Anari
Thrown into a cell face-first, I almost couldn't bring myself to move… My mind was still stuck on the event I'd just witnessed firsthand… When I eventually found the strength to look around, I found a teary-eyed Tyuyo curled up on one of the beds and an emotionless Shin leaning up against the wall outside the cell…
"Shin… How can you stand there like you don't know what those councilors are doing..?"
Shin's gaze remained fixated on the hall; he didn't even glance my way for a second.
"Answer me, damn it!" I yelled, leaping at the bars.
Shin groaned without looking over…
"You and I have lived different lives Anari… A word of advice… Do as the councilors say. If you don't have a suicide wish, that is…"
"Don't act like you care about us at all! You kidnapped my friends and me... even a child…" I reached through the bars and took hold of Shin's collar, jerking him as close as I could. "You're unforgivable…"
Shin simply stared down at me until I let go. He didn't fight back whatsoever…
Why? Why did he have to betray us..?
Taking a few steps back, I sat on the same bed as Tyuyo and merely wrapped my arm around him… Comforting people wasn't necessarily my strong suit… I had no plan, no means of escape, and a child to look after… For the time, all I could do was wait…
***
Two days passed at an unbearably slow rate…. It felt like forever… Sitting around… Waiting for the inevitable lethal injection…
I wonder… What's going on at the surface?
Outside my cell, Shin was patiently sitting in a chair, checking his phone. He'd practically slept in that chair, with how long he was pretty much glued to it…
"Anari, I just got word. Time to move you and Tyuyo to the labs…"
I'm not ready to get injected… I've had a couple days to think, but nothing's come to mind…
Shin soon unlocked and entered my cell, handcuffs in hand. But I didn't move from my bed; I waited for Shin to walk close, my eyes following his every movement like a predator in the wild...
Thinking wasn't where I was best. I knew that… And my thoughts and fears suddenly just… vanished… My body just seemed to know what to do… I leaped from the bed and tackled Shin to the ground, snatching the cuffs away in the process.
Tyuyo is frozen on the bed… Classic child… But I can take Shin on my own… Besides, if I don't… Those councilors are gonna turn me into a monster. I won't let that happen…
I struggled to keep Shin pinned while attempting to get the cuffs over his wrists. He was physically just about as strong as I was, but the problem was that I couldn't defend myself while trying to shackle him down. Soon, Shin reached for his tranquilizer gun…
If he hits me with that, I'll lose immediately… He'll drag us straight to the lab…
I quickly gripped Shin's wrist with one hand and punched his groin with the other. Naturally, he lost grip of his gun, allowing it to slide across the floor… Much to my advantage.
Shin's eyes lit up in pain as his hands reflexively held his… pants…
"AAAHH ANARI! What the hell? Why would you do that? Why? What is wrong with you? What would make you think punching me in the nuts was appropriate AT ALL?!"
I chuckled a bit, cuffing one of Shin's wrists to the leg of a bed.
"Sorry Shin, but I don't intend on dying today. I'm gonna save my friends and get the hell outta here… You can face the inquisition of your fucking sadistic councilor gods by yourself. Have fun!"
With a smile, I took Shin's sword and gun for myself, as well as the keyring at his belt…
"I'll probably need these more... Take your time with the recovery, I know you're probably feeling a niiiice pit in the stomach, heh…"
"I-I'd rather you... I'd rather you kill me, Anari… then the councilors..."
"Oh yeah? And what's that supposed to mean?"
"It doesn't matter… Nothing I say would get through to you anyway."
"Pfft. Trying to make me feel bad? You're not doing a good job."
"When you know what it feels like to be sold into slavery, Anari… Then you can judge my actions away… But right now… I'd rather you kill me than… my uncle…"
I closed the cell door, leaving Shin to rot, but I couldn't quite bring myself to walk away… My curiosity was beginning to get the better of me…
"Who's your uncle?"
"Livian… Livian's my uncle…"
"Liv- no… No!"
He's lying… Sure, Livian and Shin do look kinda similar… But no... He HAS to be lying... It has to be a ruse... There's no way he's telling the truth! Was Shin sold to Livian? That would… vaguely explain… why he obeys… Livian's so damn corrupt. He's scary to cross…
I paced around, the muscles all across my body twitching in anger…
"Someone sold you to Livian? Who?"
