JUN
July 2009. Tokyo, Japan
They must have been screaming--the fire surely was roaring--yet the world was muted as he watched the dark figures be consumed by the blaze. They danced in pain until, finally, they fell dead into the ash. Somehow, through the billowing smoke and flashing light, he could see her on the hill above them, surveying the carnage; waiting to slaughter anyone who lived. Above her those damned birds circled, their figures obfuscating the stars and breaking her silhouette. He picked a bow and a pair of arrows from one of the silver-tabarded soldiers littering the ground beneath his feet.
She screamed as they fell.
He charged across the embers, to where she still crouched over their bodies, tears streaked down her soot-smeared face. Somehow she’d gotten a sword, and she met his attack with the flat of it.
Strike after strike rang through the air, clear as a bell. The only other sounds that registered to him were the panting of their breaths and the crunch of ash and bone beneath their feet. Fire raged in his veins. She could have killed him at any second, and they both knew it. She could have, should have, killed him with the others below.
That she wanted to--she wished she had--blazed in her eyes, and radiated from her skin. Her lips moved, a whisper lost beneath the clang of steel upon steel.
Ducking the next strike, he whirled and slashed her thigh. He stood over her and allowed her to push herself up. The wound on her thigh was bleeding freely--it’d cut deep; deep enough to cripple her, probably. All around her, her aura seethed red. He lifted his sword as she lifted her hand. A spark of fire ignited her palm.
The loam beneath him smelt heavy of earth and rain. He breathed in the deep scent of it and then lifted himself from the bed of ferns. Spring was in full bloom throughout the meadow; flowers opened, and bees buzzed, and a nest of song birds warbled out a simple song. Jun sat in the middle, upon ash-stained knees, and admired nature’s beauty with a sense of awe. He had never seen anything so picturesque outside of a painting.
A fawn ventured from the woods, its ears twitching for sounds of danger. As he watched, it lowered its head to nibble at the flora.
Lightning cracked above. When he looked up he saw a rolling mass of clouds obliterating the sky. Jun backed away into the woods, turned, and began to run as the wind picked through the canopy above. The fawn stayed as it was, guarding the meadow.
Rain soon began to fall, though it was light beneath the cover of the trees. He could hear the wind howling without, and the further he went into the forest the darker that everything became. Cold, tired, and dirty, he stumbled over a log and fell to his knees in the mud of a creek bed. It was slowly flooding, and something told him that he didn’t want to stay long in the ravine. Jun caught the roots of a tree and pulled himself up the other side just before a rush of water came roaring through the stream.
Panting, he climbed up onto wobbly legs and stumbled away. Willing himself to run once more, his heart trembled at the clap of thunder from above, and water lashed into his face. It should have been welcome after the fire, but it wasn’t. These elements would just as soon kill him.
He didn’t notice that he’d reached the treeline until he found himself skidding to a halt at the edge of a cliff. Waves crashed against the rocks below, and his arms windmilled like a cartoon character’s--suddenly those didn’t seem so funny anymore.
The earth gave way under his foot and he fell. Any scream that may have come was torn away by the wind, but then a hand caught his.
“Climb!” Jun looked up to see a dark headed boy above him, laying against the ground and trying to pull him up by shirt and wrist. He kicked at the cliff’s edge, scrambling for purchase, and finally reached up high enough with his other hand to catch at his saviour. With a grunt, the older boy hauled Jun back up the cliff until they collapsed together.
The boy’s eyes were green, like the very grass they laid upon, and he watched Jun with surprise. Yes, that was definitely what it was--surprise...and recognition.
They often shared these moments, but never before about the prince. Jun tore his eyes from his brother’s, though he hardly dare look back to the dais above them. His royal highness was in a foul temper, as he often was these days. It hurt too much to look at the inky blackness surrounding the one that they had once called “brother;” hurt more than even the sneers with which he now regarded them all.
“He hates us,” he whispered, and hoped that the prince had not heard him.
“Obviously, I have spoiled you with informality,” said the prince, “From this moment on you will respect your station and mine. We are not equals, nor have we ever have been.”
Thunder boomed overhead, jolting them each from their reverie. They scrambled to their feet, and the green-eyed boy went running back for the forest. “Hey!” Jun’s cry was in vain--the boy just kept running and didn’t look back. The sky still grumbling above, Jun took off after him but it was no use. In a matter of moments the boy was gone, as though he’d never existed.
Jun no longer felt whatever it was that had urged him to run. Eventually, he found his way back to the meadow. The fawn raised its head as he returned, seemingly undisturbed by anything that had happened. Falling down into the ferns, Jun soon allowed sleep to claim him.
Being shaken from his bed before the sun rose was something he’d never liked and had tried not to encouraged among his friends, though they’d done it many times in pursuit of midnight shenanigans. This time it was his cousin who stood over him, his fair curls fanned out about him like a wild thing and his formal attire thrown onto his person with obvious haste. A rainbow of emotion swirled about him, thick enough in some places that it blotted out his form entirely.
“What’s happened?” Jun tumbled from the bed and found his pants.
“Exactly what we thought would happen,” said his cousin, pursing his thin lips. He moved to the window and pushed aside the curtain to reveal the thin crescent moon above. Jun spat a curse, and pulled his shirt over his head. In a matter of moments he had found his belt and scabbard, tugged on his boots, and together they snuck out the corridor to the back servant’s stair.
