This may be expanded, I haven't decided yet. It was part of Newberry's One
Hour Challenge last Sunday. It takes place after the first Sakura Wars game,
and just before the start of the second.
Two author's notes: First, if you finish this fic and think it's about a guy
getting 6 women at once, go back and read it again; it's not. Second, I
haven't seen The Matrix, I promise you. It's just a coincidence. ^_^
C&C welcomed.
Patterns
by Sean Gaffney
He wasn't sure when he first noticed it. The pauses. The uncertainty.
Feeling that he was making choices for himself that he didn't want to make.
It only occurred to him gradually over the course of his first year with the
TeikokuKagekidan. His decisions didn't feel right. Didn't feel like his own.
He trained for a year, away from the Army and away from the girls. And
he was himself again. No hesitation, no awkwardness. When he wanted to
accomplish something, he did it, without trying to think over the various
options. It was wonderful. He felt so free.
But now he was back, and he could feel it creeping on him again. His
talk with Yoneda was stilted and halting, the sort of conversation you'd see
in a sim game.
In fact, all of this reminded him of a sim game.
Yoneda was asking him a question now, a question that Oogami somehow knew
he would hear.
"Ensign... is there someone in the Hana-Gumi you're especially thinking
of?"
And there were the choices, fresh in his mind. The six girls, lined up
one after the other. Sakura, innocent and vibrant. Sumire, arrogant and
pompous, yet a good-hearted friend underneath. Maria, mature and alluring,
with a tragic past and a sensitive soul. Iris, the young girl he felt like a
big brother too, even if her feelings weren't precisely the same. Kanna,
strong and tomboyish, yet possessing a strength of spirit and character
greater than any of the others. Kohran, outwardly silly and comical, yet with
a brooding intelligence, and a fragile sense of self-worth.
Those six. Pick one. Make a choice.
He tried to think of other women. Even the ones that worked at the
theater. Tsubaki, cute and cheerful, selling her mementos. Kasumi or Yuri,
helping to keep the theater a viable front for the army. He couldn't. They
just weren't options. He had to pick one of the six, or to say he couldn't
decide.
No.
He would not allow himself to do this. Not even for the girls. He had
something even more valuable than their love or respect, and here he was
abandoning it.
"Sir, please appoint someone else to be Company Commander of the Hana-
Gumi. I will be resigning my commission."
Yoneda just stared at him, his mouth open. He looked at a loss for
words.
"I apologize, sir. I know the army needs leadership. Maria has grown
stronger in the past, she can perform it again. But I... I can't stay here."
Again, no response. It was as if Yoneda had simply shut down.
Oogami stared at him for a few moments, then spun on his heel and left.
He had a lot to do.
***
He found a retreat, high in the mountains. At first he thought it was a
trap. Abandoned house, lots of woods and rocks, running water... it was too
perfect. Too ideal for a young man training his body, mind and spirit. But
after a few days, he began to be reassured by the sheer calmness of the
mountain retreat. It didn't ask him to train, or to meditate, or so pray. It
simply waited for him, waited for whatever choice he wanted to make.
It was hard. Abandoning the girls had been one of the most difficult
decisions of his life. He didn't hate them. How could he? In fact, he
wondered if they were as he was. If they were like Yoneda, simple shells that
froze when something happened out of order or out of place. Or if they could
break out as well, could go beyond the Hana-Gumi and live their own lives.
That was why he hadn't made his tracks totally untraceable. He'd made it
so that he could be found, if someone really wanted to. Just in case.
Because if they could come here... if they could break out of the
scenario as he had...
Then that would be a choice he could make.
***
It was a year later before the first appeared. He'd almost given up hope
of seeing them again. For a few days he'd even despaired, drinking cheap
liquor he'd bought at the nearby village. But after a while he pulled himself
back together, and devoted himself to his training. There were other women in
the world. He would put that part of his life behind him.
That was why when Sakura appeared at the bottom of the hill, looking up
at his stern visage, he nearly fell over. Catching himself, he managed to
stumble towards her.
She looked different. The innocence, the vibrance that had made her so
attractive during the war... was gone. Instead her face was hardened by many,
many days of wearying reality, of soul-searching and disbelief. Sakura was no
longer a child.
