[chaptered] Breaking Zero Kelvin: Chapter 1 (Convent Girl)
Title: Breaking Zero Kelvin (Multichapter)
Author: Luna (dreamweavernyx)
Pairing: Kazuyuri
Genre: Fantasy/Scifi
Summary: AU. They are two runaways, chased out of society through a deep-rooted stigma though they have no say in it at all. Only relying on word-of-mouth rumours and a set of sketchy directions, they now have to set out on their own journey to accomplish the impossible: escape.
Notes: Written for NaNoWriMo 2011.
Character list here.
~
01: Convent Girl
Today, just like any other day, the alarm rang at seven, blasting a mechanized rendition of the city anthem.
Yuriko rolled out of her sleeping pod sleepily, fumbling with her uniform. It was supposed to be free study day today, but the blinking alarm device’s screen was lit up with a message in red, telling all students to gather in the hall.
Sighing, she pushed a hand through her hair, trying to neaten it out as she walked down the hallway.
“Bad sleep?” a curious voice asked behind her, and she turned to see Erena, the girl living in the dormitory room next to her.
“I was prepared to wake up a full two hours later today since free study day isn’t supposed to start with morning assembly,” Yuriko grumbled in reply. “Then spend a long day eating curry while studying Central History.”
Laughing, Erena clapped her on the shoulder.
“The Mistress probably has something important to say,” she said soothingly, and Yuriko sighed.
“Yeah, I know.”
Ever since she could remember, Yuriko had always been under the care of the Mistress and the various Attendants of the convent school. It functioned both as a school and an orphanage of sorts, though not all orphans living in Central were picked up by such schools.
Her studies in Central History showed her that her convent school was not exactly a ‘convent’ - in actual fact, a convent was a name that had come from long ago, way back before the Great Revolution had taken place. It had represented a community of religious people back then, and now it simply meant a place where the teachings of iT - the deity of Central’s only religion - could be shared and taught.
Of course, it went without question that all the Attendants as well as the Mistress herself were believers of iT, but that did not mean that the students themselves were as well. Yuriko herself did not particularly believe in iT, and she dreaded the thought that the emergency morning meeting might turn out to be another worship session that all the students were made to go to whether they believed or not.
When she reached the hall, the rest of the girls were already standing in orderly rows, and she slipped into line relatively unnoticed before the Mistress stepped up in front.
“There will be an officer coming from Central today to do the yearly inspection,” she said, her voice carrying effortlessly throughout the hall. “I expect all of you to be on your best behaviour.”
Of course, everybody knew what the yearly inspection was for. The people at Central sent a officer down every year to search for what they termed as ‘witches’, though none of the students knew exactly what a ‘witch’ was. Nobody knew, but everybody within Central treated the word as though a terrible curse.
Yuriko shrugged to herself - she would just keep on with her planned schedule for the day, and do her best to stay out of the officer’s way.
~
In the end, Erena had dragged her out to study together in the convent garden. A large bowl of canned curry sat in the middle of the table, and ever so often Yuriko would shove a couple of spoonfuls into her mouth, ignoring Erena’s complaints about how spicy it was.
“Where did you even get outside food from?” Erena asked curiously after a while of silence. “You know we’re not encouraged to eat anything other than the food the Assistants give us every day.”
“I sneak out,” Yuriko said mildly. “Outside food tastes tons better than what they serve us here, anyway.”
She drowned out Erena’s sigh, immersing herself in the photographs in her textbook depicting the Great Revolution.
The Great Revolution had taken place more than a century ago, when the current government had overthrown the old government, outlawed all religions but the worship of iT, and began their hunting of ‘witches’. Ever since then, people had lived in fear of the government (though funnily enough the textbooks and newspapers only spoke of how happy they were) - it was said that the government had ears everywhere.
I wonder why they cover up how unhappy the people are, Yuriko thought idly to herself. If it was me I wouldn’t be afraid - I’d just do my best to solve all the problems first…
She was driven out of her musings by a sharp gasp from Erena. She blinked, and then looked down to see that her spoon’s handle had somehow fused itself to the page she had been resting on.
“I-it just fused together while you were spacing out,” she whispered as Yuriko tried to yank them apart.
“How did that even happen?” wondered Yuriko, looking at the paper fibers still attached to the handle once she had managed to separate them.
Erena shrugged.
“Beats me.”
