Bloodstained Rose

Chapter 14

What had started as a soul-seeking adventure in his youth had led him to another fight in another land. Hideo had found himself on the floor of an old, abandoned factory, much younger and still thousands of miles from the village. The streets outside had been filled with enemy troops on the prowl from where he had barely managed to escape a barrage of gunfire minutes earlier. The rest of his team had been ambushed just on the outskirts of the city—Kashmir. Its countless number of buildings had covered hundreds of square miles. The metropolis had been erected from the remnants of several abandoned cities that had been built centuries earlier. Not much was known of what happened to the world or its population, but what was left in its place was a rising empire. Hideo travelled deeper into the factory, finally coming to a very well-hidden metal door a few floors down. The area was clear. He had grabbed onto the handle, giving it a nudge. The mechanism had let out a dampened thud, finally allowing him to continue.

“Dash, dot, dot, dash.” Hideo whispered as he tapped the top of the metal rhythmically. He had only hoped the others were not still trapped. After a few moments had passed, Hideo repeated the same sequence again. The handle on the door slowly had begun to rotate. Hideo immediately took another step back to clear the area as the hatch had begun to open. Just below, another one of the resistance fighters, Shift, had cleared a small path. Hideo slipped through the opening before pulling the door shut behind him.

“I thought for a moment that they had got you.” Shift said, relieved while continuing down the ladder.

“They almost got me,” Hideo replied after thinking back of the disastrous attack from before. He looked down at Shift and said, “They got the others. It's just us now.”

Shift had stepped off the rungs after reaching the bottom of the well. Once Hideo reached him, they began to move even further into the shelter.

“Are you sure?” Shift asked again, still in disbelief that the entire resistance had been snuffed out.

“Yes, I’m sure.”

The despair was starting to grab hold of him. Shift only shook his head and asked, “So what are we going to do now?”

“I don’t know.” Hideo muttered. In the past few months, they had seen the revolution start to come to a head. The city, along with most of the surrounding area, had been under control for decades by a movement known as the Global Eurasian Initiative. What had started as a collective trying to rebuild the old world somehow had been turned into a Technocratic Nightmare. The city had been on the verge of chaos before the G.E.I. stepped in to bring order. Whether or not the majority wanted them in charge, they were given no choice. Hideo did not know much about the politics leading to this moment but had feared the possibility of them expanding.

The G.E.I. had billed itself as a Global movement to unite humankind as a species. It had started like every other movement for change—one day there would be an uprising, the current rulers would be overthrown, and things would always go south. It took them a brief time to unite the populace, but every uprising would be met with resistance. However, the G.E.I. had been so powerful and swift that all such movements were quickly snuffed out. Liberation had been different in that respect as they had outlasted the others. With Hideo, Shift, and Mizumi all being able to tap into the Deep, they were able to put up enough of a fight to inspire others. The two had entered the final area of the hideout. Inside, Hideo was immediately greeted by Mizumi as she had cradled a young child in her arms. Upon seeing Hideo, the infant raised its hands to him as it squeezed its fingers in the air.

“There’s my little Rei!” Hideo said as his face lit up. He walked across the room, reaching for the young girl. Rei was still a few months old.

“Did everything go according to plan?” Mizumi asked Hideo as she handed the child to him. Hideo pulled Rei into his shoulder and then looked across the room towards a group of children. Not wanting to upset them, he closed his eyes and shook his head in defeat. Mizumi lowered her head and said, “I knew I should have gone.”

“Not in front of them,” Shift interrupted her. Across the room, a young grey-haired boy had jumped to his feet upon seeing them. Shift lifted his arms to him before saying, “Come on little guy.”

He pulled his son, Shirow, in close for a warm hug. After the embrace, Shirow pushed away before facing him and asking, “Are we about to have to leave again?”

“Not yet, buddy.” Shift assured him. Shirow had been joined by his younger brother, Nomad.

“But we have to leave eventually?” Nomad asked. Shift’s smile had dropped for a second as he reached out to Nomad, eventually running his fingers through his black hair.

“Well, there’s a reason I named you Nomad.” Shift said finally. Hideo gave Rei a pat on the back, trying to get the infant to burp. He finally looked to Shift and Mizumi and said, “We need to talk about that.”

Mizumi nodded in agreement before leaning forward to the children and saying, “Kids, we need you all to step out for a minute.”

