[chaptered] Breaking Zero Kelvin - Chapter 4 (Shooting Stars)
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.
Previous chapters: prologue | 01 | 02 | 03
~
04: Shooting Stars
The crunching footsteps came closer, and a faint flickering light did as well. Kei raised his gun, and it began to glow just as the person’s face came into view, illuminating a tired-looking face twisted into a surly scowl.
“Who’re you?” the stranger growled, eyeing the gun suspiciously. “Why are you taking our water?”
“It’s nobody’s water,” Kei retorted. “It was thrown out here, finders keepers. You don’t look like a dog of Central - who are you?”
“Central?” the other person snorted, lowering his oil lamp a little. “I wouldn’t want anything to do with them, thank you very much.”
Something clicked in Tae’s mind.
“Are you a witch?” she asked in a small voice, and she saw the stranger’s eyebrow quirk upwards in the lamplight.
“…I am,” he said at last, after scrutinizing the both of them as well as Kei’s gun. “Judging by your friend’s gun I guess it’s safe to say that he is one too? Or both of you?”
Nodding tersely, Kei reluctantly lowered the gun, stowing it away back in his pocket.
“I don’t remember seeing you two around before,” the stranger said.
“We’re heading for Salem city, and happened to stop by here today.”
“You’re heading for that airy-fairy place?” A short bark of laughter. “You actually believe it exists?”
Kei simply shrugged.
“Whether it does or not, we keep going. You mean to say you’re hiding out within the district itself? What if you get found?”
“You’ll be surprised by what a haircut, some makeup and a name change can do in this society,” the other person replied dryly. “My foster sister and I have been living in our flat for about six months now, after we were first discovered.”
Giving them another once-over, he turned back around and beckoned over his shoulder.
“You can stay with us until tomorrow night. Shii’ll be delighted to load up a fellow witch with food - we always seem to have more frozen gyoza than either of us can eat.”
~
The night gave way to dawn as they followed the other man back to his apartment, which was a top-floor three-room apartment in a dingy building on the outskirts of the district.
The man rapped on the door in a certain rhythm, and after a short while the door opened a crack to reveal half a face.
“Tai-nii!” gasped the person inside, voice slightly muffled by the door. “Who’re those people behind you?”
“Other witches,” the man replied, pushing open the door. “They’ll be staying here for today - they’re heading for Salem city and I figured it wouldn’t be safe for them to go back to wherever their hideout is for today, since the district will be waking up soon.”
The other inhabitant of the apartment was in fact a woman who looked to be roughly around Tae’s age. She wore an oversized sweater with shorts, and walked around the apartment barefoot.
“I’m Shizuna,” she said happily, sticking out her hand at Tae. “That grumpy guy’s my older brother Taisuke. He wasn’t too rude to you, was he?”
“Not really,” Tae replied, shaking Shizuna’s hand. “He was quite nice, in fact.”
She was interrupted by a snort from Kei, and turned back to roll her eyes at him before facing Shizuna again.
“I’m Tae,” she introduced. “That’s Kei, over there.”
Shizuna’s eyes sparkled, and she smiled at Tae.
“I don’t care what Tai-nii says,” she said in a conspirational whisper to Tae. “I believe Salem city exists. He just doesn’t like the mention of Salem city because his friend left for it a couple of months back despite Tai-nii’s protests, and we haven’t heard from him ever since.”
Tae made a face.
“I imagine it would be quite hard to send letters on the run,” she said dryly, and Shizuna giggled.
“I agree,” she replied, eyes alight with laughter. “Tai-nii’s just…irrational, you know. He was really close to Akira.”
“No gossiping, Shii,” Taisuke scowled, and Shizuna rolled her eyes, sticking out her tongue at the older man.
~
Shizuna showed them their freezer, which - true to Taisuke’s word - was stuffed to the seams with frozen gyoza of all kinds.
“Extra garlic,” Tae read off one of the packets, then replaced it and took out another one. “Jumbo size, pork and cabbage.”
“Where do you get all of these?” Kei asked, goggling at the sheer number of gyoza packets in the freezer.
Shizuna laughed.
“I have a day job at a gyoza shop,” she explained. “It doesn’t do very well so at the end of the day the boss pays me with unsold frozen gyoza.”
