Chapter 4
Ah… that feels so good. I close my eyes and relish the warm water embracing my whole body that feels like a gentle massage, drawing out a sigh. This feels wonderful…
I hear the water splash before I feel someone settle into the bath beside me. "Mm, this feels great…" I hear Jowy sigh.
"Yeah" I nod, keeping my eyes closed. "Orange Castle's baths are the best" And I'm so glad that this time around I can enjoy it with you, I add as an afterthought.
"Kenji," Jowy tentatively speaks. "Are you sure it's okay?"
Open my eyes and look at him. "Jowy, we talked about this already"
This morning, we headed to Coronet town and boarded a boat from there to Orange Castle. We crossed the lake at night and went in through the boat docks at the back. It was long after dark and only the guards patrolling were out. Only Shu, Victor and Flik came to greet us.
Before going in, Jowy hesitantly stopped. He suddenly asked if it was better for him to go ahead and meet up with us somewhere else instead. It was then that I realized how hard it must be for Jowy to come here, considering he was one of us before he became the king of Highland.
Victor laughed it off and simply told Jowy "Well, I can't say I agree with how you did things. But in the end, you proved that you're on our side. You're one of us, kid, and that has never changed."
I also think the same, but just because we think so doesn't mean everyone else does. A lot of people now living in Orange Castle were victims of Highland's cruel acts. And as the former king, Jowy will become the target of those people's scorn, even if it's not directed at him personally.
"Jowy," I pause for a bit, and for a minute, the only thing we could hear in the stone bath was the sound of water falling from the lion statue's mouth as I think of what to say. "Everyone in Orange Castle has already become my family. But you… you're my half. You're all important to me so I really hope everyone can get along."
"Kenji…" Little by little, the anxiety in his eyes starts to disappear until it's replaced with resolve. "I'll do everything I can to atone. I'll never allow it to get to the point where you'll have to choose."
This why I love him so much.
The water makes a small ripple as I raise my submerged body and throw my arms around Jowy. We both know it won't be easy, but I'll definitely stand by his side. I'll make everyone see what kind of person he really is.
"Thank you, Jowy."
-x-
The next day, Shu gathered everyone at the Meeting Room to introduce Seisuke and to let everyone know of our plan to help the empire of Lumina. Seisuke received a warm welcome from everyone, but just as expected, it was the exact opposite for Jowy. The atmosphere was so tense, and only eyes filled with hostility were ever directed at him.
That no one except for Shu, Flik and Victor came to the welcome banquet Leona had especially prepared for us afterwards in her pub could only be an open show of opposition. We were prepared for it, but the pain from such cold treatment wasn't lessened one bit. We decided it would be for the best if we left as soon as possible. After finishing our lunch, we went to the docks and got ready to board our ship.
"Phew. That about does it" Nanami sighs after loading the last box to our boat. "That's everything. Oh right, Kenji, since you always catch a cold during winter, could you drop by Dr. Huan's clinic and ask him for some medicine?"
As much as I want to retort and say I don't get sick that often, Nanami's right. "Okay." I reluctantly agree, shoulders slumping.
Jowy peeks from inside the boat and tosses a brown roll of parchment to me. "While you're at it, since Apple looked up for us what monsters we might encounter along the way, go ask Doc to prepare some antidotes for our first aid box too. I'd love to come and help you carry stuff, but…"
Walking to Dr. Huan's clinic would mean meeting people along the way. Purposely puff my cheeks at him. "Hey, how weak do you think I am? I can at least carry a bag of herbs."
Jowy laughs. Thank goodness. I really do love hearing his laughter.
Dr. Huan greets me with a warm smile as soon as he sees me walk into the infirmary.
"What brings you here today, lord Kenji?"
"Good afternoon, doctor." Grin back at him. "We need some medicine and also antidotes. Apple wrote down the types of monsters commonly seen on our route." I pass him the rolled parchment from Jowy.
"Of crouse. I take it you're leaving for Lumina soon?"
"Yes, as soon as everyone's ready."
