Chapter 65 – Silence Before the Storm
“Kaito?” Mika asked hesitantly alarmed by his sudden stillness. Did he pass out? She shifted closer and was relieved to see that his breath was relatively even, though it was still quite quick. It scared her to see him incapacitated, but this location seemed protected enough, though if someone did find their way here, she didn’t have much hope of defending herself on her own. Looking at Kaito now, she realized it was the first time she’d ever really seen him asleep. His face was beautiful anyway, but now he just looked so peaceful.
Mika gently brushed away the few strands of hair that had fallen in his face. Just like his fur, it was incredibly soft, and for this realm not having conditioner or shampoo, it was relatively untangled. She still wasn’t used to his hair being so long, and it now looked even longer because he didn’t have it tied up with the usual ribbon.
“Please wake up soon Kaito,” she whispered.
For the next couple of hours, Kaito drifted in and out of unconsciousness. He was never fully awake, but when he was roused, he could sense Mika’s presence and smell her close to him. It was some time later that he fully came to. He opened his eyes slowly, allowing the blurry scenery to refocus before he made an attempt to sit up.
“Kaito?” Mika asked slowly as he rose with a low grunt.
“What?” His voice cracked slightly as he responded, and it was then he became aware of how incredibly thirsty he was. His side still hurt, but the pain now was enough to deal with. Kaito leaned back against the uneven wall of the cave and turned to look at the girl before him. Her face was still creased with worry, but it was clear she was relieved to finally see him awake and moving again.
“I’m sorry you had to see me like that,” he muttered casting his eyes downward at the stone floor. “It’s pathetic.”
“It’s not!” Mika responded a bit louder than she’d intended. “It’s natural to feel pain when you’re hurt. It scared me, but never once did I think lesser of you.” Mika paused for a moment before finally gaining the courage to ask, “Why is it that it’s so hard for you to change with an injury...?”
“Just think about it. Everything changes when I shift, my bone structure, my muscles, and my skin. It’s like taking a piece of rubber with a cut in it and stretching it around. As it changes, the mark just keeps ripping more.
Mika unconsciously moved her hand to cover her mouth as if that might help her conceal the horror she knew was covering her face. “You’re literally ripping yourself apart by changing back. Kaito you should have waited!”
“I can’t afford to wait here a couple of days. An hour or two more wouldn’t have made much difference. It was my own fault for getting into that situation anyway.”
“But...” Mika trailed off.
He did it for everyone else. If anyone deserves a couple of days off, he does.With another grunt of effort, Kaito hauled himself to his feet. “Come on, we can’t afford to wait here any longer. If you’re lucky, you’ll get back before the other two wake up and won’t have to answer any questions.” He smiled softly at Mika, but it did little to ease her worried mind.
Kaito moved to take a step forward, and grimaced as the wound began to reopen itself again. “Tch, this is in a terrible spot,” he muttered softly to himself, covering the area above his left hipbone with his hand.
Mika, seeing his expression change, moved over to his side immediately just in case he began to fall down. She knew she wouldn’t be able to catch him, but perhaps she could at least help him support himself. “Here, let me bind it. I can rip off the sleeves of this thing and use it as wraps.”
“I doubt it will make much difference,” Kaito said with a sigh. “My clothes are already pretty stained at this point, and as we move, it’s just going to keep reopening.”
“Are you sure?” Mika glanced up at his face trying to read the underlying expressions he hid behind the mask. “Alright,” she relented after a moment. “Can you walk?”
“I can walk fine,” he assured her though his next few steps were uneven with him limping heavily on the left side. Mika stayed by his side, braced just in case he happened to begin falling down. “Mika, I promise it’s okay,” he laughed at the girl’s actions. “Really.”
Mika backed off just a couple of steps, but was close enough to reach him. She could still see the pain behind his smiling face, and every time he met her gaze, she had to look away.
Once outside of the cave, the boulders posed the greatest challenge. It was somewhat pathetic in Kaito’s mind that Mika was actually ahead of him on the way down, but it took the majority of his concentration to block out the aching as he maneuvered his body down.
