Lmod - Ch4 - Meetings

Love me or Die - Chapter Four
Meetings

High a top the windy clutches of a cliff-ragged landscape sloped beside the sea, a lone castle-like fortress stood, looming before the dark city below. The fortress itself was built in harmony with the land, so that it appeared almost a natural formation. Though, as most material possessions for Digits, it had been found left by the fallen society of humanity. While none of the residents have any idea of how the building was constructed, they deemed it must have been more formidable than the other buildings, for it appeared to be completely intact, compared to the crumbling city below.

This was the perfect place for an anti-offender team base. It was far enough from the city to keep their affairs semi-well-protected. At the same time, it was close enough to the city so they could keep watch over it from above and respond quickly when the time came. So the Team had made it’s home here since the original group was formed twenty-four years ago.

Ki, upon his awakening, was brought here for questioning. Samura plead his case, assuring the team he was no offender. But the fact remained that he had been present at the scene of the crime and spying on (what was supposed to be) a secret organization. Protocol called for him to be tried before a court. The court was composed of all the team members, each getting a say in the matter, but the final decision and consequences were determined by one man, Lasilander, head of the Aggressors.

Of all the current members in Team Utopia, Lasilander, or Lan, along with Briar, were the only original members who had faithfully served Team Utopia for the past twenty-four years. This, naturally, earned them great respect among the younger members.

Although not as wise as Briar, Lan was very just in his decisions, but he held no compassion or sympathy for others. Therefore, he certainly not a man to be in ill-favor with, having a nasty temper should his darker side be provoked.

Welcomed by the intimidating, high-erected stone arches that marked the fortress‘ boundaries, Ki suddenly felt unsure of himself. But these works of art, lacked in comparison to the colossal fortress, itself.  Ki’s eyes widened. Entirely made of a dark stone-material, yet it shined like the surface of water in sunlight and danced in wavering moon and starlight. A natural garden of vines and overgrowth decorated the edges, twining their way up to the fortress’ uppermost reaches. It was a wild place. But the funny thing was that the more Ki gazed upon its wondrous composure, the more he felt at home.

There were many rooms, some more secret than others, all of various composition and sizes within the fortress. But there was no time for Ki to explore, for he was brought by the team members straight to the courtroom. It was a place so cold, Ki began to shiver.

* * * * *

Upon their arrival, Samura led Ki to one of the guest benches where they would wait until called to the stand for questioning. The first bench in the guest section was already occupied by two young women dressed in white. They appeared to be holding a conversation. One had long, dark hair and equally dark eyes, she appeared to be the one doing most of the talking, although she spoke too softly for Ki to catch what she was saying. Knowing Samura had excellent hearing, he looked at her face to see if he could retrieve any information, but her gaze was centered downward at a strand of hair which she twirled around her fingers nervously. Perhaps it was better if he didn’t say anything to her after all.

Instead Ki focused his gaze upon the quieter of the two women. She had hair as black his own, cut down to her shoulders. Her eyes were a strange shade of dark blue which shifted and rolled shyly as her companion talked. Unaware of the people that continued gathering around them, the two girls suddenly burst into quiet rounds of sustained laughter, causing Ki to immediately lose interest.

Now his gaze fell into the people that were entering the room. Samura’s ‘friends’, the ones who had attacked him, made their way to the left side of the room, next to the master’s chair. The two older ones sat in front and the large, youthful giant sat behind them. Later they would be joined by a fourth member, a man with vibrant red hair, who seemed overly excited and naive. They all dressed alike, in a tight, shiny material that was mostly black with a bit of golden-yellow lining.

The head of the court still not being present, Ki shifted his gaze to the other side of the room. There sat two men, dressed in similar uniforms as the other four, only their uniforms were mostly a dark, crimson red with black lining. The one in the middle stood out the most, because of his superior height and width. Though the stone benches were obviously meant to seat two, he made it seem they were fit for one. Yet even more strange about this formidable giant, was the intricate goblin mask that completely obscured his face. The goblin-face was fashioned in a terrifying grin. Finding the more he stared at it, the more intimidating the mask appeared, after a few entranced moments, Ki quickly shifted his gaze. The person sitting in front of the mask-wearer seemed, in contrast, more like a child. He sat with anticipation, curiously taking in all his surroundings like it was a festival. When their eyes suddenly met, Ki was quick to break away and began looking to his right.