He unrolls the parchment and reads the document, lightly nodding every now and then and muttering "I see, I see". After a couple of minutes he saunters to the apothecary cabinet with what looks like hundreds of very tiny drawers. He opens one of them and takes a few leaves, and then another one, and then another one.
While I'm waiting, I look around. The infirmary hasn't changed since I was last here. That day, I was told that my sister had died, and just the memory of it is enough to make me tremble. It doesn't escape Dr. Huan's observant eyes, so he leads me to sit on one of the empty beds and gives me a warm cup of tea.
"Here, drink this. It will help you calm down."
I mutter thanks as I gingerly take the cup from him. As soon as its scent wafts to my nostrils, I already start feeling the soothing effect. After relishing the aroma in a few deep breaths, I start to blow on it. I can't drink while it's too hot. After making sure I'm okay, he goes back to the task at hand.
By the time I finished my tea, Dr. Huan was also done. He gave me a small package wrapped in brown paper. "These medicines and the different kinds of antidotes are all separated in pouches. I included a list of instructions on when to take what and how much, and each pouch has been labeled already."
"Thank you so much, doctor."
"Have a safe journey."
-x-
"Got it?" Nanami asked as soon as I got back.
"Yup!" I hand her over the package.
"Great. Looks like we're all set to go." She proceeds to walk on the wooden board into the same boat we rode from Coronet Town yesterday.
"Is Seisuke-san here already?"
"Yup, everyone's on board. Oh, speak of the devil"
Just then, Seisuke comes running down the stairs from the upper deck.
"Lord Kenji, there's something I need to tell you."
"What is it?"
"Something wrong?" Nanami adds beside me.
"You noticed my staff before, right?" He shows me his staff, the one with a crescent moon-shaped tip and intricate writings. "The moon at the end of this rod symbolizes the source of its wielder's magic. In our country, it varies depending on the magician- and in my case, it's the moon. Because of this, I seem to have some sort of connection with the tides. I can feel if they're calm… or disturbed."
He pauses, and I nod for him to go on. "Okay."
"Right now, the water looks clear. But I'm starting to feel faint traces of a disturbance. Whenever I sense this, it means a storm is coming. We better head out before the storm comes, or wait until it's over and safe to cross the water."
"I see… then we better get going now."
"Are you sure, Kenji?" Nanami asks, sounding concerned. "It might be better to wait for it to pass."
"But…"
"Hey you guys, are you coming aboard or what?" Jowy waves at us from the upper deck, grinning.
"Seisuke-san, you said it would be okay until tonight right? I'll trust you on that. We should be able to make it to the port of Coronet Town before sundown. So let's head out."
He giggles.
He must have seen the question on my face before I asked, so he explained. "Sorry, sorry. I didn't mean anything bad by laughing. It's just, it's so cute how much you care for Jowy's feelings."
"Eh?"
"I mean, don't you want to leave right away because Jowy is uncomfortable here?"
"Oh… Well, I guess that too."
"Eh?" This time, it's Seisuke's turn to look confused. "What do you mean… 'too'?"
"I was just thinking, the sooner we get to Lumina, the better. If the situation is really as bad as you told us, then we have to act on it before things get worse."
Seisuke stared at me, speechless. When he seemed to have collected his thoughts, his blank face relaxed into a smile. "Lord Kenji… Thank you. Thank you so much."
Before I knew it, I was enveloped in a tight hug. When the captain yelled all aboard, he let go of me.
"You two," Nanami coughed. "As much as I find your hugging adorable, the wooden board isn't exactly the best place for it, you know."
I take one long look at the castle before we go. Just then, I see Shu, Flik, Victor and Leona coming our way. Victor runs ahead and traps me into a headlock.
"You didn't think we'd let you leave without saying goodbye, did you kid?"
"Here, lord Kenji, I made some lunches for all of you." Leona hands me a stack of lunchboxes piled up and held together by a cloth with beautiful fruit patterns.
"Are you sure you don't need us to come with you? You can still change your mind." Flik smiles at me.
