Arashi: An Ever Expanding Sky (41)
AUTHOR: Marineko/mylittlecthulhu
FANDOM: Arashi
PAIRING: Sakuraiba, Juntoshi
RATING: PG
DATE: December 9th, 2012
WORD COUNT: 3,263
NOTES/DISCLAIMERS: 1. This is a work of fiction
Chapter Forty | Chapter Forty-Two
Chapter Forty-One
“Once upon a time,” the girl said, her voice low, the way she remembered her mother’s used to be, “people believed in the gods. They prayed for good things to come, and for bad things to go away. They made offerings, and in return the gods may give them gifts.”
“Superstitions,” the boy said. He was a couple of years younger, but they looked to be the same height, and they had the same face. “Everyone knows the gods aren’t real.”
“You don’t know that, Kazu,” the girl replied. “And, anyway, you’ve been blessed yourself, with your quick wit and quick hands.” That, she hadn’t heard from their mother. She overheard one of their aunts say so, the last time they visited their nomadic cousins.
“That’s from mom, not from the gods. The gods’ gifts in the stories are different.”
“What kind of gifts?” the other boy asked, eyes wide. This boy was taller than the other two, and gangly, but he sat hunched with his arms hugging his knees, with an expression that seemed younger, somehow.
“Well,” the girl said. “Some were given the gift of words. These people always knew the right thing to say, and could easily get others to do what they want.” She shot the first boy a look. “Some were given the gift of the future. Using tools, they were able to ask the gods about what have yet to come. And some -”
“Don’t listen to Rin, Aiba,” Kazu interrupted again. “The gods aren’t real, and magic gifts don’t exist.”
If the stories were true, then why hadn’t the gods - or their gifts - saved their parents?
})i({
“Kamenashi,” Ninomiya said, as they tried to determine the extent of the prisoner’s injuries.
“What?” Clipped, impatient, but still carrying a hint of respect. Ninomiya admired the windup, really. If all windups were as interesting as Kamenashi and Aiba, then he wouldn’t mind having more windups than people as company. But then he recalled the house of crazy windups that were trying to make Aiba into some sort of god, and figured that perhaps they’re not all that great, either. They were just like people, maybe, except for the fact that they were bound to obey. Not for the first time, he wondered how was it that they were made the way they were. “Ninomiya-sama?”
“Just now,” he said, remembering that he was talking to Kamenashi. “Right before going into the room. I was talking to someone.”
“At least, you were talking…” Kamenashi agreed. “But there wasn’t anyone there.”
“You didn’t hear her?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Either Kamenashi was a good liar, or he was telling the truth. Either way, Nino was relieved. The windup wasn’t going to pry, that much he could tell. “Okay. Fine. Doesn’t matter. We need to get Oguri fixed, before we move on to anything else.”
“He isn’t going to get better unless we get him to a doctor,” Kamenashi reasoned. “And even that would take a couple of weeks before he’s anywhere near well enough for what you need him.”
“I know, you’re right.” Ninomiya made a face. “Should’ve left him in the dungeon.”
Kamenashi raised an eyebrow, and Ninomiya cracked the smallest smile, proving that he hadn’t meant it. He looked like he was about to say something to Nino, but paused. “We’re here,” he announced.
“But there’s no one -” Ninomiya was cut short as two men turned the corner into the hallway they were in. “Late,” was all he said to the men. They looked around as if expecting something more, and Nino straightened up - not an easy thing to do with the weight of Oguri leaning on him. “Toma’s men, I presume.”
“Apologies, Ninomiya-sama,” one of them said. “We were - held up.”
“Now, why couldn’t you be as nice as them?” Ninomiya asked Kamenashi, who pretended not to hear him. “Take him somewhere safe,” Ninomiya instructed Toma’s men. “And what’s the status of the Council members?”
“Everyone were separated into small groups and put in holding rooms at first,” one of them replied. Nino had been introduced to him before, but couldn’t remember his name. “But just about an hour ago the Guards started separating them, and -”
“Ogura’s dead,” the other man said. The first man gave him a quelling look, but he went on, “at the moment Ohtomo’s barely holding on. Matsumoto has been moved to the lower cells.”
“How are they containing this, exactly?”
“They’re not,” the first man said. “The building is blocked off, but there are windup sentries posted all over Milna, and our men are fighting to get to the Council members.”
