The sense of smell returned first. An unfamiliar, but somehow still nostalgic scent worked its way into Gekko’s awakening consciousness. His mind only fully began to flip back on when the memory finally came back to him. Like chalkboard dust, maybe...or like the attics in the shrine his mom always made him clean. It was the musty, stifling stench of layers upon layers of untouched aged dust floating in the air. The unfamiliar part he could place only because of that one time he accidentally broke upon an old memorial statue. It was the irritating smell of dust. Not just any dust, but dust that must have laid undisturbed for centuries.
Then, regrettably, all his senses began to filter back in. Sound came next as Gekko’s ears began to sift through the slight echo of his surroundings, pulling out bits and pieces of human speech. Specifically he honed in on the now stomach churning sound of a certain Garion Agent’s voice. “...to me, at the very least. Do you not agree?”
Then came Junko’s rumbling tone. “I’d rather die in the fresh air than down here. I’m gonna use that hourglass and zap myself out of this tomb as soon as those boneheads up above leave.”
“And how will you know when that is possible?”
“Soldier’s instinct.” Finally sight began to return, which only provided another onslaught of displeasing senses to take in. Gekko was laying face down on a bedroll of some sort. He turned his head just a fraction and saw himself in some kind of narrow, poorly lit tunnel. The surrounding masonry felt smooth despite the dusty grime coating its surface, suggesting this was not a cavern but some kind of man-made structure. The only source of light came from a small yellow flame some distance from himself. The stark silhouette of Junko blocked the flame in its entirety, but Motonubu was lit up quite well on the other side. Unlike the battered, bruised, and bloodied pair, Motonubu’s appearance looked positively radiant. It was as though he hadn’t spent several days trekking across the jungle at all.
“So you will abandon Cadet Tanuma Gekko, then?” Motonubu’s eyes looked towards the still motionless Gekko. Shrouded in Junko’s shadow there was no way he knew Gekko was awake, was there? “How cold. But understandable.”
“Hey, bub.” Gekko couldn’t see Junko but imagined her making one of her many rude gestures. “You keep ditching us at every chance. Don’t try to guilt trip me because it won’t work.”
“Come now. Everyone needs some privacy from time to time. How long did I watch the boy for, while you dealt with your own affairs?”
“You know that’s not what I mean.”
“Oh? My mistake, then.” Motonubu took a deep breath even as Junko’s hands refused to leave her weapons. Was she looking to start a fight in this narrow tunnel? “Enjoy your trip back through the jungle, then. I will be taking the boy with me deeper into the ruins regardless.”
“Good luck. That kid is a bloody menace.”
“Notes. He looks ready to go already.” Gekko closed his eyes and grimaced. Damn, he thought his faking sleep skills were better than that. Exaggerating his groan he started to stir, prompting Junko to spin around. Doing so kicked up another load of aged dust.
“Shoot.” She hissed under her breath.
“Glad to see everyone is still alive.” Gekko grumbled with a groggy tone. His skull pounded and his entire body ached, but with a wobbly stance he managed to pull himself up into a sitting position. Then he collapsed up against the wall for support. “At least I can feel better knowing the two of you will die down here with me.”
Looking quite pleased with himself, Motonubu began to fiddle with the light source. “How charming. Still weak even after taking all that time to rest?” Motonubu reached out to grab the small lighter sitting on the floor between himself and Junko, then flicked it off. An impossibly black shadow fell over the whole scene.
Junko immediately started barking out in protest, the anger in her voice reverberating off the stone walls. “What the hell! Give some warning next time-”
The room blazed back into view as a larger fire exploded into life. The intensity made Gekko wince. When his eyes eventually adjusted it felt even sillier, since the source was nothing more than what looked like a standard issue Annitou night lamp. The look on Motonubu’s face could have been amusement, or perhaps something more sinister, but it was hard to tell with the way the lantern cast his face into such stark shadows. “That was inconsiderate of me. I just assumed everyone was fine in the dark.”
Junko’s clenched fingers seemed to be resisting the urge to stab the man right then and there. Motonubu’s light reached just far enough that Gekko could see the diplatiated staircase far behind them. Falling down those coiled stairs might have been fun in a less deadly context. Junko ended up bearing the brunt of the fall, Gekko vaguely recalled through his throbbing headache. The woman’s second job apparently was just to catch Gekko whenever he toppled over. Upon reaching the bottom the pair waited and waited for Annitou to show up, as neither were in any state to keep up the chase.
But it seemed after all that, Motonubu spoke the truth. No Annitou soldiers followed Gekko and Junko down. The scheming Motonubu claimed to have blown up the entire staircase, conveniently cutting off their own way back as well. Despite that Junko insisted they rest for a while, just to make sure nobody else came down the stairs. Gekko had taken the opportunity to sleep.
At least in these undiscovered, untouched ruins, there was no risk at all of running into enemies...
