An unavoidable war is called justice,
When brutality is the only option left,
It is holy.......
-Niccol Machiavelli-
____________________________________________________
I spent weeks in that hospital and everyday or so, Tsutchie would come and spend the day with me. Even when they said I could leave, she was there.
"Since we're leaving can I see it?" She knew what I meant. The fact that I had asked her every chance I got removed every shred of doubt that I'd ask for anything else.
I still wanted to know more about Dylan.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not obsessing or anything, I just feel like I can get some form of relief or maybe understand my feelings better because as I am now, every time I think about him I feel like crying.
So it's closure, yeah closure.
Tsutchie had bought clothes for me and even go the right size.
But today seemed different.
Tsutchie seemed different.
Different bad.
"Yeah sure," she replied returning her gaze to her cell which she then put to her left ear turning away from me.
It was almost as if she was brushing me off and the tension in her voice as she spoke only implied that something was wrong and as of late anything strange just had my name written all over it. Meaning trouble or danger for me.
Getting stabbed in the chest kinda made me re-evaluate my priorities.
And staying out of trouble was priority number one.
"Hey, what happened after I passed out that time?"
She didn't answer my question, instead she turned to face me wearing an expression of worry and regret.
"It's your mom, she's missing."
Instantly it stated to make sense, everything came together and so quickly that nausea and lightheadedness forced me to my knees.
God......no........!
That reoccurring dream I kept having, the voice belonged to blitz.
Tsutchie wasn't avoiding talking about Dylan because of the awkwardness of the situation, she was doing it because she didn't want me to find out about blitz.
"How could you?..." My voice barely a whisper.
"How could you let him go!?" I was shouting now.
"It's not like that!" She snapped "there was nothing any of us could do."
Maybe that was her trying to calm me down with a rational explanation but I couldn't accept that, I was way past the point of calming down.
"Because of you my mom..." Cold chills ran up and down my spine and my brow dampened with perspiration.
The thought of my mom being in the same room as that man, no that psycho was horrifying.
"My mom..."
"You killed her!" I screamed.
Suddenly something slapped me in the face.
I could feel the residual sting in my cheek as I turned to look at Tsutchie.
"Stop it!" She yelled "you're acting like a brat!"
Warm tears welled up and wet my cheek, dripped from my lip.
"But my mom is-" I started.
"-More than likely ok." She finished for me.
"I'm gonna help with the search so I'll get get someone to take you to my house."
"No I'm coming with you!"
"That's not gonna happen." She responded "it'd be too dangerous and you'll just get in the way."
"I don't care, either I come with you or I'll find some way to come on my own."
"Alright fine," she said after a sigh "we're going to your house it's not like I can stop you."
______________________________________________________
Tess...
She woke on the lawn. She didn't remember anything.
Not how she'd got there in the first place nor how the ugly red marks got on her wrists.
And to top it off her head hurt like hell, so much so that she her vision blurred and she stumbled as she tried to get to her house.
After a couple times, she finally made it through her front door only to fall to the floor there.
"Dad!" She tried "Mom... Jesse?"
Her vision blurred and dimmed.
The energy draining from her body. What happened?
Why was she like this?
She couldn't remember.
"Tess!" A middle aged woman stated with surprise opening the screen door to get to her.
"Are you ok?" The woman asked "Tess!"
"Mom." She called "help."
Tess's eyes slowly closed.
_______________________________________________________
Alice...
"Look if you're gonna be like that the entire time, you might as well get out here!"
Tsutchie noted sternly.
We were in a car driven by a man in a uniform.
Tsutchie beside me in the back, "you're still pouting.
"This could be a trap you know." She stated.
I cast a gaze at her, "what?"
"This should have been a diplomatic mission, seeing that you're from another clan even though that clan is dead."
She took a breath, "do you remember what I said before about Vehretta handling all missions of this nature?"
I nodded.
"Well there are cases like this where it seems that she's being baited out." She explained.
I held my breath.
