Chapter 8

By the time we had reached the nearest village, it was dark. Like, practically nighttime. Momo told us that it was called the Ark village and that she knew one of the farmers here and that they’d most definitely house us. I felt guilty about us taking up someone’s home and asked if we could find a better place, but she mentioned that it was close. Much closer than most of the villages, in fact, by the time we arrived, there were still a few people wandering around. Again, it was dark, so there weren’t a ton, but it was still pretty decent looking to me.

An older man was pulling a cart and a bull with hay in the back wagon, and a mother with a baby in her arms was pacing back and forth near the entrance. Momo then grinned and ran over to the young mother with open arms.

“Shelby!” Momo shouted excitedly.

“MOMO!” The woman shouted back.

Chow and I just watched as we quickly realized just how different they were from each other. Momo was fairly tall with a round, curvy body and long hair. Shelby was very petite and thin with a buzz cut and long, sharp nails.

I just shot Chow a look, and she just shrugged. With how different they were, I wondered how they met.

“SUP MOMO GIRLFRIEND?” Shelby shouted once more, startling her child.

The baby began to cry, and Shelby just rolled her eyes, clicked her tongue, and popped a binky into its mouth, which quickly lulled it to sleep.

“Haven’t seen youse in quite a while. Been raising Mikelford here all by myself ever since Ranald left me all those years ago. Been fightin’ ev’rday, tooth, nail, blood, bone, but I’d say that I’d’ve been doing an okay job. I mean, God sure hasn’t been beating at me for being lousy that I know of, ya hear?” She roared with a smile on her face.

“How is lil boy Mickelford anyways?” Momo asked, rubbing his back.

“He’s been okay. Boys always pissed off ‘bout something. Takes it out on me as if I’m his lousy daddy or some crap.” The woman sighed, pressing a finger to her temple.

“Without a man to raise ‘im, I’m afraid that he’ll grow up an’ resent me. Can’t have my child ‘ating me, people’d think I’m some child hitter.”

Chow glanced over at me and grinned before she ran up to the two of them and began asking about the baby. Shelby just smiled sweetly at her and offered her Mickelford. The baby, still sleeping, just lay there peacefully in her arms. As still as a baby doll. I was impressed. Has she held babies before?

At the sight of the three of them and the baby, I felt a sudden tug inside my chest. Was it from earlier when Lena had attacked men? I tried to hide the pain from showing on my face, but the more I tried to trudge over to them, the sharper the pain, and suddenly, I found myself toppling over onto the ground. The sound of me hitting dry ground must’ve startled the women as Chow turned back to me and quickly dropped the baby back into his mother's arms.

“NEIJIRO!” She shouted as she held her arms out with Momo right close behind.

I tried to hold a hand for Chow to grab, but even the twitch of my fingers seemed to make the pain hurt even more. It felt as if my heart was going to explode. Biting back the pain, I struggled to stay on my feet, and that was when it clicked.

The three women and a baby. What did this remind me of? And what was going on?

Shelby slowly made her way towards me and had her lips pursed. I couldn’t make out what she was saying, but I could tell that her lips were moving. Whatever it was, it seemed to have made Momo and Chow freeze, their faces falling rather dramatically. Chow then flipped back towards Shelby, and as she got ready to shout something…I blacked out.