...or allies. Now the three were in perhaps the most isolated part of Jinchi. Their footprints almost certainly were the first these tunnels had seen in a millennia. Maybe that was for good reason. This tunnel might lead to a dead end, or a series of deadly traps, or...
“I wager it is perfectly safe to continue now.” Motonubu swung his light down towards the other end of the tunnel, which spiraled away into depths unseen. “Cadet Tanuma Gekko, I suspect this to lead somewhere important. If you wish to escape it would be prudent for you to follow and cooperate, and assist in deciphering any Bossa we come across.”
“Maybe if I feel like it,” came his sleepy reply. “Can’t we eat first? I’m starving.”
“See? What did I tell you.” Junko calmed down a bit but not enough to remove her grip on her weapons. “The kid would rather die than help us. You should have just left him here and gone off on your own.”
“What a terrible suggestion.” Motonubu took a few tepid steps towards Gekko, who slid backwards along his support wall in response. “Is it not better to work together towards a common goal? We all wish to escape Jinchi, and we all are currently trapped within its unexplored depths. Surely we can put aside our differences for this purpose?”
“No.” Gekko’s instant response seemed to have caught Motonubu somewhat off guard, but his follow-up was even more confidence shaking. “It’s dinner time. I’m hungry. Feed me.”
Motonubu looked up towards Junko, who gave him a very ‘I told you so’ look. Even so, Motonubu attempted one more time. “I only have a limited supply of oil with which to fuel this lamp, Cadet Tanuma Gekko. It would be prudent to-”
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“You’re going to waste more time hauling my malnourished, unconscious body down these tunnels if I don’t get something to eat first.” Gekko’s labored breaths didn’t seem to keep any of the venom out of his tone. “Feed me or buzz off. I’ve had a bad morning.”
The silence one would expect from a tomb like this settled onto the thick dust. Motonubu’s brow remained firmly flattened in consternation. One of his arms whipped upwards as if he were about to slap Gekko. “Legionnaire Kiki-ichimonji Junko,” he turned towards the towering swordswoman. “I assume you did not consume the entire amount of supplies I left with you, is that the case?”
“What!” Junko’s face twisted into a very insincere look of disbelief. “Do I look like the type of person to just eat an entire week's worth of supplies in one sitting?” Motonubu of course wasn’t going to respond to that, but she immediately looked over at Gekko who looked to be rearing up for some kind of back sassing comment. She continued before letting him get one off. “There’s some food left. For me. It’s my food.”
“Spare some for the dying child,” Motonubu fake pleaded. “If for no other reason so that he will have something to occupy his mouth other than talking.”
Junko stared down Motonubu, then again looked back towards Gekko. Now the boy was quiet. Of course he was! This might be the last meal any of them got. As if there was any other choice. “Fine. Fine. If you leeches are fine eating stale bread and cold tinned meat then have at it. I hate the stuff anyway.”
To call it a meal would be misleading. Junko didn’t seem interested in doing anything but sipping from her personal gourd, and Motonubu insisted he was fed quite well enough already, thank you. Gekko was beyond worrying about getting poisoned again and just shoveled whatever he could into his mouth, which in this case was very hard bread and rusty smelly canned fish. How had Junko made this stuff worth eating, anyway? She must have been holding the good stuff in reserve for herself.
“So,” Junko grunted. “What do you anticipate this weapon to be, exactly? How will we know when we found it?”
Motonubu looked towards Gekko, who now deliberately chewed with his mouth open after seeing how much it made Motonubu upset. The boy almost looked like a hamster with all the food stuffed in his cheeks. With obvious disgust in his voice Motonubu waved off Junko’s question. “Did the boy not tell you? Maybe you did not ask nicely enough.”
“I don’t trust a thing coming out of that little gremlin’s mouth.”
“Quite right.” Motonubu set the lamp down on the floor, kicking up another cloud of dust. Both his hands disappeared back into his thick cloak. “The weapon is believed to have been defensive in nature, so we expect it to be located somewhere central, around many other former residences.”
“And why the hell is it underground?”
This earned a tepid, disinterested shrug from Motonubu. “I am not an archeologist. Even if the ancient Jinchi people possessed significant power and technologies, it seems quite inconvenient to me as well.”
“You’re both stupid.” Gekko sputtered out from between mouthfuls. Both adults turned to look down and regard the ornery child with tired expressions. “They built it down here to avoid the notice of the gods, duh. Where else are you going to put a weapon that’s supposed to stop enemies in the heavens?”
Junko looked ready to say something but Motonubu jumped in uncharacteristically quickly. “The gods are dead, Cadet Tanuma Gekko. Contrary to what your backwards nation teaches.”
“Well,” He swallowed, then took a far too long slurp off from a flask of water. “The Jinchi people didn’t believe that. Something doesn’t have to be true to make people go nuts over it.”
That statement left a dense silence hanging for an uncomfortable amount of time. Finally Motonubu broke the mood. “Fair enough, I suppose. If dinner is concluded, let us resume moving.”
