<< Previous - Next >>

Part 75: Out Of Our Hands

Info

Writer

Dougurasu

Character Introductions

Bedoro

Character Deaths

-

Arcs

Hikari Crystals Arc

Nagata's Trial Arc

Secret Of The Tiko Tribe Arc

Alika's Parents Arc

Timeline Entries

The Story

Endless Rain

Part 75: Out Of Our Hands

© Dougurasu

“Come on, open up! It's the council wanting to speak to you!”

“Yes, yes, good morning,” a man said when he opened the door, but after rubbing the sleep out of his eyes he saw who it was that had awoken him in the very early morning. It was Kino. “I have no time for you, sir,” the man said and closed the door.

“Damn this generation!” Kino exclaimed, “I'm here to investigate the murder on the soldier Shousha. Open up, Bedoro, you were his best friend. I need your help. No one of his fellow soldiers has helped me and...”

“Don't you get it?” Bedoro said at the same time as opening the door again, almost slamming it into Kino's face. “You betrayed our village when you let Lana escape from the cell. You defended Shousha's murderer in court. Do you think anyone would help someone like that? You should be stripped of your title as council member and banished from the village!”

“I did not betray our village! Lana had me under hypnosis, and there was nothing I could do!” Kino protested, “Also, I'm trying to help both Shousha and Nagata by investigating. There's something fishy about this whole situation, and I intend to find out why, but I need your help. Is there anything weird about Shousha's death?”

“No, nothing, now get out of my face, before anyone sees me with you!” Bedoro snarled and closed the door once again.

“Well, fine then! Condemn your friend! If you have at least one grain of respect for the dead you would at least help me!” Kino said. After his outburst he turned around and started to walk back to his home until Bedoro opened the window on the second floor.

“There was one thing. Yamome said that Shousha was murdered by a Sendo arrow. But I saw his body, there were no wounds except that he was bleeding from his eyes, ears and nose,” he said, “That's honestly all I know.”

Kino smiled. “Thanks! That's at least something to start with!”

“And Kino.”

Kino looked up again.

“Good luck.” And after that Bedoro closed the window.

Moyasu stretched her arms and pulled away the sheets. “Aah, nothing like getting up early in the morning. Hey, Sasaeru” she yelled to the other room, “Get me my breakfast, will ya?”

It wasn't until she looked in the mirror and saw her bandages that she realized her arm didn't hurt anymore at all. 'What? I can move it again... How can this be? A wound like that would take several more weeks to heal. It had only been what? About... 10 days or something since she was attacked. Could this be because of Mikomi?'.

That's when she noticed the Ruby of the Dragon. Something was different about it. It wasn't glowing anymore at all!

“What in...?!”

“She was like that when I got in,” Hana explained, “I don't know, I just knew something happened to her.”

“It's like she's sleeping,” Nagata said while being breathed down the neck by Wevles.

Zesshou looked terrified. “There must be something we can do! We need to help her!”

“I know, but what can we do?” Hana asked. “Zesshou, could you get Moyasu, I want to know if her Crystal stopped glowing too.”

Zesshou stood up, but didn't move on. He couldn't keep his sight away from Hitori. She was just lying there. For all he knew she was dead or dying.

Nagata realized Zesshou's dilemma. “I'll go, you stay here.” He ran away closely followed by Wevles.

“But why not? You need to tell me why you're doing this to Nagata,” Kino complained.

“I told you before,” Pyro answered irritably, “I cannot tell you.”

“What could be so important that you have to aid Yamome in her quest to banish Nagata?” Kino asked.

Pyro sighed. “There is something that is important enough. I'm sorry, I truly am so sorry, but I cannot help Nagata. Not now anyway.”

“But why?”

“Dammit, Kino, I cannot tell you!” Pyro fumed, “It's nothing personal and I hate it just as much as you, but I'm not in the position to help you. And you will not tell anyone of this, do you hear? You just can't and that's all I can say.”

Kino realized his defeat and backed off. “I'm sorry, I'm just trying to help him. If there's anything I can do...”

“Well, thanks for the offer, but I don't think you can help,” Pyro said being a little calmed down, “I swear I wish you could, but you can't.”

Then both of them heard a scream coming from outside. And another. And another. Both of them ran outside and looked around. People were grabbing their heads seemingly in great pain.

“What's happening?” Kino asked.

“Oh my god...” was the only thing Pyro could answer.

“What's that noise outside?” Hana got up, but when she reached for the door, Nagata burst inside.

“We have a major problem! We have to get the Hikari Crystals out of here!!” he yelled.

“Nagata, calm down,” Hana said, “What happened?! Where's Wevles?”

“There's no ti-” But before Nagata could say something he reached for his head and started screaming. “I'M GOING CRAZY!!! AAAH!!” He crashed into the ground screaming in agony.

“NAGATA!” Zesshou yelled, but even before he could get up a hand grabbed his throat from behind.

Hana looked at Zesshou, but saw only a hand, no body. Behind him was a wall. The hand pulled Zesshou back and his head smashed into the wall and made Zesshou fall flat-out on the ground, unconscious.

