End of Innocence v2.0
By Dixxy
Chapter Eleven: An Old. . . Friend?
Narrated by. . . ?
Taking a long drag on my cigarette, I sighed as I stared at the ceiling of my apartment from the old couch in the living room. Once again, the search had wound up completely fruitless. I was disappointed for sure, but I was more tired than anything else. But the last thing I'm going to do is give up – I'm not going to let him hide from me forever!
Holding my cancer stick between my fingers, I began to think about the current predicament I was in. It had been about five years since Cye Mouri had run away and disappeared from the lives of the Ronin Warriors with only one phone call declaring that he didn't want to be found. Although everyone had been upset (Kento in particular), almost everyone had respected Cye's wishes.
"He'll come home when he's good and ready to come back home," was what Mia always said, even though after five years of her saying it we all got the idea that even she didn't believe herself anymore when she said it. I laughed at the thought – she knew he wasn't coming back without someone to drag him back home.
And for the most part, we all agreed with her with smiles on our faces and other thoughts on our minds. Everyone knew that after this long he was probably dead or beyond their reach – asking for him to come back on his own now would be like asking Anubis to come back to life. Theoretically possible, but kind of unlikely.
Of course, I still needed to know what happened. Just letting it go like everyone else had didn't sit very well with me. Even if I was going to be looking at the photograph that a morgue had labeled as a John Doe and being able to identify it as Cye would be good enough for me. At the very least, it was closue. Sure it would mean a lot of hard emotions for us as we grieved for his life, but at least we'd would be able to grieve and not be left wondering constantly where he was.
Then again, I'd much have prefered to have the little fish-hugger alive so I could give him a piece of my mind. Running away like that in the middle of the night without warning – what the hell possessed him to do that! Was he that scared of his own destiny that he'd just leave his friends to deal with it? How selfish could that little brat be? How DARE he do such a thing?
"I don't get you – why do you spend so much time trying to find him, anyways?" came the voice of my crankier roommate. I heard him slam groceries down onto the kitchen counter as he continued to berate me on my happy little addicition. "And put that damn thing out, for crying out loud! Those things smell like ass and you're just going to stink up the apartment!"
"Fuck you, Cale," I said.
"Fuck yourself, Sehkment."
I put out my cigarette and sat up on the couch. "To answer your first question, it's not FAIR to me," I said. I put my feet up on the coffee table and leaned back. "Sure you and Halo don't get along too well, but you have an unsteady truce with him. Dais is freakin' best buddies with Hardrock! How the hell did they go from nearly ready to kill each other to being best of buddies, anyways!"
"How the hell should I know! They're freaks. We came back to make peace with the Ronins – not get all 'buddy-buddy' with them," Cale retorted. "And so what if you picked on Cye the most – you wailed on Wildfire a lot as well. Isn't that enough for you? He forgave you, so why do you need his forgiveness?"
"I don't care about him forgiving me!" I said.
"Then why have you spent every other weekend searching morgues, half-houses, AA meetings, and God-knows where else trying to find this stupid kid?" said Cale. He stomped into the living room, folding his arms and glaring at me. "You've having trouble coming to terms with the fact he's either dead or wants nothing to do with us anymore, aren't you?"
"Congradulations, Captain Obvious," I snapped. "Sure I picked on Ryo, but I dumped a lot of shit on that kid, too. I'm a relatively decent person now, right? But I can't move on until I burry the hatchet with him." I stood up, reaching for another cigarette in my back pocket – just to piss Cale off.
"Sehkment, you need to get over yourself. He's GONE."
"To where?"
"You're impossible!" Cale shouted, throwing his hands into the air and stomping off towards his room. I sat back down, glad that he was finally off my back for tonight. Cale could be an asshole sometimes, and tonight was clearly a night he wanted to be an asshole. I wasn't gonna stop him – I get idea the likes to be cranky, and if it makes him happy, I don't care enough to interefere.
It's strange, though. I care less about bothering a man I've known for hundreds of years than I do about some kid I beat the crap out of (and who occasionally beat the crap out of me) for a few weeks several years ago. And now I was spending a lot of time and effort into trying to find a kid that I wasn't entirely sure was even alive or in the country anymore.
