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Part 66: The Wedding and the Trial (Part I)

Info

Writer

Acrocat

Character Introductions

Grita

Character Deaths

-

Arcs

Hikari Crystals Arc

Nagata's Trial Arc

Siren's Love for Zesshou Arc

Zesshou Loves Hitori Arc

Timeline Entries

The Story

Endless Rain

Part 66: The Wedding and the Trial (Part I)

© Acrocat

Hana was walking through the Mikomi village. Her speed and way of walking betrayed her hurry as she entered a house that was still being renovated. Inside three relatively old women were chatting as they were working on something in the kitchen.

"How's the cake coming up?" Hana asked impatiently.

The eldest of the three women turned around to face Hana, "We've almost finished the first layer, and we're already working on the preparations of the next six layers." She reported.

Hana gasped out of frustration, "You should have finished four layers by now! The cake will never be done in time now! The wedding is tonight dammit!"

The old woman got angry, "Well we can't work wonders young lady. We should have been given more time and better supplies. Who decides to celebrate a marriage in these hard times anyway?"

"There there, calm down Grita." One of the other women tried to calm her down, "Think about how this celebration will lift the spirits of the people. Finally they have an excuse to be happy again."

Growling Grita went back to her work. The other woman ensured Hana they would be done in time and joined her fellow 'cake-makers.'

Hana left and quickly went to the next house. Inside were Serenity and two dressmakers. One of the dressmakers tried to measure Serenity's sizes, but had trouble to do so on this hand sized little fairy. For one the dressmaker wasn't used to handling fairy's. They were so tiny and she had to be careful with her wings. Second was the fact that Serenity was in hyper mode and wouldn't sit still.

The other dressmaker had an annoyed look on her face. When she saw Hana coming in she said, "Where did that young man go? I need his sizes for his wedding suit, but he's nowhere to be found."

"Zesshou's not here?" Hana almost panicked, "I'll send someone to look for him right away."

"You do that." The annoyed dressmaker replied.

"And while you're here Hana." The other dressmaker started, "Can you please tell that fairy to hold still? Measuring her is hard enough as it is without her flying all over the room."

Hana spotted Serenity who was being fascinated by a knitted shirt, "Siren, could you come here for a moment please?" Hana asked gently.

Serenity looked around and fluttered to Hana, "What is it?"

Hana whispered something into the fairy's tiny ear. Serenity giggled and blushed a little, "I was being a little silly, wasn't I?" She asked and the fluttered back to the dressmaker to let her sizes be taken.

"Zesshou, where are you?" Hitori was looking for the young man.

Zesshou flinched at hearing his name being called by Hitori. Ever since Hitori had announced his wedding he'd been trying to hide himself long enough for Serenity to call the whole thing off.

Yesterday evening he had snuck away from the crowd to find a good hiding place. Hardly anybody ever came to the cellar of the throne room. Totally by accident he stumbled over a trapdoor, leading to a secret passage. Following this passage Zesshou winded up in the forest at the east side of the village. The cave he came out of was concealed very well under the forest life. Two huge trees were facing it and both had and odd trunk. The trunk looked like a face. The most obvious part of it were the eyes, which seemed to live.

Ever since Zesshou had found the passage he had decided to use it as a hiding place.

"Oh drat, if Lady Hitori won't punish me now, Yamome surely will." Wevles sighed.

Just for a moment, hardly more than a minute Wevles had fallen asleep while guarding Nagata. Nagata had taken that opportunity to escape. FINALLY he would be rid of that annoying triplet guard. He thought they could be annoying when they were with all three of them, but left alone they were much worse.

Nagata had hidden himself in a ruined house, waiting for an opportunity to commence his plan. He remembered some info Chounin had sold him just before they had taken back the Mikomi village. It was about a passage leading from the east side of the village to the cellar of the throne room. He hadn't got the chance to figure out the mysterious clue, but he was determined to do so now.

Wevles turned around a corner. Due to the wedding preparations it was very quiet in the village. Nagata thought everything over one more time, 'Between the eyes of the forest...now I'm finally going to know what it means. It better means something, or I'll won't live long enough to tell somebody.'

He looked through the streets one last time. He saw Hitori who was calling Zesshou. She had her back turned to him so with a little bit of luck she wouldn't see him. He took a sprint to the throne room. Inside people were decorating the room with Hana barking instructions. Silently he sneaked past them to the old cellar door en slipped through.

