TW // brief blood in Kimiko's nightmare. Skip the bold part if you want!
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IT WAS LATE AT NIGHT IN THE CAVE. Kimiko tossed and turned in one of the beds Wind helped make for newcomers.
In her nightmare, she was imagining herself back on Sanguinia. The war between the two species was going on, a young Kimiko scared and wondering what to do.
Alongside her was Hanji, her cousin. A white-haired Sanguis with dark brown skin was aside them, holding hands with Kimiko to try and calm her down. They stood with their backs to each other.
---
What are we going to do?! Kimiko questioned, her heart racing like crazy. Things have gone to hell!
Let's see what happens. Hopefully this shield will protect us! Hanji voiced, creating a dark purple barrier around them. It pulsed with electricity as extra security.
It will only be for a few minutes, though! Both of our species are a lot stronger when it comes to their want for blood! the Sanguis spoke.
Shit...Yuki's right. Kimiko realized that.
Just as things were supposedly fine, some of the Sanguis in their normal forms charged at the three. They faced the impact of the shield, some falling down. However, an Enguis was able to get through, creating an ice spear that pierced through.
DAMMIT! Hanji grit his teeth, trying to restore the shield. But it was no use. They were starting to wear down the shield.
One of the Sanguis went right for Yuki. Kimiko's instinct kicked in, her heterochromatic hues - orange and blue - glaring at the Sanguis.
Don't hurt her! GAH—!
Kimiko!
--
Kimiko stumbled back, feeling pain registering . God it hurt like hell and wait...what was on her hand? She moved it away to see blood on it, dripping down. Some was dripping down from where her blue eye used to be.
--
Ow! Kimiko winced, creating an ice and fire sword respectively. Even with one wounded eye, she was still going to fight.
Yuki and Hanji readied their weapons as well. They fended off most of the Sanguis and Enguis coming at them. However, a sudden whooshing breeze went past.
Yuki tried to hold on, but she ended up being picked up by the gust.
Yuki!
Kimiko tried to reach out for her, her and her girlfriend's hands nearly touching before Yuki screamed, going through a rift.
NO! the young Kimiko cried out, seeing more rifts opening up. Some of the Sanguis and Enguis went through them, others managing to stay behind like Hanji and Kimiko did.
The rifts ended and Kimiko saw something in the sky, starting to burn up as it entered the planet's atmosphere.
---
"AH!"
Kimiko screamed herself awake, panting and sweat beading down from her forehead. She looked around, seeing that most of the other entities were asleep.
However, Hanji had happened to hear her and got up, heading over to her bed. "Are you alright, Kim?! You looked like you just saw a ghost."
"I-I'm fine, yâat." Kimiko voiced, saying 'relative' in Thai. "I just had a nightmare...about Sanguinia."
Hanji's expression softened and he pulled Kimiko into a hug. "I'm sorry, cousin."
"Yeah you're right." Kimiko nodded and soughed. "...I just hope Yuki's alright."
Hanji's hues broadened; he recalled that the white-haired girlfriend of Kimiko's had disappeared through a rift during the war. "I hope she will be as well. I mean, hopefully we will see her once this is all over. But for now," he drew away from her, keeping his hands on her shoulders, "we need to focus on what's going on at the moment."
Kimiko nodded, smiling at Hanji's reassuring words. He parted away from Kimiko, heading back to his bed.
As the female Enguis got comfortable and fell back asleep, Hanji tried his best to. He saw a photo near the end of his bed. He illuminated it with an electricity orb, soughing.
On the photo was a picture of Kiyo, him, and Shisetsu. The three of them were younger in the picture, smiling in front of the protector academy.
"I'm the one to talk though..."
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A FEW MONTHS LATER ─ SEPTEMBER
(4 months since the start of the task)
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"Damn it! There's no info on Tobias here."
Jun's voice could be heard as she set a book down. She rubbed at her temples.
