Lost in the Dark
By E.M. Megs
Chapter 20 - Calm Before the Storm
By the time Haruhi managed to force herself to leave her father for camp, she was five days later than she'd originally should have been. As predicted by the twins, General Fusawa wasn't particularly happy about her tardiness. When she was summoned to his tent, she entered stiffly, clearly seeing the anger on his face. "Marioka, you're five days late."
"It's not like I had a choice, sir," she muttered, slightly upset with his anger with her in particular.
"You're one of my most prompt soldiers, Corporal. You're five days late."
She pursed her lips. "Sir, I-"
"I don't want excuses, Marioka," he snapped, "I know very well why you're late. I just hope that being related to Haruhi Fari doesn't affect your judgment any."
"I... don't quite understand what you mean, sir. If you know why I'm late then..." she trailed off, finally catching what he said. "What? Of course it doesn't affect my judgment. I rarely ever see her any other time besides the Festival."
"Seems to be enough for her to worry about your father."
"With all due respect, sir, my cousin worries over all of her relatives, close or otherwise. My father and I happen to be two of her final extended family members. I was ill the last week and she was fretting over me as well," she spat the lie, expertly lacing annoyance in with it.
"And Kyoya Ohtori?"
"Personally, I think he'd make a great king if he had the chance to take the throne without needing to worry about the war. From what I've seen of his views while he was staying in my house, he hates the war, the very idea of it. He and Haruhi are close though. Very." Now, he seemed a little more interested than was comfortable. She could practically see the gears of his brain turning as they formulated a plot against Nari. "Why do you care?"
"He stayed in your house."
"And? Sir, I don't exactly understand what you're getting at." Dread was already pooling in her stomach. She didn't even know what the plan was and she already knew that it wasn't good.
"Who else does he seem to be close to?" She swallowed, her mouth suddenly dry. The answer was too obvious for her to lie to him about it. She stayed silent. "Someone in his family perhaps? His niece or sister?" She nodded sharply, understanding now why he had specifically assigned her team as security to the Narian royal family. She was supposed to be an informant. She was supposed to tell him who would be best to strike against in order to affect the Narian King. "You're being awfully quiet, Corporal."
"Just thinking sir."
"You're obviously distracted at the moment. Go ahead and return to your tent to get some sleep." She nodded and saluted her way out of the tent, heart pounding. The moment she returned to her tent she grabbed a piece of paper and quill and sent Kyoya a message using the ring.
Kyoya,
increase security especially for Yuki and Fuyumi. Fusawa's planning something but I don't know what. Good luck.
-Haruhi
~o~
When Kyoya arrived home the next day, his sister was waiting. He growled under his breath. Just what he needed. A bored, chatty 28-year-old woman. "Kyoya! You're finally home!" She was way too excited about something, he pushed past her, not at all kindly. He'd been awake for 24 hours straight just to ride home. All he really wanted right now was a hot bath and his bed. "Kyoya? What's wrong?"
He glared at her. "Nothing," he grunted, shaking his head. He didn't really mean to be so harsh on her. He rubbed his temples. "I just... really need to sleep."
"But... I have news. I've been waiting four days for you to come home so I could tell you, Akito, and Yuiichi all together..."
"Fine," he grumbled, "Let's go." Fuyumi clapped a few times in happiness and scurried off, pulling him by the arm behind her. He sighed inwardly. He really needed to work on saying no to her. But somehow, since she was his older sister, he couldn't. Plus, he knew how devious she could be when she wanted or needed to be. She stopped outside Yuiichi's bedroom door and knocked, interrupting the two quarreling voices coming from within. He shot a seething look at Fuyumi as Yuiichi's voice called for them to enter.
"Fuyumi," Yuiichi seemed more than happy to welcome her into his bedroom. His eldest two siblings always had gotten along pretty well. Yuiichi had taken over the protective big brother role even before Fuyumi and Fuko had started courting. Akito didn't greet her, but then again he hadn't ever cooperated well with his sister. "And Kyoya." Yuiichi only seemed slightly surprised to see his youngest brother back.
