[chaptered] Breaking Zero Kelvin - Chapter 16 (Torchlit Meeting)
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: Character list here.
Previous chapters: Prologue | 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15
~
16: Torchlit Meeting
Eventually, Seiji stopped the motorcycle, and the three of them climbed out of the motorcycle.
“I’m sorry I only have two sleeping bags,” he told Mariko apologetically, and she shrugged.
“If Tae - sorry, Mioka - doesn’t mind, we can unzip hers and spread it out and the two of us can sleep on that.”
Mioka did not see much problem with this suggestion since they had done about the same thing on their straw mat in the prison. They fished out the sleeping bags, and as per Mariko’s suggestion, Mioka unzipped it to form a large soft plastic rectangle on the tunnel floor.
Seiji retrieved a bag of dried fruit from the boot, and passed it around. The fruit had gone slightly soft after being left in an open bag for too long, but it was still edible and Mioka thus held no complaint. While munching away slowly on a dried apricot, she closed her eyes and tried to access her magic. Once again, she found it blocked by a barrier of sorts, and frowned.
“My magic is still affected by that drug Central put in our food,” she said quietly, and Seiji frowned as well.
“Let’s hope it goes back to normal soon,” he sighed.
“Mine’s still inaccessible too,” Mariko said, reaching for another dried fruit. This caused a realization to dawn upon Mioka.
“I never asked, Mariko. What’s your power? I know what Taisuke’s was, but not yours.”
Mariko’s face clouded at the mention of her foster brother, and Mioka winced, internally berating herself for bringing him up. Seiji glanced at the two of them, sensing something was up.
“Something happened to Taisuke?” he asked curiously, and Mariko’s face darkened a little more, her hand retreating from the dried fruit packet to lie in her lap, clenched into a fist.
“He was executed by Central,” Mioka whispered to Seiji when it was obvious that Mariko was not going to talk. “Mariko was forced to watch it. From what I gather, it wasn’t very…pleasant.”
Seiji’s face fell after that, and he nodded solemnly.
“May he rest in peace,” he murmured, before rising to stow away the dried fruit. Mioka gently helped Mariko up and onto the spread-out sleeping bag, before curling up on the other side of it.
As she watched, Seiji turned off the flame of his temporary stove, and the tunnel was plunged back into darkness.
~
When they woke up, Mariko was still visibly upset, though she tried to hide it by making various attempts to make conversation. Mioka apologized, but Mariko shook it off with a small, pained smile.
“I should probably get used to it,” she murmured. “Missing him every day isn’t going to bring him back.”
As Mioka began to zip up the sleeping bag to keep it, Mariko knelt to help her.
“By the way,” she said, remembering Mioka’s question from the previous night. “My power isn’t one that helps much on the offensive side. If I want to, it can allow me to move much faster than normal. Because of that, I tried to learn hand-to-hand combat so I could beat up my enemies, but it seems that I’m more suited to hacking away with a knife than kicking and punching.”
“That sounds really cool,” Mioka replied, feeling slightly envious. “At least you can stand on your own. Mine’s more defensive, so it’s kind of useless unless there’s some metal poles nearby I can fuse together and swing around for some sort of lucky hit on my opponent.”
Snorting, Mariko helped to roll up the sleeping bag.
“Rubbish. I bet your power’s really helpful in other areas,” she told Mioka comfortingly. “Besides, right now I don’t have a knife, so I’m pretty useless against an opponent too.”
“Both of you aren’t useless,” Seiji cut into their conversation. “However, you will be soon if you only talk and don’t help me pack, so hop to it!”
Mariko giggled.
“Yes, sir,” she shot back, picking up the sleeping bag and pretending to salute with it before carrying it over to the motorcycle.
Seiji rolled his eyes, and headed to the motorcycle as well.
“Mioka, you’re driving today,” he said lazily, and Mioka scowled a little.
“Must I?”
“It’s good practice,” was the reply. “What if I was out of commission? Would you just wait in the tunnel until I was able to drive again to head onwards?”
Seeing the logic in his argument, Mioka swallowed her own retort and seated herself at the front of the motorcycle. She felt him sit down behind her, one hand wrapping around her waist and the other gripping her hand to help her steer.
