Atsumi: Angel of Vengence
Chapter One
The streets were cluttered with people trying to escape. Something was coming. Etsuko looked out of the window at the chaos, listening as her mother gathered their belongings. She searched, her eyes filtering through the thousands of human bodies running about to see where her father was. He was coming with them, wasn't he? Why wasn't he there to help her mother? She heard the door open. "Papa!" She smiled and ran to greet him. She slipped and fell backwards when she saw him. He wasn't her father. "Papa? Where's Papa?" The man stepped aside. A tall woman appeared behind him. Her eyes were cold, and her face frozen in sincirity. "Where's my papa!?" Etsuko stood. The woman narrowed her eyes at the small five year old and raised her hand. Her forehead sparkled and through her palm came a beam. Etsuko screamed as she felt it's sting on her right eye. She heard her mother cry and felt the blackness swallow her as she hit the wall behind her.
She jerked awake from a restless sleep. It was dark, and a sliver of the dawn had barely begun to emerge from the horizon. In an instant the vivid images of her past had settled into a small blur, into a state of the nearly forgotten. She wiped her face from sweat with her hands and looked into the cracked mirror, taking note of tear streaks on her face. She threw a nearby book and the glass shattered. Seven years bad luck would be heaven compared to this nightmare she'd been living for twelve years. Twelve years......was it that long ago? Twelve years of her soul being torn at by hatred and vengeance. Revenge....that's all that has kept her alive for this long. She rose quickly and walked over to the dresser of the broken mirror, sweeping off the jagged pieces with her hand. She picked the dagger up. It's beautiful silver blade reflected what little light was in the room. She traced her finger in the winged design that surrounded the silver gem in the sleek pearl handle. The Kamali Dagger. She grasped the handle tightly. She looked at her twisted reflection in the mirror. Her brown hair falling over her shoulders in a loose ponytail....her fair skin.......and her eyes. Her left eye, an impure hazel green......and her right.......blind. With her other hand she traced the jagged scar.......what remained from the injury that left her unable to see. She let out a scream of frustration as she plowed the daggers blade into the mirror of her blind eye's reflection. "Damn her......damn her to hell!" The dagger let off a soft glow to whisper. Atsumi.
"Who the hell is Atsumi!?" she screamed. The dagger repeated the name once again. "It's not me.....it's not me...." She was losing her mind, just as she lost her sight and soul. She was losing everything because of one woman. One woman was putting her through this mortal hell and that woman had to die. She took the dagger by it's handle and felt it sting her. It was telling her who she was. She was Atsumi. She closed her eyes tightly. "Atsumi......" she whispered as she pulled the dagger from the mirror. "I am........" her voice faded as she faced the window, letting her hair down to where it covered her blind eye. She held the dagger's handle tightly, feeling it's life pulse through her. Her eyes snapped open, her glare ice cold and unforgiving. She was then gone, all that was known of her existence was a ragged curtain flapping in the slight breeze.
It was a normal day. The green fog created by pollution settled over the brick ground of the planet. Kiyoshi carefully watched his step. Most of the liquid that roamed through the crevaces of the stone were unidentified.....and Kiyoshi would like to keep them like that. Bodies, all alive, litered the streets. It was a disgusting place to live, but it was Kiyoshi's home. He was walking to what was called the "Sanctuary", where no Miden under normal circumstances could enter. This was where visiters from other parts of the Universe. The Miden streets were dangerous for foreigners who weren't use to the extreme things that the Midens would do. The only two Midens who weren't under these normal circumstances were Kiyoshi and his father, Kane. Kiyoshi looked at the Sanctuary once it came into sight and paused. It seemed so lost.......this grand and ornate building towering over the grey buildings below. It had suffered some abuse due to the dense green fog that surrounded it, but still looked beautiful. Kiyoshi attempted to step forward but was suddenly pulled back, being knocked to the ground. He blinked to regain his senses when he heard a very familiar purr tickle his hearing. He winced out of disgust as he relized who it was. "Get off of me, bitch...." He growled. A young girl with long maroon hair crawled on top of him and sat on his chest. The girl had deep, hypnotizing honey gold eyes. She fiddled with the buttons on Kiyoshi's shirt. He tried to sit up when she pinned his arms to the ground.
"Naughty, naughty.....is that how you treat a girl?"
