War of Rage Chapter 16

CHAPTER 16

“Hey! Stop him!” The brown-haired Venusian samurai yelled at the other Venusian samurai, but Kawa was way too fast for him. “The guy with white hooded cloak!”

Right after the Dragon Samurai withdrew his flaming katana, he swiftly sliced the second Venusian samurai’s arm, who cried in pain and collapsed to his knees.

The chase was on. Kawa swifted through the narrow streets full of Martian citizens who were completely confused at how the Venusian samurais yelled desperately for the hooded guy to stop.

Besides, the gravity on Mars was much lighter than Earth. It was around 0.379 times as Earth so that made it so much easier for Kawa to run.

He was searching for the spot to hide, but because of the alerting notification by the Venusian samurais, not only Venusian but also Martian and Europan samurais were in the same area.

He dodged every samurai who tried to grab him, cut him down, or even jump onto him. Soon, he realized that around thirty samurais were right behind him chasing. He quickly swung his sword at the ground, making the line of tall flames.

“Shit!” One of the samurais cursed when they stopped a few feet away from the flames. Kawa laughed heartily in amusement and turned to run away from them, putting his katana back into the holster.

As soon as he turned around the corner, he checked the area making sure that there were not any samurai left to follow him. He sighed in relief when he found none.

Now, it was time for him to go to the palace and face Lord Ares. Then, he would force him to end the war once and for all. He pulled his hood down a little, which covered even more of his face. He began walking on the narrow street for a while until he got to the center of the city, which was more like a square plaza.

“Mommy! Look! It’s blue!”

Kawa glanced at the childish voice in curiosity. The child, around five years old, was pointing a finger at the sky.

So he looked up at the red --

No, it was not completely red at all. Kawa widened his dark eyes in shock when he spotted some blue areas in the sky.

“Why is it blue?” The child asked.

“Oh my. That’s because there is water near us,” the mother smiled brightly at him, taking his hand. “We can’t see it, but we have a large lake outside the city. Only water delivery men can bring it back into the city.”

“Really? Is that where we are drinking from?”

“Not exactly because it is dirty and acidic. That’s why we use filters…”

Kawa’s ears shut out on the woman’s explanation. He was staring at the blue spots in the sky for a while. They reminded him of his home Earth. He had no idea how much he missed it until now.

When he was a child, he did not even care a little bit about Earth’s nature. Blue sky? Whatever. Beautiful tall trees? Eh. Wet grass. Great.

It was not until he left Earth with the rest of Sora troops… James, Jessica, Shiro, and other Dark Fury samurais. All he had been seeing was either black or red. It was almost always night on Ceres. It was red all the time on Mars during the day except just today.

He regretted that he wasted his time doing other useless stuff, such as video games or the Internet. He was just staring at the sky until the red sky covered the blue areas completely, which was making him frown a little.

The Martian citizens were just walking past him as if he were invisible. Typical city. It was not any different from Terra City back on Earth at all.

Just as he was about to resume walking, he stopped when one of the samurais yelled, “You with the hooded cloak, halt!”

Fuck! He cursed at himself for stopping even for a few moments. He was not going to stand around and delay the meeting with Lord Ares any longer. So, he ran.

“Stop!”

Kawa did not even bother looking back as he continued running and running. He could clearly hear a few voices yelling right behind him.

His options were either to fight or to flee. If he kept running, the samurais would eventually catch up with him as soon as he got to the Ares Palace. Besides, there were more samurais who were guarding the palace.

If he were to fight back, it would only exhaust him and he would not be able to fight at full strength when he got to the Ares Palace.

He wished he did not allow himself to get caught so easily like that. He was usually good at evading, but for some reason he was not able to do so this time.

Either way, it was a lose-lose situation for him.

Suddenly, the samurais of all three districts jumped from the high buildings, landing easily right in front of Kawa.

“Dammit!” He shouted, withdrawing his sword once again. He got into the fighting pose, about to attack if the samurais charged.

