Miyu
BANG!
You stopped dead in your tracks and spun around. The gunshot echoed all around the six of you until it was no longer audible. No one said a word. Your eyes scanned over the forest, looking for a sign of movement. That wasn’t Falene shooting. Her gun had a shorter blast then that one. So then who was shooting? And why only one shot?
“That wasn’t Ares.” Ren said vocalizing what you were thinking. He took the last stride to stand beside you and searched the trees. You nodded in agreement and kept your eyes glued ahead. “Do you think—”
“No!” You said quickly without even considering the possibility. “She is fine.”
“Miyu.” Sven said your name behind you and you finally turned away to look at him. He was holding Train steady but you could tell he wasn’t doing well. He was sickly pale now and had dark circles under his eyes. He coughed roughly into his free hand and then looked back up at you with tired eyes. This was bad. You had to find Falene right away and Train needed to stop moving.
“How far until we get back to the safe house?” You asked preparing to formulate a plan. Sven looked in the direction of the house and thought for a moment.
“Maybe…5 minute jog.” He guessed. You nodded and turned back to the direction of the gunshot.
“You guys keep going ahead. I’m going to backtrack and investigate that gunshot. If it’s Falene, whether she’s in trouble or not is irrelevant. I’ll get her to head back to the safe house and we’ll get Train looked after. Be cautious when you get closer to the safe house, they may be expecting our return. I won’t be long.” You added and then started running to avoid giving them a chance to rebuke your choice. Sven and Train had a hard time understanding that you and Falene had lived very independent lives. Working alone was a common thing for the two of you. Before Ren came along it had only been you two and, honestly, that’s how you had preferred it. Ren was great and you of course you enjoyed his company but Falene was very private. Ever since Ren had joined the team she had closed off even more, even locking you out a lot more than not. You missed how things had been.
Flashback
Falene walked behind you as you skipped along the path. You spun on the balls of your feet and stopped facing her with your hands behind your back. You leaned forwards sticking your butt out and stuck your tongue out at her.
“Come on slowpoke, you’re taking forever.” You whined and a small smile spread over her soft features. She slowed her pace down purposefully in a taunt. You stood up straight putting your hands on your hips and squinting at her, clearly annoyed.
“Calm down.” She complained putting her hands in her pants pockets. “It’s our day off and, I don’t know about you, but I’m going to enjoy not having to get anywhere in a hurry.” You shrugged and continued walking with her when she reached your side. She had a dramatically slower pace than your previous one and you felt like a sloth. A sweat drop appeared on your head and you glanced at her with slit eyes.
“You’re doing this on purpose aren’t you?” You asked slouching your shoulders. She tried to hide her smirk but it was blatantly obvious.
“Perhaps.” She said guiltily. You glared at her and shoved her harder than you thought forcing her into a cart of fruit at a nearby vendor. She sat in it with her limbs hanging over the side and peaches in her lap. A peach fell hitting her on the top of her head and she stared at you, annoyance written all over her face. You crossed one arm over your chest and put the other over your mouth attempting to hide a snicker.
“Oh, do you find this funny?” She asked as she started to climb out of the cart. There was a bunch of squished fruit on her arm and she violently shook it trying to shake it off. She wasn’t paying attention and slipped on some juice on the ground causing her to fall backwards. She waved her arms around wildly trying to get her balance back but lost it altogether and fell back into the cart.
That was it. You blurted out your wild laughter, leaning forwards and hugging your gut. She looked up at you without amusement. You continued to laugh though not caring.
“My god, that was hilarious! I am so sorry!” You laughed through you desperate attempts to breathe. After a moment, she started to giggle slightly before she full on laughed along with you. The vendor watched you both like you were crazy people.
“You are going to have to pay for that.” The man said and you nodded pulling out some cash from your wallet after freeing Falene from the cart. The vendor counted it out eyeing you curiously by the amount of cash you were carrying. You turned away from him nonchalantly. That look was nothing new. After your laughter finally started to fade, Falene straightened out her clothes and coughed once.
