Jay's Cry

     "I said wait-!"

     "We're almost there, keep your voice down."

     "Where-!"

     "Hush already."

     Kuchiha gritted her teeth, scowling. She could always break loose and get away, but then--her scowl intensified--she would be lost all over again. Her pride wouldn't allow it. 

     Runo led her with his whip (after quite a bit of yelling) tied around her wrist, and at a quick run returned from outside to the Navi village's eastern [it was this side, right? i keep forgetting] rim. This side had fewer traps, the only real barricades being the wall and two lazy guards. The guards were concealed in the dark, but were arguing about some obscure Navi topic and being quite oblivious to their duty. Their voices made it easy to tell where they were, and the two infiltrators crept to the top of the wall without a problem.

     For the first time Kuchiha could see the central Tent [gee, the "big tree," the "big tent," why do i always do these kinds of things...] in full. The bottom, surrounded by several more tents, glowed with a beautiful creamy white, the animal skins bringing it gracefully to the part where they were cut off; then it was blackness, except for the faint sheen of wet ropes. On top was a small hovering lookout post that glowed only bright enough to see that someone was inside of it, like a crow's nest in a ship. Kuchiha gaped at the tent's enormity and the fact that she had missed it.

     "...Did you hear that?" Runo's voice was miraculously soft.

     "What?" Kuchiha glanced in alarm at the two Navi, but they hadn't noticed her voice. She lowered it to a whisper. "Can't really hear much in this weather."

     "...Of course..."

     "Hey, if we can talk then tell me what we're doing here!"

     "Making sure the Navi're keeping their promise to Jay. And the other way around."

     "Huh?"

     "Were you listening to that Imaelka-Emily person?"

     "Gk..."

     "Ah, should've known."

     "What!? It's not my fault I don't remember Southern! [change of plans, kuch always knew what southern is...she just can't speak it...]"

     "Ah--"

     "And what's wrong with not getting that kind of messed up stuff!?"

     "Shush, you idiot--"

     Too late did Kuchiha remember where they were. The two Navi stopped short in their argument and stood still for a moment. Then, stealthily, they moved apart and began to approach her and Runo.

     She moved to draw her Wsword, but Runo's whip around her wrist snapped taut. She turned to him and threatened to cut the rope and rip out his guts, but his smoldering eyes were distant and angry, and without a word he covered his ears and lay low. What the heck was he thinking!?

     When one of the guards drew closer than a mural away, he tossed something in the air. Kuchiha drew her katana with her free hand, shifting into a defensive stance. Her eyes strained to make out the object sailing towards them in the dark. Before it came in reach of her sword, it suddenly split open with a sharp flash and a bang.

     Mechanic Sparkfly! She squeezed her eyes shut, but the light still blinded her momentarily. Her ears popped and sound returned, accompanied with the highstrung yells of Southern. There was the buzzing of a wound up toy and tingling sensation of static electricity. Beyond the musty earth and biting night wind, something smelled of gunpowder.

     A bomb?

     An explosion of all the sounds she could ever have imagined suddenly crashed down from above and made the sky collapse. Even with her eyes closed she could see the red and green flames dancing all the way to the horizon. This was on an entirely different level from the Sparkfly, like an ant compared to a blue whale. All she could hear was a faint ringing. Smoke and gunpowder clogged up her throat. She opened her eyes and saw nothing but red and green blotches, a looming shape in the center slowly materializing out of the colorful mist.

     Then, suddenly, another brilliant flash cut through the haze, and like a slap in the face her senses were soaking in everything like never before. The surroundings were pronounced in distinct detail, the colors strewn out unnaturally bright. By her right side was Runo, bowed slightly with his hands over his ears and his eyes closed. To her left were the two guards, thunderstruck by the fireworks. In front was the tent, dark now compared to the sky. And for a moment, in that brief flash of clarity, Jay stood facing them, red eyes wide and soaking in the view, with a blue and black bow slung across his back [who knows...it's...a foldable bow? @ - @]. He looked like a warrior.

     And then the night returned, swallowing him up in its greedy jaws, the sky only faintly lit up by the ensuing fireworks. Kuchiha's senses returned to normal. She tried to make sense of what just happened, then gave up in a few seconds.