“Stop!”

The samurais, including Kawa, froze at the loud voice, whom they recognized right away.

“First Lieutenant Wu?” one of the Martian samurais asked in surprise.

“That’s enough.” Akane calmly walked through the crowd. “If you start a fight like this, you will only harm the nearby citizens.”

“Akane…” said Kawa softly.

“He is not here to hurt anybody,” the First Lieutenant said with a frown on her face. “I will take any responsibility if he causes any kind of trouble. Please leave him alone for now. I’ll take care of him.”

“I’m sorry, ma’am, but we got the order from Lord Ares. We are to capture him no matter what,” one of the Martian samurais said. “We can’t disobey our great Lord… We can’t do that to him. This guy helped the Lunan to escape and almost succeeded in doing so. Besides, he is an Earthling. He is one of them -- the one who killed our Lady.”

“Then, I’ll bring him to Lord Ares,” Akane said almost desperately. She wished that Graciela was here, but as the Lieutenant Colonel, she could not betray her Europan samurais and her Lord at all. She understood her friend’s loyalty completely, which was the reason why she was alone here, trying to convince the samurais -- at least her own Martian samurais -- to listen to her.

“Sorry, ma’am. When it comes to the bounty, whoever catches him first will get money,” one of the Venusian samurais said.

Akane narrowed her eyes in anger at them. She realized that she had no choice at this minute. So, she suddenly took out what looked to be a grenade and then threw it hard at the ground. It flashed so brightly and suddenly, catching all of the samurais’ guards off completely.

Kawa was one of the victims as well. While he was trying to rub his poor eyes, his arm was grabbed and then dragged.

“Kawa, run!” Akane shouted.

“Akane?!”

~EARTHxMARS~

“Are you crazy?!”=

Akane was tapping her foot on the ground in annoyance with her arms folded at her chest. “I saved your life, you blockhead!”

“Yes, I’m grateful for it… but now you are a traitor in the eyes of your own comrades!” Kawa cried in worry. “I could have beaten all of them without you interrupting!”

Akane looked away from him in anger. After the escape, they found an abandoned building all the way on the other side of the city, so they hid there for a while.

“But what if you die?” She asked sadly. “I thought we were going to live together on Ceres… I thought that you decided to stop fighting. I was going to quit the military!”

“Look.” Kawa grabbed her shoulders lightly. “I never wanted you to do that for me. Samurai or not, I would always sacrifice myself for… people I care about. Like you. But I would never, ever want for you to become a criminal in front of Lord Ares and his government at all. That’s why I’m doing this alone --”

“No!” Akane yelled, interrupting him. “You fucking blockhead! Haven’t you ever thought about my feelings?! What if you go off and die on me?! Don’t you fucking do that to me… Don’t you..” She choked on sobs as her voice became quieter. “Every time you run off, I always get worried that you may get killed!”

Kawa wrapped his arms around Akane’s waist as she was sobbing into his chest. Finally, he said softly, “I’m really sorry, Aka.”

He lifted Akane’s chin and placed his lips on hers. “But I can’t be with you. Not when you are willing to give up everything for me.”

Akane snapped her head towards him in shock. More fresh tears were sliding down her face cheeks. The more she looked at him, the more her heart felt like it was going to burst out of her chest.

After what felt like forever to both of them, Akane finally broke the silence, “We can’t be together then?”

Kawa placed his chin on the top of Akane’s head, inhaling her sweet scent. “No. When I meet Lord Ares, I will tell him that you never had anything to do with me. That way, they won’t make you a criminal.”

“Fine,” she said bitterly as she lightly pushed Kawa away from herself. She wiped her tears with her arm.

“Wh-what are you doing?” Kawa asked in concern as he was watching his love withdrawing her lightning katana.

“You made the decision. If… If you plan to fight Lord Ares, then I will have to stop you at any cost,” she said calmly as the lightning bolts flickered through her katana. “So, I suggest you run.”

And so he did run.

~TO BE CONTINUED~