Not far from his bench, there was a pair of young, male Digits. The pair was dressed in black robes with a dark, forest green lining. The first had shortly cropped black hair and brown eyes. Judging by his vacant expression, he looked either very bored or very tired. Either way, it was obvious he would have rather been elsewhere.

The other one had silver-white hair and blue eyes that were so light in shade, they barely had any color to them. His eyes were deeply set into his skull and the way his thin face was arranged, gave Ki the impression he was the type that always appeared to be frowning, even when he was in a happier mood.

“Those are the nomads.” Ki started at Samura’s whisper. The worried girl must have caught him looking around the room and decided to fill him in. She inched closer to him, so that her side brushed against his. “As you can see, they sit next to each other more out of tradition than desire. Doug is the one with short, dark hair and Merith is the other. They‘re good at analyzing information and coming up with strategies. They‘re quite knowledgeable on just about information you can imagine.” Ki couldn’t help but notice how her gaze seemed to linger on Merith. He wondered why, but decided now was not the time for such questions.

“The three sitting over there,” Samura acknowledged the people in red and black “are aggressors. They specialize in tracking, they‘re all quite cunning and fierce. Their leader is the one who will be questioning you.” Ki barely heard anything else she might of said, for his gaze was focused on the third member, whom he had missed in his first intake of the room. But now he could see him sitting so far in the back, he almost blended in with the shadows. This left Ki curious as to if he had been there before or not.

“On the other side of the master chair sit the guardians. Three of them you met before. They sit according to rank. Aden, their leader in center-front. Next to him is Mia and Hatori sits behind him. The other person sitting next to Aden is Nale. Although all guardians and healers are supposed to attend an investigation, he wasn’t feeling very well this morning, so he didn’t accompany us on the mission. They‘re job is to protect the non-fighters in dangerous situations, as well as help keep our missions unknown to the public.”

Now Samura turned her gaze upon a single woman dressed in an outfit that was unique compared to the others. Half of it was completely white, the other half entirely black, save for two single spots centered on her breasts which were switched up, giving her a yin-yang kind of feel. “That’s Lily.” Samura smiled warmly, giving Ki a sense she was good friends with this person, if not more. “She’s a bit on the shy side, but she’s a really nice girl once you get to know her. Being multi-talented, she usually helps out wherever she‘s most needed.”

“Behind me,” she turned to the lower-left of them, “are people of my order.” These two men had on the same light blue robe with black lining that Samura wore. “We’re called ‘healers’ and our job is nurture people back to health, whether they’re friends or strangers. Unfortunately,” Samura frowned. “the people we’re usually investigating are already dead by the time we get there. In that case our job is to find clues as to who the offender is, where they might have gone, and when they’ll strike next so we can, hopefully, prevent that from happening. Of course, I only joined a couple weeks ago, so I’m still fairly new at all this. Briar and Ryomah handle most of the work, I’m just their assistant.”

Not knowing how to comment, Ki simply nodded in response.

“On the other side,” Samura motioned to the lower-right, “are the merchants. They’re like us, or rather, how we used to be.” At this Samura cupped Ki’s hand in her own and gave it a gentle squeeze of affection. “They’re best at spy work, finding new cases, and retrieving outside information. The one closest to us is Lunaura and that‘s our friend Yumiko sitting next to her.”

The two merchants saw Samura gazing at them and waved cheerfully, Samura giggled and waved back in greeting. The one Samura called Lunaura pointed at Ki and gave Samura a wink and a thumb’s up. Realizing their silent exchanges, Ki blushed and suddenly felt very out of place, but at least their friendly teasing seemed to make Samura feel more comfortable.

“So who are those two?” Ki pointed out the two girls sitting in front of them.

“Hm? Oh, right. I believe their names are Akemi and Brigitte. See how they’re dressed completely in white? That means they’re novices. Today we’ll find out whether or not they’ve been accepted as full-members of our group. If they’re accepted, we’ll also learn which order they’ll be put into. Reminds me of my own acceptance. I was so sure they were going to classify me as a merchant, since that’s what I was used to, but for some reason, they decided I was better off as a healer. Funny, huh?”

Before Ki could respond, a loud, piercing voice shoved through the room.

“I will bring this court to order.” Ki and Samura’s head flew to the infamous team leader, Lan who had made a sudden appearance. Standing before them with a stern, glaring expression, the tall, lean aggressor demanded the room’s attention. “Let the trials commence.”

When Lan’s dagger-like eyes fell upon Ki, the young Digit suddenly felt extremely heavy, as though a boulder had fallen upon his back.

... to be continued