“Well, come on then.” She said returning to Cat’s Eye. “We have places to go.” She still had a small smirk on her face as she walked by you and you smiled in response. She was finally coming around. This was the first moment you had had with her that made you feel like she didn’t hate having you around. It made you think that she might actually call you her friend some day.
A Few Days Later
You sat down in front of Falene as she cleaned her gun and watched her intently. She glanced at you through hooded eyes seeming to know you had something you wanted to say. You had recently read a new book that was about a guy and girl falling in love. The female protagonist has a strong resemblance to Falene in the beginning with both personality and physical appearance. It made you wonder how she would be in that situation and it had been on your mind for the past hour. You couldn’t picture her in love with someone.
She looked back to her gun and remained silent not feeling any need to pull it out of you. If you decided you wanted to talk about it you would do just that. She had learnt that you weren't shy over her time as your mentor.
"I have something I'd like to ask you." You said abruptly. She looked back to you calmly meeting your determined eyes. She wore an expression that said ‘how exhausting’.
"I have a feeling you aren't giving me an option." She said returning her gaze to her gun as she cleaned out the barrel. You leaned forwards your eyes boring through her with a quizzical stare.
"Have you ever been in love?"
"No." She responded immediately. You sat back unsatisfied.
"Really?" You asked watching her unhappily. She kept her eyes on her gun as she started sliding the now clean pieces back together. "Never?"
"Never." She repeated loading it and pointing it to the side examining the gun for any imperfections.
"Has anyone ever been in love with you?" You asked leaning onto your elbows. She shook her head and took aim.
“Not that I’m aware of.” She said and pulled the trigger back nicking a flower vase about 3 inches off from where she was aiming. "Calibration is still off." She said mostly to herself and started adjusting it again. You kept your eyes on her still mulling over this knew information. She risked a glance in your direction catching your unhappy expression. "What?" She asked curiously.
"I just...I feel bad..."
"Why?" You looked at her with an expression of strong sincerity.
"You don't know what it feels like to have someone love you. I feel bad for you." As soon as you finished saying it you realized your mistake. She narrowed her eyes and stood up holding Ares tightly. Falene never enjoyed when someone ‘pitied’ her; she said that she didn’t need any pity and there was nothing wrong with her or her life.
"Don't feel bad for me. I don't want love." She said her voice even and flat. "I am stronger because I rely on no one. I don't need anyone and I don't want anyone. There is no one that can protect me better than I can protect myself." She spun quickly and fired a shot out at a lamp. The calibration was still off so you got to see her show off her skill with a gun. The bulb exploded extinguishing most of the light in the room. "I want to be alone." She added and walked away leaving you behind by yourself.
You watched her retreating back for a second and then it hit you like a freight train. You finally understood why she was like that.
"You pretend to be so tough." You said making her come to an abrupt stop. "But I can see right through you Falene Dawn." She glanced at you over her shoulder. You moved your eyes to the table and started playing with one of your thumbnails. "You don't rely on anyone because no one has ever been there for you. But what you really want is for someone to be on your side for a change. You want to be normal for once in your life and have a friend." You looked up at her tenderly; trying to show her you were on her side. You had never had many friends when you were younger; you were a pretty sheltered child and she was the person that taught you how to be part of this whole other world and how to survive. You wanted to understand her because you wanted her to be your friend. "I know because..." You smiled weakly understanding her for the first time. She was just like you. "No one wants to be alone."
Her expression didn’t change but she stood there silently. She seemed to be processing the information and trying to decide what to do with you. The silence dragged on and you were starting to worry. You were beginning to lose your resolve on if you guessed correctly when she turned her head away. “I’m hungry. You want to go get something to eat? I hear there’s a good bakery down the street; I was thinking we could get some cinnamon buns.” She said tucking Ares into its holster and continued walking. “Come on slowpoke, you’re taking forever.” She mimicked you from the other day spinning back to face you, leaning forwards slightly with her hands behind her back. She stuck her tongue out and then spun away returning to her usual stature. You smiled widely and quickly got up running after her out the door.
