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Chapter Two: Cognition – Akai
‘That... that... insufferable BOY!’ a mildly enraged Akai thought to herself as she sat on a bench in a grotto that would have been like any other, except for one simple fact. This was the grotto where He had kidnapped her sister!
‘How dare he be such a ... a...’
‘charming gentleman?’
‘A charming gentleman?! Wait a second...’
‘come on, admit it! He’s a charming gentleman! He didn’t have to ask you out on a date.’
‘This is not a date!’
‘Right. And tomorrow you’re going to be proclaimed Queen Galaxia’s heiress. Give it up, you like him!’
‘I do not!’
‘Okay. Then explain what you’re doing out here waiting for him in the grotto where he told you to wait wearing that of all things?’
That was a beautiful Jovian styled dress made from a positively delicious silver fabric drenched in liquid sapphires. It molded to her body heat, thanks to the sapphires. Which meant that absolutely no visible straps or buttons or even ties could be seen on the sheath-like dress that ran from the tops of her breasts down to her ankles, with a long slit up the entire length of the skirt from hip to ankle to allow for a natural stride to be affected. A strip of the same material of the dress curved itself around her throat to serve as a choker and light slippers adorned her feet.
‘So I like dressing up! It’s not like I can most of the time... that doesn’t mean I like him!’
‘Fine. Okay. You don’t like him. Then why don’t you explain why you accepted his invitation in the first place then.’
‘...’
‘See! I was right! You do like him!’
"I do not!" Akai finally yelled, hopping to her feet in her indignation.
"You know, I did hope that we had managed to get past that stage earlier." A deep, ironic voice came from the area of the path into the grotto.
Shima stepped fully into the light with an appreciative look on his rugged features. A long black cloak draped itself over his brilliantly scarlet tunic and gold hose. Martian royal colors, but also the colors most associated with the Phoenix he served. Knee-high leather boots covered his legs. Brightly polished gold shields upon his knees finished the off the mirror-polished black boots. His intricately wrought gold and steel bracers graced his forearms and his wild black hair was held back with an inimitable silver and gold band that combined the simplicity of a circlet with the regality of a crown. Upon his breast the crest of his lord was embroidered with gold thread. His infamous sword hung, as always, upon his left hip in its special sheath. His long qui draped once down over his right shoulder than back up over his left in one long loop.
As he finally emerged fully into the dim earthlight, he bowed deeply and gracefully to his royal date.
"You look lovely, Akai-chan." His voice was slightly husky as he gently brushed the back of her hand with his lips before straightening.
Akai was silent, both in thought and in word. In matching silence, Shima held out his arms in open invitation. As she stepped into his embrace with more than a little trepidation, his powerful arms closed about her again. She gasped slightly with the sudden onrush of emotion that she had before only thought of as a once in a lifetime experience. The only other time she had felt quite as she did was when the same muscular arms caught her sudden plummet as now wrapped her in a gentle, but secure embrace.
As the pair rose into the sky on the broad wings of flame that sprouted from Shima’s back at his command, Akai realized that she felt completely and utterly safe and secure. In fact, she would put the feeling of safety that she now felt against any other feeling that she had ever felt. During the entire time it took to reach the small restaurant that was their destination, she never once doubted that Shima would never allow her to fall from his genial embrace.
**********
The food was decent and the music was amenable, but the real highlight of the evening as far as Akai thought was the easy conversation. For some reason that she could not readily explain, there in that small out of the way restaurant where no one knew who they were or any of their past, they were able to start over again from the beginning. Suddenly, their unfortunate meeting no longer existed. The fierce arguments were no more important to them then the doings of the castle maids’ random catfights, and seemed just as trivial at that moment.
To Akai’s complete and utter surprise, she discovered that Shima and herself actually had quite a bit in common. Besides the fact that they were both generally feared across the Realm, that is. Akai learned of Shima’s life as a young Prince of Mars who wanted nothing more to be allowed to study his books instead of fight. Shima unearthed Akai’s life on Mercury as a wild young firebrand of a warrioress instead of the calm and demure Princess of Mercury that she was supposed to be. It was as if they had been switched at birth.
As the night wore on and the stars slowly faded from the night, the pair talked and laughed like old friends. Instead of soaring back on the night winds, the duo walked back to their respective homes in the castle still deep in either conversation or contemplation. Akai found herself actually enjoying herself in a manner which she had never expected when she had accepted Shima’s invitation. Shima, for his part, was slowly falling into a deeper and deeper contemplation as he found himself thinking of the younger girl in a manner that was rapidly beginning to disturb his restful state of mind.
A light giggle alerted him to the presence of another young girl, though he ignored the intrusion and just continued on their walk without comment to the hidden Minanoai. Akai too noticed that Minanoai was hiding near them, but as Shima was obviously ignoring her, she, for once, followed his example and kept walking.