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“Neijiro…Neijiro!!! M̴̡̤̥̦͍̉̿̈́͂̅͜o̴̗̾t̸̯̑͛͐͑̚h̷̡̜͉̼̻̙̳̖̾̆́̿̊̒̕ẻ̸̡̝̣̻͗r̵̨̛͚̯̬̙͐̏̄̆͘͜͜͜ made us pancakes! Chocolate chip and blueberry pancakes and f̸̧̹̺͉̘̮͂̐a̵̲̞̺̗̻͐̈́̒ͅt̶̩̘̰̼̤̻͙̄̇̚͠h̵̡̻̺͈͈͋̔̏͂̍͑̏̈́͝e̶̝̤͍͍̥̜̯̦͇͒̈́̀̇̆͐͂͝ř̶̼̥̮̮̜́͆̏̂ wants to take us to the local Duck Festival! We SHOULD GO! RIGHT, m̴̮̖̻͔̲̟͈͎͉̭̃͗͑̓͗̈͆͊͘͝ò̵͓̬̝̪͍͔̼̅̈́̌͗̑͘͘t̷̨̡̩͔̱̦̉̅̆̓͜͜h̸̢̗̩̟͍̲͇̥̊̉̆́̅͛̓̕͜e̸̞̗̠̬̠͖̹̝̞̋̄͒r̴̨̟̭̺̤͉͒͑̈́̌̾̇̉͝ͅ?” A small girl asked. A beautiful young woman approached me and the girl and gave a sweet smile.

“Yes, baby girl. You and Neijiro may go. Just be back before dinner. Food there is expensive!” She chuckled.

The girl smiled and jumped around like a rabbit while singing something to herself. It was a song…did I know this song…?

Pink rabbit, blue rabbit, what did you get for me? Sweet bunny, tiny baby, throwing a party for me! Smile pretty, dance around, do a bunny hop for me!

______

I gasped as my eyes snapped open. Bringing my head up, I accidentally collided with something hard. Wincing, I rubbed at my face as I looked around for the source of the bump. On top of the bed I was in, Chow was currently sitting on her knees, hands covering up half of her face, a wet washcloth sitting right by her.

“You HIT me!” She shrieked.

“I for sure didn’t mean to,” I attempted to say before she flung the wet washcloth at my face point blank.

I sighed as she ran out of the room, as cold, bitter water began to drip down my face and soak my clothes. Yanking it off of me, I climbed out of bed and felt pretty worn out. I don’t know what the hell happened to me or what that nightmare I had was about, but it was important…I think? Either way, hopefully I’ll forget about it all eventually.

Rising out of bed, I could overhear some people talking. Leaving the room, I tried to get closer to where the talking was coming from and saw that it was Momo, Chow, and that woman, Shelby, her baby lying flat on a blanket by her feet.

“Does he not know anything?” Shelby asked Momo quietly.

“No. The boy doesn’t know and will NEVER know. He shouldn’t have to know.” Momo hissed, clearly trying to end the conversation.

“Then what’s all this traveling for? What’s your goal? Destination? You’re just gonna wander around hopelessly with no exact place to go to? No plans? Just…nothing?” Shelby said, her voice lowered despite her anger.

“Hatsumomo, you can’t just lead him around the world and not explain the situation to him. What if you guys enter a village and King Akiyo’s men approach you all? What if you accidentally run into a decimated village? You KNOW that you can hide any of this from him.” Shelby seethed.

“His sister is gone, and King Akiyo is going to be coming for him next, and this horror movie isn’t going to end anytime soon, even IF you keep him ignorant. Hatsumomo, his SISTER is being-”

Chow suddenly turned towards me and gasped, covering her eyes at the sight of me.

She then glanced over her shoulder at the two women and stomped towards me.

“Eavesdropping?” She viciously spat.

“No, I don’t mean to be, but what are you all talking about?” I asked, a knot in my stomach beginning to form.

Sister? Whose sister? And why were they mentioning this “King Akiyo” again?

“None of your business!” She blurted out, spit flying at me.

“I…” She froze as the sounds of footsteps began to walk over towards us. Momo latched a hand tightly onto Chow’s head and turned her around to face her. Shelby just glared coldly at me.

“We may need to leave as soon as we can. I don’t care that we just arrived, but we have-” Momo sighed and pinched her nose.

“We have something to do,” Shelby said as she gently picked Mickelford up off the ground. I just watched as she left the house, slamming the door shut behind her.

It was just us three, but unlike other times in the past, the mood here felt intense, uncomfortable. I felt nervous, like I wanted to walk away just to avoid this odd feeling.

Momo then cleared her throat and motioned for us both to follow her over to the home’s couch area. As we each took a side, Momo sat on the ground in front of us, right in the center.

