I look up through the windshield and I can see the lights from those buildings of that town we were at earlier on the horizon. I've spent most of this time just staring at my hands, trying to think why this was done to me. Why would someone want whatever I am? What was the point? Do I have some new purpose that I don't know? Why is the pain on the back of my head still here? Though it has gone down.
I then look to Kuiga who is sitting next to me staring out the window. With it being night and near pitch black out there, the last thing I want to see is the creepy nocturnal predators of this planet. I swear it must be a horror show out there. I was starting to think the days and nights are shorter here, but Bodaka told me that some days are short and others are long, due to the suns' erratic orbits.
I want to ask her why she only has one desire. I'm pretty curious as to how she can live like that. What could it be? "Hey, I hope you don't mind, but I noticed back there that you only have one--." She interrupts me before I could ask.
"Don't make me talk about that. I tend to go into a blind rage when I have to think about it," she sure said that calmly without turning her head to face me. She has some baggage, that's understandable for someone who was going to be sold into slavery when I met them.
"Well, if you ever want to talk about it, I'll be here," I hope she finds that comforting.
"If I do, I won't be able to control myself from maiming you," she really seems like someone who needs help with something, trauma probably. While I'm thinking about what Kuiga's problem may be, Terate pulls the craft over and parks.
"Let's go have some fun tonight! We'll get the rest of what we need in the morning and head out. We're a few days drive from where the comeback contest is," Bodaka says jumping out of one of the craft's windows, not wanting to wait for the others to finish walking out the door.
I follow them through some streets and alleys. The buildings have so many lights and electric signs on them, filling the streets with color. While walking I can't help but notice all the pointing, glares and mean looks as I go. I can't help but stare back at all these strange people. The skin and hair of the krivadels comes in so many other colors. I notice everyone but Kuiga tapping short, wooden poles stuck in the ground with their tails. I wonder why they do that. My line of thought is broken when Bodaka suddenly shouts out.
"Welcome to the Greap! Finest place to eat in Terdrum," Bodaka says and this place kind of looks like a typical fast-food joint on Earth. We all head inside and it's filled with round tables, and four different trash cans in the center. There is a kitchen in the back and counters with pots on them with different colored clouds floating above them. I watch someone lift their food into the bottom of the cloud and taking it out with a sauce the same color of the cloud on it.
"Hey! Bring us one of everything! We're celebrating!" Bodaka shouts and I notice the staff staring at me weirdly, I don't think they like me, by the reactions of disgust they have from looking at me. We all take seats around a table in the front left corner. Waiting for the food is a good time to find out more information.
"Do you guys think I'll be able to find out who turned me into this?" I ask everyone, hoping for a positive answer.
"Don't all humans look like you?" Gura responds sounding very rude and I shake my head. "Not like I'd know, I've only seen those ugly FBWs Saiten sends out," she clearly doesn't care.
"Okay, well then, how many revolutions have there been?" I ask, hoping there hasn't been too many.
"Over the millenniums, millions," Terate says while being perfectly calm. I just stare at him as the stupidity of this dawns on me.
"And they've all failed? Did any of them come close?"
"Every single one failed, but one did get close. They cornered one of the previous Saiten presidents, Kurandan. The Grandall revolution's leader, Michia was a moment away from killing Kurandan, but he failed. The fight between the two forces ended with Michia's death. It became Saiten's biggest and only shame, so much so that the entire nation denies it and went out of their way to erase Grandall's existence. At least as much as possible, many still worship Michia. He's seen as a source of hope for people," Terate explains, but I'm left in complete despair.
"I keep telling you all that we'll never get as close as he did. When will you all realize that?" Kiruki pleads, it's pretty clear he doesn't want to do this and is hoping the rest will chicken out long with him.
"I already told you," Bodaka says, still smiling. "Death is already guaranteed to us all, but the life of a revolutionary is the only life to guarantee constant fun, adventure and the chance to make Saiten look bad and if by some chance we succeed, then all the better," his lack of fearing death is starting to trouble me.
"Even if this gets you killed tomorrow?"
"That's the thrill that makes each day worth living. We're not the kind of krivadels that can live a simple life doing a job. We got to live our way," Bodaka says that with such passion, like he's truly living his best life.
"I think working a job would be a more useful and productive way to live than this," it may be his best life, but I can't understand a life that isn't productive.
"So, you want to stay on Mektra and get a job? I thought you wanted to go home," Miga says, teasing me. Before we can talk any more or before any food arrives a mob of people barge in. The four in the front are carrying a chair with an extremely old krivadel on it, a real wrinkly one with eyebrows so thick, they cover his eyes. They set him down in front of our table.
"Are these them?" The old guy mumbles out in a dry, raspy voice.
"Come on, you all brought Hairato? Is that really necessary?" Bodaka asks like this is just an annoying and unnecessary hassle.
"It is necessary! We let you rogues in here if you behave! But now you're bringing in one of them," one of the guys in the mob says while pointing at Kuiga. "And now you're bringing in whatever that is," now he's pointing to me. "Our city has survived for centuries thanks to our founders setting the rules for Terdrum and we have been getting too loose with those rules recently. You rogues—" He tries to say more, but Hairato raises a hand to silence him.
"Criminal activities caused by rogues have been on the rise in recent years," Hairato says "The founder's rules state who we should allow in and who we shouldn't and these two are not," he says that pointing to me and Kuiga with his pointer and pinky fingers.
"Why are they treating you like this?" I ask Kuiga, finding it odd.
"Because of these," Kuiga then points to the marks on her face.
"You can't wipe those off?" I ask without giving it much thought. Kuiga just glares at me, so those must be a part of her.
"As the rules state, these two will be dismembered and their parts displayed at the gate to ward off their own kind and make rogues think twice before causing trouble in Terdrum," That seems a bit extreme.
"Is that what's happening here?" I ask as this has all taken a quick and dark turn.
"Yeah, Hairato is the oldest of Terdrum's core family, so what he says goes, but the Doriano revolution doesn't let its own get killed like that. If the mob here doesn't march back out the way they came, then this mob is looking for a fight," Bodaka says and he along with everyone else at the table except for me and Kuiga stand up to fight. Before anything can happen, a blaring alarm goes off and the people of the mob turn cold, panic and scramble quickly to get themselves and Hairato out of here.
"What is this?! What's going on?!"
"That alarm means something dangerous is about going on," Terate says and we all run outside to see what's going on. All of our attention is drawn upwards where we see a giant ship above us, so big that it blocks our view of the sky!
Kiruki suddenly starts screaming. "Saiten is here! They're gonna kill us! Vayne led them here!" He shouts and I recognize that the giant symbol on the bottom of this ship is the same I saw on the wall of the ship I was hostage on when I woke up.
