Seiji threw his arm back towards the center of the village while he spoke. The confusion and frustration in his voice came through clearly. He looked like he wanted to do something, but forced himself otherwise. Even Seiji understood.
Questions piled up for Yuki trying to figure out what happened in the short time that he left. He didn’t expect anything from the villagers. ‘What are they thinking? We helped them!’ Yuki stared at the ground feeling the heavy weight of confusion pressing down on him. It seemed so simple.
Further questions had to wait, he knew. Yuki looked forward and ran down the street. He couldn’t let them turn the two over to the soldiers. He caused them all too much trouble. ‘Don’t worry Yumi, Yori…I’ll protect you!’
Chapter 109 – Right of Wrong
Ever since the fighting, the village fell into chaos. That havoc started to settle down with the ending of the fighting. However, the villagers all remained on edge. Yuki got a few stares as he sprinted past, but most of the noise came from the center of the village. ‘I won’t let anything happen to you!’
Out of the corner of his eye, Yuki caught the ruin amongst the village. They might have stopped what happened, but for many the damage was already done. Those focused on putting the pieces of their lives back together began the clean up even at the late hour. Sleep seemed like something of a luxury for everyone.
Nearing the town center, Yuki came to a stop. For Seiji, he took the halting with surprise, expecting Yuki to go charging into the crowd. Seiji managed to break himself before being seen by the locals. Using the corner of a home for cover, Yuki leaned around to get a view of the situation. Much as Seiji had told him, a large gathering of villagers amassed in the square led by an aged man, likely the elder or mayor. From his position, it proved difficult to know if the old man was working the crowd or against it. He needed someone on his side in the village. ‘Wish Ayumi was here. She’d know what to do. But I can’t risk losing any more time. I’ll just have to solve this on my own.’
Yuki looked over at Seiji. “I can’t see Yori and Yumi from here. Have you seen anyone else?”
“Just the giant. But I left her with the rest back at the inn. It should just be us.”
“So they haven’t been found in the inn?”
“Doesn’t seem like it.”
“That’s good. I can’t imagine how they’d react to knowing that there were more than two foreigners in their village.” Unfortunately, Yuki had a pretty good idea on their reaction just based on finding two. The picture he painted acted like acid in his stomach. He swallowed poorly trying to put the thought further out of his mind.
Yuki leaned out from the corner of the home. He started to make his way out towards the crowd. However, Seiji grabbed him at the shoulder before he got too far. “What’s the plan?” Seiji gave him a deep stare expecting orders.
Suddenly being relied upon made Yuki take a step back. “I don’t know. I’m just making this up as I go along.”
“What?! You’re going to get those two killed!” Seiji threw out his hand pointing into the crowd to wherever the siblings rested.
Shaking his head, Yuki glanced towards the elderly man. “They may be afraid of us, but they’re also wanting to stay hidden from the world. Considering their policy of dropping intruders back outside. While we’re only kids, they don’t know that we aren’t from the research bases. So they can’t risk that. They just want to turn us over. I doubt they’ll kill them intentionally. My concern is what their fear will make them do. There’s too many chances for mistakes to wait.”
A narrowed skeptical look stared back at Yuki from Seiji. “How can you be so certain?”
“If you were listening to Ayumi half of the time and not sleeping or tuning her out you’d understand.”
Seiji leaned in closer to Yuki turning his stare into a scowl. “If this wasn’t more important I’d deck you right now!”
“Regardless, I’m going out there. I can’t wait until I figure out something smart to do.” Yuki broke free from Seiji’s hold and started marching out towards the square. In front of him, the dozens of villagers mobbed together too distracted in fear to notice him. Lacking a plan left him a little uncertain, but he fortified himself. Strength and conviction had to stand firm for him, if he had any chance in making the villagers convinced of their intentions.
Yuki strode out amongst the crowd already working his Field in so that the language barrier came down. Anyone in the area of effect sounded like a native speaker to the person listening. He knew that to be the first wall that had to crumble. Fear came next, but he still didn’t understand them fully. Answers had to come first, reasons for their reaction. Pushing through the angry mob, Yuki managed to still be ignored. Everyone became transfixed by their emotions. Pieces of the blanks filled in as he listened to the yelling around him.
“We have to turn them over!”
“They’ll be back again!”
“They think we’re hiding Northers!”
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“They tried to burn down the village!”
“They attacked the soldiers!”
“We’ll get attacked by them next!”
“Get them out of here!”
Similar shouts repeated as Yuki pressed on. It gave him enough to get an idea of what had the villagers so upset. He still only had fragments of the truth, but he had a start. Only a few meters remained before he breached the space between the mob and the elderly man. ‘I wonder how they’ll react to me…’ Glancing around the gathering, he tried to find the siblings among them. He had searched repeatedly as he forced his way in, but he made one last check. ‘They must be in the front…’
Breaking through finally, Yuki stood out feeling the freshness of non-stifled air around him. It cooled his face a little, which built with anxiety. ‘Yumi!’ He suppressed his immediate urge to rush to her. Bound at the hands and legs with her arms restrained as well, Yumi slumped next to her brother against the well. She appeared exhausted and drained of all strength. Even sleeping seemed to be taxing for her, but still the only thing that helped her recover. ‘What happened to her? Did they already do something to her? Why didn’t Yori protect her? He’s her brother!’
Before Yuki had a chance for even an introduction to attempt a smooth opening, the old man in front of him took notice of him not being one of the villagers. “Who are you?!” As expected, all of the villagers in the front took a step back or attempted to do so. The mob grew thick as they realized that a third foreigner stood in their presence. Screams and cries of panic like during the fighting renewed as strong as before.
