Crimson Dreams

The War Begins

I stare at my mother's body. Tubes and wires are connected to her body. I gently take her hand in mine. "We'll win this war, Mom. We'll win this war and you... you will wake up. And everything will be back to normal. Except... things won't be normal again, will they?" I look away from her body, tears on the brim of my eyes. "The man we captured... he told me he... has feelings for me. I thought it was a joke. He's a bad guy. A criminal. And I'm... not. I fell the same way about him but, there's no way this could work. Right?" I stare at her face. The lacerations on her face seemed to be healing. This means she'll be okay, right? I lean down and kiss her forehead. "I'll see you later, Ma," I stand up straight and walk out of the room.

I make it home to find Dad sitting in the kitchen. "How is she?" He asks. "No change," He sighs and nods. "About what Anoki and I saw last night..." His voice is stern but gentle. "Dad, I don't want to get into it,"  I say starting to walk away from him. "No, we are going to get into it," He stands up, making the chair scrape the floor. I walk back to him. "We have to get ready for the war, Dad," He scoffs. "What are you thinking!? He's a criminal! You cannot fall in love with a--" "Who are you to tell me who I can or can't love, Dad?! You cannot help who you fall for. The heart doesn't care about good or evil. It doesn't give a shit who the person is. I can't help it! I'm in love with him! I'm in fucking love with him," Dad stares at me with a glare. "I don't approve of this," He growls before walking into his study. I sigh deeply. "Of course not," I walk up the stairs, straight to my room.

Everyone's in Dad's study, going over the plan. "Rai and I will stay back and be intercoms for this war. The frontlines will be lead by Jax, Anoki, and Tazana. The rest of you... try not to die," We all nod and everyone clears out. Anoki stops me and Jax from leaving. "If I see either one of you touch each other, I'm killing both of you. I don't give a fuck which one," Anoki speaks darkly. "If you try to kill me, Anoki, and fail... I promise you... you will fucking regret it. Don't threaten me again," I seethe before leaving the study. 

"Alright! Now that everyone is prepared, let's talk about the starting plan," I speak loud enough for everyone to hear. A flashback pops into my head for a quick moment

"Mom! You're home!" She smiles at me softly. "How was school sweetheart?" I grin at her. "I passed my finals! I can finally graduate!" She claps happily. "That's great! But, listen... I won't be here for your graduation night," I frown at her. "What? You're not going to be there?" She shakes her head. "I'm sorry, sweetheart," I sigh sadly. "So, no one's going to be there to cheer for me? Dad and Anoki are going away on a business trip. You're going out of town for your business. How is this fair?" She brings me in for a hug. "I'll make it up to you, I promise," 

"Everyone got it?" I ask the men in the room. They all nod in unison. "Good. Now let's go kick some Sakano ass," Everyone cheered as everyone got into the assigned vehicles. Jax, Kaori, Hana, and I were all in a car. Jax drove the car down the road. I sat in the passenger seat as Kaori and Hana sat in the back. "Wait a minute... Taz, no way!" I look towards them. "What...?" I raise a brow at Kaori who burst out suddenly. "I can't believe this," Hana says exasperatedly. "What are you going on about?" I ask them. "I think they just figured it out," Jax speaks softly, glancing towards me. I roll my eyes. "I need you guys to not make a big deal about that, okay?" I look away from my two best friends. "How can we forget about this? This is huge! He's the first guy that you've even liked!" Jax raises a brow at me. I shake my head, silently cursing their big mouths. "Really?" Jax has on a smug smirk. "You better wipe that smirk off your face," He chuckles as they squeal. "You guys are so cute!" I shake my head at them. We finally arrive at the destination with the others. "You guys better keep your mouths shut, you understand?" They both nod. We stepped out of the car and met with the Sakano. The leader, Ichigoro walks up to me. We were several feet away from each other. "You're going to regret that trap, Tava," He speaks stoically. "Well, it didn't start out that way. But bring it on, Strawberry. You won't win this time," Ichigoro chuckles insidiously. "You've had a few weeks. I doubt you came out with a decent plan." I smirk as I unsheathe my sword. The sword has a black and red hilt. The blade itself is rainbow steeled. Ichigoro seems shocked. I grin at him. "What's wrong, Ichigoro? You look shocked," I tilted my head. "There's no way you could've..." "By ourselves? No way. We had a little help," As soon as I said that the members of Ketsueki Kama walk out of hiding. Our numbers increased by double. "I don't believe this. There's no way you'd--" "Enough chit chat, Strawberry. You wanted a war, let's begin, shall we?" I charge at Ichigoro, swinging my sword at him. He jumps towards the left, dodging my attack. Once I attacked, that was everyone else's cue to attack the Sakano. War was here and I'm going to be damn sure we win.

"Call a code! Get me a crash cart now!" Nurses and doctors rush into Asha's room. The heart monitor was going crazy. "She septic!" "Charge the paddles to 360!" A nurse handed the doctor the paddles. "Clear!" The doctor defibrillated Asha's body 5 times. "Starting heart compressions!" The doctor announces. "Sir, she's been down for 20 minutes!" The doctor didn't stop. "Come on! Come on! Don't die!" He exclaims to Asha's lifeless body. "Doctor Kai! Stop!" Another doctor stopped said doctor from doing compressions. The heart monitor flatlined. "Time of Death... 8: 11," Dr. Kai sighs exasperatedly. "Shit. Shit. Fuck!" Dr. Kai storms out of the room. The nurses start to unplug her from the wires and tubes. "That poor family. They're at a war right now and they won't even know about her death until it's over. Who knows how long that's going to take," A nurse gossips to another nurse. "I wonder why Kai is taking this so hard?" The other nurse shrugs. "Maybe he had an affair with her," The two nurses laugh softly before walking out of the room.