Shikata Ga Nai?: Lost Bonds(Tatenda Marongwe) Shikata Ga Nai?

Tasting blood always reminds man of his mortality, no matter how much he may try to hide his death somewhere in the future. Night fall was soon, the setting sun's indifferent gaze between the tent's fluttering entrance was my only clue. The event's in the ziggurat, Kentaro's face, they were a distant dream. The sky bled crimson around the bright sun sinking into the horizon. The early evening breeze licked at my naked torso, making its way into the tent. Entrance opening with a flutter, a silhouette slinked in. I still had no recollection of where I was or how I got here- wherever here was. The silhouette stepped into view. Her hair was jet black. it was tied into two pig tails resting on each side of her head. Her clothing betrayed her depravity. Ruby eyes dove into mine with an indifferent intensity. I grinned, she was looking right past me. A smile poured from her lips.

Similar visions haunted me night after night, today's the most intense. I ran my right handover my buzzed head of hair to the back of my neck. The mark was still there, hot and oozing. “Definitely awake now.” I muttered to myself. I peered up at the city clock. My makeshift bed, plastic, urine stained blankets and cardboard crumpling and shifting under my emaciated bag of bones I called a body. “How much longer do I have to be this,” I mused. The old man said we were waiting for him to show himself.

Closing my eyes and sitting up in the heap of plastic and hard paper, I began at the base of my stomach, focusing on each breath purposefully, in and out. My thoughts wandered as is natural, back to the attractive girl I saw yesterday on the corner of Arista and Lain. The centre of Neo-York with its neon ads for places and meals I would never visit or eat. What I would eat for breakfast if, I found any. And back to my breathing, now purposeful and full.

An hour later I finally stood up. It was an alright place really, next to the core of downtown but out of the way enough so I could forget about everything, or at least pretend to when I was resting. It is not exactly home but it is somewhere I stay, sleep and eat. Immigrant districts are not exactly what you would call elegant living. The smell of death hangs in the air. An aura of desperation and broken dreams lingers in every nook and heart. You have your typical criminals - petty thieves, murderers, rapists and low level hackers. Your night girls in all their shapes, sizes and range of services assuming you have the credits to play. I never had any, but I had my ways.

Steam rose from the street, old men with dead eyes sat in dark alleys and ant hills of excrement begging for help they knew would never come. This was modernity, and we were swept under the rug of progress and authority.

I still remember the ships returning in droves, people who had initially left a dying planet came back expecting a warm welcome. They expected opportunity, another chance.

What they got were low wages and a place in Middletown. My current resting place. The streets were slick with rain, the crunch of rock salt beneath my boots which barely held my matchstick legs reminded me of my current lot. Cats and rats stalked one another in the shadows, occasionally a yelp or squeal signalling another casualty in their hunger fuelled war. Rats in Middletown were the size of small dogs thanks to the cadavers dragged into sewers and alleys.

Pulling my tattered brown or was it grey coat over myself, I stopped for a moment and looked towards the heavens, I knew there was a creator but did she remember her children down here? The red sky stared back in silence.

Fingers we called skyscrapers, yearned for the dark sky as if to reach for the helping hand of a treacherous friend, their silhouette made that much more ominous by the smoke from factories and incinerators. I felt uneasy.

Working, living, everything around Middletown had a price. Of course only the immigrants paid it, it had been that way since the failure on Mars. “Efficient low income housing based on proximity to employment.” I mimicked the robots and laughed, each laugh stinging my calloused throat, I had smoked a cigar alone the night before. I coughed another bloody meaty lung into my bandaged hand. And a police unit whirred by in a tornado of blue light and three matte black machines.

Just typical, but at this time of day? I wandered on. My worn boots were giving way to pavement, every now and then a wet sensation in my socks told me I was stepping on the wet ground. The drizzle intensified into rain. The sea of people disappeared like fleeing rats into crevices and any possible shelter. I ducked off into the entrance of a convenience store.

