It had been a few months since Lin and Bat tied the knot, and went back to their usual routine of heroic acts, as it was before the whole deal with the celestial force started. Thankfully, it switched to the good side too, now that its old fraud of a governor Jakoh is all-long gone. Although… There was still a problem in the celestial headquarters; it did not have a general anymore. Sure, Falco left a future one before his passing, but it would take at the very least fifteen years for him or her to be qualified. It was hard for them to decide how to make a move from then on since all of the remaining men of the celestial star, just like the ones who died before them, only knew how to follow orders, even the empress Lui herself, obviously did not know where to begin with her governance, considering that she literally just came out of the pits of darkness just to learn how to live like a human. This was when help was needed the most, from nowhere else but the north star force itself. Rihaku of the ocean decided to go there for a few months to help the newly rebuilt empire to stand strong once again, leaving the whole responsibility of his base to Lin and Bat.
The major forces of evil sure have been gone for that moment, but that was no excuse to stop the north star army from catching gangs and even individual bandits and ending them for good, because even that small group, just like maggots upon a corpse, could grow in number and become a bigger threat to everything and everyone.
From the first day, Lin and Bat walked out with the army to liberate another village as usual. The defense force noticed a village from the east area that had smoke coming out of it, with an amount that is even abnormal for a peaceless world like the one they are in. The whole military ran into it as fast as they could, and once they got in, they found the raging fire that was responsible for the massive black cloud from a few minutes before.
"Ah! Thank goodness you're here!" A woman bawled.
"Please help our kids! They're trapped in this school!" Another villager shouted.
"S-school?!" Bat and Lin exclaimed, "Go! Go! Go!" Bat shouted at his men as they entered the burning library.
"I'm coming with you-" Lin ran along the men.
"No! Stay there with the rest, we need you for first aid." Bat turned back at Lin. The young leaderene stepped back.
As Bat and his men were inside, they went in different directions, each man investigated a room to find anyone to save. Later, each one came out of the burning library with two to four children on their arms and shoulders after a long time of leaving the parents extremely worried about their youngsters. All except for Bat himself.
"Wh-where's Bat?" Anxiety appeared in Lin's tone.
"... What's taking him so long?" One of the returning soldiers inquired, "Baaat! You okay there, buddy?!" He yelled, as he gently put down the two crying children that he saved.
"Check if these are all the kids-" Lin shouted.
"Waaaaah! Mister Kosuke~~!" One of the saved children cried out loud, pointing at the entrance of her now-demolished school.
"K-Kosuke?" Lin looked at the weeping child, then got caught by a surprise when she turned her back to see Bat carrying a mass of books and papers that barely survived the arson in his hands, and a long haired man, who was dressed in a patterned coat that got burnt in some spots, giving him a piggyback ride.
"Men! Get back into the school and collect every other piece of literature that hasn't been burnt to ashes!" Bat gave the order to his soldiers before slowly getting Kosuke off of his back on the ground.
"Teacher Kosuke!" The saved kids wailed as they all ran to their teacher who was laying down, heavily coughing the ashes and smoke out of his lungs.
"My kids~ Oh, my sweet … precious angels~" Kosuke gathered his pupils for a hug.
"Are these all of your children?" As soon as Bat kneeled down to the teacher, a child's cry echoed from the small department.
"Ah! Akio!" Kosuke gasped, and everyone turned around as the men who re-entered the burning place started coming out again with more burnt books and papers. Among those men, there was one who ran away the fastest with a terribly burnt child in his arms.
"Ha~ My baby!" A woman among the crowd of villagers cried, recognizing the juvenile weeps of her son. The little boy was brought to the leader and the teacher, bawling his eyes out of sharp pain. His young skin was filled with blisters and his hair was mostly burnt off.
"Anyone! Please, get to the well and bring a bucket of water!" Kosuke pleaded for the north star men once he got to see his child with the most mangled skin, compared to his mates.
"On it!" Bat replied, then called two more of the men he saved the children and books with to go to the village's well after asking one of the villagers where it is.
"Please, be careful out there!" an old man told the three warriors.
