[There's a weird sense of grogginess, and urgency, Uzuki throws herself against it blindly Up up up up wake up! like trying to force her way out of a nightmare. Eiki is slower, but only until he 'hears' his sister, then starts trying to force his eyes open, force his brain into action. Why were they asleep... what had happened? Where were they?
It doesn't quite come back to them all at once, they could remember that there had been danger and they'd been terrified but when Eiki finally manages to snap their eyes open, breathing already hard due to their collective sense of fear, all they see is... a human.
Not someone they know but not something to be afraid of.
Calming a bit immediately, Eiki flicks tries to touch his head, assess the situation.]
[Eiki should be the last of the Pest Control squad—the fifth—but the suddenness of everything that had just happened made Haruna jittery and overcautious. Whatever he had just done, whatever he was about to do, he couldn’t shake the sense that as long as he got it over with quickly, he could still return to his life as normal.
So he hauled Eiki’s prone body over his shoulder, sacrificing speed for the assurance of being able to use his Cantus against any lingering threats, and started making his way through the underbrush. He was probably leaving a path a meter wide behind him and he was barely hitting a jog but all his rattled attention was on balancing the warm, soft human body over his boney shoulder. His heart crawled up his chest throat every time his forehead nudged against his lower back.
What was he going to do with him?
Kill him, if he didn’t agree to leave the Antler Moth colonel alone. Like he had just killed his squad mates, and like he would kill their successors. The more Haruna thought about it, the more it seemed the only option; Eiki would not be able to stop more from coming, even under threat of death. The only thing he could do right now was save Eiki's life.
Finding a relatively uncluttered spot, he lowered the other man to the ground, finding the right foliage to bind him easily enough. It would be enough to slow him down, if he immediately ran. He picked a spot leaned up against a tree a respectful distance away to wait for him to wake up and try to untangle his thoughts. Why was it important to save Eiki? Was it just the shock of seeing a familiar face, or was it just too difficult to reconcile his memories of Eiki with the title of murderer? How much had ten years warped his memories...
But the memories seemed so clear that when Eiki gave him that blank look, he physically startled, recovering with a short bow—he could feel the unnatural stiltedness of the gesture he hadn't performed in years bunch in his shoulders.]
Suzushiro Haruna. We went to school together.
[maybe ten years had been too long for Eiki to remember someone who had disappeared]
[This still wasn't right, and Eiki's heart still trembled nervously. Uzuki agreed, and clamored for control, eyeing Haruna with blatant suspicion, even after she pushed herself to her feet, trying to reassemble Eiki's broken guard.]
No we didn't.
[School hadn't been so long ago that they'd forgotten who they didn't. The name... it wasn't familiar, was it? If it was surely it was from somewhere else, they remembered all of their classmates just fine, the school hadn't been large.
Where were they? She wanted to look around, but something in her gut warned her against taking her eyes off of Haruna.]
[the hairs on the back of Haruna's neck felt electrified. Something was just... wrong. This conversation wasn't going anything like he expected; it felt too bizarre to be rehashing schoolyard memories given what he had brought Eiki here to talk about. He decided to shoot for direct as possible, steeling his expression]
I broke Takamichi Yamato's nose when after Uzuki's Cantus awakened.
[Uzuki was in control but her blank faced look of shock shock spoke for both of them. How long... How many times had she heard someone who wasn't her brother say her name since she died.]
You...
[She licked her lips, her throat worked, Eiki reached for control but she absently brushed him to the side, slightly admonishing, she wasn't stupid.]
[While Uzuki was still reeling Eiki was cataloging everything that wasn't adding up in this situation. Who was this person? Why did he know of his sister? Could he really have been in group three...? Where was the rest of their team? What had happened to the queerats--
Their face closes off abruptly, wonder giving way to suspicion as Eiki wrests control from his sister, who didn't have a response to that anyway.]
What's going on?
[it was a broad question, but he felt sure this person knew the answer.]
[too broad. Haruna hadn't seen a human face up close in ten years but he was surprised how easy it was go tell that Eiki wasn't going to listen to whatever he told him right now. What leverage could he have with him as a stranger?
He pressed his closed fist to his mouth, chewing lightly on his knuckle. He eyed eyed Eiki, thoughtful]
[Eiki frowns, not missing the fact that Uzuki was strangely silent on this issue. This person wasn't wrong, and he was... aware, that his memories could be lost, taken. But he didn't trust this person enough to let his guard down while he tried to fill the gaps in his mind.
A more direct question then.]
I'm not going to believe you if you can't tell me anything else. Where is the rest of my team?
[there's a sick, hot feeling in Haruna's chest as he thinks back to their deaths, all in quick succession. None of them had expected a human--he had practically caught them off guard. If he let Eiki go, the secret would be out that there was a 'fiend' hidden among the Antler Moth's. Would that make things better, or worse... He couldn't tell for sure and he didn't have time to ask.