“So, remember when I mentioned King Akiyo, Karmaeo-esk, and everything else?” Momo brought up.

I glanced over at Chow, and she was just sitting there, focused entirely on Momo. It was unusual for Chow to take her mother so seriously and to act so mature, but I could tell by her posture that I should listen to what she had to say, even though the air felt suffocating.

“Well, a long time ago, magic users and non-magic users used to live in peace and harmony. I was even married to a non-magic user myself, and we…” She stopped there, glanced at Chow, and I noticed her back suddenly straighten. She appeared to mentally wave it off and stared back at me with a straight face.

“Anyways, we loved each other to heaven and back. His name was Peirce. Peirce Monroe Cunningham. I was 20 and he was 25. But apparently, something really tragic happened. There’s a story, nobody knows if it’s completely true or not, that a magic user somehow lost control of their powers during a heated argument and ended up killing an innocent young man and his daughter in the scuffle. Everyone heard about this, including a young 30-year-old Akiyo Emitsu. Having lost his parents to a magic user who also lost their mind, Akiyo demanded that, to avoid tragedy, magic users should be exiled from non-magic users.

“But at first, everyone debated on this and didn’t like the idea as it’d just cause more drama and discrimination. But as more instances of magic users losing their powers and minds began to surface, more and more with nobody knowing the cause of it, the more folks began to rally behind Akiyo. Eventually, non-magic users themselves began to rage and fight against their neighbors and friends, and even killed the innocent magic users.”

Chow and I shot each other looks, and I could feel my blood start to boil upon hearing this. Humans…we’re all human, right? Magic or no magic. So, why did so many people back then kill each other? Just because a few magic users were deemed unsafe, was that a just cause to kill innocent people? Elders? Kids? Entire families? Just because we also wielded magic?

“It then became the norm, and a war began. It was known as “The Sinners War.” Over 60% of the entire magic population was killed, and the rest that remained were non-magic users. Akiyo Emitsu was crowned as the King due to his idea and beliefs that all magic users were Sinners and should be vanquished. As a result, every single day, every single hour, no matter who it is or where they are, King Akiyo now attacks innocent villagers who house magic users. Even those who have done nothing wrong. He may be 40 now, but he still has the heart of a strong, cruel King. I’ve begun to think that he just wants to spill blood; he doesn’t want to help his people.” She sighed. She looked exhausted, mentally and physically.

I didn’t know how to respond to such a horrible story. What was I supposed to say?

“So, what does that have to do with-” I began, but she brought her head back up and glared daggers into my eyes.

“Your sister, Yura Umemoto, was taken back when you were a child. King Akiyo thinks that she’s of Godly blood and wishes to use her powers to restart the world. But, the thing is…he can’t do it without mixing blood.”

Chow glanced at me worriedly, and I just gulped, avoiding making eye contact with her.

“And he needs your blood to mix with hers. I don’t know anything else aside from that, and I’m surprised that he didn’t just kill you then and there.” She said as she slowly climbed back onto her feet.

I had a sister? Or, I HAVE a sister? Why don’t I remember this? Yura…Umemoto? Who? Wait, so then, my parents.

“What about my parents?” I blurted out desperately.

She just shook her head and grimaced.

“They’re dead. Your entire village was wiped out.”

Upon hearing this, my body began to tremble. Chow, covering her face with her hands, began to let out a wrecked sob, and without meaning to, I flung myself off the couch and grabbed at my throat, her lips shivering.

“Neijiro-”

I blocked them both out. My sister is gone, my parents are dead, and. And I tried to remember, I tried to think of what they looked like. What exactly happened, but nothing came up. Nothing but tears and my saliva as I let out the worst sound I had ever made. The sound scared me even more. How was I capable of such a sound? I was scared, lost, confused, and I just wanted to be a child again. I wanted home. Mother, father, my sister, and whoever else I knew. I wanted them back. Should I even be alive if they’re all gone? What am I supposed to do?