The Hinomoto Rebellion (35 page)
After a few moments of 26 answering the children’s questions, she stood up again and faced a male
Kemono
with the tawny fur of a lion covering his body. His head was covered by a huge, shaggy red mane with two rounded golden ears sticking up out of it. His face though was one of a bird, and covered in white feathers that were interrupted by small patches of green scales. The scales also showed on his shoulders, a stark contrast to the fur that covered him. Two brown eagle wings rose up from his back and flared out some as he stepped forward, and a long green tail with a tuft of long red fur at the end swished in agitation. He stared down his orange beak at 26, his brown eyes hard. The leader of the government experiments dwarfed everyone else in the room, standing at over two meters and packed with strong, lean muscle. “Why have you returned to us, wayward one? And with these... humans following you.” he said, his voice deep and rumbling.
26 looked down at her hands. “Deuce, the humans are my friends. We need a safe place to stay for a few nights, so I brought them here.” She looked up, determination set in her eyes, “These are the humans that are leading the rebellion against the government! I’m one of them and I couldn’t just leave them to the streets. We only need to stay here for a few days. Let us tell you about our cause, I know you’ll find these humans to be worthy of our protection!”
The Aka Ryuu raised their eyebrows. 26 was usually their level-headed caretaker, not the passionate revolutionary that they were seeing now. She was staring down the
Kemono
that was obviously the alpha male as though she was the one in charge. Deuce stared at 26 for a minute, then looked back at the crowd gathered behind him. Several heads behind him nodded up and down, and after a moment he turned back to 26. “Fine. You and your... humans... can stay here. Just make sure you tell them of our laws.” He turned quickly, his part-scale, partfur tail like a whip behind him.
26 turned to the others and smiled. “Don’t mind him, he’s a big sour-puss. Let’s go find some beds and get to sleep, I’ll explain everything in the morning.”
Daimyo Yasakuto lay awake, listening to the early morning newscast. He hadn’t been able to sleep because his excitement for the coming days was something akin to a child on Christmas Eve.
The reporter on the television was recapping the top stories for the hour, one of which was a horrible fire that had broken out in the middle of Shinjuku Gyoen National Gardens. Two ancient buildings had been razed to the ground by an inferno, said the reporter. It was suspected that vagrants living in the buildings had lit candles to fight off the dark of the previous night’s storm, and that the candles had tipped over and caught the rotted wood on fire. So far, no bodies had been found in the rubble, though the firefighters were still continuing with their investigations.
Yasakuto grinned as he listened to the story, knowing full well what “vagrants” lived in those buildings. His snare around the Aka Ryuu was closing in tighter now, and it was only a matter of time before he had them in his trap.
Of course, I want to keep one prize in particular,
he thought, a sinister gleam in his eye. He rolled over and put his hand on his night stand, feeling for a familiar object. His fingers closed around it and he pulled it to him. It was a small instant photo that had seen much better days. The picture was dog-eared, creased, and faded and had splotches of white across it where the print had rubbed off. Yasakuto clutched the photo to his chest and sighed, then brought it up to look at the girl who was staring out at him from the photo, her smile never fading.
The girl with the wide eyes and the bandage around her head smiled out at him as she always did, unchanging and perfect. The Daimyo lay there for awhile longer, an eerie smile across his face, before getting up and beginning to get ready for work.
Andrea groaned as she pulled herself out of her restless sleep. She was confused by the amount of light seeping through her closed eyelids, and she groaned again as she moved to cover her eyes with her arm. The act of moving caused a flash of pain across her skin, and she suddenly remembered the fire. She sat up and looked down at her arm. She hadn’t realized it last night, but her skin had become a strange shade of pink and almost felt like it was too small for her.
Oh great... I got an all-over burn from the heat...
she thought with a sigh. It didn’t feel like it was bad enough to last more than the day, but it was uncomfortable to say the least.
“You’re up early,” a voice whispered to Andrea’s left. The silver-haired woman turned to see 26 standing at what used to be the entrance to this store. Strewn between 26 and Andrea were the sleeping bodies of the other Aka Ryuu, all laying on cushioning scrounged up and donated by the rest of the mall’s inhabitants.
It took a little while for Andrea to traverse the maze of sleeping rebels, especially since Kanjou, Roni, and Fushicho had all crammed together into a huge mass of bodies and covers that were blocking a narrow path to the door. The area the Aka Ryuu had been given to sleep in hadn’t been very big anyway, and the single bodies were giving Andrea a hard enough time. Still though she managed to get across the floor without stepping on anyone or killing herself, which she regarded as a small victory, and followed 26 down the walkway.