“Windup sentries,” Ninomiya muttered to himself. “How long has he been planning this?” He shook his head, and regarded the man who reported to him. “And the others?”
“We haven’t located anyone else yet.”
Nino frowned. “Is Aiba working with you?” When they gave him a blank look, he snapped, “the - my windup.”
“Oh. I thought you told him to stay behind.”
“I did. But he’s never been good at listening to me,” Nino replied. “Look, take Oguri-dono out, as planned. Get the word out to the others - if you find Sakurai, watch over him. Don’t let Aiba near him. It’s important.”
“What about you?”
Nino glanced at Kamenashi. “We still have work to do, here.”
“With all due respect, Ninomiya-sama,” one of the men said, hesitantly, as he glanced at Kamenashi. “We would advice you not to work with windups, for now -”
“Yes, yes,” Ninomiya interrupted, impatient. “They’re fighting a war of their own right now, or at least some of them. If you could get Oguri to Rin in time, I don’t think I have to worry about Aiba right now, though, or this guy here.” He eyed Kamenashi. “You’re not going to go psycho on me again, are you?”
“I - uh,” Kamenashi paused, and took in a deep breath. “No. Ninomiya-sama.”
Ninomiya looked annoyed at the way Kamenashi addressed him, but let it go. He turned to Toma’s men. “See? Nothing to worry about. I can handle this one. You guys take Oguri. Follow the plan.” He wasn’t even sure that the plan would work, as sketchy as it was - he knew never to bank on the gods for anything, and the gods’ gifts were probably just the same. But it was all they had, and Rin seemed to think it would work.
He may not trust the gods, but he trusted Rin.
})i({
They weren’t expecting the chaos in the building. They knew that the Council members were being held in separate rooms, and there were Guards everywhere, but it seemed like the place was overrun with windups as well. Aiba couldn’t even begin to imagine where they had come from.
He had only promised Ohno to sneak him in, and felt uneasy about leaving him behind once inside. But he had made sure to drop Ohno off at the closest entrance to where they suspect Jun was being kept. “Please be safe,” he said. “Nino would be mad if I brought you here to get yourself hurt, or worse.”
Ohno’s smile made it seem like he wasn’t worried at all. “I’ll be fine,” Ohno said. “I’ve been living in places like this almost all my life. They won’t even know I’m here.”
Aiba was skeptical, but Ohno insisted that he knew what he was doing, and he had Sho to think of. So he left.
})i({
“What the hell is going on out there?”
Sho tried to listen, but they couldn’t hear anything from within the cell. “War,” he answered Kuroki. “Or something like it.” He was only guessing, since they were held far from where Toma’s men would be coming in from, but after what happened to the Council, he wouldn’t be surprised if it was true. Still, he could almost hear his father’s voice at the back of his mind, derisive.
You don’t know anything about war.
He supposed that his father was right, and he knew that his father would know what to do now, more so than he did. All the training in the Academy - for what? He still couldn’t understand his father’s way of thinking anymore than he had before, and he doubted he ever will.
But his father was gone, and he was there. Doing what, exactly?
As if echoing his thoughts, Kuroki asked, “Then what are we doing in here?”
He understood, and admired her straightforwardness. He had known her for a long time, and knew what she would be thinking. She wanted to be out there, to be fighting, despite the fact that it seemed like no one really knew what was going on anymore. What did he want, and what would be the best action for him to take?
“I don’t know,” he said, and closed his eyes.
})i({
Four windup sentries, two Guards.
Aiba could bypass them, easy. He knew that much. But he didn’t want to, not if there was another choice. He didn’t like how easily his knife - beautifully made, a gift from Oguri-dono when he was still under his compulsion - slid into people, into flesh. He didn’t like how there’s a part of him that seemed to tingle when it happened, because he was doing what he was made for. He didn’t like how he knew that part would always wonder what it would feel like to turn his weapon against Sho.
He hid, and waited.
“Masaki,” a voice said. It felt like a breeze against his neck, cold and biting. “You could finish this.”
No, he thought. I don’t want to.
A world of windups. He could imagine it - how could he not, after spending all that time with Takizawa and Tsubasa? Toma’s men were doomed to fail. There weren’t enough of them. Even the Guards were bolstered by windup sentries; it would be so easy. All he would have to do is to finish what he was supposed to do.
