Chapter 14: Secrets Don't Stay Buried Forever
The meagre pile of sticks wasn't the driest thing in the world, so it was mildly annoying that after long minutes of endless patience, Chichiri happened to look up, see the rolling storm clouds, and found himself obliged to put out the smouldering mound. All around him the merchants were packing up, preparing to move away. One of them signalled to him and over the distance hollered, "Storm!"
Waving back, Chichiri replied, "We'll be leaving in a while no da!" Abandoning the fire pit, he began securing packs onto the saddles, once in a while peering out of the corner of his eye to check on Ami, who was still curled up in sleep. A little smile twitched up the side of his mouth. Making his way over, he put a hand on her shoulder.
"Ami-chan? Wake up, no da."
She stirred, moaned sleepily, and then blinked up at him. "What's going on?"
"There's an incoming storm, no da. We need to get going if we don't want to be caught in it."
Smothering a yawn, she hauled herself up and off the bedroll. "What about the lovebirds?"
"I was going to look for them." He stood. "Everything is packed and ready to go. I might take a while, so we'll just meet up at that abandoned villa." As he spoke, he nodded towards a decrepit structure nestled at the foot of a cliff. "Yamamoto-san," gesturing towards a nodding merchant, "has offered to take you. Please be careful, no da."
She looked away from the dark shape of the villa and opened her mouth to speak, but when she turned, he had already left. "Chichiri – " A rumbling thunder devoured her words, and then drowned it in a sudden sheet of cold rain. Fat raindrops assailed her, involuntarily making her shiver as they snaked a way down her back. Squeezing her eyes shut against an onslaught of unexplainable panic, Ami slapped both palms to her cheeks.
"Get a grip. There's nothing to be scared of." Letting out a deep breath, she cast a final glance at the figure in the surrounding greyness and threw herself back to packing.
The ceiling was dark – inky black and cavernous. Somewhere near it, water rippled quietly. The ground felt sandy under her hands, digging into her elbows as Lolita sat up. The jacket draped over her slid into her lap.
"Tasuki?" She had been lying near a pool. Fire blazed from a little pit not too far away. Behind it – far, far behind it – something shone a glimmer of dark silver. Rain. Pounding, pouring curtains of rain.
"Tasuki?" she called again, footsteps crunching as she stumbled in the dimness. "Is anybody in here?" Her voiced bounced off the smooth limestone walls, echoing, fading, dying.
There was no reply.
Casting a glance over her shoulder, Lolita walked away from the fire, edging around the pool to a little crevice in the stone wall. It was narrow, wide enough for only one person to go through at a time. Her breath came in heavy inhalations and exhalations as tentative fingers crept into the pitch-black opening. "Tasuki?"
The fire behind her flickered under a faint rush of air from the crevice. Spying orange light within, Lolita edged closer, then started back as a dark figure loomed up. The ground suddenly gave to water and she gasped, but before the scream could tear out her throat, the figure whipped out to grab her before she fell in.
"Y'okay?"
Heart still pounding, she nodded. "Yeah." A sheepish grin began to spread across her face as she looked up at her hero. "Thanks. Again." Then she peered over his shoulder and squinted into the blackness he had left behind him. "What were you doing in there?"
"Explorin'." He steered them around the pool and back to the cramped little campsite. Tasuki tossed his torch into the blazing embers. When he looked up again, he wasn't smiling.
"What?" her head cocked to the side.
"Ya dont' seem ta realize that we're somewhere else."
"Ya don't seem ta realize we're alone," she mimicked, grin widening. He only stared at her. Lolita's smile slid off her face. "I'm sorry..." she mumbled, studying the upturned palms on her lap.
"I thought fer sure y'd...left me...this mornin'..."
"Don't be silly, I'd just gotten up – " Words failed her when she realized that he was talking about something else. "Oh."
"Y' wouldn't wake up," he continued almost in a rasp. "I called an' called an' y' just lay there like y' were...like y' were..." He stopped himself short as two arms wound around his neck.
"But I'm still here. I'll always be here."
Sighing, he let himself lean into her shoulder and close his eyes. The fire danced beside them, sending little sparks into the air. On the other side, the water rippled red, like magma. He hugged her back, clutching her almost desperately.
Soothingly, he felt her hands rake through his rain-dampened hair. When she next spoke, her breath was upon his neck. "Tasuki...let's make nice memories okay?"
While I'm still by your side.
He nodded. "Okay."
Chichiri squinted under his kasa. Rain waterfalled down its sides, completely obscuring everything in front of him. Even when held before his face, he could barely make out the shape of his hand. Water from higher ground churned around his ankles to crash against the rising waves from the sea.
"Tasuki! Lolita-chan no da!"
It was a fruitless search. He couldn't even hear himself shout. When the storm drove inland, fiercer than ever, Chichiri knew he had to leave. Throwing one final glance backwards, he hoped his companions had found shelter and then turned his feet towards the cliff.
