Chapter Seven: The Bamboo
It was a few weeks' start of Torikou’s training. Her application for Rescuer volunteer got approved.
"Hideki, I wonder what would happen if I fail this test?" Torikou spoke.
She slashes her blade into the hardest bamboo mount and breaks it.
"I can only train hard drills but never truly fight." She speaks.
"Torikou, as your teammate, I believe you can do it. Never speak badly about yourself, no matter the situation." Hideki replied.
"Come on, control your breathing, let's do study sparring," he says, picking up the sword. Torikou picks her stance, solidifying her core. She holds the blade with a sharp edge to Hideki. They fight.
Torikou slashes her blade at Hideki and Hideki parries it. He intercepts her attack with a slash to her right, to which Torikou blocks and stances again. Hideki remains vigilant whilst Torikou slowly presses forward, pressuring Hideki. She aims an attack to the head and in less than a second, double strike the legs pressuring forward. Hideki parries and parries, running backward then uses his best strength to slash Torikou's blade, and she loses her grip. The blade falls to the ground and Hideki aims at her head, imaginary.
"Boom got you. Try again?" Hideki says.
Torikou silently lay on the rocky ground, looking at her scratch-filled hands.
"Come on! You can't beat yourself up again? You gotta tell me. Since when did you start treating yourself so harshly?" Hideki wonders.
Torikou, holding back her tears, slowly and silently got herself up.
After training time, the two rested themselves by the sunset, drinking water and wiping their own sweat with towelettes. After a harsh training time, they finally relaxed. It feels good getting stronger and better. After a long moment of silence, Torikou asked Hideki something.
“Hideki… is Hyonae your sister?” She asked, looking at him.
Hideki responded unenthusiastically, “Apparently so, yes. Why do you ask?”
“Well, it’s just that I don’t see you two often talk. At first, I thought you were strangers until I realized you had the same surnames.” Torikou replied.
“Well, it’s not really any of your business to ask,” Hideki replied.
“Oh, I see. I’m sorry to ask, it’s just that the two of you are the first people I met here, and I’m very glad to be meeting you, it has helped me keep going.” Torikou said softly—in lowercase letters—if that’s a thing. But the moment she said that she knew it was a bit of a cheesy and soft thing to say, so she endured a little awkward silence.
During the brief moment of silence, Torikou was silently shaking, crying, regretting, and asking God for forgiveness out of mild embarrassment. Then, Hideki said something to her in reply,
“I see. Well, how are things with your brother? He’s been a good teammate of mine. I knew the first time I got you from that treehouse, that you were his little sister.”
Torikou responded in silence and shyness—a small figment of tears ran down her heart. She began to feel heavy and slow. Her heartbeat slowed down and she heard its loud thuds and beats. Dub dub dub dub.
“Torikou, why do you hate your sibling so much?” she realized this only now. After all the tragedies happening, her brother is the only family she got now. After all the times she imagined leaving her brother and all her cold shoulders and words in mean tones, it’s all stressful—but what for? What’s the point of all these?
She exhaled, and said it as meaningfully and intentionally as she could, but while she was saying her words, small teardrops ran down her cheeks. Her chest felt heavier and heavier, and heavier…
“He’s been looking out for me a lot recently, but I keep ignoring him. I can’t help but feel hate for him for not being present when there was trouble because when we were little kids, he was protective.”
Hideki listened to her and knew she just wanted to be listened to. So he made no reply.
It was already dark and the Cholidean building lanterns had lit up. Flying lanterns float in the sky like stars. Many restaurants outside start playing their bands—guitars, saxophones, violins, and harps, with a matching alto singer wearing a Cholidean native costume—she looks naturally amazing.
Torikou packed up her training gear, said her goodbyes to Hideki, and walked back home to the Rescuer’s base, towards her dorm room. She frowned as she walked away, touching the grasses by her feet, she turned her head back, and said something in her mind as if she was saying something to Hideki,
“I’m sorry for who I am, Hideki,” and walked back home.
It was a dark and dangerous night, machines crept and crept in. It was an amazing feat for these restaurant owners to put up a band of singers at night and serve delicious warm steak. The darkness forbade, but the moon and the stars shone. Toriko couldn't sleep. She was worrying about things she couldn't concretely realize. But all she knew was to simply try harder—that if she tried harder, all things would fall into place. Yet somehow, it felt like it was tearing apart more and more. She began to remember her family. Thoughts in her mind scatter around like a mess of wires and noodles. Yeah, it’s loud and shivering in her brain.
Am I a weak person? Why can’t I stand this? Is it my fault I had a wonderful life when I was younger? Is that the reason why I’m not used to this terrible life? But wait… it’s actually not that terrible now that I think about it.