Making my best upright posture in order to avoid the owners eye I stood there staring into the empty street eavesdropping on the conversation in the entrance next to the convenience store.
“Ya had it too?”
“Yeah had some woman lookin' at me funny with a whip and everything.”
“Glad it wasn’t just me, thought I was beginning to have proclivities to cheatin on my ol' lady.”
“Haha, yea and I figured I was having a porn relapse, took me years to get over the erectile dysfunction.”
“Yeah, holo-porn will do that to you. I hear kids getting into it as young as ten-”
“What. Is. That?” He was cut off by his friend.
Turning my head towards the street, the rain grew heavier that instant. You could just make it out but there was no hiding that something was there.
“Every man wears a mask.”
“Who are you really?”
“...here to find out.” A manic cackle followed.

Like icy fingers teasing my ears I heard the voice. It had a sticky cold feeling to its sound. The figure or shape I now assumed produced it proceeded down the street closer to us, parting the rain wherever it was present. It moved at a steady pace. Everyone was frozen around me, nothing but the sound of rain followed the voice.
A shriek pierced the very air around me. I pushed my palms into my ears but every pore in my body absorbed the cry. Materializing under the rain a beetle like object stopped. My ears told me the sound came from this bug. Suddenly sparks littered its surface. The shriek stopped.
“LEAVE. NOW!” A different voice warned.
“ALL..OF YOU!”
Rain, screaming, splashing. Littering the streets in every which way but the bug, people ran.
I stayed in the corner.
Staring towards the bug, it lurched as if a great weight had been pressed upon it. Metallic thuds rang out just as loud as the rain and screams. There was a membrane around the odd creature now. Blue flames surrounded it. It leaped into the air.

Something remained on the ground and suddenly a hail of gun fire rained upwards at the creature from where it had previous rested.
A man materialized. Rain drenching his stoic face but his clothes remained dry. He was adorned in all black save for a couple of lines of red on the weapon he carried.
Remaining in the corner and keeping out of sight I pressed myself into the darkness, I looked on.


Carth or is it Reza?--

Civilians had definitely been exposed. No doubt they would spread news of voices and invisible machines to social networks. I was in no mood to waste time. The hangover from yesterday was severely affecting me. Never a day of rest since... It didn't matter. The past was no longer a factor to me. Kentaro was messing with me.
Because I did not hear sirens I knew they were onto us. No need for the police to announce a full on assault unit. I had five minutes at most.
I looked up at Kentaro's mobile armour.
Pacing in the rain and looking upward, I smiled about how my old friend and I had got here. He was buying time. Even through my boots I could feel the friction of the ground beneath me, the rain added a slickness to my movements. The alcohol from last night left me dazed, even now. I had decided to party because of loneliness. And now at five in the morning, I had found Kentaro, ill prepared.
All this power but body weight and alcohol still factor in, I smiled at how silly it all was.

My vision whirled about me. The next second was a blur, but in my distracted state the next thing I knew was that I was on the ground stunned—pinned.
“Fell for it..fell for it!” Kentaro quipped in his childlike voice.
The Svallinn shield is all that stood before me and liquified bones and flesh. At least I knew it worked for physical impact now.
“Nope, you're the one in trouble.” My firearm disengaged from its holster flew to eye level with Kentaro and began firing.
The protective field surrounding Kentaro's mobile armour saved his head.
The firearm levitated in front of me. It glowed its red streak and was surrounded by an almost black flame or flicker. Kentaro lurched back and zoomed upwards.
The pursuit begun. My relic was homing in on Kentaro, as long as I could see it I could materialize fire at Kentaro with amazing accuracy. I was having difficulty however, I still had much to learn about what the firearm was exactly.
The relic caught up and locked onto the armour, Kentaro disappeared thereafter.
Pain is a feeling I had forgotten about in that year, but the next second made it clear that I was not a god. he smashed into me with the force of a truck. My shield only saved my life but it did not prevent the whiplash.
Puking from the shock, a moment later I was pinned to the ground--again.
The rain and puke mixed next to my face. The robotic arms pinning me to the ground. The visor on the mobile armour opened revealing the smile of my old friend.
“Yo.” He grinned, his turquoise eyes peering into mine with an artificial innocence.
“Don't be like that..aren't you glad to see me?” His smile widening.
“Of course man, I am. Glad. To see you.” I responded with indignation.
“You know, they'll be here soon.” He stated with a sigh.
“I know, that's why I'm resting here. I'm still human remember? They won't bother me.” I retorted smiling.