The narrow mountain trail was bumpy at best, but in the rain, it was slick, muddy, and so much the worse for wear. Ami and the merchant's boy tumbled in the dim shade of the caravan, desperately lashing down crates of goods before they fell out. The drone of the storm isolated the travelling party from all other sound except the sliding wooden boxes, the caravan's straining wheels, and Yamamoto-san's grunts as they skimmed the edge of the path by mere inches.
Ami shook from the sudden turns that more than a couple of times threw the caravan on its side wheels.
We're not gonna die. Gods above, please don't let us die.
She yelped as the car jerked right, bringing with it tumbling rolls of carpet and bags of supplies. They drove so dangerously close to the side of the cliff that when Ami hit the wall of the caravan, she felt the rough rock of the mountainside through the stretched hide.
"Keep yer balance, nee-san," the merchant's errand boy called out, attention never straying from the knot he was tightening. "It won't do ta' keep slidin' this way an' that!"
"Easy for you to say," she grumbled back, picking herself out of the mess of things that had cornered her. Pushing aside a dusty rug, she poked her head outside to the driver's seat where the merchant steered the horses.
"Yamamoto-san, are we there yet?" Ami tried squinting through the shower of fat raindrops but could make out nothing more than the waterlogged outlines of scraggly trees.
The merchant shook his head. "We're still half-way up the mountain, little lady. The roads are in bad repair this year, but I guarantee we'll make it," he winked.
"Ne," she persisted almost whiningly, "Is there no other road we can use? This one's pretty awful."
"Nothin' better than this, I tell you. This is the only uphill path that ain't seen bodies every rainy season."
Ami started. "Bodies?"
"Yep," Yamamoto replied almost nonchalantly. "Drowned people from upstream get washed up on the beach all th' time." He tugged the reins a little to the left and the caravan eased up a steeper incline. As they ascended to higher ground, a rushing, swollen stream clear across them came into view. "That one," he cocked his head towards the stream, "It's in good repair and wider than this little trail we're on, but nobody'd drive up there this time of year, even if their credits depended on it."
"There's..." she looked hard but could see nothing resembling a road in the direction the merchant indicated. "There's only a stream, Yamamoto-san. No road."
"Exactly. Turns into The River o' the Dead overnight on days like this one."
"River of the dead?" Ami wasn't sure she liked where the conversation was going, but something was slowly clicking into place inside her head.
"Dead bodies, wandering souls – the works."
"So this is the only viable path..." she murmured to no one in particular.
"We don't want no corpses jammin' our wheels, na?"
"We're only halfway up even though we've been travelling for some time already..."
"This path's a pretty obscure one. Gotta get right around the beach to find it. Then again, only us merchants p'rolly know where it is."
Her mental gears began whirring as the final piece clicked into place. "Yamamoto-san, please let me down! I've got to find Chichiri!"
The merchant yanked the reins and then turned to the girl with wide eyes. "You crazy, 'jou-san? Ya can't go out in a drivin' storm like this one. Bet'cha can't even find yer way down the mountain without first slipping into the nothni'ness beyond!"
"I'll be careful!" she promised, already scrabbling out the caravan. But before she could jump off, the merchant grabbed her cloak.
"If you're goin t' the River o' the Dead, just follow the curve of the cliff once you get off this trail. There's a ledge that's far above the water. Keep to it an' be careful in case it crumbles." His expression softened. "You got a good heart, 'jou-san. I'll be prayin' the next time I see ya an' yer seishi friend, you'll both still be in one piece."
Ami smiled, nodded. "Thank you." Then she hopped off and ran into the rain.
There was no way he could get to the villa. Chichiri clung to a twisted branch as he surveyed the uphill path. The floodwaters roared dangerously close, threatening to rip the dead tree right out from its roots. Even at his vantage point, there wasn't much he could see beyond the crumbling dune of sand that walled off the beach below. He hoped Ami had gotten to the villa safely.
Just as he was contemplating hopping into his kasa to wait out the tempest, he felt a sharp spike of chi. Chichiri jerked around but saw no one in the close vicinity. Instinctively, he sent out a thread of his own energy to try to identify the stranger. It was a little hard to navigate in the rain, but the person he sought to find kept up a straight path towards him. He probed farther and farther until at last he found what he had been looking for, and instantly recognized the tremulous aura.
"Ami-chan!" he fairly called out, releasing the tree branch before he could think of his next move. The earth collapsed beneath him and Chichiri suddenly found himself skidding towards the widening rush of water. In a sudden panic, he threw his arms up to his face as he plunged into the icy waters, completely letting go of the strand that connected him to Ami.
Her head jerked up as a warmth jerked right off her shoulder. Ami spun to the side, expecting to see her cloak caught on a stray branch or something, and saw instead a flash of blue disappear into the roiling River of the Dead.
She screamed his name as she scrambled forward, struggling to maintain a foothold on the narrow ledge she traversed. The cliff wall was slippery with rain and once or twice she came dangerously close to falling in. Ami grabbed at a tangle of vines, tested to see whether it would hold, and leaned far out over the waters, hoping to see Chichiri.