"Thanks, Flik, but we'll be okay. I promise to call for help when we need you though."
"You better, kiddo." Victor briefly tightens his hold on me before finally letting me go. "Take care, eh kid?"
He looks up and yells at Jowy on the upper deck. "That goes for you too, kid!"
"Is everything ready, lord Kenji?"
"Yup. We're all set to go."
"Please take care. We'll be waiting for you to come back." Shu tells me, fatherly smile in place.
"Mm. Please look after everyone while I'm gone."
As soon as I board, the ship sets sail. I wave at everyone as they wave back at me until I can no longer see them.
-x-
It's already dark by the time we disembark at Coronet Town. It started raining a couple of hours ago, but the lake was still calm by the time we got there. Looking up at the sky, I can feel the raindrops streaming down my cheeks.
"Amazing… it's just like Seisuke-san said."
"Hm?" Jowy takes of his coat and puts it over our heads. "What did he say?"
"That he can feel the tides... that there will be a storm tonight."
"He's right. It's raining already, and the winds are starting to pick up."
And as if right on cue, thunder roared.
When lightning flashes, I see a silhouette at the corner. Squint my eyes. Taking a closer look, there's no one there. Then all of a sudden I see another figure clad in crimson cloak move by the lamppost no too far from there, before it disappears into the street.
"We better get you inside before you catch a cold. Apple said she reserved an inn for us already, let's go check it out. It should be close to… Kenji?"
"Jowy, I think we're being watched. I couldn't see their faces, but I saw one wearing a red hood."
Just like the ones I saw in my dream. Jowy's face turns serious when he tells me. "Kenji, stay under the cover."
He pulls out and quietly tells the other two behind us.
"Nanami, Seisuke, try to act natural and keep walking. Kenji said it seems like we're being watched."
"By who?" Nanami asked.
"No idea, one of them was wearing a red cloak."
"Them?! You mean there's more than one?" Nanami gasped, struggling to keep her voice at a whispering volume.
Seisuke, on the other hand abruptly halts in his tracks.
"Did you just say red cloak? Oh no…"
Jowy turns to him "Seisuke?"
"I hope I'm wrong… but if my suspicions are right, I might be the one they're after. I don't know how they could've possible found out, but they know I came here to ask for help."
"And the fact that they're waiting here means they know you came from Orange Castle. And they know you're safe there, that must be why they waited for you to get out so they can strike when you're away from protection."
"Ha, that's where they're dead wrong" Nanami huffs. "As long as we're here, no one can lay a finger on you."
"Nanami…"
Another silhouette disappears into one of the alleys, this time much closer to us, and then another one less than two meters away, into the alley beside the building where I used to play dice with Tai Ho.
"Jowy"
"Yeah, I saw them. I think we better head out of the village first and try to lure them away so no one gets involved. Nanami, Seisuke, stay close to us. No matter what happens, we must never get separated. On three, we sprint to the outskirts of the town. One, two, three!"
And we dash away from the village into the open field as fast as we can. And just as we suspected, about five or so hooded figures came out to run after us.
As soon as we are safely away from the village, Jowy and I knock two of them down using our buddy attack. While Nanami's trying to fend off one of them, the rest start to gang up on Seisuke. Jowy yells out as we run to his aid "Leave him alone!"
At the corner of my eye I see one of them aim for Seisuke's arm so I block it off, and just then Jowy's dragon rod blocks another guy's baton aimed at my head. Seisuke raises his staff up in the air, and just when I was thinking 'cool, I get to see him cast another spell like the one he did in Kiaro', he slams it down- hard- on a hooded head and successfully knocks another guy down.
"Oh wow" I mutter in dumbfounded amazement. Never knew a magic staff can be used like that. And so effective too!
"Seisuke, watch out!"
Nanami's yell makes me reflexively turn to her, just right in time to see a dagger flying towards Seisuke. I pushed him away by pure instinct before I even had time to think. Luckily, the blade only scraped my arm.
