The Zodiac Spirit Guardians

Secret Words at Secret Hours

I wouldn't consider it "running away" per say, I would call it "getting away". My body protests to tell me otherwise as it burns with the fire of a thousand suns every second of every minute of every damn hour. My whole body is flaming hot on the inside, dying and living at the same time. All because my stubborn desire to "get away" from how ridiculous Akira is being.

"I mean, who the hell does that?" I smack my palm against a tree trunk fully expecting it to catch on fire. It doesn't.

Just the emotion in her eyes was enough to make me want to "get away" for a million years. No one should be allowed to feel what she was feeling. It's too much for this world and for who she is. The Goddess of Destruction should not be, "...humanitarian. That's the word. destruction does not equal compassion." I complete my thought out loud, knowing it helps me think better.

Shockingly, Akira taught me that little trick. Back when we were just young people, ignorant of what this awful world had in store for us.

The treachery treaty reminds me that I have something to live for. It is the most painful thing I've ever experienced and I'm pretty sure all three of my bodies are dying simultaneously, but I welcome it. The others don't understand how I could've lasted weeks suffering like this, but they also don't understand the mental torment my childhood brought me. I would rather take the Treachery Treaty over anything my mother did, any day.

Thinking back to her torrential downpour of punishments, I can't help but doubt the intentions of everyone around me. I'm a proud skeptic, and I'm confident to say it truly has saved my ass plenty of times to be worth it. My pride just keeps me from confiding in anyone.

"I am part lion after all." I whisper before dryly laughing.

It's been a few hours but I still refuse to let it go. My feet walk me around in a circle through these trees, fighting wanting to go back and wanting to walk even further away. I take a few steps back towards Akira, then take more steps in the opposite direction. I'm not normally an indecisive person, I just need to think things through.

"I should have patience with her since she's suffering from amnesia, but she brought it on herself, so should I really feel sympathy in any form of the word?"

Somehow during my decision process, I've already begun trotting toward Redinon. I guess I'm going there.

My mind struggles to focus on outside elements to distract from the pain and exhaustion overwhelming my body. The trees are so tall they're like buildings, scraping the sky with their longest branches. I walk past a tree lying on the ground, toppled over to its side. The bark is cool and sharp against my skin as I follow along beside it with my palm flat against the surface. The width of the trunk is three times taller than me, almost impossible to jump over. I search for the end, trying to find the roots or a clue to how it fell.

I hunch over when my body radiates again with pain, reminding me just how indestructible I am. My feet strain to carry me along through the fire, but I have no choice. Trees don't just collapse in Redinon, not even by natural disaster. Someone knocked it over, and that someone is dangerously close to Akira and dangerously powerful.

Feet that hardly feel attached to my body, move me toward the roots. Once my eyes catch the torn apart base and missing stump, my initial hunch is solidified. Someone strong enough to rip a tree from its stump and throw it a great distance has been tailing us. I grow closer to the bottom of the trunk and notice something more dangerous than I could've imagined. My palms explore the smooth surface and clean edges of the tree. This monstrous plant wasn't ripped from the ground, it was cut and thrown. This little fact can only mean one thing: dragons.

Not even half an hour later I've infiltrated what I know to be Haruka's tracking wall. The burning sensation in my every cell still stings like a million scorpions but I walk through it. The first time I felt this level of pain I could hardly breathe let alone crawl my way back to the safety zone. Unfortunately, Haruka's wall extends past the safety zone. He knows I'm back but technically my body considers me to still be "getting away" from Akira.

I saunter over the leaves scattered across the ground in a stealthy manner. Other leaves crunch under feet that aren't mine and I immediately spring like a cat onto the nearest tree branch. I climb until I can't be seen by prodding eyes. My sight remains fixed on the ground where I once was.

In walks Akira, ash hair and thin helpless figure. She's mumbling to herself, saddened eyes and all. She looks up ahead of herself to a new voice from someone I can't see. Then Akira trips over a tree root and falls to the ground in a heap of hair and limbs. My body flinches from the branch to help her until I see thin pale fingers from a thin pale hand reach out to stand her up. All I am able to witness is a flash of red hair and I already know who Akira is talking to: Dessy Artanis.

The more people Akira meets from her past, the worse her failed memory will get. All these people keep coming back to her thinking she's remembered everything and all they're doing is making everything worse. They're screwing with her mind and forcing her into some weird purgatory between remembering and not remembering. We shouldn't have even left for Earth in the first place.

As I fight with every inch of irritation inside my head, Akira continues her conversation with Dessy, her childhood friend. They're deep into their words when I hear Steele's soft footfalls out in the distance. Dessy hears it too and sprints off somewhere else. Akira lays there on the ground staring at her hand in disbelief for some reason. She's already lost her mind and is losing the rest of any sanity she still has.

"Lady Akira?" Steele's voice is closer than I thought, that's my cue to leave. Time for this Treachery Treaty to beat it.