Return of the Fallen Volume 2 Chapter 14
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Author: Blue_Rat
ch14
Tsura led the way in this near pitch-black night. Kimi followed with a bright orb floating above her. Mei became attached to Kimi or rather her warm glowing light and sat comfortably on Kimi’s shoulders. With Kimi’s ever-growing control over her abilities, she made it so the glowing orb floated around Mei’s little hands, causing all kinds of delight for the little one.
Behind her was, of course, Sam and then everyone else. At the rear, Shin dragged the unconscious men on the ground with the rope they were tied with.
As Tsura led everyone through the forest occasionally she would look over her shoulder to see a pair of eyes focused intently on her. She couldn’t help but gulp seeing Danny constantly stare holes into her back. Her eyes shot forward and she continued leading everyone, as a shiver went down her spine.
(This young man won’t take his gaze away from me, he’s so creepy. Ignore it, once they have the map and they get me and my daughter out of here, we can go our separate ways.)
Tsura decided to not pay attention or worry about Danny and just kept guiding the way. About a half an hour later, Tsura guided everyone to an open field. A few hundred feet away there was a mountain and at the foot of it was a small cave opening, with a passageway just big enough to allow one person through at a time.
Tsura pointed at the cave.
“It’s there. The map and the rest of the villagers are all in there.”
Kazuki nodded.
“Ok, let’s enter, shall we?”
Everyone was ready to go and get this over with but Tsura froze for a moment before she took a step back. Grabbing Mei from atop Kimi’s shoulders, she hugged her tightly before in an almost panicked tone she begged.
“No! I can’t…We can’t go in there.”
Kazuki’s brow rose.
“And why not? I thought you said that there were no other problems between you and the rest of the villagers, don’t tell me that was a lie.”
Tsura’s body trembled before she stared fiercely at Kazuki.
“They may have not been the ones who forced my husband out but none of them stopped it from happening. I don’t want to see those cowards ever again, otherwise, I might just let them feel true suffering.”
Kazuki and the others were slightly surprised. Tsura wasn’t shaking because she was terrified but instead because she was enraged. By the looks of it, she was now filled with a hatred for those she used to call friends and neighbors.
“Besides, my Mei is terrified of caves, she would scream the moment she steps a toe inside there. Mhmm, it’s better if the two of us wait out here while you all head inside.”
Mei stared up at her mother in confusion but said nothing. Kazuki didn’t really care much but felt it would be odd for strangers to just enter another’s place of living and demand something like a thug in the night.
“Shin, untie the old man and the rest, we’ll use the chief to trade.”
Shin didn’t quite understand.
“Look, it’s not like we can just walk in there and say give us the map.”
Shin smirked at Kazuki.
“Hmph, can’t we?”
Asuna picked up a nearby rock and chucked it at Shin’s head but Shin ducked out of the way before it landed.
“What the hell was that for?”
Asuna crossed her arms and huffed.
“That’s for being an asshole. You may want to just bust down doors and take what you want but I and everyone else here aren’t bandits and I’m 99.999% sure that no one here wants to walk around these lands and be perceived as a ruthless asshole. What kind of person are you? Are you just gonna go around robbing people or are you gonna be a halfway decent human being and act like you were raised in a normal society and not the city’s underbelly?”
Shin slammed his fist heavily on a nearby boulder causing a crack to run through it.
“In what world do you think we are in right now? Look around, Asuna, we’re no longer on Earth. Normal society, heh, There’s no such thing anymore. We have problems that need to be solved and when the answer is directly in front of us you want to play nice, why? In case you forgot, we all almost died tonight, we don’t have time for nice. So yeah, call me an asshole but that doesn’t change the fact that they have something we need and I know for a fact that asking doesn’t work. Also, the person who’s constantly hitting people or throwing shit at them when she gets angry, in your normal society that person would be considered the asshole and not me.”
The two were boiling over, frightening Tsura and Mei. Shin was feeling a certain type of way about this world and felt this entire place was against them all, while Asuna thought he was just trying to be an ass, to be an ass. Neither of the two was taking into account the situation at the moment which pissed Kazuki off.
“Enough!”
