Dreams of the Quill

The second chapter of FtP v2!

Wind and Water

“I’m off,” I called over my shoulder as I slipped my shoes on and slid the door open.

“Have fun,” Fuuko replied cheerfully, always looking for an opportunity to say something less than appropriate. I, being a foreigner, of course didn’t mind, but I worry for her. Some day she might offend someone with that informal way of speech.

“Hope I will,” I grinned, and then exited the room, closing the door behind me.

It was evening, a little past the twentieth hour. Kurosakura U was basking in a warm orange glow, the orange of a sky well polluted with light. Everything was silent, even the insects at this time of year. Was a bit chilly, being early Autumn, and every so often a dead leaf floated down to the ground on a refreshing breeze. This was the time of year I liked the most back in America, where through October you see heatwaves every other week. I liked heatwaves because they gave me reason to remain in my basement room, where natural cooling took place and I could relax.

This was my first time experiencing it in Japan, and it’s quite different. Here, in this place, by the time you hit September, it begins to cool significantly. I like the vitalizing feel of the wind, and it draws me outside. I always used to be an indoors person, and this change in my surroundings has created a change in me. Over the last weeks, I had established a pattern, a habit, one could say, of going out at this time of day and just walking around campus. I might look at the state of the lawns, I might examine some bulletin boards. But mostly I just strolled along, slowly, listening to the wind rustling through bushes and trees and feeling it on my face.

Today was no different from the last bunch when I set out, though it too, like my perception of many things in Japan, changed quickly, for standing outside the building, back leaning against the doorframe, was someone I knew.

I panicked, looked around for any hint of the surroundings changing. The air felt more moist than normal, but thankfully, the world did not go blue as it had on my previous meetings with this man.

“Kaze-mikoto,” he began, straightening up, and turning to me.

“How many times have I told you not to call me that?” I demanded of him, not hiding the frustration in my voice. Mikoto, an honorific used for someone to whom you owed your life.

“How many times did I tell you to kill me, back then?”

“Half a dozen, I’d say.” I looked away, wishing he hadn’t shown up. I felt as if my daily ritual was about to vanish into thin air… or perhaps thick air.

“You win,” he said with a light-hearted laugh in his tone. “You’ve told me off at least twenty times.”

“I’d lost count,” I replied drily, and decided to make a break for it. If I ignored him, I could get away. So I did. I turned so my body faced the same direction my face did, and began walking. It wasn’t long before I felt a hand on my shoulder. I stopped in my tracks and sighed. “What is it now, Sui?”

“There’s trouble, Kaze.”

“Trouble, trouble, there’s always trouble!” I turned back to face him, brushed his hand of my shoulder.

“That is indeed the case.”

I took a good look at him. He was clad in regular clothes now, unlike when I first met him in his robe and bandages. Well, I’m pretty sure that even now he was wearing bandages over his torso, legs, and arms, but at least he’d given up that silly robe. The only place the bandages were apparent were where they were wrapped around his neck and forehead and where they were formed into a facemask of sorts. His wild shock of deep blue hair lay haphazardly over the tight bindings, and his piercing golden eyes peeked from between gaps in cloth. All in all, he looked peculiar. And serious. There was trouble, and those golden eyes confirmed it.

“Why don’t you take care of it, then?”

“I’ve told you several times, Kaze, your powers are stronger than mine.” Powers, powers! This man’s crazy.

“And how many times have I told you that I don’t care?” If I kept on shrugging it off, he might leave me alone. That is what I wished for, so that is what I pursued.

“Far too many, far too many. Do you not understand that this place relies on your protection as long as you are here? No- any place. Where you are, that becomes a place you must protect. If you do not… people may die.” And there he went, being all over-dramatic again, trying to guilt me into doing whatever he wants.

“Do the troubles not originate from your presence as well?”

“Well- in a manner of speaking, yes, but as you are more powerful, you attract a good deal more bad luck-”

“Well, I’d bet several thousand yen that this is something you have to deal with, Suigeki-san. Now I bid you a good day.”

And I dashed off, unwillingly creating a barrier behind me. I peeked over my shoulder as I took off, saw him beating his gloved hands against what looked like thin air. Why could the guy not leave me alone? Trying to put him out of my mind, I did not look back again as I ran as fast as I could. Unfortunately, I did not get far before I felt something inside me shatter, and then a very cold, liquidy substance flowed through what you would call my senses… and through my body.

And then there he was.

“Kaze, listen!” He had appeared right in front of me, had pulled out of my body just as he had gone in- through my water streams. Yes, that is what he did. He must have shattered the barrier and then merged with the condensation in the air. It made sense to me, having heard him explain his powers before, but it still felt odd to have another person enter my body.

I shivered, and then dropped to my knees before him.

“…did I… overdo it?” The man, Suigeki, leaned forward, hands on knees, inspecting my condition.

“…water…” I coughed once. My knees collapsed, and the last thing I remember of that moment was Suigeki placing his hands, no longer gloved, to my mouth and the taste of cool, sweet, life-giving water.

When I woke, the first thing that came to my was my sense of hearing. It was to the sound of my partner yelling, which frightened my considerably, that I woke. I’d never heard her so angry once since I met her, and it was astonishing to me that the girl could sound so violent.