Mika stayed quiet the whole time, watching in silent support and attempting not to stare at the stain on this clothes which was slowly but surely growing larger.
Kaito reached the ground with a soft groan, and leaned back against one of the larger boulders. He wiped his face with the sleeve of his shirt and closed his eyes for a moment. The world was tilting again.
I must be losing a ton of blood, he thought grudgingly.
Mika waited by his side silently, knowing that whatever she said to try to stop him or help him would be ineffective. Once Kaito made up his mind on something, he stuck to it.
“There’s something I’ve been meaning to ask,” Mika ventured slowly once they were moving though the woods again.
“What is it?”
“How could you speak to me before? I remember back when we first met after I was attacked by that other demon you said you didn’t have telepathy.”
Kaito laughed briefly before cringing and moving his right arm to cover his side. “It’s not telepathy,” he assured her with a small chuckle. “How to describe it...” Kaito’s eyes wandered up to the tree tops as he thought. “I guess you could just call it a manipulation of the electrical signals being sent to your brain.”
Mika blinked. “I don’t get it.”
“I don’t expect you to. It’s kind of a hard concept I don’t even completely understand myself, but it’s how everyone communicates while transformed.”
“And you can’t do it like this?”
“No, it takes too much power and finite control to do it like this. Though honestly I haven’t really tried it, and I’m not really capable of trying it out at the moment.”
Mika cast her eyes downward as soon as he met them. She knew that what happened to him had nothing to do with her, but she still felt badly about it. Maybe if she had woken up earlier and seen him going out she could have stopped him. Either that or recruit Ayako and Kana to help.
“Let’s break up here.”
“Huh?” Mika glanced up as Kaito’s words caught her attention. “Why?”
Kaito took a deep breath, trying to be as patient as he could with the girl, but he wanted – needed to get back to the tent before he lost consciousness again. “Because I think it would be in both of our best interests to not be seen arriving together. I’m in an awful state right now, and most of those guys don’t think through the situation before charging.”
Mika’s eyes widened. “You think that they would believe I was responsible for hurting you?! But that’s –”
“I don’t know,” Kaito answered quickly. “Just go alright? I’ll be in my tent in the next few minutes.”
“Okay...” Mika whirled around and ran back in to their tent trying to ignore the tears that were burning the back of her eyes. All night Kaito had spent with her, but now it seemed that he was done with it. In the presence of others he had to be their leader, strong and unyielding. She knew that; being beside him was just a hindrance when it came to his projected image.
Mika was panting hard by the time she reached the outside of the tent, but she had resolved herself to helping Kaito in whatever way she could regardless of what he said. At the very least he did need some sort of treatment if he planned to spend the rest of the day walking.
Kana was awake and reading while Ayako, not surprisingly, was still asleep. “Mika!” she exclaimed when the girl came in. “Where have you been? I was worried –”
“I’m really sorry Kana,” Mika said quickly through her panting. “But it’s a lot to explain. Can I just borrow the medical supplies?”
Kana’s eyes scanned over the girl taking everything in and putting it together. “Alright,” she answered softly. “It’s over here. Do you need help?”
“No, I think I can manage it this time.” Mika smiled gratefully. It was so nice to have such a perceptive friend. She didn’t need to explain anything. Kana had already understood that Kaito had done something reckless again. After a quick bow of gratitude, Mika rushed off once more in the direction of Kaito’s tent.
It was lucky for the both of them that all of the warriors were still fast asleep so no one would be asking questions later.
It took Mika only a minute to locate the right tent, slightly separated from a few of the others. Though most of the tents looked almost identical, Kaito’s really wasn’t too hard to make out as it has a black stain on the right front corner.
“Kaito?” she asked quietly as she stood outside the entrance. There was no spoken response, but Mika heard a slight shuffling inside, and after a couple more seconds, she pushed the cloth aside and entered.
She found him sitting in almost the exact same position that he’d been in when he’d been badly burned, propped up against the back wall of the tent.