When a cold breeze blew across her bare shoulders and caused her to shiver, she started slightly as a fold of Shima’s cloak and his muscular arm suddenly wrapped themselves around her and tugged her closer to him. She darted a glance upwards to his face to see if he was teasing her, but saw only contemplation written there. With a slightly shocked smile on her face, she realized that he was completely unaware of his actions. But she didn’t push him away, so his arm and cloak remained around her until they reached her door and he bid her good night in the early hours of the morning.
**********
Akai hissed as she smashed another brick into oblivion. She simply could not, would not, accept that that crude excuse for an Earthian Diplomat had actually said that to her of all people! She didn’t really know what was worse. The fact that it had been said, or the fact that Shima had been standing not even five feet away and hadn’t reacted at all! She screamed in muted rage as she destroyed another set of bricks.
She didn’t know how to react with Shima. One moment, he was nice and sweet, the next, cold and distant. It was enough to drive a poor girl mad! And then their was that girl of his! That wild child!
As if it wasn’t bad enough that she had to follow Shima around all the time, she was constantly flinging herself at the younger members of the staffs. And they weren’t even royalty! She was going around flirting with the servants! She had Shima, what else could she possibly want?
‘Akai-chan, you are jealous.’ Came the voice of discontent which sounded so suspiciously like Shima.
‘I am not!’ came the automatic argument in response.
‘Why bother arguing? You know you’re jealous, otherwise you wouldn’t be so out and out right furious at that poor girl.’
‘You don’t have to watch her throwing herself at everyone else then going home with Shima!’
‘And why do you even care what she does or doesn’t do? Hmm?’
‘Shima is my friend! I don’t want to see him hurt!’
‘And why do you think she’ll hurt Shima?’
‘Because... cause... Because she goes flirting with everyone and then he just takes her home with him!’
‘Did you ever think that maybe he doesn’t care?’
"Why wouldn’t he care??"
Dead silence came in reply as she realized that she had spoken aloud again. She turned towards the door with a slow sort of dread, a rather mortified expression on her face. Sure enough, Shima was standing there in the doorway apparently heading in to do some practicing, judging by his clothing. His face was curiously blank as she turned towards him, then when she finally faced him completely, one of his uniquely feathery eyebrows rose curiously.
He stepped towards her from the doorway, casually glancing around at the destruction surrounding them. His torso was bare except for his bracers and his legs were encased in his black velvet pants. His black sash was wrapped securely around his waist and his feet rested securely in his black slippers. His qui was wrapped about his neck multiple times. Finally he stopped before her and looked her over.
She wore a simple Martian sparring tunic and hose in white. Or at least he assumed it was white as all he could really see was the white dust covering her. White slippers incased her feet and a simple band tied her hair back out of her eyes.
"Talking to yourself again, I see." He spoke suddenly, breaking the rather awkward silence that had fallen between them. He paused for a moment, allowing her to fume, before continuing. "I thought you’d be in here. I wanted to talk to you."
"So that’s why you’re in here. I’d never seen you practicing in here before." Akai, with great effort, slowly allowed her anger to fade away into the air around them.
"That’s because I don’t. I practice in my room."
"So why are you here now?"
"It was a good excuse." He shrugged. "I don’t know. Like I said, I wanted to talk to you."
"So why didn’t you just go to my rooms?"
His brows drew together in frustration. "Because I didn’t want anyone to know I was talking to you!"
"Why not?! Is there something wrong with me that you can’t talk to me?!" Akai snarled right back, her all too familiar anger beginning to surge up within her again.
"No!" His hand chopped downwards in a negative gesture.
"Then why?!"
"Because if anyone finds out that we’re friends something bad could happen!"
"So, it’s a bad thing that we’re friends is it! I see now!"
"Will you just shut up for a moment and let me talk, dammit!?"
Akai suddenly fell silent in shock.
"Thank you." He slumped against a nearby pillar and let out a heartfelt sigh. "Listen, Akai, we’re friends. You know. I know. And at least, Minanoai does, but the other girls might know too. They don’t care. Ok?"
She nodded slightly.
"Well, guess what, not everyone thinks like them. In fact, it’s much more likely that they’d hate and fear us even more than they already do if they thought we were actually friends and not fighting all the time."
"Why?"
"Think about, Akai. We’re both strong and fast and have very infamous tempers. Either one of us might blow up at someone at anytime. The thing is, it’s very unlikely that both of us would blow up at the same person at the same time! That’s because we are seen as being so busy fighting with each other that we don’t see what’s going on around us. Ok so far?"
She nodded again, concentration furrowing her brow.
