Endless Rain
Part 80: Good or evil?
Bar2aYunie

Nagata sat on his horse and he was riding through the woods. He had no home, no family, no friends and no future. His whole life belonged within the Mikomi village. ‘How could this have happened?’ He thought, but had no answer at all. ‘What will I do now? Where should I go?’ He hated having questions where he did not have any answer to. He bent forward and placed his head on Lightning’s neck. With his eyes closed, giving Lightning the lead, he tried to think.

Hana was still waiting for an answer. The others in the room were a little shocked.
“Mister Shikai said that?” Wevles mumbled.
Zesshou shook his head, “it can’t be true. How could he…”
“We don’t know. All we know is that’s what he said and I think we should take this as a serious warning. As I said earlier, I think this is the time to decide.” Hana said.
“You want us to pick a side? What if he finds out?” Wevli said and stepped forward.
“I think there’s no way to avoid that from happening. He will find out eventually what we know. Also, when he does, there’s a big chance that he will not let us go. I think we don’t have a choice. I had to make a choice whom to tell…” Hana replied.
“What about the rest of the Mikomi?” Mariko asked wondering.
“I don’t think we can get away if we tell everybody.” Kino said and Hana glanced at him shortly.
“You want us to leave them in his hands?” Wevlum said.
Hana sighed, “We have no choice. Of course, we’ll come back for them. We will think things through before taking any action and I think it’s best to care for Hitori.”
“But where will we go Hana?” Kino wondered.
“We'll take shelter in the woods and we'll think of our next action from there.” Hana saw that there were many more questions, but they were running out of time. “Now, you have to decide. Who is coming with us, and who will stay? Think hard, but think fast, there isn’t much time left. If Mister Shikai finds us here…” She didn’t complete her sentence, but she didn’t have to.
“I’ll come with you.” Mariko said and stood next to Kino. He just nodded to her and waited for the rest to respond.
“We’ll…” “Come…” “Too.” Wevles, Wevli and Wevlum said and Wevlum continued, “it is to save the village and the Mikomi.”
Hana nodded and watched taking their side. Now, only Zesshou had to decide.
“But…what will we say to the others? We can’t just leave without saying a word.”
Hana tried to comfort him, “this is only for a little while. Until we have sorted out what to do and how to save the village. Until we have found the rightful leader of this village. Lady Hitori.”
“Okay, I’ll come…” Zesshou didn’t sound confident, but he wasn’t confident about staying either.
“You sure? How about your injury?” Kino asked him.
Zesshou thought for a while, while rubbing his head. “But I want to come…”
“Then come later. Then you can keep an eye on Shikai and the rest of the villagers and inform us.” Hana said.
“I’ll stay with him. We can keep in contact using the secret passage.” Kino said.
“But how will we know when to meet?” Mariko asked.
“I don’t know yet, we can say we’ll meet up in three days from now and we’ll see what we’ll do then. How does that sound?”
“Sounds good. Can’t wait to join up with you though.” Zesshou said, the last line too soft for anyone to hear except Kino who was standing next to him, but aside from a short blink, he didn’t say anything about it.
Good, then let’s go right away. We don’t have time to pack anything, so let’s go to the stables to ride out. If anyone asks, say you’re going for a little ride and you’ll be back soon. Don’t go all at the same time, we will wait for each other in the woods near the river. You’ll know where to go, right?”
They all nodded and mumbled approving sounds.
“Then I have a last comment to make… Kino, can you see to it that you bring Hitori into the secret passage. As soon as possible, but make sure nobody sees you or follows you. I’ll be waiting with two horses there and I’ll meet up with you guys in the woods. We can’t leave her behind. She cannot defend herself from Shikai’s plans.”
Kino nodded to Hana, “I’ll see to it.
Then they all left the room.