"Yuiichi, Akito. I trust that everything is in order around here?" Both nodded, Akito with a slight glare.
"Where's Haruhi?" The second youngest asked, still looking at him with the same fire.
"She stayed behind in Kira to take care of her uncle." Akito glowered at the word uncle, probably thinking up all sorts of ways to try and get rid of her. "Even if you managed to find some way to get rid of her, Akito, it wouldn't change the fact that you once tried to go after her as well." A glare bounced off his glasses as he said it.
Fuyumi looked between her three brothers and shook her head, deciding it was time to reclaim attention. She gave Kyoya a hard look, knowing he would be the first to change the subject back to what she had originally come for if she just stared at him long enough. He caught it quickly and stumbled slightly to transfer topics. "Fuyumi had news for us?" He turned a politely expectant look to his sister, though inwardly he was glaring because he being kept from his bed.
She nodded and bit her lips. "Well... Erm..."
"Fuyumi. Out with it," Kyoya growled. Yuiichi shot him a reproachful look for being disrespectful. The younger ignored it.
"There might be a new member to the family in a few months?"
Kyoya blinked, attempting to digest at high speeds when his brain was half-asleep and his blood pressure dangerously low. A new member to the family meant either a marriage or a baby. Fuyumi was already married so that type of news wouldn't be coming from her. That only left...
"You're pregnant?" All three of them asked incredulously at the same time. She giggled and nodded.
"I don't know why you're all so surprised... Fuko and I have been married for 7 years now... Yuiichi was a year younger than I am when Yuki was born."
"Oh God, I'm getting old." Kyoya twitched as Yuiichi's rare melodramatics started coming out. They'd all inherited a little of them from their mother, but his and his brothers' rarely ever showed themselves. "I must be if my little sister's having a baby."
Kyoya scoffed under his breath. "Don't be overdramatic Yuiichi. You're only four years older than her and she's only 28. When I started having kids you'll be old." Fuyumi laughed while Yuiichi shot at glare at him. Akito remained indifferent. "Hell... You'll all be old when I start having kids," he added under his breath. He ran a hand through his hair and looked at his giddy older sister. "So, Yuki's going to have competition?"
"Why are you talking about me?" Yuki's voice chimed tiredly, yawning as she rubbed her eyes. Apparently, she'd just woken up from her nap. She wandered over to her father who picked her up silently.
"We were just talking about Auntie Yumi's baby."
"What baby?"
Kyoya, seeing that this conversation was leading to the 'Where do babies come from?' talk decided it was time to bow out and go to bed before he was nominated to explain it to the five-year-old. He definitely didn't need that when he was practically falling asleep from exhaustion standing up. "Congratulations, Fuyumi," he muttered, kissing his sister's cheek. He hugged Yuki as well while she distractedly asked her father where her aunt's baby was if they were talking about it so much and why she couldn't see this baby.
"Ohhhh! Is it an invisible baby?" Kyoya snickered as he shut the door behind him to Yuki's never ending line of questions. He definitely needed a nap.
~o~
Two weeks of no major happenings and Haruhi was starting to get anxious. There had been no battles, no talk of any plans to come, no one had returned to or left camp to her knowledge, and no messages from Kyoya other than a very brief and irrelevant one stating that Fuyumi was pregnant (she suspected that he was either extremely tired or drunk while he had written it considering he'd spelled his sister's name wrong and referred to pregnancy in a very childlike manner). There was no way that this was still aftermath from the Festival. It had to be the calm before the storm, there was no other explanation for it.
She could practically feel it in her bones.
Something big was coming.
Something bigger than she could rank high enough to even get a whiff of.
In her anxiousness, she wrote to Kyoya, knowing that he would have something to say to calm her fears.
There's... Something coming. But I don't know what it is. It's all quiet here. Nobody's leaving or returning. It's... scary.