The unmistakable pattern of his kesa fanned out over the water's surface, and the first relieved tears leaked from her eyes. Defying every single bit of common sense left in her, Ami strained to reach the bobbing fabric, hoping it was still attached to its owner.
It was just within reach when she heard the heart-stopping sound of ripping foliage.
Eddies rushed towards her in an angry crest of white foam and filthy water. She attempted to grab the kesa at the last minute but it dashed against a boulder, limply rippling with the current. Ami just had enough time to whimper before she, too, disappeared under the water.
"Just stay calm and keep your head above the water. I'll have you free in a minute." It was a half-lie, but it was a necessary half-lie. The child was panicking, and she couldn't start working on the knotted clump of seaweed if he continued kicking underwater.
"You promise you'll hurry?"
Glancing at the chubby little hand on her arm, she nodded. "I won't stop until you're free," Ami promised before diving back down. With the saltwater stinging her eyes, she had to resort to working blindly, tugging at the tangle of seaweed and hoping to be able to uproot them, at very least. What she didn't count on, though, was their being tougher than she had originally anticipated. While her hands slipped from the slimy strands, the waves continued to batter inland as if intent on washing her away.
She was getting frustrated when a second body floated down towards her. It was one of the trainee bodyguards, gesturing about something.
Knife, she mimed. I need a knife.
Nodding, he kicked back up to the surface and disappeared into the motorboat.
Ami returned to untangling the mass of green swaying around the boy's leg. She had managed to tear out bits of the seaweed, but the bulk of it still remained wrapped around his ankle. Once more, she glanced upwards into the shimmering surface. With every second, it seemed to grow further and further away.
The boy struggled, obviously terrified. She grasped his trapped leg gently, asking, almost begging, him to keep still. Her lungs burned from a lack of air, and the spots that danced before her eyes now threatened to completely take over her vision.
She still needed that knife.
The trainee still hadn't returned.
The boy still needed to be saved.
As Ami tore through the snarls, she saw one last option. If only she could force the knots loose enough for a second, the boy would be able to slip through. Almost without a second thought, she put her arms through the loop beside his leg. Feeling the new sensation, the child instinctively kicked out. In another moment, one of the lifeguards had successfully lifted him from the water.
Ami attempted to follow the upward trail he had taken, but suddenly found herself firmly attached to the sea bottom. The tangle had tightened around her left wrist. Overhead the motorboat sputtered, its occupants oblivious to her plight. It would be a while before the others noticed her failure to surface.
Probably in another long while.
Against her better judgment, she gasped, allowing salty water to rush into her lungs. Help me, she wanted to scream, if only she had the voice. Help me. And then her eyes closed and her body relaxed under the high tide.
Chichiri's eyes snapped open. He was underwater, and yet he knew the panic he felt was because of something else entirely. Pushing himself up to the faint source of light, he broke through the surface in time to see the edge of his kesa sink under the current.
Help me...help me...
He sliced through the waters, wincing as it pounded the side of his face and dislodged the paper mask. Once again he sent out his chi. For a long minute he sensed nothing. And then a tingle ran up his left arm.
Underwater.
He dove down, eyes squeezed shut as he groped for a piece of fabric...an arm...a hand...anything. The chi he sensed felt close to winking out, and yet remained turbulent. It was a chi he felt before and knew all too well. The chi whose owner he had promised never to let alone again...
Skin brushed against skin. Chichiri grabbed at it, forcing his body deeper underwater as the current suddenly shifted upwards. The kesa billowed into his face and he knew he had found her. Almost roughly, Chichiri tugged the body upwards and crushed it to his chest.
A million volts of electricity instantly seared through his body.
Images flashed before his tightly shut eyes. Even though he couldn't understand what was happening, he somehow knew what the pictures were trying to tell him. They weren't his memories. They weren't his nightmares.
They were Ami's. And judging by their intensity, they could easily have been nightmares. The shock made his body cry out for him to break the connection, yet he found that he couldn't let go of her. Whatever Ami was trying to say oppressively bore down upon his mind.
They couldn't resurface. He tried swimming upwards, but the watery grave seemed infinitesimal and the images kept pressing downwards, forcing them into the icy depths. He didn't want to see them. They were Ami's secrets. The curiosity that used to bite at him had disappeared.
He didn't want to know.
He was afraid to know.
A/N: Ahoy mateys! Let me begin by apologizing for this chapter's late-ness. It's not very long, I know, it was horribly difficult to write. I think I rewrote the entire chapter three...maybe four times before finally knowing just what to do with it. All the same, thank you for minna-san's patience. And to all the reviewers, domo arigato gozaimasu. You guys truly make my day!
I'm already working on the next chapter, but I don't know when I'll be able to post. This semester's been pretty busy and I can't figure out why. Going back on topic, though...the next few scenes will probably focus more on Chichiri and Ami since the original lovebirds have finally gotten over their hurdles. As to whether monk-man and his lady will ever find warm, fuzzy love-love, that's for me to know and for you guys to guess.
Keep the reviews coming! I'd appreciate constructive criticism. Ja ne!