Chapter Seven – Nameless
A/N: Wow, got a lot of responses for last chapter…for this story, anyway. But thank-yous are in order for the following: Frozen Voices and Yuki Shiro-Chiyuki Kaji for reviewing and subscribing, and DarkAngelZelda for fav-ing. Thank you so much! You guys don't know how happy your feedback makes me. I hope you won't be disappointed in this chapter.
~Raye^^
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"Really," she said, "my true name is – 'Limitless'."
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"Impossible," said Kaze. This single word emerged as a breathless whisper, and I knew she didn't believe what she was saying. Obviously, it was true; it was right in front of our eyes. There was a far more pressing question.
"How can this be?" I asked. My voice, though slightly hoarse, was remarkably steady, considering the cracks in everything I had ever known had suddenly and violently spread, and pieces of my shattered world were coming crashing down around me. "There's only ever two to a name – there's not supposed to be three."
"But that's just it," said Mizu. "There are only two."
"Forgive us if our count says otherwise," snarled Kaze, but her voice quavered with a kind of fear mixed with something else I couldn't name.
Mizu gave a short, bubbly laugh, but it was tinged with something like hysteria. In an instant, my breath turned to ice, freezing into solid, heavy blocks in my lungs as she lunged forward and wrapped her arms around Kaze, bursting into tears.
Immediately, Kaze embraced Mizu, this perfect stranger we had met maybe two minutes ago, and sobbed into her shoulder.
What the hell is going on?!
They finally parted, but their hands were clasped together, and their eyes, the lightest and darkest of greens, gazed at each other through a thick glaze of tears. Mizu's face was caught in a rapturous smile, as though she'd just found hat she'd been searching for all her life.
And so was Kaze's.
I knew, then, that Kaze had just found her real partner. But I didn't want to believe it.
No, no, things are changing too fast. Kaze's been my one constant, with me through it all, from the start, and now she's – she's ---
"What is this?!" I shouted. "What the fuck is this?!"
They both started, as though they'd forgotten that I was standing right there. Mizu seemed irritated that I'd interrupted, but Kaze looked at me and burst into tears again.
"Jinsei, Jinsei, I'm so sorry…"
I didn't say anything. If I remained silent, then it wasn't over; it wasn't goodbye.
'Jinsei –I – I – Mizu is – my Sacrifice," she stammered. "I never would have thought – but – when I saw her, I felt strange – but – at her touch – I couldn't deny it anymore."
"No." It was all I could say, and I felt pathetic as I said it, like I was raising my hands to protect my face against a massive boulder plummeting towards me.
"I'm sorry, Jinsei; I'm sorry!" Kaze cried. "Don't think I'm betraying you; I can't help it; I can't help it!" By the end, she was screaming.
Mizu came and took her in her arms again. This time, I could see their bond – a golden thread that glittered and sparkled so it was almost blinding.
There was still a second bond present – mine and Kaze's.
It was a dull silver glow in comparison, like tarnished chrome. In visible form, our bond had always been different from everyone else's, but we'd always assumed it was because we were elite. But it was because, somehow, it wasn't real, a forced connection, a faked attraction.
Even as I watched, the silver glow began to fade.
"No!!!" The savage cry ripped from my throat, and I lunged forward, dragging Mizu away. "Get away from her!" I hollered. 'I'm her Sacrifice – she's my Fighter1 Mine!! Get the hell out of here; leave; go, now!"
"I can't!" shouted Mizu. "I can't leave her now, you know it doesn't work like that!"
I wouldn't listen; I was a being possessed.
"Get – away!" I yelled, and threw Mizu bodily to the ground; but she was back up in a second, flying at me in a flurry of fists. I grabbed her by the wrists, straining to hold her back.
I heard Kaze scream; out of the corner of my eye, I saw her on her knees, her head in her hands. I could feel her being pulled in two separate directions by her two bonds and the agony was overwhelming her.
"Stop!" she wailed piteously. "Please, stop!"
I continued to grapple with Mizu – one bond had to be broken, and I would make it be hers! But the girl had gone limp in my grasp.
"Stop!" she cried. "You're hurting her!"
'You're the one who's hurting her! She was fine until you got here!"
She struggled to get free. "Let me go!"
"Only if you get out of here!"