~
As they walked back to the dormitories, they heard Nozomi talking to the officer around the corner, and stopped to listen.
“Sir, what exactly is a witch, anyway?”
“They are despicable creatures,” the officer growled. “They hold a twisted power, and with it they can do things that shouldn’t happen. Spawns of evil, they are. They are all against iT and iT’s teachings.”
“I see.”
Boot heels clicked, and Yuriko and Erena tried their best to look normal as the officer rounded the corner and walked past them.
“Good day,” he nodded to them.
“Good day.”
~
“Yuriko, what if you’re a witch?”
Yuriko frowned at Erena, and then stretched out her fingertips.
“I don’t think I am, really. And even if I was I bet I could hide it.”
Erena did not look very convinced, but sighed and gave in anyway.
Two hours later they were back in the garden again, Erena studying while Yuriko stared blankly into space, fiddling with a blade of grass. She rolled it into a cylinder with her fingers and spent a long period of time simply rolling it back and forth until Erena hissed at her to stop.
“What?” she scowled, and then looked down to see that the grass had fused into a perfect cylinder. Letting out a startled yelp, she flicked it away.
Erena sighed.
“You shouldn’t have done that, you know.”
“…Why not?”
Shaking her head, Erena returned to her textbook.
“Never mind. Let’s just hope nobody saw that.”
~
It was slightly past midnight when Yuriko awoke to frantic banging on the metal door of her dormitory room. Sleepily pulling it open, she saw Erena holding a small bag, a panicked look on her face.
“Yuriko,” she said quietly, urgency in her voice. “Pack your essentials, we’re leaving now. Nozomi saw your stunt with the grass, she tattled to the officer. He’s coming. Hurry!”
Yuriko grabbed some cans of curry and her first-aid bag, still too sleep-befuddled to properly process what was going on. Shoving them into a small satchel that usually held her books, she slipped out of her room and followed Erena.
“You sneak out of the convent regularly, right? Can you lead the way?” Erena whispered. “The last time I saw the officer he was barricading the front gate, we can’t leave by that.”
An image of a hidden tunnel that went under the wall of the convent came to Yuriko’s mind, and she nodded.
“Let’s go.”
~
The tunnel was dark and dank, and Yuriko was glad when they finally stepped out of the tunnel into the fresh, cool night air, right outside the walls of the convent.
Erena crawled out right behind her, and they stopped to catch their breath. A shrill voice, however, stopped them short.
“That’s them, Sir! Over there!”
Yuriko looked up to see Nozomi - there was no mistaking Nozomi’s shrill voice anywhere - waving a pair of BinoSpecs from the watchtower. Erena swore under her breath.
“Run!” she hissed, grabbing Yuriko’s wrist in a death grip and beginning to take to her heels, even as the silhouette of the officer came into view, shouting and brandishing a plasma gun.
The city was silent - nobody dared to walk outside at night, after all - and as they ran and ran down dark alleys Yuriko felt a slight spark of panic in her heart. She had never taken time to explore the city fully, and now she felt like she was running around in a twisted labyrinth with no exit.
“Yuriko!” Erena wheezed as they came to a road junction. “Where to go?”
“I don’t know,” replied Yuriko, chewing her lip nervously. “Just…pick one!”
Tilting her head, Erena hesitated a while before charging down the sidewalk on the right. Panting slightly, Yuriko followed behind.
A crash of glass, and suddenly their way was blocked by a metallic drone aiming its laser gun at them.
“Hunter drones,” gasped Erena. “They’re from Central. I’ve heard rumours that they’re used to hunt witches, but…”
A whirring noise behind them alerted them to the arrival of three more drones, each carrying a gun with an ominous red glow.
“How did they find us, though?” Yuriko wondered aloud.
“Your friend told us your name, that’s why,” a new voice said smugly, and Yuriko spun around to see the officer approaching. “She’s a good citizen, that one. You, on the other hand, will be coming with us to Central, witch. That girl next to the witch, you are now under Central arrest for treason and assisting enemies of iT and the city.”
Yuriko could practically feel Erena trembling next to her.
“I have a sister,” she whispered in a low voice to Yuriko. “Her name is Karina, and we were separated quite a while ago. She never got to go to the convent, and I don’t know where she is now. If you ever see her, can you take care of her for me?”
Confused, Yuriko could only nod, and Erena’s face creased into a smile of relief. She rummaged in her bag and pulled out two slim cans.
