Chapter Seven: Subtle Expectations
Dreams were a great gift to mankind. They allowed souls to travel to the farthest stars or into the deepest ocean, but never betrayed the person. Most people dreamed desire or a shard of happiness that could complete their life. Some only found nightmares waiting behind closed eyes. Thousands looked forward to dreams aloft, while equal amounts cringed with the thoughts of their deepest nightmares. Everyone everywhere had felt the mystique of dreams.
For one young girl, dreams were the window to the future.
Rei woke with a start, her breath lodged firmly in her throat. Staring wildly at the wall in her room, a cold sweat was trickling down her back and leaving her shivering. Her sleeping garments clung ruthlessly to her skin and her heart was wildly beating in her ears, drowning the room in a deafening roar though there was only silence. In the darkness, there was only her breath trying to return and calm her, but she could not shake off what she saw. It hollowed her.
A black creature, with wings more fearsome than the any she had seen haunted her dreams. Standing by herself, she could only watch as the figure faced away from her as it always did, a shower of black feathers swirling around her from its terrible wings. No matter how hard she tried to focus her mind, the feathers were like a swift current, pulling away all her thoughts. She never knew who the figure was.
This time had been different. There had been a new figure tonight lingering in the distance. The new person was even blacker than the first and infinitely more sinned. The two great powers made her quake in fear and she had no energy to move. They were awesome. They faced each other as enemies and not allies – two equally potent powers conflicted beyond normal sight.
Then the first turned to her.
At first, she couldn't believe it. The breath that had once come so quickly and desperately stopped and she felt sick to her stomach. Yamito's dark eyes crested the top of a black wing and he looked upon her with eyes void of light. She could hardly describe the feelings that stirred within her at the sight of him. She tried to call his name but her voice was empty and she felt as if she were trying to press it through a typhoon. Yamito didn't hear her. When turning back to the foe he faced, a blue ball appeared in between the two and sparkled despite their infinite darkness.
Earth.
Caught between the two powers, the planet began to tear apart and crack like glass, as if being pulled and twisted by unseen hands. When Rei called out for them to stop, her voice sailed through the void and made them both lurch in pain. From the small globe, a bright light burst and suddenly impacted both of them, breaking them apart just as their power had done to the planet. This light was warm and familiar but it tore through them both without regard, making the two of them scream out in pain.
She didn't know why, but she raced to Yamito. Her heart suddenly felt heavy and hard but every part of her wanted to touch him – to ease his pain. However, by the time she got to him, only a gust of ash blew into her.
So there she stood, staring at a shining orb that remained strong against the tides, but both figures were gone. Again betraying her resolve, a tear caressed her cheek and fell to her hand. When she looked down to it, the tear was a single black feather.
Then, even the feather burst into flames and was gone.
This kind of vision always took a lot out of her. Despite not knowing what this one meant, the jolt from seeing Yamito had made her shaky. From the moment he arrived, her mind had not been her own. The fire was corrupt, it seemed, and gave little assistance about him. More than anybody she had ever known, he was a mystery to her. Even after more than a month, it was the biggest reason she thought of him constantly. Iron-willed Rei was so off balance about this single person that it broke her sleep and raped her dreams. She was tired of it. Until she got some answers, her dreams would menace her. With a determined expression and a solid glare, she dressed in the night and set her mind to find him. She didn't know how, but she would find him and end this – somehow. She had to for the sake of her own soul.
Oddly enough, she didn't look far.
As the door slid open, an unfathomable sensation hit her. Across the yard, in front of the shrine, was a figure shaded by the moonlight and bowing in reverence. The cool night air hit her at the same time as a burning in her chest. The torches around the figure swayed rhythmically to the whispered chanting on the wind, telling secrets to her and pulling her heart. It was a sacred incantation that only priests and priestesses knew. That alone made her swallow and step a ways into the yard, her eyes locked on the figure.