It wouldn’t be a bad thing, maybe. There would be no compulsions in the new world. Just - order. All the windups would be free, finally, with him at their head, and the great goddess by his side. It would be a world of windups, yes. But it would also be a world of gods, again.
There would be no place for humans in that world.
He understood this. It starts with Sho. He would kill the thing that binds him, and the other windups would follow suit.
Easy.
“No,” he said out loud, even though he knew She heard his thoughts.
I will only open the door. He heard the voice in his head this time. You will choose to enter.
He stepped out into the lighted area. The Guards immediately turned to him, but the windups standing with them stopped them before Aiba could say, don’t. Two clear shots rang out; they didn’t need more than that. They moved no further; their faces remain blank. They’re waiting for his orders.
I never wanted this, he thought to the goddess, but She did not reply.
He walked into the room.
})i({
“Sora.”
The windup regarded him quietly.
“Do you know who I am?”
“Ohno-kun,” Sora said. A little of Sho was still there, in the slight exasperation Ohno could hear in Sora’s voice, in the way he addressed Ohno.
He nodded. “I need your help getting into the room at the end of this corridor. Could you do that?”
“Yes.”
“Are you sure?” Sora was left in Yamashita’s office, without any guards. Ohno had to wonder why.
“Yes.”
“Why? Why are you helping me, I mean?”
Sora blinked, confused. “Because you asked me to.”
“Why didn’t you leave this room, when they left you here?”
“Because no one needed me.”
Ohno sighed. Sora definitely wasn’t like Aiba or Kamenashi, he supposed. Yamashita would probably consider him a “well-made” windup. Even if he did seem to answer to just about anyone.
“I have something to confess,” he told Sora. The windup looked at him, waiting. Sora’s face was completely blank. “Your friend… the other windup.”
“He’s dead.”
“Yes.” Ohno paused. “I think - I think I killed him.”
He understood now, some of the things that hadn’t made sense earlier, that he thought had been merely the stuff of nightmares. If Sora could have easily been a replacement of Sho, then the other windup had probably been meant to replace Jun after the Matsumoto massacre. It had been trying to get into Jun’s room, to kill the person it was supposed to replace. But Ohno had been there, outside. Neither of them understood - it couldn’t have known what Jun was to Ohno, and Ohno could only think that it was Jun, trying to kill him. He had killed Jun - or the windup he had thought was Jun - first. And then he had forgotten, refusing to believe that it was real.
He hadn’t wanted to believe that he was capable of hurting Jun, but he was. And it had happened. It didn’t matter that it wasn’t really Jun; he thought it was.
Now he looked at Sora, relieved and anxious to see the soft flicker of emotion in the windup’s eyes.
It took a long time before Sora finally let out an uncharacteristically long breath - Ohno had wondered if Sora breathed at all - and nodded. “I understand,” Sora said.
“Do you?”
“Yes.” Sora turned, then, as if he didn’t want to look at Ohno, or didn’t want Ohno to look at him. “Let’s go.”
})i({
“Sakurai.”
Sho wasn’t asleep, but he was close. When Kuroki called him, his eyes snapped open, to see Aiba leaning over him. “Masaki?”
“Sakurai-sama.”
“I thought I got you to stop calling me that ages ago.”
“Mmm.”
“Are you here to set us free, or not?” Kuroki asked from where she was tied up.
Aiba looked at her. “I don’t know.”
There was something different about Aiba, that Sho couldn’t quite put his finger on. This Aiba was dangerous, a voice inside him seemed to say, but he ignored it as he watched Aiba come closer. Close enough. Too close.
“I missed you,” he said. He smiled a little, because really he hadn’t had much time to miss Aiba. But it was still true, because he always missed Aiba.
It wasn’t a realization that he was comfortable with.
“I’ll miss you,” Aiba murmured. “But I’ve got - I have to. You understand.”
Aiba’s eyes finally met his, then, and Sho understood.
“I do,” he said.
})i({
It’s been almost an hour since Toma’s men took Oguri away. Ninomiya and Kamenashi were still stuck underground, unable to move because of the fighting going on above. He mentally apologized to Sho and Kuroki for not returning as soon as he had made it seem he would be, but it couldn’t be helped. He doubted that he and Kamenashi alone would be able to fight through the Guards above them, and anyway, the whole point was to sneak back into his cell unnoticed.
