Ronin Warriors Fan Fiction ❯ No Namer #2 ❯ Chapter 4

PART 1.4 NIGHTMARES

Kento awoke with a jerk, sleep chased away swiftly by the surge of panicked adrenaline rushing instinctually through his body. It took him a few precious seconds for lucidity to return enough for him to realize what had awakened him. Chun Fa was screaming, shrieking in short, frantic notes, her body thrashing about, kicking the blankets free. He snatched the child into his arms and shook her.

"Chun Fa!!" he cried. "Chun Fa, wake up! It's just a dream, Chun Fa, come on kid, wake up!!"

Her eyes snapped open, her body going rigid and still for a few seconds before she dissolved into tears, burrowing tightly into Kento. He sighed and sat up, rocking her gently back and forth, thick fingers stroking through baby-soft tresses soothingly. He waited until her hysteria died away into whimpering before trying to talk to her.

"Bad dreams, Chun Chun," he murmured quietly to the sobbing little girl. "They're just bad dreams."

"I know," she whimpered. "But they're so real. They even hurt."

"What's hurting you, hmm? You wanna talk about it?"

"I told you, it's Keichi and the others. They hurt me at school, but in the dreams, they…" she trailed off, burrowing tightly and going quiet for a moment. "They're trying to kill me, Onii-san. They turn into monsters and try to kill me."

"They wouldn't really kill you, I'm sure," he sighed, though his brows had knit in concern. Maybe it was time this was taken to his parents. If these kids were being so cruel to his sister at school that she was having nightmares of this magnitude, something most certainly needed to be done. Chun Fa didn't seem so sure, and clung to him tightly, shaking. "Besides," he continued with a soft smile, "Monsters aren't real."

". . . ."

"Even if they were, I'd beat them alllllll up!" he grinned and poked her gently. She squirmed and smiled, just a little bit.

"I don't wanna go back to sleep," she whispered. Kento glanced at the clock and sighed.

"Chun Chun, it's four in the morning," he murmured, giving her a little squeeze. "It's too early for little girls to be up, even if tomorrow *is* Saturday." Tomorrow, of course, being a relative term this early in the day. Technically it already *was* Saturday. He snuggled back down into the covers, curling around Chun Fa and cuddling her close. She nestled into his warmth, her trembling beginning to subside, those horrible images fading from her mind's eye. She was determined not to go back to sleep, however, and stared off into the darkness. Kento just watched her for a little while, then began to hum softly, rubbing her back gently. Chun Fa's eyes began to close despite her most valiant efforts. Soon enough, her breathing had steadied into the slow, deep rhythm of sleep.

Kento slowly reached out to open his nightstand drawer and draw out his armor orb. The room filled with a dim, orange glow. Fading. Growing. Waxing. Waning. The light was drowned out as he closed his fingers and snuggled back down, the hand clutching the sphere resting behind Chun Fa's back as he draped an arm back over her and closed his eyes. Soon enough, he would be asleep.

And…Chun Fa would have no more dreams that night.

The summer afternoon was pleasantly warm, but not hot. A steady breeze rippled in shining waves across the grass, bringing with it the warm, earthy scent of recent rains and growing things. The sounds of playing children could be heard in the near distance, broken by the steady thrum of traffic further out. Rowen took a deep breath and looked up at the cottony cumulus clouds drifting in slowly changing patterns across a smoothly azure sky. His arms were crossed behind his head, ankle rested to opposite knee, a fuzzy-ended stalk caught between his teeth. Sai lay to his right, a recovered Nicole to his left.

"Can't get in contact with Ryo, then?" Rowen asked, the stalk in his mouth barely moving.

"No," Sai replied quietly, keeping his eyes on the sky. "Not so much as a peep. He doesn't seem to have been home in a while, to boot. I wonder where he went?"

"We've fallen a little out of contact," Rowen sighed. "I just hope we can get in touch with him soon."

"It's hard to believe, on a beautiful day like this, that anything bad could happen," Nicole smiled as she gazed up at the endless spread of blue and white before her. In the day, that horrible blot of color was wiped from the sky…a comfort to her sensibilities. "You can't even see it…"

"Ah, but we know it's still there, waiting for us," Sai reminded her. "What about you Rowen? Any luck on your end?"

"Well," the blue haired man scratched his nose. He didn't like having to admit that he'd failed. "I'm…..still working on that, if you must know."

Silence followed. It was a frustrating and desperate dilemma.

"There aren't many children out today," Sai commented. "It's a large park in a central neighborhood, and it's Saturday."

"People are afraid to go out with all the incidents happening," Rowen explained, a sour tone to his voice.

"Hey, we'll figure something out," Nicole reached to touch his shoulder. Rowen turned his head and smiled at her.

"You're never down for long, are you…" he commented. Nicole giggled softly.

"GYACK!!" Rowen suddenly squawked as something pounced onto his stomach.

"Rooooweeeeeeen!" came a happy little cry. Ro found himself with a double armful of Chun Fa.

"Hey kiddo!" Ro chuckled and scruffed her hair. The child flashed a snaggle toothed grin and giggled, then pounced Sai and Nicole in turn.

"Onii-san brought me out to play!" she took Rowen's hand and tugged. "Come play with me! You too!" she told the others. Rowen looked up to see Kento approaching.

"Hey kid," he told the excited little girl. "Why don't you go play, and all of us will join you in a few minutes, okay? We have boring, big-people things to discuss." Chun Fa made a face and nodded, then ran off, pigtails bouncing as she went.

