BACK IN KISUMU, THE PORT CITY OF LOLIWE
"I want to be strong enough to be his friend and not just his pupil." Jericho sat in bed staring at the ceiling as Teddy packed their stuff. They were going to head down to that famed village were the uprising started. But they'd obviously have to detour to other ones where priests have literally been threatened by the people under them.
But Jericho's mind wasn't really focused on the path a head, but rather what had transpired previously. By that I mean what had happened the night before. It was weird, she could actually remember everything and the adrenaline that rushed through her body. It was truly a magical experience if you call it that.
Through out her entire fight she wasn't bored or searching for anything meaningful, all she wanted to do was fight and forget about everything else.
'The how is that different from just drinking anyway?'
Is the question she would have asked herself if Gil hadn't said that one statement.
A friend and not a pupil.
She wants to be strong, really strong, strong enough to the point where she could beat everyone. But was that really why she wanted to be strong?
'I guess I forget sometimes, why I ever wanted to be strong in the first place.'
CLICK!
"Yoo, the cab will be here in about an hour, so if you have anything you wanna do here do it now and not later." Justine stood behind the door as he announced this.
"Yeah." Teddy responded.
Justine turned to look at Jericho, "Hey, you hear what I just said? Hey! Hey!"
Jericho didn't respond.
"I know I might regret asking this, but what the hell is wrong with her?"
"I don't know, she's just been like that the entire day."
"Oh, she probably drank too much, huh?"
"No, not really." Teddy answered, "In fact its safe to say that she didn't drink at all."
"Wow." Justine exclaimed, "So she's just reflecting on her past or whatever?"
"Probably."
"Ok, whatevs, just get your asses to the car when it gets here, I am not trying to deal with that bitch's shenanigans anytime soon."
"I can hear you!" Angel shouted from the living room.
"Fuck!" He shouted slowly closing the door.
'Why did I wanna be strong anyway?'
Does it even matter now anyway? Say the truth, there was only one thing that made you the happiest last night.
'What was it again?' She scratched her head. 'The peak of my night was when… he kicked me.'
When Akame kicked her she could remember feeling so ecstatic and rearing to get back into that fight, he was so strong. But then he had to substitute himself with that twerp.
"The amount of disrespect!" She got up shouting, "God I swear when I finally find him I'll fucking murder him."
"Hey Iman."
Jericho turned to Teddy, "Did you have a good sleep?"
Jericho sat for a minute, "A little bit, yeah."
"I could tell, coz you were really snoring."
"Huh? Are you trying to die?" She got up, "Coz I'll fucking murder you too."
She then proceeded to head towards the bathroom. 'Wow, she's so lively today, and she's very happy.'
Teddy smiled to himself, 'I do hope we meet Akame again.'
***
BACK AT THE VILLAGE
"I couldn't have imagined it would be this of all places." Germain and Joy sat down for a pick nick that afternoon. After taking him across the village for a few hours, she had then decided to bring him here. The place she had brought Gil to Akame.
The giant farm that Akame had dug, ploughed and sowed seeds all by himself for six months. Now all the wheat he had sown had finally began to turn yellow.
"Although I must admit wheat is surprisingly a pleasant crop to grow, especially in the cold to warmer months."
The two of them sat on a wooden bench with a wooden table, onto which they had placed a blanket with alternating red and white patterns.
"Have you ever grown wheat, I mean where you come from is there wheat?" Joy was trying to start a conversation.
"No, but we do grow a variety of other commodities." Germain took the bate as he continued talking, "Such as barely, soy beans, sugarcane as well. Although I suppose the one thing we're good at growing is war."
"War? I wouldn't take that for a crop."
Germain chuckled.
Suddenly Joy took the time to repeat the words in her head, "I don't mean it like that, I was just saying that… um, I'll stop talking."
"Its fine, I do understand what you were trying to say. And no, I wouldn't have thought it was something that could also be sown into people hearts. War is like seeds, it is planted, watered, cultivated and before you know it it grows into something very big."
Germain turned to Joy, "I believe you have also seen the effects of war, haven't you?"
She paused for a moment, "Yeah, but it wasn't in the way you would think."
"How so?"
She hesitated for a bit, "There were these things, creatures even, I don't know what to call them… they were everywhere and they…." Suddenly all she could see was her mother, I a blouse stained in red.