“You have a day job?” Kei asked, incredulous. “Aren’t you afraid of being discovered by the witch hunters’ post in this district?”
Shaking his head, Taisuke smiled wryly.
“The Central officials in our district are very lax,” he explained. “They have it on records that we’re witches, but since Central doesn’t ask for photos - they think it’s useless since witches can probably change their appearance anyway - and we changed our names they don’t find out. They don’t do routine inspections or the like, you see.”
“So we’ll be safe here?” Kei asked, and Shizuna nodded.
“You should be,” she said, and Kei sagged in relief.
“Good,” he said. “Do either of you know how to teach someone how to control their powers, though? Tae has no control, and she accidentally fused her fingers together in her sleep, but I have no idea how to teach her.”
Taisuke and Shizuna shared a glance, before Shizuna nodded, turning to face Tae.
“I can teach her while you guys stay here today,” she offered. “I have no work today since it’s a weekend, and you probably won’t want an impatient and grumpy teacher like Tai-nii, right?”
She began to push Tae to another room, leaving Kei and Taisuke behind.
~
“Tae, what kind of power do you have?”
Tae cocked her head, trying to decide how to phrase her answer as Shizuna watched her intently.
“I…can fuse things together,” she said at last, and held up her left hand to show Shizuna an example. “I’ve done it several times before, but each time I had no idea it was happening at all.”
Frowning, Shizuna nodded slowly.
“That tends to happen to new witches. If you don’t control your power, or are not aware of it, it will leak out at random moments and could lead to not-so-pleasant consequences.”
Taking Tae’s hand, she settled down in a cross-legged position and closed her eyes, prompting Tae to do the same.
“Relax,” Shizuna said quietly. “Empty your mind of everything, and just keep breathing slowly. It’s the hardest the first time around, so you need to try your best.”
“Alright,” Tae breathed, trying her best to force herself not to think of anything at all.
“Keep doing that until you become aware of something warm in your chest,” Shizuna continued. “It’ll feel like a flame, or something similar.”
Following Shizuna’s instructions, Tae frowned, trying to locate the aforementioned ball of warmth somewhere inside her chest area. There was no success, and she sat in darkness for a very long time, trying to find what she supposed was her spring of magic power.
In. Out. In. Out.
It took a very long while, but slowly, she became aware of something warm trickling up into her arms from her chest. Her eyes snapped open immediately, and she realized that Shizuna had let go of her hand, but more importantly, her hands were encased in a faint pink glow.
The glow disappeared almost immediately though, and she groaned.
“It’s okay,” said Shizuna encouragingly. “You did pretty well, for a first try. Whenever you want to use your power, just do that, and draw out that warmth into your hands - after that you’ll be able to do whatever you wish. When you learn how to control the amount of power you use, you’ll stop having sudden outbursts of power, and you’ll be able to prevent further accidental use of magic.”
Tae sighed, looking at her joined fingers.
“It takes so long though.”
“You’ll get faster with practice,” Shizuna smiled.
Nodding, Tae sat in silence for a while.
“Are you able to undo what you’ve done with your magic?” she asked finally.
Shizuna thought for a while, and pursed her lips.
“I don’t think so,” she said slowly. “If it’s for your fingers, I’ll say your best bet is to find a witch whose power involves reversing time, or if you’re desperate a witch whose power involves separating things.”
That did not sound promising in any way to Tae, but she figured that it was the best she would get her fingers separated with a method that did not involve having to manually cut her fingers apart.
Shizuna sighed, stretching her legs.
“I’ll go heat up some gyoza,” she said. “You can practice some more, okay?”
~
The door shut behind Shizuna, and then Tae was alone.
Breathe, she told herself, deciding to try again. In her right hand she held two of her practice pebbles, and as she tightened her grip on them she tried to sink back down to find her spring of power again.
Gradually, she began to empty her mind, and as she concentrated, she could feel the warmth in her chest slowly rise up again and twine its way down her arm.
She felt her hand grow warm, and gingerly opened her eye a crack to see a faint pink glow fade away from her fingers, as the tendril of magic retreated back. She slowly uncurled her fingers, to find that the two pebbles had barely joined together. She let them roll off her palm, and watched as the impact on the floor caused them to break apart again.