"My father… He sold me to Livian. He had a choice..." Shin stared at the ground, his hands trembling. "Livian found out my mother had a curse, and he… He was going to either have my mother and me executed or have me become his pawn, in exchange for my parents faking their deaths and leaving the clan…"
"What..?" I backed into the wall, my eyeballs almost popping out of my skull. "WHAT? Why did he want you as a pawn? What value do you have to him?"
"Value as a test subject. As much as he despises people born cursed, Livian relishes in the power curses bring… He didn't want my mother alive, but he wanted her power. He knew I had the genetic makeup of someone who might be compatible with cursed blood... He knew that I might be able to become the super-soldier they desired… He and the other councilors wished to purge me of all autonomy, to make me listen to their every command, without fail. They've only hesitated to inject me because they don't want to lose their only potentially successful candidate for the injection. But now… Now they have someone else who might be compatible and can still be trained into their perfect soldier… Nikai's brother, Tyuyo."
Tyuyo? Livian wants to inject Tyuyo? If he's telling the truth, then Livian is something of a walking contradiction… But a dangerous one… What should I do? Do I leave Shin? Do I bring him? He might turn on me… Everything could be a lie…
"Prove it. Any way you can. Prove to me you're not lying, Shin."
Shin bit into the glove on his left and tore it off, revealing a black marking shaped like a diamond, dead center on the back of his hand. Moments later, the seal began glowing, letting off dust-like energy that dissipated in the air as it traveled.
He's… Not lying..!
"Livian doesn't know I have a curse. I've already mastered it enough to resist the anti-curse fields, that's why I can activate it on command… But I can't allow the public to see it… Please don't tell anyone, Anari. Believe me when I tell you I wanted things to be different. I… wanted my life to be different… So please just kill me…"
A seal on the left hand… Just like Kozuna… But unlike Kozuna, Shin doesn't desire to fight back. He doesn't want revenge or to get even… or to see his parents again… That pisses me off.
Growling, I opened the cell and raised the blade, watching as Shin closed his eyes. And in one fell swoop… I sliced him free of his shackles and turned away. It was time to move on.
"You want your freedom Shin? Then stand and follow me. My friends and I are escaping today… No matter what. It's time you walk on your own two feet. Cursed or not."
Shin finally opened his eyes, seeing that I had merely cut the chain of his cuffs. I didn't physically extend my hand out to him, but his chance was there. All he had to do… was take it…
I took Tyuyo's hand and began my departure, leaving Shin alone with his thoughts…
To my side was a confusing-ass map of the underground facility we were locked in. I remembered the path to the labs, but freeing Kozuna and Nikai wouldn't do much good if they couldn't fight… All the soldiers were armed, and my only advantage was the element of surprise.
There's an armory… But I can't afford to carry a ton of gear; I'll just have to work with what I have… The control center is located in the center of this… labyrinth… If I go there, I should be able to disable the anti-curse fields and enable the activation ones… Then Kozuna and Nikai can free themselves… Hopefully, Nikai can control himself since we're not in direct moonlight… And if he goes on a rampage… well… I'm not opposed to that either…
I did my best to take a mental picture of the map and jogged through the passages, careful to keep Tyuyo close. With a tranquilizer gun in hand, taking out guards wasn't much of a problem. Everyone that we saw was quietly taken care of, and efficiently, at that… Though, I had limited ammunition.
Aside from soldier incapacitation, navigation was a whole other problem. I kept taking mental pictures of any map we came across and proceeded through the silver halls while avoiding any unnecessary conflicts. As much as possible.
Carrying a child along for a ride through a life-threatening complex made for extra… complications… Tyuyo was doing a downright lousy job of staying silent and hiding his tears. But that was to be expected. Any kid snatched from his bed in the middle of the night would scream for his parents to save him… Not that he had any parents to save him. And the one family member he had left was locked away…
Tyuyo was like a little brother to Yvira, Kozuna, and me… Since the three of us were all childhood friends of Nikai. So, regardless of how much annoying-ass crying he was doing, I wasn't about to abandon him… Though I did kinda wanna slap a muzzle on him…
Ugh. Let's not do that right now…
Soon enough, we'd arrived at a giant set of double doors: the entrance to the central command center of the council facilities.