Next, my sight returned, and I saw I was lying in no other place than upon her bunk.

Before I could panic, my ability to perceive returned, and I realized that there were two other people in the room, both standing- Fuuko and Suigeki. I was not the one being yelled at; Fuuko’s attention was directed at the bandaged man. I noted that her outstretched arm was flung in my direction, with her fingers also outstretched- she was gesturing towards me.

With the return of perception, I could make out her words.

“…to him?! What did you do to him?!” She repeated this question several times, while he just stood there. “Why don’t you say anything?!”

“What do you want me to say, Nimue-san?” Suigeki answered quietly.

“H-how do you know my name?” I winced as the shock in her voice reminded me of the fact that they had never met before, and that I had-

“Kaze told me about you,” Suigeki’s calm voice came steadily and his words were matter-of-fact.

“Who are you, anyway?”

“A friend.”

“Friends don’t nearly kill eachother!” Fuuko raged.

“I didn’t try to kill him, Nimue-san. I just brought him back here, and-”

“And told me he was about to die! What do you expect, that I take it lightly? Here some stranger appears carrying my precious comrade in a state of near death and I’m supposed to just say ‘yeah, okay, thanks for dropping by’? I want to know what happened!”

I silently wished that Suigeki would not be stupid enough to tell Fuuko. Unfortunately, luck was not on my side at the time.

“Well, it’s a bit of a long story, but he-”

“He just got a bit dehydrated,” I said loudly, attempting to drown out whatever he might have been about to say.

“You’re awake, Kaze-kun? Oh, thank— I mean,” she coughed, “good. Now please get off my bed, if you’re alive.”

“You’re the one that told me to put him there,” Suigeki said slowly. “I could have gotten him onto the top bunk.”

I weakly rose and stood up, then turned to Suigeki.

“A word outside, please,” I requested, hoping Fuuko wouldn’t think much of it.

“Goodbye, Nimue-san,” the man said, brushing a stray strand of blue hair from his face before turning on his heels and leaving the room.

“I’ll just be a moment, Fuuko-chan,” I chirped, trying to sound reassuring, before following Suigeki out. Once the door was shut behind me I turned on the man and, with a vicious hiss, asked him what the hell he was thinking.

“I tried to stop you so you could come with me, but-”

“You lost control and drained me of water entirely?”

“Something like that,” he answered, meekly.

“I’m glad that the wind is gentle, and you should be, too, Sui. When the wind kicks up and rages, it is the water that ripples and becomes broken.”

“I’ve seen enough angry wind for one night,” he replied drily, referring to Fuuko.

“I don’t want an apology from you, or a stupid joke. I want you to not keep trying to drag me into your business. I told you, on that night two years ago, that I wouldn’t use my powers anymore. I told you, that night, that I would live a normal life. Having someone around me who can move through the bodies of others and turn rain into needles does not count as normal.”

“I can’t just disappear, Kaze. We’re bound together by the fate of the-”

“Yeah, yeah. Give me another retarded explanation of those so-called ‘elementalists’, like you did that night when trying to make me kill you. I won’t do what you want, so why bother trying to get me to?”

“Because I have hope, and that hope allows me to believe that some day you will realize what you must.”

“And until then, you’re just going to stick around?”

“I have no other alternative, Kaze. The only thing I feel now is pain. You cured my wounds that night, but the pain has never subsided. I can’t take my bandages off anymore. I can’t die, except by your hand. Nothing will change at this rate, until you are killed for your indecision.”

“Is that a threat?”

“No, it is a warning.”

“Sui, I’ve never felt comfortable about this ‘fate’ or ‘our’ people, or our ‘powers’. I came here to get away from it all, and I’m happy with what I’ve got- a pleasant school, some cool friends. I even-”

“But it’s not enough, is it?” The man’s eyes seemed to twinkle as if he were laughing at some great joke. “That will never be enough.”

“What do you mean?”

“There are two meanings. One is that your hair is darkening and your eyes growing brighter. I wonder how long it’ll take for your hair to turn black, Kaze, or for your eyes to turn golden.” What did he mean by that? Would I become like him, with hair that’s only a step away from black, and eyes that pierce the darkness? “And the other has to do with what you told me that night. About what you swore to live for.”

Suddenly it all came back. How I had told him of my childhood dream, of how I had spilled my hopes and ambitions out before him as I had with the old man. My ambitions had flared up again, against my will. Suigeki knew that… Suigeki knew that and had arrived before me again to see how it would play out. I would not give him that fun.

“The me that lived for the pen, Suigeki,” I said slowly and deliberately, “has died.”

I turned, opened the door, and slammed it behind me as I entered my room. Fuuko was lying on her bed, apparently sleeping. I glanced at a clock- it was already the twenty-third hour. I was out cold for that long? Of course I hadn’t kept track of time while unconscious. I crept in quietly and made my way towards my bed. As I clambered up the makeshift ladder, I heard Fuuko’s voice. It seemed that she hadn’t been asleep, after all.

“I was worried.” Not formally said. It was just plain and simple. She’d been worried.

“I’m really sorry,” I replied, and lay down. Silence set in, and soon we were both asleep.