Far Far Away (End of Volume #1)

*Kyuu's POV*

I wake up... to not some knocking on the door, not someone jumping on me, not to the pitter patter of joyful steps... I woke to the loud quietness. I hate it... I hate the sound of the creaking floorboards, the door opening, the bleak morning. It's only been a day since then... yet the absence felt like ages.

The chair scrapes against the floor noisily as I pull it out to sit. My wish of finally eating my pudding in peace, came true... but the taste is too stale, and the golden egg pudding layered with dark chocolate suddenly looked a lot less appealing, spoiled almost. Mom's room door clacks open almost apprehensively as she steps out.

"Mom... morning."

Eye bags, I could tell... restless sleep had made her features more gaunt, even frailer. She footsteps were slow, heavy, tired... drudging over to me... but there was a determined firmness to it.

"Kyui, you didn't do your hair?"

I raise my tufts and brushes some out the way...

"Couldn't bother... mom, you don't look so good yourself. Please... rest properly and eat. You can't go worrying on an empty stomach."

She sits down after pouring herself a bit of coffee... she bought that coffee maker once, wanting to be like a cool adult... but...

"You never liked coffee, mom."

"I know I know... just, a little something bitter to wake me up."

A moment of unnerving silence settles in the room, at the cusp of breaking, spilling over onto something unspoken... it's only a matter who who speaks first. And it seems mom is braver than I am...

"I'm going to find our little munchkin!"

She clasping the mug tighter, the coffee inside swishing and threatening to teeter over.

"Mom-"

"One-Shot said she's captured... held captive at the Prometheus clan."

"Mom, I don't think they're going to hurt her..."

"But they have already!"

"One-Shot told us that Goddess Durga is going to try to protect her... and... Alycia apparently went out of line-"

"War!"

She raises abruptly... cutting me off. Then her voice softens apologetically.

"War... is cruel, Kyui. I was there, you know this. The clan is made up of good people, kind people, some of the best. But many of us, came from broken history, raised from carnage to be better. But that's that, Kyui, we know what we needed to be do and we've seen and done the worst and the best. War isn't kind, and you take measures you don't want to but have to... and we were used to it.... we were good at it."

She fidgets her fingers, deciding as if she wants to continue talking. I just sit, waiting, patiently... I didn't wanna to push mom on a subject only she had the right to talk about.

"There were old gods back then, waging war... we had our fair share of war criminals and captives. Some were even gods... and some times... we couldn't risk them rampaging further."

I knew what she meant by then, it's something you only hear, see on the Crythoscreen, read stories about. All distant and far away for most... I reached out and held her hand.

"Mom..."

"Thank you, Kyui... I hope you don't see us in horrible light... we were better, I like to believe, and we made real changes back then. But I'm just... scared... scared... what they might do, well they experiment on Sura-chan? Lock her away? Test her? Treat her like some freak? The last.... time an intruder god to our universe came... I saw it myself. What if they see Sura like one of them?! Condemning her when she hasn't even done anything wrong!"

The... rest of the day, was dreadfully quiet. I had begun to contemplate mom's words, and now I was closer to understanding why she used to be so paranoid to me as a kid... and now showing a bit of it again. So it was some... old, eldritch god that killed my other mother.

At the dojo now, I decided to go back to see the damage... and take my mind off for a bit.

"Kyuu Sensei, what the happened here?"

Stepping over crumbled slates of pavement, and ruined tiles, Artemas walks in eyebrows raise with estranged bewilderment shared by my arriving students.

"Geez... did Kyuu sensei and Klara sensei have an all out battle? Ripped up the dojo way more than I did ahaha....ha...sorry bad time for a joke."

"No, it's fine."

Even if met with silence, Artemas' positive attitude and misplaced joke, gave an odd sense of comfort to the situation.

"Holy shit! Did a small meteor hit the dojo? What the hell happened yesterday... who or what attacked Heiwa yesterday?"

Pandora points at the crater where once the portal gate was... I hear a troubled whistle coming from above.

"What a mess... I don't even want to think what the repair costs will be. Glad this dojo technically belongs to the town."

Klara flies in, enthusiastic... she swoops down next to me and rubs my arm.

"Hey, I know... but our students need us, let's show a face of strength eh? Save the moping for later."

She's right, I can't let down my students especially now... I straighten my back, doing my best not to look more disheveled than I probably am.