"Don't worry, good sir." Bat assured the old man before heading with his soldiers to the well. Meanwhile, Lin got on her knees next to the grieving Kosuke to check up on the harmed little boy who was in his arms, already passed out from the constant screaming and burn aches that caused it.
"Oh, poor little kid~ How come he was harmed the most?" Lin sighed.
"Well … He just went to another room to get us a book … Next thing we knew, flames crawled through the windows and up the walls in no time." Kosuke bowed closer to Akio, a tear dropped straight out of his eye onto the child's mangled face. "Why? Why do the people who have neither strength nor anything to do with this chaos get to be hurt before anyone else?!"
"Because that is what demons can do best. They could NEVER pick up ones their own size, so they project their strength delusions on innocents!" Lin clenched her fist in anger, "Because they're nothing but barrels of weakness, filled with ego and jealousy…" then she got her hand and looked at Kosuke with a soft smile. She added: "But worry not, those two are weightless. Love and kindness are heavier than steel!"
Bat and his two men finally reached the well, but it was unfortunately blocked by a trio who were gulping water from big containers that they filled from the well, letting most of it spill down their ears and necks, completely not noticing the three new men facing them.
"Disgusting pigs…" one of the soldiers hissd.
"Huh? What did ya call us, ya twerp!?" One of the thugs noticed the other trio.
"And who the fuck even are you? … Tryna make a scene, huh?" Another one of the gang asked.
"Actually, yeah!" Bat replied, "Just like the one you just caused."
"Urgh, shut the hell up!" The third thug ran towards Bat. Noticing how he backed his fist, he shielded his face once he got the closest, but the leader's punch was fast enough to push off the bandit's forearms and break his nose. In the meantime, the two other soldiers of Bat handled two more of the thugs they confronted, and smacked their skulls up with their clubs. As the nose bleeding man backed up from Bat's punch, he bumped into the well and noticed a gasoline container beside his left foot that he used earlier.
"Y-you want some w-water, right?" He picked it up and waved it at Bat with one hand, while still holding his broken nose with the other. The red haired man squinted his eyes, realizing that the container wiggled lightly despite looking full.
"I ain't having it…" Bat looked the bandit dead in the eye, "Now back off that well, or else."
"Or else what, sissy?" The last goon smirked as he raised the container, directed the container towards the well, and tilted it to pour the fuel into the well. One of Bat's men was already much closer to this thug, so he ran towards his enemy and pulled him back in a tightly held full nelson, pulling his gasoline-holding arm further from the well.
"Wait for me!" The second man of the north star army ran towards his mate from the other side and snatched the container from the thug's hand before stepping on it.
"So you can't stand smarter people than you, huh?" Bat approached his enemy with a deadlier look than the one prior. "Hey, may I borrow that?" he asked his soldiers, asking for the club.
"Mhm!" The second guy handed his leader the iron club, and right when it was put in his hand, Bat swung it down the arsonist's head and bashed his brains out once and for all.
The children's cries got louder as the heat of the flames came to them and triggered the pain down their blisters, despite moving further from the flames.
"Aaaahaaaa~~~ They huurt!" The kids whined in pain.
"I know, sweetie. I know… How about we cool them off?" Kosuke comforted the injured child, "Look, kids! stand up side-by-side but don't touch each other, and I'll fan you all with my coat."
"But … Teacher, your hands." One of the kids noticed that his teacher got his hands burnt.
"Ah, don't worry. I am old! These burns don't hurt me as much as they hurt you, heaven birds." Kosuke handed the wounded Akio to Lin so that he would remove his coat to fan his children's blisters and help them dry out. The children felt relaxed from that, but Lin was a bit concerned.
"But … Shouldn't burns be treated with moisture?" Lin asked.
"It's true … but I want the kids to be at ease until water arrives." Kosuke turned back at the young lady, still gently fanning his pupils, "By the way, did Akio wake up yet?"
"Sadly, not yet." Lin looked down at the fainted boy with sorrow in her heart for him.
"Everyone! We got water for the kids!" Bat shouted for the rest of the hoard as he ran to them with two buckets full of water, while the other two men followed him with a few more containers.
"Hey, is there any chance we can find a hose here?" One of the soldiers asked a villager.
