[Multi-chapter] Oretachi no chikara (22/23)
Title: Oretachi no chikara (Our power)
Authors: syunikiss1990 & tsuchi8562
Beta & Plot Bunny: yuuki_saya As always - Thanks a lot!
Pairing: SakurAiba, MatsuMiya, Ohno
Genre: Fantasy, AU, Romance
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: We own only the plot… And maybe the machine, but we still negotiating that matter…
*MASTERPOST*
The sound of the shot sounded in the room and Masaki held his breath. He was waiting for certain death and prayed inside that Sho will be safe. He expected the pain, but that didn’t come, everything seemed to happen in slow motion. The president shot, Aiba noticed that Jun threw some shiny object, big blast exploded in the air, but he didn’t feel anything. Could it be possible that his beloved man covered him and he’s the one that is dead? The leader of the poor district pushed Sakurai away and looked at him with fright in his eyes.
“Are you OK, Sho-chan?” He whispered huskily touching his lover’s face. The older man just nodded and pulled Masaki, who in seconds was standing behind the president’s son’s back. He watched carefully the intruder, that was rubbing his wrist and cursing quietly. Next to him, there was the gun shooting with electric charge laying on the floor and a metal plate brought earlier by Ohno. The old man didn’t move an inch, observing all five men and finally spoke:
“If you surrender peacefully, I promise that I won’t hurt you. Of course four of you will be put in prison for betraying the City Council, you will have a trial and you will be convicted, but I can assure you that if you cooperate, the sentence will be lenient.”
“Father… What are you talking about? Four of us?” Sho’s voice trembled, while he was trying to become bigger and cover the taller man better.
“You forgot about our deal? You said that you won’t see that man again, and I promised that I won’t touch him. You broke the promise, so the deal’s off. Law is law, and that… mendicant kidnapped you, sneaked into the palace, stole the batteries and now he is trying to destroy the order. As far as you will be accused of betrayal, he has far too many sins.”
“We just want to help the people from the poor district…” Aiba said calmly, but the rage rose in him with every breath he took. “Those are your people also; don’t you want to make their lives easier? We don’t have medicines, we can’t eat meat, ice creams, we can’t read books at night… We are your people!”
“Silence!!!” The president shouted, lifting his hand up. “You know perfectly that the Council can’t give you the power! We don’t have enough of it!”
“Then let us build a machine that will give the poor district electricity…” Sho knelt and bowed deeply. “Please!”
The silence that filled the room was broke by few quiet cracking sounds coming from above. Masaki noticed some dust on his beloved man’s back as he tried to pull Sakurai back up. Sho’s father didn’t say a word; he just took the gun from the floor and looked at it. It seemed that it still needs a while to recharge, because the president sighed and said with really bored voice.
“It’s no use, son. I am the prosecutor, the judge and the executioner. Step aside.”
“No! I won’t let you, you have to kill me first! Father…” The president’s son paused, looking at Masaki and the rest of his friends. “Why don’t you understand? Those are your people, the people that want to live a normal life, we have a chance to give them that… Everyone will be equal…”
“You sound like exactly your mother… Naive and silly. The power is for the people who can handle this responsibility. Now move aside or I will shoot you along with that man.” The old man took few steps towards his son and the leader of poor district.
“Father… Please, see it through my eyes…” Sho said when the sounds became louder and a big rotten, wooden bar fell with noise just in front of young Sakurai’s feet.
***
“Watch out!” the moment another big piece fell down from the roof Sho wanted to jump forward to push his father away but Masaki held him tight, making him unable to do so. The president collapsed to the ground, screaming loudly. Other pieces from the ceiling started to fell down and if the man next to him wouldn’t have pulled him away, Sakurai would have gotten hit by some of them too. When it finally looked like everything stopped falling apart he rushed forward to his father, getting him out from under some parts that were covering the man. But he couldn’t remove the big bar across the man’s stomach and Sho didn’t need to look closely to see the situation was extremely dangerous. The president had his eyes closed but Sakurai could see he was still breathing shallow. Carefully he lifted the man a bit up, using his own body to support his father’s torso.
“Father, please say something.”
“Sho, I’m sorry.” The president opened his eyes and coughed out some blood which Sho whipped away with his sleeve. “I thought I was the only one who could handle the power, be responsible for it but look at me now” he laughed at the ironic situation but right after his face filled with pain.