"You aren't a girl.....you are a slut hired by the government to make play things out of 15 year old Midens in some sick game disguised as a ritual of 'manhood'," Kiyoshi wasn't to thrilled at seeing her. He was the only single 15 year old that had escaped her clutches and for 5 years he was doomed to be plauged by her until she got what she wanted.....even if she had to force it away from him. Her lips were inches away from his chest, which she had managed to get bare before having to restrain him. He quickly twisted his arms and kneed her in the gut before throwing her off. He jumped to his feet and looked at her, holding her stomach in agony as she looked up at him. He then kicked some of the polluting liquid into her face and walked off. She stood and watched him, licking whatever was on her face off.......and obviously she recognized what it was, since she smiled at the taste. She then turned and stalked back to her post. He sighed, running his fingers through his teal hair. He carefully buttoned his shirt back up as he approached the doors, catching the eye of one of the guards.
"Rough day, Kiyoshi?"
"No rougher then usual."
"Then that's a yes..." Kiyoshi just gave him a exhausted look before chuckling and shaking his head. He approached the door and placed his palm on it's surface. It slide open and he walked in, it quickly shutting behind him. He watched a woman at the age of 34 with ebony hair that fell just past her shoulders talking to a man. He cleared his throat and she looked at him. She smiled at him and then nodded to her conversation compainion and he left. She walked up to Kiyoshi, the smile never leaving her face.
"So you're the one who came for me?"
"Well, dad would of come but you've worn him out."
"Oh?" She quirked her eyebrow.
"Well, taking these daily trips, and not to mention having to handle three other kids besides me, he's run a bit thin."
"I see...." she overlooked Kiyoshi's appearence, her eyebrow raised in question. He quickly straitened and held up his hands.
"I'm clean, I promise, I just had a run in with an old......'friend'." She laughed.
"I believe you.......still being stalked?"
"Like every other damn day." Kiyoshi smirked.
"I swear Kiyoshi, you are popular."
"Unfortunately my popularity is for the wrong reasons." Kiyoshi turned and began to lead the woman out of the building. She nodded in thanks. Her name was Michiko. She worked at the Santuary and was also the full-time wife to Kiyoshi's father, and mother of three of his children. Kiyoshi's birth mother had died when he was born. Five years later Kane remarried to Michiko, who was human. Kiyoshi would often look at the picture of his real mother, Sachi. He inherited her teal hair, her maroon eyes, but his fathers strength. Kane spoke of Sachi as unlike any other Miden woman, a timid and shy girl that didn't show a trace of her given instincts. Her death left Kane with a deep sadness that would drape over him like a mist. It only faded when holding Michiko. Kane still loved his dead wife, it was hard to let go, but he was so happy with Michiko even Kiyoshi noticed that her memory was starting to fade.....even though it would never leave him.
Kiyoshi snapped back to the events at hand when he relized that Michiko had stopped walking. She looked at him, questioning.
"Thinking...." The word was simple but she simply shrugged and the walked on. He quickly caught up. When Michiko first came to Miden, she had gotten seperated from her group and was attacked by a bunch of Miden males. Kane came across her, her clothes barely on her and saved her by claiming her body as his. Even though every Miden knew this, Kane didn't take any chances, so he made sure that either he or Kiyoshi was with her in walking in the streets. They came across the small house on the edge of the taller buildings of the main city. Michiko opened the door and Kiyoshi followed.
"Kiyoshi!" his youngest brother, Yasuo, chimed at his entering. Kiyoshi smiled as he pulled the small boy onto his back. The little four year old wrapped his arms around Kiyoshi's neck in the biggest hug he could manage from his small body. Kiyoshi looked at the rest of his family, Hiyo, his 14 year old sister was sitting in a chair reading, and Takeo, his 10 year old brother, was busy drawing. Yasuo squirmed to get back to the picture he was working on and Kiyoshi put him down. Out of the corner of his eye he caught Michiko smiling at him. He straitened up and went to the back of the house to find his father and announce they had made it safely. He found him looking out of the window, a distant and strangely emotional look on his face. He was worried about something.
"Dad?" The 35 year old man gave a start and looked at his son. He ran his fingers through his bright red bangs and sighed. Kiyoshi felt his burnt orange eyes penetrate him. He knew that it was still strange to his father to have a 20 year old son look at him, and have three other children from a different mother run around the small grey house. "What's wrong?" He knew there was something. Kane's eyes wouldn't be so distant if there wasn't. Kane looked away.
"I'm not sure just yet......but something isn't in place...." His words caught Kiyoshi by surprise. His father usually didn't worry about things, but whatever it was, was troubling him like crazy. Kiyoshi then heard something. The shrilling screams of the Midens outside. He ran to the window only to see the fog swirl and then explode. Kiyoshi and Kane were thrown from the window by some sort of invisible force. Kiyoshi skidded across the floor, while Kane was slammed into a wall. Kiyoshi heard Hiyo run to his side and try to get him up, Takeo and Yasuo also by his side. His step-mother, however, was frozen. Kiyoshi took a few moments to regain his senses when he relized that the ceiling of the room had collapsed on his father.