"You must be joking. Owning that well was already more than a blessing!" The villager replied.
"Then … How are we gonna put those flames down?"
"We'll let them calm down on their own, I suppose." the villager sighed.
"Not on my watch." Bat overheard the middle-aged lady, then whistled to all of his soldiers. "Attention!" The lieutenant stomped his foot for more attention and organization from his men, then they stomped back, "Alright! You two, stay with Lin and help her treat Kosuke and his pupils. The rest, follow me to where we parked the vehicles, we collect all the containers and rags we have attached to them, soak the rags with water from the well that you'll fill the containers from, and use those soaked rags to put the fire down. Are you with me?"
"Yes!" The army shouted in unison. And so, each group fulfilled its duties. Many hours later, everything was done; The kids, including the little Akio and along with their sir Kosuke, were banded with wet cloth, and the old school's flames were finally doused. Everyone cheered for the wonderful job the north star army has done once again.
"Hip hip! hooray!" The soldiers carried Bat, jumping him lightly in the air, as they cheered for him.
"Ahem, what about her?" Bat jutted his chin towards Lin, reminding everyone that she did a wonderful job securing the survivors' burns as well.
"Thank you, big sis Lin!" Kosuke's children said out loud in unison, which made the grown ups laugh and cheer for her as well. Kosuke giggled with them as well, and oh was it such a joyous evening.
"Oh, please~ hehe!" Lin laughed behind her hands before starting to blush. Suddenly, the woman started feeling small cramps in her abdomen building up very slowly, it was just a little bit on the nose, though, so she was able to ignore it in the meantime. And though Kosuke was paying attention to his pupils at that moment, he noticed Lin's gestures and was able to read her aching through them.
Lin, Bat and their men said goodbye to the saved village, while Kosuke packed what was saved from his library and decided to head off to a new village to spread what's left out of his collection to the young ones.
"Wait! You're leaving?" Bat was surprised.
"Yes. I must travel this country before the world to collect all what is left of knowledge." Kosuke nodded, "Besides, I need to look for a new safe place to locate my books."
"How about we provide you a room just for that in our base?" The army leader suggested, "It's much safer, for you and your book collection! We can provide you both security, if ya wanna."
"Are you … For real?"
"Yes! I … hope Master Rihaku won't mind, though." Lin tilted her head down then raised it back, facing the bibliolater with a gentle smile, "But once he knows you well, I bet he will welcome you with open arms!"
"Do you just … let strangers into your base?" Kosuke questioned the young couple's decisions.
"I mean … I just said you could keep your library with us. Not to sound narcissistic but of course we won't let you live with us until master Rihaku says otherwise. We can afford you a bungalow nearby."
"I … don't know. I am more of a traveler, one stable house is not what suits me … But then again, I do need some safer shelves for my food for thought."
"So?"
"So I accept your help for me, I appreciate it as well." The long haired man reached out Bat for a handshake.
"Alright!" Bat shook Kosuke's hand.
Later that night, Bat sent a few of his men to take Kosuke back to his new dorm and store his books safely, as Lin followed along, while he stayed for another investigation with the rest of the force. As the group went inside the base, Lin carried the saved books and rolls into an archive of the south star's history, especially of the five chariots, that Rihaku had collected throughout the years. The young lady squatted to place the books in an empty shelf of a small closet that was next to the bigger bookshelf with all of the remaining history. Suddenly, the pain in her abs from before got more intense and slowly drove her nauseous and dizzy that she lost her balance and fell on her butt. The young woman couldn't handle the terrible nausea anymore, so she ran out of the room looking for the closest floor drain, bathroom or bucket she could find. Unfortunately, she didn't make it and threw up on the top half of the stairs. Despite how embarrassing she felt it was, the sickness just got the best of her.
"Miss Lin!" The men heard her thud and hurls.
"S… Stay away… from me." Lin tried her best to raise her exhausted voice.
"What just happened?! We just heard you falling ov- Oh God!" One of the running men paused all of the other ones behind him as they reached to Lin, witnessing the scene she was into.
"Haah~ Is … Bat … coming … any sooner?" Lin said in-between breaths.
"No, I don't think so … Unless it was another quick mission." The guard in the front responded.