The fact that Kamenashi seemed to have let some of the recent events sink in only added to the irritation he was feeling. The windup had been staring at him every now and then, before remembering himself and looking away, only to look up again after.
Ninomiya gave an exaggerated sigh, although he only let a trace of his irritation show. “What?” he asked.
Kamenashi was still staring at him. “Who are you?”
Rolling his eyes, Ninomiya just looked up at the low ceilings of the passage they were in. “You’d think that he’d be eager to leave these claustrophobic tunnels, now that we’ve come to set him free.” He was talking about Oguri, who had protested when Toma’s men first wanted to take him away.
“He was tired. And he had no idea what’s going on.”
“Yeah, well, so am I, and I doubt anyone really knows what’s going on.” He thought for a moment of how different life would have been if he had just turned down Ohno Satoshi, like he was supposed to. He knew that Aiba, and Jun and Ohno, and Sho, and even Rin had something that they were fighting for. But all he really wanted was to be back on Rainbow’s End.
“You know who I am,” he finally said to Kamenashi, sounding weary even to himself. “I’m Ninomiya Kazunari. Born to one of the twelve houses of Milna, sure. But really, I’m just a smuggler and a thief.”
“The gods don’t talk to ‘just’ a thief,” Kamenashi said. “They don’t talk to just anyone.”
Ninomiya snorted. “It wasn’t as if she came by for a friendly chat. I guess it must mean that the books were right.” Which would also mean that the plan, as far-fetched as it had seemed, might actually work.
“What books?”
“I’ve been reading up on old stories about windups. It’s funny, isn’t it, that a lot of the books written by specialists focus so much on the making of you, or the history, while glossing over the fact that technically you’re not supposed to be alive.”
Kamenashi’s eyes narrowed. “According to the old religions, but no one really -”
“Really? Who was the one who was awed that the great goddess, psychotic as she was, came to pay us a visit?”
Kamenashi shifted. “You know what I mean.”
“I do.” Ninomiya added, “We say that the old religions are dead, but people still pay tribute at the temples when they pass by. People still keep symbols in their houses - maybe out of habit rather than actually believing in the gods, but. There’s still enough of the old religions left, that a lot of people think windups are wrong.”
“We didn’t ask to be made, you know.” Kamenashi’s voice was soft, subdued.
“I’m not saying you did, or that you shouldn’t be,” Ninomiya said, his irritation starting to make itself known. “I’m just saying, the stories about how windups came to be tend not to focus on the part where your lives come from this gift to, well, make life. So this made a lot of people mad, because people weren’t supposed to play god.”
“But that gift came from the gods, didn’t it?”
“Exactly.” Ninomiya looked pleased, somehow. “So I went through all these records of the old stories, like the ones Aiba liked to collect, to find out more about these gifts. I guess we’re not as ‘favoured’ by the gods as we used to be, because once, there were a lot more people with strange gifts.”
“People like your sister.”
“Rin. Yes.” Ninomiya frowned. Rin had been so reclusive in the times he had last seen her. She seemed to think that they were on the right course, though. “Although back then, the gift of the future was one of the most common.”
“I’m guessing being able to give life is rarer.”
“As is the gift to take it away.”
Kamenashi was staring again, but this time he didn’t mind. His eyes met the windup’s, and he nodded slightly.
“You asked me before why I needed you to locate him so much. Now you know.”
“But -” Ninomiya kept his eyes on Kamenashi. He detected the flash of uncertainty, or perhaps fear, in the windup. He didn’t worry about it, nodding to encourage Kamenashi to continue. “What happens next?”
“How long has it been, since they took him?”
“An hour,” Kamenashi replied, “and twenty-eight minutes.”
“That should be time enough to reach Rin,” Ninomiya said. “So now - we wait.”
~ to be continued ~
Chapter Forty | Chapter Forty-Two
Notes:
To those that commented to the last chapter (waaaay back in January), thank you very much for reading. Honestly I find myself staring at the screen more often than writing these days, so it's really thanks to you guys that I persevered at all <3 This (extremely late, and so very overdue) chapter is for you guys.
