Fan Fiction ❯ Humanity Reborn ❯ Revelations ( Chapter 5 )

Chapter Five \ Revelations

 

 

Thunk. Thunkthunkthunkthunk. Thunk.

 

Mariame turned at a movement to her right, eyes opening to sleepy slits as she peered at the person next to her. Aurore's teeth were clenched and her eyes closed as her head appeared to be shaking; a dull thumping could be heard coming from directly behind her. The seat behind her head was shaking with each thump; every time one was heard, Aurore's head jerked forward marginally.

 

Thunk.

 

Mariame opened her eyes further, curious.

 

Thunkthunk.

 

“ARGH!” Aurore's own eyes opened suddenly and her fists clenched; she spun in her seat so she was facing the seat directly behind her as she flung her headphones off her ears. They landed with a clatter on the carpeted floor.

 

Mariame looked past her friend's figure to the tiny window and saw wispy clouds of vapor swirling around a flat, shining wing. Shuddering, she looked away quickly, focusing on other things at hand—the compartment directly above the window, the seat in front of her, the narrow alley to her left, and finally, to the right of her, where her friend was kneeling on her seat, glaring malevolently at the seat behind her. Smiling at the look of mild fury on Aurore's face, May turned in her seat to see at whom her friend's attention was held.

 

Hugh looked up with a grin, his feet resting on the back of the seat in front of him. His laughing eyes met with a glare; quickly he smothered his smile. Alleio glanced up from the magazine he was paging through solemnly and smirked. Today, his hair was a short, spiky strawberry blonde. It looked absolutely hideous on him.

 

The winged creature on Alleio's shoulder chirped, glanced at Aurore's furiously glowing face hovering over the seat-back, and nestled itself in Alleio's shirt, trembling slightly.

 

Aurore spotted the bird's action and sighed. Her hair, previously snapping with electricity and sparking, calmed into its usual sleek straightness and her face slid into a modicum of irritation. With exasperation evident in her voice, she asked,

 

“Hugh…must you kick my seat like an antsy kindergartner?”

 

He replied with a cheeky, boyish grin, causing Aurore to roll her eyes at him and turn her glance to Alleio.

 

“Will you switch seats with him?”

 

A raised eyebrow was her reply. Aurore threw her hands up in utter exasperation and flipped back around in her seat. She looked to her left and saw Mariame smiling in amusement.

“I'll switch, if you want…” Mariame glanced nervously to the window but nodded resolutely, affirming her statement.

 

Aurore looked at her gratefully, but shook her head.

 

“Thank you, but...” she peered out the small window at the approaching city. “…we're about to land; and besides, you hate the window seat.”

 

Behind her, Hugh pouted. Alleio glanced at him and murmured quietly,

 

“There are better ways to flirt than to act lower than your age…”

 

He got a silent glare in response. Just then, the intercom of the plane sounded, and they all jumped at the attendant's sharp voice announcing,

 

We are now approaching the Tokyo International Airport. Please fasten your seatbelts for landing and have your tickets and passports ready upon exiting the plane. Thank you for riding.

 

*********

 

The group left the plane and gathered their nearly nonexistent luggage, marveling at the crowd of people, local and foreign, filling the airport. Aurore sighed, glanced around at the crowd, and immediately looked towards the open sky, seeking escape.

 

She breathed in a little gasp, and whispered,

 

“Too…many…people…” Aurore stood perfectly still, neck arched and upturned to the sky. Hugh came up from behind, nearly running into the girl now resembling a statue.

 

“Whoa, what's up?” He saw the position of her head and looked up, as well. “Where's the show?”

 

Jolted out of her stupor by his joking tone, she looked back at Hugh's upturned and grinning face. She smiled slightly as well, still uneasy. He met Aurore's eye questioningly, and she waved a hand in his direction in dismissal of the subject.

 

Hugh felt a light breeze then, and the sun emerged suddenly from behind a cloud and shone directly onto his face, blinding him. He glanced from Aurore's now still hand up to the clouds, which were drifting now, and back again.

 

He nudged her. “Do that again,”

 

“Do what again?”

 

“The hand-wave,”

 

She looked at him curiously, tilting her head slightly. “What, this?”

 

She copied her earlier actions, as if to bat away a nonexistent fly. Hugh watched the clouds as she did this. They moved just a smidgeon, and he felt wind brush lightly through his hair. Thinking of something, he grabbed her hand and brought it high above her head, swinging it forward dramatically, ignoring her protests.

The clouds moved faster now, in the direction of her hand.

 

Mariame and Alleio exchanged confused glances when they saw the strange scene presenting itself to them.