"He'll spend one or two hours at least." Another one added.
"We should head back and tell him." Another one recommended.
"No… Don't disturb him." Lin stood up slowly as her legs and arms were shaking, "I'll just … spend the night here. I never did anything anyway."
"Don't be ridiculous! You've always been there for us! Even when you didn't fight, you helped us seal our and Bat's wounds!" One of the guards disagreed.
"Is … Kosuke … alright?" Lin asked for assurance.
"Oh please, worry about yourself. He's good in his new dorm-"
"Lin! Everyone!" Another one of the north star men ran upstairs to announce: "It's Kosuke! I prepared his new place to stay in, and when I went out to call him, he wasn't anywhere!"
"What?!" Lin and the men surrounding her gasped.
In the ruins of an abandoned city, the north star army purged a few gangs that lurked in there and took back what those groups stole to bring it back to its rightful owners. The problem was that they didn't really know whose item was each one of the stuff they took back from the goons.
"Those bandits poorly explained the sources of their hunts." Bat explained, "Either because they can't explain for crap or they just want to mislead us into their traps."
"I don't think that's the point. Like you said earlier, maybe they just suck at showing locations." One soldier replied.
"Hey, how about we go further into these ruins and see if there might be normal civilians who own any of these goods? Furthermore, there might even be more bandits hiding in here." Another soldier suggested.
"I mean, this city is huge and it's getting darker. It'd be super hard for us to look them up." Bat complained, "Especially on a new moon day. It's almost pitch dark and small handfuls of lamps won't do it."
"So we'll have to take these with us 'till the sun rises so that we can come back here and continue our job?"
"Exactly." Bat nodded. Suddenly, the army notices a motorbike passing by them from afar; It was a north star guard, along with Kosuke behind him. But the men couldn't notice that since it was indeed too dark to notice who someone could possibly be. Whoever that was, Bat's assumption about the observed hog going to medicine city, was correct.
A few hours later, the army arrived at its headquarter, every soldier took his place and Bat went up to look up for Lin. As he was walking upstairs, the man noticed a small pile of puke all over the two last stairs that lead to the floor where his and Lin's room, Rihaku's, and the archive are located.
"Who did this?" The army leader asked, then heard his wife grunting and moaning in what sounded like pain. "Lin!" Bat ran to his room, opened the door and found his woman wrapping herself in a blanket, crawling in a ball, panting with each groan and swimming in her own sweat and cries.
"Lin! What happened? When did this happen?" Bat was in shock for how Lin just got sick in no time.
"Hnnngg! I … It was … just a small cramp at first … after we were done with … the kids and … Kosuke" She said in between heavy breaths, "I ignored it then … when I got up here … it just … came back and … got worse- Ahh!" Lin crawled up in a smaller ball when she flexed her abdomen and uterus to push what she believed to be a blood clot that blocked her uterus for not bleeding for too long.
"Did … Is it just pain?" Bat begged for confirmation.
"I didn't … check … y-yet" Lin let out a big sigh, "I … did feel something … running down, but… I didn't … Ugh~!" she rolled on her stomach and shoved her face in the pillow.
"Bat?" One of the soldiers who was with Lin earlier knocked the door before Bat went to open it, "Just so you know, Kosuke went to the old medicine city. Don't know why, but he said to one of the gateway guards that."
"In the middle of the night?! On his own?! Just like that?!" Bat approached the soldier.
"I fear so…"
"Right after he was attacked already … What is this man on about?!" Bat sighed in anger.
"What if he's just wanted? God knows for what reason. Maybe he doesn't want to bring the danger that involves him to us."
"So what if he does? This man is a gem for this world right now! Why would I just let a literate person go to waste?"
"What if his hunters were in the right? What if he's another wolf in sheep's clothing?"
"In that case, I'll make wolf clothing out of him as well." Bat grunted.
"Sure, but … What about Lin?" Bat looked at his wife after his man asked. He picked her up and went downstairs, outside to get to medicine city, after ordering the men to keep an eye on the base while he and Lin were gone for that while.
As the two rode the motorbike, heading to medicine city, they found Kosuke running the same direction they're going in.