She had never looked more beautiful to him.
For a moment they just stared at each other. They had had many
conversations a year ago, with varying degrees of awkwardness. None of them
compared to this moment.
"It's good to see you again, Sakura-chan," he finally got out.
And then she smiled. Not a pure, innocent smile, but a happy one
nevertheless. She reached out and took his hand, and squeezed it tightly.
Then the two of them walked back up the hill towards the house.
***
It was another year before Maria arrived. She had a scar across her
cheek now, and her eyes looked even more sad than she had when they'd first
met. But she accepted his hug, and took his hand, and went to join Sakura.
By the time Kohran arrived, the training regimen had become quite
complex. It was specifically based on the lack of a pattern. Never do the
same move twice, never repeat yourself. Never let your enemies see what you
were thinking. Kohran was welcomed by the others easily, and fit into the
regimen as if she'd been born to the task.
They didn't really talk much, the four of them. There was no need.
Ironically, each seemed to know what the other was thinking. Also, the
jealousy that had existed among the six girls was gone now. He still hadn't
chosen anyone, still slept in his bed alone. But they accepted that, and knew
he wasn't slighting any of them. They were all young, and had all the time in
the world.
Kanna and Sumire arrived at the same time. Freed from the routine of the
theatre, they had quickly shed their forced arguments and become close
friends. They both added their own crafts to the training, which had long
since surpassed anything done when they were in the Hana-Gumi. By now Oogami
estimated they were one of the most powerful fighting forces in the entire
world.
The last was the hardest. It would be nine long, hard years before a
blonde head appeared at the bottom of the hill. Unlike the others, Iris was
not in good shape. Her clothing was in rags, and she appeared to have several
bruises on her arms and chest. She'd stayed with the theatre, quickly
becoming its biggest star. She'd wanted to leave for years, but they wouldn't
allow her. She'd escaped three times, but had always been brought back, and
forced back into the routine. Performance, fight, relax. Finally, on her
19th birthday, she'd managed it.
The others hugged her, and cried, and told her how proud they were.
Oogami laid a hand on her head and shuddered, thinking of everything she had
suffered. But Iris smiled, and told all of them it was all right.
"Even if I'd died, it would have been worth it to come live with you. To
come live."
***
That night they held a party. It was a subdued affair, as they were all
thinking the same thing.
"Oogami-chan, do you think they'll trace Iris to us?"
He sighed and nodded. "It's very likely. I'm not especially worried
about that. We're trained enough so that we could stop a small army,
especially if it was to protect Iris. No, it's just a catalyst for what I'd
already been thinking."
The others looked at him. They didn't want to say it aloud. This place
was home to them, for varying amounts of time. Even Iris, who'd only arrived
today, felt as if she belonged her. But they were thinking the same thing,
nevertheless.
"We need to move on. We've trained to the point where we can't do any
more by ourselves. And Iris can catch up with us as we move. But we should
definitely go soon."
"Why?"
"Because this is a pattern. Living here and training. Even if we've
tried to avoid it. And the one thing I still fear above all else is patterns.
Do you want to go back to the way we were?"
No one needed to answer that. They had already decided as he spoke.
***
That morning, anyone coming to the house would have seen a deserted
shack, seemingly abandoned for years, surrounded by a thick forest. If there
had been any inhabitants, they had removed their traces so cleverly that
finding them would be almost impossible.
And for a number of years, in bars or in the street, there would be
rumours. Rumors of evil in the world, and of a group that rose up to stop it.
Six women and one man. Someone mentioned that it sounded like the old Hana-
Gumi, back in the 1920s. But this group was different. Far more powerful,
and far closer than the Hana-Gumi had been.
Eventually rumors came of their deaths. Some said that they had died
protecting a city from attack by one of the most powerful demons. Others said
they had been slaughtered by jealous rivals, who trapped and tricked them into
a foul and unfair duel.
But the most common rumor was that they hadn't died at all, but merely
left this world for another. Somewhere they could be needed, where evil
needed to be fought. A more chaotic world, perhaps. Not as regimented.
Without patterns.
END