“You came back,” he answered mildly glancing over her. “Mika I told you –”
“Look,” she said holding up the bag of herbs. “Just let me try it. I know I’m not very good, but even I know you can’t keep that wound open. Especially if we’re leaving today.”
Kaito clenched his jaw. Of all the wretched timing, why did he have to be careless now? “Fine, do what you’re going to do and get it over with.” Kaito untied the strip of cloth that was holding his loose shirt together and let it fall. It was a shame that he hadn’t bothered to change out of his sleeping clothes before the dashed off into the woods.
As soon as Mika saw the wound, she felt a bit nauseous. It was even larger than she thought it would be and very oddly shaped.
This is what he meant by ripping himself apart... It was hard to tell where the original wound had been. It a weird way, it almost looked like broken glass in the way it branched out unevenly in jagged lines.
“Mika, you’re staring,” Kaito pointed out, forcibly bringing her attention back to her task.
“Ah, sorry,” she apologized quickly dropping her head. She fumbled with the pouch and drug out a cloth along with the herbs, mortar and pestle, and the few remaining bandages. There wasn’t much, but it would have to be enough to deal. She grabbed her water flask and drenched the cloth. It had once been a pure white, but just in the last couple of weeks it had been permanently stained a light brown.
Kaito adjusted himself, saving Mika from having to ask. As the water met his exposed skin, he took a sharp breath as pain once again flooded his body. He’d had just about enough pain for a couple of years, but he was sure in the next few days it would be unavoidable.
“I’m sorry,” Mika apologized drawing the cloth just a few centimeters away.
“It’s fine. Do what you have to do.” Kaito turned slightly and laid his hand on Mika’s, forcing the cloth to touch his skin once more. “Just do it.”
She nodded, and tried hard not to think about how his muscles tightened or how his breath became uneven when she hit certain spots. In roughly half an hour she was done. It wasn’t nearly as good as something Kana could have done, but she had wanted to do this for him.
“Thanks Mika,” Kaito said running his hand lightly over the newly bandaged spot. “Go get some rest. It won’t be long before we head out.”
“Alright. Please be careful.”
“Same to you,” he replied with a slight smile. Once Mika had left, he collapsed onto his good side once more. He had no idea how he’d be able to last the whole day, but he had to, and he had to do with without anyone knowing there was something off about him.
When the call to order did finally come, he was far from ready. Even so, he stood up, strapped on his sword, changed clothes, and tidied himself up just a bit before walking out in his normal demeanor. The others were already breaking down the tents. His eyes briefly caught sight of Mika who was working on tearing down her own tent with the other two. For a moment they stared at each other, and then he turned slightly. Keeping up his façade in front of the others was such a pain.
By the general’s orders, they were on the move at roughly noon. The journey started out well enough, but as the hours drug on, Kaito could feel himself beginning to fade. He had to tap into his own electrical power just to stimulate his nerves and keep himself moving. The day couldn’t be over quickly enough.
The sixth general asked him once if something was the matter to which he replied that he’d had a hard time sleeping the night before. Kaito couldn’t tell if he’d convinced the older man or not, but the general let the subject drop.
It was sundown by the time the trees were beginning to thin. Kaito remembered this place from the last war. It was the site where they had finally defeated the fire clan’s forces and claimed victory.
The path opened out onto a large, beautiful field with rolling hills. It would have been impossible to tell a battle had occurred here before from the way it looked now. The area was so huge that he couldn’t see the line of trees on the other side. In fact, if the legion had to cross it, it would probably take them several more hours.
In the valley of the first two large hills, tents speckled the landscape. Judging from the number of them, Kaito guessed there must have been at least three other legions in the area. Legions much, much larger than theirs now was. As a rough guess, he estimated a fighting force of around two hundred including themselves. Not a bad number at all.
They descended the crest of the hill into the valley and stopped on the outskirts of the tents already set up.
“Make camp here!” the fifth ordered, turning around to address the warriors. Then without saying another word, he started forward, weaving his way through the other tents in search of one in particular.
With a mental groan, Kaito followed after him. As much as he didn’t want to at the moment, it was important to touch base with the other generals who were here.
