Dark Light

Chapter 14: Mountain Trail

Year 1869

When the imposing Sun Ship came into view, it caused an expected commotion over the entire harbor. There were people running to get everything ready for the ship to dock, people running to tell others about the imminent arrival, people running for all sorts of reasons.

Tomomi stayed unmoving, though. She just stood there behind one of the fishnet racks, looking at the ship with a strange twist in her heart. She had been home for about 20 hours, but she did not get any sleep after coming back from that island. It was just one of those things she never really expected to go through in her life; an actual battle against the Moon. Before she and the other young ones were pulled through the labyrinths in order to escape, she had seen - even if blurred in her vision - dead bodies fallen over the once immaculate temple courtyards. Dead bodies dressed in both white and black. Blood everywhere. Blasts of fire, light and shadow. Arrows and spears flying in all directions.

It was already a tragedy, even if their side winded up winning the battle. It seemed like they were about to find out one way or the other, after all. How could she look at people around her the same way after something like that? How could she move on with her life, after all that blood and all those glassy eyes gazing at nowhere from the cold tiles of the temple courtyards? It certainly would not be possible.

When the ship finally docked, there were so many people around it that it made Tomomi feel sick and dizzy. She wanted to see her older brother so much, but she couldn't bring herself to enter that pit of frenzied people. She saw Shigeru pass running toward the ship, and released a shaky breath.

The screaming started not long after, as the first dead body had been retrieved from inside the imposing ship. Tomomi shut her eyes and moved her hands to her face. She couldn't be a part of this, she couldn't watch this. It only grew worse, and she kept hiding behind her own hands as she heard the screams and the wails of her neighbors and classmates. It felt as if there was a heavy force compressing her chest, making it hard to breathe, making it hard to think.

She stayed like that for long torturing minutes. All Tomomi wanted was to go home, she wanted Yamato to come out of that ship and she wanted to go home with her family.

It was Shigeru's voice that broke her off that state. Her little brother had never been the type to cry easily, but his desperate screams broke into her ears like fire, as if someone pierced into her head with a blazing iron spear. Her run was mostly involuntary, she couldn't even feel her feet or the contact with all the people she bumped into along the way. Tomomi was completely numb to everything except Shigeru's wailing voice, and as she pushed through the crowd she saw her father; her battle-hardened father with his strong arms and aged grey hair, raising Shigeru from the ground and struggling to drag him away from the scene as the boy screamed and flailed in his hold. There were dead bodies placed all over the dock.

In her heart, Tomomi knew. She knew, but at the same time she couldn't believe it, she wasn't going to believe it unless she could see it with her own eyes. As she passed by her father and brother, the next person she saw was her mother hunched over one of the dead bodies, her hands clawing at the limp shoulders as she cried weakly, her face hidden by the same mess of brown hair that Tomomi had inherited.

Tomomi didn't even feel the impact when her knees hit the ground. Everything in her body became completely numb the moment she set eyes on her older brother, laid there limp and white, his lips blue and his hair wet. That could not be Yamato, but at the same time Tomomi couldn't deny it was. She couldn't accept this, that was not her brother and that was not an entrance wound right onto her brother's throat that she was seeing. It couldn't be, because Yamato was everything to her. Yamato promised her he would always be there for her, no matter the circumstance. Yamato would walk through fire for her.