“Soda?” Yuriko hissed at her curiously, and Erena sighed.
“Get ready to run.”
Ignoring the officer’s curious stare at their whispering, as well as him hefting his plasma gun, Erena shook the cans in her hand vigorously before throwing them at the nearest drone. The cans burst open, showering the drone and the surroundings with sticky, sweet soda.
“You’re not the only one with a stash of outside food,” Erena said. “Run, now!”
Even as the unmistakeable bang of a plasma gun being fired sounded, Yuriko ran desperately from the junction, away from the drones and the officer and Erena. Behind her, she could hear a shriek of pain, and knew that Erena had been shot.
Don’t look back, she chided herself. If not Erena’s efforts will be in vain.
Holding back an urge to cry, she ran on and on, skirting dead ends and slipping from alley to alley. Behind her, she could hear a faint metallic sound, and knew that the drones were giving chase.
Blind panic began to take over her, and she turned the corner without looking where she was going, only focusing on going faster, faster, faster.
Thud.
She ran into a wall of warm flesh, and she was sent tumbling head over heels along with the person she had bumped into.
When they had stopped rolling, she looked up to see who had bumped into, and met a pair of sharp brown eyes looking at her suspiciously.
“Being chased by Central?” asked the man she had crashed into slightly irritably, and she nodded.
“I’m-” she began, but he slammed a hand over her mouth.
“No names,” he told her sharply. “Come, follow me.”
Taking the bag he had been carrying in one hand, he took hold of her hand with his free one and began to run towards another alley.
“The drones,” Yuriko gasped, hearing their whirring some distance behind.
The man wheeled around and frowned at the sight of the lone metal drone approaching them. Letting go of her hand, he whipped out a pistol from somewhere, and Yuriko could have sworn she saw his hand glow for a split second before he fired. A bullet encased in a white shroud left the muzzle, plowing into the drone and causing it to blow up in an explosion that lit up the area for a brief moment.
“That should buy us some time,” he muttered. “Let’s go, hurry!”
They ran down two more alleys, before they came to a manhole cover lying innocently in a dead end.
“Here,” the man told her shortly, opening the manhole cover and revealing a ladder that stretched down into darkness.
“Jump in.”
Author: Luna (dreamweavernyx)
Pairing: Kazuyuri
Genre: Fantasy/Scifi
Summary: AU. They are two runaways, chased out of society through a deep-rooted stigma though they have no say in it at all. Only relying on word-of-mouth rumours and a set of sketchy directions, they now have to set out on their own journey to accomplish the impossible: escape.
Notes: Written for NaNoWriMo 2011.
Character list here.
~
01: Convent Girl
Today, just like any other day, the alarm rang at seven, blasting a mechanized rendition of the city anthem.
Yuriko rolled out of her sleeping pod sleepily, fumbling with her uniform. It was supposed to be free study day today, but the blinking alarm device’s screen was lit up with a message in red, telling all students to gather in the hall.
Sighing, she pushed a hand through her hair, trying to neaten it out as she walked down the hallway.
“Bad sleep?” a curious voice asked behind her, and she turned to see Erena, the girl living in the dormitory room next to her.
“I was prepared to wake up a full two hours later today since free study day isn’t supposed to start with morning assembly,” Yuriko grumbled in reply. “Then spend a long day eating curry while studying Central History.”
Laughing, Erena clapped her on the shoulder.
“The Mistress probably has something important to say,” she said soothingly, and Yuriko sighed.
“Yeah, I know.”
Ever since she could remember, Yuriko had always been under the care of the Mistress and the various Attendants of the convent school. It functioned both as a school and an orphanage of sorts, though not all orphans living in Central were picked up by such schools.
Her studies in Central History showed her that her convent school was not exactly a ‘convent’ - in actual fact, a convent was a name that had come from long ago, way back before the Great Revolution had taken place. It had represented a community of religious people back then, and now it simply meant a place where the teachings of iT - the deity of Central’s only religion - could be shared and taught.
Of course, it went without question that all the Attendants as well as the Mistress herself were believers of iT, but that did not mean that the students themselves were as well. Yuriko herself did not particularly believe in iT, and she dreaded the thought that the emergency morning meeting might turn out to be another worship session that all the students were made to go to whether they believed or not.