"Ok. Well, I noticed that not to long after our dinner people were acting more and more nervous around us. I put two and two together and got five in this case. While both of us noticed that we were much, much calmer since becoming friends, everyone else was under the impression that we were on the verge of becoming even more violent and our apparent truce was scaring the hell out of them. Ok?"
Again the nod.
"Which is why I picked that fight with you not to long after. By fighting, we put people back at ease. They stopped being so careful around us. Which is what we not only want, but need if we’re to be effective guards of the Realms."
"So, you’re saying that this way we can watch everyone, right?"
"Right. But we must keep up the illusion of us being at war with each other if we want it to work. Which is what I wanted to talk to you about."
"Huh? I don’t understand." Akai looked puzzled, but the information was getting through.
"I’ve noticed that you have a very strict style of fighting. It’s all by the book."
"What do you expect?! I learned from books!"
"I know. I was just going to offer to help you get past that, but if you don’t want to..." he trailed off.
"Of course I want to get past that!" she interjected stridently.
"Well, then, that’s what we’ll do. First, no more blocks."
"What?!"
"They’re impairing your growth. You’ll spar with me in here at least once a week. And during our fights out on the plains." He suddenly grinned at her startled expression. "Just wait! We’ll make a warrior of you yet!"
**********
"What am I going to do?" Akai softly whispered to herself as she sat on the edge of her bed in the rooms she shared with her sister.
Amilia came in and sat down next to her. "What is wrong, Akai-chan?"
Akai looked over to her sister with eyes swollen and red from tears. "Ami-chan?"
"Oh, Akai..." Amilia whispered as she wrapped her arms around the sobbing girl.
"I don’t know what to do, Ami..."
"It is alright, Akai. Just tell me what is wrong...."
"Shima-san..." was all that a curious Amilia could make out from the muffled sobs that emerged from her whimpering sibling.
"Shima-san? What could Shima-san have done to put you in such a state, Akai?" Amilia asked, reaching down to raise her slightly younger sister’s face up. Akai just stared at her with a the face of a heartbroken child. "Oh my, Akai. You haven’t hurt him with your tirades have you?!" she gasped.
Akai shook her head furiously. "No! I would never, never hurt him if I could help it!"
"Then what is it?!"
"I... I... Oh, Ami, I’m afraid!"
"Afraid? Of Shima-san?" Amilia was puzzled by this sudden turn of events.
"Not of Shima-san so much as... as... Ami, sometimes I feel.. I feel so .. so.. so lost when he’s not here! And I don’t know why!"
Amilia smiled slightly as a sudden insight of what could possibly be wrong with her twin sister dawned upon her. "I see. Akai? Why don’t you just tell him that you love him?"
"Love him!?" Akai cried scrambling backwards away from her sister. "I-I don’t ... don’t..." her voice died away as she slowly turned away to stare down at the ground again. "Love him? Do I? I don’t know. Oh, Ami, I’m so confused."
"Akai. I can only tell you what I know. And I know that despite all of your many arguments and squabbles about whatever little thing may strike you, Shima-san does care about you in his own way." Amilia smiled reassuringly at Akai. "Maybe no one thinks that I’m much use around her with my nose always in a book, but I pay attention. I watch and I learn what’s going on by how people react to things."
Akai nodded slowly as if to agree.
"Do you remember the accident some time back? You know, the one out in Kethrow Hall across the Sea of Serenity?"
Again, Akai nodded, though an expression of puzzlement was growing steadily upon her features.
"Well, you wouldn’t have known, since you were the one stuck under all that rock, but Shima was there. He just showed up in a gout of flames right on the edge of the collapse bellowing for you." Amilia smiled in recollection. "He had teleported himself all the way, despite how much energy it cost him to do that. Then he personally lead the team that ended up extracting you. And you know why he did all that?"
Akai shook her head, confused.
"He did that all because he heard that you had been at the Hall when it collapsed. He was worried about you."
"He.. he would have done that for any of the girls. It couldn’t have been just me. Kina and Minanoai were there too."
"Yes. Kina was there and so was Minanoai. I was there too, though I didn’t get caught in the collapse, if you will remember. But, I was able to watch him. It was you he was calling for when he showed up. And Kina and Minanoai were carried out by the other men on the team, but he insisted on carrying you out by himself, despite his obvious exhaustion. So, Akai, I would say that Shima-san does care for you in some way."
Akai’s eyes once again shimmered with tears as she threw her arms around her sister and hugged her with every ounce of strength available to her. Which left Amilia very squashed feeling but happy for her sister.
"I’m going to find him! I’m going to find him and talk to him, I swear!" Akai shouted as she leapt from the bed and raced for the door. At the door she paused and glanced back over her shoulder with a twinkle in her eye that had been missing for sometime. "And Akai? You did miss one thing. Our fights? They’re not real. They haven’t been for a long time." Then she was gone out the door, leaving a very confused Amilia behind.