Would it make the humans afraid enough to capitulate, knowing about a fiend? A part of him took a vicious pleasure form the thought, the heat in chest burning--they deserved to be afraid. His own kind had done so wrong he could barely think of them as being the same species anymore. There might be a time, in the future, when he would have to mow them down as ruthlessly as they obliterated queerats.
If he had to do the same to Eiki he would, but he needed to give him a chance, and that would mean telling him the whole truth]
... I can take you to their bodies later. I killed them.
[This time the shock is combined with fear, that was it that was the final puzzle piece that had been too horrifying to let themselves remember. They were unconscious because they'd been attacked, not by queerats, but by another human. The rest of their team wasn't here and wasn't looking for them because they were already dead.
Her friends were dead, the people she'd worked alongside, gotten to know, and if she had built up a lie to be their friends it was in many ways everything she had that wasn't love for her brother or hate for queerats and this-- this monster]
--Fiend!
[Her anger overrode fear very quickly. To either side of them two trees just... unfolded, dozens and dozens of sharp sticks being plucked directly from the truck and leveled at Haruna before she remembered she couldn't possibly actually let the fly. Even the idea of it was already making her queasy.]
[he flinched on instinct, taking a abortive step back. As much information as he had painstakingly gathered about death feedback and attack inhibition, it was hard to rely on something that he himself had never felt. He only relaxed a hair he saw the look Eiki's face, keeping his voice level]
I'm not a fiend. Fiends attack humans on impulse, you'd be dead if I was one.
[She shot back, venomous. The lances stayed focused on Haruna but of course didn't move. Could't. She couldn't die, couldn't sacrifice herself in revenge or anger. But maybe the fiend didn't have to know that. They needed to escape.
She takes a step back, then another, trying to look for a way out without taking her eyes off of him.]
[it was the first hint of real anger in his otherwise toneless voice. He squared his shoulders, striding forward toward Eiki despite the needles; he was steady enough to sheild now, if it came to that, though that didn't stop his unguarded back from feeling hypersensitive.
Did Eiki know about the death feedback? It was almost common knowledge among the queerats, but he hadn't heard anything about it the twelve years he'd been living with the humans... It was probably just one more truth they buried and wrapped and disguised as natural]
[Words stuck in her throat, there were plenty of reasons she couldn't kill him, and she didn't want him to know any of them. She wanted to fight and if she couldn't fight she wanted to run, but most of all she didn't want to disappear again and it was startling how much that was suddenly a possibility.
Fully aware she wasn't going to be able to be calm about this, she gives up control to Eiki, who immediately wipes the fear from their features. He'd always been the better liar.
The lances drop with a sudden, resounding clatter. It was unlikely there was any help to come but he had no reason to be quiet about this.]
[he barely restrains a wince at the clatter. He's not even sure if putting up a strong front would help the situation; maybe Eiki would be more likely to listen if Haruna was sympathetic, showed that he was scared? He was, though less from the threat of physical harm than the consequences of letting Eiki live and report back, or having to kill him now, like this. Face to face and close enough to see his expression as he died.
In the end, he could only keep being honest. He wouldn't even know how to begin to lie to convince Eiki to go.]
[That was, an unexpected response. It reminded him that his person had been claiming to know him and his sister. If that was true... Someone he'd forgotten from more than eight years ago? Who for some reason would kill everyone he knew but not him.]
[his surprise is evident. Died, and not disappeared? Accidental fatalities among human children were... Rare. Very rare. And Eiki's manner implicated queerats.
His gut iced. There had been more than one obliteration of a colony in the last ten years, but he remembered the rumours associated with one in particular. ]
[He folds his arms, taking another step back but more for the extra room than because he's planning to run. At least it didn't seem necessary this second. This fiend had decided not to kill them despite having every opportunity. He wasn't sure that would last if he abruptly tried to get away.]
[He can guess who the 'we' means, but his stomach still turns. Everyone working for pest control had heard about the rare human who sided with queerats. And what that meant for everyone else.]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
It doesn't quite come back to them all at once, they could remember that there had been danger and they'd been terrified but when Eiki finally manages to snap their eyes open, breathing already hard due to their collective sense of fear, all they see is... a human.
Not someone they know but not something to be afraid of.
Calming a bit immediately, Eiki flicks tries to touch his head, assess the situation.]
Who..?
no subject
So he hauled Eiki’s prone body over his shoulder, sacrificing speed for the assurance of being able to use his Cantus against any lingering threats, and started making his way through the underbrush. He was probably leaving a path a meter wide behind him and he was barely hitting a jog but all his rattled attention was on balancing the warm, soft human body over his boney shoulder. His heart crawled up his chest throat every time his forehead nudged against his lower back.
What was he going to do with him?
Kill him, if he didn’t agree to leave the Antler Moth colonel alone. Like he had just killed his squad mates, and like he would kill their successors. The more Haruna thought about it, the more it seemed the only option; Eiki would not be able to stop more from coming, even under threat of death. The only thing he could do right now was save Eiki's life.