“Let’s go.”
The motorcycle roared off again.
~
With three people eating, the food supplies decreased at a faster rate than Mioka was comfortable with.
“I hope we reach District 6 soon,” she murmured, taking stock of how much food they had left. “If we ration this properly it’ll last us about four or five more meals.”
“We’ll just drive faster then,” Seiji replied, shrugging. “I’ll drive for the rest of the way, since you tend to drive slower than me.”
“I’m not used to it,” Mioka retorted, pouting slightly, and Seiji laughed, ruffling her hair roughly and mussing it up.
“I’m not blaming you or anything, Mioka.”
Patting her head a final time, he headed back to the motorcycle. Mariko had already finished her portion of dried cuttlefish and some crackers, and was currently trying to get back into the sidecar.
Mioka was left standing next to the motorcycle, staring blankly into space as she tried to get her hair back into place (disregarding the fact that the wind would mess it up again) until Seiji yelled at her to hurry up and get onto the motorcycle before they wasted more precious time.
Pushing her swirling thoughts to the back of her mind, she climbed back on and hung on to Seiji as he started the ignition, and they were off again.
She ended up falling asleep with her face pressed into the warmth of Seiji’s back.
~
Seiji set a punishing pace, refusing to stop unless it was absolutely necessary, and driving like his life depended on it. Mioka knew this was in an effort to conserve their food supplies and also to get as far away from District 7 as possible in as short a span of time as possible, but still the short hours of sleep caused her to take several naps even as Seiji drove.
The pace paid off though, and when they reached the sign that read District 6 Mariko whooped in joy, her voice echoing around the tunnel.
“Let’s find the opening of the tunnel and then we can sleep,” Seiji suggested. They dismounted, and he wheeled the motorcycle forward as Mioka and Mariko kept their gaze upwards, searching by the light of Seiji’s lamp for a circle of metal that would indicate the manhole cover, the opening in the tunnel.
“It’s here!” Mariko cried after a while, and Mioka flopped to the ground in relief, not even bothering to get out the sleeping bag first. All around her, she could hear Mariko and Seiji unpacking things, but she closed her eyes, too tired to move another limb.
“Mioka,” Mariko poked her gently, not bothering to hide the amusement in her voice. “I think it would be more comfortable to sleep on the sleeping bag, yes?”
“M’sleep,” Mioka mumbled, rolling over and curling up, scrunching up her nose with her eyes still closed.
She heard Mariko giggle ‘Cute’ before she walked away. A short while later, she was completely taken by surprise when a pair of hands began to roll her over until the material of the sleeping bag was below her. Her eyes flew open to see Seiji’s laughter-filled eyes looking at her as he got up.
“Thanks,” she heard Mariko say in between laughs.
“Don’t laugh,” mumbled Mioka, trying to get back to sleep.
Mariko’s response was to laugh some more.
“You have to admit that it was a rather amusing image though, Seiji rolling you like a barrel of wine or something. I haven’t laughed this much in ages…”
Huffing, Mioka shut her out and curled up again. A while later she felt Mariko plop down on the empty half of the sleeping bag, and when she opened her eyes a crack she saw nothing but darkness, meaning that the lamp had been turned off.
Letting out a small sigh, she went back to sleep.
~
She woke to the smell of baked beans cooking in the can, and when she got up to tidy her sleep-mussed tangle of hair Seiji nodded to her, before prodding again at the beans.
“It’s day right now up there,” he informed her. “We can’t go up. Mariko just checked.”
Nodding, Mioka crawled over to sit next to Mariko, who was staring hungrily at the thick tomato sauce in the can. Seiji saw the hungry gaze and snorted, taking his spoon out of the can of beans to wave it at Mariko’s face.
“Be patient.”
“Yes sir,” Mariko grinned, sticking out her tongue and trying (but failing) to lick some sauce off the spoon, as desperate for food as she was.
When it had finally cooked, Seiji fished out a couple more spoons and they slowly savoured the can of beans, which was their last food item save for a packet of nuts. Mariko, being the hungriest, finished first, and went back to the unzipped sleeping bag. As Mioka watched, she sat down cross-legged and closed her eyes, and Mioka knew she was trying to access her magic.