It didn’t take long to find the obnoxiously large tent centered in the middle of the rest. The four, Kaito, the two Lightning Clan generals, and the Water Clan general, moved forward and entered the tent.
The military commander looked up from the makeshift desk of logs he was sitting at and a spark of surprise dawned across his face. “You were earlier than I expected you to be. Though it seems you’ve had a rather rough time,” he added sizing up their appearances, with his eyes lingering slightly longer on Kaito.
He had no doubt the man could tell he wasn’t in the best shape of his life. Even though the smell of the herbs Mika had slathered on him covered up the scent of blood, the way he stood and moved was indicative of his injury. The others had just been too blind to see it, but this man, he saw everything.
“Well, come in,” the commander gestured them forward and folded his hands across the desk. “Tell me of your travels.”
The fifth did so, detailing the path they had taken and the battles they had fought. The sixth would jump in occasionally to tell a part of the journey that the fifth had breezed over. Kaito and the Water Clan general remained silent, watching the two lay everything out.
“I see...” the commander said at the end of their speech. He leaned back and looked up at the ceiling slowly. “And the rat? You believe he’s taken care of?”
“We lost many of our warriors during the battle on the bridge, and we haven’t seen hide nor tail of the foxes since,” the fifth spoke up. “I believe it’s logical to assume if we had a rat at all, he’s dead.”
Kaito turned his full attention to the conversation then. “I don’t believe it’s a good idea to assume such things,” he pointed out. “Whoever it was would have known the attack was coming. They would have gotten out of the way, and have likely laid low since.”
The fifth rounded on him, his eyes alight with anger. Apparently he didn’t like to be argued with in front of such a high authority.
Before he could speak, the commander cut him off. “You believe otherwise, Kaito?”
He nodded slowly, and with a deep breath, briefly recounted his bout with the small legion of Fire Clan warriors headed for the camp. He breezed past the actual battle though, leading them to believe he came back after he was finished, none the worse for wear. However, the commander’s eyes flickered over him again with a light of understanding. It took most of his remaining willpower not to cover the spot with his arm or to look away.
“This poses a problem,” he said at last. “You’ve lead a traitor right into our ranks. We are sitting ducks out in the open like this.”
The fifth’s face turned red, but before he began to speak, Kaito cut him off.
“We have some advantage though,” he pointed out. “They, whoever it is, doesn’t know that we know. Out here in this field, it would be hard to leave without anyone noticing. For now, they are stuck here not to mention that those that blatantly move across the field would be spotted long before they reached us.”
The commander nodded slowly. “I will take time to think on the matter. You are dismissed.”
Kaito rose slowly, and filled in behind the other three.
“Kaito.”
He turned back to the commander. The man was one of the few people to actually use his name instead of some title. “Yes?”
“How long will your wound take to heal?”
His jaw tightened. “Two, maybe three days with rest.” That was being optimistic, but at least by then it wouldn’t be hindering much of his movement.
The commander nodded once, and when he said nothing else, Kaito left the tent.
“Yo, Ahouji! Look who we found!”
Kaito turned slowly to the right toward the sound of Ayako’s voice, to find the girl all over Grinwald. He forced a smile at the old warrior and nodded his head in greeting. He was glad the other group managed to find their way here without any trouble.
He moved forward again without waiting for a response from Ayako, searching out his tent he was sure someone must have set up for him somewhere. He found it situated next to another, but the two were somewhat separated from the rest. His lips quirked in a smile.
Thanks, girls.Once inside, he proceeded to collapse on the floor. Kaito released the energy that had been holding his body together up until this point and winced as a wave of pain engulfed his left side. Three days was being extremely optimistic, even so, he couldn’t afford to slow them down.
He caught Ayako’s scent seconds later. He had just enough time to haul himself upward before she entered. “Hey, you gonna thank us for – Whoa, you look awful.”
“Gee, thanks,” he muttered, pivoting and leaning back against the tent. “What did you want?”
“Never mind... it was nothing that important,” she mumbled. “I’ll go get the other two. You really do look bad. Did we little humans somehow gain more endurance than the great prince?” she taunted with a smug look on her face.