She, Sakari, Shisui, Leiko, and Haru were alongside her, seated at a table. They were at the school's libary.
School had recently started again, the group beginning their next semester. Their homework had started, so they were doing this after finishing it together and staying after school.
"Yeah I haven't had much luck, either." Leiko voiced, her legs bouncing as she tried to focus. "It seems that even in the books we have in Mrs. Nozomi's class, it doesn't mention him either. You would figure it would, since it mentioned Acacius, right?"
"Exactly!" Haru nodded. "But no dice. What do you think, Shisui?"
The three looked over at Shisui, who was engrossed in the book of myths they were reading.
"Shisui? Hellooo?" Jun spoke, elongating the second word.
Sakari had to nudge Shisui in order to get his attention.
"Huh?" Shisui blinked, setting the book down. "Oh! Sorry, I was just reading something up on this. I haven't had much luck either. Perhaps we should find some more books?"
"Hmm. Well, I haven't tried looking in the book I have." Sakari got out Solaria's book and looked for the index. "I tried asking Solaria but he has no idea who this Tobias guy might be, either."
As she flipped through the pages, she spotted the surname, 'Borne', but there didn't seem to be anything there.
"That's weird..." Sakari's hues then flickered over to the letter, looking similar to the pages but lighter in color. "This wasn't here before."
She took it off and opened it.
Dear Sakari,
I know this may seem odd but Solaria concealed this info years ago to protect anyone from whoever this Borne person is. But now that we're with him and have helped a lot, he's decided that Kuroma and I would be the ones to help you guys out here.
Given that we experienced a lot of what happened on Darkurus, especially with what Acacius and his family had done to us.
If you're able to contact me at all, please do. We might be able to help you guys with narrowing this down.
- Kurorai
Haru could see the shift in Sakari's expression and looked worried. "Sakari is something wrong?"
Sakari soughed, folding up the letter again and putting it back. "Kurorai sent the letter and is basically offering to help us." she explained the rest.
"...Oh, I think I remember her." Haru voiced, recalling what happened at the theater. "Things were tense back there, weren't they?"
"Yeah, no kidding." Sakari soughed, looking back down at the book. "Kurorai did apologize, but I was recalling all that happened before and lashed out at her. I mean, it was for good reason, but I didn't see that Kurorai actually meant their apology."
Leiko thought about it. She didn't know much about the android nor Kuroma, only what the group had told her. However, she could tell that it was hard for Sakari. "I may not be the right one to say this. But if Kurorai has actually worked on bettering herself over these couple of months, then we could give her another chance. Same with Kuroma. I don't know what they went through, but I'm sure it was a lot."
Sakari nodded to what Leiko said. "Nono, you're right."
The group sat there in silence before Sakari got up.
"I'd say we should call them now but...should we go to the cave for that?"
"Probably yeah! Kiyo, your mom, and Ha'lia might want to know as well since they've been helping support us."
"Yeah, same for me and Jun's moms." Shisui added on. "They've been helping us out by finding other sources, but there's nothing."
"Mhm...Kiyo has even reached out to his girlfriend, Shisetsu, and her sibling, Ryu. Taoyaka and Kagami have tried, too, aside from their other work." Sakari soughed. "I know I wanted to lift the stress off of them, but it seems to be adding on. But...I shouldn't think about that. Let's head to the cave!
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Sakari and her group entered the cave, seeing most of the entities and others there. Kiyo was waiting for them at the entrance, along with Aiwami. This was her first time being here, so it was a lot.
"Mom?" Sakari looked surprised to see her here. "What're you doing here?"
"Kiyo brought me up here after Shisetsu contacted us." Aiwami voiced. "It was nice meeting the others, but it does feel a bit odd being here for the first time."
"Well, it will take some time but...wait. Shisetsu contacted you guys? I was about to inform you about Kurorai's letter."
"I had her send it."
