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Post by Shizukiri Naia on Aug 30, 2006 23:53:24 GMT -5
Naia didn't get far - he wasn't used to the cold, perhaps, or he was too nervous, or maybe Xue just was a fast runner - before the pair of arms snapped around his waist and yanked him downwards. He hit the ground flat on his chest and gasped hollowly as his breath rushed out of him. His dagger was pinned beneath him - he cursed breathlessly, pushing himself as far off of the ground as he could with Xue weighing him down.
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Post by Zhong Xue on Aug 31, 2006 12:19:07 GMT -5
Xue set his knees into Naia's stomach, gripping the Japanese man's arms as he panted heavily. "Jun..." he breathed, his expression pained. "Turn yourself in, or I'm going to call for someone."
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Post by Shizukiri Naia on Aug 31, 2006 14:19:37 GMT -5
Drawing breath with difficulty due to the pressure on his stomach, Naia relaxed his shoulders and let himself lie flat on the ground for a moment. Xue was larger than he, enough so that Naia couldn't throw him as they were. He could hit a pressure point and hope Xue would be caught by surprise - one in the shoulder would cause the body to reflexively jerk backwards, another in the neck could make him black out for a few seconds - but then Xue would call for help, and Naia wouldn't have a chance of escaping.
Fortunately - the only stroke of good luck I've had this entire adventure, he thought wryly - subsequent running and being tackled had loosened the binding that held his dagger in place. He reached for it, drew it with ease, and lifted it very quickly to press against Xue's throat.
"You're not going to call for anyone," he instructed dispassionately, suppressing the fear- and exertion-driven urge to gasp for air. "Like I said, I don't want to hurt anyone, but if you talk, I'm a dead man."
He hoped that Xue wouldn't press the issue, though he knew it was too late for that.
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Post by Zhong Xue on Aug 31, 2006 14:28:42 GMT -5
Xue should have panicked when Naia pressed the blade to his throat, but as he stared down at Naia, his expression didn't flicker. "You're not going to kill me," he said softly. "I don't... I don't think you're that sort of person." His lips pulled into a sad smile. "You can tell them you didn't have a choice. That they made you do it. We can help you... I know you don't want this war, either."
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Post by Shizukiri Naia on Aug 31, 2006 17:24:11 GMT -5
Upon seeing Xue's weary expression, Naia's eyebrows rose slightly, just enough to convey some surprise. The dagger didn't waver, but he laughed twice, mirthlessly. "I've been lying to everyone here since I enlisted. You think they'll believe me?" The irony. He wasn't really there by choice, was he. Typical, that my one defense is the one that'll never work in a thousand years.
His eyebrows twitched, as if they might have furrowed had he been more inclined to showing his feelings. "Either? Somebody in China wants it, apparently. A war means my family will starve, if the trade embargo doesn't mean that already."
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Post by Zhong Xue on Aug 31, 2006 20:22:10 GMT -5
"You think we're all the same? That we want this?" A hint of anger surged through Xue's voice. "You know what? Maybe I don't believe you, either. I don't know if you were 'just following orders,' and I don't know that you didn't mean to hurt anyone. I just want all of this to stop. So in the next fifteen seconds, you better use that thing or come with me, or I am going to give you up."
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Post by Shizukiri Naia on Sept 1, 2006 3:50:09 GMT -5
"I didn't mean you all want it," Naia riposted swiftly, his brows finally giving way. With the blade still held against Xue's throat with a pressure firm but not so heavy as to break the skin, he lifted his torso upwards until his eyes were almost level with Xue's, instead of looking nearly straight up at him. Some portions of his conversation with Prince Akihito returned to him: Akiyama's lust for war, their intent to return to Edo and... then what? Return the leadership of the country to its rightful heir? Somehow, it sounds unrealistic.
"I meant that maybe you should reconsider your loyalty, and decide whether you really want your life to join the thousands of others that are going to be thrown away for nothing." The dagger's pressure increased; Naia's hand was steady, but he was trying very hard to think of a way around what seemed unavoidable.
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Post by Zhong Xue on Sept 6, 2006 10:08:38 GMT -5
"Do you think that I want to die?" Xue asked quietly. "I don't. I want all of this to blow over, and I want to go home to my family. But that won't happen... no matter how much I want it. So yes. If it's Xiao and Shikang and the others, I'll follow them." Pain flickered across his expression. "Sorry."
He turned his head back in the direction of the camp, took a deep breath, and shouted, "SPYYYYYYY--"
His cry cut off with a choke as Naia's blade sliced into his skin.
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Post by Sze Kamlong on Sept 6, 2006 15:00:45 GMT -5
"Sir, is something wrong?" said the soldier, peering anxiously up at his superior's face and wondering if he had done something wrong. Kamlong had stopped talking mid-sentence, mouth snapping shut in the middle of giving the command for the army to assemble while his eyes snapped to the side as he craned his neck to look behind him. The sudden silence was a little unsettling.
"Ah, sorry, no, nothing's wrong," he said, a little apologetically for making the recruit nervous. He turned back and smiled, steering the man towards the other camps by the arm. "Just do as I said and tell General Rie and General Kwok to gather their men for an important announcement, they will understand." The man only looked once over his shoulder before nodding and darting off.