Well, it’s a start, she thought to herself, picking them up again.
~
Tae sat up with a jolt, wondering why she was in a room of all things, before her memory caught up with her.
I must have fallen asleep, she mused, and opened her palm to look at her practice pebbles. She had managed to fuse them such that they resembled a figure eight, but that much practice had drained her, and she suddenly felt ravenously hungry.
“Is there any food?” she asked, opening the door, only to see Kei sitting on the sofa in the living room.
“They went out,” Kei said in reply to her questioning glance. “She left these for you,” he continued, gesturing at a plate heaped with gyoza and wrapped in cling wrap. “She told me expressly not to do anything except sit here and be a statue so as not to wake you up.”
“Using magic is tiring,” Tae sighed, unwrapping the gyoza and stuffing one straight into her mouth.
“You’ll build up your stamina slowly,” replied Kei. “Just keep practicing.”
Tae scrunched up her nose at him, reaching for another gyoza.
“It’s hard,” she whined at him, and he rolled his eyes, reaching out two fingers to give her a sharp poke to the forehead.
“Deal with it.”
~
Shizuna came back a while later, Taisuke lagging behind due to the fact that he was laden down with two bags holding water and canned foods.
“Oh, you’re awake!” Shizuna said, sounding pleased. “You slept through lunch, you know. I guess you won’t be hungry enough for dinner?”
Having just finished the plate of gyoza, Tae shook her head.
“I’ll watch you eat,” she said, and Taisuke snorted as he began dishing out some sort of canned beef stew and instant rice.
“Hayashi rice?” Kei asked curiously, poking at it. “I haven’t had this in a while.”
“Eat,” muttered Taisuke. “It’s food, don’t question it.”
Tae laughed at Kei’s scowl, making a face at him when he turned around to frown at her.
“You’re leaving tonight, right?” Shizuna spoke up, and Tae’s smile vanished quickly, as the memory of long endless drives in the darkness resurfaced in her mind again.
“Yeah,” she said softly. “We’re leaving tonight.”
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.
Previous chapters: prologue | 01 | 02 | 03
~
04: Shooting Stars
The crunching footsteps came closer, and a faint flickering light did as well. Kei raised his gun, and it began to glow just as the person’s face came into view, illuminating a tired-looking face twisted into a surly scowl.
“Who’re you?” the stranger growled, eyeing the gun suspiciously. “Why are you taking our water?”
“It’s nobody’s water,” Kei retorted. “It was thrown out here, finders keepers. You don’t look like a dog of Central - who are you?”
“Central?” the other person snorted, lowering his oil lamp a little. “I wouldn’t want anything to do with them, thank you very much.”
Something clicked in Tae’s mind.
“Are you a witch?” she asked in a small voice, and she saw the stranger’s eyebrow quirk upwards in the lamplight.
“…I am,” he said at last, after scrutinizing the both of them as well as Kei’s gun. “Judging by your friend’s gun I guess it’s safe to say that he is one too? Or both of you?”
Nodding tersely, Kei reluctantly lowered the gun, stowing it away back in his pocket.
“I don’t remember seeing you two around before,” the stranger said.
“We’re heading for Salem city, and happened to stop by here today.”
“You’re heading for that airy-fairy place?” A short bark of laughter. “You actually believe it exists?”
Kei simply shrugged.
“Whether it does or not, we keep going. You mean to say you’re hiding out within the district itself? What if you get found?”
“You’ll be surprised by what a haircut, some makeup and a name change can do in this society,” the other person replied dryly. “My foster sister and I have been living in our flat for about six months now, after we were first discovered.”
Giving them another once-over, he turned back around and beckoned over his shoulder.
“You can stay with us until tomorrow night. Shii’ll be delighted to load up a fellow witch with food - we always seem to have more frozen gyoza than either of us can eat.”
~
The night gave way to dawn as they followed the other man back to his apartment, which was a top-floor three-room apartment in a dingy building on the outskirts of the district.
The man rapped on the door in a certain rhythm, and after a short while the door opened a crack to reveal half a face.