"Why would they be here?! What do they want?! Are they here for us?!" Miga shouts, terrified.
"I told you, that's the point of him!" Kiruki points at me. "He somehow signaled for them to come for us!" Kiruki looks like he's having a panic attack.
"Oh, go hide already, coward," Gura bluntly says. "Our revolution hasn't even done anything yet, they're not sending this giant ship for us," I just stare up at this massive ship. There is no manmade vehicle that comes close to the same size as this thing.
The bottom of the ship opens and several metal, rectangular boxes that remind me of shipping containers with little engines on the corners of them fly down and spread out through the city, along with other small, round ships. One of these containers and ships land in front of us and there are ten krivadels getting out of the round one. They're all in that chrome Saiten armor, holding those same rifle-like weapons I saw back on that airship, but these guys are alive.
The soldiers start marching through the streets shooting red lasers at everyone. The beams just seem to knock people down and stun them. The rectangular ships open up and something horrific crawls out of them.
Inside each of the recatngular ships is a giant, green, centipede-like creature! Only instead of an unsect head there is the upper body of a human. Though they've been mutated. Covered with green plates, mouth filled with sharp teeth and four inch long, curved claws! These must be some of the FBWs that Saiten creates from humans, my people.
These centipede monsters start grabbing the stunned krivedals on the ground and throwing them into the rectangle ships that they were just in. They're kidnapping everyone! Bodaka backs us back into the Greap. "What are we going to do?" Kiruki whispers in fear while grabbing Bodaka's shoulder.
"We're going to observe the situation from here and learn what we can," Bodaka pulls his shoulder away from Kiruki and looks out the window. The others all take watch from different directions.
The soldiers and the FBWs are going into every building, pulling out all the people. How much can he learn before soldiers come in here? I'm freaking out. I notice that Kuiga is crouched down, trembling in the back against the wall of the kitchen.
"Don't worry, things are going to be… okay," I say with minimal confidence while walking over to her. Comforting someone who is also panicking, helps calm me down.
"No, they're not. Saiten is here and they want all the people here, so everyone will be taken," Kuiga says somberly like she has no motivation to fight.
"Wait, I thought we were in Lorita. They can just take another nation's people?"
"Of course they can. No nation would dare say no to them. Also, this is a renegade town. These people are cut off from the government, so leaders of Lorita aren't going to care or miss these people. There's no telling what Saiten will do to us," she's so scared, I hate seeing her or anyone like this.
I look out the window and I have to admit it doesn't look good. Soldiers and monsters are everywhere. Could we even sneak out of here? While I'm thinking of what we could do, we all move to the back and six soldiers burst in. They don't say a word they just aim their weapons and prepare to fire at us.
We duck down behind the counters, waiting for the attack, but it doesn't come. "Raise your hands and get out here! On the command of President Uruma, you will come with us!" One of the soldiers shouts at us.
"Sounds like they don't want to kill us. We may be able to get out of this," Bodaka whispers to us before flashing some handsigns to his team. Kiruki, Terate and Gura start throwing chairs and those condiment pots at the soldiers, distracting them. Bodaka and Miga jump out and run at the soldiers, I'm impressed by how the two mirror each other's moves.
The two of them each jump up at a soldier. Putting their legs on their shouders. The two spin around so now their sitting on the soldier's shoulders, facing us. The two then reach back, dig their claws into the floor and force the soldiers onto their backs. Bodaka and Miga then use the tips of their tails to move a slider on the sides of the rifles, they use their feet to aim them while still in the soldier's hands, struggling against them and the two use their toes to fire them, pressing down on the soldier's fingers. That whole thing took them four seconds.
These lasers are a much deeper red than the ones I saw being fired outside. The helmets and armor help for a moment, but the pain seems to get through. The soldiers have to split up so some of them can fire back. Two of them take so much laser fire that it melts the visors of their helmets onto their face and I can hear their muffled screams, ugh that's so unpleasant.
The remaining two turn to fire at Miga and Bodaka, but Terate and Gura tackle them. The two don't seem like much of a match for the soldiers, but they do buy Bodaka and Miga enough time.
The other two have already, gotten up and they pull up the section of floor that their claws were stabbed in and strike the back of the soldier's heads. They grab and shove the soldiers against the other two and the four of them shove the four soldiers out the side window, shattering it.
"Out the back! Run!" Bodaka shouts and we all scramble!
"That was amazing!" I shout, as that was really impressive.
"It's easy if you just watch them, you can learn a bit about how they act and the model armor they have," Bodaka responds and he really is capable. Now I see why he's so confident.
"Why didn't you take their weapons?" I ask wondering why they didn't.
"Saiten weapons only fire when held by those registered to them, also they're magnitized to the armor on the soldier's hands," I wasn't expecting to hear that.
We follow Bodaka through an alley, but we're stopped when one of those centipede monsters drops down in front of us! It's hanging down from one of the buildings! "So how do you handle this?!" I shout, before looking back to see the four soldiers from before running towards us! We're surrounded!
"In situations like this! You have to do something crazy and unpredictable!" Bodaka says as he jumps on the monster, followed by the others! They start attacking it! They punch and dig their claws into it. The creature goes crazy, thrashing all through the alley. Knocking Kuiga, the soldiers and myself against the walls three times and the walls break on the third.
We're all shoved through the building and it collapses on the creature. We all start running and once we turn the first corner, we see that only Bodaka, Gura, Kuiga and myself are here. "Where are the others?" Gura asks, sounding like she barely cares.
"Surrender now!" We hear from around the corner. We look back to see the soldiers pointing their weapons at the backs of Kiruki, Terate and Miga!
"That was fun and all, but now it's time for you all to fall in line and get in the box!" everyone turns to see a dark red skinned, young, male krivadel with short, buzz cut hair, thin eyes and wearing a black uniform with a white trim and not the chrome armor of the other soldiers. He has the Saiten symbol on the left side of his jacket's lapel. "I am Erano, pre-agent 3479 left in charge of this phase of the mission. You will all stand down and surrender now or you will be killed by me," I get the feeling surrendering also includes death.
I had noticed Bodaka being worried, but now I see his smile has returned. He runs back around the corner and right up to those soldiers! "I have a better idea I challenge you to a riokan. I win, you free my friends and we leave, I lose—" Erano cuts him off as he notices me as I stepped out as well, I thought Bodaka wanted us to follow him.
"Wait! that clothing! That's state-of-the-art Saiten gel clothing! Only the upper echelon of Saiten's elite have those! I can't even get them! Each set is custom made for the wearer! Where did that creature get them?!" He said that with a lot of rage.