As soon as he was out of sight, Kamlong turned and began walking back in the direction he had come. He had parted ways with Shen earlier, and as he drew closer his steps quickened until he broke into a run. He had heard something, he was sure. It had been brief, perhaps for a split second before it was roughly interrupted, and he had been talking over the noise, so the exact words were indiscernible, but the tone had definitely been urgent.
That direction - that was the direction of the Prince's tent, wasn't it?
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Post by Shizukiri Naia on Sept 6, 2006 17:17:45 GMT -5
Don't apologize, Naia thought in response, but had no time to speak anything aloud before Xue turned his head and let loose a shout that would've alerted a deaf man. The passing seconds slowed painfully as adrenaline shot through his blood, and with no time to debate his action, he pierced Xue's skin with the edge of the dagger. The strike, however, was surgically accurate - it was only years of caution and practice that allowed him that - and not aimed towards the vital blood vessels or the windpipe. Instead, he aimed between the jugular vein and the windpipe, and made sure that the wound would be shallow. It would hurt, bleed a fair amount, probably scare the poor kid out of his wits, but it wouldn't do him significant harm.
With strength augmented by fear and adrenaline, and taking advantage of Xue's shock, Naia managed to escape from the pin and scramble to his feet. He didn't know where he would run to, since nothing but empty tundra mocked him from all sides, but now that all of this had transpired, going back to the camp would be suicidal. Then again, so would returning to Japan, when Akiyama found out what had happened, let alone if he knew of anything between Naia and the prince...
A sudden chill crawled down Naia's back. Through the darkness, its shadow brushing the canvas tents, a tall figure was weaving towards him. There might still have been time to run, but... if he had been seen, fleeing would only make the situation worse...
It took a moment, but he soon identified the man by his stature, his gait, by the armor he wore. If he'd had breath left, he would've cursed.
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Post by Zhong Xue on Sept 6, 2006 18:03:02 GMT -5
Xue shakily attempted to crawl forward, maybe grab Naia by the leg, but one hand remained clamped over the injury, refusing to let go. Dammit, he thought, his head starting to spin. He's gonna get away...
In his dazed state, it took him a moment to realize that Naia wasn't running. Squinting, he stared in the same direction as the Japanese man, trying to see through the darkness and the haze, and as he recognized the figure approaching them, he acted instinctively.
"General Sze..." he managed, unnerved by how unsteady his voice sounded. "He's a... he's a spy..."
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Post by Sze Kamlong on Sept 6, 2006 19:02:45 GMT -5
Things fell into place as soon as he was close enough to recognize the standing figure. He slowed, coming to a gradual stop a few steps away from the spy, and said nothing. The name the man had given them was 'Xie Jun', if he recalled correctly. "What do you thi-" he began, taking a step forward in the traitor's direction with a hand on the hilt of his sword, only to stop as a flash of red - a deep red, a dark and saturated red that he recognized immediately - caught in his peripheral vision.
He cast one brief look at Naia and bent down to Zhong Xue, decision made. "If you are going to run now, you can try," he warned, bending over and gently taking hold of the recruit's chin, tilting the boy's head up so that he could better inspect the wound. "Stop speaking," he said firmly to the wounded soldier, pressing his fingers into the jaw to emphasize the point.
Wasn't this one his friend? he thought, glancing at the face, contorted in pain.
"But," he added before the spy took this as an offer for escape, "if you run, then when find you, you will definitely die."
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Post by Shizukiri Naia on Sept 6, 2006 20:07:09 GMT -5
Stay calm. Now is a very bad time to panic, Naia told himself, though his instincts seemed to disagree rather enthusiastically. Sze was armed, armored, and all things considered, probably a better fighter than Naia. Not that he would have instigated a fight at this point, of course, and he figured that if the general did attack him, he wouldn't stand a chance without somewhere to hide.
At first, he said nothing, waiting while Sze tended to the younger man. The general's words were too true.
Time to think of a good explanation, he thought tensely. I can't rely on Akiyama, and they're not exactly likely to believe me if I insist I'm just an ordinary soldier, not now...
"With all due respect," he replied after a dull pause, "please don't assume I'm an idiot. I can't exactly run if there's nowhere safe to go."
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Post by Zhong Xue on Sept 6, 2006 20:34:57 GMT -5
Xue attempted to shrug Sze off - he had more important things to think about than Xue at the moment - but the general ignored the gesture completely.
He almost spoke up to tell Sze to forget about him and deal with Naia, but he found that he didn't have the breath. The wound was in a place that made it painful to breathe - it IS painful, isn't it? I didn't notice before.
But it can't be bad, right? General Sze doesn't look worried... unless... He closed his eyes and bent over slightly; the spinning was making him dizzy. He's seen these kind of things all the time. Maybe he's trying not to scare me... but he'd tell me if I was dying, right?
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Post by Sze Kamlong on Sept 6, 2006 20:46:13 GMT -5
Sze looked up at Naia, expression guarded and looking neither angry nor pleased. Afterwards, he turned back towards Xue wordlessly, pressing his hand into the wound with enough pressure to help quell the bleeding, but not to obstruct breathing. It was probably difficult enough to get air without being choked.
"I'm sorry for assuming," he amended finally, using teeth to rip a long strip off the hem of his sleeve. It was certainly not professional work, but it would do as a makeshift bandage for now. He tied it securely around the boy's throat after helping Xue lift his upper body off the floor and took the soldier's hand, motioning for Xue to press it over his own wound for the time being.
"But spying on my army is nothing short of idiotic." He stood up.
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