The children each had dragged their feet to leave the room. The moment they had finally cleared out, Shift stood to face Hideo.

“We tried to go in headfirst and they were waiting.” Shift softly spoke.

“I know that. If I had reacted any slower, I might not have made it back.” Hideo replied while bouncing Rei gently in his arms. The child lifted her head, staring at him with her small, innocent face. Mizumi’s worry of Hideo being gone the whole day subsided as she saw Rei smile back at him.

“So, we failed. What do we do now?” Mizumi asked them. Shift sighed at the thought.

“We either fight to the end and hope the kids pick up someday, or we can just cut our losses now.” Shift had begrudgingly suggested.

“After all of the people those bastards have killed?” Hideo replied with a hiss.

“Do you really think that thought hasn’t crossed my mind?” Shift said angrily. He started to walk away from the two and over to large map draped across the wall, finally turning back to say, “I hate it, but we have so few at this point that we will, not maybe, be crushed. They’re building better weapons to fight us, and we will need more numbers.”

Mizumi sat quietly as they went back and forth. At her age, she had been the perfect likeness to the woman Rei would eventually grow into—a spitting image. Caring for Rei and being away from the fight had started to eat away at her. “We have to leave,” Mizumi started to adjust the covers over her legs and straighten her posture as she spoke. She reached out towards Rei and continued, “I don’t like to run, but we can’t fight now. It’s over.”

Hideo knew that was the reality now. There was no option at this moment. He lifted Rei from his chest, lowering her towards Mizumi as the room had become uncomfortably quiet. Hideo then quickly raised his arms up and asked, “Where do we go?”

“Hideo, that’s what I was thinking about,” Shift had said, troubled at the thought. “We don’t have a chance to try to hide in the city.”

“Are we really going to just end it here?”

“What choice do we have?” Shift raised his voice and startled Rei as he spoke. Hideo had raised his index finger over his mouth, warning him of the children outside the door listening. “My family lived here for decades before these guys took over. I would give my heart and soul to get this place back, but I am not going grind myself into the ground so my kids can suffer the same fate.”

Hideo’s disbelief had become insurmountable. Mizumi took this time to play out all the possible scenarios in her head. From here, the number of viable options would only continue to diminish. She sighed again, getting their attention.

“Hideo, I know this is frustrating,” Mizumi said softly to not disturb her child. “I think there’s a way we can cut our losses short and get back into this.”

“When?” Hideo asked.

“I don’t know,” Mizumi pulled Rei in, “I just know that we can’t do this now.”

“Then is it settled? We just run?” He laughed at the prospect. Shift glared over to him, still frustrated.

“It's a tactical retreat. We rendezvous with our buddies with O.W.O. and then head west. We wait, gather troops, and then when the day comes, we bring the hammer down and take our land back!” Shift exclaimed fanatically before pumping his fist to him. Hideo had turned back to Mizumi and Rei.

“Was this plan B?” Hideo asked her.

“No, because we’re not all going west,” Mizumi said to him. Hideo had felt a chill following her words.

“If we go anywhere, we’re all going together.” he declared. Mizumi slowly sighed and turned back to Shift, nodding in unison with him.

“Shift and I have thought about this before,” Mizumi had fought to get the words out, “but I don’t want you and Rei in this fight. We must split up if we want to survive.”

“That’s not going to happen.” Hideo interrupted her.

“Hideo, this is what’s going to happen. Rei deserves better,” Mizumi said as a few tears had started to make their way down her cheeks. “You said there is a whole village and a tribe you ran from. Well, run back. Let her live a life away from this. We tried, we failed, and we can pick back up.”

“I can’t do that.”

“You have to. Please, take Rei as far from here as possible. Let her live a happy life, raise her with your son back home. One day we will meet again.”

Rei sat across from Hideo with her head lowered. She had spent her entire life being raised with the other kids at the monastery, not aware of who her parents were. It had made her feel cold, empty, and incomplete growing up. After finally hearing everything, she had started to feel less empty. The years of Hideo watching over her and the tutelage had felt less painful. Even though the picture was not quite clear, Rei had not been sure how to feel about spending her whole life being raised in secrecy.

“Why did you hide this for so long? Why train me?” she asked him.