"You act like I have a choice! Now let me go; I have to help my Fighter-"
I couldn't control myself; I struck out and landed a glancing punch to her jaw. She turned her head away from the worst of it, but she gasped in surprise and pain.
But it was nothing compared to the scream that came from Kaze. It was high and piercing, and the sound seemed to threaten to tear her in half.
In that instant, I felt our bond break.
I froze in place, my joints locked, my hands still grasping a struggling Mizu's wrists; they were now like manacles of unforgiving iron. I was exactly like ice, solid, unmoving, my thoughts ceased in their tracks, and numb, so numb…
Then I felt a burning gash along the side of my face, followed by a blow to the side of the head, and I saw starts. It was Kaze. She'd dragged her nails across my cheek, then struck out with her other hand, driving her palm into my temple.
"Let go of her, now," hissed Kaze. Her gaze was its familiar venomous hostility, but never before had it been directed at me in this magnitude.
Reeling from the suddenly severed bond and the hit to the head, my knees buckled, and I fell to the ground on all fours.
Kaze's face crumpled, as though she'd realized what she'd just done. "Oh, god – Jinsei, I'm so sorry; I didn't mean it…"
Of course not. It's raw instinct for partner to protect each other.
Kaze wasn't my partner anymore…
Mizu gently placed a hand on Kaze's shoulder. "They sent a car for us," she said. "They want us to go back, and start training together as soon as possible."
"Back?" echoed Kaze, her tone hollow. She was staring, riveted, at me, still on the ground.
"To Seven Voices." Mizu gently tugged on Kaze's arm. 'Let's go; they're waiting for us." I could tell how much pleasure she took in saying "us".
Kaze stood, hesitant.
"Let's go," Mizu urged.
"Not without me," I said, slowly picking myself up.
"You're not –"
I glared at her. "There's no fucking way that you can waltz in here, steal away my Namesharer, and walk out again without making sure I get some fucking answers."
Mizu relented. Having been isolated from a Fighter, she'd been feeling something close to what I was feeling for most of her life.
'Fine."
The three of us started walking to where a dark blue Mazda was parked.
'Jinsei!"
We stopped and turned; Sakura was running across the parking lot, calling my name, her braided sandals slapping noisily against the pavement.
'Let's go; let's get out of here," hissed Mizu, but Sakura was already there, a blaze of embroidery – jeans, peasant blouse, and an iridescent rayon scarf – her eyes wide with confusion and concern, and scanning Mizu warily.
'What's going on, Jinsei? I saw you – fighting. You're lucky none of the teachers saw you…is everything okay?"
"Everything's fine."
"You're hurt!" exclaimed Sakura.
I brought me fingertips to my face where Kaze had scratched me; they came away dry. Three drops of blood had fallen and stained my white button-down shirt, though, like sinister jewels.
"I'm fine," I said.
Sakura shook her head. 'You're lying," she said, her tone slightly panicked. "Where are you going?"
Kaze and Mizu shot meaningful glares at me, but they weren't necessary. "I can't tell you," I said softly.
"Don't go!" cried Sakura, who seemed genuinely afraid. "You can't! Once they have you back; they'll never let you leave!"
"Sakura…" I started, surprised by her intensity. She doesn't even know what she's talking about… "It's okay. I'll be back."
I realized that I had one other constant, a newer one. She hadn't been with me from the start, but since I'd met her nearly a week ago, she'd been there…She was the only thing I had left, now, and I couldn't afford to lode her.
"Promise you won't leave," I whispered. I badly wanted to hold her close and never let go, but, what I truly needed now were answers, so, one day, I could tell her the truth, in its entirety. "Promise you'll wait for me."
Mizu and Kaze looked at me like I was crazy, and even Sakura looked dubious.
"I – I wasn't going to – of course I'll wait," said Sakura. "But you – promise you'll come back."
Her earnestness threw me. I could tell there was more to this than what lay on the surface, but it would have to remain an unsolved mystery for now.
"I promise," I said. I reached forward to take her hand, but Mize grabbed me forcibly and ushered me to the car. I dutifully took the front seat while the girls climbed into the back. The driver, acknowledging us with a curt nod, started the car and drove away; I could see in the sideview mirror that Sakura was watching us go.
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"Explain," I hissed through gritted teeth.
Ritsu-sensei regarded the three of us calmly, seeming almost amused.