Sakari looked over to see the blonde dog entity walk forward, her hair in a braid and donned in a semi-royal dress with white, blue, and pink.
"Ever since Kurorai and Kuroma have completed their services, Solaria has appointed as a higher protector to give them aid in the castle." Shisetsu gestured to the said two that just showed up behind her. "Now that they're working at helping around the castle, I thought that it would be good that they help out with this. Given that this Borne is someone of significance to what's going on."
"Ooh okay." Sakari voiced. "So, uh...what should we do now?"
"We're going to contact Solaria and unveil what this page says. And then go from there." Kuroma voiced. This won't take long but...hold on."
He got out his tablet and dialed Solaria's number. A screen projected onto one of the cave's walls, revealing the god entity themselves.
Leiko and Jun's jaws dropped, with the latter having to be caught by Sakari due to almost fainting. Haru just stared in shock, as did Shisui.
"THIS is Solaria?!" all of Sakari's friends voiced at the same time.
"Yeah it is!" Sakari smiled, only for the other three to see Shisui faint.
Silence ensued.
"Is your girlfriend alright, lassie?" Kiyo voiced, concerned.
--
After Shisui gained consciousness a few minutes later, Solaria cleared his throat and folded his hands together. "Alright, so. I know this may seem surprising to you all. But I decided to have you guys gathered here due to this being an important break in this whole mission. Sakari, can you take out your book again, please?"
Sakari nodded, opening it up. She flipped it to the page that had the letter and took it out. Her hues broadened at seeing the text reveal itself. However, it was in Latin, which she didn't understand much of it.
"Solaria, wh-what does this say?" she showed it to him.
"Ah! Hold on, lemme remember." Solaria took a moment, adjusting his glasses. "When dusk becames dawn and tensions arise, Tobias Borne comes from the depths to plan his revenge."
"Revenge?" Wind tilted her head, resting a hand on her forehead. "Hii haina maana! Why would Tobias want this?"
"Well...something in his past probably caused this but that's unknown. We hadn't covered his past at all, but his name was used as a threat towards me by Acacius. Prior to the whole Legendary incident."
Gasps went around the room.
"A threat?! Bloody 'ell, why didn't ye teel us this afair?!" Kiyo's concern thickened his accent. Sakari and Shisetsu came over to try and comfort him.
"I didn't want to worry all of you and second..." Solaria looked away for a moment. "I didn't think that his name would come up again. Knowing Acacius, though, he might know who this guy is. Or else he wouldn't have made that threat before I had him sent to Darkurus."
"Hmm...why exactly was he banished there?" Kage voiced since she had been thinking about that.
"My memory's a bit fuzzy so I can't recall much. Kurorai, Kuroma?" he looked at them.
The others set their hues on the two, which caused them to get nervous for a moment. Kurorai stepped forward. "I think we heard Acacius say this before when we met him again. But he had gotten banished to Darkurus because of him breaking his rules as a higher protector. He and the demons had assisted with connections but Acacius used that to try and contact someone. Solaria found out and that's when the banishing happened. He mentioned someone named T, who Kuroma and I helped work for a bit in the old castle here in Kiyosumi."
Sakari figured that Acacius' family was also taken there as well. But the 'T' thing made her connect the dots.
"H-Hold on a second...wouldn't this T person also be Tobias? This may sound too much of a coincidence, but think about it."
Kurorai pondered before her blue hues broadened and her body trembled a bit. "Holy shit, you're right...oh god!" she looked horrified and Sakari went over to give her a small hug, returning it. "This isn't good."
"Yeah it isn't, but this in turns helps you two out—" Sakari blinked, just now catching the second part. "Wait, what?"
"We also probably heard Acacius mention that if things got worse, he would contact the higher-up!"
"So this means Tobias is behind this and using Acacius!"