“I wanted to make sure you were safe. Something just pushed me to train you. I wanted to make sure that for Mizumi’s sake you received the best. Jin had already been chosen as my heir before you, and I thought if something happened me, they would not be able to track you,” Hideo spoke coldly as the tears had started to run down his face. “I did not want you to fight, but I did not want you to be powerless when they came. I am sorry I pried away everything from you, but I wanted you to be the best for none other than you. If you do not want to continue the fight, fine. If you hate me and are bitter, then be bitter, hate me, but please, put this on.”

Rei had started to feel her eyes swelling up but had held back the tears. She grabbed hold of the robe and reached towards the inside, feeling an assembly of hundreds of nubs. On contact, they had stuck onto her flesh, causing a tingling sensation as the rubbery appendages began to cling on.

“What is this thing?” Rei asked as she pulled her hand free.

“I already explained, it is a standard issue battle robe. When I fought with Liberation, there were a hand full of us who had the power to channel from the Deep; this was meant to amplify that power. Those contacts inside need to make contact with your skin or the onboard A.I. will not work,” Hideo said as he started to turn away from her. “You can leave your shorts on, but everything else must go.”

“What’s an A.I.?”

“I do not have time to explain, but it will be like you have somebody watching over you.”

“Alright, here goes nothing, I guess.” Rei said while unbuttoning her winter outfit. She fumbled her arms free from the coat before finally unfastening the binds across her bust. A chill had graced the traces of sweat across her torso, giving her a slight shock. She let out a quick screech, causing Hideo to laugh.

“Are you alright?” Hideo asked her.

“I’m fine, it's just cold.” she said while trying to figure out where to fit her arms.

“I guess you really are sun on a rainy day.”

“Like a ray of sunlight?” Rei had managed to get the robe around her body. The inside of the suit against her bare flesh had felt uncomfortable at first. For a moment, it had felt like the inside of the suit was alive and pulsating against her skin. She quickly giggled nervously, “Oh wait, ray, Rei. Is that why you named me that?”

Hideo shook his head and said, “No, it’s a bit more complicated.”

“Did mom come up with a name for a boy and I was born as a girl?”

“You would be surprised how accurate that is,” Hideo said, dumbfounded by her intellect. “I really hope one day you can do other things with your life. You are very smart, and I hope you can write your poetry one day.”

“Someday,” Rei said as she tried continued to struggle to close the front. She walked around to him with the breakpoints in her hands before asking, “Can you help?”

Hideo turned back to her and reached down towards the bottom of the robe where two round and squishy orbs rest. The texture of the two objects resembled the material on the reverse. This suit was sleeveless, giving her full range of motion in her shoulders. It was a godsend from the equipment she had worn before—barely fitting and constantly shifting around. Hideo pressed the two orbs on her robe together, causing them to fuse into one like liquid. The flexible substance had started to move up the robe, slowly closing it.

“Does it always tickle?” Rei asked again as her face started to turn red.

“Just for a little, please stay calm.” he assured her. The suit had finally closed before starting to contract, filling itself with her curves. Within seconds, the substance on the inside of her robe had expanded, creating a tight hold on her torso. A strange sensation had followed.

“What’s happening to me?”

“Just stay calm, the suit is going to try and pair,” Hideo tried to keep her from panicking. The pairing process had caused a tickling sensation that seemed to reach from the suit to the deepest parts of her mind. Rei squeezed her eyes shut.

“I’m staying calm.” Rei clenched her fists as the process had started to become less uncomfortable.

“Rei, breathe.”

“I’m breathing.” She took a quick puff of air and lifted her eyelids as everything had started to feel normal again. Underneath her robe, the movement had finally ceased as the cloth had latched on to her. Hideo had grabbed the last item from the shelf, a sword. The weapon had a cylinder-shaped handle that resembled something more of a broadsword while its blade was pitch black—not even the light in the room had been able to reflect off it.

“This was my weapon; it was an experimental alloy that we had managed to synthesize. It is the deadliest edge in existence,” Hideo said as he rested the blade across his forearm to present it to her. “You will need this when you find Liberation. That is only if you find them.”

“Thank you, Father.”

Hideo felt his face starting to crack finally hearing her acknowledge her relationship. Another tear had rolled down his cheek.

“Please, find your brother and give him this,” Hideo ordered as he lifted the last robe to her. Time was running out for the village and the moment for last words had since passed. He looked her in the eyes one last time and muttered, “Go.”

Rei had brushed her emotions aside and nodded her head. Without a sound, she took off up the stairs to get to Jin.