“Tai-nii!” gasped the person inside, voice slightly muffled by the door. “Who’re those people behind you?”
“Other witches,” the man replied, pushing open the door. “They’ll be staying here for today - they’re heading for Salem city and I figured it wouldn’t be safe for them to go back to wherever their hideout is for today, since the district will be waking up soon.”
The other inhabitant of the apartment was in fact a woman who looked to be roughly around Tae’s age. She wore an oversized sweater with shorts, and walked around the apartment barefoot.
“I’m Shizuna,” she said happily, sticking out her hand at Tae. “That grumpy guy’s my older brother Taisuke. He wasn’t too rude to you, was he?”
“Not really,” Tae replied, shaking Shizuna’s hand. “He was quite nice, in fact.”
She was interrupted by a snort from Kei, and turned back to roll her eyes at him before facing Shizuna again.
“I’m Tae,” she introduced. “That’s Kei, over there.”
Shizuna’s eyes sparkled, and she smiled at Tae.
“I don’t care what Tai-nii says,” she said in a conspirational whisper to Tae. “I believe Salem city exists. He just doesn’t like the mention of Salem city because his friend left for it a couple of months back despite Tai-nii’s protests, and we haven’t heard from him ever since.”
Tae made a face.
“I imagine it would be quite hard to send letters on the run,” she said dryly, and Shizuna giggled.
“I agree,” she replied, eyes alight with laughter. “Tai-nii’s just…irrational, you know. He was really close to Akira.”
“No gossiping, Shii,” Taisuke scowled, and Shizuna rolled her eyes, sticking out her tongue at the older man.
~
Shizuna showed them their freezer, which - true to Taisuke’s word - was stuffed to the seams with frozen gyoza of all kinds.
“Extra garlic,” Tae read off one of the packets, then replaced it and took out another one. “Jumbo size, pork and cabbage.”
“Where do you get all of these?” Kei asked, goggling at the sheer number of gyoza packets in the freezer.
Shizuna laughed.
“I have a day job at a gyoza shop,” she explained. “It doesn’t do very well so at the end of the day the boss pays me with unsold frozen gyoza.”
“You have a day job?” Kei asked, incredulous. “Aren’t you afraid of being discovered by the witch hunters’ post in this district?”
Shaking his head, Taisuke smiled wryly.
“The Central officials in our district are very lax,” he explained. “They have it on records that we’re witches, but since Central doesn’t ask for photos - they think it’s useless since witches can probably change their appearance anyway - and we changed our names they don’t find out. They don’t do routine inspections or the like, you see.”
“So we’ll be safe here?” Kei asked, and Shizuna nodded.
“You should be,” she said, and Kei sagged in relief.
“Good,” he said. “Do either of you know how to teach someone how to control their powers, though? Tae has no control, and she accidentally fused her fingers together in her sleep, but I have no idea how to teach her.”
Taisuke and Shizuna shared a glance, before Shizuna nodded, turning to face Tae.
“I can teach her while you guys stay here today,” she offered. “I have no work today since it’s a weekend, and you probably won’t want an impatient and grumpy teacher like Tai-nii, right?”
She began to push Tae to another room, leaving Kei and Taisuke behind.
~
“Tae, what kind of power do you have?”
Tae cocked her head, trying to decide how to phrase her answer as Shizuna watched her intently.
“I…can fuse things together,” she said at last, and held up her left hand to show Shizuna an example. “I’ve done it several times before, but each time I had no idea it was happening at all.”
Frowning, Shizuna nodded slowly.
“That tends to happen to new witches. If you don’t control your power, or are not aware of it, it will leak out at random moments and could lead to not-so-pleasant consequences.”
Taking Tae’s hand, she settled down in a cross-legged position and closed her eyes, prompting Tae to do the same.
“Relax,” Shizuna said quietly. “Empty your mind of everything, and just keep breathing slowly. It’s the hardest the first time around, so you need to try your best.”
“Alright,” Tae breathed, trying her best to force herself not to think of anything at all.
“Keep doing that until you become aware of something warm in your chest,” Shizuna continued. “It’ll feel like a flame, or something similar.”
