Chapter Ten – Waking to Flowers

Zhi awoke in a flowering field in the countryside, like it was something pulled right from her dreams and given to her like a gift. Her memory was a blur, her body was racked with pain and her heart believed for one moment that she had passed beyond the veil. The wide moments after intense dreaming left the eyes open and awed, but the bright sunlight soon forced reality back on her and she put a hand across those eyes, shielding them from the intense brightness and pain. What happened? Where is this place? These questions were burning in her mind and she was silenced by them, as if each screamed loudly behind her ears for total devotion to the answer. Her limbs felt distant, her chest constricted inside of the guard's shirt and every part of her body was sticky with sweat.

It was hot. The sun beat down on her and she slowly sat up, her stomach muscles tightened whenever she breathed. Her skin felt cool in the movements and she looked down, seeing dew still present on the blades of grass, but time and the sun were quickly drying it up. A flower stared back at her. It was a moment where she forgot everything and was consumed by that one flower – lost in its spiraling infinity and carefree face.

"There was a fight," she thought, placing her hand back to her forehead to battle the throbbing that came with her movement. She remembered him. It was the same colossus that had torn through her village and shattered her portrait of memories. She remember Xue being knocked aside those many months ago and that she had rushed into the right uncaring, furiously trying to avenge her past. The massive beast had throttled her and tossed her aside, only to be soundly defeated by…

Her eyes flew open again. Kage. Somehow, in the irony of the moment, she had forgotten him. Before, he had dominated her mind and heart though those parts were only slowly coming to terms with the moment. The last thing she remembered was Kage pouncing on Oberon and everything afterwards became a bright flash.

How had she come to be out in the open, free from that metal prison that would haunt her dreams until her death?

What had happened to him?

These questions led her to brave the sun once more and look about the meadow, trying to find him. And there he was. He was a solitary figure, sitting motionlessly upon a small rock a distance away, his profile displayed to her by the backing sun and his gallant silhouette framed by a distant city. He was hunched forward, his chin on his fist, and it appeared he was deep in thought, but very much alive to the relief of the young girl. In fact, her heart began beating once more when she saw him, with her every being wanting to leap up and run to his arms. But that wasn't possible. Her legs wouldn't move that way. But her heart wanted it. Her arms wanted it. Her eyes…

His eyes.

They came to her in a flash and her breath stuttered, as if she had just remembered something so terribly awful that the very air was afraid to join the idea, or so wonderful that releasing it would destroy the dream forever. She had seen those eyes before. When she was very little, she had seen them. Knowing who it was that possessed those same eyes, she was instantly pulled in further by him, by his very essence and being. This young man Kage had become the axis of her world, with every waking thought being spent for him and the beating of her heart a sonata in his name. Suddenly, like a tidal wave of comfort and convenience, Zhi very much believed in the thing called Fate and that things so carefully constructed and connected could not be mere coincidence. For him to come and save her, with his beautiful, terrible eyes and his intense raging of spirit, it was enough to convince her that these things she was feeling were not just mere whims of a young heart, but something more. He was meant to find her. He was meant to save her. She was meant to feel this squall in her heart when she looked at him.

"What, you finally woke up?" said a voice that tore her from her daydream. Instantly, her eyes focused and locked on him, on his tattered figure. During her lapse, he had stood and walked to her, his hands casually stabbed in his pockets and his figure towering like a wonderful sentinel over her world. It was only then she got a good look at him. His clothes were in pieces, with his jacket completely gone to reveal the sports shirt underneath. She could still see the gloves on his hands and his yellow and black pants were the same, but everything, including the newly exposed undershirt, were all torn and ripped, exposing skin and even some light wounds. She was embarrassed and worried at the same time, but managed to still remain in a stupor of young love. Yet, she hadn't yet dared confront those fantastic eyes again. They were there, she knew it, but were too dangerous to be looked upon, if only because they were so terribly beautiful. When she finally did look up, she was slightly denied. A piece of his jacket had apparently been torn and wrapped around his head like a bandana, with the lip kept low across his brow to hide his eyes. They were diminished, but she could still see the eerie glow seeping out past the shadows. For all of this admiration, she was silence, her chest unconsciously not falling and her mouth hanging slightly open.

Kage became annoyed and looked away, as if he knew she was looking for his exotic eyes. "Look, if you're going to gawk and stare then you can just talk to my ass. Helluva way to treat the guy that just broke you outta that place," he grumbled.