She just finished sending it when a Major-General entered her tent with a summons to Fusawa's tent. He looked at the ring she was placing back around her neck with a bit of suspicion. "The hell is that, Corporal? You turning into a little girl?"
"No, sir," she said quickly, "I just want to keep it safe. I'm planning on proposing. Would really be a terrible thing if I lost the ring, don't you think?" He rolled his eyes and flicked his fingers at her to indicate that she should follow him. She was led to the armory, much to her surprise. She looked around, trying to process what she was seeing. Where she had expected a bunch of swords, knives, and other weaponry and armor mounted on shelves surrounded by light, she found instead an empty space with cages eerily similar to ones travelling circuses used to transport animals lined up in the dark. She blinked when she found creatures sitting in them, glaring out at the world.
A shiver ran down her spine while she whispered, "Litriads."
They were the creatures of the Wajima Forest. The reason that parents told their children terrible stories to frighten them into coming home before nightfall. One bite from a litriad shot poison into you, poison that didn't move very quickly through the bloodstream but crept along causing excruciating pain to the tissues it infected. Their claws were sharp as razors, said to be able to slice straight through bone if given the right angle and chance. They were like jaguars, all black, except their fur was coarse and rough, showing patches of leathery skin underneath. They had four legs and a long pointed tail. Two very small arm-like wings that would hardly be able to hold them for more than a minute in the air folded back against their sides. Sharp yellow eyes stared out at the world while glints of protruding fangs threatened death if they were to be released.
Why did the Kiran Army have litriads captured and kept alive? They were normally killed on sight because of the dangers they could cause. Questions wove around inside her head, making it hard to think about anything else.
"Ah, Marioka," a voice said from close to the only source of light in the tent. A growling was also being emitted from the same area, raising the question as to what they were doing to the creatures? Seconds after the greeting, the light went out, plunging the tent into darkness again.
"Sir?" she questioned, trying to find her superior officer in the dark. Yellow eyes glowed around her, making her frightened to move in the wrong direction. Someone brushed past her and light flooded the tent for a moment as the flap was pulled back.
"Come with me, Marioka."
She quickly ducked out of the tent, away from the hair-raising creatures being kept there. "Sir," she started as she followed along besides Fusawa, "if you don't mind my asking, what exactly are you doing with them?"
"Training them," he replied swiftly, pushing his way into his tent as he reached it. She still followed, hot on his heels.
"Why?"
"If we train them, we can use them. If not in battle than at least as a way of torture or capture."
The hair on the back of her neck stood up. "Does the royal court approve of this...?"
"They don't have to. It's completely a part of the army. They don't have to approve of the swords and other equipment we receive, such is the same." She was going to reply when he interrupted her thought with a change in subject. "I believe it's about time you returned to Nari." She nodded mutely, unable to speak through her shock about the litriads. "Then you'll leave as soon as possible. You can make it through the woods before nightfall if you hurry. Bring back something I can use."
She pursed her lips, swallowing her words of rebuttal. "Yessir," she said quietly, saluting and leaving the tent once more. She packed her things and after a short farewell to the twins, Hunny, and Mori she headed out.
~o~
When she arrived, she wasn't quite sure if Kyoya had gotten the message that she was on the way. He wasn't in his bedroom, when she'd checked with a visiting Fuyumi, she hadn't known where he was. Neither did Akito or Yuichii, who was chattering excitedly about her auntie's baby. So she did asked the person who knew where he was at all times because it was his job to protect him. "Frewh ti Kyoya?"
Kasanoda stood stiff and didn't answer. When she opened her mouth to ask again, he looked at her and replied in a soft voice, "Iet heondun. Vyro Inesshig edi uno otwa vyo xndo sethe." She blinked, not quite understanding. Why wouldn't Kyoya want her in the dungeon? Unless he was torturing someone and didn't want her seeing that. She scoffed to herself. He'd threatened her with torture once upon a time and he was trying to protect her now?