Thin branches pulled at his clothes and hair, and he could feel spiders crawling over his body. There must be snakes in this forest, and wolves, and demons. It was not a place for anyone, much less princes of the blood, to be bandying about in the middle of the night. Certainly not with that thing.
He could feel his cousin nearby; hear him curse softly at the traces of the prince’s power felt lingering all around them. The very forest moved to cover the familiar path they tread, and it was only by the grace of their blood the flora did not go so far as to hurt them.
Even so, the further that they struggled the more active the plant life became. A thorny vine wrapped itself about his ankle--roses, he thought as he hacked it away. Had it not been for his leather boots, the thorns may have pierced his skin. Jun blanched to think of what might happen to anyone else that dared try this path.
Another caught his arm. He hissed and cut it away, but another got his leg. Then another, then another. Heart racing, he struggled to knock them aside, but still they came. Pulling his legs from the trap, Jun tried in vain to run. Another tug at his ankle, and he fell, screaming as he tumbled down the hillside.
Coughing, hacking, Jun wiped the soot from his eyes with a dirty sleeve, then looked up to find himself laying beneath an orchard of blackened apple trees. The fruits sprawled beneath the grizzled trunks, mostly charred, some squashed, and all rotted. He brushed bits of mud and mashed apple off onto his pants as he stood up.
“Cuz?” There was no sign of the other boy, and when Jun turned to look at the cliff behind him he found only a hillside. He hesitated but a moment before climbing to the top of it.
The field was a wasteland of embers, as though some great god had cut a path through the earth. Some fires still roared, fueled by piles of soldiers and animals. Jun pressed a hand to his mouth and half ran, half stumbled back down the hill. There was a river just beyond the orchard, and though it was swollen and rapid with rains, he fell to his knees beside it to puke.
When he was done, he washed his face and cleansed his mouth, though the water tasted more like mud. There was a rustle behind him--fabric.
Every muscle in his body tensed as the heat was sucked from the air. He trembled as he rose to his feet, one hand inching toward his scabbard.
Jun whirled and met her frosted eyes. She laid on the ground, spilled where she’d fallen like a broken doll, though her arms reached forward as if to grasp him still. He walked forward and pulled his sword from her stomach. His hands hurt, and he was surprised to find them covered in a thin layer of ice.
The river rose up and slapped him. He tumbled backward into the dark waters as the breath was wrenched from his body, suffocating and toxic. There were hands wrapped about his throat, slender and hard. He kicked and kicked to no avail. The world grew dark.
With a gasp he wrenched himself up out of the ferns, clawing at his neck.
Something nuzzled his ear, and Jun scrambled backward from it until his mind registered that it was only the fawn. He was back in the meadow, he realized, and wondered if he’d ever really left. “Just a dream.” But was it?
Looking up at the sky above, it was still covered in thick thunderheads, broken only by patches of crimson and orange. Thunderheads, he thought, or smoke?
Before he could get up, the fawn laid its head in his lap. Jun petted its head and squeezed his eyes shut. There was a whispering without, from the forest. Turning his head to the side, he could just make out the form of a person--a woman?--walking within the trees. “Hello?”
No one answered. The hairs stood on the back of his neck and he gripped the fawn close.
Something moved behind him, but did not bring the same presence of warning with it. Footsteps and the whisper of cloth through the ferns, and then someone sat beside him.
The silhouette turned toward them and he hissed a warning. It watched them for a long moment, staring from the darkness; he scarcely dared to breath. “What--” Jun reached back and grabbed the person’s hand, hissing another warning. The fawn, too, looked up now. Together they watched as the blackness stared at them.
Finally it turned away, and melted back into the void. Jun let out a shaky breath. Freeing his hand from the other boy’s, he reached forward to scratch behind the fawn’s ears.
“Where are we?”
“I don’t know,” said Jun, after turning just enough to be certain that it was his cousin beside him. Those familiar green eyes said it all, and with that assured Jun looked down at his fawn.
“I don’t know either.” The boy shifted. “There was burning.”
His fist closed tight as his stomach clenched. With a grunt, Jun doubled in on himself. For a moment the world was naught but pain, and he cried out. When his vision cleared, his cousin and the fawn had gone, as had the meadow. He laid upon the cold, hard ground and stared up at the clear stars above.
Pulling himself up into a sitting position, Jun found that he was sitting on a parapet that overlooked the ruined land below. The fires had gone cold, but the scar of ash still laid across the fields. Further south, the river had spilled from its confines and run through the town; bits of houses still bobbed in the water. For all this destruction, the world was strangely quiet.
“Why did they do this?”
Jun looked beside him to find the green-eyed boy from earlier. His hair was riddled with leaves and limbs, and his clothes torn and stained with everything from ash to mud. Though he knew that he must not look much better, but it was still a strange sight to see.
Turning back to the massacre below, Jun shook his head. “I don’t know.”
They stood there together for a long while, until Jun began to wonder why the sun had yet to dawn. Then the boy grabbed his shoulder. “What do you think that is?”
The boy pointed out to the hillside where a light had been lit. It was just a sparkling dot in the distance, and for all that Jun knew it could be that witch again. Something in this felt different, though, and he frowned. “I think it’s important,” he said after a moment.