If you were reading this fic and are still reading, sorry for the lateness. ;_;
FANDOM: Arashi
PAIRING: Sakuraiba, Juntoshi
RATING: PG
DATE: December 9th, 2012
WORD COUNT: 3,263
NOTES/DISCLAIMERS: 1. This is a work of fiction
Chapter Forty | Chapter Forty-Two
Chapter Forty-One
“Once upon a time,” the girl said, her voice low, the way she remembered her mother’s used to be, “people believed in the gods. They prayed for good things to come, and for bad things to go away. They made offerings, and in return the gods may give them gifts.”
“Superstitions,” the boy said. He was a couple of years younger, but they looked to be the same height, and they had the same face. “Everyone knows the gods aren’t real.”
“You don’t know that, Kazu,” the girl replied. “And, anyway, you’ve been blessed yourself, with your quick wit and quick hands.” That, she hadn’t heard from their mother. She overheard one of their aunts say so, the last time they visited their nomadic cousins.
“That’s from mom, not from the gods. The gods’ gifts in the stories are different.”
“What kind of gifts?” the other boy asked, eyes wide. This boy was taller than the other two, and gangly, but he sat hunched with his arms hugging his knees, with an expression that seemed younger, somehow.
“Well,” the girl said. “Some were given the gift of words. These people always knew the right thing to say, and could easily get others to do what they want.” She shot the first boy a look. “Some were given the gift of the future. Using tools, they were able to ask the gods about what have yet to come. And some -”
“Don’t listen to Rin, Aiba,” Kazu interrupted again. “The gods aren’t real, and magic gifts don’t exist.”
If the stories were true, then why hadn’t the gods - or their gifts - saved their parents?
})i({
“Kamenashi,” Ninomiya said, as they tried to determine the extent of the prisoner’s injuries.
“What?” Clipped, impatient, but still carrying a hint of respect. Ninomiya admired the windup, really. If all windups were as interesting as Kamenashi and Aiba, then he wouldn’t mind having more windups than people as company. But then he recalled the house of crazy windups that were trying to make Aiba into some sort of god, and figured that perhaps they’re not all that great, either. They were just like people, maybe, except for the fact that they were bound to obey. Not for the first time, he wondered how was it that they were made the way they were. “Ninomiya-sama?”
“Just now,” he said, remembering that he was talking to Kamenashi. “Right before going into the room. I was talking to someone.”
“At least, you were talking…” Kamenashi agreed. “But there wasn’t anyone there.”
“You didn’t hear her?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Either Kamenashi was a good liar, or he was telling the truth. Either way, Nino was relieved. The windup wasn’t going to pry, that much he could tell. “Okay. Fine. Doesn’t matter. We need to get Oguri fixed, before we move on to anything else.”
“He isn’t going to get better unless we get him to a doctor,” Kamenashi reasoned. “And even that would take a couple of weeks before he’s anywhere near well enough for what you need him.”
“I know, you’re right.” Ninomiya made a face. “Should’ve left him in the dungeon.”
Kamenashi raised an eyebrow, and Ninomiya cracked the smallest smile, proving that he hadn’t meant it. He looked like he was about to say something to Nino, but paused. “We’re here,” he announced.
“But there’s no one -” Ninomiya was cut short as two men turned the corner into the hallway they were in. “Late,” was all he said to the men. They looked around as if expecting something more, and Nino straightened up - not an easy thing to do with the weight of Oguri leaning on him. “Toma’s men, I presume.”
“Apologies, Ninomiya-sama,” one of them said. “We were - held up.”
“Now, why couldn’t you be as nice as them?” Ninomiya asked Kamenashi, who pretended not to hear him. “Take him somewhere safe,” Ninomiya instructed Toma’s men. “And what’s the status of the Council members?”
“Everyone were separated into small groups and put in holding rooms at first,” one of them replied. Nino had been introduced to him before, but couldn’t remember his name. “But just about an hour ago the Guards started separating them, and -”
“Ogura’s dead,” the other man said. The first man gave him a quelling look, but he went on, “at the moment Ohtomo’s barely holding on. Matsumoto has been moved to the lower cells.”
“How are they containing this, exactly?”
“They’re not,” the first man said. “The building is blocked off, but there are windup sentries posted all over Milna, and our men are fighting to get to the Council members.”