"I'll tell you if you beat me," Bodaka says even though he has no idea since I have no idea where these came from.
"A riokan cannot be refused as is custom." Erano then touches a small device clipped onto his ear. "I'm doing a riokan. How many people do we have… That just means we have extra. Move onto the next phase." that's all he says and then turns his attention back to Bodaka. "I am Erano of Saiten FE 10,583,"
"I am Bodaka of Lorita FE 46,901," the two start fighting and I have don't know what those numbers were for. Erano is able to keep up with Bodaka, the two seem evenly matched.
"Hey what does FE mean?" I ask Gura before realizing that she's gone!
"She ran off a moment ago," Kuiga says and just then the soldiers shove the three into a cage before returning to their round ship. I notice all the round, spherical ships are flying back straight up to the giant ship and those centipede monsters jump onto them to ride back up to the giant airship. The rectangular cages beging to rise back up as well.
"Hey! You can't take my friends away! The riokan isn't over!" Bodaka shouts, sounding angry for the first time.
"The phase I was in control of just ended. It's not my fault you couldn't defeat me quickly enough," Erano replies and Bodaka runs and jumps and grabs onto the cage with the others in it as it starts to take off. Erano follows him, jumping up and climbing onto the cage too. "You're not supposed to be on this!"
Kuiga and I just keep watching as the cages start to get higher. Our attention is drawn to a voice shouting from on top of one of the nearby buildings. "Erano! What are you doing!" I look up to see someone standing on the roof behind us.
"Agent Mashai! I accepted a riokan!" Erano shouts back at her. She groans in response so loudly that we all can hear her.
"You better win and toss that trash back on the ground before the materials are loaded or else I'll delay your advancement!"
"Yes ma'am!" Erano shouts, now with a different tone. He sounds like he's trying to hide his nervousness.
"Are you bleeding?!" She shouts to him, seeing blood running down his brow. "Did you already take a hit?!" She shouts and Erano doesn't answer. "Your advancement will be delayed by three years now! You lose this riokan and you'll never become an agent!" Dang, she's strict and already angry.
I'm not sure what to do now, but I jump when Kuiga runs forward all of a sudden! "Kuiga! What are you doing?!" I shout, surprised by her stunt. She jumps up and manages to grab the lowest rung of the ladder that are welded onto both ends of each flying cage. I notice that these cages are taking off really slowly, must be the weight in them now. I saw the one the others got put in was already jammed full.
"I'm getting some practice," is all she says; and seeing that cage lift her higher into danger makes me worry for her. Before I realize it, I'm running forward too. I leap up and just barely manage to get my claws onto the lowest handle. I'm able to climb up and join her on the cage. Looking down I see we're already about thirty feet off the ground. I didn't even realize I jumped that high.
After a few moments, we're now passing the roof of the building that the agent is standing on. "What are you two doing?" The agent asks us like she's talking to children. She's not taking us all too seriously. She then jumps off the roof and lands on the cage right in front of us. Now I can see her clearly, she's not wearing a uniform like Erano, she's dressed more casually. She's wearing a red slit dress, black knee-high boots, a black sleeveless top that shows off her midriff. She wears both a chocker and two straps on her tail that are connected by a metal chain. She has two loose, gold bracelets on each wrist. What's most striking is her weird hair. She has three clumps of hair on each side of her head, they end is points that curve upwards slightly. The rest of her hair is tied in a thick ponytail that stops just above the base of her tail. She has dark turquoise skin and her hair is a dark blonde color.
I see the cages moving closer together. "Who are you?" Mashai asks Kuiga. "What are you?" She asks me.
"I'm--" I start to say, but Mashai cuts me off.
"Don't care. All that matters is that this is an official Saiten operation that you two are trespassing on. This as everyone regardless of what sort of person they are should know is a crime. You will be imprisoned and tortured for five years and then put to some sort of work for ten. If you're still alive by the end, then you'll go free," she says to Kuiga. "You don't look like any sort of person to me, but you've managed to steal some of our clothes, so you'll need to explain that." she says to me and makes it sound very threatening.
"YAAAAHH!" Kuiga lets out a shriek and starts attacking Mashai. The agent just smiles as she playfully evades Kuiga's punches, kicks, and swipes of her tail with ease. Mashai is starting to stare at Kuiga in a creepy way.
"You know I'm fond of people like you. I can protect you from being punished. I have several others living on my property, in the woods around my home. The only thing I ask is that you wear a special collar. If you don't come to visit me once a week it'll pop your head off, so keep that in mind." ugh, this Mashai chick is a freak.
Kuiga completely ignores Mashai and keeps trying to hit her. Why is she attacking this person like this? Does it have something to do with her one desire? "I do like playing with your branches. Here, let me show you," what does branches mean? While I'm thinking that, Mashai grabs the side of her dress and swings it up at Kuiga. The edge of the dress touches her face and Kuiga steps back. I notice blood running down her cheek, it's blue, like I saw from those soldiers. The dress cut her face? I look at the edge of her dress and it really looks like the same material that Kuiga's clothes are made of. Nothing about Mashai's dress looks sharp.
Ignoring the blood on her face, Kuiga starts lashing out at Mashai who is still easily avoiding her. "I understand the handicap of your people, but even your kind should understand the high standards we agents had to meet. Only the best of Saiten's citizens get to this level. I'm not just one of Saiten's, but our species' best, do you really think you can even touch me?" Mashai says as she easily gets behind Kuiga and slaps the back of her head.
"I don't know if I can, but even if I don't, this experience will still be worth it," Kuiga says and she actually sounds nervous. I need to help her.
"Worth it? It will be for me, getting to add a teshin to my collection," Teshin? Is that what Kuiga is? But aside from the marks on her face, she looks just like the other female krivadels.
"Look. that guy over there has more FE than Erano, but still hasn't beaten him yet. That's the difference between people who just rely on their birthright with overconfidence and those who combine it with their own personal experiences. Erano should have lost a long time ago, but he's still able to fight equally with someone who is more skilled. We agents are picked for our superiority, so just give up," I look and see Bodaka and Erano who are still fighting. The two are jumping from one cage to the next as they fight. "And you think you can fight me for practice?"
Kuiga swings her leg at Mashai, trying to kick her, but Mashai puts her hands on Kuiga's leg and in an instant, jumps up, putting herself above Kuiga's leg and then thrusts both her feet at me! I didn't see it coming! "You can die! Will figure the details of your theft later." She put all her weight into that! I fly back but reach out and grab the edge of the cage. I almost dislocate my shoulder, but I'm able to scramble back on. We've now risen high over the buildings.
