Chapter 4 - Black Argite

A light breeze drifted through, ruffling white hair and feathers as he lounged cradling a warm teacup and reading a blue bound book. It was a nice morning, relaxing. Maybe it would be a good day, he thought as he took a sip smiling at the light fragrance.
Mint… his favorite…
It had been her favorite too.
A wave of sorrow threatened to rise up, but he shoved it back down determined to not let the past effect his desires. Though he already had to an extent. Only temporarily he had told himself. After spending the night with his family, he had given his report to the voice and then requested a temporary leave of absence from his duties as a storm herald.
“I would have it no other way,” shin’ichi had stated. “Please, Haku-kun, you are not the first I have seen to lose someone and you will not be the last. There is no need for you to stay so formal while hurting inside.”
“I’ll be alright in a month.”
“You are not coming back here in a month.”
“But-“
“Stop… you forget I can see you intention,” he argued eyes glowing faintly red. “You are hurting. No matter how much you try to put on the brave calm, these patterns are that of someone scared and unsure what to do now.”
“Master, it is not allowed to read others unless in need.”
“And if you should lose hope out there and not return. I say that is a need for me to look.”
“I will be alright in a month.”
“Take three. See me again after that and we’ll talk.”
“I don’t know if I can sit still for so long.”
“Then don’t. Your brother is a hunter is he not? Beyond that you are skilled with storm manipulation. Help out the Hunters or the Hurricanes, but you are not allowed to leave on a mission alone right now. Do you understand?”
“Yes.”
“And,” he had paused looking down. “If there is anything more I can do to help, do not hesitate to ask.”
He had 10 days left. He wasn’t over her. In some ways he had already decided he would never get over her. He had resolved that he would never look at another as he had with her, he would never love another like her, he would never marry, never have children.
That was alright. He hadn’t had the time to give her his heart in name but it was hers already.
Tears formed, but he pushed them away. “Yes. It’s sad. But you do better to act and honor her memory rather than morn.” He voiced to himself, and took another sip of tea; tea that they always used to have together. Focus on the book, he yelled to himself, the wave of sorrow and longing threating to overpower him.
The volume shut with a snap and he set it beside the tea before standing. White wings lifted and with a thrust launching him. He rose above Edo heading for the southern watch gate to begin work.
He’d try the tea again when he came back home. He had to get over it, but for now, work helped. He had found doing things was the best way to ward off grief, especially if it was productive.
Taking the Voice’s advice he had gone to the Hurricane Wind and asked if he could aid them for a while. Though Master Shinrai had been wary, he had agreed to let him try. A Hurricane proved to be a great outlet for overcoming grief, for they patrolled the seas, hunting the monsters of the deep. It was destruction. It released the anger. And it also helped, for The Hurricanes kept the coast lines safe. They were perhaps the closest thing the Tengu had to a military and one of the first times in his life where Haku was not the best at something.
As a Storm Herald he cultivated the gifts of the air and maneuvers of flight, but it was nothing like how The Hurricanes did. He had asked for a race on the first day, and got blow away by three of their five member team. He of course could summon lightning but they could do so much more. Each member had been gracious about it though, having already been informed of why he was here. They took it upon themselves to help him wherever needed, protect if necessary, but also let him try. They had all become his friends now, and he knew even after this was over, they would continue communication.
That’s better, he thought as he landed at the southern gate his heart now full of gratuitous rather than grief.
“You’re early,” Rinku, their team leader stated from his perch upon one of the gate markers.
“You too. Why?”
“You come early often. It’s better to wait with someone.” He smiled and then dropped down beside. “Eager to slay some beasts?”
“More or less,” Haku returned, smiling back.
“How you doing?”
Haku’s gaze grifted out to the land of Kokka beneath them. “Ten more days. I’m actually going to miss you guys.”
“You could always just join us permanently you know. Another year and you’d head your own team.”
“You flatter me.”
“I mean it. You pick this up fast.” He encouraged with a soft punch to the shoulder.
Rinku leaned, avoiding the returning punch with a chuckle. “Well almost. You need to work on your speed still.”
“I don’t know if I’ll ever beat your speed.”
“Well,” He blushed, running a hand through his short raven hair. “I mean, I am built for it.”
“Indeed,” Haku returned, patting the smaller tengu on the head.