***
I can't believe I'm doing this… On my own too… This time… I'll save everyone, even Shin…
When I opened the doors, the first things I saw were a bunch of half-walls acting as a defensive perimeter. In a room designed to be a well-defended spot, there were three sets of stairs leading to a central platform. That was where the controls for the curse fields likely sat.
Up there stood one of the councilors. But that was no surprise. He glared down at me, the one man in the room, bearing a longsword on his back and a machine gun at his feet…
"...Tyuyo, go hide somewhere," I mumbled, letting go of his hand…
"You… Anari, right? Saw you take out Shin on the cameras… Figured you'd find your way here if you survived long enough. Lots to discuss. I saw him reveal his curse. Funny. Only you and I know… And Nikai's lucky little brother, of course… But he isn't all that important right now."
"Shut up, you lanky bastard. I don't wanna hear it. I'm here to shut this shit down. Get outta my way, Gio." I pointed the tranquilizer gun at Gio's head, narrowing my gaze. "All I need is one shot."
"Don't be so hasty, girl. You're not in much of a position to believe you've got a chance against me. In fact, we don't have much of a need for you anymore. We weren't even going to kill you, you would've just been another soldier. We were gonna test out the injection on Tyuyo, and if it worked, then we'd be able to use it on Shin. If you'd just listened to Shin like he told you to, I wouldn't be forced to kill you."
"And you think I would've just stood around and let you fuck up the rest of Tyuyo's life? You councilors are selfish, arrogant monsters… What are you even getting out of all this? You give that kind of power to someone; they'll use it to destroy people like you! Just look at Kozuna and Nikai!"
"Bad comparison. You're not very bright, are you-"
"Don't speak another word. I've heard enough," I muttered, firing the tranquilizer at Gio.
Metal clashed at the platform above as Gio moved his arms faster than I could've imagined. He pulled his blade from his back and sliced the dart in half with no issues, then leaped down the stairs as if the distance didn't hurt him whatsoever…
He's… fast… But not nearly as fast as Kaiten…
I took a step back, eyes widening…
"Didn't I tell you not to be hasty? Haste makes waste."
Gio flashed before me, swinging his blade right for my neck.
Ducking his strike, I headed for the stairs. He simply turned to me, shaking his head.
"Like I was saying, before you start fumbling with the controls, that was a bad comparison. Kozuna and Nikai are hormonal teenagers that can't recognize how monstrous they are. No one should be born with that kind of power… But with the right training, from early on, even a curse wielder like Shin can be… sterilized… Turned into the perfect weapon, a living, intelligent weapon… Free of the burden of emotion, the chains of family and connection… A weapon that serves the purpose of nothing more than following the orders of its wielder, without fail."
I stopped moving, gripping the sword in one hand and the gun in the other…
Gio… I don't understand these councilors… I don't want to understand what makes them think this way. A curse doesn't make you an animal. A lust for power does. The willingness to do vile things like these councilors do… They disgust me…
"Gio, let me ask you a question…"
"Go ahead. It'll be your last."
"You councilors aren't human… are you?"
Gio laughed and stepped beside me, his long shadow looming over my short frame…
"What would you know about being human? What would you know… about us..?"
Again, I attempted to put a tranquilizer into Gio's neck, but he snapped the gun in half and proceeded back up the stairs. I breathed deeply as the gun shattered in my palm, all while Gio sheathed his sword and took hold of his machine gun…
I can't take that thing head-on... I need to see if I can break it before he can use it...
"Heh, heh... So, the little girl stands alone at the summit? Wanna use these consoles so badly? You'll have to kill me... And let's be real, Anari… We both know that won't be happening."
This time… I'll be the one to save my friends… I'm tired of being useless…
I stomped one foot forward and declared my final speech before our battle.
"I'm not a little girl, and I'm bout' tired of people saying that shit... I... I want to protect my friends and keep them safe... More than that, I want to protect my clan from both external AND internal threats! I want to become a leader everyone can look up to… like Commander Kaiten... Our people have suffered enough, and you councilors only add to that grief! I may not have the power of a curse at my disposal, but make no mistake, I am NOT a weakling, and I will do more than just defeat you…" I took a deep breath, shutting my eyes briefly… "I'll kill you…"
Gio smirked evilly…
"Bold words, little lady… Not that I believe them… So… Why don't you come and try turning your delusion into reality, Anari…"
...oh, just watch me...