"Now don't make this difficult. Just die already, your life can't possibly have much meaning or purpose, I mean just look at you. I on the other hand have a lot going on, so just stop wasting my time," Mashai says and that gets me mad, really mad.
"I'm human! I had a life before Saiten brought me here! You Saiten people kidnapped me from my own reality, turned me into this and now you want me to die?! Screw you! Kuiga and I are going beat the crap out of you!"
"You… are?" Mashai looks me over. "I guess it's possible, and if you are that makes you our property. That must have something to do with where you got those clothes. I'll take you as well," I handled that strange guy, Hade, and he was stranger than she is, so I should be able to handle her too.
I throw a punch at Mashai and hope everything will work out, but she catches my fist and just smiles at me. I then notice that one of the bracelets on her wrist grows thin, long spikes before jumping off her wrist and biting down on mine like a bear trap! "Aah! What the…?!" I shout pulling my hand out of Mashai's grip and when I pull my arm back, the bracelet returns to normal and falls off my wrist, off the cage and down to the ground.
"Don't worry, I have a drawer full of those," Mashai says before raising her leg and bringing it down on the back of my head, slamming me down against the roof of this cage. I then feel her boot change shape! The front and heel both turn into fingers that grip my neck. I then feel them meld into the metal of the cage! "There, that's one down," Mashai says, but Kuiga tries to kick Mashai and she has to move away, freeing me. I look at her boot and it looks normal. "Right, I almost forgot about your ability," the agent says to Kuiga, but I don't know what she's talking about.
"Why are things changing like that?" I ask, confused by how all that happened.
"You must be a human because everyone knows that we agents are tasked with the important mission of giving our all to further Saiten's goals and ambitions. To do so we're gifted with a xeir stone that are surgically implanted in our bodies. They're one of very few things that can augment the krivadel body without severe, usually fatal side effects. Each agent is granted a different reality-warping ability from the stone and what you're seeing is mine. I can do whatever I want to anything not living that's touching me," she just smiles at us, like she has nothing to fear.
"Oh, are these new friends?" I'm shocked to hear an old man's voice and I look to see an old man's face has appeared on the front of Mashai's vest. "My name is Filladdeus and I enjoy making new friends," I have no idea what's going on.
"Hey, they're strangers, I keep telling you not to talk to those," Mashai responds like she's the face's mom.
"She's always so mean to me, never lets me do what I want," is Filladdeus about to cry?
"He's a liar," Mashai responds like she doesn't want us sympathizing with the face. "Besides, I just created him," in an instant, the face is gone. "Now watch this," Mashai gets down on one knee and places her hands against the cage. Kuiga jumps and brings her heel down, aiming for Mashai's head.
Kuiga is about to strike, but a hand, formed from the cage's metal, reaches out and grabs Kuiga's ankle, causing her to fall down. I then watch the upper torso of Filladdeus rise up from the cage, made of the same metal. "She may not let me do what I want, but I still can't let you hurt her," is this face seriously alive?!
"What are you?!" I blurt out, in utter disbelief at the possibility that Mashai created life.
"I'm Filladdeus, she created me for the fun of it," he then swings his metal hand, striking me in the face. I almost fall over, as I spit out a mouthful of blood. "Also, I'm a distraction since it takes her a few seconds to do that," he says and Kuiga and I look back to see several more metal hands rising out of the cage to grab us.
"We have to move!" Kuiga says urgently. I notice that she freed her ankle somehow. She takes three steps before leaping off the edge of the cage, grabbing onto the lowest rung of the ladder of a nearby cage that's rising faster than we are. The higher the cages get, the closer they get to each other and the ones closer to the center rise faster.
"Please let us out!" I look down to see a small window with three bars on the roof of the cage. I can see it crammed full of people and several faces filled with fear. There's nothing I can do for them now. Without thinking I follow Kuiga and jump. Only after I do it, I realize how terrifying this is. I'm what hundreds or more feet off the ground? I barely manage to grab the rung.
Looking all the way down makes me dizzy and my grip almost slips off. I hope I never have to do that again and I want to get down. I quickly climb onto the top where Kuiga is. We look down at Mashai, who is still staring at us, smiling. Filladdeus and all those metal hands are gone.
"You got to get us out of here!" I look down at the barred window on this cage and it's filled with the same terrified people. I recognize most of them from the mob that wanted to kill me. I even see Hairato shivering in fear.
"I'd rather die than be taken by Saiten! You have to find a way to drop this thing!" One of the people inside scream in terror and I don't know how good I would feel about that.
"Don't let them take me!" The people inside are screaming at us for help. These folks wanted to kill me and Kuiga, but I still want to help them, they were just living by their culture. Should a culture that kills like that exist? On the other hand, who am I to judge? But on the other other hand--. My thinking is interrupted by the people shouting at me.
"Alright! Let me see what I can do!" I reach down and grab the bars. I start trying to pull or bend them off, but they don't budge, of course they don't. What was I expecting?
"You can't bend that with your bare hands. They're made specifically to prevent that," Kuiga says as if she doesn't care about these people.
"Well, how do we get it open!" I shout at her, frustrated.
"You don't!" Mashai shouts having jumped up here, she made it without needing to grab the ladder.
"Why are you kidnapping all these people?!" I shout at her, demanding to know.
"We were ordered to harvest the people here and bring them back to use as material for a special project. Go ask the people working on that what they plan to do with all this meat. Because I'm not authorized to tell people," she's kidnapping a whole city and doesn't know why? How is she okay with that?
"No need, because I'm going to stop you," I say to her as seriously as I can even though I'm not sure that I can.
"Are you serious?" Mashai says, holding in her laughter.
"I'm going to stop all of this," I say after looking back down at the captives. Mashai swings her leg at me and the sole of her boot stretches out, turning into a blade. It cuts across my face and I shout in pain, covering my face with my hands.
Kuiga jumps in and the two start fighting around me. My face heals itself quickly and I can see Mashai toying with Kuiga again… no, that's not what she's doing. Mashai is avoiding Kuiga, she won't even block a hit. It's like she doesn't want Kuiga touching her.
No time to think! If we're going to win, we need to attack together! I rush in past Kuiga, hoping to grab and hold Mashai in place, so Kuiga can knock her out. Before I can grab her, six thin, long needles come out from her hair, arch down towards me, and stab into my arms and upper body, pushing me away. I then see that her crazy hairstyle is being held together by some metal hair clips and small chains that I didn't notice before. The needles quickly retract back into the clips.