"Excuse me? You'll have to return in the morning. You…" she started but her words fell away. The chanting stopped and the figure stirred, signaling the torches to brighten. With a hand close to her chest, she watched him slowly stand straight, with all of the torches around them seeming to rise higher in adoration. Then his head tilted and he spoke in the voice which she had longed to hear since the night with the Priests. It was his voice. It was the voice that pierced her heart with its depth and sorrow.
"You've seen it…" said the voice.
In the same moment, she knew what he meant and was lost on his meaning. There was no debating who it was, but that same feeling came over her. She knew who it was. She hated him for having this affect on her. She knew what he was, what was inside of him, but fought stubbornly against every instinct her training had taught her. She was taken with him; his movements, his actions and even his mysterious power. Every part of him stirred her soul, made her insides burn with heat and her skin freeze with chills.
To the ground behind him she stared, biting her lower lip and longing for him in some obscure way. How he could command her like this was frustrating, but unstoppable. When and how this had happened to her, she didn't know, but what she did know was that her every waking thought circled around the mystery and terror that surrounded the dark young man before her. "My dreams are haunted with images of a person with black wings and a terrible power deep inside his soul. Tonight I saw his face," she said and struggled to form her words. Wanting nothing more than to be the object of his eyes, she looked up from the ground to him and winced.
"What are you, Yamito?" she said breathlessly.
It was the question none dared to ask, yet it was the only question that would move him forward. He had also danced around that question, unable to answer it on his own but obsessed with the elusive answer. Hearing her speak over her trembling lips and wide eyes, he finally felt closer to the answer. Slowly he turned to her, granting her the wish – to be captured by his dark eyes once more. As he faced her now, the fire cast glowing red slivers across his eyes and brought her to the point where she would go mad unless she could have some part of him to herself.
His lips parted to answer.
It had been one of those nights. Sleep hadn't come at all, but that was too be expected with the hole in the wall they had been renting. They hadn't been sleeping in the best of conditions for as long as he could remember, but when the world blends with a dank stench, it was never easy to see where home and humanity separate. Now that they were in a shiny, colorful world again, the contrast was rubbing at his skin and he needed to walk in darkness for awhile.
The world was blithe. The moonless sky and the stars were calling and only hours of darkness had the kind of excitement to suit Kage. The dark street had interested him. The ominous shadows that followed brought a small smile to his face. The dead end alleyway had welcomed him and the six thugs were his new friends.
Then they all were lying on the ground unconscious.
He was disappointed in the quality of the brawl; the fact that one hit each had floored them. After years of battling for his life against supernatural foes and the shadows of his mind, a few ignorant humans staking petty territory or monetary gain was like glass at his fist, breaking into pieces at the smallest gesture of his suppressed soul. There were even moments when the brawler of the Scion had dismissed the voice in the back of his head as it screamed for him to stop, though luck was generous that night and none of the thugs had met an unfortunate end. They would be sore for a long time and some scarred or given a limp, but they would all live on. Only afterwards did Kage realize that during the fight, when the tides of battle were sweeping him around, he hadn't even been concerned for their lives. A part of him was repulsed by that thought.
The rest of him didn't care.
Currently, he was crouched over one of the groaning thugs, taking the spoils of his victory and stuffing wads of money and other things into his jacket pockets. Again, not even a second thought was given to the act and he proceeded with a disinterested expression, as if he were working the clock. He did, however, find a fresh package of cigarettes among the fallen, his brow rising slightly as his lips twisted in anticipation. Taking death in small doses was fine with him and he pulled a long white stick from the package, relieving one of the thugs of a shiny, silver lighter and jarring the darkness with a spray of sparks and flame. The chemical rush was so dry compared to the one forged in the heat of battle though he hadn't had one of those since he ran headlong at the Higekitai. He took what he could get.
Taking a long drag on the cigarette, he blew a cloud of smoke onto the unfortunate young man, his peat green eyes glowing in the dim light just as the amber mouth of his cigarette did. "Tanaka Ichiro, huh?" he quipped around his lit cigarette, holding the man's wallet into the pale light. A moment was spent looking over the identification, from the picture to the neatly printed Kanji, then he tossed it back onto the man and stood, glaring down gravely as he flicked some ashes down upon him. "Your father must be so proud," he remarked heavily.
