so slightly not even a mouse could compare to its quietness. "I don't need you to protect me anymore… but…if I lose you… it means the same thing to me as losing everything." Daniel tilted his head upward with sad, piercing eyes. He found the water tube system working, dripping more water slowly and with suspense, telling him that time was running out. He took a deep, silent breath that he kept to himself and bent his head down to watch his hand wrap around his brother's weak hand. His grip was now far stronger than his, not like it had always been. The tube systems surrounding him were silent and seemed innocent for the purpose of good yet caused more uncertainty in Daniel's deepest feelings. It made his brother seem like a machine, with all those tubes and plastic, or even a warrior. A warrior, yeah, that's it, Daniel thought, staring hard at the ground in hope that was hard to keep up. A warrior that always protected me, a warrior that I never had the chance to pay back. Daniel tightened his grip, feeling the hand become cooler than his own.
As he felt his own emotion break down and shatter into pieces, shards that could never be repaired fall into his stomach, Daniel felt weaker all over in depression, a single tear sliding down his cheek easily, that one and one lonely tear only. Is that what I am now? Daniel thought. Just one lonely tear? No other drops to help me become one? Just isolated in my path down? What do I have to do to make you come with me on my path down? What must I do for another set full of memories?
"He's in a life threatening condition," they had told me.
Feeling his grip become so tight that it felt like he was about to crush his brother's hand, he loosened the clenching, trying any desperate attempt to make Kenneth feel comfortable, wherever he was.
"What do I do now, nii-san?" Daniel whispered again holily. "What now?" Daniel continued to stare at Kenneth's unnoticing expression, his eyes locked up beneath the eyelids that seemed to put them far, far away, deep into the darkness so they would never be found. "Do I really have to…wish again? Is that what you're forcing me to do? Wish?"
Daniel remembered in nostalgia all the moments in his life, in his childhood where he and his brother and wished together. Everyday, three times a day was the rule. "Fine, then," he whispered slowly, the cold tear at his side becoming freezing to his side of the face
Slowly, out of desperation and nostalgia, Daniel began reciting his prayer:
"When the shining fall and the darkness rise, who am I to tell the lies?
When heroes come and heroes die, I'll be the one who always cries.
With shadows cast and lightning gone, angels cry and are forever shunned.
When the solemn sun and the loyal moon meet,
I am forever able to hold my creed-"
As Daniel continued the words, he slowly felt himself become consumed in his old memories, one at a time, slowly and nostalgically, he was sucked back into another world far away, but somehow, not far enough:
"…So now I ask, this time twice, to my dreams I am forever enticed," Daniel and Kenneth said the last words in unison with their high, childlike voice. They separated their folded hands and reopened their eyes. They looked cheerful this time, and gave each other different looks of everlasting hope.
"That makes two," Kenneth said, smiling with a wide, childish smile.
"Yeah," Daniel grunted, his voice even childlike. Daniel's face was small and innocent, while Kenneth's was longer and seemingly more deceiving. Daniel's smile quickly faded, and he ended up having his hands lying there on his kneeled legs, his stare hard and worrisome against the dirt floor of the monument of war they stood in front of. The monument was made of pure marble, and was stained with the blood of the warriors in battle. The Takiato Family's father was still at war, and made nine year old Kenneth and seven year old Daniel worry everyday.
"What's the matter?" Kenneth said, taking Daniel's shoulder in comfort, his expression locked in sympathy.
"You really think Dad's going to come back?" Daniel asked, his stare heavy on the ground, unable to be lifted.
"Want me to tell you the truth?" Kenneth said, his eyes slumping to a depression as the two children kneeled on the dirty ground surrounded by trees and grass. The hot sun felt warming to the back of their necks, and covered their fronts in shadow. Daniel gave a small grunt and a nod. Kenneth sighed and said, "I don't know if he's coming back."
"I…see…" Daniel said, tilting his head even more down. "Then what's the-"
"But, what I do know is that he's part of the Takiato Clan, just like us, and the Takiato never give up, right?" Kenneth said, smiling, tilting his head to one side as a sign of warmth. That smile warmed Daniel more than the blazing summer sun did.
Daniel smiled back, a hope renewed in the depths of his lost emotion. As the uncertainty soon became nothing but silence, Daniel felt something pelt against the back of his head. The seven year old cried out, and fell forward, landing on top of his stomach. His glasses were knocked away from him, and he couldn't see a thing. Dust consumed the inside of his mouth, and pain shot through the back of his head.
"Daniel nii-san!" Kenneth cried out immediately, placing his hands for support on his younger brother's back. Daniel coughed out dust and brushed the dirt away from his eyes and face. He searched frantically for his glasses, waving his hands around him, trailing the dirty ground with his fingers until he came across them and struggled to put them back on.
Meanwhile, Kenneth looked back to see who it was. He growled at the sight. "What's the matter? Can't handle a few rocks?" a child's voice came. The child had a mean look on his face, a tough, bossy look that belonged to bullies only. He was surrounded by two other tough looking children Kenneth and Daniel's age, and the three of them were framed by the sunlight behind them, casting their dark, imperial shadows over Kenneth and Daniel's faces. Daniel turned and sat up, getting his body back to normal as he watched the middle kid throw a rock into the air and caught it again only to throw it back up as gravity pulled it down. He had an evil smirk on his face, and Daniel crept back against the monument that provided little support. Even though the monument of war was a sign of respect and protection, it gave very little of it to young Daniel Takiato.