“Yeah, me too.”
They turned as one for the stair, somehow knowing where it was. The corkscrew staircase was pitch black beneath their feet, and the steps uneven and steep, yet they found their way as though they were born to it. With one hand against the wall to steady himself, Jun raced down behind the other boy as his heart began to beat a tantrum in his throat.
His cousin burst from the stairwell before him, and he followed the boy--a man, now--out into the audience chamber. The king was upon his throne, blue and darkness swirling about his bowed head. The queen sat beside him, her aura mingling with his own. For this Jun was shocked, though he dared not let that be seen.
Kneeling in his place beside his brothers, he managed to briefly catch one of the other’s eyes, a green-eyed man with dark hair and a serious face. They shared something, then, an understanding that passed through Jun’s body like a bolt of lightning. The queen should have been celebrating this victory--shouldn’t she?
The king rose to his feet and lifted his chin. A single flash of red swirled about him, but it faded as soon as it had been. “As you are all surely aware by now, my--the prince has fled. He has turned traitor and put his lot in with our enemies. Let his name be blackened from our records and our hearts, his claim upon our throne rendered invalid, and life forfeit should he ever step foot upon these sacred grounds again.
“They rally their armies against us, now. We will do no less than the same. Send for the heralds and call my lords and their men.”
The king’s eyes lowered as deep sapphire blue all but blotted out his physical form. “I trust you will fulfill your duty.”
“Yes, my Liege,” the eldest of them said. The others followed suit, Jun in kind, but there was no joy from any of them. The king reclaimed his seat as his wife took his arm to ease him into it. She looked up, then, her purple eyes roaming over the gathered generals. Jun watched the blues and reds that danced about her figure, and wondered how he had ever misread her.
“She’s a menace,” said a voice behind him. He turned and found the elder of their lot pacing in front of his sitting room fireplace. The man was impressive, Jun had to admit: tall, broad shouldered and cut, with a shock of white hair and cold grey eyes. He had his arms crossed behind his back and he scowled at the carpet as he paced, as though it owed him an answer.
Jun’s cousin sat on a nearby couch, arms splayed over the back of it and head lolled backward. He may have been asleep but for the alert swirls of pink and maroon flickering about his person. A tapping noise got Jun’s attention and he turned to see the brunet sitting backward at the desk chair, fingers drumming along the wood of it. The man’s grass-green eyes rose to his and they shared a thought: their leader’s agitation was well deserved.
“Maybe,” his cousin said and sighed. Before he could be rounded on, he held up a staying hand. “Hear me out. I won’t deny that her presence...confuses matters. It does in spades and it’ll send us all into early deaths, I’m sure of it. But is there any real harm in letting them have their fun? The more that we push against it, the worse he’s going to get. You know how he is.”
“Zoi’s right.” Jun paused, startled at the name but sure that it was--partially--right. He hastened on before the monster rounded upon him instead, “He won’t listen to any of us if we present ourselves as enemies. We’ll win more flies with honey.”
The white haired man frowned at the pair of them, then his eyes fell on their silent brother.
“They’re right,” he said and shrugged. “I like it no more than you do, but unless we play along...”
Sinking into a nearby seat, the man put his face into his hands and took a deep breath. Blue tendrils laced about him, weaving through his hair and around his eyes. Eventually he nodded, and they rose to leave him, assured now of their course.
“I don’t like this.”
They crouched behind the rose bushes as they spied upon the lovers, each feeling as much shame as the other and acutely aware that fact; it didn’t make either feel any better. Jun rubbed his hands together and breathed fog upon them.
Across the meadow was a derelict pavilion, by the lake shore, which had been used by barbarians of old to worship their moon gods. He supposed that was exactly what was going on now, save that the girl was not a goddess and their prince was not a barbarian. Yet, anyway. Jun rubbed his nose and shivered. “When did it get to be so blasted cold out here?”
Freezing steel was pressed to the back of his neck. It didn’t cut, but it could have, and he froze. His companion turned, one hand reaching for his scabbard. An arrow buried itself in the ground beside his hand.
“Turn,” said the person behind him--a woman. Jun did, slowly, until he could see them.
Above him stood a girl in blue; her uniform was trimmed in blue, her hair was the colour of frost, and her eyes as cold as the Arctic ice. He had known them last frozen in death, but she was very much alive here. Behind her, just barely visible in a tree, was the fire witch. Such short skirts and bows would have been laughable on any other warriors, yet these two sent chills of terror down his spine.
They exchanged a few words in a foreign tongue, then the arrow wielder spoke: “name yourselves.”
The world went blank for a long, black moment. As though to await his answer, the girls froze--they did not breathe, nor fidget, and even their hair stopped upon the wind. Jun slowly looked to his companion as his mind reeled, but the other boy’s eyes were wide. Scared, even.
“J--” he began, but the nearby fire crackled and distracted them. They sat before the blazing bonfire, a wonderful treat on a cold night, while around them their companions chatted and danced. Looking about, Jun could spot the old pavilion not too far away, just a bit further up the shore. No one would find them here, he realized, unless they let the fire get too high.
Zoi was strumming his guitar not too far away, singing a soft tune as the ice witch watched. She didn’t seem so cold with an aura of light about her, softly swayed by the music his cousin played. They had eyes only for one another, Jun noted with some discomfort.