"Why you…"
I hear a thud as loud as the thunders roaring in the stormy sky as Nanami's fist landed on the poor guy's face. Even though I can't see it beneath the hood, I could tell simply by the sound that she made a permanent damage on the poor thing. Jowy's impressed whistle and the way Seisuke's jaw dropped told me they agree.
"Looks like that's the last of them" Nanami huffs, cracking her knuckles. She cocks her head to the side upon noticing our eyes were all on her. "What?"
"At any rate," Jowy clears his throat "with the weather as it is, we have no choice but to spend the night at the inn. Let's continue on our journey first thing tomorrow morning, hopefully by then this storm's over."
We all head back to Coronet Town, but after just a few steps, the next thing I know is I'm down on my knees. Jowy rushes to my side. "Kenji? What's wrong, did you trip?"
I wonder that myself too. Try to stand up. I… can't?
"Want to hold on to me?" Jowy reaches out his right hand. I grab it, but my right leg wouldn't budge. Neither would my left leg.
"Kenji?" Jowy frowns.
"Lord Kenji, did you get hurt earlier?" Seisuke asks me, I can hear panic in his voice.
"No, I'm okay, it was just a scratch. But my legs."
"We better take you back to Dr. Huan right away. You've been poisoned. The current empire's military uses poisoned blades and arrows. It spreads through your body fast, and if we don't give you the antidote, in just a few hours it will paralyze your entire body… including your heart."
"Nanami, quick! The Blinking Mirror! We need to get Kenji back to the castle at once."
As Nanami rummages through her bag, Jowy crouches down in front of me. He beckons me to put my arms around his shoulders and get on his back. "Hop on."
"Found it!" Nanami pulls the magic item Viki gave us that can teleport us right back to Orange Castle from anywhere in the world in a blink, just as its name suggests. "Here we go!"
-x-
Back at Dr. Huan's infirmary, Seisuke doesn't waste a second to tell the doctor what kind of poison was used. Just from hearing the description, Dr. Huan scurries to his bookshelf and pulls out a couple of books. He opens the first one halfway through, flips through a few pages and leaves it open there, then moves on the the second- much bigger book- to look at what seems to be at the last few pages. With the big pictures I can see from where I'm sitting on the bed, it looks like some kind of plant encyclopedia.
"I thought so. To make the antidote, we'll need something that, unfortunately, I don't have at the moment." Dr. Huan frowns.
"What is it? Where can we find it?" Jowy asks.
"Mermaid's Hair"
Seeing our dumbfounded faces, Dr. Huan continues without batting an eye. He continues to explain with an eager tone, and he looks really cool whenever he's in teacher mode like this. Even if he's in his pyjamas and all. Mentally kicking myself, I apologize in my head 'Oh Doc, I'm really sorry for disturbing you in the middle of the night'.
"It's an underwater plant with long, curly golden leaves that our ancestors used to say looks like a mermaid's hair. Hence, the name." Dr. Hunan holds the humongous book upright, which looks almost as if it's half his size, and shows us the picture. "It can only be found at the very center of the lake, and that's one of the deeper parts."
"Got it" Jowy turns to me and bumps his forehead on mine, looking at me straight in the eye as he tells me "I'll be back as soon as I can. I won't let anything happen to you." He then grabs his coat and puts it on. "I'll be back."
"Hey, wait. What do you mean?!" Nanami interrogates Jowy as he heads out the door. "Jowy, where are you going!"
"To the lake!"
When Jowy opens the door, it's only then that we realize what looks like the entire population of Orange Castle is right outside the infirmary- all just wearing a sweater over what obviously are their pyjamas underneath. Maybe because they heard what Jowy said, they parted in the middle as if giving way for him to go. Jowy gratefully made his way and quickly disappeared into the hall.
Seeing there was no other way but to explain what was going on, Shu walks in first. "As soon as they heard about what happened, everyone- including the children and elderly- braved the storm late into the night just to come by and see what was going on."
"News sure travels fast, especially when it concerns someone as important to everyone as you, lord Kenji." Apple added.
