War of Rage Chapter 5

CHAPTER 5

Kawa moaned in so much pain. He was trying to open his eyes, but they were still shut tight for some reason. His body was hurt so badly, and it felt like he had been hit by a delivery space truck. But that was not what he was concerned about. He was trying to call his partner’s name, but his tongue would not move either.

“Hang in there, sir Europan samurai. I’m getting water for you right away.”

Europan? They think I’m from Europa? Kawa thought to himself in confusion. He tried to lift one of his hands but was not able to as well.

“Don’t struggle too much. You hit your head and back so badly that you almost fell into paralysis. You’re one lucky guy!”

Kawa’s head was lifted by whoever this man was. As soon as he felt something cold against his mouth, he opened it quickly and gulped greedily down cold water.

Water had never been so much more delicious than ever.

“There you go.” The glass was pulled away from Kawa. “You should be able to open your eyes in a few minutes.”

“W-where… Ja-James?” Kawa managed to stammer.

“Oh, he woke up a few hours ago. He is downstairs with my family waiting for you to wake up. Take your time. We won’t go anywhere.”

Kawa was carefully laid back on the uncomfortable bed. It felt like he was sleeping on some kind of rock bed that Lunans usually slept on.

“I apologize for not introducing myself as soon as you woke up. My name is Dr. Marco Nelson, the village doctor. Welcome to Ares Town, Ceres.” Dr. Nelson lifted up Kawa’s hand and started shaking it a little. “Can you move your fingers?”

Kawa did so. He only received a humming sound from Dr. Nelson. Finally, he cracked both of his eyes open a little bit.

“Can you see my hand?” The doctor was holding up his hand in the air and received a ‘yes’ nod from the samurai. “How many fingers do you see?”

“Th...three?”

“Excellent,” Dr. Nelson said almost cheerfully. “You’ll be fine, Kawa. You will be able to get up in a few hours.”

“KAWA!!”

Kawa almost cringed at a loud familiar voice. “James, can’t you be a little quieter?”

“Sorry!” James said loudly.

“I will leave you alone.” Dr. Nelson chuckled softly and got up from the stool. “You must have a lot of stuff to catch up, yes?”

“Oh, hell yes,” said James cheerfully. “Thank you so much for all your help!”

“There’s no need to thank me. That’s all we can do for you, Europan samurais. You risked your lives to protect us, yes?”

“That’s true.” The so-called Europan samurai laughed heartily. “Still though, you deserve a thank-you.”

As soon as the doctor left the room and closed the door, James turned to Kawa with a serious look on his face.

“So, we are on Ceres. How?” Kawa asked right away when James sat on the stool next to the bed.

“Remember the escape pods that we used? They sent us straight to Ceres, crashing a few miles away from the village. That was how Dr. Nelson’s son found us. We were lucky enough to be wearing space helmets or else we would’ve died within a few minutes.”

“And, what happened to Jove? I haven’t heard a commotion about it yet…”

“That’s because it automatically reset its course and avoided Ceres somehow. At least that’s what I heard from the computer’s speaker. I have no idea where it went.”

Kawa lightly smacked his forehead with his own palm, groaning loudly. “You must be fucking kidding. That was… that was our only evidence!”

“Nonsense.” James grinned widely at him. “We are on Ceres, aren’t we? On Mars’s territory.”

“What are you trying to say?” Kawa raised an eyebrow in confusion, unsure what exactly James was up to this time.

“There are Martian samurais around here… So… that means, we steal two of their uniforms and then board the spaceship… then, we leave for Mars!” James could not help but get up from the stool quickly out of excitement.

“Okay, first… they think we are Europan samurais?” Kawa asked. “And then, we are Martian samurais as soon as we steal their uniforms?”

“Exactly!” James exclaimed at first. And then, he lowered his voice, “They can’t know that we are from Earth and Moon. Not ever. Not even the doctor and his family who helped us.”