Part of it is because I did want to burry that hatchet, and part of it was because I wanted to kick his ass for running away. Why? After what he's done to me, never mind how it's made Mia and the other Ronin Warriors feel, it should be obvious. My position at that time absolutely sucked. Dais and Cale had made their peace with the Ronins because their favorite punching bags hadn't vanished off the face of the Earth.
I have not.
It seems stupid when I think about it for a while. I've actually killed quite a few Ronins and God knows how many civilians when I was working for Talpa. I've done a lot of wrong in my life, but I've accepted there is nothing I can do about any of those crimes – pretty much anyone involved now is dead, anyways.
Cye is different. There's still a chance I can make peace with him.
Ever since I'd left Talpa, I'd been carrying around this weight with me – I was usually pretty depressed, started smoking, and spend a lot of time doing nothing because it'd gotten me so down. That didn't happen to Dais and Cale – they were able to start up their lives again. Dais took a sudden, strong interest in spirituality – damn hippie. Cale was an ass, but he enjoyed being an ass (which worked very well for his line of work – damn disc jockey).
Me? I was between jobs as a used car salesman and a waiter in a shifty restaurant.
My string of temporary jobs was one of the few things I found pleasure in anymore. It made me feel alive, even I was just catching crap from bad employers and moronic customers. But it all made me feel like I was alive. Like I was still a person and I wasn't fading into the background.
That's why I need to find Cye – personally, I don't care too much about him. I want to get on with my life and let everyone else around me get on with THEIR lives. Yeah, sure, Cale and Dais are doing fine (what with Dais' granola and Cale's heavy metal music commentary) but everyone else hasn't done so good.
You already know a little about Mia, but you haven't heard the last of it. She still keeps his room clean. At one point Hardrock lived there, too, but he moved into a different room after a while. None of Cye's things were disturbed, and instead of letting everything collect dust, Mia dusts the room every week – for when she thinks he's coming home.
Kento drinks to hide his pain. I guess he and Cye were pretty close, and adding to that his end of the legendary phone conversation, and you've got the perfect recipe for a kid on his way to alcoholism. I think that might be one reason Dais hangs out with him so much nowadays – he's afraid of what Kento might or might not do while intoxicated, and does everything he can to steer him away from the booze. But every once in a while we find him passed out on Mia's front lawn with a bottle of Jack Daniels and no sign of his pants.
Rowen became engrossed in his studies. Well, evidently Rowen did this a lot even before Cye ran away, but suddenly this was ALL he wanted to do. Mia said he wasn't always eating or sleeping very much. He was sick a lot and had lost a lot of weight. The kid's wasted away right before our eyes, and no one seems to be able to do anything about it. Even when they can get him away from his room, he's always carrying a text book or a calculator.
Sage didn't seem overly bothered by the whole issue – for a while he was the pillar of strength in the group, taking care of Kento when he was making offerings to the porcelin god after a bad night of drinking and always making sure Rowen was at least drinking water. Sometimes I caught him doing double takes on the street as someone who looked just a little like Cye might've passed by, but in general he was too wrapped up in affairs at home. His parents were trying to push an arranged marriage on him, and Sage wanted no part of it. Granted, I didn't blame him, but something told me something else was going on.
Ryo seemed to be doing okay until you looked closer and realized he has emotionally shut down. He never smiled. Even Kento laughed like an ass when he was shitfaced and Rowen was pleased if he did particularly well on a test, but Ryo's emotions seemed to suddenly vanish. It wasn't the depression I felt most of the time – he never got angry, never got sad, never cried, never yelled, never did anything but occasionally give an order or take an order from Mia. He just seemed to drift from one place to the next.
Yuli and White Blaze seemed to be the only ones who had a real sense of hope (though with the cat you can't tell). The boy spends a lot of time in our apartment – he talks a lot with Dais and, even though Cale denies it up and down, sometimes he plays Dance Dance Revolution with Yuli (whenever he gets caught he claims he was doing "research" for his radio show – RIGHT). Sometimes I help him with his homework – I'm not very good with providing answers, but he'll give me a stack of flash cards, so I have the answer on the back. He's a pretty smart kid, actually.
The only other person left is Kayura. Kayura lives in Mia's basement, which Rowen refers to as a "mother in law" apartment, in exchange for helping Mia with her research on the Ancient's Clan. This mostly occured after school, as Kayura had decided to start attending high school. None of us was sure how the hell she planned to do it – unlike me and the other Warlords, she'd been virtually unconcious for a few hundred years – she had a lot of catching up to do with the world.