The sarcasm was biting and he moved to leave the alleyway, his hands slipping into the pockets of his jacket and his tongue lavishing the filtered tip of the burning cigarette in his lips. It wasn't such a bad haul and he mused over buying a pass to a local gym for a formal brush up on his martial arts. But such thoughts were interrupted as his eyes found another man standing in the mouth of the alleyway.
The figure was motionless and stern, but apparently hadn't had the sense to either enter or move along, telling Kage that he was either too enthralled with seeing some action or too scared to try and break it up. Either way, the brawler stopped and glared, his face only slightly touched by the glow of his cigarette. "Ticket, please? Step up or blow, buddy. This ain't no peep show," he growled, waiting for the man to stiffen and flee.
The man was leaning against the wall and watching intently, obviously engaged by the fight that had happened before him. Even when Kage addressed him and tossed out a few casual threats, he didn't stir and continued to watch with amused eyes. The sensation that had drawn him to the alley was confirmed and all there was now was a quick educational step forward and an illuminating truth that would surely irk his casual arrogance. However, despite all pretenses and thoughts, this brooding brawler was certainly not someone to be taken lightly.
With a wide grin, Ten'ou Haruka stepped into the light, her female figure drowned by a stylish suit and her lips turned up with an amused smile. It was always a treat when someone assumed too much about her and she was eagerly looking forward to altering his assumptions. She had already learned a lot about him by watching the final moments of the scuffle and she weighed her options, thought she also knew that this young man was certainly not to be given an inch. Still, his actions had proved interesting. Whether or not mugging the muggers was ethical, she did like his style. It wasn't everyday an epitaph criminal appeared on the streets and there was just something brewing in the depths of his exotic eyes that caused her to step headlong into his path.
"You have some pretty slick moves for a street thug. I think the police would have something to say about you taking their money," she said, keeping her voice deliberately lower to save the surprise for the right time.
However, her secret was already out. Kage showed the surprised in his brow and the course of his eyes, for even though she could easily blend with a dozen other salary men on a busy afternoon street, he had already seen through the guise and was reeling from it. "This dude looks like a lady. Tch, I hate people that can't make up their mind," he thought.
Unlike most people, he had a fighter's eye. From the moment she had come into the light, he had seen the shape of her body despite the clothes. Her weight was distributed differently and she shifted her hips when she stood. All of it was plainly visible for him. It was just one of the abilities that came with a life of fighting. "Yeah, well I'm a very unique thug," he replied and slipped the cigarette from his lips, blowing puffs of grey smoke as he spoke. Guile was just written on his face as he sized her up, not at all being discreet about it, though she didn't appear to take much offense. Whether it was mountains or seas, Kage walked the same and didn't lose once ounce of his stance, his shoulders still tense and his eyes waiting for the instant a new battle began.
After all, he could tell she was no ordinary pedestrian as well. "Nice suit. Confused, are we? I bet you give the girls a big surprise in the sack, eh?" he snorted and idly used his thumb to push the cigarette through his fingers in tune with the remark, emulating something similar in show.
Haruka smirked lightly, pulling her hand from her pocket and she turned her body slightly to address him in a far less polite term. "You shouldn't assume so much. If I were to do the same and judge you solely on your looks, you'd be nothing more than foul-mouthed thief with all the manners of shoe scum," she retorted dryly, watching the quirk in his brow show how her remark had hit him. It only made her slip further into the pissing contest. "Oh, how embarrassing. That's how you really are. I guess I defeated my own point," she said with a sneer.
Kage's brow was twitching with aggravation and he bit the end of his cigarette, his fierce eyes locked on the girl all while the muscles in his thighs were bothered. This cross-dressing bystander had invaded his own personal therapy and was now throwing insults at him, something that instantly brought all of his attention on her.
