Take to the Skies

Author: Lariat


"Manari! Kaizu! Haru-nii! Ryuu! Where are all of you?! Where did you all go?!"

'I'm scared. I'm so scared. Where did everyone go? Why am I alone here right now? Why? Why today of all days? Why does it have to be Argenfluo of all places? Why? Why? WHY?

Someone come, come save me, help me, I don't care who, just someone-- HELP ME!!'

I remember that day. How could I not? That day... that day changed my life forever.

I was trying my best to survive during the whole siege. Between hiding from the rebels trying to overtake the city and running around in futility searching for my missing brother and friends... I was crying. Out of fear, shock, despair, you name it. I could have died anytime that day. I knew that and I was scared of that. And what I also knew was that my friends could all have been dead by then, leaving me alone, and if I died, leaving me to die alone. I was... so afraid of all that. Especially, because I knew full well that any of those could have happened that day.

But...

"Naebi!" I heard a voice call out to me. "Naebi, is that you?!" I turned my head to one end of the narrow alleyway that I was hiding in.

"M-Manari...?" I saw him. Right there. Hope.

He ran up to me, kneeled down to my eye level (I was hiding, crying in fetal position), and asked with concern, "Are you okay?" I nodded. "You're not hurt, are you?" I shook my head. I was lying to him. I was hurt. My heart was hurt. He could tell right away. "Don't cry, okay? We'll get through this." He said to me reassuringly as he wiped away my tears.

He went to the other end of the small alleyway, leaning against the wall to try being out of view, peering out to the chaotic streets. "Where's... Where's Kaizu? And Haru and Ryuu?" I asked him meekly.

"Ryuu and Haru are safe in the outskirts of the city right now. Kaizu..." He hesitated, "...I'm not sure where he is but... he's fine, that's what I'm sure of." Looking on the battle-riddled streets, he hissed at all of this in disgust. Can we make it out of here, I wonder...? I didn't bother with the answer, and buried my head, hugging my knees, lost of hope.

I could hear them, the streets. The killing and chaos wasn't going to die down anytime soon. I truly thought that, at that point, we lost all hope. Then, "Naebi." he faced and called out to me, "We're going."

'Huh?' I stood up and looked at him in confusion. "Going? Going where?" He said nothing in response, only put his hand out, I took it as he had expected me to.

As he pulled me along, he finally said to me, "We're going to get out of here."

We ran.

He pulled me and ran through the streets, going in and out the safety of every alleyway; miraculously, we managed to get through all of the chaos almost unscathed, out of pure, sheer luck. Eventually, we made it to a hidden passageway down to the sewers, located under the bridge. "Ryuu's friend told me once that one of the easiest ways to escape is to go through the sewers. He also said that it was a good shortcut..." He turned to me, "In this case, it's our only escape route. I'll go down first." I nodded in agreement as he went down the ladder, me following after. The sewers were filthy and smelled like rust. But just like he said, this was our only choice to get to safety.

Further going along the walkway, not too long after we entered, I could hear the siege going on from the distance, with even more fury now. I was about to cry, about to give up hope again, but Manari comforted me, "It'll be okay, trust me." laughing and smiling along, taking my hand to calm me down. 'That's right... As long as Manari is here, then...' was what I kept telling myself.

The further and further down we went, occasional tremor-like sounds, probably from the chaos above ground, would come up and shake the sewers a bit, frightening me. During all of that, Manari kept holding my hand, never letting go, and the only thing I could do in return was to watch him. I felt like crap feeling useless during the siege. I mean, Manari was always helping me out, never leaving my side, helping me get through the sewer, and what did I do? I followed him around and did nothing to benefit him. Sure, we weren't hurt, but my heart was. But for a moment, there was a small draft, once, when we passed another tunnel... I thought Manari was crying, or at least shed a tear... Maybe, his heart was hurting too, more than mine...

Eventually, the shocks slowly faded away, finally making it to another ladder to exit up to wherever Manari was leading me to. Once we got up from outside the sewer, we found ourselves inside an abandoned warehouse. Not giving me a chance to question why and how we got here in the first place (not to mention, there was apparently a manhole inside a warehouse), Manari pulled me along to the nearest door he could find. He put his hand on the doorknob, but didn't turn it, instead turning to me and said, "Let's open it. Together."

"...Okay." I nodded, putting my hand on the doorknob, we opened the door. The place we ended up in was t the harbor; there were ships that were evacuating the civilians that were lucky enough to get here. 'We made it... We finally made it...' I was so happy that we found safety, that we found hope... I cried with joy.

"Sis!" I heard a voice in the distance call out.

"Kaizu! You're okay!" I said ecstatically, running up to him and hugging him.

"Ah, Sis, I found us a ship that would take us for the time being but... they're pirates so-"

"Who cares! As long as we all get out of here safe and sound." It turned around to Manari, with a big smile on my face, and hugged him. "Thank you so much, Manari!"

"Y-Yeah..." he muttered, hugging me back.

We were all about to get on the ship, I only to be stopped by Manari, grabbing my hand. "Huh? What's wrong? Let's go already!"

"I..." He paused, looking down on the pier with a sad look in his eyes. "...I'm going to stay here."

"W-What?! Why?! We just got here and you-"

"Listen," He cutoff, "...I'll get on another ship and catch up to you guys later. No... we'll catch up to you guys later." He looked up to me with determination, "I'm going to find Ryuu and Haru. Then... we could all be together again."

I felt his grip slipping. "But... you said they were fine! They're already outside-"

"I know! ...But like I said, we could all be together again... That's why..." He smiled, "I... No, we'll see you again, promise."

"....Okay." Those were the last words we said to each other before letting go of each other. As the Sorazame ship sailed off, me and Kaizu went to the deck and looked back at him. We only saw him looking back for a brief moment before turning around, wiping away what I assumed were tears, that he was about to cry, before running off in the opposite direction.

I realized that his last words to us... it was like he was saying goodbye.