"It's quite simple, really, Hirokoshi-kun. You are not Limitless' Sacrifice; you never were. That honour goes to Kanagawa-kun--now that we have discovered her, we were able to match her with the proper Fighter Unit. You know how it works."
'Don't give me that," I snapped, with a complete disregard for a respectful way of speaking. "How was I involved with Limitless, then if I'm not part of it anymore?"
"You say 'anymore', but you never were. The 'Limitless' you belonged to was the result of an artificial bond."
Kaze and I stiffened; Mizu's curiosity was piqued, but she remained otherwise impassive.
Ritsu-sensei continued. "You are well aware that a Fighter Unit's name appears several years before a Sacrifice's, so as to immediately distinguish which of the two a child is going to be. When Miyamoto-kun's name, Limitless, appeared, you, a promising young student, were selected to be her Sacrifice, and imbued with her name. If this experiment were to be successful, I would not have to wait until the Sacrifice's names appeared, then search all of Japan until I could match up the proper pair. I could create bonds, create partnerships out of nothing. I believed that most of a bond's power lay in the mind, was purely psychological. If a pair believed they were meant to be together, and were taught to believe nothing but this, and each partner bore the same name, then the bond would form itself."
That's how, when I arrived, they were able to tell me that Kaze was mine; even when my name hadn't appeared! I was only six, then!
"The two of you were our test subjects – and the experiment was nearly a success. Your prowess in battle was unmatched, but that can be attributed to your strengths as individuals. When you were older, outgrowing children's naïveté, I could see your bond beginning to strain, and I decided the two of you were failures and I decided to begin the search for the real Sacrifice for Limitless."
Kaze and I were rigid with horror and anger, and Mizu seemed stunned as well.
"That's sick," I spat. 'A partnership's bond is a sacred thing, and what you've done is a violation of something that's precious beyond words. To fake a bond of a lifetime, that's -- that's – inhuman!!"
I could only assume Kaze agreed with me. It was unnerving, not being able to sense her feelings, and my only awareness of her presence was being able to see that she was in close proximity.
"It's perfectly human, Hirokoshi-kun –it's science."
I was speechless. How can he justify something like that to himself?! It's like – he doesn't even think of us as people…
"I believe," said Ritsu-sensei, "there is only one thing left to do." He pulled a key on a string out from under his loose-collared shirt, and unlocked a drawer in his desk. Pulling out a small vial of translucent pink-tinged liquid, he held it up to the light for a moment's inspection. Turning back to me, he ordered, "Roll up your right sleeve."
I turned the cuff back twice to reveal the name on my wrist, the name that was no longer mine. Unstoppering the vial, Ritsu-sensei carefully poured the liquid onto the letters.
"That name is nothing but a tattoo," he said. 'This will dissolve the ink, but it will have to eat through a few layers of sin first, so it may sting…"
"Sting" was an understatement; it felt more like someone was scraping my skin off with coarse sandpaper. I gritted my teeth, strangely determined not to show any discomfort.
Suddenly, it was over. A red, raw oval surrounded the place where my name had once been. That last fragment of the delusion I had grown up under had been stripped away, and I felt a bizarre combination of resentment and relief.
I saw a single tear trail down Kaze's cheek. This was hurting her, too. Anything we'd ever shared, any hopes we may have had for ourselves – they'd all been untied under the name Limitless. Now that my name was gone, it was like it had never happened, and that ten years of our lives had been forsaken.
But she would be all right. Even as I looked on, Mizu put her arms around Kaze and murmured something in her ear; Kaze leaned her head on Mizu's shoulder. They had each other: their partner, their true match, literally made to be together. I was the one who was alone.
Or was I?! Of course, somewhere out there was my match, searching for me, too!
I slammed my hands down on Ritsu-sensei's desk and leaned forward, right in his face. To his credit, he didn't flinch.
'What is my true name, then?" I demanded. "What is the name of my Fighter Unit? Who's my partner, and my true Namesharer? If I'm not Limitless – who am I?"
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A/N: There you go! Another chapter up and over with, and hopefully now some things make a little more sense. I hope you enjoyed this chapter (pleeeeeeeeeeease let me know!) and I'll post the next one as soon as I get it written!
Hugs and hearts,
~Raye Lynne:)