"I've been thinking of a way to restrain you, and now I think I'll use the one that'll be most fun," Mashai says and then those needles from her hair clips come back out and twist around each other creating a giant smiley face. The face bites down on Kuiga, lifting her off her feet and above Mashai's head with Kuiga's lower half sticking out! Is her upper body in some pocket dimension?
While looking up, I see Bodaka and Erano still fighting and Bodaka is leading him upwards. He jumps from one cage to the next and Erano is following him. Why is Bodaka doing that? While I'm watching that, I'm distracted, and Mashai reaches out, grabs my neck, and lifts me off my feet. The bracelet on her wrist turns into a set of handcuffs, except one cuff is on her wrist and the other is around my neck! "There, you're both captured. She'll join my collection and you… well, we'll find where you belong," hearing her say that sends shivers down my spine.
No! Not like this! I try to struggle, but the cuff around my neck tightens and chokes me! I can't get away! While struggling, I see something off in the distance. It's flying towards us. It's behind Mashai, so she hasn't noticed it. The thing is another airship, though way smaller than the one above us. This airship is orange and its shape reminds me of a yacht. Several red beams streak across the sky from Saiten's ship aiming for the orange one. It evades them with amazing percision. One does graze the side, but doesn't slow it down.
The lasers alert Mashai to the approaching ship and she turns to see it pull up right next to us. "Oh, what now?" Mashai groans before pressing the tip of her tail against a small device in her ear. "Hey, pause the cages, something annoying is happening. I'll deal with it," after that, all the cages stop moving and remain still, suspended in midair.
A hatch on the top of this new airship opens and someone climbs out. "Excuse me! We're just here to pick up that thing you have there," it's a male krivadel, red skin, looks young despite his long white hair done in a braid that he has draped over his left shoulder. He's wearing black clothing except for the white shirt under his jacket. He has several items, some look like weapons strapped all over him.
"Do you have any idea of what you're doing!" Mashai shouts at him. "You've entered an active Saiten operation. Surrender yourself now and it'll just be a hundred years of torture. Resist and I'll see you'll lose your limbs," her clothes start moving like they're made of fire. She's giving them more jail time than to us. She must getting upset.
"Sorry agent Mashai, but none of that's going to happen. We're just here to take that," he says, pointing to me?!
"You know my name?" Mashai says, sounding shocked. This guy then slides down the front of his ship, stepping onto the cage with us.
"You didn't think that just because you're new meant you were a secret. We know who every agent is and what they can do," he doesn't sound scared or worried at all.
"You… you're from the phantom nation aren't you!" Mashai starts to shriek, she's completely lost her composure now. She lowers her arm, so my feet are back on the cage.
"Jeez, you agents are so paranoid. Not everyone who knows you is from that place. I'm Tefano and once you hand that over we'll leave and you can get back to whatever awful thing you're doing here. Make things difficult and it just won't go well for you," he says and sure sounds confident in himself.
"You're not going anywhere! You'll tell us everything about your nation," Mashai grabs the side of her dress and flings it at Tefano, but he quickly throws a small capsule that he was hiding in his hand the entire time. It bursts right in front of Mashai's face covering it with a thick black powder. She starts coughing and sneezing. The face from her hair clips spits out Kuiga before returning to normal as does her bracelet, freeing me.
Tefano reaches out, grabbing Mashai by her torso, lifting her up over his head, and throws her off the cage. "That should take care of her. I'll be more famous after killing an agent," while falling, the links of the chain on her tail turn into little arms that reach out and stab into the nearest cage below us. I'm surprised, seeing that Mashai's tail is strong enough to hold her whole body up. The remaining black powder on her face comes together, turning into a giant ball that falls off her. "That's a let down. Alright, let's get going!" Tefano yells, before grabbing my arm. He's strong, but to my surprise, I'm able to keep him from pulling me along.
"Please don't leave us!" I hear someone shout from inside the cage.
"Hey, hold on! We need to help these people," I say to Tefano, hoping he'll want to help.
"We're not being paid a large fortune to help them. Hurry, your creator is waiting for you," I pause, hearing him say that. The guy who did this to me? I could get all the answers I need if I go with him? Would everything will be solved?
"Can Kuiga come too?" I ask seriously considering his offer.
"Please! Don't leave us here! You have to do something! Anything!" I hear the desperate pleads of the people in the cage. No, I can't just abandon people screaming for help, I can't bring myself to leave them. How can anyone just walk off, leaving others to suffer in fear? I don't know what I can do, but I have to do something!
"Sorry, I can't go, I can't leave these people here like this," my mind is racing, I can't pull myself away from all this.
"We don't have time to argue! Our employer said you'd come once we told you we're bringing you to your creator. Stop being difficult," Tefano shouts pulling me along.
"Look, I really want to go, but I can't walk away from what's happening here. Why don't you help me?"
"We don't have the means to stay here long. I was only sure that I could get Mashai away from you. I'm not sure I can beat her in a drawn-out fight," Tefano says getting angry.
"Of course, you can't! An agent isn't someone who can be beaten, especially not against a single person," Mashai says having made it back to us. Now Kuiga and I have Tefano in front of us and Mashai behind us. "This isn't the situation that warrants it, but I'll go all out if you push me, so surrender and accept your fa--" Mashai stops talking, distracted by what's happening above us.
We watch Erano fall on top the cage were on! "Erano?! What are you doing?! Did you lose?!" Mashai screams, sounding completely unhinged.
"Oh yeah, he's the big loser! I made him fall and he fell on his face!" Bodaka shouts from above us.
"No! I slipped, you didn't make me fall, nothing is over!" Erano shouts back to him.
"If you don't tear that random person's head off in the next fifteen minutes, your future will be in serious question," Mashai angrily says to Erano, who is quick to get back to Bodaka.
"You'll have to be quicker than that! Once I get in your ship, I'll take control of the cages!"
"Our soldiers will stop you, idiot!" Erano shouts back at him.
"I know they can't fire their weapoms with deadly force inside ships! I also know that a control panel is right next to that door above me! I'll reverse the cages and open their doors before they or you can stop me!"
"Is this the quality of agents Saiten has these days. You're running this operation like a joke," Tefano comments with a chuckle at Mashai.
"Kuiga! Stop Erano!" I shout to her wanting her to help Bodaka get control of the cages.
"He's in riokan with Bodaka, I can't interrupt it," Kuiga replies and both Tefano and Mashai agree. How can three people so different agree on this? I'd go and slow Erano down, but I don't want to leave Kuiga alone with Mashai.