She began to remember her home family life. At this hour, serene night, with the sounds of crickets and brushing tree leaves dwelling outside, her father would sit beside her and her brother in the living room, on a soft couch, reading bedtime stories in front of the bonfire. Her mother would play fingerstyle guitar—a melody so graceful and soothing to the ears. The memory is so good, it made her feel lonelier now that she sleeps in a room with many other teenagers like her—it’s a dorm room after all. Although she thought of these, she realized that life is still not as bad as she would have thought. There were lots of challenges, but lots of miracles too.
She thought of the events that happened on this day, the conversation she had with Hideki, and the things she learned at training today. She thought of many things,
“I know I’m supposed to sleep now. I’ve been taught to sleep early when I was a wee little child, and it all worked because it was dark and serene by nighttime. But here, hell man, the sky is so beautiful. It’s a majestic harmony of nature's scapes and civilization. Civilization is amazing, look at all the shining, orange lanterns. We’re all equal to the sky here in Cholidea. Take a look, at the thousands of massive mountains and rocky cliffs, the masses of diverse, countless trees and bushes—a variety of orange, white, green, and yellow leaves with multicolored flowers and different colored barks—some hanging on cliffs, some growing on rocks, some isolated at the very peak. It’s a wonderful feeling, to see isolated trees at the very peak, I can feel it is saying ‘hello’ to me, and smiling at me. I have a feeling, that they never forget those they greet, ‘hello’. The air in the mountains is so cool and thin, I’ve gotten used to it. It’s so cool, thank you. The roads here are smooth and slithering like snakes. You’d ride a vehicle at the very side of the mountain. No wonder this place is a training area for rescuers, and soldiers, because it is abundant with areas for practice flying sessions—high-rise rocks, cliffs, ravines, and waterfalls, to cling your harpoons on. Harpoons… I’ve never got to study and observe how they cling on to things, without breaking them into pieces?”
Torikou suddenly slipped out of her thoughts, and saw someone else in her dorm room, looking at the sky just like she was. The person was a lady looking like she was in her mid-thirties, with white, flowy, long hair, and an even complexion. She was wearing thick, white pajamas. She looked at the sky with endless wonder and awe. Torikou approached the person.
“Hello there, I see you’re in the wonder of the sky too. May I sit beside you?” Torikou asked.
“Oh, hello! Why sure of course, come sit with me.” The lady replied.
Torikou sat down and looked at the sky with her. The lady remained silent.
“So… what is your name, miss?” Torikou asked. The lady looked like a respectable person the moment you saw her at first glance.
“Me? My name is Cynthia. Cynthia Agatha.” She paused for a while. Then followed up, “You?”
“My name is Torikou. Torikou Jikuto.” Torikou replied.
“Ahh, I see,” Cynthia responded.
It was a pause again.
“So… is this your first time here? Are you a rescuee? Or, where did you come from?” Torikou asked.
“Me? Uh, I’m one of the pilots in the Pilot Regiment of the Rescuers. I come from Branch 27 of Cholidea.”
“Oh, I see, okay,” Torikou replied.
It was a pause again, and Torikou quietly stood up to go to sleep. That’s when Cynthia spoke for the first time by herself,
“You see, the floating station up there? The train station? It’s so beautiful.”
Torikou went back to sit and looked high into the sky from her window. “Woah!” Torikou was surprised.
It looked like branches of crystalline glass, like a spirit in the sky. It sparkles with deep blue, cyan, turquoise, coral pink, red, lavender, and crystal white. It travels so far and so narrow in the sky, or galaxy, like a speedy time-lapse highway at night. Beside it, you can see its station. It gave the feeling of holiness and spirituality. It’s vague, I can’t put my finger on it.
Cynthia spoke,
“That place… can bring people to various places in time and planet. I’ve been there before.”
Torikou pays attention to Cynthia’s words.
“I was a little kid when we traveled to the mountains with my parents. We climbed rocks and I fell, my rope cut loose. I can remember my father’s face in horror as he watched me fall and reached his hand to me… and my mother’s cries.”
Torikou thought Cynthia was a really mysterious person.
“Then the floating train station caught me. I fell inside it, and the train sped up. I desperately cling to the window to see my parents but the train moved so quickly and swiftly, I could barely see the view.”
Torikou watched the emotions of nostalgia on her face…
“I cried as the train brought me farther and farther… until it finally stopped, and landed me on a new Cholidea. I assumed I was brought to the future. There I grew up, and became the person I am now.”
Torikou gasped, and said, “So with all due respect, I have to ask, did you come from the past?”
Cynthia responded with, “Of course.”
It ended, they went back to their own beds and fell asleep—roosters started to rise and make sounds.
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