Chapter 2: Lu Xun
Step by silent step we moved across the body-littered floor. Sairi had nearly fainted when we entered, but so far, she had done a wonderful job keeping her composure. Although, I knew she was terrified just looking at the room, she probably thought I was an idiot to even attempt to move towards the door. But yet, here we are.
I felt sweat falling down my terrified face. Yes, even ancient warrior-kin can get scared. I hope this doesn’t surprise you.
“Xun, I’m scared.” Sairi whispered.
“I know, I am too,” I replied, “But, there is nothing I can do about it.”
Suddenly, I felt myself fall forward, crashing face first onto the blood-stained floor. Sairi fell on top of me.
I was able to keep myself from grunting from the impact, but the noise I made when I hit the floor…yeah, couldn’t control that. The bang filled the room, and alerted the gators.
‘SCREW being silent now, we have to get out of here!’ I thought frantically.
“Come on, run!” I yelled to Sairi.
She got off of me and stood. “But, what about being silent?”
I jumped onto my feet, grabbed her hand, and ran for the door. “Dammit, forget that, just run!”
We got closer, and closer to the door, but a gator appeared in front of us. I froze. Sairi clamped her arms around mine.
I was gasping for air. This was it, we were done for.
Suddenly, there was a loud crash behind us, FAR behind us. The gators moved away from us and towards the restroom. Now was our chance, but…I couldn’t move. My body wouldn’t obey my commands.
“Let’s go.” A man’s calm voice whispered.
I turned to my right. Next to me was a man, early twenties, long, brown hair back into a ponytail, crimson armor and cape. I recognized him: Zhou Yu!
I nodded and all three of us, with Sairi still clamped onto me, ran through a no-door doorway to who the HELL knows WHERE, but as long as it was away from THOSE things, anywhere was fine with me.
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We ran for hours on end, but, it seemed that no matter WHERE we went, there were gators. As a last choice, Sairi suggested we go to the top floor of Tokyo Tower and wait for the gators to die off.
We were running through Ayaka Ally when I stopped. Sairi and Zhou Yu stopped as well. They turned to me.
“Xun, what’s wrong? We’re almost there.” she said walking up to me.
“Your plan is flawed.” I told her.
She raised an eyebrow. “How so?”
I starred into her eyes. They looked as if she had just been insulted.
I sighed. “The gators, even when starving, can live their full time here on Earth, which is ninety-“
“Days?” Sairi interrupted.
“Months?” Zhou Yu put in.
“YEARS.” I finished.
Sairi groaned. “Well, that’s just PERFECT! PLEASE tell me this isn’t going to be like that Tremors movie!”
I chuckled nervously. “Well…”
“’Well?’”
“How does the fact that these gators have an asexual reproductive system sound to you?”
Sairi groaned even louder. “Well, that’s just WONDERFUL!! So, that means no matter HOW long we wait, those thing are going to call Tokyo their BREEDING GROUNDS?!”
“Basically.”
Sairi got VERY irritated. “How the FUCKIN’ HELL can you even THINK of being calm AT A TIME LIKE THIS?!!”
I covered my ears while she said that, just to turn down the volume. If I hadn’t, I probably would’ve become opposite the gators and gone deaf.
Zhou Yu covered her mouth with his right hand.
“You are too easily angered, and because of that, you are too susceptible to screaming,” He turned his attention to me, “Xun, that sort of information would have been better off being told to us BEFORE we started running for Tokyo Tower.”
I scratched the back of my head in embarrassment. “I know. I’m sorry, it-it just sort of slipped my mind.”
While Zhou Yu dealt with Sairi, I turned to look behind us. With Sairi going from raised voice to SOS level, I had SOME feeling that the gators would have heard her and have been on top of us by now. Well…I was right. I heard growling, about three or four, one after the other.
“Guys, we’d better leave.” I stated.
“Are they coming?” Yu asked.
“Yep, about three or four of ‘em,” I reported, “Go on. Get Sairi out of here, out of Tokyo.”
“And, what about you?” Sairi asked.
“…I’ll hold them off as best as I can.”
“Xun, that’s foolish! You know better than either of us what these things can do!” Yu shouted.
“No, I don’t. Neither I, nor anyone in Akifumi know the extent of these creature’s abilities. It’s just like Jannete said. ‘It’s too risky’, she told us, but no one listened.”