 

Hugh held Aurore's arm high in the air, and was forcing it to move back and forth, while Aurore tried to stop him with her other free hand. It looked rather like she was being forced to participate in a high-school-spirit-wave, with one arm.

 

“What are you doing!” Aurore's voice was rather high-pitched at the moment, and Hugh winced, for she was about three inches from his ear. He jerked his chin up towards the sky, encouraging her to look up, still moving her arm in a wave motion. She sighed and obeyed. Alleio and Mariame did the same.

 

Alleio noticed it first.

 

“She is moving the clouds,” he stated.

 

Mariame turned to look at him, incredulous.

 

“How could she move the clouds? They're just water vapor! And they're way-freaking up there!” She pointed inanely to the sky.

 

Rolling his eyes, Alleio replied,

 

“She controls the wind, apparently…look. Her hand moves, and the breeze picks up and the clouds move,” As he said this, he was caught by a particularly large gust of wind and his long trench coat whipped around him, the ends snapping at his face. “Hugh, do stop that. We see what you're trying to convey,”

 

Hugh grinned, but dropped Aurore's arm. She clasped the offended appendage to her chest protectively and glared.

 

“I wouldn't mind if you left off assaulting my person from now on, thank you!” She then glanced up at the sky and moved her hand herself, in a wide, slow arc. A gentle breeze touched her hair, and she took out the elastic band restraining it. It fell, a shining and straight golden-brown curtain across her back. She turned then, back to her friends.

 

“Well?”

 

Mariame clenched a hand briefly on Alleio's arm and nodded before preceding Aurore, her own mass of curly auburn hair flying.

 

“Nothing can or will surprise me now. Let's go. We'll be needing to find shelter, and a shrine.”

 

***

 

“Good God,” Mariame peered at the bill for the hotel. “It's outrageous!”

 

Aurore paused in brushing her hair and paced over the length of the room to Mariame, who was sitting on a bed, reading a small slip of paper. Aurore glanced discreetly down at the figures and sighed.

 

“That's yen, not dollars,” she explained as she ran her hand down her smooth hair, following the brush. Mariame saw the action and her eyes narrowed as a hand went to her own hair, rebellious and quite un-brush-able.

 

“I know that,” she snapped. “it's still insane!”

 

Aurore shrugged and turned away, frowning at the windows. Outside it was a dreary pale day, with many gray rain clouds littering the similarly colored sky. Aurore saw one of these such, and murmured,

 

“No, that won't do,” and waved a hand nonchalantly at the cloud, forcing it to begin its retreat. The sun peeked weakly through the gloom, and Aurore turned away from the window, setting down her hairbrush as she smiled slightly at Mariame.

 

“We don't have to worry about money, Mar-” using the nick name she had coined her friend with soon after the dispute in the alley. “-Alleio can—and will—take care of it, you know,”

 

Mariame nodded, but her brow furrowed slightly, lips pressed thinly together.

 

“He shouldn't pay for everything…”

 

***

 

Hugh watched Alleio's long shiny blue-black hair sway in the wind as they walked down the sidewalks of Tokyo. They were getting a lot of strange looks, and no wonder. If the waist-length hair wasn't enough, Alleio had chosen to walk around in his traditional formal robed garb. Hugh felt very strange, walking behind this creature who was human-but-not, he in a normal t-shirt and jeans. Even with his shoulder-length and visibly European blonde hair, he attracted little attention; Alleio held most of the passersby's.

 

“So… man, where did you get your money, anyway?”

 

Hugh voiced a question that had been riding in the back of his mind for a while now. Alleio was aware of this, obviously, but had chosen not to speak of it as it tended to creep the human out when Alleio read his mind. He glanced back at Hugh, contemplating whether or not to answer truthfully. He decided upon a half-truth.

 

“I am a ruler. That is explanation enough,” he replied chilly. Alleio was still cold and wary towards Hugh, him being of a mind to become possessed on the off day. Yes, by himself Hugh was likeable enough, and to be trusted, surely; it was simply that even Alleio never knew when Evil was listening.

 

“Oh.” Hugh looked down at his feet, feeling strangely small. A small burst of fury rose in him at this feeling, for who was Alleio to act superior, inhuman or not? `Then again,' he thought, `the dude doesn't have the little problem of being possessed!' Then he remembered that Alleio could read minds, and was annoyed. There was nothing that could be kept from this guy, indeed. No wonder he had not had any trouble seducing Mariame. `Stupid bastard,' he thought. `He better not move in on Aurore, too!'