To this, Zhi suddenly realized she had been staring and looked down at his boots, her face a bit red from the realization. "Sorry! I didn't mean to stare," she said quickly, tucking her chin into her chest. She really didn't want him to acknowledge that she was paying so much attention to him.

Quite a while passed this way, with a warm breeze prodding them both and the sounds of distant cities yelling from far away. Zhi was a fury of questions and answers, but she was also trounced by her previous inclination to wish nothing more than to be with him again, to cherish the feelings she had discovered in such a surprisingly short amount of time. Had she really admitted to herself that she felt those things for him, a person she barely met? Now that she was seemingly safe, did she dare admit them again? Death was a terribly embarrassing confidant and she didn't know if she could ever fully accept the fact that her last living moments were going to be dreaming of this brooding young man standing before her.

"Well, you gonna say it or what?" he suddenly said, jarring her internal debate and making her flush even more. Knowing what she knew, she didn't know a thing. Did those eyes allow him to see something like that? Was she now exposed and forced to explain herself? The madness of confession took her and she gripped her pants tightly, biting her lower lip in anticipation of telling him the truth. But, he denied her the chance when he spoke first. "'What's with those eyes?'" he said, mimicking a higher voice with a chiding tone to it, "'Are you some kind of freak?'"

Knowing now that he was talking about how someone might react to his unusual optical ware, she slowly looked up and found a strange expression, almost like he was embarrassed by those beautiful blinders. "What?" she asked innocently.

"Tch, don't pretend you're not all wigged out about them. They're freaky, I know, so if you got something to say, take your chances," he said sharply, pulling down the cloth a bit further out of annoyance with the idea that someone was thinking about it. It was obvious he was a bit sensitive about them, which struck Zhi as odd because he seemed like someone that had no care in the world about other people's petty concerns.

However, upon a moment of reflection concerning his exotic eyes, she smiled lightly and relaxed her hands, looking up at him with an air of affection. "I think they're beautiful," she said. Her tone was final and even made him look down at her, shocked that someone was so honestly impressed by his strange eyes.

But soon after he snorted, looking away again and crossing his arms across his loaded chest. "Psh, whatever. Since that brick wall busted my shades, I gotta make this piece of raggy shit work until can find some new ones. On top of that, my new skins are trashed and I left my bag back in that damned dungeon. Let me just point out that saving your skinny little ass has put a real damper on my day," he said, looked back to her with a scowl. But she was still smiling at him, the kind of smile that said he could say anything to her at that moment and she would still be living in a sigh. He hated those kinds of smiles. This time he snorted and shifted inside of his torn clothing, his muscles warping the tight black fabric and his joints popping at the sudden movement. "It's like talking to a piano," he muttered.

But by now Zhi had broken from her trance and remembered some definite things, like that there were a lot of things she definitely didn't remember. Shifting on the ground slightly, she put a finger to her chin in thought and tried to pry them from her memory, but nothing came. "But, how did we get out? I don't remember escaping or anything," said she with the fluttering heart.

Kage shrugged, idly adjusting his gloves on his beaten hands. "Beats the hell outta me. I remember Obi zapping me, which hurt a lot, and then waking up out here in this cheesy-ass meadow. You know, I think we actually could be dead," he thought out loud, though directed for her benefit as well.

Suddenly, Zhi's foot came sweeping across and kicked him in the shin, making him yelp out and do a very interesting dance that amused her silently. The seriousness of their situation became dull as the Zhi was just grinning, though Kage was nearly livid with the indignation at being kicked, "What the fu…"

"Well, at least we know we're not dead. That was just a ghost check," she said, though it didn't seem to cool him down any.

After Zhi had finished brooding over the fresh lump on her head, she stood up among the flowers and took her first good look at their location. The city was in the far distance and she could barely believe that they had traveled so far. She instinctively moved towards the mountains that were now wonderfully closer and her heart soared. Home was not far away. In fact, she was sure that if she ran, the meadows of her memories would be visible before the end of tomorrow. That alone made her want to sprint, but she quickly looked back to Kage with an air of concern, her eyes showing a great dilemma brewing just behind. This was the person that inherited the eyes of the dragon, she knew. The interconnectivity of fate was never more apparent. However, she truly knew nothing about him, about his past or what kind of person he truly was when he wasn't buried in the crisis of trying to escape. So she was reluctant. How could she weigh the safety of someone she loved so dearly against the impish flush of passion? True, she did feel something very powerful for the young man, but she also had an obligation to consider the consequences of her actions on the one that had raised her, taught her and loved her. For a young heart in currents of longing, it was a very biased consideration.