From look on their leader’s face, it was obvious that he did not approve. Neither did the blond woman beside him, who hid her frown with another sip of wine. Nothing could disguise the angry orange arches pulsating about her, though--not from Jun, at least.
The real show was to be had with the prince and his “goddess.” Her silver hair was cast orange and russet in the bonfire’s light, but nothing could disguise the blush upon her cheeks or her wine-warmed giggling. Beside her, their prince had imbibed more than his share as well, and he made quite a show of whispering things into the princess’ ear.
“Disgusting, is it not?”
Jun turned and found the fire witch sitting next to him. Flashes of red mixed within her aura that night, but they were mellowed by a darker swirl, gradually turning everything as violet as her eyes. She sipped her wine judiciously, watching him from the corner of her eyes. He nodded.
“I’m not sure how long we can keep this up,” he said after a moment and pursed his lips.
“One hopes they’ll come to their senses soon.” The woman looked up, to the star-sprinkled sky above. “I don’t blame them, you know. They’re only human.”
“Are they?” Playing with his wine glass, Jun cast a baleful glance at his companion. She offered him the slightest of smiles.
“Contrary to popular opinion.”
“It means they can be killed,” said the queen. She sat on the dais above them, long streaks of ash trailed down her cheeks from where she’d been crying. Jun looked up at her, trying to read her but her emotions were far too muddled and messy to give any specific name to them. That was never a good sign in anyone, and certainly not in a leader.
This woman had never been loved by their lot, he realized with a start as he felt his own distaste of her begin to creep up on him. Try as he might, Jun wasn’t sure what it was that he hated about her--if anything, he felt sorry for her now. She sat upon the throne a broken woman, her late husband’s crown upon her lap and her womb empty of apparent heir. Without the prince there would be chaos, unless the Lords united under a single banner, and none of them could bring Endy back without a public outcry. If he would even agree to come back, which Jun doubted.
No one in the room was without their losses, however. Jun felt, acutely, the empty place where once his cousin had stood. All around the throne room there were empty spaces where nobles and knights had once kept place. Kalunite and Hamatite stood behind the queen, each glossed in aquamarine and sparks of orange. Hiddenite lay with their king.
The queen stood, lifting the crown with her. She met each of their eyes and Jun gulped as he realized what she would do. More than that, he knew that she needed their backing. It took little more than a glance at the other two to know that they were unified in their response.
“Our kingdom stands on the precipice of disaster,” said the queen, and she lifted her voice so that it run easily through the audience chamber, “With enemies at our gate, and snakes found hidden within our midst, we must stay united or else fall. It is under these circumstances only, and with a heavy heart, that I, Queen Consort Beryl, take the throne in the wake of my Lord.”
From the back, one lord rose and made his way toward the front. “Should not Lord Kunzite take the title? It is his birthright, with the fall of Endy--er...” Despite his slight slip, there were mutterings in the court behind them which backed his opinion.
Beryl glowered at the man, though Jun saw that her anger came only at the near mention of the traitor prince. The eldest of their lot--Kunzite, the name clicked now!--stood and turned to face the lord. “I bow here in deference to our queen and you ask that I be lofted higher?” he asked with a nonchalance that defied the angry fireworks popping off in Jun’s vision.
“With all due respect, Lord Kunzite, the queen--”
“Is perfectly capable of acting as regent until our kingdom is settled. We will discuss matters further once this war is off our doorstep.” Kunzite turned to face the queen, who bowed her head in acknowledgement. She placed the crown upon her husband’s throne, where it would remain until a true king--or queen--was in place.
Behind the throne, the two old guards regarded Kunzite with cold eyes. The blues that had encased them were now searing orange.
“Why,” began their dark-haired companion as they exited down an empty corridor. Kunzite cut him off with a hand gesture, until they reached his quarters further into the castle interior.
“I am now lord general, as you both should be aware. It does our people no good if another king dies upon the battlefield, but a queen can stay here and mend matters while we take the fight to them.”
“To Silver Millennium?” Nephrite frowned.
A dull horror spread through Jun’s boots as he considered that. Through the naked window he could see the moon as it peaked above the dawn horizon.
Kunzite favoured them both with a long look. Though he was young yet, the man suddenly seemed centuries older. War had left a scar across his cheek and bags under his eyes, and there were troubling lines wrinkling the corners of his mouth. “I’ve had about enough of our people murdered in their own land. Haven’t you?”
Jun looked down at his hand, a pink and wrinkled mass of scar tissue--it was totally unfit for use, now, at least with a sword. An acrid burning smell filled his nose and his eyes began to water. Everything was hot, so very hot. He screamed as he burst into flame.
The ferns were wet with morning dew. Jun laid among them, shivering and choking down sobs as he realized the pain was gone. Then he sat up and pulled his shirt off, patting his body frantically for scar tissue. There was none, and after a moment he collapsed back down onto his knees.
As his sobs slowly subsided he became aware of the sound of swords clashing nearby. Though no part of him wanted to see this, his body pulled itself up as though a puppeteer had taken control of it. He lurched past the fawn, still busy munching upon the ferns.