However, as he had already rousted a few street thugs and had stuffed his pockets, there was really little need to dance around with another lowly human. Even his intense need to fight was satiated due to the alighted might of his revenge and the fact that his true nemesis was waiting somewhere for his hand. There was also a small feeling tugging at the back of his mind telling him that going at it with this person would be way more trouble than it was worth.
For all of that, he snorted to the side heavily, shifting his eyes in a posturing of his pride. "Tch, bark bark, little puppy. I just floored all these big hearty men. What could a little girl like you do?" he growled and stabbed his hands back in his pockets, walking towards her once more as he went to leave the alleyway. His boots were making dull echoes in that confined space, with only her silent eyes to punish him. In reality, he had no interest in getting into a slap fight with her, making her words moot. His rage had been vented for the night. All there was left was to pass by and filter out of existence once more.
It was then that she attacked with a grin. The first punch clocked him right across the jaw, making him stumble to the side in utter shock and soon he felt two more blows rack his torso. He hardly had a moment to breathe before another fist was curling through the night towards his face. However, this time he was able to jut the back of his hand into her wrist and deflect it, giving him a moment to kick-start his training and begin to address her assaulting blows.
With skills that rivaled his own, she threw a tempest of attacks right at him, most of which he was able to block or avoid. Her final assault left a good-sized hole in the wall here his head had previously been, though she slowly looked over her locked arm at him, taking his wide expression with joy as she spoke through a daring grin, "You'd be surprised."
Kage shifted his jaw a bit as it throbbed from her blow. His burning cigarette was still smoking on the ground where it had fallen and his eyes played over the lost companion, his tongue flickering out as he attended to the spot of blood that had been stinging his lower lip. "You wanna hand that back over here?" he said candidly, looking from where the cigarette was laying at her feet.
It was an odd request and Haruka lowered her arm, giving the smoldering stick a slight glance before promptly stepping on it, grinding the life out of it with loud static in the still alleyway.
It was her only response.
To that, he pressed his lips and his knuckles cracked at his sides. Until that moment, he was still indifferent to actually getting into it with her, though not because he had any pretenses such as the woe of fighting a woman, but rather because there was something about her that was touching his senses – tickling his instincts.
However, as she had formally denied any amicable way to stay on his good side, he just rolled his neck to the side and prepared to make her pay. "Get ready for the hurt," he quipped and suddenly went on the offensive, lunging at her with little fanfare and swiping a fanning kick up at her head – a move that struck her as being far quicker than expected. Even though she evaded the kick, the gust of air following it slapped her cheek almost as if it had landed, amazing her that the whipping kick had so much power put behind it.
It wasn't the only thing that amazed her. Haruka soon found that he had a very unique style, one that stressed his long legs and the range that came with them. She was introduced to his beautiful, spanning form, the same which had awed Sailor Jupiter in the theater. Like with Makoto, she had a distinct speed advantage over this brawler, but something was telling her deep inside not to let her guard down in because of it. His kicks were stunning to watch as each movement lead to a flawless progression into the next attack, making his body appear fluid. Even with her speed, she was working to avoid the barrage of kicks that were darting around her head and body like an irate wasp. As of yet he hadn't thrown a punch, but he had lit up the night with a tightly disciplined kicking discipline.
She waited. All she had to do was get inside and it was over. She had fought tall fighters before and their weakness was always within the reach of their arms and legs. Knowing that she was doing far better than anyone else had in a long time judging by the surprised look on his face, she smiled and continued to bide her time, knocking aside the kicks with her arms or dodging them completely in pure form.
After enough time, she had her chance. With incredible agility, he had kicked his leg out and extended himself in such a manner that she was able to make her move. Her position was perfect to lunge and she did so, throwing a very powerful punch into his torso much like she had against his domestic counterpart. To her despair, however, her fist impacted a wall of tight muscles that had been honed and driven by years of living on a knife's edge. Her hand throbbed just from the impact. The density of his strength was a sobering experience and she looked up at him, her eyes burrowing a hole through him.