"Kosuke, you blockhead!" Bat yelled at the man, "What are you? Feeling suicidal?!" He drifted in front of Kosuke and blocked his way.
"Lin? Why did you bring her here with you? Don't you know it's dangerous out here?!"
"Look who's speaking of danger … with no lamp or any vehicle in hand!" The leader scolded the wanderer, "But whatever, sit behind me."
An hour later, the three arrived at their destination. The redhead carried his fainted woman bridal-style and asked Kosuke to grab a lamp that he left hanging on one of the motorbike's clutches, grab a match from his pants pocket and lit the lamp with it. After that, the trio walked into the hollow, seemingly abandoned middle of this old city that Bat hadn't heard of in quite a long time, ever since the times Rei and Toki were still alive.
"Hello? Anybody there?"
"I don't know if this place is abandoned or it's just that you guys closed, but we're in need of painkillers. One pill at least." Kosuke and Bat let their voices echo in the dark emptiness of that territory. A tiny shed nearby started randomly flashing in a way that made Kosuke assume it was saying something in Morse code, despite being aware that he did not master that binary language. The duo and the fainted woman approached the small dorm, thinking it was calling them by the flashing, and they were right. An elderly couple sneakily opened the door, and the only thing that let these three in was the sick Lin, because for whatever reason, she won the elder woman's heart on sight.
Lin woke up with the same pain building up again but it took her a bit longer, grace to the wet warm piece of cloth that the old woman put on her stomach. The lass found herself in a different bed and an unusual house, she scanned all around her to see Bat, Kosuke and an elderly man.
"Where am I- Agh!" The cramps struck again.
"I'll be right there, sugar plum~ Hold on tight!" The granny spoke from the kitchen, preparing boiled herbs for the woman that she instantly loved and cared for, despite knowing nothing about her.
"So … This is just a "city" now? An abandoned one?" Bat wondered.
"What else do you expect?! No medical fabrication ever since the war, it's been over a decade and of course, everybody consumed what was made before the war. Plus, medicine expires after 5 years at the longest!" The old man argued.
"But we did collect a few herbs, y'know." The old wife walked in to pass a hot cup of common sage to her new friend and sat next to her legs, "We found them tossed around as weeds or seeds, so we planted them and recycled their roots over the years."
"We made a huge stack of each one of them but sadly, as you can see, this city is all-long-gone." The old man looked down to let out a sigh of disappointment.
"But why didn't you trade your herbs and their roots or seeds? You know that'd be a better, less toxicating meditation method." Kosuke suggested.
"Oh, that's not the issue. I'm keeping it a secret so that no bandit can target us. We're just defenseless old farts, y'know."
"Nonsense! We'll provide you safety, sir." Bat stood up, "That's what the north star army's fo-." Bat was shushed by the old lady who whispered afterwards: "Quiet! Can't you tell there can be undercover bandits who can attack any moment now?"
"Just because this is an abandoned place, the worst types of people lurk in here." And right when the old man said so, a few thugs broke into the little house and blew off the window and door as if their wood weighed nothing. The old lady and her husband backed off shielding Lin, while Kosuke and Bat were standing side-to-side in front of them, confronting the intruders.
"The north star army huh? What army?!" The 8 foot tall goon laughed off along with his minions.
"This!" Kosuke pulled out a flute that he kept under his long dark coat out of one of the holes caused by the arson from before. The gang stared in confusion and broke their own silence by laughing much harder while Kosuke pointed at both his ears for the two married couples as a sign to cover their ears, for that he placed the flute on his lips and blew in it to make the highest noted whistle it could make. It was so loud that hearing it felt like a needle in the gang's eardrums. At that moment of weakness and distraction of the enemy, the teacher pulled a spear from under his coat and in almost no time, he impaled the eight-foot frame in the stomach, and that was when both sides squared up.
Bat and Kosuke did not hesitate to attack and succeeded in killing all of the thugs that were in that dorm, not knowing that there was one more. The last goon got to the weak ones in the room by the window, with a dagger in his hand. Before Bat and Kosuke noticed, the old man jumped in-between the women and the unexpected intruder, trying to block the thrust of a dirk. Unfortunately, the strength difference between the two was huge and so, the thug had no trouble pushing his hand into the old man and stabbed him right away above his stomach. The elderly gasped in pain and disbelief, life flashed before his eyes as his wife and her young pal were watching in absolute shock and terror, the old man fell on the ground before them and bled his heart out.