She sighed and started off toward the dungeon, where she was sure she would find him torturing some poor Kiran. What she found was worse than she thought. It was a Kiran he was torturing, but he was also furious with him for some reason. What was worse...
The Kiran was her former section leader from boot camp, Sergeant Minas.
She stayed behind a corner watching silently as Kyoya interrogated and tortured the man. There was already blood on the floor and walls, three severed fingers lay on a tray near the table. "Where. Is. She?" Kyoya asked again, bearing down on Minas with a knife held to yet another finger. Minas whimpered but did and said nothing. "I'm getting impatient, maybe I'll skip the rest of your fingers and go straight to your legs." He took a saw off the smaller table next to the fingers and rested the blade on the Sergeant's leg right below the knee. "Tell me where my niece is. Where did they take her?"
Haruhi felt the blood drain from her face as in response to the man's silence, Kyoya started sawing through the flesh of the other man's leg. Yuki had been taken. That's why Kyoya was so furious. Minas screamed so loud that Haruhi had to cover her ears. 'Christ, I've got to stop him,' she thought. The screaming stopped, a leg was added to the tray.
"Where is she dammit!"
"Kyoya!" she called, pretending to be farther away looking for him. She heard him growl and a clatter as the weapon in his hand was dropped onto the side table. She stayed around the corner and followed him after her passed. He stopped at the stairs that led out of the dungeon, a frown on his face. She touched his shoulder, not thinking it was going to surprise him that much. He jumped and spun around, drawing the sword on his belt in a flash. He relaxed again when he realized that it was just her, his frown now even more prominent.
"What the hell are you doing down here, Haruhi?" he growled shortly.
"I would ask you the same thing."
"My job," he answered sourly. She looked down at the front of his blood spattered shirt.
"So that's how you torture... Cutting off limbs. And here I thought that all you did was peel off their skin and hang them." He didn't enjoy her sarcasm. "Where did Minas come from? Why are you torturing him?"
"He broke into the castle..."
"That can't be it. If you're torturing him then there's got to be some other reason. Where's Yuki?" She looked at him knowingly and he growled, running a frustrated hand through his hair. "He won't crack, Kyoya. Kiran soldiers, especially of higher rank, are trained to withstand torture and never ever betray their country." He gave her a look. "I was fresh out of boot camp when I was in here... Don't look at me like that. Besides, Minas would rather die than help you with anything. Now tell me what happened."
He stared at her than murmured, "They broke into the castle..."
"You increased security like I told you to?"
"Yes... But they still got in somehow. It was a fluke. They had to have had an informant... But they broke in and... They took Yuki. The other two. We managed to capture just the one. Yuiichi's worried... All of us are."
She swallowed. There had been one empty cage among the litriads. "… I think I know where she is. But there's no way that you or anyone will be able to get in there."
"Where?" he asked immediately.
"Fusawa's military camp..." she trailed off and took a deep breath before continuing, "In the armory tent... In a cage. Surrounded by litriads..." Haruhi saw Kyoya's face visibly pale. "They're training litriads to fight and torture Narians, Kyoya... And desensitizing them to light too, I think."
"Iits," Kyoya muttered under his breath, "Iits, iits, iits." It was bad. Especially, if Kyoya was swearing. "They also left this," he mumbled, passing her a note. She looked over it, covering her mouth in thought as she did so.
Give up or we'll kill her.
~o~
A/N: DUN DUN DUUUUUUUUN. This is actually the start of a really big plot point for later... Hurhurhur. Em is sorry that it took so long to finish and update. I was out of town for a while without a computer.
Kudos to: TallestBlue, Michiiyu, JUCHKO and Koharu Veddette. Yaaaaay! That's less than normal but I can deal with it... Also... TWENTY CHAPTERS IN. WHOOOOOOO! Maybe I'll be able to finish by 30? I dunno... Kinda skeptical.