But to her surprise, he was smiling.
A sudden pain shot through her shoulder as his elbow crashed down on her, as if he had been leaving his upper body dormant until she exploited the same logical weakness that she had. The sharp bone of his elbow felt like blade as it displaced her bone and flesh, making her groan in a moment of shock and pain. But that wasn't all. The blow caused her weight to shift to her side and as she stepped to stabilize herself, his foot planted in front of hers and he slipped behind her, taking her arm back with her and tossing all of her weight forward. However, as he was currently keeping her foot in place, she was unable to stop herself and found the ground approaching very quickly.
The hold was solid and she would have surely met the concrete with a gawking face had she not been the skillful fighter she was. Agility was her calling card and she quickly flicked her wrist at the perfect angle, able to wrestle her arm from him in time to crouch and leap forward, rolling in the air to rake her foot across his face as a parting gift before she hit the ground roughly and rolled backwards onto her feet, glaring furiously for the next assault while cradling her twisted arm and injured shoulder. But her inertia was too much and she hit the wall of the alley with her back, feeling yet another pulse of pain course through her. With a hand hung on her shoulder, she stared at him with clenched teeth and a scowl on her beautiful face.
But he was standing still, his head still cocked from the last blow she delivered. Although awkward, he was watching her with sublime eyes, his tongue fondling the burning cut on the inside of his lip that she had given him. But he was alive again. She had jump-started his heart as it had been wilting in the lapse of true adversity.
Seeing she was stable again, he stood straight and clapped so loudly that it filled the alley with a storm of echoes. He was very impressed. It showed on his face. "There are few who could have done that. You may be more fun than I thought," he remarked over his pumping blood.
The shifting on the mood made her face melt again and she stood straight, laughing bitterly at the compliment and pulling a covering hand over her injuries. As she rolled her shoulder to work the pain out, his head tilted and his curiosity bloomed. She was very interesting. "What's your name, girl?" he asked.
She glared at him, irked that he had the audacity to ask now after they had already exchanged blows, but she too was interested in this brawler that had the skills and power to make her work for victory. Anyone that had the eyes that he had was worth her time. "Haruka…Ten'ou Haruka," she replied and slipped her fingers from the sore spot. He had hurt her and she was more than eager to return the favor, this time after all of the formalities had been done. She'd wipe the alleyway clean with his face the next time.
"What's yours?" she replied.
"Kage?" suddenly started a new voice, one that grabbed the attention of them both. Both Kage and Haruka looked to the mouth of the alley and saw a young girl peeking around the corner with her hand against the stone, her green eyes wide in wonder and her body pressed close against the wall in bashful longing. It was an interesting scene to come upon.
"Makoto?" Haruka asked in surprise.
"Haruka-kun? What…what are you two doing? Yamamori-san?" she replied and stepped out into the alleyway. It became a flurry of curious glances as they all looked among each other, but with the mysterious young man's eyes still favoring his opponent.
"What…you two know each other?" Kage remarked and pointed between them. The girls looked between themselves and then back to him, trying to hide an unknown secret. It was a very awkward moment. Glances were exchanged between them and it would have been too hard to explain. Kage was quickly becoming annoyed and it showed in his falling brow.
But Makoto was too interested in what they had been doing when she came upon them, drawn by the familiar sensation of Haruka's energy. She had never expected to find this. "Were you fighting, Haruka-kun?" Makoto asked and looked her over for injuries, much to the reserved smile of her patient. The maternal nature of Makoto was never more apparent as she fawned over the slumped shoulder with her eyes, her mouth twisting angrily as Kage looked on. "How cruel! You had no reason to do this, Yamamori-san!" she called and glared at him, though he was now looking at them in a new light.
While Haruka was still glaring right back at him, not knowing exactly how to proceed from this interlude, Makoto was the one in the middle, caught with her protective instincts on her sleeve and the feeling of purpose still lost somewhere beneath.