“Shut up,” he responded lightly. Before he could stop her, she rushed out of the tent. Kaito closed his eyes and sat back preparing for the lecture he was about to get from Kana. He didn’t have to wait long for the other two to appear.
“What have you done this time?” Kana asked as she entered the tent and set down the famous bag of remedies.
“Nothing you need to concern yourself with,” he answered smoothly. He could see Mika fidgeting by the door, and apparently Kana noticed as well.
“Mika comes back to the tent in the late morning after being gone of half the night and asks for medical supplies. Would you like to explain?”
“Not particularly,” he answered with a bit of a sigh. This day had drained him. He just wanted to get a bit of sleep, but it didn’t seem like that was going to happen any time soon.
“Your face is deathly pale,” Kana continued. “Obviously whatever it was, wasn’t a small matter.” Her eyes flickered between Kaito and Mika, but neither spoke. “Fine,” she spoke at last. “Let me see it.”
As Kana moved toward him, Kaito drew back slightly. “You’re running out of supplies aren’t you? Don’t waste it on me.”
“We’ve already begun breaking down some of the spare clothes into bandages, and I’ve been stocking supplies and storing them away in my backpack for the last few days. We have enough material to carry us through for a while.”
Again she moved, and again he shifted away. He could see the confusion in her gaze. Seeing the odd wound would raise questions he was sure, and issues that he didn’t want to have to explain. One person knowing was more than enough.
“Kaito?” Kana asked, immediately picking up on his reluctance.
His eyes flickered to the back where Mika had that accursed expression on her face again. Was it better or worse to open up the spot? He knew it would look awful. It had been opening, closing, and reopening all day long, but if he wanted to stay optimistic about his healing time...
With a long sigh, Kaito relented, and undid the buttons holding his shirt in place. He felt the lot of them stiffen. Was it really that bad? He couldn’t help stealing a glance at his side. The white bandages were completely stained around the left side of his body, from around the middle of his torso all the way to his back and up past his ribs.
“These need to be disposed of,” Kana stated taking out a small knife from her pocket, cutting through the bandages and dumping them on the ground beside her. Then she turned to look at the wound and froze. “What made this?” she asked softly. “This isn’t like anything I’ve seen.”
“It’s gotten bigger,” Mika mumbled softly, her voice choked by emotion.
“I’ve been walking all day,” Kaito answered, keeping his voice carefully neutral.
Kana went to work with him, cleaning the area as best she could, reapplying the herbs and then finally bandaging him up. It was a long and somewhat painful process, but whatever herb she put on him did ease the burning and throbbing.
“I think it’s best not to move around necessarily,” Kana said, sitting back and gazing over her work before Kaito obscured it with his shirt once more.
“Yeah, I’ve gathered that.”
With one final look at him, she stood and left with Ayako. Mika lingered a bit longer, still standing awkwardly in the corner.
Slowly, Kaito stretched out on the floor once more and folded his hands behind his head. “Are you happy standing there, or would you like to sit down?” he asked turning his head until he met her eyes.
“I...”
“You’ve got that expression again,” he stated, eyes narrowing ever so slightly though they didn’t lose their softness.
“Sorry. I don’t like to see you in pain...”
Kaito laughed. “I don’t like to be in pain either, but my reputation seems to state otherwise.”
“You just try to put the whole world on your shoulders,” Mika said quietly. “We’re here and can help too you know.”
“Yeah, I know,” he replied softly. "Next time I'll keep that in mind, okay?"
Mika nodded once and finally allowed a small smile to creep onto her face. “I’ll let you get some rest,” she said, and with a final bow of farewell, she ducked out of the tent.
It only took a few minutes for sleep to come to Kaito, and he succumbed to it willingly, allowing the world to fade into darkness.
A/N~ I have the feeling this had a ton of grammar mistakes still in it, but I did my best. It's late and after two tests and a presentation in English, my brain's about had it. I may or may not get the next chapter written by next week. We'll see.
<==Chapter 64