"Students! For now, the dojo will go into repairs and close... I know you must all be somewhat shook by what seemed like an attack on Heiwa. It's over... stay strong, train by yourselves if you must! These are the times where it may come in use, we aren't soldiers... but the point of learning martial arts is also protecting yourself. Dismissed!"

My hastily thought out pep talk seemed to help bolster a bit of morale, as students begin to disperse. Wukong came up to me, worry in her eyes.

"Are you ok, Kyuu sensei? You don't look well... you were hurt weren't you?"

"Yes, but I'm fine now.... thank you for worrying."

I spent the rest of the day, treading about the dojo to assess the damage... the training ground was basically charred... bits of melted stone and ashen wood from the building. Then there's the state of Asura at the front gate... the top half was gone, fallen onto the ground like a heap.

I kneel down, hoisting the top half up, and standing it up right against a corner, before continuing my aimless walk through Heiwa to aid with the reconstruction efforts. Eventually I went back to the Magami Aura again, this time entering to Mokuren's work area... I, just wanted to see her.

"Kyui!"

"Hey there ol' fiery fox."

One-Shot sat on a chair as Mokuren tried to probe around with some sort of soldering gun on her damaged arm. Sparks fly off a little as One-Shot's eyes suddenly malfunction in pain.

"Ai! Careful there darling! This is old war tech here!"

"Sorry! I just... I'm not an bio-mechanical engineer! And certainly not a specialist in fixing murder weapons."

"I'm better off soldering me arse off than you-Ah!! Piss!!"

That one was intentional...

"I'm assuming the repairs, aren't going anywhere?"

Mokuren stops her torture of One-Shot, who happily slumps her back in relief.

"Not without proper replacements... the best I could do was cauterize some areas... and apparently she's run out of nano paste... since a year ago."

"Never needed it... completed my missions just fine before."

Ignoring her boasting, Mokuren continues.

"Should some 'legendary' sniper really be revealing themselves like this?"

"Here's the thing about assassinating. It's the people who don't know me, that should worry, not the ones who do... Kyuu was it?"

"Yes... I wanted to ask something... Alycia had intentionally led the battle into Heiwa. But you said she would avoid collateral damage, how... how could she risk other people's lives."

She just sighs, and a breath of alcohol stings my nose.

"She knew... Alycia ain't dumb. She did it on purpose knowing instead that we would be occupied protecting Heiwa. She got exactly what she wanted, Sura to herself... you can thank the gods lil' beastie didn't kick the dust."

I... but it still didn't seem right, from the start...

"But... she was holding back still... wasn't she?"

"You're a sharp one, she was... a lot. If she wanted lil' beastie would've died. She caught me red-handed here once before, I had hoped she didn't discover Sura here. Like I said... I banked on her shred of consciousness was what held her back... how's your mother?"

I eye her suspiciously, I still didn't trust her fully. But what else did I have to go on? What was really going on... I... I refuse to believe Alycia would just go after someone like this for no reason. There must've been a true reason for hiding Sura here... not that it mattered anymore.

"She's... taking up your word."

"Hmm... and you?"

"Me?"

"You're the beastie's honoree sister right?"

I... don't know what to do.

"Leave no brother nor sister behind... a saying I go by my heart."

"Tch... none of this would have escalated more if you had done your job and protected Sura! Are you not some elite assassin?!"

I said it, out of frustration or indecision... said it so brashly knowing she's got ages more experience than I do. But to hell with that! She just looks at me with dead pan eyes.

"Point taken... but I'm an assassin, not a babysitter. Point is, your lil' sister's gone and I'm sure we'll treat her right, full course meals and an exclusive high security padded cell just for her~"

One-Shot waves her arm sarcastically, as if painting the "freedom" Sura will have. Mokuren abruptly twists a wire on her exposed abdomen, earning another painful yelp.

"Shut it, tin can."

Damn her, I see through her taunt but she did, plant a seed of worry and doubt in my mind... Mokuren approaches puts her arms around my neck, forcing my eyes to look at her... guh stop making me blush!

"Just do what you think is right. You've always been stubborn about that."

She presses her lips against mine, a soft peck. Not in front of someone else! One-Shot turns away, waving her hand back at me dismissively.

"I saw nothing... hah... youth."

It was night now, as I sit impatiently. One-Shot had told mom, the pick up point was midnight today. I spend, an odd amount of time tucking in my black gi... thinking and making excuses to keep thinking. At last, I muster up the courage and close my closet, looking at my poster of Alycia again... her figurine Sura bought me sitting on my desk.