"DARLING!" The old lady cried out, which got Kosuke and Bat's attention. Out of anger, Kosuke pulled his spear out of one of his defeated enemies and shot the old man killer with it, aiming at his neck, while Bat ran straight to the uncle and picked him. The goon screamed from the pain as he fell on his back next to whom he assaulted just moments prior, Kosuke approached him and ruthlessly pulled the spear off his throat and stabbed him once more in his heart to make sure he was gone for good.
"D-don't … worry…" The old man struggled to get words out of his mouth, as the deep wound between his lungs and bowels got the best of him.
"We're so sorry, uncle." Lin sobbed.
"I should've known… I should've kept my mouth shut!" Bat kneeled down to the harmed elder.
"Don't be silly, y-young- Bagh!" the elder coughed up blood, which shocked the four people around him, "I'm a … man … with a … woman … to … protect." said the dying man with a weak smile.
"I owe you so much, Mister. You saved my wife." Bat put his hand on the uncle's chest, with tears running down his face.
"Heh … don't … bother … had to do it~" The old man let out one last sigh, as those were his last words before his soul was done detaching from his body. Then, the sadness in the hearts of his partner, Lin, Bat and Kosuke had reached its peak.
"DARLING! No! Please don't die on me!" The elder lady bawled on her dead husband's chest and wet his shirt with her sorrowful tears. Lin sobbed behind her own hands as Kosuke and Bat were holding back.
The next day when the old man was buried, Kosuke decided to leave and continue his journey of saving what remained of knowledge, and sent his farewells to the three before heading off. Despite the fresh grieving in her heart, the old lady remembered that Lin had been sick the night prior and had to check up on her.
"Baby, you're feeling better now?" The aunt cupped Lin's face.
"Mmh… Well, after getting this huge clot out of me this morning."
"Hm? Is it still here?!"
"...Y-yes." Lin turned her face in embarrassment.
"Wait for us, son! If you don't mind." The old lady took her pal back into their cabinet. Lin went inside the doorless kitchen, went behind one of its walls and pulled her pants and underwear down. She repulsed as she held the long, triangular bloody piece of flesh then showed it to her friend after pulling her bottoms back on.
"Oh … oh dear!"
"Heh … That's what happens when you don't have your period for too long, right?"
"You didn't … try for a baby, did you?"
"Oh, y-yes! But … I didn't get my morning sickness, so I don't think it worked."
The widow took a closer, longer look at the piece of flesh on Lin's palm. "Oh … Honey, you were pregnant… And that … is your embryo. You just miscarried."
"W-what?!"
"My sister went through the same thing when she miscarried once."
Lin's tears flowed down her face, "I… I was p-pregnant before this?"
"I'm sorry, sweetie." The senior tilted her head down.
"No… don't be." Lin sniffed.
"You can bury it next to Aures." The elder put her hand on the leaderene's shoulder.
"Au… Aures?"
"Oh… we haven't introduced ourselves just yet. My name's Sophia, Aures was my husband."
"Oh dear! Your husband must be waiting for you!" Sophia rushed her little friend to her husband's grave, Lin kneeled and did what Sophia recommended.
After Lin was done burying her embryo next to Aures's grave. She held Sophia's hand and looked her in the eye.
"Ma'am… Would you please come with us? This place isn't safe and you've seen it."
"And leave my man behind? Never, my baby." Sophia replied. "I do understand your wish but I simply can't… Especially now."
"... I see." Lin looked down and left the old lady behind her, and went ahead to her husband who was standing beside his motorbike. "Pleased to meet you … Lady Sophia." She waved.
"Wait… She's staying here on her own? And … What did you do back at uncle's grave?"
"Yes, she doesn't want to leave his side." Intentionally ignoring her husband's second question, Lin looked back at her elderly friend who slowly walked back into her tiny house. She hopped onto the motorcycle behind Bat and the two headed back to their base.
To Be Continued …