Alika was sitting next to a tent and she was staring at Chounin. ‘He must be my father, he must!’
Chounin could see her from inside his cage, but had no idea what to do. He felt sorry for her, because she seemed to want some contact with him badly. ‘She looks so sad like that…’ He thought. Chounin turned around in his cage to face her. ‘It’s just so unfair, why me?’ Chounin slammed his fists on the cage floor, which gave a big bang. Immediately Sendo soldiers came running towards him, threatening him with their swords and aimed arrows.
Alika watched the scene from a little distance, and then she decided that she had enough. Alika got up and noticed that all of the soldiers were busy with Chounin so she started running. ‘Why do they have to be so mean to him? Just because he has lost his mind a little… He must be my father…’

In the meantime, Alika had reached the woods. When she was totally hidden by the trees, she looked back at the campsite. They hadn’t noticed her leaving. ‘I am just going for a little walk, I am bored.’ She thought and she wanted to explore the woods. She liked to walk around and enjoy the scent of the trees.
Nagata was walking beside his horse, still thinking deeply about his next actions. Suddenly Lightning stopped walking and looked in some bushes. Nagata hadn’t noticed it and kept walking. Not much later, he heard somebody giggling. For a spit second, he thought he was going crazy, horses couldn’t giggle and he thought he was alone with Lightning. He turned around and saw a girl standing near Lightning. Small sparkles of joy were seen in her eyes.
“Who are you?” He asked the girl.
The girl hadn’t seen him yet and was a little unsure about the situation, “I’m Alika, you?”
“I’m Nagata, where did you come from?”
“Oh I was just taking a little stroll in the woods, alone.” Suddenly she wondered to which tribe he belonged. “Who are you with? From what village are you?”  
Nagata, thinking about the trial, thought he wanted a new start and decided not to tell her about the Mikomi. “I am just with Lightning, my horse. I live here in the woods. I don’t have a village. You alone too?” He liked the girl’s presence; it comforted him a little, so he didn’t have to be alone anymore.
Alika smiled and thought, ‘it’s nice to have somebody to talk to, especially somebody this nice and cute! I can’t wait to tell Tebok!’

Wevles was the first to reach the river within the woods. He looked around, but the others weren’t there yet. So he got off his horse, tied him to a tree and he sat down on a rock near the river. He picked up little rocks and let them skip on the water as many times as possible, just to kill the time until the others got there. It also gave him some time to think things over.
Suddenly he heard a cracking noise, it was a little tree branch that broke because somebody had stepped on it. Wevles turned around to see which of his friends had arrived. Instead, he saw a girl he had never seen before. She was standing there with an aimed arrow on her bow. He got up, defensively, “who are you?”
The girl, hesitating for a moment, answered firmly, “I am Saiya. I live here and you just entered my territory. Name yourself.” She still had her arrow pointed at Wevles.
“Whoh, take it easy. I’m Wevles, from the Mikomi tribe. I am not here to harm you.”
“Sure. What is it that you are doing here?”
“I’m waiting for my friends, we’re…”
The girl, who had introduced herself as Saiya, interrupted him. “Are you here to kill me?”
“No, of course not, why would I? I just said that I’m not here to hurt you.”
“Then what is your purpose here?”
“Well…” For a moment, he thought about what he was going to say. Could he reveal that the Mikomi had trouble? “Before I tell you, I need to know whose side you’re on. Of which tribe do you come?”
“Not any. I live alone. The woods and the animals are my tribe.”
Wevles figured it would be all right to tell her. ‘At least she’s not with the Sendo.’ The fact that she could lie never occurred to him. “There is a problem with our tribe. Somebody is trying to take over the village. We had to escape to sort things out and figure out a plan. My friends can be here any second now. Please lower your bow, I’ll personally make sure they won’t do anything to you.”
“Fine, but I will keep my eyes wide open.” Saiya lowered her bow and just as she did that, the others arrived.
“Wevles! You're already here; we met each other shortly after entering the woods. And…you got company…” Hana turned to Saiya, while introducing herself, she held out her hand to greet her. “Hello there, I'm Hana and who are you?”
“The name is Saiya.” She didn’t shake Hana’s hand; in fact, she didn’t even look away from her face as if she was expecting something to happen.
The others started to introduce themselves and Hana knew that they first had to either get rid of her or sort out who she really was before they could talk about the problems in the Mikomi village. Hana suggested taking a seat on the ground or the rocks to talk things over to get to know each other. Saiya also sat down, but she stayed on guard.

It took a while, but after half an hour of talking, Saiya finally loosened up and started to talk more. She felt more comfortable with them and for the first time since her youth, she had the feeling she could trust somebody again, a little.
They learned that her father was from the Sendo tribe and her mother was from another tribe, though she doesn’t know which one. After her father died in a battle with another tribe, she was told that her mother died of loneliness and she had fled the village. She now hated the Sendo and everybody she knew and had lived in the woods for many years.
“I am glad we met. Maybe we can become friends.” Hana said and smiled.
“Maybe, it is a pleasure to meet you all. So what is going on with you?”