"Hey," she said, grabbing him from the foul mood that had seeming settled over him, "you're looking for someone, aren't you?"

Without turning his head, Kage's Ryuugan had fallen to her, his scowling face not losing any of its potency but his interest aroused by the sudden change of pace between them. Recent events had driven him further into despair. Even watching the young girl fawn idly over the lump he had given her brought no relief, leaving him a bitter shadow of the former creature that had nearly cost him his heart, mind and soul. However, something in her tone of voice stalled his descent. Yet, he didn't reply.

She knew why and it made her force a smile. These things were a matter far beyond her grasp, but she knew that she also had her own needs. Because she didn't want to see his reaction, to save herself from the initial judgment that she would undoubtedly give upon his reaction, she closed her eyes and let out a slow breath before speaking that name. "Liu Kuan Yin," she said. Although she wasn't looking, she knew that he reacted quite a bit to the name and it made her smile even more bitterly. Her suspicions were correct, that everything that was happening recently was connected with that man and that even the brawler was after him. It seemed everyone was after him. Knowing that, she didn't really know if she could continue the path of her heart, knowing that it would lead someone, eventually, to that one man that meant more to her than anything else. "I knew it," she said, whispering weakly.

"That man," he suddenly said, "is who I was told to find when I got these eyes. I don't know why or even how he could possibly help, but I got no other choice. Without that man, I may go back…" Near the end, his voice faltered and he went silent, prompting her to look to him in the wake of his silence.

What she found was a poor, tired soul staring down at his human hands, his lips pressed shut tightly and those same mystical eyes glowing with a dead, cold aura. His expression shocked her, made her look to him fully even despite the expectations she had put upon herself in order to protect that man. Even now, as she had nearly resigned herself to not telling a soul the secret of Liu Kuan Yin, the allure of his words and the utter despondency of his voice made her shift a bit closer to him, tilting her head and inquiring as much with her young eyes as her quiet voice, "Back?"

Kage slowly looked up from his hands, letting them clench tightly away from his sight and his Ryuugan went to her, glowing now beneath the rag in a display that truly accented his inner turmoil – his feral soul. "To what I was before," he said casually.

Whatever that meant, Zhi could see that it was a terrible, terrible thing. She had no idea what he had done before, or even what kind of person truly resided within him but she also saw that whatever this horrible past was, he was fighting with all of his heart to get beyond it and grow – grow stronger. Just beyond his rough exterior, beyond all of the spears and battlements he put up in order to hide himself, she saw that he was a very frightened person, but not frightened of anything that could jump out of the night or slip through the grass. He was frightened of himself. That alone made her yearn for him even more.

"I see," she said, looking away a moment if only to prevent her eyes from betraying the intense affection she had for him. Why it was that the young and pure always sought to love the jaded, she didn't know. It was a great joke on the innocent. Yet, knowing fully well that this headlong spiral into her affections for him could only lead her to heartbreak, she stood slowly and faced him, looking up with eyes alight with resolve and determination. "I know where you can find that man. If anyone can help you, I know that he can," she said and by the surprised look on his face, she knew he questioned whether she was really telling the truth. To that, she just smiled and even laughed, clasping her arms behind her back in a sort of courtesy and finally telling him why it was Oberon had such an interest in her and why she could actually show him the way.

With that presentation, she said in a proud and powerful voice, "My name is Liu Zhi. Liu Kuan Yin is my grandfather."

On the second day after escaping, the two were fast approaching the mountain village where Zhi had spent her whole life. Although she knew that it was now a shadow due to the attack by Oberon and the others, with an unknown amount of people alive or missing, she desperately wanted to see it merely because it was her home and home never left the heart. Every moment she spent on the skirts of her childhood made her more and more eager to rush, but she also knew that certain heartbreak was waiting at the village as well. People she knew and cared for would be gone. Home would never be the same. In that, she was dragging her feet slightly.

Here and there, Zhi had been talking with local people from the villages in the Chinese countryside, mostly asking about her village and if anyone had heard anything about it. Despite the fact that she was talking in her native language of Wu Chinese and he wouldn't know a word of what was being said, she knew the real reason Kage moved off by himself whenever a group of people came near. Kage didn't like crowds. She saw it in his movements and his posture. He was worried someone would see his Ryuugan and make a fuss, which was something that might make their trip a little more dangerous and otherwise bother the pacified rage inside of him. Also, seeing a wildly dressed Japanese man in the midst of the countryside was very bizarre, possibly even a bit dangerous as some people fear difference to the point of violence. But, she knew nothing like that could touch him. Even Oberon, with his incredible strength, seemed to be nothing but a stray tree branch to be brushed aside by this person that had captured her heart. So even as she spoke, she found herself glancing over at him, his towering presence like a beacon for her serenity and she couldn't help but smile whenever she let her young eyes take in the figure of Kage.