"Then let's go up there with him!" I shout and we both start jumping from one cage to the next with Tefano and Mashai after us. These two are too fast and they catch up to us! Tefano swings a thin chain at me and it wraps around my arm, and tries to pull me away. With a swing of her arm, Kuiga is somehow able to cut the metal! Mashai grabs the side of her dress and flings it at Kugia, it extends towards her and glows with heat. I reach out, grabbing it to keep it from touching her. It burns my fingers, but I tear this part off. I watch Mashai's dress grow it back.
Tefano turns his attention to Mashai, throws a small pellet-sized item at her, it bursts into a flash of light. The light blinds her and Tefano thrusts a knife at her face. Mashai has her hands covering her eyes and one of the bracelets on her wrists transform into round shield and the knife bounces off it. She must have predicted that. Now, I can't think of a way we could beat her. I don't like this feeling of powerlessness.
While those two fight over me, we turn to jump to the next cage, but I'm knocked down, Mashai hit in the back with That chain on her tail, ugh, that pain stings.
"Your name is Vayne, right? Your maker told me; you have to trust me!" Tefano shouts and I think that does prove he's legit, but that wasn't the issue.
"Who is it?! Who is the creator?! Was it Udo? Kobodo? Soisei? Who neglected the controllers in its brain? Whoever it is must be in serious trouble by now. Since Uruma has keeped this failure secret from us," Mashai demands an answer and it's nice to hear the person who did this to me will get punished for it… Even if for the wrong reason.
Several arms are created out of Mashai's clothes that reach for Tefano, he jumps back off the edge, but grabs it to keep him from falling and avoids the hands. He points a gun at Mashai, holding it in his tail and shoots at her from over his shoulder! A smaller version of that smiley face is created from Mashai's hair clips in an instant and eats the bullets. Tefano swiftly pulls himself back up.
If we keep hanging around these two, things won't end well for us. I look around and notice the orange airship following us and I get an idea. "Hey, Tefano! I'll go with you,"
"Finally, jump on the ship!" Tefano shouts, avoiding a blade hidden in Mashai's ponytail that she swung at his face.
We jump on the top of the ship. "The door isn't open!"
"Just pull the handle, it's not locked!" That's all I needed to know. I pull the hatch open we jump in and slam it shut before Tefano can get in. There are two handles on the inside of the door, Kuiga quickly slides them to either side to bar the door.
"Now to find the cockpit and take control. You don't think there are more than one person in here? I hadn't considered that before jumping in," Kuiga just shrugs and then she runs off and I follow her. Does she know where the cockpit is? We go down ladders and stairs until bursting into a large open room with a windshield that's half the size of a movie screen. There are two chairs at the front, the one on the left has trash and stains all around it while the one on the right is perfectly clean.
I soon notice the chair on the left starts to shake. I can see someone sitting on it through the gap between the seat and the back. "We see you. Who are you?" I ask, wondering who could be there. They don't answer. I take a step forward and hear a meek, little squeak. I reach out, grab the chair, and spin it around to see a female krivadel! She has blue skin and orange hair. Her hair is really full, long and tied together at the ends. She has a pair of shorts and a long sleeve shirt on with some simple slip-on shoes. She has wide, round eyes full of tears and fear.
"Don't kill me!" She shrieks, startling me.
"Calm down, I'm not going to kill anyone. I just need to take control of this ship," she's so jittery, I almost feel bad.
"You can't do that! Tefano is still out there! He might fall off!"
"We need you to fly us up to that ship, so we can free these people, so either move aside or do that," I snap at her as the urgency is pressing me to act.
"Okay, I'm not a fighter, so please don't hurt me," she's then quick to act, raising the ship quickly, pushing any cages she bumps into aside. "My name is Achime. What's yours?" She says, clearly scared. I guess that's why she's trying to become my friend.
"I'm Vayne, she's Kuiga and we're not going to hurt you. We just want to help these people," hopefully she'll calm down now.
"I think you're what we were hired to retrieve. We really shouldn't be messing with Saiten anymore than this," she still looks like she could burst out crying.
"Hold on, so who hired you?"
"I d…d…don't know. They c…c…contacted us an…an…anonymously through the…the…the cycorg network. We d…d…don't care who our clients are so long as they c…c…can pay," she's starting to stammer so much, I barely understood her.
"Where were you hired to take me?"
"I don't know, Tefano handles the details and does everything! I just like to fix and fly the ship," she sounds like she's about to start crying, so I decide to drop it for now, she's so scared.
We're so close to the airship now. It looks like we might be able to save the people and then I can go with these two to get some answers. I see Bodaka and he's about to reach the doors! Erano is right behind him though. "AAAAA!" Achime screams and I snap out of my train of thought as Mashai just dropped onto the windshield! She bends down and taps it with the tip of her claw while smiling sinisterly at us.
She leans down, placing a finger and thumb on the glass, and in an instant the windshield is gone and Mashai is holding a small, clear, crystal ball between her thumb and finger, and she steps onto the dashboard.
"You know because of your intrusion you're making this take longer and that'll reflect poorly on me. What's most annoying is that I don't think any of you can appreciate that," Mashai says to us, sounding calm, but she can't be that calm. She walks over the controls stepping onto the floor next to Achime and right in front of me. Achime curls up into a ball in her seat.
"I'm sorry, please don't hurt me or our home," Achime meekly pleads and I think living in a flying RV must be really fun. I then start thinking about the cons: you'd have to constantly get fuel, and water and clean out the septic system. My thoughts are interrupted by Mashai.
In an instant the ball Mashai made from the windshield stretches out like a spike, stabbing through Achime's body and the back of her chair! The spike then quickly withdraws back into the ball. She screams falling to the floor in pain. Her blood is quickly pooling around her. She just got a hole bigger than a quarter punched in her.
"Your precious home just stabbed you. See what's going to happen to me is going to be worse than that. So…" The ball turns into a spike again, this time stabbing Achime in her right leg.
"Hey, stop it! You're going too far!" I shout at her ready to jump in and do something, but I stop remembering she can do anything and I can't just run at her.
"Don't worry, I'm going to be doing this to you two as well," she's now being stern and staring daggers at us.
"Achime!" Tefano shouts as he jumps down through the space the windshield used to be. He moves to attack her, but she sidesteps to avoid him. He runs past Mashai to pick up Achime and carry her to the back of the cockpit.
"Hey, check this out," Mashai says as she holds the glass ball out in her open palm. It grows into a giant rectangle before becoming increasingly thick so fast those two couldn't react in time and now they're pressed between this giant glass block and the metal wall! "I can now squeeze some answers out of you. Now tell me who controls your phantom nation? Where are they? Who are their allies?"