Just a short distance into the forest he came upon the river. Across it, he could see the apple orchard, full and ripe under a happy summer day. Underneath it, Zoi clashed in battle with the ice witch.
They were furious, of that Jun was certain. Each swipe held a fury behind it that shot fireworks into the air and bled upon the ground. Pressed backward, his cousin tripped over a root and fell to the ground. The ice witch stood over him. “How could you?” The ice witch’s aura flared red, violet, and blue.
“Ask your princess,” Zoi hissed. With a strangled cry, the woman lofted her sword.
“Zoicite!” Jun tripped forward and onto his knees, but his shouting was enough to startle the witch. She paused and cried out as Zoicite’s sword pierced through her stomach. His face was a mask of horror beneath his sweaty curls.
The witch dropped her weapon and stumbled backward before she fell. Such a wound was disastrous, but not immediately fatal and they all knew it. She’d lay there for hours before...Jun swallowed thickly as Zoi scrambled to the woman’s side.
He touched her face, cupping her cheek, and even from this distance Jun could see his tears. With a whispered apology, Zoi took her head in both hands. The crack could be heard across the river as easily as Zoi’s choked sob.
Rising to his feet, Zoicite pulled his sword up and wiped it off against his leg. He sheathed it and then ran back through the orchard, over the hill to the field behind. “Stop!” But it was too late. His cousin had gone.
Jun struggled back to his feet and stared at the river. It was still swollen and raging, far too fast for anyone to cross. Remembering his experience from earlier, he backed away from it. Across the water, the frosted eyes of the ice witch stared at him. Her mouth moved...Jun gave a strangled cry, turned, and ran.
Night fell as he forced his way through the woods, though the plant life wanted again to hold him at bay. “Stay,” whispered the trees and the birds and the bushes. “Stay with us. You’re wanted here.”
“No.” Tears streaked down his face, tears or rain he wasn’t sure. Nothing was right here, though he couldn’t be sure as to why. Nothing was right anywhere and it was all that witch’s fault.
Someone smacked into his side, and Jun found himself staring up again at the green-eyed boy. They laid on the ground a moment, one on top of the other, as they regained their breaths. All around him, the world seemed to pause and the whispering subsided.
“You’re real, aren’t you?” The boy glared down at him, only pushing himself up on his hands so that he could see Jun’s face entirely. Frantically, those green eyes searched Jun’s blue. “You’re real!”
“Of course I’m real.” Jun pushed the boy off of him and sat up. “What else would I be?”
A terrible, ragged breathing came from the woods. They turned as one to see the old woman crouched beneath a nearby tree, staring at them. She wore a torn floral print dress over her sinew and skin corpse, hunched over in a squat like a primate. Her teeth were what stood out the most, though--literally. Jun gulped as he took in the mouthful of bristling, three-inch razor sharp teeth which spilled from between her lips like the hooks of a venus fly trap. The demon stared at them a moment, then crawled forward upon its hands and knees.
Both he and the other boy scrambled backward for every step it took. “Masters,” it rasped around its horrendous teeth, “Why run? Stay with us here, where you belong.”
“Go away.” Though he was unsure if the creature was actually trying to hurt them, or if it merely delighted in tearing apart whatever was in it’s path, Jun scrambled frantically away from it. Behind them, trees and bush were ripped apart as the monster cackled with glee. Together, the two boys fled the scene, and this time the forest parted for them.
If someone had told him that one day he’d see a tree get up and walk, Jun would have sworn that they were crazier than he. Now he watched that very thing happen and was grateful for the trees that pulled themselves into their wake, creating a barrier against the thing which followed them.
The pair burst onto an open hillside, and lurched to a halt at the crest of it. “Where are we going?” Jun doubled over, hands on his knees, as the other boy turned in circles.
“There.” Following the boy’s pointed finger, Jun looked out across the wooded hills stretched before them. There was the flickering light again, just as they’d seen from the castle. It was closer now, and he could make out the outline of a building around it. “We have to make it there.”
A scream echoed from the woods behind them. They ran; ran until his lungs begged for air and every step sent a dagger coursing up his legs. From the woods they could no longer see the light they were trying to get to, but like a tug in his gut Jun knew that they were going the right direction.
Leaping over gullies, scrambling over fallen logs, the two boys kept in sight of one another but fled none the less. There was a great roar behind them, and Jun did not dare glance back to see what was going on. He could feel the beast’s breath upon the back of his neck and a hiss against his ear.
A hand caught his ankle and he went down, fingers scratching into the forest loam. “Help!”
“Jade!” The other boy turned back and caught one of Jun’s hands in both of his own. Jun twisted enough to look behind him at the chilling grin the woman gave him. Her teeth gnashed together and she tried to climb, hand over hand, up one of his legs. He kicked at her with his other, punctuating each delivery with a word: “Leave. Me. Alone!”
A sickening squelch came at the last as his heel sunk into the woman’s eye socket. She shrieked and let go of him. On his feet again, they ran before she could recover.
“What is that thing?” He gasped as soon as he was sure they’d left the demon behind.
“Dunno,” his companion lied.
“Ne--”
They stopped together as they entered a sudden clearing. In front of them was a shrine of white marble, with columns that reached into the sky. It was a simple circle design, roofless, and in the middle stood a simple pedestal. The pair exchanged a glance, and then walked together toward it.