A short while later, when Mioka had joined her on the sleeping bag, Mariko’s eyes snapped back open.
“I still can’t seem to access my magic,” she said quietly, frowning.
Immediately, Mioka tried to do the same. The barrier was still there, but to her it felt slightly thinner and weaker than before. She voiced this observation to Mariko, who looked slightly nonplussed.
“Maybe I was fed the drugs for a longer period of time, so the effects don’t wear off as quickly,” she suggested. This made sense to Mioka, and she nodded.
Unfortunately, she was still not able to access her magic, and she soon gave up, collapsing on the sleeping bag to sleep away the time until night fell again.
~
She slept in short spurts, the three of them taking turns to climb up Seiji’s ladder to check if night had fallen up in District 6.
Finally, Seiji reported that it was night time, and Mariko and Mioka scrambled for the ladder.
District 6 was a quiet district, and the three of them walked along the dark alleys with hardly any trouble. Mioka was on high alert for any searches Central might be conducting that would land her back in the prison, but the way was clear all the way to the grocery store. While Mariko kept watch, Mioka helped to look for food that Seiji shoved into his bag. It was a quick and efficient process, a familiar one that Mioka had not done for a while.
When they were done, Mioka grabbed some water, and Seiji hoisted his bag up.
“Let’s go.”
Sneaking around in the shadows, they began to head back the way they came.
Suddenly, Mariko, who was leading the way, stopped short as she noticed the sweeping beam of a handheld torch light. She signaled for the other two to stop and stay silent, as they heard footsteps approaching.
A young man with a red torchlight appeared around the corner. He had light brown hair with streaks, styled into a perm that Mioka found rather odd-looking.
“People sneaking around in the night?” he asked softly, his words hanging unanswered in the still night air.
Mioka hardly dared to breathe.
The young man chuckled.
“I can see you, all three of you. Just come out, I’m not going to turn you over to Central for breaking curfew or anything.”
At last, Seiji broke the silence.
“Can we trust you?”
A sarcastic laugh.
“Of course.”
Mioka watched as Seiji took a step into the torchlight.
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: Character list here.
Previous chapters: Prologue | 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15
~
16: Torchlit Meeting
Eventually, Seiji stopped the motorcycle, and the three of them climbed out of the motorcycle.
“I’m sorry I only have two sleeping bags,” he told Mariko apologetically, and she shrugged.
“If Tae - sorry, Mioka - doesn’t mind, we can unzip hers and spread it out and the two of us can sleep on that.”
Mioka did not see much problem with this suggestion since they had done about the same thing on their straw mat in the prison. They fished out the sleeping bags, and as per Mariko’s suggestion, Mioka unzipped it to form a large soft plastic rectangle on the tunnel floor.
Seiji retrieved a bag of dried fruit from the boot, and passed it around. The fruit had gone slightly soft after being left in an open bag for too long, but it was still edible and Mioka thus held no complaint. While munching away slowly on a dried apricot, she closed her eyes and tried to access her magic. Once again, she found it blocked by a barrier of sorts, and frowned.
“My magic is still affected by that drug Central put in our food,” she said quietly, and Seiji frowned as well.
“Let’s hope it goes back to normal soon,” he sighed.
“Mine’s still inaccessible too,” Mariko said, reaching for another dried fruit. This caused a realization to dawn upon Mioka.
“I never asked, Mariko. What’s your power? I know what Taisuke’s was, but not yours.”
Mariko’s face clouded at the mention of her foster brother, and Mioka winced, internally berating herself for bringing him up. Seiji glanced at the two of them, sensing something was up.
“Something happened to Taisuke?” he asked curiously, and Mariko’s face darkened a little more, her hand retreating from the dried fruit packet to lie in her lap, clenched into a fist.
“He was executed by Central,” Mioka whispered to Seiji when it was obvious that Mariko was not going to talk. “Mariko was forced to watch it. From what I gather, it wasn’t very…pleasant.”
Seiji’s face fell after that, and he nodded solemnly.
“May he rest in peace,” he murmured, before rising to stow away the dried fruit. Mioka gently helped Mariko up and onto the spread-out sleeping bag, before curling up on the other side of it.