 

Alleio snorted mentally and smiled wryly. The judgment, I suppose, comes with power, he thought, glancing up at the building that appeared before him.

 

“We are here,” he announced. They were, indeed, at the front of a shrine-gate, through which you could see men practicing with katanas and other such weaponry.

 

“Oh, good. What now?”

 

“We enter, and ask for permission to be taught martial arts,” Alleio replied, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

 

“Y'know, I would have thought a guy like you wouldn't have needed to learn how to fight,” Hugh questioned.

 

Alleio shrugged and walked through the gate towards the main building. “It is not needed for Psychens to learn,” he said, mimicking Hugh's tone. “We use our minds to battle,”

 

“What? But…” Hugh was confused. How in the world could you kill with your mind?

 

“It is a simple matter of driving the opponent into incurable insanity,” Alleio responded.

 

Hugh shuddered. It almost sounded more brutal than running one through with a sword.

 

Alleio stopped and turned towards Hugh, meeting his eyes.

 

“You have never wondered why there are insane humans?” he inquired. When Hugh shook his head mutely, he continued. “They have crossed the wrong Psychens too many times in their lifetime. It is unfortunate; my race is not known to be particularly merciful.”

 

Hugh was even more confused. “I thought it was a medical condition, with like, imbalances of the brain, or something wrong…or genetics…”

 

“Silly human fancies, to be sure; you have noticed your race has always needed explanations for everything? Hence they have created such when needed.” Alleio was growing slightly impatient; did this human know nothing?

 

“That's so weird!” Hugh was disbelieving. There was no way Alleio thought everything doctors and scientists had come up with was…false!

 

Alleio continued to explain.

 

“Your mediums? Fortune-tellers? Palm-readers? Exiled Psychens. You notice my appearance isn't much different from a human's-”

 

Hugh snorted.

 

“-excepting personal preference,” Alleio responded icily, shaking his long hair in example, “so you can see how easily my people blend with humans.”

 

Hugh nodded. “What a concept, though. What are -- were -- witches?”

Alleio uttered a quick, bitter laugh. “Mixed breeds,” he said shortly.

 

The way he said `breeds', as if they all were dogs, sent a shiver down Hugh's spine. He shuddered slightly, but continued on as if he were not severely disturbed by Alleio's manner. He wondered if the incorrectness of his statement was intentional. For Hugh could have sworn, that if Alleio had thought of humans as beings just like him…he would have said `race'.

 

***

 

Aurore sipped at a steaming mug, perched on a stool next to Mariame at a local café. Setting the cup down, Aurore sighed and traced a moisture ring on the counter absently with her finger; then, stole a glance at Mariame. She was typing furiously away at a laptop Alleio had bought for the group. Aurore sighed again, very softly, and gazed off outside the window to the street.

 

“Where are the guys?” Mariame asked, eyes still on the computer screen, a page-long email filling up rapidly. Did she have a boyfriend back home? Aurore wondered. Why was she fooling around with Alleio, then? `Maybe it's a best friend she's writing to…'

 

 

“What?” Aurore hadn't paid attention to what Mariame had actually asked.

 

Mariame blew a stray curl off of her forehead and typed a final sentence, turning to Aurore. She clicked `send', and meeting her friend's eyes, she asked,

 

“Where do you think the guys went? They kinda just disappeared this morning, didn't they?”

 

“Oh. I think Hugh mentioned something about training, remember?” Aurore rubbed a finger over her bottom lip, reddening it.

 

“I didn't think they were doing that today. It's not like they can just walk into a dojo and start fighting some black belt,” Mariame shut the laptop's cover with a click and began rummaging through her purse. She found a tube of lip balm and handed it to Aurore silently.

 

“Oh, thanks…well, no…that maybe would prove dangerous, but…something along those lines,” Aurore agreed.

 

“Mmmmhmmm…” Mariame nodded absently, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, then glanced at Aurore's drink. Aurore could swear she saw that little ear perk just a little as she asked, “What did you order? It smells delicious!”

 

“Caramel cappuccino. I'm a caffeine junkie,”

 

Mariame fixed her with an incredulous look. “Really! You honestly don't look it,”

 

Aurore laughed. “Take my word for it…” she paused, thinking. “…do you know, I think Hugh told me where they were going today, actually. `Cuz he had to look it up. How about we go sneak up on them and spy?”

 

 

“Spy?” Mariame giggled. “It sounds so wrong! Good lord, there will be major guys there…I mean, who else frequents the dojos besides muscular young men?”

 

“Do they even allow women there?”

 

“I bet not! It would be so scandalous if we showed up!”

 

They giggled like a pair of, well, teenage girls.

 

***