When she reached the hall, the rest of the girls were already standing in orderly rows, and she slipped into line relatively unnoticed before the Mistress stepped up in front.
“There will be an officer coming from Central today to do the yearly inspection,” she said, her voice carrying effortlessly throughout the hall. “I expect all of you to be on your best behaviour.”
Of course, everybody knew what the yearly inspection was for. The people at Central sent a officer down every year to search for what they termed as ‘witches’, though none of the students knew exactly what a ‘witch’ was. Nobody knew, but everybody within Central treated the word as though a terrible curse.
Yuriko shrugged to herself - she would just keep on with her planned schedule for the day, and do her best to stay out of the officer’s way.
~
In the end, Erena had dragged her out to study together in the convent garden. A large bowl of canned curry sat in the middle of the table, and ever so often Yuriko would shove a couple of spoonfuls into her mouth, ignoring Erena’s complaints about how spicy it was.
“Where did you even get outside food from?” Erena asked curiously after a while of silence. “You know we’re not encouraged to eat anything other than the food the Assistants give us every day.”
“I sneak out,” Yuriko said mildly. “Outside food tastes tons better than what they serve us here, anyway.”
She drowned out Erena’s sigh, immersing herself in the photographs in her textbook depicting the Great Revolution.
The Great Revolution had taken place more than a century ago, when the current government had overthrown the old government, outlawed all religions but the worship of iT, and began their hunting of ‘witches’. Ever since then, people had lived in fear of the government (though funnily enough the textbooks and newspapers only spoke of how happy they were) - it was said that the government had ears everywhere.
I wonder why they cover up how unhappy the people are, Yuriko thought idly to herself. If it was me I wouldn’t be afraid - I’d just do my best to solve all the problems first…
She was driven out of her musings by a sharp gasp from Erena. She blinked, and then looked down to see that her spoon’s handle had somehow fused itself to the page she had been resting on.
“I-it just fused together while you were spacing out,” she whispered as Yuriko tried to yank them apart.
“How did that even happen?” wondered Yuriko, looking at the paper fibers still attached to the handle once she had managed to separate them.
Erena shrugged.
“Beats me.”
~
As they walked back to the dormitories, they heard Nozomi talking to the officer around the corner, and stopped to listen.
“Sir, what exactly is a witch, anyway?”
“They are despicable creatures,” the officer growled. “They hold a twisted power, and with it they can do things that shouldn’t happen. Spawns of evil, they are. They are all against iT and iT’s teachings.”
“I see.”
Boot heels clicked, and Yuriko and Erena tried their best to look normal as the officer rounded the corner and walked past them.
“Good day,” he nodded to them.
“Good day.”
~
“Yuriko, what if you’re a witch?”
Yuriko frowned at Erena, and then stretched out her fingertips.
“I don’t think I am, really. And even if I was I bet I could hide it.”
Erena did not look very convinced, but sighed and gave in anyway.
Two hours later they were back in the garden again, Erena studying while Yuriko stared blankly into space, fiddling with a blade of grass. She rolled it into a cylinder with her fingers and spent a long period of time simply rolling it back and forth until Erena hissed at her to stop.
“What?” she scowled, and then looked down to see that the grass had fused into a perfect cylinder. Letting out a startled yelp, she flicked it away.
Erena sighed.
“You shouldn’t have done that, you know.”
“…Why not?”
Shaking her head, Erena returned to her textbook.
“Never mind. Let’s just hope nobody saw that.”
~
It was slightly past midnight when Yuriko awoke to frantic banging on the metal door of her dormitory room. Sleepily pulling it open, she saw Erena holding a small bag, a panicked look on her face.
“Yuriko,” she said quietly, urgency in her voice. “Pack your essentials, we’re leaving now. Nozomi saw your stunt with the grass, she tattled to the officer. He’s coming. Hurry!”
Yuriko grabbed some cans of curry and her first-aid bag, still too sleep-befuddled to properly process what was going on. Shoving them into a small satchel that usually held her books, she slipped out of her room and followed Erena.
“You sneak out of the convent regularly, right? Can you lead the way?” Erena whispered. “The last time I saw the officer he was barricading the front gate, we can’t leave by that.”
An image of a hidden tunnel that went under the wall of the convent came to Yuriko’s mind, and she nodded.
“Let’s go.”
~
The tunnel was dark and dank, and Yuriko was glad when they finally stepped out of the tunnel into the fresh, cool night air, right outside the walls of the convent.