As she watched, Seiji turned off the flame of his temporary stove, and the tunnel was plunged back into darkness.
~
When they woke up, Mariko was still visibly upset, though she tried to hide it by making various attempts to make conversation. Mioka apologized, but Mariko shook it off with a small, pained smile.
“I should probably get used to it,” she murmured. “Missing him every day isn’t going to bring him back.”
As Mioka began to zip up the sleeping bag to keep it, Mariko knelt to help her.
“By the way,” she said, remembering Mioka’s question from the previous night. “My power isn’t one that helps much on the offensive side. If I want to, it can allow me to move much faster than normal. Because of that, I tried to learn hand-to-hand combat so I could beat up my enemies, but it seems that I’m more suited to hacking away with a knife than kicking and punching.”
“That sounds really cool,” Mioka replied, feeling slightly envious. “At least you can stand on your own. Mine’s more defensive, so it’s kind of useless unless there’s some metal poles nearby I can fuse together and swing around for some sort of lucky hit on my opponent.”
Snorting, Mariko helped to roll up the sleeping bag.
“Rubbish. I bet your power’s really helpful in other areas,” she told Mioka comfortingly. “Besides, right now I don’t have a knife, so I’m pretty useless against an opponent too.”
“Both of you aren’t useless,” Seiji cut into their conversation. “However, you will be soon if you only talk and don’t help me pack, so hop to it!”
Mariko giggled.
“Yes, sir,” she shot back, picking up the sleeping bag and pretending to salute with it before carrying it over to the motorcycle.
Seiji rolled his eyes, and headed to the motorcycle as well.
“Mioka, you’re driving today,” he said lazily, and Mioka scowled a little.
“Must I?”
“It’s good practice,” was the reply. “What if I was out of commission? Would you just wait in the tunnel until I was able to drive again to head onwards?”
Seeing the logic in his argument, Mioka swallowed her own retort and seated herself at the front of the motorcycle. She felt him sit down behind her, one hand wrapping around her waist and the other gripping her hand to help her steer.
“Let’s go.”
The motorcycle roared off again.
~
With three people eating, the food supplies decreased at a faster rate than Mioka was comfortable with.
“I hope we reach District 6 soon,” she murmured, taking stock of how much food they had left. “If we ration this properly it’ll last us about four or five more meals.”
“We’ll just drive faster then,” Seiji replied, shrugging. “I’ll drive for the rest of the way, since you tend to drive slower than me.”
“I’m not used to it,” Mioka retorted, pouting slightly, and Seiji laughed, ruffling her hair roughly and mussing it up.
“I’m not blaming you or anything, Mioka.”
Patting her head a final time, he headed back to the motorcycle. Mariko had already finished her portion of dried cuttlefish and some crackers, and was currently trying to get back into the sidecar.
Mioka was left standing next to the motorcycle, staring blankly into space as she tried to get her hair back into place (disregarding the fact that the wind would mess it up again) until Seiji yelled at her to hurry up and get onto the motorcycle before they wasted more precious time.
Pushing her swirling thoughts to the back of her mind, she climbed back on and hung on to Seiji as he started the ignition, and they were off again.
She ended up falling asleep with her face pressed into the warmth of Seiji’s back.
~
Seiji set a punishing pace, refusing to stop unless it was absolutely necessary, and driving like his life depended on it. Mioka knew this was in an effort to conserve their food supplies and also to get as far away from District 7 as possible in as short a span of time as possible, but still the short hours of sleep caused her to take several naps even as Seiji drove.
The pace paid off though, and when they reached the sign that read District 6 Mariko whooped in joy, her voice echoing around the tunnel.
“Let’s find the opening of the tunnel and then we can sleep,” Seiji suggested. They dismounted, and he wheeled the motorcycle forward as Mioka and Mariko kept their gaze upwards, searching by the light of Seiji’s lamp for a circle of metal that would indicate the manhole cover, the opening in the tunnel.
“It’s here!” Mariko cried after a while, and Mioka flopped to the ground in relief, not even bothering to get out the sleeping bag first. All around her, she could hear Mariko and Seiji unpacking things, but she closed her eyes, too tired to move another limb.