“Windup sentries,” Ninomiya muttered to himself. “How long has he been planning this?” He shook his head, and regarded the man who reported to him. “And the others?”
“We haven’t located anyone else yet.”
Nino frowned. “Is Aiba working with you?” When they gave him a blank look, he snapped, “the - my windup.”
“Oh. I thought you told him to stay behind.”
“I did. But he’s never been good at listening to me,” Nino replied. “Look, take Oguri-dono out, as planned. Get the word out to the others - if you find Sakurai, watch over him. Don’t let Aiba near him. It’s important.”
“What about you?”
Nino glanced at Kamenashi. “We still have work to do, here.”
“With all due respect, Ninomiya-sama,” one of the men said, hesitantly, as he glanced at Kamenashi. “We would advice you not to work with windups, for now -”
“Yes, yes,” Ninomiya interrupted, impatient. “They’re fighting a war of their own right now, or at least some of them. If you could get Oguri to Rin in time, I don’t think I have to worry about Aiba right now, though, or this guy here.” He eyed Kamenashi. “You’re not going to go psycho on me again, are you?”
“I - uh,” Kamenashi paused, and took in a deep breath. “No. Ninomiya-sama.”
Ninomiya looked annoyed at the way Kamenashi addressed him, but let it go. He turned to Toma’s men. “See? Nothing to worry about. I can handle this one. You guys take Oguri. Follow the plan.” He wasn’t even sure that the plan would work, as sketchy as it was - he knew never to bank on the gods for anything, and the gods’ gifts were probably just the same. But it was all they had, and Rin seemed to think it would work.
He may not trust the gods, but he trusted Rin.
})i({
They weren’t expecting the chaos in the building. They knew that the Council members were being held in separate rooms, and there were Guards everywhere, but it seemed like the place was overrun with windups as well. Aiba couldn’t even begin to imagine where they had come from.
He had only promised Ohno to sneak him in, and felt uneasy about leaving him behind once inside. But he had made sure to drop Ohno off at the closest entrance to where they suspect Jun was being kept. “Please be safe,” he said. “Nino would be mad if I brought you here to get yourself hurt, or worse.”
Ohno’s smile made it seem like he wasn’t worried at all. “I’ll be fine,” Ohno said. “I’ve been living in places like this almost all my life. They won’t even know I’m here.”
Aiba was skeptical, but Ohno insisted that he knew what he was doing, and he had Sho to think of. So he left.
})i({
“What the hell is going on out there?”
Sho tried to listen, but they couldn’t hear anything from within the cell. “War,” he answered Kuroki. “Or something like it.” He was only guessing, since they were held far from where Toma’s men would be coming in from, but after what happened to the Council, he wouldn’t be surprised if it was true. Still, he could almost hear his father’s voice at the back of his mind, derisive.
You don’t know anything about war.
He supposed that his father was right, and he knew that his father would know what to do now, more so than he did. All the training in the Academy - for what? He still couldn’t understand his father’s way of thinking anymore than he had before, and he doubted he ever will.
But his father was gone, and he was there. Doing what, exactly?
As if echoing his thoughts, Kuroki asked, “Then what are we doing in here?”
He understood, and admired her straightforwardness. He had known her for a long time, and knew what she would be thinking. She wanted to be out there, to be fighting, despite the fact that it seemed like no one really knew what was going on anymore. What did he want, and what would be the best action for him to take?
“I don’t know,” he said, and closed his eyes.
})i({
Four windup sentries, two Guards.
Aiba could bypass them, easy. He knew that much. But he didn’t want to, not if there was another choice. He didn’t like how easily his knife - beautifully made, a gift from Oguri-dono when he was still under his compulsion - slid into people, into flesh. He didn’t like how there’s a part of him that seemed to tingle when it happened, because he was doing what he was made for. He didn’t like how he knew that part would always wonder what it would feel like to turn his weapon against Sho.
He hid, and waited.
“Masaki,” a voice said. It felt like a breeze against his neck, cold and biting. “You could finish this.”
No, he thought. I don’t want to.
A world of windups. He could imagine it - how could he not, after spending all that time with Takizawa and Tsubasa? Toma’s men were doomed to fail. There weren’t enough of them. Even the Guards were bolstered by windup sentries; it would be so easy. All he would have to do is to finish what he was supposed to do.