The cellar was dark and dusty. Here and there were some remains of supplies which had been stored there a few years ago. In the middle of the cellar room was a trapdoor. Nagata grinned as Chounin's hint became more truthful by the moment. He opened the trapdoor to find a hidden passage. He looked back one more time, but then entered the secret passage. He would be leaving his best friend, Lightning, but he knew he would be well taken care of.

"Oh no."

Nagata shook up when he heard a voice saying these words, followed by quick footsteps leading away from him. The voice had sounded familiar somehow, but Nagata couldn't put his finger to it.. He decided to follow the one who seemingly also knew about this passage.

Zesshou ran through the passage. How stupid of him to say something. He hadn't seen who it was that had entered the passage, but he did know that he would be brought back to the village when they found him. And so he ran, running from a destiny he didn't want to follow. He could already see the light at the exit, but the person behind him was gaining on him. He ran into the forest and wanted to hide in a tree, but the person was too close.

"Zesshou?"

Zesshou turned around while his heart sank in his chest. The one he had been running from was Nagata.

"Zesshou, what are you doing here?" Nagata asked the young man.

Zesshou felt that he had to tell the truth. He trusted Nagata, but he wondered why Wevles wasn't anywhere to be seen.

"I...I am hiding." He said.

"You too huh?" Nagata replied as he sat down on the ground.

Zesshou sat down next to him, "You mean...you are hiding too?"

"Yup." Nagata tried to sound normal, but it came out sad, "I escaped from Wevles and decided to find out the hint Chounin had sold me was true." He looked at the trees, "It seems like it was." He turned back to Zesshou, "But tell me, why are you hiding here Zesshou?"

Zesshou lowered his head and didn't say anything. "Wait is it...the wedding?"

Zesshou nodded, "And you are hiding for you trial, aren't you?" Now it was Nagata's turn to lower his head and say nothing. "Why won't you face it Nagata?"

"The shame is too great. I made a stupid mistake. Nobody, especially Yamome will forgive me."

"That's not true! Think Nagata. You are not only Hitori's advisor, you are not only second in command of the Mikomi tribe, you are our friend, a fellow Mikomi. You've made a mistake yes, but you won't solve anything by running away. Unless you face it in a trial your shame will never go away. Sure you need to win back the trust of some people, but Hitori will make sure they'll forgive you."

Nagata smiled and placed his hand on the young man's shoulder, "You know Zesshou? You'll make an excellent advisor someday." Zesshou blushed at that compliment, "But tell me, why are you hiding from what's supposed to be the happiest day of your life?"

"I ehm...I can't ehm...I don't really love Siren. Actually..." Zesshou took a deep breath before revealing his secret, "...I'm in love with Hitori."

Nagata looked at the young man who blushed again, "I see... Now let me give you some advise Zesshou.

"Sometimes things happen we can't explain. These can be happy things, or unhappy things. To help us out, you promised Siren to marry her. Sometimes one needs to make sacrifices. I once heard a tale that there have been an attempt to create peace between the Sendo and the Mikomi. The daughter of the the Mikomi Lady had been wed to the son of the Sendo Lord. Both despised each other, but while they were together an uneasy peace existed in the valley for a few months.

"Right now you are doing the same thing I am Zesshou. You are hiding from your problems as well. I have a strong suspicion that Siren is one of the Hikari Crystal Guardians. If I'm right then your marriage with Siren will seal a bond between the Mikomi and the Guardians. If you won't, we might never find the Light of the Soul, thus never leave the valley. You will be the one who'll be blamed. And if you'll think about it Siren isn't such a bad choice. Sure she can be annoying at some times, but she does have a sweet side as well. I think you could become quite happy with her. And about Hitori...we don't know what'll happen to the Guardians when we leave this valley. Perhaps they won't be able to come along at all! Plus, this whole thing could be your test to achieve the Hikari Crystal. Perhaps you are one of the Chosen Ones."

Zesshou lowered his head again, "I guess you're right."

Nagata smiled and stood up, "How about we both go back and face our problems?" Nagata offered his hand.

Zesshou nodded and took Nagata's hand to stand up, "Just promise me one thing Nagata. Please don't tell anyone I love Hitori."

Nagata smiled again, "We all love her Zesshou, including me."

I took a while for Zesshou to understand his reply, but smiled when he understood. Both entered the cave of the secret passage to face their destiny.

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