Solaria's hands slammed on the desk since he just remembered something. This in turn got their attention. He muttered the words said earlier and shook his head, taking off his glasse after. "God I'm so stupid to have not noticed this before. What we thought was a deal to be done with in a year is more serious. If Acacius is helping Tobias to try and merge the planets with the Legendary's powers, then this means bad, BAD things for us! I need to alert the other gods. I'm sorry to cut this short. Kurorai, Kuroma, meet me at my office in an hour."
And with that, the device shut off.
Kurorai was still trying to calm down a bit, so Kuroma rested a hand on her shoulder. "It's alright, Kuro. I know this is a lot."
Kurorai nodded and took in a breath. "I can't believe that we've been helping this...this 'big bad' this whole time!" she did the air quotes for emphaziation . "That means we really need to find the others as soon as possible, even if it might take months."
"Mhm." Sakari was a bit astounded that Kurorai basically took the words right out of their mouth. "So we need to try and find, uhhh..." Sakari got out her book again. "Khansa and Lamis whenever we can."
"Right! Also I do hope we were of help. I didn't know that this was all going to happen." Kurorai voiced.
Sakari's hues broadened at her words; they oddly reflected Sakari's when she first started out her task. "It's alright, don't worry. You did and you've been helping out Solaria a lot." she wore a warm smile. "You guys are helping in more ways than you realize."
Kurorai smiled brightly, tearing up a bit. Having heard that in a positive way really helped bring up her spirits a little. "Thanks, Sakari. You guys don't mind if we, uh, hang out here until it's time to go?"
"I don't mind." Sakari voiced, seeing them leave to the bottom floor.
Shisetsu stood there and smiled at the two, prior to looking back at Sakari. "That was really sweet of you to say, Sakari. You're just like what Kiyo told me about."
The teen thanked Shisetsu. "Are you going to be hanging around here for a bit as well?"
Shisetsu nodded. "I haven't seen the other in a bit but..." her hues rested on Hanji, who was talking to Kiyo. "I'd like to catch up with one of them."
Sakari smiled and checked the time on her phone. She gasped. "Oh shit! I didn't realize it was almost past dinner-time! I need to get home."
Leiko hadn't realized that either and neither had the others. "Well, we should get going, then. See you tommorrow, Sakari!"
Sakari smiled and waved to them as she left, with Leiko, Jun, Shisui, and Haru departing after.
What happened today did linger in her friends' minds. Of course, the other four had to realize that they needed to give this info to those that have been helping as well.
It might be a lot, but it was definitely something they needed to know.
Especially if anything in particular came up.
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NOTES:
Kimiko's full name is Kimiko Reyes-Tang; being one of the first characters to have two last names. She's Japanese/Dominican/Thai. She's also transfem and so is her girlfriend, Yuki. She'll find her in the next book.
To clarify, yâat is something that you can use towards your cousins in Thai. But it more so means 'relative'.
Also for more clarification, the Sanguis/Enguis happened around the time Tigoris' middle age era occured (as said in the previous chapter). When Kimiko, Hanji, and Tatsu went through the rift, it caused a bit of time malfunction, meaning that it brought Kimiko and Hanji to Tigoris when Kiyo and Shisetsu were young. And for Tatsu, he ended up being sent to where he was before with a good amount of the others. But they were still chosen to help out nonetheless. (Yuki's the same age as the three but she's not part of the chosen group. The three were around 11-12 when the war happened, so Hanji and Kimiko met Kiyo and Shisetsu when the two dog entities were 11! And they grew up there on Tigoris before parting later)
Shisetsu has recently been appointed as one of the higher protectors, since she's been helping Solaria out a lot while Kiyo's been gone off/on to help Sakari. A higher protector in this case is basically a protector that works alongside the ruler and gods. This rank is separate from the ones at the academy and is just below the bodyguard and ambassador ranks for the castle. Higher protectors are also expected to help aid those who have done wrong in the past and are making amends ; those being Kurorai and Kuroma.
Hii haina maana = This makes no sense in Ghanian (do lemme know if I mistranslated this)