Damn her – she's tenth in her class right now.
Everyone has been dealing with Cye's disappearence in their own way, but I can't understand why none of them are doing anything about it. I would've thought Kayura could lock onto his armor orbe's location or something using her staff, but she refuses to use her powers to do it. This is an arguement we've had countless times.
I personally prefered my stance of dragging his sorry ass back home.
Kayura had a different opinion on the matter: according to the Tao of Kayura, the armor bearers can only be called by the Ancient One if a) the Dynasty is going to attack or b) an extreme emergency shows its head within the Mortal Realm. She said she didn't like everyone's glum mood, bit it was not an international crisis and she could not abuse the power of the Ancient's Staff.
I told her where she could shove the staff and she hit me with it.
It really hurt.
Point is, though, I was alone in my quest.
And as I was lying there on the couch, a thought occured to me. "Cale, did you put any of the groceries away?"
"What do you care? If it goes bad it won't affect you!"
"Well, yeah, but it still tastes nasty!" I yelled back, getting up to put the food away. I grunted at him, although by this point he was already playing music too loud for him to hear me. Fine by me. Let him be an asshole. So now it was my job to clean up after Cale. Perfect.
As I put the milk in the fridge, I heard Dais come in – this was pronounced by the slapping sound of his thong sandels hitting the bottoms of his feet with each step he took. He closed the door behind him, waved kindly at me, and proceeded to help me put the groceries away. "So, did you have a good day? I think I reached a new level of inner peace at the homeless shelter today."
"That's nice," I said.
Dais nodded. "You don't care, do you?"
"Nope. Not really."
Dais shrugged. "That's okay. It's your perogative." He started to pick through the bag. "I thought Cale was doing the shopping this week – why are you putting the food away? Ah, my pita bread! Did he get the hummus, too?" Putting his hippie food on the counter, he continued to help me.
"Cale did the shopping but, because he's Cale, decided to let me put the food away," I said. "Evidently being resistant to poisons makes me the person most responsible for keeping the food from going bad. And that is why you and I are putting the groceries away and Cale is in his room not putting away the groceries."
Dais sighed. "You know, you should try looking into spirituality – just going vegetarian has made me feel a lot better! I figure that with all the people I've killed, all the animals I'm saving by not eating meat, well, maybe it'll build up some good karma for me in the future, you know?"
"The farm equipment that reaps the wheat for your pita bread probably shredded a few hundred field mice in the process," I said nonchalantly. Dais' face took on an interesting expression I'd never seen before. "Discovery Channel. You should watch it once in a while."
"I hate you sometimes," he said.
"Isn't hating frowned apon amongst the tree-huggers?"
"I'll shove a tree up your ass if you don't quit it – then I'll plant three more from its seeds to make up for its lost life," he said with a grin. He opened the jar of hummus and began to search for a butter knife. "You know, maybe you should take this weekend off."
"But I'm not working right now," I said.
"You know what I mean," said Dais. "You've been getting snippier than usual, and I'm guessing that it's because you spend so much time looking for Cye. I know it's important to you, but damn it you're getting a little cranky as of late. Take the weekend and do something fun for a change."
"He won't get found that way," I said.
"He won't get found at all if you run yourself into the ground," said Dais. He cleared his throat and dangeled a piece of paper in front of my eyes. "I know how much you love that American band Duran Duran. Here is a ticket to their show in Tokyo this coming weekend. Now, I know that there's no way I can stop you from looking at all while you're down there, but I know you'll be too hungry like the wolf to ignore this seat."
I was staring at the magical ticket of happiness before me. "That was a horrible pun," I managed to say as I snatched the picket. "And for the record, they're British." But I don't think I cared at that point. The idea of seeing my favorite musical group live in concert – third row from the front center no less – was dominating my train of thought.
Fuck you, Cye – I'm going to see Duran Duran this weekend!
The first night of my weekend was good. I had dinner at a nice restaurant and knocked back half a bottle of sake (I can't get drunk, but I've always enjoyed the taste). At the concert, the band started with "The Union of the Snake", my favorite song. The sound was deafeningly loud and the light show was crazy – a total sensory overload when combined with screaming women and the blaring of musical instruments. After that, I went back to my hotel with two hot girls for a little monage a trois.