Then I see my present, sitting next to it in a neat folded pile. My old gi clothes as a kid, I wanted to be cool and had my mom sew flaming black gi pants and accessorized padded gi. I had wanted to pass this down to the brat as a thanks... and get rid of an embarrassing memory of mine.

I find myself smiling at it... well... I gotta give it to her right? And an earful of scolding. And answers. I hear things being moved and shifting in mom's room, so I gently knock on her door.

"Mom?"

"Come in."

I open to the sight of her taking out her silver brief case. Inside, her bow and tools. In her dark boots, and a gray combat jackets, mom lean down to pick up the case.

"I know, sweetie but I have to go check up on Sura-chan. You won't stop-"

"I'm coming too, mom! Of course I can't just leave her."

She pauses, trying to make sure she heard me right before her eyes beams with joy as suddenly she straightens her back and energy returns to her steps. She pulls on my cheeks a little, smiling warmly.

"Hehe thank you Kyui! But watch yourself ok? Don't think I'm lighter on you just because you're older now... I bet Sura-chan can't wait to see her big sister come rescue her right?"

Rescue... how? And exactly what are we getting ourselves into? Hah... well, we'll figure it out when we're there. At last, the door closes behind us, and mom locks the door to our little home... I have a feeling it'll be a while till we return. For it, I left a note for Klara to give my students, she'll handle them fine... Artemas, Pandora, Wukong, everyone... until then.

We walk past Heiwa, into the forests in some nondescript path. There was no need for light, the moon's ghostly light and the bio-luminescence of all the flowers and insects was enough. Cold mist hung low like faint fog. Still, accompanied only by the chirping of crickets and occasional rustle of wildlife, I had to wonder...

"We've been walking for a good 20 minutes into the forest. Are you sure this is the right... location... where ever this is?"

Mom walks on ahead of me, not a shred of doubt.

"Oh it is... haah... it brings me back. Extraction points were always so discrete and chaotic. I remember having to go through a pitch dark cave crawling with critters to reach the ship hiding in the subterranean ocean."

As we continued walking, something was refracting a bit of the moonlight off mom's chest... I take a closer notice... a moon-shaped pendant. Mom... I remember as a kid, that I caught a glimpse of her holding onto that necklace... crying. How could I hesitate in coming along?

I pick up pace to stay beside mom, and she gives me a little smile... eventually we stop, out of nowhere.

"We're here."

"Here... where?"

Nothing has changed, and I was mid-step about to step through some thick foliage for the nth time.

"Just give er moment."

A voice sounds off next to me as I jump back in defense... what the?!

"One-Shot!"

Out of thin air, she was next to me the whole time... I didn't even sense her at the slightest.

"So you're coming after all, hah. It's here, look up."

Mom and One-Shot step forward to a spot, their intuition guiding their sight to something I cannot decipher. I stare up at the starry night... it seemed, well, empty. Until little by little something was off, a small almost weird bend of moon light there, a slight distortion of the stars, an invisible large something ever so slightly uncanny.

Then it appears, uncloaked, finally filling in the spot in the sky I was trying to make sense of. A somewhat small spaceship sheds a hollow, dark red light upon us as one of it's bottom hatch opens... throwing down a line with a foot placement at the bottom. One-Shot grasp onto the line and up she goes, silently reeled up into the spaceship. Mom looks back at me.

"Ready, Kyui?"

"...ready."

"Wait up!"

Wait, that voice! I call her name out before I even turn around.

"Mokuren?! What are you doing here?"

She saunters through the thick plants and roots, naturally bowing their way to her, making a clean path for her.

"Duh, to come along~"

"But, what about your responsibilities here and the reconstruction-"

She presses her finger against my lip.

"Please, I can contact my mother and she can handle it... I'm not letting a chance to explore outside of this mundane little town and see all the new technology I can encounter! Plus, I couldn't just let you wander off alone. I won't be able to tease you more and what if someone steals you?"

"What's that suppose to-"

She slides past me, dangling her large woven leaf backpack as she hooks onto the line... pulling herself up. Mom just looks at me, a slight glimmer in her eyes as her mouth is forming a small "o".

"She's a keeper~"

"Mom!"

We both grab the line... the ship begins to lift, giving us one last look of Heiwa. Their ephemeral night lights filling the sky in this little haven... as the Magami Aura casts its canopy over it, and I see a branch twist and wave at us... Goddess Myriam.

"Ready?"

Mom asks one last time. I nod...

"Yes."