She's slowly applying the pressure! If they don't talk, she's going to kill them! I run over to her, without thinking, but I'm going to do something. I can't just watch two people be crushed to death. I throw a punch at Mashai's face, but she doesn't even move. The end of her dress lifts up on its own, blocking her face, and changes into some kind of metal. When my fist hits it, I can feel the bones of my hand break.
I shout in pain but stop when I hear the muffled cries of those two. They're not going to answer her questions, they'd rather die! At this moment I find that admirable, I don't want them to die, not like this. I can feel the bones in my right-hand healing, but the aching, numbing pain is still there. I don't wait or think, I take another shot at Mashai. Her dress lifts up again, but this time, my hand breaks through whatever metal it is and I hit her in the side of her face as hard as I can. She falls to the floor, blood running from her nose and mouth. The moment she takes her hand off the windshield it returns to its original form. I notice my forearm turned red! But the redness quickly fades to black and the blackness crumbles off me and blows away in the wind.
Not able to fit in this space, the windshield cracks and shatters against the metal walls it's pressing against. The shards fly everywhere. I take about three shards to the body and fall down. Lying on the floor, I start pulling the shards out. I feel like I'm dying, but that feeling soon goes away. I see that Achime and Tefano weren't hit by any of the large shards. Kuiga is pulling a few small ones out of her arms and face. Mashai is still on the floor, not moving. Did I hurt her that badly and did she just let those six shards stab into her? They're not that big at least.
Well, those three should be fine. With the windshield missing, I think I can climb out and get into the airship above us. I put a foot on the console to climb out, but Mashai reaches out grabbing my arm. I turn to look at her and she looks extremely angry, I almost don't recognize her. With the bruises from me hitting her, the blood all over her face, and that scowl. "Do you have any idea what you've done to me!" She shrieks at me with searing rage. "You've ended my life!"
"What are you talking about?" I blurt out, not sure what's going on, but feeling very uncomfortable.
"I'm an agent of Saiten! We are what we are because we're perfect in everything we do! We set an example for our people! I toyed around with all of you for fun, because I knew I could control the situation! But they showed up and you… you punched through solid trithitum, the strongest metal on the planet! You weren't supposed to do that!" She's shaking me at this point. "I can't be an agent if I'm not perfect! Being injured by someone, especially something inferior makes me not perfect! They'll strip me of my title, rip the xeir stone from my body! I could be killed or banished in shame and it's all your fault!" She lets me go and starts taking a few steps back.
"You have to be overreacting. No one's perfect, we all make mistakes," I say, trying to calm her down.
"All agents are perfect. They do everything flawlessly and without delay. I've failed I'm no longer an agent," I'm stunned by how devastated she is.
"Come on, just because you got punched? I'm sure that'll heal soon and then no one will know," I want to calm her down, it can't be as bad as she says.
"You think I would keep a secret from my nation? My people? How dare you even suggest it!" Mashai gets on one knee, pressing her fists against the floor. The metal all around us turns blue and soft. The hole where the windshield was closes and seals. All the surfaces in here are starting to pulsate, did she bring the ship to life? Branches of flesh sprout out, tipped with sacs that inflate and deflate. I realize what she's doing. I think we're in a giant lung that's sucking the air into those sacs, leaving us to asphyxiate.
I take a step towards Mashai. I have to stop her, but I fall to my hands and knees. I can't breathe I can't move. I collapse on the floor and can see Kuiga, Tefano and Achime also dying on the floor. My vision is fading and yet I can hear some sort of squeaking sound and it's getting closer. I black out and lose all my senses.
I wake up to the sound of sneezing. Opening my eyes I see Mashai up on her feet, sneezing uncontrollably. There are also several fuzzy, squeaky balls of different colors bouncing around her. "My chizzies!" Achime screams. The ship has returned to normal. These fuzzy puffballs are the size of basketballs, are those her pets? While I wonder about that, I see Mashai is still sneezing a lot. Were these puffballs sucked in here from another room? I think Mashai is allergic to them. While thinking about it, Tefano forces himself to his feet and kicks Mashai in the side of her head, knocking her out.
He looks back at Achime who is still pretty hurt. I take this chance to make my move. Turning around, I look out the hole where the windshield was, I can see Bodaka fighting with Erano on top of the cage that's directly under the open doors of the airship with several soldiers staring down from it, watching them.
"Kuiga! We need to help Bodaka!" I see both Bodaka and Erano are pretty equal, this fight could go on for several more minutes.
"No one likes people who butt into a riokan. Those who do get in trouble," Kuiga says and I still don't get what the big deal is.
"We don't have time! We beat the agent we can't waste this opportunity and wait for that to end. Besides, didn't you want practice?" I can't believe I just said that. I'm so desperate to get through this that I'm trying to manipulate Kuiga into fighting. Also, she clearly has more fighting experience than I do, so it'll be easier for her.
"Alright," Kuiga says, not sounding very enthused. She jumps out the ship and then from cage to cage to get to Bodaka.
I look to see Tefano struggling to drag Mashai's body up to the control panel. "If you had just gotten on when you were supposed to, none of this would've happened. Our ship is a wreck, we're both injured and now you're probably not going to help me throw her body outside before she wakes up," I do sort of feel bad for these two. I feel like we could've gotten along.
"Yeah, that's not something I would want to do, but I do want you to tell me who hired you and where you're supposed to take me," this is my best chance to get answers.
"Like I'm going to say that out loud with an agent right here, conscious or not," now he sounds serious.
"Hey! What are you doing?!" I hear Bodaka shout and I look back to see Kuiga standing behind Erano as he's falling off the cage! He's losing a lot of blood from a huge wound on his back. "You… Why did you do that?!" Bodaka shouts sounding really shocked and upset like Kuiga just broke a major law.
"I've never seen anyone do that. That branch is messed up," Tefano says and I'm confused that he would refer to Kuiga like that. Bodaka walks up to Kuiga and punches her so hard in the face that I can see blood running out of her mouth. Why'd Bodaka do that?! I jump out and onto the cages to get to them. I jump to a second one and I see Bodaka and Kuiga jump into the airship followed by the sounds of fighting. Those soldiers aren't shooting their lasers, but I hear the sounds of some other weapons being used.
"You're not getting away!" I look back to see Mashai, staggering up onto the top of the ship. She falls on her knees. What happened to Tefano? "No matter what, my life is over now! If I die, it'll be knowing I killed you in the most horrifying way!" Mashai wipes some blood from her mouth and flings it onto the closest cage. She then holds out her hand and I watch as her skin turns dark before going completely black, blood pouring out of every orifice on her face. Why is that happening?
The metal of the cage her blood landed on starts to bend and twist. It becomes an orb that shoots out strands, that stick to the other cages near it, must be fifty including the one I'm standing on and pulls them all to it.