At 4’4” Rinku was the smallest person he had ever met. His wingspan too was almost three feet smaller than Haku’s; less drag, more speed. “It makes you dangerous.” He offered.
“I don’t really care.” Rinku shrugged. “But back to before. That wasn’t meant when I asked how you were.”
A week smile answered. “I’m trying.”
“We are here for you.”
“I know. Thanks.”
“Hey guys,” a built tengu greeted landing beside them. “Nice day for flying am I right?”
“Heck yeah, Bofu-kun,” Rinku called. “We got the seas between Kokka and Hoydvann today.
“Best turf,” Bofu declared, making a fist with one hand and clutching it. “Always lots of game there.”
“I knida prefer the Jin,” another tengu remarked as too nigh identical landed beside them.
Ryo and Rin, twin brothers, probably the most quiet and unassuming of the group, but killer at team maneuvers and masters of Nekote, as evidenced by the long curved metal claws upon their hands. They also were the only ones in the group wearing layers of fiber armor for they would be firing in close quarters.
“You just like hunting the Ikuchi better than Mizushi.”
“Yeah,” one of them grinned lifting up his claws.
Haku didn’t know which one, probably Rin. He assumed at some point he would be able to keep them apart, but their mannerism voice and posture held very little differences and they often played the other. Only Rinku so far
could tell them apart at any time.
“Maybe we’ll get Jin tomorrow,” Rinku dismissed raising his wings. “We ready?”
“Heck yeah!” Bofu cried launching into the sky.
So Hurricanes set out.
Over the Sothern seas of Kokka a massive long snake like head rose roaring at the skies. Twin wings folded as two identical Tengu spiraled down at the monster. It blinked as if deciding which one to go for yet in that instant they unfurled letting the Nekote dig deep down its neck and then pushed off its back launching away and into the sky. The Misushi screeched in pain and anger snapping back, but missing by so many feet the twins already out of range. A wave slammed into it from the left Bofu gliding near the surface and stirring the ocean. It turned hissing and thrusting toward him, but being slammed back with each wave as two more lashes ran up its back the twins taking advantage of the distraction. A white one rounded on the other side, forcing the waves back and keeping the creature stationary before a loud of lightning descended upon it from above. A massive pained roar was unleashed towards the sky at The Hurricanes before the beast dived.
“Figures,” Rinku sighed and folded his wings rocketing towards the waves, slipping into the ocean with barely a splash.
Four sets of eyes glowed tracking the two as Mizuchi fled and Tengu perused. The twins glided just above, their claws ready should the team leader force him back up. Bofu and Haku both waited Rinku the only one with clearance for underwater combat. Like a glowing silhouette, the tengu’s magnetic signature beat, it wings like oars diving deeper gaining on the wounded creature. Once he touched it, it would be over as a wave of cold energy would freeze the beings blood from within.
From the angle Haku lost sight of the difference and glanced at the twins their pulling up signaling the leaders success. He smiled, a pride of sorts swelling within. He had seen it so many times now, but he had never seen Rinku fail in taking down the target. Now they would just have to wait for him to resurface and then start searching for another target.
He glanced up to the sky few clouds today.
It was so slight, a pulse of magnetic energy launching into the western sky. He focused as the energies of the land lit up in great rivers the dot burning red like a sun. An unknown dread rose in his core as almost involuntarily his wings beat desperate to get a higher view.
“What are you doing?” he vaguely heard Bofu, but maintained his gaze upon the object as the rocked past them toward Kokka.
Time seemed to slow.
Like a flaming arrow it arced slamming into the island.
The veins of magnetism expanded exploding into fractures and shuttering outward.
Thunder more angry than the greatest of storms rippled out, the sound slamming into them and knocking him back ten feet.
His vision blurred.
His hearing buzzed.
A muffled chorus pierced through, only heard because of its many voices, a collective death scream.
His body went numb, wings drooping as he went into free fall, his mind trying to comprehend.
The currents: They were opposite? What was the arrow? It looked like…
Cold enveloped him as he slammed into the water, pulling him out of his head and back to the moment.
But he had been listening hadn’t he? He always listened. He thought, thrusting to the surface and gasping for air. To his left about twenty feet Rinku surfaced coughing and sputtering water as his blood pulsed with panic. Bofu and the twins descended upon them yelling by the movement of their mouths, as haku realized he couldn’t hear. The strong arms of the larger tengu pulled him out of the waves, as the two lifted the gasping leader.