     "Quite a show it is." A low, rhaspy voice from the base of the central Tent tore her eyes away from where Jay had been. Flanked by two young serving-women [cousins or smth...i dunno, just know that they're girls], there stood a richly dressed Navi looking up at them, face painted completely white, even under the folds of his crinkled and weathered skin. His eyes burned with anticipation and malice, and as he parted his lips once more they flared up like a fire just fed coal. "First a Blinding Light, then a Healing Light; quite unparalleled." He turned around with a swish of his robes. "You Norths take our South magic quite for granted, don't you think? Minister."

     Kuchiha blinked. From the entrance to the tent came a gentle glow, and out stepped Angel City's Minister, veiled with translucent gold.

     "Ah, can't hide with this on me."

     "Did you break out by force?"

     "That's a little secret of mine, my friend."

     Kuchiha gaped.

     From his cloak the leader of the Navi produced a thick and long Yera [a type of tree, kinda long and thin, bends with the wind, but never snaps. yellow bark]bow, brown and red with a white grip. "You're too late, all of you mindless Norths."

     Kuchiha's heart skipped a beat. Had he seen Jay?

     "My army is marching towards your city as we speak."

     She breathed out a sigh. If he wasn't talking about Jay, then he didn't know. She couldn't care less about the messed up problems of his life.

     "So you plan to take advantage of the Festival, huh?"

     "Correct."

     "What will you do?"

     "There's no need to tell you." All of a sudden, he flared blue.

     Before Kuchiha or Runo could react, there was a sharp snapping sound and two arrows splashed into the mud halfway between the two leaders, one of them split in half. She glanced up sharply, hissing. Jay had just given himself away.

     "...I don't understand. Why are you doing this?" Jay leaned a little forwards, his red eyes frantically watching the Navi, piercing through the surface, searching for something.

     The leader of the Navi turned his eyes full of hatred towards the tent's rim. "Must I punish you to no end!?"

     "Is it guilt? Disgust? Vengeance? Which is most important?"

     "You fool--what nonsense--"

     "It can't be vengeance, it's been too long. Is it redemption?"

     "Now look at what you're saying! What I desire is power! What drives me is greed! There's nothing more simple than the need to rule over all those blasphemous people who stumble through their days, watching the fire with blinded eyes. I, holding the only connection between North and South, the City of Angels, the City of Beginnings; I will overcome them, and nobody shall stand in my way!"

     "But it's not their fault, Yera!" Jay was crying. Quietly the water pooled over, tears mingling with sweat mingling with rain. "It's not their fault!"

     "Now listen, Souiryuu--"

     "You saw you friends die, you saw their homes destroyed. You couldn't do anything because you were afraid of us, the Norths and the red-eyed demons, afraid that you would be caught up in the fire. And now you can't stand yourself for letting it happen. You want power to keep it from happening again, just like Kucabara, and Imaelka, and everyone else here; but don't you see, it's not your fault. It's not anyone's fault; we were the ones who made them hate us so long ago, we caused the pain that made them turn against us; and now they hate us more than ever before! You keep trying to find the end of it all, but you're just chasing your own tail! There no end like this! Someone has to bear it; someone has to sever this destructive ring!"

     The leader of the Navi looked up at Jay defiantly. "You expect me to listen to your futile rants!?"

     Jay's mouth snapped shut and he wobbled onto his knees, his spirit shrivelling.

     "It's not futile," Kucabara said. He seemed as shocked as the Navi. "It's not futile."

     Blue electricity danced around the cloaked figure, flickering slightly. "It is. You're fools. All of you Norths. I will make you see your ways when I become Minister, unless you die trying to stop me." He threw back his cloak and drew his bow once more.

     Kuchiha felt the knot on her wrist twitch, then pull back sharply. "Wait, wha--wha--"

     "Sure hope wolves can land as well as cats."

     Runo hurled Kuchiha towards Jay like he was casting bait on a fishing pole. She sailed over the gulf, blubbering a stream of insults at her tormentor. The small crowd stared at the sudden interception, frozen in shock. Runo untied his whip and let her fly straight into Jay, knocking him backwards. Stunned, they both toppled over the tent's edge. Kuchiha frantically groped for the wiry ropes--too far. They already couldn't see the mountains behind the wooden rim.