“You’re buying right?” You asked hugging her sideways around the shoulders. She shoved you off of her causing you to fall over. “Ow, really?!”
Real Time
You quickened your pace and shook your thoughts from your mind. You didn’t have to think about that, you had to focus on the task at hand. You couldn’t let your mind wander because of your concern. You just had to find the gun that fired off earlier and make sure it was not Falene on the receiving end.
A glint of light caught your eye to your left and you did a handspring forwards narrowly managing to avoid a knife in the head. You landed in a crouch turning towards your attacker and pulled your nun chucks out in the process. Another knife was thrust at you and you spun one end across your face catching it in the chain. You pulled it tight and the blade dropped down beneath you between your feet.
“Come out!” You challenged thrusting your nun chucks back in place and wiping out your gun and tantō (short Japanese sword) in each hand. A little giggle from the bushes made you feel sick to your stomach. A small girl stepped out from where she was hiding but her face was still covered by shadows. “Who are you?” You demanded positioning your blade horizontally in front of you. The giggle came again in response. She took another couple of steps forwards slowly revealing short blonde hair and a familiar set of green eyes. You narrowed your eyes as your little sister stepped forwards holding three knives between her fingers in each hand.
“Evening, Miyu.” She said tilting her head slightly and smiling. You were glad that Falene had prepared you earlier for this. You were happy you already knew that what her intentions were and you weren’t distracted by the situation. If she hadn’t, you would have been completely blindsided. “Do I look like you did when you were my age?” She asked flipping her golden locks off her shoulder. “People always said that I looked like a mirror image of you when we were younger, your hair still being lighter of course.” She shrugged returning her gaze to you. “How’ve you been?”
“Better than you apparently.” You said striking a nerve in Miaka. Her smile turned to a frown.
“Is that so?” She stared you down but you didn’t waver. “I’m doing a lot better than you were at my age. I’m working for a genius.”
“Psychopath you mean.” You corrected and her frown intensified.
“Creed is brilliant. He’s an amazing man.”
“He’s insane. A lunatic.” Miaka threw a knife, which you easily batted aside.
“I will not let you speak ill of him. He pulled me out of the gutter.”
“He dragged you down.” She threw another knife and you replayed the action to knock it out of the air. “Crazy rationalizes everything. That’s how they think they are doing good.” Another knife, another swing. “The man is a serial killer. He’ll kill you as soon as he decides you have outlived your value.” The fourth knife was launched at you. “I wouldn’t expect you to know that though. My baby sister always was a naïve child.” Fifth knife down, one to go. You prepared to say something else to cause her to throw the knife but instead she pulled out a katana and ran forwards at you. You dodged as she swiped where you had previously been standing. She batted it around aiming at you with the flat side of the blade but you brought your gun up blocking it.
You never thought you would be here. Fighting your sister because come delusional bastard had sunk his claws into her mind. He had brainwashed her. You would break her from his grip.
She spun around swinging the blade to behead you. You ducked and pushed forwards thrusting your shoulder into her gut forcing her to stumble backwards. She paused, winded, and then slashed out at you again. You flipped back landing on your hands with your legs horizontal above your head then swung them back and pushed yourself back to a standing position. While she was temporarily unbalanced from the end of the swing, you put one heel behind hers and planted your palm on her forehead to her surprise. You pushed your heel into hers and pushed hard on her face causing her to fall backwards and smash into the ground.
She lay dazed for half a second and then grabbed your wrist and ripped your hand from her face and rolling to the side. The motion forced you to the ground and she situated herself on top of you and swung her fist down at your face. You held your arms up in front of your face to block the punch. The first punch wasn’t too bad but the second rattled you and caused the bullet hole in your shoulder, caused by Kotori, to ache. Miaka seen the reaction and aimed a punch at your injured shoulder. You held in a scream, your shoulder now throbbing, and brought your legs up wrapping your ankles over her neck tightly and forced her backwards. After a moment of both of you struggling to break free from each other, you finally caved letting her go and quickly jumped up. You spun bringing your gun up and pointed it at Miaka in one smooth motion. You both froze. Your gun aiming between Miaka’s eyes, her unarmed. She reached behind her back and grabbed her gun quickly spinning it to aim at you as well.