“Mioka,” Mariko poked her gently, not bothering to hide the amusement in her voice. “I think it would be more comfortable to sleep on the sleeping bag, yes?”
“M’sleep,” Mioka mumbled, rolling over and curling up, scrunching up her nose with her eyes still closed.
She heard Mariko giggle ‘Cute’ before she walked away. A short while later, she was completely taken by surprise when a pair of hands began to roll her over until the material of the sleeping bag was below her. Her eyes flew open to see Seiji’s laughter-filled eyes looking at her as he got up.
“Thanks,” she heard Mariko say in between laughs.
“Don’t laugh,” mumbled Mioka, trying to get back to sleep.
Mariko’s response was to laugh some more.
“You have to admit that it was a rather amusing image though, Seiji rolling you like a barrel of wine or something. I haven’t laughed this much in ages…”
Huffing, Mioka shut her out and curled up again. A while later she felt Mariko plop down on the empty half of the sleeping bag, and when she opened her eyes a crack she saw nothing but darkness, meaning that the lamp had been turned off.
Letting out a small sigh, she went back to sleep.
~
She woke to the smell of baked beans cooking in the can, and when she got up to tidy her sleep-mussed tangle of hair Seiji nodded to her, before prodding again at the beans.
“It’s day right now up there,” he informed her. “We can’t go up. Mariko just checked.”
Nodding, Mioka crawled over to sit next to Mariko, who was staring hungrily at the thick tomato sauce in the can. Seiji saw the hungry gaze and snorted, taking his spoon out of the can of beans to wave it at Mariko’s face.
“Be patient.”
“Yes sir,” Mariko grinned, sticking out her tongue and trying (but failing) to lick some sauce off the spoon, as desperate for food as she was.
When it had finally cooked, Seiji fished out a couple more spoons and they slowly savoured the can of beans, which was their last food item save for a packet of nuts. Mariko, being the hungriest, finished first, and went back to the unzipped sleeping bag. As Mioka watched, she sat down cross-legged and closed her eyes, and Mioka knew she was trying to access her magic.
A short while later, when Mioka had joined her on the sleeping bag, Mariko’s eyes snapped back open.
“I still can’t seem to access my magic,” she said quietly, frowning.
Immediately, Mioka tried to do the same. The barrier was still there, but to her it felt slightly thinner and weaker than before. She voiced this observation to Mariko, who looked slightly nonplussed.
“Maybe I was fed the drugs for a longer period of time, so the effects don’t wear off as quickly,” she suggested. This made sense to Mioka, and she nodded.
Unfortunately, she was still not able to access her magic, and she soon gave up, collapsing on the sleeping bag to sleep away the time until night fell again.
~
She slept in short spurts, the three of them taking turns to climb up Seiji’s ladder to check if night had fallen up in District 6.
Finally, Seiji reported that it was night time, and Mariko and Mioka scrambled for the ladder.
District 6 was a quiet district, and the three of them walked along the dark alleys with hardly any trouble. Mioka was on high alert for any searches Central might be conducting that would land her back in the prison, but the way was clear all the way to the grocery store. While Mariko kept watch, Mioka helped to look for food that Seiji shoved into his bag. It was a quick and efficient process, a familiar one that Mioka had not done for a while.
When they were done, Mioka grabbed some water, and Seiji hoisted his bag up.
“Let’s go.”
Sneaking around in the shadows, they began to head back the way they came.
Suddenly, Mariko, who was leading the way, stopped short as she noticed the sweeping beam of a handheld torch light. She signaled for the other two to stop and stay silent, as they heard footsteps approaching.
A young man with a red torchlight appeared around the corner. He had light brown hair with streaks, styled into a perm that Mioka found rather odd-looking.
“People sneaking around in the night?” he asked softly, his words hanging unanswered in the still night air.
Mioka hardly dared to breathe.
The young man chuckled.
“I can see you, all three of you. Just come out, I’m not going to turn you over to Central for breaking curfew or anything.”
At last, Seiji broke the silence.
“Can we trust you?”
A sarcastic laugh.
“Of course.”
Mioka watched as Seiji took a step into the torchlight.