She lay there lifeless, dead, gone, never to speak again, never to hold her daughter in her hands again. She was just gone, dead. Nothing more, nothing less.
"Joy! Joy." When she came back to her surrounding Germain was holding her hand.
"Its ok, you don't have to say anything. I understand."
She pulled back her hands, "I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have made you feel uncomfortable." Now she felt uncomfortable.
"Its not like--"
"Hey you two!" Blake shouted as he walked towards them, but their were a few people with him. Three boys and two girls. Each were holding something. An antenna, some water in a bottle, a folded umbrella, a box among other things.
The two appeared flustered.
"Oh, was I interrupting something?" He asked giving a cheeky look.
"No, we weren't talking about anything meaningful." Germain responded with a rather cool expression.
It took a moment but Joy answered too, "Yeah, nothing."
"Great!" Blake said, "Ok everyone, put those things down and let's set everything up."
They began assembling something.
"What are they making?" Joy asked.
"You should already know this." He answered.
The more they kept assembling the more it began to the shape of something she had seen earlier that day. "Wait is that…"
"Yep." Blake said with a smile.
A PSEUDO SATELITE DISH
"When did you make this?" She ran over to it.
"When you two were lavishly having your little date here."
"It wasn't a date." The two defended themselves.
"Yeah, sure. Anyway when you two were here I quickly had these five design this." Although he's the one who did most of the work.
"Here you go." One of the girls handed him a phone receiver.
"Thank you, but I'm not the one who's going to be using this. "Joy."
"Yeah."
"How about today I introduce you to something called a VPN." Blake gave a slight grin.
***
BACK IN KISUMU AN HOUR AFTER THIS
"Get your butts in here, we don't have time!" Angel shouted at the group.
"Jeez, she's more controlling today, huh?" Jericho put it as she saw it.
"It would seem so." Teddy agreed.
"Man, I said it once and I'll say it again, what happened to the days women didn't have the right to vote, huh? Things were much simpler back then." Justine added.
Two vehicles were parked outside the hotel that morning. A Jeep and a Toyota Hammer. The color scheme was the same, black.
"Wow, you really are deplorable human being." Jericho said putting her bags in the hammer. "I call shotgun!" She said running to the seat right next to the driver.
"Whose driving?" Justine asked, but didn't get an answer. "Man, why do I have to do it?"
"Shut up and drive." Angel handed him the key.
"Traffic is going to be a bitch today." He sighed, he didn't want to do the driving, the honking, the swerving, too much work.
"I didn't know you guys destroyed a bank when you fought each other yesterday." Teddy, who was sited in the back, whispered to Jericho.
"I couldn't tell coz I was exhausted, but luckily it wasn't anything too serious." She whispered back.
"Man, now I'm gonna have to deal with traffic." Justine cried.
"Less talky talky, more driving." Angel got in the back with Teddy, "I wanna get there before nightfall."
"Yes ma'am."
BZZZ!
Jericho's left pocket began vibrating, "Who the hell is calling me this early."
"Maybe its ma and pa." Teddy suggested.
"Nah, they know I'd normally be busy or a sleep."
She took out her phone to see an unknown number. "Yeah, the hell are you." Jericho spoke. "Mhh? Oh."
"Who is it?" Justine asked.
"I guess I can tell them… sure… yep… if you say so."
"Who was that?" Angel was next to inquire.
Instead of telling them she just played back the recording, Germain's voice booming through the phone's speakers.
"Change of plans, you four need to head over to the head chief of the police and ask him to assign you the role of seekers in their on going investigation on the Aquatic blue. Make sure to specify yourselves as seekers and nothing more. I'll send other soldiers to do your initial job."
"Guess we've got no choice." Angel sighed, but it was a sigh of relief rather than defeat. 'I don't have to go back to that disgusting place. Thank goodness.'
"That's kind of weird." Teddy said realizing how much Germain valued law above all, "Why would he just switch us like that?"
"Hey i genuinely don't wanna have to argue with that guy, you know how he gets." Jericho responded putting her phone back in her pocket.
"Well, he's the boss." Justine gripped the steering wheel realizing that this was the heavens blessing him for all his none violent actions int eh past year. "Christmas just came early."
He slammed his feet on the pedal inertia kicked in sending everyone backwards into their seats.
"You goddamn idiot!!"
VOL.2 END
TO BE CONTINUED!