The metal all melds together and I can hear the screams of the people slowly get muffled before going compeltely silent! Are they dead?! The surface under my feet is moving so much, I slip off! While falling, I see Mashai go limp and she falls off the orange ship.
I land on top of on of the buildings. I didn't see where Mashai landed because the pain in my back was too much for me to get right back up from. I need a couple moments. I can feel so many broken bones. I lay there and look up at the shifting mass of metal above me. It transforms into a giant monster on two legs with a huge alligator-like mouth! It falls to the ground, crashing onto the buildings, destroying everything around it!
It sees me right away and charges straight at me! My bones have healed enough, so I get to my feet and run! I jump over the edge as the building behind me is destroyed by the monster crashing through it! I hit the street, feeling the bones in my legs shatter at the same time the monster finishes plowing through the building.
My bones quickly heal and I endure the pain to start running down the street. The monster chases me, destroying the buildings on both sides of the street as it goes. It reaches down with its mouth, trying to catch me in its jaws. When it does that, I can hear and feel the screams of fear and pain from the people trapped inside. Those screams are giving me a splitting headache. I feel the jaws snap behind me, just barely missing me. I can't out run it much longer and it keeps aiming its mouth at me, so I'm constantly feeling the pain tearing through my head. I glance back over my shoulder to see that the back of its mouth is filled with pipes and horns that have meshes in the back of them. It's on top of me! Its open jaws are right above me! It's about to bite down and trap me in that echo torture chamber! Right before it can trap me in its mouth, the Saiten airship crashes down on it, the city and me.
I'm in a black void. I see a large set of eyes appear above me along with a giant mouth, grinning. "You knew you were causing all that damage and you didn't care," the face is so angry at me.
"Who… what are you? Where am I?" The face just smiles and then fades away.
I wake up, everything is mostly dark, but I see a few streams of light in the distance above me. My body feels numb, but I'm able to force enough of the debris away so that I can start climbing up to the light. After a while I make it to the surface to see the city, the airship, and the monster are all destroyed. My brain feels like goo that's swirling around in my skull.
I need to find Kuiga and the others. After wandering around for what seems like hours, I find my way back to the entrance of the city, the one we came in from. I see the people fleeing from the city, some in damaged vehicles, others on foot. I'm glad the people survived even though they all look hurt. There are some surviving soldiers too who are rounding up as many people as they can, Erano is leading them despite his fall and back injury, no sign of Mashai. I even notice Tefano's orange ship in the wreckage.
My head is still hazy, so I don't know what I'm thinking when I walk up to him. "Hmm? Oh, the disobediant one. How did you survive? Hey, where is that nasty branch or Bodaka? Our riokan still isn't ov--" Before he can finish, I punch him in the face. I tried to channel the same strength I did when I hit Mashai, I could feel it, but I couldn't bring out all of it. My hit sends Erano to the ground, this surprises the soldiers.
"Run!" I shout to the captives and they all scatter. The soldiers try to round them up, but they all slip away. Having forgotten to run, the soldiers raise their weapons at me. I'm not sure what to do now. Miga, Terate and Gura jump out from behind some wreckage! They have their own weapons and start shooting at the soldiers, though they're shooting bullets and not lasers.
Kiruki pulls the craft up and they all jump onto the side of it, holding onto the edge. "Get on stupid!" Kiruki shouts from the driver's seat. He opens the door and I scramble onboard. Kiruki then drives away, swerving back and forth to avoid the lasers.
I see the three slide down the ladder from the roof. "That was insane!" Miga squeals with excitement.
"Don't know what you did, but whatever it was, you did good kid," Terate says, slapping me on the back.
"I've never seen anything like that. You made Saiten look like idiots," Gura says, sounding really impressed instead of her usual rudeness.
"The weirdo just got lucky," Kiruki says, and I can tell he still doesn't like me.
"What caused the ship to fall?" I ask, wondering about that. "Wait, hold on, What about Kuiga and Bodaka?"
"I left to secure the craft and keep it out of sight, once the ship fell, I found Kuiga, barely conscious, she told me where bodaka was, he was unconscious. I had to carry them both back here, by myself, no help from anyone else," Gura says, complaining about it for some reason.
"We were still getting ourselves out of that box," Miga says with a smile on her face. "We'll have to ask Bodaka about how he made the ship fall when he wakes up. Him being able to do that is why we trust him and we have a chance to win!" Miga happily says.
"They're in the back rooms," Terate says and I remember there being two bedrooms in the back of this thing.
I'm about to go check on Kuiga, but I notice all the people fleeing the city out into the wilderness. It's amazing how they all survived that. The krivadel body must be really tough. I then focus on the destruction. "Did we destroy their city?"
"Don't worry about it. Trust me, they're all way happier with this outcome," Miga says, coming up behind me to put her arms around me. It's nice that she wants to comfort me. "Your fancy clothes are so soft," nevermind. I notice Haraito being carried out, so that old guy survived too.
Of course, Miga is right, getting free is probably worth the loss of their homes. I'm sure they can rebuild everything someday. I walk back to check on Kuiga, she's laying on a bed, strapped to it. I assume they did that to keep her from falling off it when they have to drive erratically.
"This also makes a good start for our revolution. Too bad our leader is out cold," I hear Gura says in that deadpan voice. Perphaps Miga is right, maybe we do have a chance. But poor Kuiga looks terrible. So bruised and bloody. I look for a rag or something I can use to clean her up.
"Let's take Bodaka to recover at Ewacho?" I hear Miga asks and everyone seems excited about that idea. I look back down at Kuiga to see she's awake! She's crying silently with tears running down her face.
"Are you alright?"
"I couldn't do anything against that agent and I had to sneak up behind the lesser. Once Bodaka tells the others I interrupted his riokan, they're going to get rid of me. I'm useless… I'm never going to… What's the point…" She starts crying more.
Jeez, she's really beating herself up over not being able to beat those people up. "No, you're not useless. You're the first person I met here you're my friend. You have value to me. I'll make sure they won't get rid of you and if they do… I'll go with you," when I take time to think about it, walking away from a revolution to be a vagrant with Kuiga won't get me anywhere. I'm sure they won't kick her out for helping Bodaka.
Kuiga doesn't smile, but she stops crying and rolls to face away from me. They didn't tighten those straps very well. That was an insane experince. I almost forgot that someone calling themselves my creator is looking for me. Hopefully they'll try again, so I can figure some things out. I also want to figure out what Kuiga's problems are. I can tell there are things she wants to tell me that she's holding in. At least I now know I do have some power. Why do I have it? And how do I fully control it?