The two weren’t finished though and got in each other’s faces, causing Kazuki to get in between them to separate them. Kazuki held none of his strength back as he pushed them both away from one another.
“I SAID ENOUGH!”
The two were surprised by the amount of force behind Kazuki’s push and barely maintained their balance. Silence filled the air for a moment before Kazuki scolded them.
“You two act like children and throw tantrums. Have you no fucking concept of time and place. It seems like every two seconds someone in our group has a problem with someone else. After we have the map and were clear from this forest we need to have a serious talk about the future of our little group but until then, we need to get this done, right?”
Kazuki looked at Asuna and she gave him a nod, he then glanced at Shin who in return also gave a reluctant nod.
“Good, since that’s settled we will go get that map.”
Asuna got agitated thinking Kazuki was agreeing with Shin’s way of taking things with force and Shin as well got excited thinking his way was the option Kazuki chose but Kazuki went a different way.
“If you two would have let me finish speaking earlier before you went on your little tirades, you would have already known what I was going to do. Shin, when I asked you to untie the old man, it was so we could go into the cave with leverage. If the villagers inside the cave didn’t wish to hand over the map, we could trade this old man for it. And Asuna, you have to realize that we’ll all have to use force at some time or another. Like when we fought our way out of the Dancing Gazelle. We had no choice but to kill those men and women, otherwise, we would not have been able to escape.”
Asuna couldn’t agree with his statement.
“But that situation and this one is different. Those were soldiers we fought. They wanted to kill Nunully but inside the cave are just a bunch of innocent villagers. I can’t kill them and I won’t.”
“Asuna, you misunderstand, force doesn’t necessarily mean death. You’re right, the situation is different and should be looked at with a different set of eyes. We can use force and simply knock them away or knock them out. With our bodies, it would be difficult for them to harm us but we still can’t just drop our guard. When we go in there, first we’ll ask and if that fails then we’ll negotiate and if that fails as well then we’ll use force, without killing. Also, I think we should always take the situation into consideration before we kill but only if we have the actual time to do so. Some situations will require death, while others may simply need some mild threats. We don’t always have to kill but death is already a part of the way we do things and is a necessity to guaranteeing our ongoing survival. Does everyone understand?”
Everyone started to nod in agreement. They have already killed people but it didn’t mean that they were monsters or beasts.
(Gordonia is a world of life and death struggles and there is no room for hesitation. To get this bullshit out of the way now can be considered a good thing for them but it seems I’ll still need a talk with them to reinforce it.)
With things settled for now and a basic plan formed, Kazuki decided to head into the cave with Shin, Asuna and the unconscious village chief and his men, while Kimi, Sam, Nunully and Danny stayed behind and waited with Tsura and Mei just in case those demonic birds came back.
The inside of the cave was narrow and dark but with Kazuki’s incredible eyesight, the inside almost appeared like day for him, causing no problems for him whatsoever. Those behind him, though, struggled a bit and complained.
“Ryuta, why did we have to leave Kimi outside, she could have easily guided us with her light.”
Asuna was right about her guidance but she forgot about Kimi’s power.
“Kimi has been using her power all night, plus she’s moved around just as much as everyone else. Her exhaustion has to be way beyond ours so using her abilities anymore is a no go. Besides that though, Mei seems to love her and I just figured it’d be easier if Mei had someone other then her mom to keep her occupied, after all her dad did just die. It’s best to keep a child’s mind off of that for a while, at least until she’s in a proper environment where she can grieve without fear of being attacked by a monster, don’t you think?”
“Ah, that’s why. Ryuta you’re so considerate of her feelings even though she’s a stranger.”
(Lucky.)
“Hehe, lovers in the darkness talking about children, I wonder how many will you two have?”
As he dragged the old man and the others with him, Shin’s voice came from behind, teasingly.
If one shined a light on Asuna’s face right now, it would be flushed with pink. Asuna was about to hurl an insult behind her when she bumped into something in front of her. Rubbing her nose in pain, she asked.
“Ryuta, why did you stop?”
Kazuki stepped slightly to the side and a soft blue glow landed upon Asuna’s face. Asuna saw a large open chamber and gasped in astonishment. Pointing forward, Kazuki said.
“Looks like we’re here.”
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