Finding a relatively uncluttered spot, he lowered the other man to the ground, finding the right foliage to bind him easily enough. It would be enough to slow him down, if he immediately ran. He picked a spot leaned up against a tree a respectful distance away to wait for him to wake up and try to untangle his thoughts. Why was it important to save Eiki? Was it just the shock of seeing a familiar face, or was it just too difficult to reconcile his memories of Eiki with the title of murderer? How much had ten years warped his memories...
But the memories seemed so clear that when Eiki gave him that blank look, he physically startled, recovering with a short bow—he could feel the unnatural stiltedness of the gesture he hadn't performed in years bunch in his shoulders.]
Suzushiro Haruna. We went to school together.
[maybe ten years had been too long for Eiki to remember someone who had disappeared]
no subject
No we didn't.
[School hadn't been so long ago that they'd forgotten who they didn't. The name... it wasn't familiar, was it? If it was surely it was from somewhere else, they remembered all of their classmates just fine, the school hadn't been large.
Where were they? She wanted to look around, but something in her gut warned her against taking her eyes off of Haruna.]
no subject
I broke Takamichi Yamato's nose when after Uzuki's Cantus awakened.
no subject
You...
[She licked her lips, her throat worked, Eiki reached for control but she absently brushed him to the side, slightly admonishing, she wasn't stupid.]
You remember Uzuki?
no subject
[something was still off. Why was he so... surprised? Why would he recognize Eiki and not remember he had a twin?]
no subject
Their face closes off abruptly, wonder giving way to suspicion as Eiki wrests control from his sister, who didn't have a response to that anyway.]
What's going on?
[it was a broad question, but he felt sure this person knew the answer.]
no subject
He pressed his closed fist to his mouth, chewing lightly on his knuckle. He eyed eyed Eiki, thoughtful]
You need to remember me.
[quiet but decisive]
You won't believe me otherwise—you know it.
no subject
A more direct question then.]
I'm not going to believe you if you can't tell me anything else. Where is the rest of my team?
no subject
Would it make the humans afraid enough to capitulate, knowing about a fiend? A part of him took a vicious pleasure form the thought, the heat in chest burning--they deserved to be afraid. His own kind had done so wrong he could barely think of them as being the same species anymore. There might be a time, in the future, when he would have to mow them down as ruthlessly as they obliterated queerats.
If he had to do the same to Eiki he would, but he needed to give him a chance, and that would mean telling him the whole truth]
... I can take you to their bodies later. I killed them.
no subject
Her friends were dead, the people she'd worked alongside, gotten to know, and if she had built up a lie to be their friends it was in many ways everything she had that wasn't love for her brother or hate for queerats and this-- this monster]
--Fiend!
[Her anger overrode fear very quickly. To either side of them two trees just... unfolded, dozens and dozens of sharp sticks being plucked directly from the truck and leveled at Haruna before she remembered she couldn't possibly actually let the fly. Even the idea of it was already making her queasy.]
no subject
I'm not a fiend. Fiends attack humans on impulse, you'd be dead if I was one.
no subject
[She shot back, venomous. The lances stayed focused on Haruna but of course didn't move. Could't. She couldn't die, couldn't sacrifice herself in revenge or anger. But maybe the fiend didn't have to know that. They needed to escape.
She takes a step back, then another, trying to look for a way out without taking her eyes off of him.]
no subject
[it was the first hint of real anger in his otherwise toneless voice. He squared his shoulders, striding forward toward Eiki despite the needles; he was steady enough to sheild now, if it came to that, though that didn't stop his unguarded back from feeling hypersensitive.
Did Eiki know about the death feedback? It was almost common knowledge among the queerats, but he hadn't heard anything about it the twelve years he'd been living with the humans... It was probably just one more truth they buried and wrapped and disguised as natural]
So why can't you kill me?
no subject
Fully aware she wasn't going to be able to be calm about this, she gives up control to Eiki, who immediately wipes the fear from their features. He'd always been the better liar.
The lances drop with a sudden, resounding clatter. It was unlikely there was any help to come but he had no reason to be quiet about this.]
Why haven't you killed me?
no subject
In the end, he could only keep being honest. He wouldn't even know how to begin to lie to convince Eiki to go.]
... I didn't want to kill you.
no subject
Why not?
no subject
His gaze shifts back as he answers, letting his tone convey the hint of a question]
I was surprised to see you doing something like this.
no subject
[His tone is clipped and even, not calm as much as ice cold.]
no subject
His gut iced. There had been more than one obliteration of a colony in the last ten years, but he remembered the rumours associated with one in particular. ]
I didn't know. Eight years ago?
no subject
[He folds his arms, taking another step back but more for the extra room than because he's planning to run. At least it didn't seem necessary this second. This fiend had decided not to kill them despite having every opportunity. He wasn't sure that would last if he abruptly tried to get away.]
I thought you didn't know.
no subject
I heard about the colony being wiped out for the death of one child.
no subject
[His expression turns dark, unapologetic.]
Obviously it wasn't enough or I wouldn't be here now.
no subject
no subject
[He can guess who the 'we' means, but his stomach still turns. Everyone working for pest control had heard about the rare human who sided with queerats. And what that meant for everyone else.]
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)