Andrea stepped to the side slightly as Nikko came running between herself and 26, being chased by three children. Without missing a beat Andrea moved back to her original position after they had run past. “Yeah, there’s a few that I’ve thought about asking.” she admitted. “The first one being why you didn’t tell us about this place sooner. I assume that Kanjou, Fushi, and Roni had no idea it existed.”
“The number one, and most important rule of the
Kemono
is to never tell any humans of this place. I couldn’t bring it up, but at the same time, we had no place else to go last night.” 26 said.
“And you figured that maybe we could make an army out of these people?”
The teal-haired woman looked down at the floor, a wave of sadness crossing over her face. She stopped in the middle of an open area and looked over at a group of figures that were sitting around underneath an artificial tree whose fabric leaves had been worn by the passage of time. The group consisted of five beings bartering for goods. A
Kemono
that looked like a fox crossed with a rabbit had a large bag and kept reaching into it, pulling out more and more stuff to show the other four. Off in the distance, some children were playing in what used to be some sort of fountain, though the water was long gone.
“Look at this place, Andrea. Sure, they’re happy and safe here. They’re protected from the prejudices of the outside world, and from a government that hurt them. But this is no way to live. It’s no way to raise a family. If anyone has the right to fight against Daimyo Yasakuto and his corruption, it’s them. They should be able to go outside when they want to, and shop for food, and do everything that ‘normal’ people do. Most citizens don’t even know we
exist
, Andrea. The government just takes people and does whatever they want with them, all to make some super weapon. It’s not right. It’s not
FAIR!
” Her last word echoed off the cavernous walls of the mall, making some of the nearby
Kemono
turn to look at what the commotion was. After a moment, they went back to what they were doing.
26 took a deep breath and looked back at Andrea. “I know I haven’t been very combat-oriented so far, but I’m going to change that. I was always afraid to hone my martial arts abilities. I don’t know what the government did to my brain, after all. They may have programmed me to be a killer, and that’s always scared me. But after everything I’ve seen now, I want to make them pay for what they’ve done to me... and what they’ve done to everyone else in this building. So, yes, I’m hoping they’ll join our cause. I know some of them would like nothing better than to make the government suffer for what they’ve done.” She looked down at her clawed hands and Andrea saw a tear roll down her furry cheeks.
The two Aka Ryuu stood there for a minute in silence. Andrea heard Nikko barking playfully some distance away as children’s laughter filled the air. There was an illusion of peace in the place that had been driving Andrea crazy for a few minutes, and then she realized what was wrong with it. It wasn’t a feeling of peace, it was sadness mixed with fear. This place was not the haven that it seemed to be, it was a prison for the victims of the government.
Andrea put her hand out and set it on 26’s shoulder as she stared at the children playing in the dried-up fountain. “I agree, 26. Let’s go see if we can start an army.” she said blankly. As though on cue, her stomach growled. 26 laughed as Andrea’s eyes widened.
The rest of the Aka Ryuu woke up some time later. They extracted themselves from the various blankets and wandered as a group down the halls back toward the dining area.
As they approached the food court, they became aware of a noise that was growing in intensity. The group of
ronin
exchanged glances and then quickened their pace, fearing that Andrea or 26 had gotten into trouble.
They turned the corner to see a large group of beings gathered around two tables that were in the center of the space. On top of one table stood 26, and on the table right next to her was Andrea. The silver-haired martial artist looked as though she was pretending to be 26’s bodyguard, while 26 spoke vehemently to a crowd that was muttering it’s disagreement.
“No, Deuce, you don’t understand what I’m saying!” 26 shouted. “The Shogun isn’t the one to blame for what’s happened to you! Daimyo Yasakuto and the others that he’s corrupted are the ones who took you from your families and tried to turn you into weapons for their own gains!”
anything
about you! He doesn’t know you exist! You can’t blame him for that!” snapped Andrea, balling up her fists.
“And if you want him to do something about it, then you have to stop hiding! Look at this place!” 26 gestured toward the falling apart shopping mall. “Is this how you all want to live? Hiding from the world? Forced to go out at night and steal the things you need? Not having your children be able to go to school? You want to lock yourselves up in here forever and not face what’s going on out there!?” She pointed behind her, back toward the main entrance, “Look at me! You think I don’t know what you’ve gone through!? I’m the same as you are, except I realize that we could do greater good if we don’t cower like dogs at the government’s boots!