White wings beat, his mind racing as his heart pounded in fear as he pushed Bofu away and rushed toward kokka. The sinking dread within had already processed the meaning, but the mind had to be sure. Words were racing throught his head: Death… Weapon… Black Argite… Navis Rouch… Middlemarch… Bergenstaat… The Order of Martyrs…
Time was lost as a concept. He shot past Osakan, still taking in the magnetic pulses as the signatures of so many people below panicked like an overturned ant hill. Nagoyari lay in rubble, no signature there, but the magnetic current beneath still shuttering as if not sure where to flow.
He couldn’t even feel his heart beat as his mind seemed to shut off to everything, but the magnetic rod ahead.
“Haku-san!” a voice behind him yelled. Yet he heard not as he dived for the source. Stumbling to a stop beside. Black Argite; no other stone glowed like that in the blood sight. He stared at the thing embedded in the heart of Yoi Shihon.
Barely did he register the others alighting beside him as he stared at the thing. So small, yet…
“It’s gone,” one of the twins breathed, dropping to his knees.
Bofu glanced to Rinku for guidance, yet the leader only stared transfixed at the rod,
“Rinku-san!” he shouted “We… What should we do?!”
“There’s no one left,” the other twin cried whipping his gaze in every direction as his eyes burned searching. “Everyone’s dead!”
“Rinku-san!”
The head dropped eyes wide and dazed as Rinku fell to his knees.
The Order of Martyrs…
Rage arose within the white one as a scream of anger tour from his lips his body tensing. Middlemarch parts were sent to Middlemarch. The secrecy. Central located! The earthquakes five days ago? He should have known! They should have known!
“Okay guys,” Bofu yelled, “we need to pull it together.”
One of the twins vomited.
“Rinku-san, come on!”
“How,” the leader whispered, his voice void of emotion or life.
“COME ON!” Bofu yelled slapping the smaller tengu.
The other twin sobbed, collapsing to the earth. Rinku shook his head coughing.
“We need you to tell us what to do!” Bofu yelled,
“Right… ahh.” He coughed again, and then snapped to attention. “We need to tell the wind what we saw”
“The wind, this isn’t monsters!” Haku yelled, his body quivering with the rage.
“We don’t know what it is… The… If there are people left, we have to try and find them Rin, Ryo can you-” he stopped, as he glance to them, both on the ground weeping.
“We have to get back to Edo,” Bofu suggested, pulling Rinku back onto his feet. “We’re dead if the deto find us.”
“Tell the Wind, tell the Voice, the Gale, everyone, Haku-san can-”
“No!” he yelled before, the leader could finish.
“Haku-san?”
“Someone there saw it!” He shouted pointing to the sky island. “They had too. They know already. They need to know where it came from!”
“But we don’t kn-”
“You saw it coming!?” Bofu interjected, seizing the front of Haku’s shirt. “Where?”
“West I… I think I know where?” he responded, his voice dropping to a whisper of volume
“Where?” Rinku cried, stepping closer.
“Middlemarch,” he stuttered, “the…”
“WHAT!” Bofu demanded shaking him.
“Navis Roche,” he breathed
“WHAT, about them!?” he yelled, pulling the white one off the ground.
“Get off me!” Haku’s wings beat and a force of wind slammed the bigger man away.
“Calm down Bofu-kun, Haku-san, you know where this came from?” Rinku stated. “you saw it come?”
“I did. It’s… just a guess. But the… The Order of Martyrs was building something in Middlemarch. I heard about it the last time I was in Navis Roche.”
“Okay…”
“Do we go there?” one of the twins called from the ground, tears streaming down his face.
“No,” Haku answered. “It would be dangerous for all of us. And Hurricane never leave the coast.”
“But you’re not a hurricane.”
“I know.” Haku voiced turning to the west.
Ten days.
Rinku followed the gaze.
“It’s almost certain that’s what it is. The voice probably already knows.”
“Still can you confirm it?”
“I can’t leave on my own yet.”
“But you can make it to Middlemarch and back.”
“By tomorrow morning.”
“This is bigger than us. Do it. I’ll take the fall for you if need be. we have to know for sure.”
White wings rose in answer chasing the trail of the black arrow.