When Jun dared to glance back he found that the forest was miles behind them, barely a spec on the horizon.
Gulping softly, he mounted the three steps up to the shrine and crossed silently to the pedestal. Five rocks stood upon it, four each to the cardinal point and the fifth in the center. Jun frowned and glanced at the other boy, who was staring at him.
“Kunzite,” said the boy and touched a pink gem to the south. Jun nodded in kind, glancing over the gems. His eyes fell upon a yellow-green stone to the north.
“Zoisite.” Then he looked to the west. Frowning, he looked at his companion. “Nephrite.”
“Jadeite,” said the boy, with a nod.
Both their eyes fell, then, upon the golden crystal to the center. It darkened and cracked before their eyes, and they each stepped away from the pedestal. Step after step the moved backward as the pedestal collapsed. The marble began to crack beneath their feet. Jun looked up for one moment and realized that he was being moved further and further away from Nephrite.
He called out, and the shrine gave way beneath their feet. Darkness engulfed him, and somewhere in the void was a rasping laugh.
Jun cried out as he landed on his back in the ferns. The stars spun above and he squeezed his eyes shut, praying it would stop. Slowly, achingly, he pulled himself up into a sitting position and rested his forehead upon his knees.
“We’ve got to stop this.”
Turning his head, he peeked his eyes open to see the fire witch sitting beside him. She stared out into the distance, dejection flowing over her body as thick and opaque as the dress she wore. Those violet eyes met his and for a moment he liked her. They were much the same, the pair of them. “How?”
Her lips moved, then pressed together again and she shook her head hopelessly. Jun nodded. Their shoulders pressed together and he leaned his head against hers. Together they watched the sun rise.
As orange light spilled through the trees and across the meadow, she raised her hand and held it before him. A spark ignited. Jun screamed as the flames overtook him, and burned away through the core of him. He fell back upon the ground, rolling, trying to put them out.
Steel clashed in his hearing, and there came a cry of pain. Zoisite stood at the edge of the meadow, his sword embedded in the fawn’s corpse. Jun stared as the creature melted--first into a creature of seven limbs, wicked antlers, and a pair of bulbous multi-faceted eyes, and then into a pile of ash as it died.
His cousin remained as he was, knelt and panting. Jun climbed to his feet and managed to stumble the few steps between them. He fell to his knees before the other boy and for a moment they stared at one another.
“There’s a monster on the moon,” he said and his stomach lurched.
Zoe’s eyes were clouded with blue. “I know,” she whispered. “Jun, I’m so sorry. I didn’t--”
Jun knocked her sword to the side and pulled her into his arms, where she buried her face in his hair. He squeezed his eyes shut. “They’re coming, Zoe. We have to be go to them.”
“Who’s coming?”
“The others.”
She pulled away, searching his eyes with her own. Surprise, confusion...acceptance. It played out around her like a symphony of colour, but he knew what ever shade and shape meant as though he’d been reading it his entire life. Or lifetimes.
Zoe offered him her hand and he clasped it.
A great boom jolted him awake. Jun stared through his lashes at the tiled ceiling above him, for a moment confused by the fluorescent light and a strange, methodical beeping to his left. There were people somewhere in the room with him, shouting. Zoisite--Zoe...her voice in particular struck him, and he tried to lift his hand.
It was not Zoe who appeared above him, though, but an unfamiliar woman in a nurse’s uniform. Then several more appeared, scattering about him and clucking like hens. Jun groaned and forced his eyes to open a little wider.
There she was, his cousin, struggling against two overgrown bullies. Jun frowned. “Zoe...”
“See!” The girl jerked herself away from the surprised orderlies and took his hand.
“Coincidence,” huffed a silver-haired man in a lab-coat. Yellow lights buzzed about him like a swarm of bees. “Get Sullivan-san out of here, Mizuno. They need to work.”
“Zoe,” said the doctor, and stepped into Jun’s line of sight. He jumped and the monitor beeped frantically. The ice witch turned to look at him, her aura bright with surprise. Before any of them could say a word, the nurses shooed both Zoe and Dr. Mizuno from to room.
There was nothing that Jun could say to warn her--nothing that would get past his sandpaper throat and barely functioning limbs. Later, the doctors told him that he’d been in a coma for three weeks, following his altercation with Bachiko. Jun swallowed convulsively. Not Bachiko--Beryl. He’d had sex with the queen. He’d been r--
No. Jun closed his eyes and refused to process that thought.
When they were sure that, shockingly, there was nothing physically wrong with him other than the side effects of a coma--weak, body forgetting to function on its own, starving for a proper meal--they left him alone to “rest.” As strange as that sounded, no sooner had they left did Jun realize exactly how much he needed to sleep.
Three days passed in a blur of consciousness. Nurses would check on him, and from time to time he would be woken by his cousin stopping to check that he was still with her. Jun always woke for her, and was rewarded with mint-green relief washing over her when he did.
On the fourth day she brought her guitar to drown out the clamour of construction work outside the building.
“What’s going on?” He glanced again at the window and the tree beyond it.
“They’re rebuilding the rec room,” Zoe said as her fingers picked out random chords. “A bear went through it the other day.”
“A bear.” Jun stopped laughing when he saw her face. “Really?”
“Mr. Ruffles.”
