Fan Fiction ❯ No Rest For the Wicked ❯ Please, let me go. ( Chapter 1 )

No Rest for the Wicked

Did any one care? No. Would anyone believe her? No. Did it matter? Yes. Everything was riding on this. But what was the point? She had served her time. She had served these people, her people. What good did it do any one? They didn't know who she was. They didn't want to know. So she packed her bag. She was leaving. She paused for a moment at the gate. She hadn't cried in days. She thought that the tears had finally stopped but no. The same thing that forced her to leave was the exact reason she wanted to stay. She held her head high and turned to leave. No one cared the reasons. They were vultures. No one cared at all. Only she didn't count on him. She didn't think about him.

"Saikoubi!" He cried disturbing the stillness of the night. He grabbed her wrist and she flinched.

"Kizoku, I'm begging you, let go." Saikoubi whispered. "Please, let me go."

"You know Junsui didn't mean what she said." Kizoku said. Saikoubi just sighed.

"Yes she did. She meant every word she said." Saikoubi muttered. "I have to leave. I have no choice. The whole town will know by tomorrow. After that there is no point in me staying here. They won't want me to stay here."

Kizoku looked at the girl. She stood barely 5'1. Big brown eyes and brown hair she had cut this morning. The daughter of the fearless and beloved Lord Akahoshi. But he died when Saikoubi was only ten and her mother had died in childbirth. She was to inherit the town. Seventeen years old and trying to beat the guys back. She stayed with six of her best friends and Kizoku in a large mansion. Junsui and another boy stayed there also.

"You've fought for this town. You are this town. Your blood waters the crops of the farmers." Kizoku shot back. "This town needs you."

"They don't need a heir." Saikoubi said, every word laden with poison. "Especially an illegitimate one."

Saikoubi looked him straight in the eye. He was tall, 5'11. Brown hair falling into his gray eyes. An orphan, he had been Saikoubi's first crush. But he had always loved Junsui. Now he was nineteen and falling in love with Saikoubi.

"So then it is true?" He asked.

"The rumors are already spreading!!" She cried. "Junsui told everyone that I actually went that far with Kagayaki!"

"You didn't," Kizoku said in amazement, "but he asked you to right?" She nodded. "No girl has ever turned Kagayaki down!" She glared at him. "But you worshiped him since we were eight!"

"Yes. I did." She agreed. "But that's not what happened."

"Then what happened?"

"It doesn't matter what matters is that I'm leaving. If anyone asks questions just tell them what Junsui is telling everyone."

"What will happen now?"

"Now? What happens now concerns no one but me. So go back inside and forget this conversation Kizoku."

"No. If you're leaving then I'm going with you."

"Oh my… Are you crazy? Traveling with me? To goodness knows where?"

"Lets go. We have ground to cover before sunrise if we're going to get out of here."

"Are you drunk again Kizoku? Are you?"

"No."

"Kagasaki is you're best friend. Shouldn't you be staying out of loyalty to him?"

"Don't you think you'd break your friends' hearts the moment you leave this town?"

"It isn't the same and you know it! You aren't choosing between your best friend and the girl he… The girl that he… It isn't the same. We both know this."

"Do you trust me?"

"Yes. Do you trust me?"

"Yes. Now put your faith in me right now."

"Why?"

"Saikobuki!"

"Fine. Fine I place my faith in you Kizoku Toyoyoshi. Where do you place your trust?"

Kizoku looked down into two brightly shining eyes. It seemed so familiar. She smiled with confidence. He recognized that look. It was the look she had when she set out to do something. Right before final exams she had had that look. She promised that she would pass. Junsui hated her for weeks after that. It was the look she had given him when they were thirteen and she told him that she had loved him, but now there was another. An almost daydreaming look. She had asked him that same question then.

"My trust is placed within you Saikoubi Akahoshi." He said quietly. "For all of eternity."

She just smiled and off they went. They walked on in darkness along the road by the river. After a few hours they came to a small town. Saikoubi ducked into an alley way and led Kizoku through dark, narrow streets. Suddenly he stopped. He couldn't keep up with her. She just had too much energy!

"Kizoku, if you do not hurry we will never get out of here!" She snapped.

"I should've just stayed home. I can't believe I allowed you to bully me into this!" Kizoku teased.

"KIZOKU!" Saikoubi almost yelled and kicked him in the shins.

"What?" He cried. "I was only playing!"

"Feh, what ever!" She dismissed and walked away.

"Arrgh!" He grumbled and followed.

A short while later they both stood at the back entrance to a shop. Kizoku yawned. Saikoubi pulled a silver chain out of the collar of her kimono and unlocked the door with a sliver key. He recognized the place instantly. Saikoubi worked here afternoons to get extra money, not that she needed it technically being the Lady of the town. The place was Firefly Forest.

"Kizoku, go get some supplies from the front room." Saikoubi commanded. "Pack a bag of what you think we'll need and anything you'll need. Since you obviously didn't take the time to pack a bag of your own and so foolishly jumped into matters that didn't concern you." She added icily.

He did as told. They left. Thirty minutes later, right after they had breakfast. Saikoubi left an envelope on the counter. It contained letters. Good-bye letters, a little bit of money, and a silver key. When she walked out Kizoku noticed that she was crying. Some how he understood.

"You going to be alright?" He asked she smiled at him.

"From this point on Lady Saikoubi Akahoshi is gone." She grinned. "I have been reborn. I am now Saikoubi Akahoshi, wanderer."

"And from this point on I am Kizoku Toyoyoshi protector of the memory of Lady Saikoubi Akahoshi." He said in the same way. Proud and confident, the two left their childhood home.