“I had you just now, Miaka. You were dead.” You said, making sure she knew she was only still breathing because you allowed it. She stayed silent both of you holding guns up to each other, playing chicken. Neither of you moved for a long time, sizing each other up. You didn’t have time for this sibling drama; Falene could be dying right now.
“Now what Miyu? Are you going to pull the trigger?” She asked in a taunt. You raised an eyebrow at her.
“I probably should. You came here to kill me, didn’t you?” You asked hovering your finger over the trigger. She shrugged again but a drop of sweat rolled down the side of her face. She was nervous. “Can you do it, Miaka?” You asked. “Can you kill your big sister?” The silence returned but she didn’t move. You lowered your gun. “If that’s what you came here to do, then go ahead.” Her eyes widened in surprise.
“What?” She asked incredulous.
“Go ahead. If one of us is going to die here I won’t be the one to pull the trigger.” You put your gun in its holster and spread your arms out wide closing your eyes. You were taking a risky gamble here but you were confident she didn’t want to kill you. The silence dragged on painfully. It was exhausting waiting for death. Finally, Miaka spoke.
“Miyu, I—”
“Chivalrous Net!” Sven yelled and your eyes bolted wide seeing your sister lying on the ground trapped in a net that had been launched out of Sven’s briefcase. Your eyes turned to wide white circles and you slowly turned to see Sven proudly standing nearby, a smug look on his face. He glanced at you. “Your welcome.” He said proudly.
“You idiot!” You yelled hitting Sven over the back of the head with your fist. He cringed and dropped to the ground holding the back of his head.
“That’s not exactly the reaction I was hoping for.” He grumbled unhappily.
“I told you to stay as the safe house!” You scolded as Miaka watched you both shocked by the situation that had presented itself.
“Well good thing I didn’t because you were about to be killed!” Sven said jumping up and yelling down at you. You rolled your eyes and crossed your arms looking away from him.
“Pfft, I had everything under control.” You said and his expression became dumbfounded.
“Are you kidding me?? You were unarmed with an enemy pointing a gun at you.”
“She’s my sister.” You said walking over to help Miaka out of the netting. You picked up her discarded gun and tucked it into the back of your jeans.
“You know,” Sven started, putting his fingers to his forehead. “I’m not feeling so good about Falene’s sister or yours.” You shot him a look when you finished untangling her. You took out your gun and pointed it to Miaka’s forehead.
“Sorry, Miaka.” You said darkly and her eyes widened. Sven jolted behind you and reached out to get you to stop. “It needs to be done Miaka. You understand, don’t you?” Slowly she nodded solemnly, closing her eyes. You remained serious for a moment and then smiled with rainbow eyes. “Please turn out your pockets and remove all weapons from your person for safety reasons.” Miaka jumped in surprise at the change and Sven sweat dropped slumping forwards relieved you didn’t intend to blow her brains out. “Oh, and before you ask, yes tweezers are considered a weapon.”
Falene
You closed your eyes just before the gun fired off. When you realized that you had not been shot you slowly opened one eye and looked up at Kotori. Another tall woman with green hair stood next to Kotori. She had intercepted the shot and forced her to point the gun upwards instead of at you when she fired. You blinked in surprise. You didn’t recognize this woman.
“What are you doing?” She asked Kotori. “Creed wants her alive.” You jolted at the name. Creed. Train was dead set against you being anywhere near that man. Now that you thought about it though, you didn’t actually know why. You didn’t know what had happened between those two in the past. You’d have to ask him later. First, you had to get yourself out of yet another problem.
“Why don’t you give Miaka shit? She’s the one that ordered the firing squad at the safe house.” Your body went rigid. Miaka was the one that had got Train injured. You’d have to make her pay for that offence later.