Erena crawled out right behind her, and they stopped to catch their breath. A shrill voice, however, stopped them short.
“That’s them, Sir! Over there!”
Yuriko looked up to see Nozomi - there was no mistaking Nozomi’s shrill voice anywhere - waving a pair of BinoSpecs from the watchtower. Erena swore under her breath.
“Run!” she hissed, grabbing Yuriko’s wrist in a death grip and beginning to take to her heels, even as the silhouette of the officer came into view, shouting and brandishing a plasma gun.
The city was silent - nobody dared to walk outside at night, after all - and as they ran and ran down dark alleys Yuriko felt a slight spark of panic in her heart. She had never taken time to explore the city fully, and now she felt like she was running around in a twisted labyrinth with no exit.
“Yuriko!” Erena wheezed as they came to a road junction. “Where to go?”
“I don’t know,” replied Yuriko, chewing her lip nervously. “Just…pick one!”
Tilting her head, Erena hesitated a while before charging down the sidewalk on the right. Panting slightly, Yuriko followed behind.
A crash of glass, and suddenly their way was blocked by a metallic drone aiming its laser gun at them.
“Hunter drones,” gasped Erena. “They’re from Central. I’ve heard rumours that they’re used to hunt witches, but…”
A whirring noise behind them alerted them to the arrival of three more drones, each carrying a gun with an ominous red glow.
“How did they find us, though?” Yuriko wondered aloud.
“Your friend told us your name, that’s why,” a new voice said smugly, and Yuriko spun around to see the officer approaching. “She’s a good citizen, that one. You, on the other hand, will be coming with us to Central, witch. That girl next to the witch, you are now under Central arrest for treason and assisting enemies of iT and the city.”
Yuriko could practically feel Erena trembling next to her.
“I have a sister,” she whispered in a low voice to Yuriko. “Her name is Karina, and we were separated quite a while ago. She never got to go to the convent, and I don’t know where she is now. If you ever see her, can you take care of her for me?”
Confused, Yuriko could only nod, and Erena’s face creased into a smile of relief. She rummaged in her bag and pulled out two slim cans.
“Soda?” Yuriko hissed at her curiously, and Erena sighed.
“Get ready to run.”
Ignoring the officer’s curious stare at their whispering, as well as him hefting his plasma gun, Erena shook the cans in her hand vigorously before throwing them at the nearest drone. The cans burst open, showering the drone and the surroundings with sticky, sweet soda.
“You’re not the only one with a stash of outside food,” Erena said. “Run, now!”
Even as the unmistakeable bang of a plasma gun being fired sounded, Yuriko ran desperately from the junction, away from the drones and the officer and Erena. Behind her, she could hear a shriek of pain, and knew that Erena had been shot.
Don’t look back, she chided herself. If not Erena’s efforts will be in vain.
Holding back an urge to cry, she ran on and on, skirting dead ends and slipping from alley to alley. Behind her, she could hear a faint metallic sound, and knew that the drones were giving chase.
Blind panic began to take over her, and she turned the corner without looking where she was going, only focusing on going faster, faster, faster.
Thud.
She ran into a wall of warm flesh, and she was sent tumbling head over heels along with the person she had bumped into.
When they had stopped rolling, she looked up to see who had bumped into, and met a pair of sharp brown eyes looking at her suspiciously.
“Being chased by Central?” asked the man she had crashed into slightly irritably, and she nodded.
“I’m-” she began, but he slammed a hand over her mouth.
“No names,” he told her sharply. “Come, follow me.”
Taking the bag he had been carrying in one hand, he took hold of her hand with his free one and began to run towards another alley.
“The drones,” Yuriko gasped, hearing their whirring some distance behind.
The man wheeled around and frowned at the sight of the lone metal drone approaching them. Letting go of her hand, he whipped out a pistol from somewhere, and Yuriko could have sworn she saw his hand glow for a split second before he fired. A bullet encased in a white shroud left the muzzle, plowing into the drone and causing it to blow up in an explosion that lit up the area for a brief moment.
“That should buy us some time,” he muttered. “Let’s go, hurry!”
They ran down two more alleys, before they came to a manhole cover lying innocently in a dead end.
“Here,” the man told her shortly, opening the manhole cover and revealing a ladder that stretched down into darkness.
“Jump in.”