Yuki planned for such a reaction, but it still left him unsettled by the massive amount of hate that poured out into him. ‘Such a thick aura…even high school never felt like this…’ He took a step forward towards the old man acting like the leader. He forced his own uncertainties down so as not to show weakness to the man. “I haven’t come to harm anyone. I was only trying to protect you from the harm being caused by the soldiers.”
Confusion came from them not expecting him to speak perfect Atlantean Greek. It managed to break through the fear.
“I can understand him?”
“Isn’t he a foreigner?”
“He speaks so perfectly?”
“Is he actually one of us?”
The rumbling of the crowd grew as Yuki remained silent to let it subdue before continuing. Noticing the delay, the old man raised a hand up to the villagers to lower their voices. “You appear to know our tongue well. You wear our clothes, but your face is that of an outsider. Who are you?”
“My name is Yuki Hayashi and I am, as you see, an outsider.” Confirming their fears sent a new wave through the crowd. A calculated risk, he knew admitting to it would change them to be against him again, but lying solved nothing in his situation.
Measuring out his words with the crowd, the old man replied back to Yuki. “I’m Paramonos, the head of the village. What’s your purpose here?”
Yuki didn’t think that he would find a rational mind to speak with. “I intend no harm to you or your people. I’m simply passing through.”
“If that is so then why are you standing here?”
All though Yuki saw him ask the question, it became clear the man already knew the answer. He just wanted it to be said aloud. “You’re holding two of my friends. I can’t leave without them.” While Yuki made no demands to any of them, the voices of the people erupted violently as though he said something offensively unreasonable to them.
“So he is with them!”
“He’s threatening the village as well!”
“We need to hand him over to the South Gate too!”
“Tie him up!”
“You’re the reason we lost everything!”
Remaining calm under the verbal assault became difficult the longer they continued. He ground his hands tighter to fight through his urge to fall into reflex. Yuki didn’t know how much longer he could stay quiet with how ungrateful they acted.
Fortunately for him, someone else had a significantly shorter fuse of patience (really, really short, but that’s not really a surprise). “You idiots!” shouted Seiji, appearing from the side of the square at the end of the crowd in the front. All of the attention focused on Yuki made it very easy for Seiji to sneak in. Unfortunately for him, it also meant that after the initial startled reaction that they all broke out in mass hysteria.
Yuki released a reluctant sigh. “You aren’t helping matters, Seiji…”
“How the hell could you keep listening to those dumbass ungrateful and self-centered people?! We saved them!”
“You didn’t save us! You only made things worse!”
“They’ll come back to finish the job!”
“There’ll be retribution from the military for what you did to them!”
Seiji couldn’t take their complaining for more than a few seconds before he snapped back at them. “Shut the hell up! You were screaming and yelling when they came through tearing up your homes! And now you’re telling me that you wanted it that way!? How hypocritical can you be?!”
Everyone began to shout and yell again at Seiji, but Paramonos interrupted them. “There are things you don’t understand.”
“I’m not looking to understand you! I damn well did what was right and I make no excuses for what I did! I’d do it again!”
“Seiji!” Yuki saw the eyes of the mob. “You aren’t helping matters!”
“How the hell can you think to defend them!?”
“Young man, there are certain things that are necessary to be endured for the sake of safety.”
Seiji started to open his mouth again, but Yuki threw him a piercing stare. He had to settle the situation alone. Yuki took a small step forward to the old man making his intention to speak clear. “You’re afraid that your village will suffer retribution from the military because of our actions. Correct?”
Shouts confirmed his question without the need for Paramonos to speak. They knew with certainty that couldn’t be dissuaded. Paramonos gave a nod to Yuki. “It’s likely that they’ll search our village to be certain. And next time their search won’t be so polite. Your attack will make them strike down harder in their search and it’ll be my people that suffer because of your actions.”
Disgruntled mumbling from Seiji broke Yuki’s connection for a moment. He knew that Ayumi had told him that his actions had more consequences, but he never imagined to see it happen so soon. What he did couldn’t be undone anymore. The dice was cast and he had to live with his decision. ‘These people did nothing wrong, but they’ll suffer because of me! I can’t stay here to protect them… What can I do? Words won’t fix this…’
Yuki ground his fist tight in frustration. No path laid open for him. ‘It’s those bastards running things! The people that want me dead! They’re making all of these people suffer! How can they do this to their own people? They’ve accepted such treatment as normal…’ His hand turned raw from mashing his fingers into his palm. He had to stop them. ‘If they weren’t in charge…things would be different… If I…’ Yuki tilted his head up, suddenly realizing his answer. “What if I could promise you that this will never happen again?!”
“Yuki?”
He soon had everyone staring at him trying to figure out what he meant. Seconds dragged out in silence before voices from the crowd broke through launching a tidal wave at him.
“Empty promises from a foreigner?”
“Get the hell out of our village!”
“You don’t understand anything!”
Yuki exhaled a breath leaving all of the noise behind him. He closed his eyes thinking about everyone and letting them pass through his thoughts. ‘Ayumi’s going to have my head for this…’ A ripple in the ground came from his feet before bursting suddenly into tall grass that filled up to the knees. Every house and object from Skoupa disappeared leaving only the residents behind. All of the yelling came to a sharply punctuating halt. They all knew very well the implications without anyone saying anything.
Turning around to face all of the villagers, Yuki fixed them with a deep penetrating stare. Any resolve and determination he managed to muster filled his features. The staidness in his stance gave them no room for doubt. “I swear to you here that I will stop this! I am an outsider to you and this is a foreign place to me…but this is the home of my father! My father, your King!”