“I wish I could understand everything, but my head won’t let me, my stupid pride makes me unable to do so. Your mother had the same dream as you five have, but she got ill and I blamed everything on the worries that the poor district had caused her. When I saw you like this, heard you were with someone from the poor district I got so afraid that I would loose you to them. Just like it felt I had lost your mother to them.” The man closed his eyes for a moment, somehow looking a lot older and very tired. But unlike Sho had expected his father didn’t open his eyes again this time. Gently he moved his body a bit, trying to wake his father up again but he could see it was useless.
“Ohno-sensei, please do something!” The healer who hadn’t said a thing for all this time slowly came closer and checked the president. Sakurai didn’t like the frown that was on the man’s face and he knew what he was going to say before he heard the words out loud.
“I’m sorry. I…I can’t do anything to save him” broken down Sho started to cry uncontrollably. Even though he had feared his father, hated him for what he had done, he still was his father. After the last confession of the man he knew the reason why the man had always acted like this, out of love for his son. This shouldn’t have been the way how it ended, not before Sho had told his father how he really felt, not before he had really talked to the man for one last time.
“Why didn’t you say anything sooner? I would have tried to make you listen until you finally did if you just had told me anything. It didn’t have to end like this” his father started to feel heavier as the last bit of life left his body. Sho grabbed the man even tighter, still not able to understand what had happened and why it did have to go like this. When he looked up to the sky that was now visible from the inside of the shelter he realized two things that made him feel even worse. The sky was heavily clouded, just now when they needed the sun to get the machine working. But it was something else that made it almost impossible for him to breath: his father’s death meant he was the president of the rich district now.
***
Masaki came closer to his beloved man and put hand on his shoulder. It was painful to watch at crying Sho; he wanted to comfort him in any possible way, but he was fully aware that there are no words that can ease his pain right now. He had lost his father too, so he understood the feelings very well. Sometimes being there for beloved person in silence is enough. It seemed that not all things had fallen from the ceiling, because some new cracking sounds could be heard in the shed. Aiba predicted that something can happen, so he tried to pull Sakurai away, but he couldn’t do it. The taller man stuck to Sho’s back just few seconds before the last part of wooden bar fell, hitting the leader’s back with a thump.
“Masaki, are you OK?!” The new President asked with breaking voice.
“I’m fine, it’s nothing. Come on; let’s go outside before the whole thing will collapse.” Aiba helped the older man to get up and soon they were standing in front of the building. Shortly after that Ninomiya, Jun and Ohno joined them, looking in the sky with concern.
“Clouds are thick today… Maybe we should postpone that till tomorrow? We shouldn’t have any problems from the rich district, right, Sakurai-taichou?” Kazunari asked politely, what made Sakurai hiss. The taller man wanted to say something, but Masaki interrupted him, holding his hand.
“No, Ninomiya-san, we have to do this today. It’s important! We will wait for the sun!” Aiba said firmly and turned around to see his beloved man’s face. It was wet from tears and Sho’s eyes were expressing suffering mixed with anger and the younger man would do anything to make that disappear, but the only thing he could do was to hug the man in front of him. He embraced Sakurai, who was trembling and had his hands clenched in fists along his body. They both were standing without a move and Masaki forgot about the ache he felt in his back with every breath. Probably Ohno noticed that something’s wrong, because he came closed and touched his friend, what made Aiba groan from pain.
“As I expected, you have broken ribs. Do you feel the stinging while breathing?”
“N-no…”
“Good, that means that the bones didn’t pierce the lungs. But I have to check that, so let’s go back to my home.” The healer was about to go when the taller man stopped him.
“Satoshi-kun, I am fine. Please, let’s wait a bit longer. The sun will come out from those darn clouds! Please, just a bit more.” The leader of the poor district seemed to be serious. Ohno didn’t have a choice, knowing how stubborn his friend could be, so he just went back to the shed and checked the machine and the radio Kazunari had brought to check if the device is working. Meanwhile Jun tried to persuade Sakurai to change his mind about the machine. It seemed that whole day will be cloudy, and waiting for the sun was useless. However Masaki still claimed that they will succeed.
In the mean time Ninomiya was arguing with the new President. Aiba couldn’t understand clearly what was it all about, but he heard the last sentence, that was shouted by Sho:
“That freaking sun will come out sooner or later and I won’t move until that machine will work! And stop calling me taichou!” It seemed that the vice-president acknowledged the death of Sakurai’s father and he simply accepted Sho as the heir. As if the clouds were afraid of the screams, they slowly started to move away and warm light smiled gently to five men gathered in the forest. Without wasting their time for thinking they brought the machine out and put it on the sunniest place and waited. Minutes seemed to be hours and they were slowly losing hope that it’ll work, but fortunately at last the Magenthium Peroxidile started to illuminate shyly with red light. At first it was barely noticeable, but with passing time the mineral was brighter and brighter, until it released a strong red beam into the sky and some quiet mechanical sounds could be heard. The vice-president brought the radio and soon soft song filled their ears. It was probably the most beautiful music they heard in their lives.