"Hey guys!" Kento greeted, plopping beside Sai. "Any luck?"

"No, on both fronts," Sai said, sitting up on his elbows.

"That's encouraging," Kento snorted, earning an acid glare from Hashiba. "So what do we do, spend another day sitting on our hands?"

"I'm afraid we haven't got a choice, Kento," Nicole replied softly. Kento's impending irritation deflated and he rubbed the back of his head, looking away. Sai and Rowen looked at eachother and grinned.

"Uh, so," Kento murmured, still looking away. "Where's Sage?"

"He chose to spend his day off working," Nicole replied sadly. "There were more accidents last night…but fewer survivors. They seem to be getting more deadly. How's your arm?"

"Huh? Oh, it's better," he replied. "It itches though."

"That means it's healing…don't scratch it" she told him with a smile. "I still think you should get it looked at…you ran off last night before I could tell Sage to examine it."

"Eh, I feel fine. Don't worry about it."

"So you gonna come over for dinner tonight?" Rowen grinned at Kento, a glint of challenge shimmering beneath those cobalt brows. Kento gave the look right back.

"I wouldn't miss it," he chuckled. "May the best stomach win!"

"Oh no," Nicole groaned, covering her face with her hands. "You guys, don't start this again! Remember what happened last time?"

"Relax!" Rowen waved her off. "That was a one-time mistake! We won't ever do that again. Besides, this time around we won't have the blowtorch and case of lingerie."

"And the goat," Sai piped. "Don't forget the goat."

"Right," Ro nodded wisely. Nicole just sighed in exasperation and turned away, crossing her arms. "Anyway, there's nothing more we can do for now…let's go see what the squirt's up to, hmm?"

"Yes, then let's do the shopping for dinner before dark," Sai said. "I don't think it's wise to be out once the sun goes down."

"Indeed," Ro nodded and got to his feet, brushing loose grass off his pants and heading off towards the playground. "I'm gonna go play with the squirt. Tomorrow, I'll see if I have better luck digging up information." His pale face grew sober, his eyes narrowing slightly. "We have to make the darkness safe again."

Sage slipped into the break room and wiped his tired face with a cool white cloth, fingers brushing back clinging strands of blonde from his forehead. Fewer people had come into the clinic today, but those that had spilled in were so much more severely wounded than before. Sage feared that the reason would be because those affected by the disturbances had simply not survived. The police force was baffled, and as the incidents began to spread, several cities declared a state of emergency. All manner of explanations had been forwarded through the finicky television transmissions. Magnetic interference, a holy sign from above, a strange new disease, aliens, and it only grew more farfetched from there. He hadn't had time to look at the news often, but he'd heard rumors that this wasn't just happening in Japan…it was worldwide. If some centralized evil really was to blame for this, it was either incredibly fast moving or it had a very extensive, carefully synchronized force. Sage refused to believe this was simply misfortune, or that the "accidents" were really that. Someone or something was orchestrating this. But who? To what end ?

"Sage!" came a shrill cry from the hallway. He turned to see Yayoi standing in the doorway. "Sage, we need you, a really bad case has been brought in…Mom can't hold her down and work on her at the same time and I can't do it myself. She's going wild and we can't calm her down…she needs help now or she'll die!"

Sage blinked and bolted. "Where is she? Take me!"

Yayoi led him quickly down the hall to an exam room. He could hear the screams before he even got inside. The woman was in shocking condition. Her face and chest were covered in blood, her hair singed completely away on one side, her shredded, burnt, and bloodied clothing barely holding together. With a touch of startled revulsion, Sage realized he could see right through one mangled cheek to the blood-tinged molars beneath. Her screams were doubly piercing in the enclosed room, the sound having nowhere to go. His mother was speaking sternly to her and trying to hold down one arm long enough to get a morphine drip going. Sage ran to one side of the woman while Yayoi took the other side. Sage was amazed she even had the strength to fight, being in the condition that she was.

The second he laid hands to her, an empathic wave of pain, terror, and grief ran through him. He fought it back, mentally walling himself off. This would be a very bad time to succumb to such feelings. Between the two siblings, they managed to still her enough for Dr. Date to start working on her. As the drugs began to take effect, her horrible screams began to die away, though she was still obviously in great pain. He looked up and caught his mother's eye. She looked back at him, her face tense, and shook her head. This woman had no chance.

"Yayoi, come," Dr. Date stepped away. "We have other patients to attend.

"But Mother!"

". . ."

Yayoi let her objections fall and nodded reluctantly. Dr. Date was saying, in essence, that the woman was going to die no matter their efforts, and she refused to waste time here when there were lives she could be saving. She would leave the room with her mother, leaving it up to Sage to wrap things up. He looked to the woman, examining her wounds more closely. A good number of them seemed to be bite marks, of all things. If they were that, however, whatever had bitten her had to have had very wide jaws, judging by the size of the crescent marks.

"Mika!! Toshio!!" she shrieked suddenly, making Sage jump. "It killed them! It killed my babies! My children are dead! God, what *is* that thing! No! Don't hurt them! Don't-" Her hysterical screams stopped suddenly, maddened eyes going blank. Sage held his breath, waiting and watching…perhaps she would say something more, something useful. A few moments of silence passed…then he realized what should have been obvious: the woman had died.

Troubled, Sage pulled the sheet up over her head. She had been beyond saving. He was, nonetheless, struck with a feeling of profound failure.