It wouldn’t be a bad thing, maybe. There would be no compulsions in the new world. Just - order. All the windups would be free, finally, with him at their head, and the great goddess by his side. It would be a world of windups, yes. But it would also be a world of gods, again.
There would be no place for humans in that world.
He understood this. It starts with Sho. He would kill the thing that binds him, and the other windups would follow suit.
Easy.
“No,” he said out loud, even though he knew She heard his thoughts.
I will only open the door. He heard the voice in his head this time. You will choose to enter.
He stepped out into the lighted area. The Guards immediately turned to him, but the windups standing with them stopped them before Aiba could say, don’t. Two clear shots rang out; they didn’t need more than that. They moved no further; their faces remain blank. They’re waiting for his orders.
I never wanted this, he thought to the goddess, but She did not reply.
He walked into the room.
})i({
“Sora.”
The windup regarded him quietly.
“Do you know who I am?”
“Ohno-kun,” Sora said. A little of Sho was still there, in the slight exasperation Ohno could hear in Sora’s voice, in the way he addressed Ohno.
He nodded. “I need your help getting into the room at the end of this corridor. Could you do that?”
“Yes.”
“Are you sure?” Sora was left in Yamashita’s office, without any guards. Ohno had to wonder why.
“Yes.”
“Why? Why are you helping me, I mean?”
Sora blinked, confused. “Because you asked me to.”
“Why didn’t you leave this room, when they left you here?”
“Because no one needed me.”
Ohno sighed. Sora definitely wasn’t like Aiba or Kamenashi, he supposed. Yamashita would probably consider him a “well-made” windup. Even if he did seem to answer to just about anyone.
“I have something to confess,” he told Sora. The windup looked at him, waiting. Sora’s face was completely blank. “Your friend… the other windup.”
“He’s dead.”
“Yes.” Ohno paused. “I think - I think I killed him.”
He understood now, some of the things that hadn’t made sense earlier, that he thought had been merely the stuff of nightmares. If Sora could have easily been a replacement of Sho, then the other windup had probably been meant to replace Jun after the Matsumoto massacre. It had been trying to get into Jun’s room, to kill the person it was supposed to replace. But Ohno had been there, outside. Neither of them understood - it couldn’t have known what Jun was to Ohno, and Ohno could only think that it was Jun, trying to kill him. He had killed Jun - or the windup he had thought was Jun - first. And then he had forgotten, refusing to believe that it was real.
He hadn’t wanted to believe that he was capable of hurting Jun, but he was. And it had happened. It didn’t matter that it wasn’t really Jun; he thought it was.
Now he looked at Sora, relieved and anxious to see the soft flicker of emotion in the windup’s eyes.
It took a long time before Sora finally let out an uncharacteristically long breath - Ohno had wondered if Sora breathed at all - and nodded. “I understand,” Sora said.
“Do you?”
“Yes.” Sora turned, then, as if he didn’t want to look at Ohno, or didn’t want Ohno to look at him. “Let’s go.”
})i({
“Sakurai.”
Sho wasn’t asleep, but he was close. When Kuroki called him, his eyes snapped open, to see Aiba leaning over him. “Masaki?”
“Sakurai-sama.”
“I thought I got you to stop calling me that ages ago.”
“Mmm.”
“Are you here to set us free, or not?” Kuroki asked from where she was tied up.
Aiba looked at her. “I don’t know.”
There was something different about Aiba, that Sho couldn’t quite put his finger on. This Aiba was dangerous, a voice inside him seemed to say, but he ignored it as he watched Aiba come closer. Close enough. Too close.
“I missed you,” he said. He smiled a little, because really he hadn’t had much time to miss Aiba. But it was still true, because he always missed Aiba.
It wasn’t a realization that he was comfortable with.
“I’ll miss you,” Aiba murmured. “But I’ve got - I have to. You understand.”
Aiba’s eyes finally met his, then, and Sho understood.
“I do,” he said.
})i({
It’s been almost an hour since Toma’s men took Oguri away. Ninomiya and Kamenashi were still stuck underground, unable to move because of the fighting going on above. He mentally apologized to Sho and Kuroki for not returning as soon as he had made it seem he would be, but it couldn’t be helped. He doubted that he and Kamenashi alone would be able to fight through the Guards above them, and anyway, the whole point was to sneak back into his cell unnoticed.