"Oh my God..." He was shocked. What the hell was that? Michiko screamed a heart-broken sob as she ran to find her husband. Kiyoshi got onto his feet and watched the crying woman look for the first man she'd ever fell in love with......her hands shaking. He stepped foreward into the room, the dust trying to settle when he heard the shrilling and painful scream that belonged to only her.
"Michiko!?" A glimmer of two eyes set him back. "Damn you!" He cursed when he saw a tall woman with cold eyes holding the bloody remains of his human stepmother, and his father at her feet. He hadn't died from the ceiling collapsing.....The entry of the room gave way and collapsed, blocking Kiyoshi's veiw of the woman. "Damn...run!" He turned quickly, Takeo the first to take off and Hiyo turning and following. Yasuo fell at the two older and much faster half-Midens running past him. Kiyoshi ran and quickly picked him up, picking up speed with him in his arms. He followed his syblings, tears in his eyes and Yasuo crying into his shirt. He jumped as the small house exploded, then landing hard on his knees. He looked back, seeing same woman looking back at him, cold eyes glowing in an unforgiving manner. Their eyes met. She narrowed her eyes at him and he returned it with a glare of pure hate. She then stepped back, startled. He stood, not releasing his glare, holding Yasuo tightly in fear that he too would be taken from this woman. He then turned and continue running. He felt coldness fall on him and he ran faster. He was then painfully forced to the ground. He tumbled across the brick surface, then skidded into a pile of rubble, slamming his head back against the jagged pieces of stone. He looked at the woman and watched her turn and disappear in the smoke. Blood trickled down his face and down the back of his neck. He heard Yasuo's sobs. At least he was alive. Kiyoshi heard the faint calling of his name as he sat up, Yasuo in his arms. He slowly closed his eyes, expecting never to wake up.
The tiny fourth planet in the Free System exploded, setting off a bright light that would blind Hiyo if she was still on it. She had set the escape pod's course, and watched the remains of her home fade in the distance. Miden was gone and it would never come back. She looked away, tears in her eyes. All that was left was her, Takeo, Yasuo and Kiyoshi. Or so she hoped. Kiyoshi was unconcious when she found him. With the help of Takeo she was able to get him on the escape pod, but he hadn't woken up. He was injured badly, a circle of flesh a burnt black on his back and his teal hair was stained red with blood. He was still breathing, but it was shallow. Hiyo was scared. She had trouble calming Takeo and Yasuo, who were frantic at the fact Kiyoshi might die, when she couldn't even calm her own fears. She wrapped her own bleeding wrist with a piece of her shirt. She'd gotten caught in a shower of glass when trying to escape, and had a number of cuts on her face, shoulders, and arms. She watched as Takeo placed a piece of ice on Yasuo's swollen knee, wincing from the pain from the bruise on his stomach. She then turned and watched the stars go by as she closed her eyes, thinking about their destination. She then turned back, walking to the chair that Kiyoshi was in. All hope had snapped in half and she gave up, falling on her knees and crying. Takeo walked next to her and kneeled next to her, looking at Kiyoshi's face, a hand on her shoulder. Yasuo looked at Hiyo, frightened. "He's going to die.....isn't he?" Hiyo heard Takeo speak and simply nodded.
"No.......he's.....not........" Hiyo barely heard the whisper that escaped from Kiyoshi's lips, "Or at least not yet...." He slowly opened his eyes. Hiyo jumped up, startled. Takeo looked at him in shock. Yasuo was the first to speak.
"Kiyoshi's alive!" His voice was cheerful, and he limped to Kiyoshi. "You're alive!" Kiyoshi coughed, and ruffled Yasuo's hair, a small smile on his lips.
"You're okay!" Takeo chimed.
"I'm alive.....I'm not okay." Kiyoshi chuckled. He looked at Hiyo, her head hung. "Hiyo?" She looked up. She was still crying. Kiyoshi looked at the tears falling down her face. He sighed and weakly brushed them away. "Hiyo....it's okay....I won't leave you." She looked closed her eyes and hugged him. He wrapped one arm around her, and closed his eyes as well, trying to get her to stop crying. "Shhhh...." Hiyo stepped back and nodded her head. She looked back at the window, remaining silent. Yasuo looked at Kiyoshi and crawled up in his lap. He looked up at him and slowly began to fall asleep.
"You're alive....." Hiyo whispered. "But they aren't....."