It was a much needed vacation.
I didn't feel entirely better, but letting loose for a weekend was a great change of pace. At the very least I felt a little alive for an entire evening. I couldn't help but smile to myself as I got up with a half-naked girl on either side and memories from the previous night still floating around in my head.
Once the girls left me with their numbers, I decided to spend another day in Tokyo – Dais and Cale could survive one day without me, for sure. Maybe. Even if they couldn't, it wasn't really my problem. They could call my cell phone if they really needed me. I would probably ignore them anyways, but the phone was on and fully charged.
So I found myself a nice patch of grass in the middle of a small park, laid myself down, and starred up the sky. A lot of people were out and about that day – there was a bunch of kids and their parents on a jungle gym, a few teenagers with blankets and packed lunches, and an old man playing frisbee with his dog (although this "old" man was probably young enough to be my great-something grandson).
Before I got a chance to drift off I felt something land on my stomache. My eyes snapped open in surprise as I sat up, surprised to see a child's ball sitting by my side. I crossed my legs and examined the bright blue and pink ball, wondering how it got over to where I sat.
Well duh – some idiot kids probably didn't look where they were throwing, that's all, I reasoned. I'd give the little brat a piece of my mind when they came over to get their stupid ball. Holding the ball in my hand, I considered throwing it back at them, but you never know what parent I might piss off. Not that I really cared (if it came to blows, I would win) but I just didn't want to bother with it.
Before I could entertain the thought further, a small girl was already sitting by me. I turned to look at her and was a bit surprised at her straight-forwardness. But here she was, staring right at me with big green eyes and red hair. She was pouting and looking at the ball. "I'm really sorry, sir – I don't think my Daddy and I meaned to hit you with the ball."
"Um, that's all right," I said. I didn't feel like giving her sass – she was really little and little kids cry pretty loudly. I hate screaming kids, so pissing her off seemed like a bad idea. I reached back to get the ball. "Just be more careful next time, okay? If you're not careful you might get someone hurt."
"Nu-uh!" she said. "I'm gonna be WAY more careful next time!"
"Ariel, leave that man alone – SEHKMENT!"
I looked up and almost had kittens. The man standing above the little girl was none other than Cye of the Torrent staring back at me in surprise. He was older than when I last saw him, wasn't wearing any armor, and certainly seemed a bit more mature than the last time I saw him but it was definitely him.
I was at a sudden loss for words. He was HERE! In the PARK? I spent how many years searching phone books, computer directories, morgues, and homeless shelters all over Japan and the best way to find him was to take a nap in the middle of a park! Son of a bitch – the first day I actively decide to NOT look for Cye he practically falls into my lap.
The two of us stared at each other in disbelief for a solid minute, the little girl looking at the two of us in confusion. She had taken her ball back, waiting patiently for an explanation to Cye's sudden outburst and my loss of words. But so far, neither one of us was saying a damn thing.
Cye cleared his throat. "It's, um, been a long time," he said.
That was what finally gave me the words to speak. "You mean to tell me that you've been gone for five years and that's ALL you have to say for yourself? Where the HELL have you been?" I demanded. I folded my arms and gave him a cold glare. "Do you have ANY idea how-"
"Daddy, who is this man?" the little girl asked, tugging at Cye's jeans.
Those five worlds halted my question – well, rather, just the first one did. Suddenly I forgot about everything going on back in Toyama and how everyone felt. Cye looked at me in confusion, unable to say anything as he just stared between me and the little girl who looked far too much like him to not be his daughter.
"Wait a second – you have a kid?" I asked.
Cye swallowed. "Um. . . yes," he said. "I. . . dear God I didn't think this would happen today," he said quietly. He started to shuffle his feet on the ground, holding his daughter's hand. She looked pretty confused, looking constantly between me and Cye as if one of us would magically produce an answer that made sense.
I wasn't sure what to do myself. Any plans I previously had for kicking his ass or yelling and screaming at him or who knows what else were down the drain. Was this why Cye ran away? Because he didn't want the other Ronins to know about his child? She was definitely old enough to have been born around or after he left, and it would explain a lot. But there were still some missing pieces of the puzzle. Where did she come from? Why hadn't Cye let the other Ronins know about something this important?
I cleared my throat. "I think we have some catching up to do," I said.