Kawa sighed lightly. “I wonder what happened to everyone on Limitless? I wonder if the Captain knows where we are?”

James shrugged his shoulders. “Beats me. For now, we have to survive.”

“Yeah…”

~EARTHxMARS~

Kawa could not help but stare in amazement at the barely visible glass above in the dark sky. He was waiting for the wind, but then he realized that there were no winds on Ceres, unlike Earth.

“First time to be in the glass dome?” James patted on Kawa’s back. “It’s quite amazing how you grew up without dome sheltering and protecting you… I’m so jealous of you.”

Kawa shrugged his shoulders. “You didn’t miss anything on Earth anyway. There are… schools… government… workplaces… and so. My home is no different than yours.”

“At least you did not have to worry about whether the glass was going to break or not… or if we did or did not have enough oxygen.”

Kawa looked back up at the dark sky only to catch a shooting star. That made him smile a little bit.

“So, it’s been a few days since we woke up… should we start planning?” James stretched out his arms. “You know… to go to Mars?”

“Not yet.” Kawa turned to his blonde-haired friend. “I haven’t had such peace in a long time. I don’t want to fight anytime soon.”

“Oh, is that so?” James glanced at the house where Dr. Nelson and his family were living in. “Well, that’s fine, I guess. But, the sooner we go to Mars, the better.”

“Thank you.”

“Fuck, these clothes are a little itchy.” James pulled his light blue shirt collar a little bit. “What is it made of? Wools?”

“I am going to the market street. Alone,” said Kawa. James was about to say he was coming but the Earthling samurai stopped him.

“Ok, fine. Make sure to come back before sunset.” The blonde-haired Lunan waved his hand.

“Will do!” Kawa nodded his head.

~EARTHxMARS~

There are Martian samurais here too? Kawa blinked in surprise. And, there seems to be more Martian samurais than usual.

One look at the market street reminded him of the market areas in Middle East countries or India back on Earth. Heck, the citizens dressed up almost exactly like them!

“Hey, you! Give me the apple!” One of the Martian samurais shouted loudly.

“Y-yes, sir… I-it’s… one pound, please,” the bearded man stuttered and was trying to avoid eye contact.

Two Martian samurais looked at each other before they burst out into loud laughter. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me! Give me that fucking apple! Or…”

He quickly grabbed the bearded man’s shirt and pulled him closer to himself with a knife on his neck. “You die right here!”

Kawa was about to say something when he realized that the citizens were pretending not to notice them at all. They were just walking past by, as if that poor man was an animal or did not even exist to them at all.

What kind of dwarf planet is this? He thought as he clenched his fists in anger.

“Yes, s-sir! You can have an apple if you want it! For free charge!” the bearded man nearly burst in tears.

“Good. I sincerely hope you learned your lesson.” The Martian samurai let go of the trembling apple seller and took the fruit. “Thank you for your generosity!”

Kawa had never wanted to beat the heck out of the power-abusing arrogant Martian samurais so badly. At least not since when he found out that his whole family was dead.

Two Martian samurais were talking loudly to each other, walking past Kawa, completely unaware of the presence of an Earthling samurai.

Kawa decided against the whole beating up the Martian samurais. It was not even worth his time anyway. He would never, ever stoop down to their level.

He went straight to the poor scared man instead of confronting the samurais. “Here, you can have my pound.”

“N-no, sir. Y-you don’t have to, sir.”

“Yes, I insist to.” Kawa took the seller’s wrinkled hand and dumped a silver pound on it.

“L-Lieutenant Wu!” The bearded man cried in panic.

As soon as Kawa turned around, he bumped into this Wu guy, causing him to fall on his bottom on the rocky ground.

“I’m sorry, sir!” Kawa bent down to reach out his hand only to realize that this Wu person had long black hair. Long eyelashes… Curvy body… and that chest… It was a woman. “Uhh… I mean, ma’am?” He scratched the back of his head nervously.

The female samurai got up without taking Kawa’s hand. She wiped her uniform with her own hands and then took one more look at Kawa.