He didn’t know who that was, but figured it was best not to ask. A nurse appeared at his doorway and glanced between the pair of them. Then he offered Zoe a smile. “Tanaka-san, do you think you can go for a walk again today?”
“About time.” Jun pushed himself a little further up than his bed had allowed, and carefully swung his legs over the side. His gangly legs were naked under the hospital gown, but Zoe stood and offered him her hand.
“I’ve got it,” he said as he put his feet to the floor. Jun stood, wobbled, and when the nurse offered him a walker he took it with a blush. He got himself as far as the door before Zoe giggled behind him. She held his robe out to him, and he snorted. “You could have warned me.”
“Yeah, but that isn’t so funny.” The girl shrugged, and though Zoe did not look exactly as she had before, he could see a ghost of her former self laid over in her smirk. He tugged his robe on and fastened it, then continued his journey out into the hall. At least he was able to go to the bathroom alone now.
Each step made him feel a little stronger, every inch furthered his goal. Zoe plodded along beside him, content just to watch his progress. “You’re making excellent progress, Tanaka-san,” said the nurse who had come along as well. “It is good to see a boy so willing to push himself.”
“It isn’t the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” Jun muttered. Zoe glanced at him, understanding in her eyes. “How long until I can get out of here?”
“You mean, return to...that’s more a question for your doctor.”
“Maki-san hasn’t been by all day.”
“Patience.” The nurse favoured him with a smile. “Until then, perhaps you can make it all the way to the lunch room? There’s ice cream for both of you if you can.”
“Sure. I can watch him,” said Zoe. The nurse glanced between them, and Jun watched the nervous flitters of orange and pink swirl around his form. Gradually they settled into thin waves of yellow-green.
“Sure,” the nurse said with a nod. “But be careful and call for help if you need it.”
“We’re used to hospitals.” Zoe put her hand on his shoulder and lead Jun to the elevators.
She punched the button for them whey they arrived and they waited together for the tiny box to make its way to their floor. The girl leaned against the wall and watched him with her swirling green and hazel eyes. “You said they’re coming. Who did you mean?”
Jun frowned. “You don’t know?” She arched one blond eyebrow and an orange light zoomed about her head. He snorted and leaned in closer. The elevator dinged and a doctor bustled through the door, directly between them.
“Oh!” Mizuno turned and Jun jerked his gaze to the floor. Her shoes were even blue.
“Jun-san, Zoe-san.” The marine aura spilling about Mizuno’s feet belied the cheer in her voice as she greeted them. She shifted some papers in her arms. “I was just coming to find you. Zoe, I really do need to speak to Jun alone, now, I’m very sorry but--”
“No.”
The doctor was staring at him when he looked up at her. He glowered as best he could around the memory of her corpse. “We don’t have anything to talk about, Mizuno-san.”
“Am I to understand that you don’t want me as a doctor?” Her eyebrows inched toward her ice-blue hairline as her eyes widened a little behind her glasses. There was an innocence to the look that shot a pang of guilt through Jun’s person, but he gripped the walker and held his ground.
“It’s my fault. I don’t feel right about it,” he muttered. There were a few nurses listening in, though they pretended not to be.
“That’s perfectly alright, Jun-san,” Mizuno said, and offered him a tiny smile. “I’ll speak with the director and, together, we’ll find a doctor you’re more comfortable with. Yes?”
“Thank you very much.” Jun bowed as best he could with a walker, and Mizuno offered him one in kind. After excusing herself, she went on down the hall, presumably to work another case. Zoe stared at him.
“What’s your problem with Mizuno?”
Jun pushed the button for the elevator. The doors opened again and he went through, Zoe following in behind him. “Outside,” he said as soon as they were on their way downstairs.
“They’ll never let us out.”
“Yes they will. Just show me where to go, I’ve never been in this wing before.”
Zoe paused, then nodded. “Alright,” she shrugged and, when the doors opened, put her hand on his shoulder. She turned him left down the hall and soon enough they came to a large, open entrance with ceiling-high windows and a shiny new receptionists desk. There were quite a few people in the lobby, guests on couches and nurses and a few doctors, but not a single one looked up as the pair passed by. Jun made sure of that.
When they were outside, Zoe gave him a surprised glance. “Ok, that was anticlimatic.”
He smirked at her. A quick glance about revealed a bench beneath a nearby tree. Nodding toward it, Jun limped off in that direction and Zoe soon joined him. When they’d settled, Jun tipped his head back against the tree trunk and closed his eyes as the sunlight washed over his face. “What do you remember?”
“That demon, for starters. The...well it wasn’t a fawn.”
“Not that. I mean, thanks for killing it and all, but I meant more...” Lolling his head to the side, Jun cracked his eyes open enough to find Zoe staring at him. She jerked her gaze away and pulled her legs up to her chest.
“There were strange dreams,” she said after a few minutes. “Strange places I knew, but I didn’t know. Boys...you. And two others, mainly. And...and him.”
“Endy.” The word tasted sour upon his lips, and he felt her shudder. “Zoisite?”
Zoe jumped. Staring at him again, as though he’d grown another head, she asked in a strangled voice: “What does that mean?”
“It’s your name. Isn’t it?”
“J...Jadeite?”
“Mm. Nephrite and Kunzite are coming.” He wetted his lips and looked up into the leaves above them. “Soon. We need to get out of here.”