***
The light that came off the machine could be seen through the whole city. From both the districts, rich and poor, people came out of their houses, looking at the red beam. In the rich district people just stared at the light in silence, wondering what was happening. It was a little boy who broke the silence with a scream, pointing at the lights on the street. Normally the streetlights would be off during the day and give only a dim glow during the night, but now they were shining bright and stronger than they had ever done. The curiosity about what was happening turned into fear. Fear that the red beam meant that the last day had come, that the people of the other district had found a way to destroy the last machine which was in the palace. A few brave men stood up, talked to the crowd that if they wouldn’t do something now their lives as they had been living would be destroyed. With those men up front almost everyone of the rich district started to march to the red light.
At the same time the people of the poor district were filled with joy. To them the red beam was everything they had waited for. They saw it as the light that would give them hope, it would change everything. Already different rumours came up, one even more heroic or bizarre then the other. A lot of people started to gather and slowly made their way to the place where the light was coming from.
The five men that had built the machine couldn't do anything else then just stare at the radio that had started to play. Tears of joy filled their eyes as they realized everything worked as it should be and that this would mean everything would change.
"We did it" Ninomiya softly whispered, repeating the words a bit louder each time until he was almost screaming them. In his excitement he hugged Jun tightly and kissed him like there was no tomorrow. Ohno just kept staring at the machine with his mouth wide open, still not able to fully grab the situation. The only one who wasn't fully filled with joy was the brand new president. Sure, he was extremely happy they finally got the machine working and that the wall could finally disappear, but the death of his father made him unable to enjoy it to the fullest. Beside him Masaki didn't say anything; he just pulled the older man in a warm embrace. They just stayed like that until a lot of voices around them filled the air.
Around the open place in the edge of the forest where the shelter had been a lot of people had gathered. The people from both districts were standing side by side but looked at each other with distrust in their eyes. A lot of people were staring at the five men who were standing next to each other and the others were asking each other what was going on, but no one could seem to give an answer to that. After a while there was some shuffling around in the crowd as some of the palace guards tried to get through.
"Ninomiya-sama, have you seen Sakurai-taicho?" The captain of the guards stepped out of the crowd. He looked like he had rushed over to the place as fast as he could as he was still breathing a bit irregular. Kazunari smiled and grabbed Sho by his wrist, pulling him forward.
"Here he is" everyone fell silent. When no one spoke for a while Sho decided to speak up and explain the situation since the vice-president didn't made an attempt to do so.
"My father died in an accident this morning. Seeing I'm his only son I'll take over his position as president." The captain of the guards looked at him with disbelieve in his eyes, but he quickly bowed when he saw both Sho and Kazunari were serious.
"Taicho, a problem occurred in the machine room. The machine seems to be working different than usual. It is almost like it is stronger." Sho could barely hold his cheer inside and he heard surprised but cheery gasps behind him. This could only mean the two machines were working perfectly together, even better than they had hoped for. Around them people started to talk to each other again, filling the air with surprised mumbling. Sakurai asked the guards to get everyone silent again, using the moment were almost everyone had gathered to make his first official announcement. When everyone was silent again he cleared his throat.
"I would like to use this moment to say something everyone must know. As the new president I would like to change some things. You have noticed the red light coming from behind us and we are happy to tell you that we managed to built a machine that will be able, in combination with the old one, to give the whole city electricity" he waited until the people around them had calmed down again. Cheers had filled the air, mostly from the people of the poor district since the ones from the rich district were a bit confused with this news.
"Therefore I would like for us, for everyone, to live side by side, without a wall that divides us into two. Let's work together to make this possible. But for now, let's celebrate this moment with each other" another loud cheer filled the air, but this time it came from everyone from both districts. The people from the rich district realized they wouldn’t have to live in fear anymore, the fear that one day the people of the other district would try to take over. The fear that they would loose their precious energy. At the same time the people from the poor district couldn’t be happier. Their days of living in the dark would finally end. After this they could finally get electricity to keep their food from rotting fast, to leave a light on in their children’s bedroom when they would be afraid of the dark. But one thought filled everyone’s head, whether he or she came from the rich or poor district, which made everything even more exciting; this finally meant the silent war would be over.