"She's being targeted."
"Yeah," Tsutchie replied "she is the clan head after all."
"So this is an attempt to assassinate an assassin?"
"More like representing, but if anything goes wrong I cant have any ties to the clan or it could cost it it's existence."
"Besides I'm not even apart of the Suimono clan anyway," she was looking at her hands.
She seemed a little sorrowful when she said that, I decided not to ask about it.
"So that's why we're the only ones?" I asked.
"Yeah, my subordinates are searching but none of them are at your house, that was my order to them." She answered.
"Well it doesn't matter."
"Don't you get it?" She asked "even though they have your mother, you have to understand that they can use this to their advantage, if it is blitz then we can retreat and formulate a plan. But what if it isn't?"
She asked turning to face me.
"What if it's another clan? They could wage war with the Suimono saying we attacked first and because of our laws, we'd be unable to ask for help from any other clan."
"How many other clans are there?" I asked.
"About... three hundred, give or take."
She replied slowly.
"If there are that much why haven't Anyone heard about them before?"
I asked.
"That's because most of them are now neutral." She answered "some span entire countries while others, make up small towns or villages and in some rare cases there are those that are even smaller than that, the Suimono clan is the prime example."
"This' why I didn't want you to come," she turned her gaze to the window "there are just too many things that can go wrong."
"Then what about the government? Or is that a myth?" I couldn't help sounding sarcastic.
"You might not believe it but the simple truth is that it's been infiltrated since it was just a movement."
She answered.
"It's nothing more than the elders' play thing."
"And nobody says anything? I mean come-on we have the internet,"
"Neutral means that only militarized sectors of the clan and it's leaders know about its clan identity on any level, that's the only way to assure the surrounding clans that you won't attack them or participate in any wars." She looked at her phone and sighed "that's what happens when a clan gets too big."
"We're here!" She added I looked out the window but we were still a few blocks away from my house.
"But this isn't-" I started.
"-We'll walk the rest of the way." She finished for me.
My house...
I ran up the walkway and pushed the door. "Mom!" I called.
Checking the dining room -empty, living room and kitchen - empty.
I ran up the stairs as fast as I could - her room was empty and what was left of her things were all over the place.
The lamp was on the floor probably broken, the closet was opened and clothes littered the floor, the chest-of-drawers overturned.
But she wasn't here.
It was hopeless, she just wasn't here...
I turned to Tsutchie who'd just come up the stairs and she shook her head.
I couldn't help it, tears welled up in my eyes. Mom was gone and I was too late to do anything...
Tsutchie held my hand.
Probably empathizing.
"Come-on, you're apart of the Suimono clan now." She tried as if she talking to a child "I'll help find her I promise."
I'm alone again....
No one to understand me.
Tsutchie had her own problems, I couldn't give her mine.
I didn't want to...
I can't depend on anyone else.
I won't ...
It's like she warned me about, clans are intertwined with society, the most secret of secret organizations.
And that leaves me with no one to trust.
Tess... Maybe I can apologize, no...
For all I know, she could be a part of a neutral clan.
I couldn't risk it and for such a reason at that.
Right... Calm mind. That really didn't mean anything to me but I wasn't gonna tell her that.
"Can I have a minute?" I asked.
She nodded,
"I'll be outside."
I could hear her footsteps as she made her way down the stairs.
I made my way to my mother's bed and sat.
And that's when my hand brushed the piece of paper that fell to the floor.
(Is that Romaji?)
Huh? What's romaji? Why did I think that?
I wiped the my tears with my sleeves.
Carefully I picked it up.
The paper was thick and felt almost like cloth. It was from the same type of paper Dylan showed me that time.
The letters were from the alphabet but the words.
(I can't figure out what it means.)
Should I ask Tsutchie?
No...
The stairs squeaked.
Quickly I put the paper in my pocket.
Tsutchie entered the room and braced against the wall at the door a knife in her hand.
"Get down we have company!"
...........
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