"I see…"
"Anyway, you need to rest. Save your energy so your body can fight the toxin on its own, at least until the antidote is made. I'll do my best to make sure no one disturbs you." Shu pats my head. His touch is so gentle and warm.
"Thanks, Shu. Please tell everyone Jowy said he'll come back right away, so I'll be okay for sure."
It's been a couple of hours, and Jowy's still not back. My throat is starting to feel dry, so I reach for the glass of water on the bedside table. However, just as I'm pulling it closer to me, I drop the glass, making everyone left in the infirmary turn to me.
"Don't worry about it," Nanami picks up the shards. "You wanted water right? I'll just throw these out and I'll get another one for you."
With Nanami busy looking after me, Dr. Huan and Seisuke working on the antidote, I couldn't help but feel a little unhelpful. I lean back on the pillow Jowy fixed behind me, and can only wriggle myself to adjust to as comfortable a position as I can.
Soon Nanami comes back with another glass of water and that's when she eventually realizes I could no longer move my arms too. She puts the glass close to my mouth so I can drink. I hungrily gulp it down, but each time I swallow, it feels like I need more and more force.
And then finally, I start to feel my chest getting heavy. As time passes, it gradually becomes more difficult to breathe. My vision is blurring, and shortly after it fades to black.
Just then, I feel something touch my lips and blow air into me. One breath, two breaths. And vaguely, I start to feel something in my chest… as if someone is pushing it down to keep my heart pumping.
And as if my senses are starting to come back bit by bit, the breathing and the pushes are followed by a voice.
It's Jowy's voice.
"If you can't breathe by yourself, I'll breathe for you"
I feel air coming into my mouth agan.
"If your heart can't beat, I'll make it pump for you"
I feel that dull pressure in my chest again.
"Just stay with me, Kenji. Dammit, stay with me!"
"It's done." I hear another voice- Dr. Huan's- before I feel something cold and bitter touch my tongue. "Please swallow it."
Force myself to make my throat work, and am able to take it in in one big, laborious gulp.
Slowly, I can feel as if something that weighed a few tons that had been wrapped very tightly around my chest was removed. I start gasping for breath until I can slowly but surely breathe more normally. It's taking a while, but I can also start to feel my limbs now. When I open my eyes, the first thing I see is Jowy on top of me, drenched from head to toe.
"Welcome back, Kenji" He cups my face. "Had me worried for a second there, idiot."
I slept through the rest of the night after that, so I felt completely fine in the morning. However, Dr. Huan wanted to monitor my condition for at least 24 hours before letting me out of the infirmary, there goes my plan to head out first thing in the morning. Looking out the window, it's so nice outside. It looks like the storm had finally passed.
At sundown, after handling much opposition from the concerned villagers who wanted me to rest a bit longer, and trying to convince Shu and Dr. Huan that I'm okay, we finally got the (very reluctant) go signal to get on with our journey. Déjà vu, here I am again at the docks, boarding our little ship, but this time, it's not just Shu, Victor, Flik and Leona seeing us off, but the entire Orange Castle.
Everyone had wanted to give us food and presents, and we had to refuse so many of them for safety reasons as we can't fit them all into the ship without sinking right here on the port. The eldest of the villagers came up to us and gave us all candy. "Come back safely, lord Kenji, Nanami… and you too, Jowy."
Jowy looks up from his gaze that had been fixed on the floor, astonished.
"We'll be waiting for you to come back home" The gentle elder beamed sweetly, then he turns to Seisuke too, adding "Please come again, you're always welcome Seisuke-kun"
"Yes, we'll be back" Jowy grinned back.
"Thank you" Seisuke replies.
As we board the boat, we take one last look at everyone on the dock, cheerfully waving at us. Going away from a place we've grown fond of always leaves a tinge of sadness in our hearts. But knowing we can come back there any time replaces that feeling with anticipation as we look forward to the time we can see everyone again.
To be continued…
A/N: Two years (weeps). I have no excuse.