Kawa was getting more and more nervous. What if he had been caught as the Earthling samurai?! Had she figured it out already?

“Europan?”

“Excuse me?” Kawa asked almost quickly.

“Europan samurai. I heard two Europan samurais crashed here. Europa was not able to get hold of Jove. Although that was not what we came here for, I would like to know what happened to you and your comrades… as well as Jove.”

Shit! Kawa silently cursed at himself for stupidly bumping into such important Martian samurai. “I… I’m sorry. I don’t have any memory of… what happened to Jove. I was minding my own business… and the next thing I knew was that I woke up here.”

The Martian lieutenant raised an eyebrow in suspicion. She pulled her red glove a little bit. For a second there, Kawa thought that he saw a tiny lightning bolt on her glove, but it was gone instantly. “Oh, I see. Do you need a ride back to Europa?”

“N...no… I don’t have anybody in Europa to go back to.” Kawa scratched the back of his head again.

“But they will need your reports about Jove, won’t they?”

“That’s, uh…”

The black-haired woman was tapping one of her feet impatiently. She took a look at her watch. “It’s ok if you tell me that you ran away from Europa. That you didn’t want to die in the senseless battlefield.”

“What? That’s not --”

“I’m late. Nice to meet you.” She nodded her head once before she walked past the ‘Europan’ samurai.

“You’re one lucky son of a bitch!”

“What?” Kawa turned to a jewelry seller who was staring at him in awe.

“If you touch one of the Martian samurais, they will kill you! That’s if you are not wearing the samurai uniform, Europan or not. That’s why you’re lucky!”

Kawa shrugged his shoulders.

He could not help but feel something so funny. His stomach felt twisting, but it did not hurt nor did it make him nauseous or sick at all.

He did not realize that he was sweating until he wiped his sweaty forehead with the back of his hand. Was it always hot outside or was it just him?

As he was walking through the market street, the thoughts of the female samurai came back into his head once again.

She was the absolute, most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Shiny long hair at her tiny waist. Top red sleeveless spandex was clinging greedily to her pale skin. What was the best part was that she showed off her long legs with tight black pants. The belt of the black holster looked like it was falling down, but it stayed on her waist as if it desperately needed her.

Kawa began to wonder what kind of katana she had. She did not pull it out right away, so that could mean that it was something special… like the fire-type and wind-type katanas?

Oh god, how he wished that she took his hand to help her get up from the dirty rocky ground. So that he would be able to feel her warmth.

~EARTHxMARS~

“This dwarf planet is quite amazing! I’ve never seen such weird but awesome food! There was chicken liver, chicken brain, chicken buck… hell, even chicken feather! How awesome is that?!”

“Uh-uh…” Kawa nodded his head; James’s loud words going through his head from one ear to another.

“And then, there’s a bar! Their beers taste a little too sweet, but hey, it’s Ceres’s beers! They are pretty strong too. I already got trippy after one ale beer! Have you tasted it yet?”

“Uh-uh…” Kawa was playing with his food with his fork.

James narrowed his eyes at his comrade. “So, say… how was your day?”

“Great.” Kawa answered simply.

“What did you do?”

“Shopping.” The Earthling samurai shrugged his shoulders.

“And, you didn’t buy anything?” James took a bite of the pasta.

“Uh-uh…”

James grinned in the most mischievous way. “So, you got laid today?”

“Uh -- WHAT?!” Kawa yelled in embarrassment and got up quickly. His face turned redder instantly. “No way! I didn’t sleep with anybody!”

“But, your face tells otherwise.” The damn grin did not even go away from James’s amused face.

“That’s none of your business!” Kawa started eating the whole meal on his plate hurriedly. “Instead of thinking about women, we should focus on the plan to go to Mars!”

James laughed out loudly. “At least I got you out of your fantasy world. I hope I did not interrupt anything nasty, did I?”

“Shut up!”

~TO BE CONTINUED~