You glanced to your right. If they needed you alive then you could probably outrun them. You had done it before. The closest tree for you to duck behind was about four strides away. Even if they tried to shoot you after you bolted their likelihood of hitting you on the move was probably cut in half. You locked your eyes back on the women. They were bickering and you sweat dropped.
“Screw this, I’m out.” You muttered and jumped up clotheslining both of them as you passed through the gap between them. You hit the ground at a hard sprint readjusting your feet to move to the right and heard them stagger completely taken off guard. Realistically you should have killed both of them right there and saved yourself the future headache. The old you would have without a second thought, but the new you had something more important on your mind. Train.
You could hear the new woman scolding your sister but it was fading quickly. You zigzagged through the trees until you were 100% sure you had lost them and then you launched yourself full speed towards the safe house. It wasn’t long until you heard voices as you entered a small clearing. You blinked. Sven and Miyu stood side-by-side wide eyed in front of the short blonde girl you had fought the night before. Miyu had her gun aimed at the blonde as she removed a seemingly endless string of weapons from her clothing.
“Seriously? You’re smaller than me, where do you put all this shit?!” Miyu asked incredulous.
“Probably up her ass. If you need help putting it back, my foot will graciously provide.” You said to her, clearly still holding a grudge.
“Falene! I’m so glad you’re alright!” You started walking towards Miaka as Miyu continued. “This is my sister, Falene.”
“I know who she is.” You said as you reached her. You grabbed onto the front of her by the collar and lifted her up chocking her enough to make her uncomfortable but not enough to kill her.
“Falene, what are you doing?!” Miyu questioned frantically moving forwards holding her hands out, palms up. Sven lit his cigarette and watched with mild interest.
“Are you the one that ordered open fire on us?” You asked. When Miaka didn’t respond you tightened your grip, chocking her more. She made a strangled noise and you repeated your question. “I said, are you the one that ordered open fire on us?” She stared down at you defiantly, unwilling to answer your question. You threw her to the ground away from her weapons and pointed Ares down at the insignificant being.
“Falene, stop!” Miyu called jumping between the two of you.
“Stand aside.” Cat’s Eye demeanor was blatantly obvious. The killer was out and hunting.
“I can’t do that. She’s my sister. Falene, try to be reasonable.” Your eyes went cold at the word.
“Reasonable? I’m not the one working for a serial killer.”
“You were less than 24 hours ago.” Miaka said behind Miyu and your eyes narrowed. Miyu half turned to her sister.
“That is not helping Miaka.” She turned back to you, your gun was still pointed forwards at her and it was clearly making her uncomfortable. “Falene, why don’t you put your gun down and we’ll talk about this.”
“There’s nothing left to say. Her order is the reason Train was hurt. I want to make her feel his pain. It’s only fair.” Something sparked in Miyu’s eyes then.
“Train. Falene, you have to go!” She said urgently. You raised an eyebrow at her and made a face of confusion.
“What?” You asked.
“It’s Train.” The words were barely out of her mouth when you cut in.
“What about him?” There was a slight edge of concern apparent in your voice even though you had attempted to conceal it. Not like it was a secret that you cared about Train.
“He’s injured.” She said and you looked at her annoyed.
“I’m aware. I was there when it happened.”
“No, Falene. It’s bad.” Your stomach leapt into your throat and you looked passed her at Miaka on the ground. “You don’t have time for this. Train doesn’t have time for this. Go to the safe house. They need you there right now.” You swallowed your anger and met Miyu’s eyes. You hesitated before speaking.
“We need to leave this area very soon. There are still complications nearby.”
“Like your sister?” Miaka asked glancing at you. You growled in the back of your throat.
“I don’t want her near him. She’s done enough.” You said clearly demanding she keep a large distance from you and Train. Miyu nodded and you put Ares in its holster and walked away glaring at Miaka again. “Remember Miyu, if I can see her I can kill her.” You sprinted forwards tearing your eyes from Miaka and returning your thoughts to Train. You were afraid of what you would find when you got to the safe house.
...::: To Be Continued :::...