When a foreign object had been detected landing somewhere on the outskirts of the town, Jiro was the only one assigned to investigate. He looked around, muttering. "How the hell can something like that be so undectable on such little land?" His frustration was intensified due to the constant death reports he was recieving and having to deal with the constant nagging of Tenkou herself......His mind was a jumbled mess as he began to approach the last forest that stood present-day.....he then saw it. A grey obstrat shaped vessel. He approached it slowly, alert to anything that might have the will to attack him. As he came within feet of the vessel, his sudden realization caused him pause abruptly. The technology behind it was undoubtedly from the Free System.......more specificly....it was Miden. He stared at it in awe. Midens were naturally known for their ruthless nature.....but their technology was something that made the race fairly famous as well. He took a step back, studying it. It was an escape pod, no doubt. He narrowed his eyes and approached it again. He saw the entrance a fair distance away from the solid ground. He sighed. He snatched a rock, taking carefull aim, and threw it, hitting the trigger. It opened. Taking somewhat of a running start, Jiro jumped and pulled himself up. He slowly drew his gun, and looked around. He saw no one. He moved quickly and silently along the floor and stopped, his back pressed against the wall next to a doorway and listened carefully. He heard two voices, one sounding like a teen-aged girl, the other a younger boy.
"Now what?"
"I don't know Takeo.....we can't very well take him to the hospital in his condition can we?"
"Yeah but....." the boy's voice lowered, "what if someone finds us?"
"I don't know....we'll just have to wait until Kiyoshi wakes up..."
"But he might...."
"He will!" The girl's voice sounded almost forced, and a note of panic and disbelief of it's words hung in it's air....Jiro stood....listening and thinking. He put the gun away.....they were no threat...at least from what he heard. He leaned his head back......silence. He peered over the cornere, a mask of shock crossing his face. The girl and boy both had the purest black hair he'd seen....but was interupted by a shining bright read that made their heads seem to be burning. They were half-Midens. Human blood was present in their veins. The girl looked at the boy, whom she called Takeo, a motherly concern crossing her features, as the boy stared at nothing but air, lost. They both seemed to have barely survived the attack upon their planet that took only twenty-four hours before. He stepped foreward.
"I think I can help..." his voice was calm, and quiet. They were startled. The girl approached him slowly, ready to fight back. He looked at her and shook his head. "I won't harm either of you....I promise...." These words caused the girl to stop and relax. "I know how you can get medical attention, if you'll follow me..." The girl looked back at who Jiro supposed to be her brother, and nodded.
"First......you need to save Kiyoshi......."
"Kiyoshi?" The girl nodded.
"My older brother....he's been unconcious since we came...and my youngest brother......Yasuo....has hurt his knee badly..." Jiro got a good look at her. She was fairly pretty for her age, but she'd been cut severly on her face, arms, and legs. He nodded.
"I'll do what I can..."
"Will you?" Her voice changed to a more hopeful tone. Jiro nodded again.
"My name....is Jiro....." he replied slowly.
"Hiyo.......and this is Takeo......" Jiro closed his eyes and thought a moment. He had to make sure that Tenkou wouldn't hear of this somehow. He'd have to figure out a plan later. He caught sight of a young man. He was unconcious, his white shirt stained with his own blood from the severe injury on the back side of his head. He looked dead, except for the shallow breaths that occasionally made his chest barely rise and fall. Jiro was again shocked, for the third time that day. The man's teal hair told Jiro everything.....he was a full-blood Miden. Before him, Jiro was looking at possibly the last Miden that currently exist.....and the last Miden that would exist.
The hallways were dark as the two soldiers walked down them. One stopped and leaned against the wall. "Damn it's boring...." he muttered. "Wish that something would happen. I'm tired of simply walking up and down hallways." The other soldier looked around nervously.
"Don't be so loud....that something might hear you...." he whispered.
"What are you worried about?" The first smiled.
"I thought I heard something....."
"Oh God.....don't be such a moron! Nothing is here except for you and........." There was a loud clank, like metal against stone that interupted his sentence. "What the hell!?"
"I told you....." the clank came again.
"Let's go.......check it out." The smile on the first soldier's face widened.
"What!?"
"Don't tell me that you're afraid...."
"I'm not...."
"Then....let's go." He stepped forward, being met by a shadow of what looked to be female. "Your......majesty?"
"That's the problem with the dark........." A young girl stepped forward. "You never know what's there when the light's on...." She smile, her eyes suddenly sparking in a strange glow. "Run!" she whispered. The two soldiers quickly turned and began to run. She threw up a dagger and caught it by it's blade, then threw it, it sparking in a white flame. Both soldiers were struck down by one blow. The girl approached them, pulling the dagger out of the first soldier's back. She smiled. "Let it begin." She jumped up and disappeard in the shadows. It was the girl by the name Atsumi.