     She took her still-drawn katana and plunged it deep into the hard wood. It gave way slightly as soggy splinters squished together and squeezed out beads of moisture, immediately lapped up by the rain. She then grabbed whatever part of Jay was closest to her reach (which was his collar) and threw him back onto the edge. The wood groaned audibly through the storm, but held. Hastily she joined him.

     "What was that for, idiot!!!? Nearly got me killed!!"

     "Sorry about that."

     "You definitely don't sound sorry!!"

     Runo hopped off the wall and--to Kuchiha's disappointment--landed neatly on the roof of a small tent. "No other way."

     The leader of the Navi cursed in his native language and signed to the two women by his sides. "Clean up this mess for me. See to it that none of them" he waved at Kuchiha, Jay and Runo "get away."

     The two serving-women nodded quietly and leaped higher than should have been possible [courtesy of all existing mangas--well, except Death Note]. One bounded towards Runo, the other streaked to Kuchiha and Jay.

     "Jay--hey, Jay, wake up! You're not gonna just sit there crying until they get us, are you!?"

     "Sorry..." He was still crying.

     The leader of the Navi turned and calmly began to walk towards Kucabara.

     "What? Would you like to dance with this storm?" The Minister grinned casually at his adversary, even as he crouched down into a defensive stance.

     "Hey, you--wait right there!" Kuchiha leapt off the tent's rim, flinging herself down the sloped sides straight towards the serving-woman. The Navi watched her from one of the supporting beams as the katana hummed horizontally towards her waist. She pushed herself off of the sodden wood and flipped in midair, dodging the blade. In a second she had an arrow set and was aiming at Kuchiha.

     Quickly Kuchiha changed courses, pushing off sideways from the beam, trying to get closer to Kucabara. But the surface of the tent was more slippery than she had thought, and her sturdy footing slid out from beneath her in an incredibly visible way. She cursed as her face smacked against the hide, stone from an arrow and metal from her sword ripping through.

     She landed completely submerged a mud puddle. Again. The muck would never wash out from her clothes at this rate.

     Her feet landed on more solid ground and she surged upwards, spitting and gasping as the freezing air rushed into her lungs. Almost subconsciously, she readjusted herself to the surroundings and threw herself towards her target, hovering close by. The white mask. No, the face painted white. She kept mixing them up.

     The leader of the Navi cast Kuchiha nothing more than a careless glance, then continued to walk. When he came almost within reach of the faintly golden glow, he slammed his open palm against a nearby tent. Blue sparks flew as the small structure collapsed, and a black hole apeared in the ground. Rainwater spiralled down into its depths, the colorful reflections of the booming fireworks swallowed by the shadow. Kucabara softened his stance.

     "Nobody will stop me; not you, not those children, not Souiryuu."

     The leader of the Navi let himself fall down into darkness. Kucabara held his stance for a second, watching the two women pounce after Runo. He caught Jay's eye and smiled encouragingly at him, stemming the tears a bit [as in Jay's tears]. Then he turned his eyes down and followed, lighting the entrance with gold as he passed.

     "Woah--hey!!! Where d'you think you're going!!?" Kuchiha pushed forwards and jumped into the hole, trying to ignore the waterfall of mud pouring onto her. "Stop ignoring us!! Hey, I'm talking to you here!!!"

     She could almost make out the two figures from Kucabara's magic. Not one of them stopped.

     "Hey, would you LISTEN TO ME!!!" In a flash she was almost within hand's breadth of the Navi. Both men's movements stiffened with surprise. "I've got just one thing to say, and you'll hear it even if it kills me." The Navi would have kept running if she hadn't grabbed his shoulder. She pulled him close. "You're stopping this fight. Right now. Because you trust that kid, don't you?"

     The Navi scowled. "I don't know what you're--" His retort deteriorated to a howl as Kuchiha shook him with an iron grip.

     "Don't you dare play dumb. Don't you dare tell me you didn't hear Jay's cry!"

     Suddenly, a flash of blue light burst in front of her, and she heard something swing towards her from the side. She was on the ground before she knew it [this could mean she got hit, or she dodged--i haven't decided].

     "Kuchiha!" [and i forgot if coocoo knows kuch's name...]

     "I will decide which path I take," he hissed. "But this path you are now on is mine. You cannot escape now."

     He bounded back into the darkness.

Table of Contents

Chapter 26

Chapter 28