Despite its age the tunnel looked to be in remarkably stable condition. No giant tree roots pierced down from above and no broken tiles could be spied underfoot. That indicated they must have been quite deep indeed. The smooth roof didn’t look cracked and the dust they loosened with every step was likewise completely undisturbed, with no visible trails or disruptions apart from the ones the little adventuring crew made themselves. Gekko couldnt’ help himself from commenting after only a short time walking through the ruin. “The air is breathable too.” Gekko shuffled slowly behind Motonubu, with Junko standing between them. “The training I received said to stay out of any underground ruins, because there might not be any oxygen, but other than Motonubu’s nasty stank I don’t notice anything wrong with it.”
“Of course.” Once again Motonubu appeared to ignore the repeated slights of Gekko. “The Jinchi peoples used this tunnel themselves, so there is likely to be some kind of passive air exchange system built in. Just like with a termite mound or the like.”
“Termites have air conditioning?” Junko’s expression now looked more bored than anything else. “Actually, come to think of it, where are all the spider webs and scorpions and snakes and garbage like that? Surely they could have gotten down here as well.”
“Given the age of the ruin...” Gekko’s voice shifted again to something approaching genuine interest. “You would expect way more insect corpses here. These tunnels are so pristine it’s almost like a cleaning crew has been keeping them tidy. Apart from all this dust anyway.”
The only reply from the other two was a snort of “nerd” from Junko, and a vague indecipherable mumble from Motonubu. Not surprising. Ringo and Hajime tended to react the same way every time Gekko got too into the whole archeology thing.
After some more tedious walking the silence again broke when Motonubu tilted his head slightly back to glance back at Gekko, who shrank behind Junko in response. “Care to share a Jinchi fairy tale with us to pass the time, Cadet Tanuma Gekko? Perhaps the one regarding the garden. Legionnaire Kiku-ichmonji Junko is not quite as familiar with the island’s history as she should be.”
“Should be? As if I need to know anything about this island except that it sucks, and you can’t get a good drink when you’re hundreds of miles from civilization.”
“The garden,” Gekko shot back over the complaining Junko, “isn’t even a fairy tale. It’s like a nursery rhyme. Zero historical significance or evidence backs it up.” Gekko sped up his walking speed, wanting to make sure Motonubu heard him complain louder than Junko had. “Only an actual baby would believe it. Even Annitou doesn’t teach it. ”You might as well ask me to tell the story about how the moon is made of cheese. I thought you Agent types were smarter than that.”
“Yes, well.” Motonubu turned his attention back to the path they trudged down. “It is a story we punish children for telling in Garion, though you certainly did not know that. And telling it might give this woman something to think about, despite her resistance to employing energy on cognitive thought.”
“Are you making fun of me? He’s making fun of me, isn’t he?” Junko looked down at Gekko, who was avoiding eye contact. “You know, there’s no witnesses down here. Don’t push your luck just because-”
“Jinchi,” Gekko started talking again to drown out Junko’s increasing agitation, “was allegedly a paradise. No conflict, no death, all needs taken care of, that sort of thing.” Gekko paused to see if Junko was going to continue ranting, but instead she had turned away and now seemed very intimately focused on picking some rocks out of the seams of her sword sheaths. Gekko kept going anyway. “Even the animals here were said to be perfectly obedient. There’s all these dumb stories about talking rabbits or centipedes or seagulls helping solve human problems. They are really stupid and always end with some moral like ‘look before you leap’ or ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’. And then everyone always lived happily ever after, because none of these fairy tale animals ever get turned into lunch.”
“Pure fantasy, is it not?” Motonubu’s tone sounded suggestively mocking. “The realm of children’s stories, because of course only children could care about something like ethics or morals.”
“I mean,” Gekko huffed. “Yeah, duh. Nobody follows that garbage when they get older. Especially not if you’re an Agent.”
In a rare moment of agreement Motonubu gave a disturbingly pleasant chuckle. “Quite right. Annitou occasionally teaches its warriors something of value, it seems.”
“Ah, I get it.” Junko huffed. “Everything is so clean because Jinchi animals think it’s impolite to die down here? Is that the lesson of this story? ‘Pick up after yourself’?”
“That’s stupid. Why would you say something so stupid?”
“It’s a joke-”
“-why, yes, actually.” Motonubu interrupted, trying to stop any bickering before it could begin. “Wouldn’t that be something? If, in fact, Jinchi’s wildlife avoids these ruins out of some...compulsion? After all, I believe one of the rhymes goes something like ‘On Jinchi, all animals serve the island’. Am I right about that?”
“Humans are animals too, dumbass.” Gekko’s voice indicated he felt pretty proud of that response. “If Jinchi magic voodoo is making the animals behave, then it’s doing a lousy job on me, because I don’t feel like serving jack.”
“Hmm.” Motonubu only seemed to exhale in response. “What a shame.”