“Yeah, but...” The girl glanced over his body and shook her head. “Do you even know where they are?”
Jun shrugged. “They’re coming from the west.”
“Oh. That’s helpful.” Zoe rolled her eyes.
A tug in his gut--instinct, perhaps--pulled tight in that direction, though. But what was it about..?.
Not sure where it had come from precisely, Jun heard himself say: “Akiyoshido.”
Beside him, Zoe scoffed. “Isn’t that in Yamaguchi-shi? It’s on the other side of Honsu.”
“Yeah, but it makes sense.” Jun sat up and looked at her. He grabbed her hand when she looked away. “Zoe, think about it. Nephrite is the king of the west--”
“The king of the what.”
“--So it makes sense that he’d come from the west. Yamaguchi-ken is the western most point of the main island.”
“It makes about as much sense as... as...” The girl faltered and her gaze shifted behind him. Jun turned, following her line of sight across the parking lot to the psychiatric wing entrance. There was a tarp over one of the main walls, and cracks through the concrete where something very large had come barreling through the wall. Zoe gulped. “Ok, about as much sense as anything else these days.”
“You’ll come with me?”
“We don’t have any money, and you’re wearing a robe.”
Jun looked at her a long moment, then shrugged. “We go in, grab some clothes from your room, and leave. I can handle the money issue.”
The red warned him that Zoe might fight, but in the end she just sighed. “I promised I’d believe you from now on, so I’m going to. But I don’t know how you expect to get in and out again.”
“They can’t see me,” Jun shrugged. He got up, gripping his walker again. It was annoying, and he swore to himself that he wouldn’t need it anymore by the time they got to Yamaguchi-shi.
“Two tickets to Shin-Yamaguchi, please,” he said to the attendant at the train station. She took the bills he handed her and gave him back a pair of passes with a little change. Jun felt a little guilty about the change, but pocketed it anyway and walked away from the ticket booth. Zoe stood nearby with a backpack over one shoulder and her poof-ball hair pulled back into a wild ponytail. With her Red Sox cap pulled down low she looked like your average American teenage boy. He decided not to tell her that.
They’d found a cane for him while they were at the hospital, though it still looked a bit odd for a kid so young to need one. Zoe wouldn’t hear of him going without it, though, and if Jun were honest with himself he did need it. When he reached her side, he handed over her pass. She took it gingerly between two fingers, as if it would bite.
Eyeing him as she pocketed it, the girl whispered: “They bought it?”
“Obviously.” He shrugged and urged her along to the platform. The Nozomi bullet train was a straight shot through to Yamaguchi-shi, but it would be a long ride. Waiting for it were a handful of Japanese business men, a couple of families, and a whole trove of foreign tourist. For the first time in his life Jun was glad of foreigners--besides Zoe, that was--with these persons around no one would be paying too much attention to the American kid and her “halfling” friend.
Swallowing the bitter taste of that thought, Jun reminded himself to be grateful. He’d managed to make construction paper look like money, but he didn’t dare trying to disguise the two of them--not yet, anyway. Illusions would wear off after awhile, or so his memories told him, and maintaining them on a human cost more energy than he cared to expend. Just walking was taxing enough.
The train rolled into station at precisely three-twenty-five, and Jun let out a sigh of relief. They watched the other passengers unload, and then followed their own set on board. After the attendant checked their tickets, they found a pair of seats together at the back of their compartment and settled in for a very long ride.
Zoe shook him awake as they pulled into Shin-Yamaguchi station. There were only a few others in their car now, all foreigners, and Jun rubbed one eye as he sat up to stretch. “I can feel it now,” Zoe murmured.
Jun didn’t have to ask to know that she meant the sick feeling at the pit of both their stomachs. It was like someone had tied a string deep within their guts and was pulling on it, urging them on as though they were dogs on a lease. Maybe they were.
He picked up their single backpack and joined the queue waiting to get out the door before they got left of the train.
Once out of the station, they found a bus map and began to plot their course. There was no sense in trying a hotel right now, even if they had enough construction paper that they might manage to pull it off. Instead, Jun waved down a cab and bribed the man with a little extra fare to take them out to the park so early in the morning.
When the cab’s lights were distant stars in the night’s blackness, Zoe shouldered their backpack and took a good look at the insect ridden forest around them. Nothing moved out here, and it was darker than either of them had expected the world could be. She gave a soft whistle. “Where to, Sherlock?”
Jun rolled his eyes. “Why do I have to have all the answers?”
“Because you’re the one that drug us out here!” Zoe huffed, then set off down the road. Jun followed after her. At least, he figured, his eyes were slowly adjusting. If it weren’t for the red of her aura before him, Jun might not have been able to follow her.
“You’re the one that came.” Trudging after her as best he could with a cane, Jun grumbled to himself.
“Because I thought--I don’t know, I thought they’d be here! What are we supposed to do, just wait out here until--”
“Hello?”
Zoe shrieked, whirled, and punched the shadow that had appeared between the two of them. Suddenly the world was a lot brighter than it had been--Jun realized he could see perfectly the girl ahead of him, and the Arab boy on the ground between them, nursing a bloody nose.
Kunzite spat something in English, and Zoe’s aura flared a brilliant pink.