Following Shizuna’s instructions, Tae frowned, trying to locate the aforementioned ball of warmth somewhere inside her chest area. There was no success, and she sat in darkness for a very long time, trying to find what she supposed was her spring of magic power.
In. Out. In. Out.
It took a very long while, but slowly, she became aware of something warm trickling up into her arms from her chest. Her eyes snapped open immediately, and she realized that Shizuna had let go of her hand, but more importantly, her hands were encased in a faint pink glow.
The glow disappeared almost immediately though, and she groaned.
“It’s okay,” said Shizuna encouragingly. “You did pretty well, for a first try. Whenever you want to use your power, just do that, and draw out that warmth into your hands - after that you’ll be able to do whatever you wish. When you learn how to control the amount of power you use, you’ll stop having sudden outbursts of power, and you’ll be able to prevent further accidental use of magic.”
Tae sighed, looking at her joined fingers.
“It takes so long though.”
“You’ll get faster with practice,” Shizuna smiled.
Nodding, Tae sat in silence for a while.
“Are you able to undo what you’ve done with your magic?” she asked finally.
Shizuna thought for a while, and pursed her lips.
“I don’t think so,” she said slowly. “If it’s for your fingers, I’ll say your best bet is to find a witch whose power involves reversing time, or if you’re desperate a witch whose power involves separating things.”
That did not sound promising in any way to Tae, but she figured that it was the best she would get her fingers separated with a method that did not involve having to manually cut her fingers apart.
Shizuna sighed, stretching her legs.
“I’ll go heat up some gyoza,” she said. “You can practice some more, okay?”
~
The door shut behind Shizuna, and then Tae was alone.
Breathe, she told herself, deciding to try again. In her right hand she held two of her practice pebbles, and as she tightened her grip on them she tried to sink back down to find her spring of power again.
Gradually, she began to empty her mind, and as she concentrated, she could feel the warmth in her chest slowly rise up again and twine its way down her arm.
She felt her hand grow warm, and gingerly opened her eye a crack to see a faint pink glow fade away from her fingers, as the tendril of magic retreated back. She slowly uncurled her fingers, to find that the two pebbles had barely joined together. She let them roll off her palm, and watched as the impact on the floor caused them to break apart again.
Well, it’s a start, she thought to herself, picking them up again.
~
Tae sat up with a jolt, wondering why she was in a room of all things, before her memory caught up with her.
I must have fallen asleep, she mused, and opened her palm to look at her practice pebbles. She had managed to fuse them such that they resembled a figure eight, but that much practice had drained her, and she suddenly felt ravenously hungry.
“Is there any food?” she asked, opening the door, only to see Kei sitting on the sofa in the living room.
“They went out,” Kei said in reply to her questioning glance. “She left these for you,” he continued, gesturing at a plate heaped with gyoza and wrapped in cling wrap. “She told me expressly not to do anything except sit here and be a statue so as not to wake you up.”
“Using magic is tiring,” Tae sighed, unwrapping the gyoza and stuffing one straight into her mouth.
“You’ll build up your stamina slowly,” replied Kei. “Just keep practicing.”
Tae scrunched up her nose at him, reaching for another gyoza.
“It’s hard,” she whined at him, and he rolled his eyes, reaching out two fingers to give her a sharp poke to the forehead.
“Deal with it.”
~
Shizuna came back a while later, Taisuke lagging behind due to the fact that he was laden down with two bags holding water and canned foods.
“Oh, you’re awake!” Shizuna said, sounding pleased. “You slept through lunch, you know. I guess you won’t be hungry enough for dinner?”
Having just finished the plate of gyoza, Tae shook her head.
“I’ll watch you eat,” she said, and Taisuke snorted as he began dishing out some sort of canned beef stew and instant rice.
“Hayashi rice?” Kei asked curiously, poking at it. “I haven’t had this in a while.”
“Eat,” muttered Taisuke. “It’s food, don’t question it.”
Tae laughed at Kei’s scowl, making a face at him when he turned around to frown at her.
“You’re leaving tonight, right?” Shizuna spoke up, and Tae’s smile vanished quickly, as the memory of long endless drives in the darkness resurfaced in her mind again.
“Yeah,” she said softly. “We’re leaving tonight.”