The fact that Kamenashi seemed to have let some of the recent events sink in only added to the irritation he was feeling. The windup had been staring at him every now and then, before remembering himself and looking away, only to look up again after.
Ninomiya gave an exaggerated sigh, although he only let a trace of his irritation show. “What?” he asked.
Kamenashi was still staring at him. “Who are you?”
Rolling his eyes, Ninomiya just looked up at the low ceilings of the passage they were in. “You’d think that he’d be eager to leave these claustrophobic tunnels, now that we’ve come to set him free.” He was talking about Oguri, who had protested when Toma’s men first wanted to take him away.
“He was tired. And he had no idea what’s going on.”
“Yeah, well, so am I, and I doubt anyone really knows what’s going on.” He thought for a moment of how different life would have been if he had just turned down Ohno Satoshi, like he was supposed to. He knew that Aiba, and Jun and Ohno, and Sho, and even Rin had something that they were fighting for. But all he really wanted was to be back on Rainbow’s End.
“You know who I am,” he finally said to Kamenashi, sounding weary even to himself. “I’m Ninomiya Kazunari. Born to one of the twelve houses of Milna, sure. But really, I’m just a smuggler and a thief.”
“The gods don’t talk to ‘just’ a thief,” Kamenashi said. “They don’t talk to just anyone.”
Ninomiya snorted. “It wasn’t as if she came by for a friendly chat. I guess it must mean that the books were right.” Which would also mean that the plan, as far-fetched as it had seemed, might actually work.
“What books?”
“I’ve been reading up on old stories about windups. It’s funny, isn’t it, that a lot of the books written by specialists focus so much on the making of you, or the history, while glossing over the fact that technically you’re not supposed to be alive.”
Kamenashi’s eyes narrowed. “According to the old religions, but no one really -”
“Really? Who was the one who was awed that the great goddess, psychotic as she was, came to pay us a visit?”
Kamenashi shifted. “You know what I mean.”
“I do.” Ninomiya added, “We say that the old religions are dead, but people still pay tribute at the temples when they pass by. People still keep symbols in their houses - maybe out of habit rather than actually believing in the gods, but. There’s still enough of the old religions left, that a lot of people think windups are wrong.”
“We didn’t ask to be made, you know.” Kamenashi’s voice was soft, subdued.
“I’m not saying you did, or that you shouldn’t be,” Ninomiya said, his irritation starting to make itself known. “I’m just saying, the stories about how windups came to be tend not to focus on the part where your lives come from this gift to, well, make life. So this made a lot of people mad, because people weren’t supposed to play god.”
“But that gift came from the gods, didn’t it?”
“Exactly.” Ninomiya looked pleased, somehow. “So I went through all these records of the old stories, like the ones Aiba liked to collect, to find out more about these gifts. I guess we’re not as ‘favoured’ by the gods as we used to be, because once, there were a lot more people with strange gifts.”
“People like your sister.”
“Rin. Yes.” Ninomiya frowned. Rin had been so reclusive in the times he had last seen her. She seemed to think that they were on the right course, though. “Although back then, the gift of the future was one of the most common.”
“I’m guessing being able to give life is rarer.”
“As is the gift to take it away.”
Kamenashi was staring again, but this time he didn’t mind. His eyes met the windup’s, and he nodded slightly.
“You asked me before why I needed you to locate him so much. Now you know.”
“But -” Ninomiya kept his eyes on Kamenashi. He detected the flash of uncertainty, or perhaps fear, in the windup. He didn’t worry about it, nodding to encourage Kamenashi to continue. “What happens next?”
“How long has it been, since they took him?”
“An hour,” Kamenashi replied, “and twenty-eight minutes.”
“That should be time enough to reach Rin,” Ninomiya said. “So now - we wait.”
~ to be continued ~
Chapter Forty | Chapter Forty-Two
Notes:
To those that commented to the last chapter (waaaay back in January), thank you very much for reading. Honestly I find myself staring at the screen more often than writing these days, so it's really thanks to you guys that I persevered at all <3 This (extremely late, and so very overdue) chapter is for you guys.
If you were reading this fic and are still reading, sorry for the lateness. ;_;