But he soon surprised them both, snorting loudly to their combined front and stabbing his hands in his jacket pockets. "Tch, and just when I was having fun. But even I know better than to get into it with a couple of pinky lovers." He said and looked between them, completely convinced that the reason Makoto was acting so offended was because she and Haruka were intimate.
The remark made Haruka grouse slightly but Makoto was confused a moment, looking at him with a sort of innocent ignorance that only lived on the face of the true. "Lovers?" she echoed, as if trying to comprehend what he meant by that.
Then the meaning became obvious. Being the token of misunderstanding, Makoto laughed sheepishly, took a step away from Haruka and waved her hands through the air quickly to abolish that idea, her voicing showing an unusual level of distress. "No no no! It's not like that! We're just friends, right, Haruka-kun?" she claimed while giving a Haruka a glance.
Haruka, while still a bit irked at the young man's verbal skills, felt the fight slipping away from her and found it better to poke a little fun at her senshi sister, shrugging in spite of her injury and acting the part of a secretive lover. "Huh, who knows?" she said, which hit Makoto like ice down the back as being incredibly cruel. But Haruka played the part well, neither confirming nor denying the accusation. Something in her mind was sharing secrets and Makoto was in a panic for one very good reason.
It was more than enough for Kage. He casually shrugged and sighed, eyeing her idly and speaking, "Figures. Then next time we meet, leave your heart at home and don't hold back. I'm gonna bury you at that time, you bastard," he said with a smirk. Haruka was snorting at his remark as he was walking towards the mouth of the alley that Makoto had just come from and intending to leave this night as one of the more interesting moments of his time there. Secretly, he was hiding the fact that he recognized both of them as being potent fighters and that he very well couldn't defeat them both at the same time. He may have been arrogant, but he wasn't blind.
Makoto was in despair as she watched him walk between them and head out of the alleyway, though Haruka just looked on silently. Before he turned onto the street, he stopped and looked at Haruka out of the corner of his eye, a small smile twisting the corner of his lip. "You fight good, Ten'ou Haruka. Why don't you wear something nice next time and we'll really have fun," he said with blatant acidity in his tone.
Haruka's brow twitched at the remark and she suddenly felt a renewed inclination to beat the hell out of him, though it was that reaction that made him grin and leave them standing there; the furiously indignant Haruka and the disparaging Makoto.
With the single reason she had been out that night gone, Makoto looked to Haruka with frantic eyes. It was obvious her heart was beating fast in light of being associated like that, but also for another reason that Haruka had read in her eyes the moment she had seen him. But it was beating nonetheless. "Haruka-kun! Why didn't you tell him? W-Why did you let him think that we're…you know, like that?" she cried in a quick voice, a blush burning across her face.
"Makoto's always been too critical about boys," Haruka mused to herself. She also scoffed at her taste in men, finding that the young girl had an uncanny ability to fall for the worst possible person for her. In her heart, she felt that this Yamamori Kage was no different. "I thought so," she snorted and looked to her finally, "If you chase after this one, Makoto, you're going to suffer a lot of sorrow. He's got a fractured heart."
The words didn't make much sense to Makoto at first and she stopped in her tantrum, though her face was still burning from her secret being out. Haruka had seen it in Kage's eyes, a dark spot on his soul that was slowly growing with every moment, but she knew that the young girl before her would be too blinded by her feelings to see it. That would prove dangerous if she such a spot became destructive.
But the look on Makoto's face made her sigh and rub her shoulder, knowing that no amount of talking could eclipse the beating of her heart. She felt a bit sorry that the thunder senshi's greatest weapon was also her greatest vice. "He went that way. If you want to head into self destruction, I can't stop you," she said candidly.
Not knowing exactly what she meant, Makoto bowed a quick thanks and ran after him, leaving Haruka to look over the thugs. With a hand on her shoulder, she sighed and closed her eyes to the obvious, feeling that whatever followed the young man named Kage was dark, dangerous and destructive. "Kage, huh? Next time…I'm going to kick your ass," she said with a smirk.