“Oh my god, Zesshou!” Hana screamed, but froze because of what she saw.

Coming from the wall below the hand was a little girl. Her face was shrouded with a white veil. On her shoulder was another hand. The girl continued to walk towards Hana and out of the wall, as if made from water, emerged the face of Lord Tebok. She recognized him from the time she had to hide under water with the Mikomi council back in the Chi Village. Even though they were underwater she could still see his face clearly back then. But now, without the soft ripples of the pond his face looked brutal, with small scars all over his face and arms. She was devastated.

“Three?!” Tebok said while looking at the Hikari Crystals. “There should be four!”

Trying to gain her composure Hana quickly lied. “No, we only found three! We're missing two. We haven't found those!” Tears formed in her eyes and she quickly closed them hoping Tebok would believe her.

“Well, we can't stay here for long, it's too dangerous.” Tebok said and turned to the girl. “Okay, sweetie, this is what you have to do to make your dad better. We need those three Crystals. Quickly, go get them. The witch Hitori made it so that I can't touch them. Quickly now.” The girl obeyed immediately.

“Wha- what are you doing?” Hana stammered.

The girl stopped and looked at her and then at Nagata, who was still clutching his head and screaming, and then at Zesshou who was lying in a very small but slowly growing puddle of blood.

“Quickly dear! Or the evil witch will wake up!” Tebok said, and pointed at the sleeping Hitori.

“Yes!” The girl said and quickly ran for the Crystals, got them and returned to Tebok. “Can we go now, please?”

“Yes, and we better hurry. Quickly now,” Tebok said. He placed his hand on the girl's shoulder again.

“Tebok, stop!” Hana ordered, “What is going on with Hitori... tell me!”

“I don't have to answer to you, evil witch!” Tebok snapped, “But if you really need to know, ask Serenity Soulheart.”

and both ran through the walls as if they were made of air.

As soon as they had left Nagata stopped screaming.

“Nagata! Are you okay?!” Hana asked still not able to move.

“Ah, my head...” was all Nagata could say.

Unbelieving Hana looked at the place where the Crystals were just a moment ago. “What the hell happened?”

Half a day later, it seemed the entire village was up to speed with what happened. Tebok and a little girl had passed through the village gates and everyone who as much as approached them or stood in their way had suddenly gotten an intense surge of pain in their heads. Some say it was as if their faces were going to explode. Others say they thought they were going totally crazy. The little girl had taken the Pearl of the Ocean, the Emerald of the Earth and the Diamond of the Angel.

“Everyone seems to have completely recovered from the headache attacks,” one of the nurses said, “But you need to stay still for a few days, Zesshou. Your head hasn't healed yet.”

“Alright, I'll try. But is there any news on Lady Hitori?” Zesshou asked frantically.

“I'm afraid not,” Hana piped up, “She's still sleeping. And we can't find Siren anywhere. She must be here somewhere though. I've had soldiers looking for her all morning.”

“I can't believe she'd do anything to Hitori,” Nagata said.

Zesshou looked down. “Well, I don't think she's been very nice to her, especially when we were traveling back here to retake the village. I think she might've been responsible for letting Hitori wander away and knocking her out for two days, but I'm not entirely sure. She's disliked her from day one. But I do think-”

“Hana, good morning,” Mr. Shikai interrupted.

“Uh, Mr. Shikai, welcome. What do I have the honour for?” Hana asked.

“Well, I could've sent a messenger to say this, but I thought I had to do this in person, being the head of the Council and all.”

“Yes, go ahead.”

“With the Lady of our tribe incapacitated I think we have only one option. We have to let the Council take temporary control of Mikomi Village, at least until Lady Hitori is back in action.”

“But can't I take over for her?” Hana asked, “I did it before.”

“That was different. We thought we had peace with the Sendo and we had for a little while,” Mr. Shikai explained, “But the truth is, this quest for the Hikari Crystals is way too important and the fact that we only have one Crystal left at the moment leads me to conclude that we need strong leadership, and forgive me for saying so, but you're just a civilian. You have no experience with leadership at all.”

“I see...” Hana said.

“But what is the council going to do about this?” Nagata inquired.

“Well, we're taking the Ruby of the Dragon from that Chi girl and that Tiko boy. We cannot allow them to walk around with it freely with the Sendo on their tracks. Also, we're going to send infiltration teams to the Sendo Tribe in an attempt to take back those Crystals.”

“But that girl, how are you going to go against that girl?!” Hana asked.

“If we can't get close to her, then we have to kill her with bow and arrow,” Shikai answered, “Now, I have a busy day ahead of me, so if you'll excuse me now.”

“So... that's just great,” Nagata said when Shikai had left, “Finally really something to do for the council and I can't join them, not while I'm in this trial anyway. And I don't know about you guys, but I think that girl is definitely out of Mr. Shikai's league.”

“I agree,” Hana sighed, “But I guess the decisions are out of our hands now...”

<< Previous - Next >>