"Dajing is close," said the girl as she approached him, the realization of home light in her eyes, "and we may get there before the evening." Although this was grand news to her, he just stared out over the rice paddies thrown like a thousand slivered mirrors all laying carelessly on the earth. There was a sort of nostalgic look to him and Zhi stared a bit, wondering just what it was that had taken him, a person that seemed barely able to pry himself from the moment. But in the end she just laughed it off and looked out as well, happy to be out in the open air and not cramped up in a dark cell. "Ah, it's been a long time since I've smelled this air and heard all of the frogs singing. Do rice fields look the same in Japan?" she asked, though she hardly expected him to answer. The girl was merely voicing her love for the countryside; the way the trees embraced the land and the gray titans of the city were miles and miles away. Green was her favorite color. She could smell the distant tea leaves and the chalky water stagnant in the fields. They cradled her heart when she breathed them in. In fact, she had been so lost in her own worship of the scenery that she expected him to brush off her fluttering breaths and hardly speak a word.

She was very surprised when he responded. "This is just like where I was born," he said. The young girl looked up to him, amazed by how fluidly a fond memory and bitter reminder could exist in the same visible thought. He hadn't really talked about himself at all, so she was eager to grasp this opportunity to learn more about him.

"Really? Where's that? Will you tell me about?" she asked.

That request seemed to spark the tide of bitterness over and Kage's brow dropped the cloth over his eyes further, his lips twisting into a scowl and his figure quickly turning away from the scenery. "No," he answered and continued on in the same direction they had been heading. It bothered her how easily he shut her out, even to the point of her sticking her tongue out at him and thinking about tossing a ball of mud at him, but seeing as he was quickly gaining ground and she was still waiting to be let in, she gave up on her revenge and followed, deciding that she needed to keep working at it to make him crack.

"I've always wanted to see Japan," she said without invitation, but rather to his chagrin as he kept walking silently. But that wouldn't stop her. "I've always lived in a small village and done small village things, but I really want to see Tokyo. I've heard fantastic things about that place! So I plan on going someday. I can do it too," she continued, this time feeling really proud as she began articulating her words very precisely and smooth, "I bet you want to know how I know how to speak Japanese so well, huh? You're probably just dying to know!" By this time she had danced up past him and was walking backwards, leaning and grinning in hopes to sweeten his smile. He didn't even flinch, but kept walking in his stony manner. That did little to dissuade her and she even recited a few quick tongue twisters to prove her ability, "Red Pajama, Brown Pajama, Yellow Pajama! The Bus Gas Explodes! Great, huh?" Again, there was no answer and she felt a little depressed now, falling behind him again as she looked at his brooding figure walking along the small dykes between rice fields. As much as she was trying to engage him, he seemed like another person, completely different than the young man that had come to save her and before he fought Oberon. Still, she felt that if she was to connect with him, she'd have to do something to get his attention.

Then, she got an idea. "Hey," she said, smiling a bit as she felt it was a very good idea and a good way to show off her knowledge of his country, "would it make you feel more at home if I called you onii-chan or ani-ue? I've read that in Japan girls my age call someone older their brother and…" she said but suddenly stopped in her tracks, noticing that he had also come to a complete stop on the dyke. Arching a bit to the side, she asked if everything was alright but was completely oblivious to the look on his face or the fact that his fists were clenched white-knuckle tight at his sides. She thought maybe he wanted to go to the bathroom or something else and so she waited for his response. There was no expectation of the trembling rage that was slowly scorching the edges of his mind.

Yet, within the dense gathering of trees just adjacent the rice fields, sitting on a thick branch with a great smile on his face, a figure rose up a single hand, index finger and thumb touching and creating a small circle with the two figures inside. Kage and Zhi were left in the middle of this bullseye as a smile seemed to slip from the shadows of the leaves. It was perfect. There was a good chance of being wrong, but anxiety could no longer contain the desire to attack. The figure shivered in place at the thought of it. Then he stifled a chuckle and his voice was nearly lost in the wind as it passed by through the leaves. "Found you," he said.