“Wait, YOU’RE from AI?!”
I knew that was Sairi’s voice asking that.
Tears fell from my eyes, but I didn’t face her. I didn’t want her to see me like that.
“We’ll…talk about this later…if we survive.”
“You BETTER not die on us.” she said, and I swore I could hear concern in her voice.
I smiled. “I can’t guarantee that.”
Once I heard their footsteps leave the area, I drew my sword.
“All of this happened because we created you,” Yes, I was talking to the gators, “And now, in order to redeem myself, and for Jannete’s warning to be heard by all the bastards in Akifumi, I WILL have to kill you.”
I raised my sword and rushed the gators. I was about to slash one of them, but…I got knocked into the wall. One of them had hit me with their tail.
My head hurt with a terrible pain, but then again, so did my heart. I placed my hand on my chest. The pain was too much. It felt like I had betrayed Sairi, and Jannete.
I moved my hand from my chest to the back of my head. I looked at my palm after I felt a warm, wet substance. It was blood.
I chuckled a bit. I half expected the gators to start chomping down on my flesh. I couldn’t believe that I would actually be dead soon.
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Seven years ago, I was taken away from my home in Wu by a staff member of Akifumi. I was brought to one of their facilities in Tokyo, Japan. There I was forced to work as a slave, cleaning up after everyone, bringing them their food, stuff like that. I felt more like a butler than a slave, to tell you the truth.
I know that child slavery is against the law, but this was a government corporation. In other words, the prime minister of Tokyo was allowing this to happen. It was during this time that I met them.
A woman in her early thirties with long, blue hair put up in a ponytail in a white lab coat walked up to me one day. She said hello, I shyly replied.
I noticed a little girl with her. A nine year-old with very short blue hair in a white t-shirt and blue jeans. The shirt had a Bulbasaur, a Charmander, a Squirtle, and a Pikachu in a circle just dancing around on a beach background. Her shoes were black with flames on them. She hid behind the woman.
“Come on Sai-chan, say hello,” the woman told the girl.
The little girl just waved from behind the woman. I chuckled a little.
“Shy, isn’t she?” I asked the woman.
She smiled. This woman had the most beautiful smile I had EVER seen.
“This is her first time here. She had been begging me to let me take her to Akifumi, just to ‘see what it’s like’.”
“Oh. I understand. I remember my first time here. It was only about five months ago, after I turned ten. They had to bribe me with chocolate cake first time on the job.”
She started laughing. “Really?”
I nodded. “Yup! And THAT only to get me to clean every bathroom in the entire facility.”
“All of them?! But, there are thirty in the entire building!”
“Yeah, I know. But, I didn’t realize that until I sat down to eat the cake.”
We both started laughing. It took a couple of minutes to actually calm down.
“I don’t believe we’ve had the pleasure of meeting. My name is Jannete Kaneda. I came all the way from Phoenix, Arizona in the US.”
I was amazed. “Well, for an American, you seem to know Japanese AND Chinese quite well.”
“But, aren’t you speaking in Japanese as well?”
“Oh! Right, I am. Kinda forgot,” I changed the subject,” I’m Lu Xun from Wu territory.”
“Isn’t that where some of the ancient warrior-kin live?” came a tiny voice.
The little girl shyly came out of hiding. She was pretty cute.
I nodded at her question. “Yeah, but only if you’re a member of the Kingdom of Wu.”
“The Kingdom of Wu?”
I nodded again. “If you’re from any other kingdom, and you wander in without consent, you’re considered a trespasser.”
“Oh...,” She looked at her mother, “What’s ‘trespassing’?”
“It’s when you enter someone’s home without an invitation or permission.” Jannete answered.
“OH!!” Sairi shouted happily.
“Hey, you brat! Get back to work!” That was my evil taskmaster.
“Yes sir!” I yelled back, “We’ll talk some more later, Miss Sairi.” I added to the little girl.
She looked a little sad when she left, but obediently followed her mother anyway.
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Looking back on that moment, I knew fate had brought Sairi and me together for a specific reason. After I turned fifteen, she disappeared from my life. And now, two years later, we were brought together again. However, I wish we had been reunited under…different circumstances.
“Sairi…I’m…sorry…” I managed to say before I blacked out.