~*~

The sun dawned on the mansion by the lake in the woods. Six girls woke up, thinking something was different. One boy realized what he had done had just caused all his dreams to fall into place. A solitary figure on the roof stood and framed by the glow of the sunrise she glared at the road below.

"I know what you did Saikoubi Akahoshi. I saw and I heard. And I know what happens now." She said. "I said this once before. Now you will listen. Now you will hear. There is no rest for the wicked."

Those seven words echoed across the lake no one heard them. But soon something was heard.

"Junsui!" A strong, deep, pleasant voice called. "Junsui where are you?"

She jumped gracefully onto the dirt below and ran inside. She made a pitiful scene. Sniffling and pretending to cry. She ran to the owner of the voice. He gathered her into his arms. She pressed her head onto his shoulder. She turned her head and glared at the six girls who walked in. The she returned to making a scene. They all glared at her, and at him.

"Oh! Oh! Kagayaki! It… Its so horrible!" She choked out between what appeared to be sobs. "Its simply horrid! Saikoubi is gone! Kizoku is too! Oh I can't believe it! That hussy stole my betrothed and after I befriended her and everything. She told him it was him who got her pregnant and convinced him to marry her and run away with her! It is such a bad way to lose both your best friend and betrothed."

"Oh fucking boo hoo!" Kagura (one of the six) yelled.

"You know you hated Saikoubi and Kizoku." Shizuka called.

"Silence!" Kagayaki cried.

"You really shouldn't give orders, it makes you look like more of a fake than you really are!" Kagura shot back. "You're the reason Saikoubi left. We know this. We know what the fuck you did to her!"

"You don't have to stand for this." Junsui cooed. "As the betrothed of Saikoubi you're now the Lord of this forsaken little town! She left no word as to who was to be her successor and with her deserting her people it falls to you!"

"No." Anzu said. Anzu the quietest of the seven (counting Saikoubi) was always clam and serene and rarely spoke out side the circle of friends, often called the Wolf Pack. "Saikoubi never meant for you to take the town she tried so hard to protect from your ideals."

"But she was betrothed to him. The town would've been his anyway!" Junsui spat.

"You really believe that Saikoubi was as weak minded as you, don't you?" Kagura said. "You really think that she would've let go of the control of the town to an idiot like that?"

"Umm… We have to go open up!" Akina said. She liked working mornings at Firefly Forest.

"We can open late once!" Shizuka almost screamed. "There are more important things than you opening the shop and seeing Hideki when he does the morning shopping for his mother!"

"Fine." Akina moped. "You can do what you want. I'm going to go open. Saikoubi wouldn't want us to just sit around mourning the fact that she chose to leave!"

"Akina!" Akane yelled, then she said in her normal joking way. "Yeah. Saikoubi would open the shop no matter what. Unless of course, and she did say this, that either one of us or Kagayaki or Kizoku died." Junsui looked a bit hurt. She looked at the ground. But when she did she could see the eyes of a thirteen-year-old Saikoubi. 'Once a Wolf Pack member always a Wolf Pack member. As long as there is breath in my body once someone is entered as a wolf I will do everything I can to keep the pack from turning their backs on him or her! I will keep the Wolf Pack together! I promise Junsui, promise you'll help me!' She had said with a smile. Junsui just looked up and glared at the wolf pack. Then Akane added. "She meant you too Junsui."

"Hn." Junsui sniffed and just buried her face in Kagayaki's neck.

"None of us are dead. Meaning that we have no choice." Akina said brightly.

"I could change that. Kagayaki and Junsui aren't really necessary are they?" Kagura muttered to Shizuka. "Then we could take the day off and try to find Saikoubi and that idiot Kizoku."

"How do we know that Kizoku went with her though?" Anzu asked as they walked out the door.

"Why else would he leave?" Akina asked. "I mean think about it."

"Well Saikoubi used to like him, but he always liked Junsui." Shizuka admitted. "But then Kagayaki came along and we know that story."

"Saikoubi liked Kizoku?" Akina asked. Shizuka nodded. "Well then everything works out fine!" She cheered. "Because once Junsui started drooling over Kagayaki, Kizoku saw her for what she truly was and he started to like Saikoubi. He told me, 'Everyday I'm so close but I'm so far away. It's like looking at your reflection in the lake. Its so close but you know you can't have it.' He explained exactly how I felt about Hideki!" They all just looked at her in wonder. Shizuka and Kagura rolled their eyes at the comment.

That day Firefly Forest opened exactly 97 minutes early. That day the little village that six girls had called their home since birth became theirs. That day Lady Saikoubi Akahoshi officially turned the town and all rights, titles, privileges, and duties that she had had as Lady of the town to the Wolf Pack. On the condition that they form a council town keepers. Meaning that they had to govern the town together or it would go to the next possible person. They all stared at the will that accompanied Saikoubi's letter. They looked at the last line.

'Consider me dead from this point on. Wait. In 17 years a girl will come to claim the town. Ask her her mother's name. Then ask her the date of her mother's death. She will say to you "My mother is the late Lady Saikoubi Akihara she died oh seventeen years ago of a broken heart…'

"Saikoubi-san was always a little bit crazy." Yukie said.

"Yes. She was always a terrible romantic. She believed, 'wholeheartedly' as she used to say, that her life was nothing but a really bad romance novel." Anzu commented they all remembered their overly dramatic friend. Kagura looked around. They all looked to the ground. In a 'moment of silence for the fallen' as Kagura and Saikoubi used to do after they read a book about samurai.

"Now she is one of the fallen." Kagura said and they all just went about their day as they normally would have. Only for the most part it was a lot quieter.