Kenneth growled. "What do you guys want? We don't even know you?" he scowled, on one knee in front of Daniel, who was so scared that he wished he could just run away, but he could never think of doing that without his brother.
"So what? You guys are the sons of Hinode Takiato, right? He owes my mom and dad some serious amount of money," the grinning kid mocked. "It's been about a month now and he still hasn't paid them back," he explained, the other two kids by his side as if they were a prop.
"Father owes everyone money…" Daniel whispered. He was so desperate for money he asked the other villagers for loans, but never found a way to pay them back… Daniel thought, bending his small legs close to his chest, wrapping his arms around them for protection and safety, trying to hid his insecurity, but as the end result, showing it even more.
"I know he does," Kenneth said solemnly. "But that's why he he's working, so he could pay you guys back! That's why he's at war, risking his life out there with no experience whatsoever in the military, and just there volunteering for the money; the money that he owes everyone in this village!" Kenneth cried out in a rising voice, his icy stare unthawing and narrowing, his teeth becoming grit and his fists becoming clenched in anger.
"Whatever, let's just get him. Maybe after we take him out he'll get some sense knocked into him," one of the boys by the main one's side suggested with his own, childish yet evil smirk. That one was chubby and bald, while the other one at the main bully's side was lanky and small.
"Nah, I have a better idea," the middle one insisted. "You see that one hiding behind his bro over there?" he said, referring to Daniel, pointing accusingly with a bullying smirk. Daniel shifted his feet uncomfortably as he felt the hard stares and accusing fingers reach him in his tiny little ball that he curled up into. He winced in fear, and clutched his knees even tighter by the monument. "I say we get him. He looks like the weakling," the bully said. The two by his side agreed. He gave a touch smirk as the three began to throw rocks in my direction of all kinds of sizes, small ones, thick ones, large ones, and tiny pebble ones.
I took in a deep breath in my rising horror and fear and shut my eyes, and covered my face with my arms wrapped around them, letting go of the clutch I put on my knees. I heard the rocks being picked up and clattering to the floor, but I didn't feel anything. I felt nothing stab me with the tremendous pain I suspected. What happened?
I opened my eyes slowly to see what was going on, to see why the thing I thought was going to happen wasn't happening. And there I saw it. My brother, Kenneth, being the tough one standing straight up in confidence, acting like a human shield, positioning himself like a five sided star with his stare hard on the floor, taking the thousands and thousands of rocks being pelted towards us. I stared in even more horror and shock as I knew those rocks had to give him wounds in all sorts of places, and I knew that I should help him out, but my legs were too frozen to move. I sat, my limbs and body shaking violently that it was hard to believe. I couldn't move one part of my body, and waited until one of them finally told the others that they should get going, and that what they were doing was getting boring, and they rushed away, never to be seen again.
In my shock and surprise, I couldn't even mutter a word, until Kenneth turned around, revealing all kinds of forehead wounds and chest wounds that spilled blood like tears, like his skin was crying. The drops of horrible read horrified me even more, and to my surprise, I didn't throw up.
"It's okay now," Kenneth said with a smile, wiping his forearm without a sleeve against his forehead, taking the dripping wound and making it into a red splotch. "Don't worry, stop shaking," he told me, his reassuring smile making me calm a bit. "It's only a forehead wound and some small, unnoticeable ones. It's all right." He came towards me and took me by the hand, bringing my spirit back to earth and my consciousness back into focus. I tried to mutter words, but my speech hadn't returned. "Well? Say something," he said, as if nothing just happened and everything was completely normal. The hot sun framed him like an angel – like my guardian angel, and his winning smile made it all the more worth of remembering. "Come on, I'd take a rock shower any day for you, wouldn't I? Stop being so scared and stop hiding in your shell."
I blinked to let him know I was alive. I took a big gulp, swallowing the nervous panic back into the pit of my stomach. "O…Okay," I muttered out. He helped me get back up, and we soon began walking home back to mother. We needed to get Kenneth's wounds fixed. But that wasn't going to be the last time he stood up for me like that. He did so many other times, it was impossible for a genius with no life to count them. And all times, I would sit there, my limbs shaking in horror and fear, my teeth chattering and my panic building, never to shatter back into little pieces until everything was over.
Back into reality, I finished the last few words in my older, deeper voice as a fourteen year old. The tear down my cheek was hanging on a limb, its transparency noticeable hanging off my chin. I held my brother's hand tighter, feeling the hand become colder and colder, his heavy breathing become lighter and lighter. Don't go… not now… please… don't go, I pleaded him. He didn't seem to listen.
Don't…go…. And as my final thoughts finished, the hourglass of water seemed to stop; the heavy breathing in the background seemed to wither away, and the heart monitor began to give a shrill, high pitched beep, and the zigzag lines of hope flattened to nothing but a memory lost.