Whirrs filled the air and sparks ricochet off his mobile armour, apparently the police unit was already here. They didn't particularly care about civilians when they saw mobile armours. A rarity, in civilian areas.
“Lets finish this another time, we get caught here, People will ask questions.” I offered.
“Indeed.” he blurted with a boyish grin.
He really enjoyed all of this. One almost couldn't blame him after all we had been through since Mars, since coming back to Earth.
“See you.” He turned on his camouflage and raced down the road. Leaving me in the rain flat on my back. Propping myself up by my elbows I tilted my head back looking behind me without getting up. They were approaching cautiously. The rain and water around me became warmer when a heli-drone illuminated me in the raining dark.
A second later, the light was off, the heli-drone falling above the police officers in a fiery ball. I cursed my sloppiness half hoping the heli-copter had not recorded my face. My augmented reality ID was scrambled, that at least would keep my life as simple as before.

I ducked off into a random alley while officers, vehicle were in confusion and trying to figure out what had just happened. Having no illusions about being tracked I was making my way on foot through garbage, trashcans and outdated electronics. At one point I even crushed one of those old CD storage devices.
This district reminded me of home. I was also being followed by someone, and whomever it was he or she was not the authorities.
“I just got a question for you. Stop your..thing!” I heard a shout behind me.
“I ain't the po-lice.” A masculine voice stated in the odd accent reserved for natives of Earth.
Turning around, plastic bags and miscellaneous debris blew by on the wet ground between us. The alley was about seven meters wide. Buildings towered above us, reaching for the dark and weeping red sky. The wind roared.
Draped in a large tattered overcoat and ambling towards me was an older man. Not much older than I, maybe late twenties to early thirties.
I stared him down, deciding if he was friend or otherwise.
“Calm yourself, I just wanna talk about what just happened back there.” I didn't respond.
“You in some kind of trouble? Anyone who whacks authorities is a good guy in my book.”
His gap toothed smile printed itself on my eye balls. A gravel coloured and unkempt goatee coated his square jaw. For a bum he had a focused look in his eyes. Their whites in contrast to his ebony skin had the clarity of a sober priest.
“Ah, we are the same you and I.”
Building rapport already? I knew better. Better distrust than dead.
“Besides being black. I doubt we share anything else in particular..”
He changed his tone, more serious this time. “You're either strong or stupid after what happened back there son. Fighting that bug. Destroying that chopper and avoiding the police. Who are you exactly? Bet you been plenty interesting places. Name's Jack, how about you son?
What's your name? From Earth..Martian?” He asked the question in rapid succession.

Examining his face and stature I knew I could take him there and then if this was some kind of trap. He had no killing intent about him, and I felt I could trust him. Not being from this area I needed to find my way around while I thought about what to do next.
“Carth.” I replied.
I lied. The truth is I was not sure what my name was. I knew where I grew up. I remembered faces once I saw them but apart from that I could not remember a linear history of my life until tonight. The previous fight simply made sense, but I had no idea how it had happened.
“I'm..from Mars. Yes. Born and raised...on Mars.” I am not sure if I was lying or recalling a memory.
“Nice to meet you Carth. Okay, listen. It's not exactly cool to be out here. We gotta head to the underground, feel me?”
I nodded.
The rain intensified.
“Quickly now.” He turned around and pointed to a storm drain.
“I get help for once.” He laughed.
Walking towards it and then going to its opposing end I faced him. I lift up the drains lid and I let him down first and followed.
We were in the sewer system after that. His territory from his increased animation. Just who was this man?

We walked in silence for some time. To our right a river of water. A red light filled the tunnel. The bank of the river, a cement floor sloping downwards into the questionable fluid resembling water. It did not smell safe to drink or touch. A thin and rusting railing our only safety net should we be unfortunate enough to stumble towards the water.
After some time, we got to a door and we proceeded to open it together. We walked into the dark.

At first it was quiet but then the echo of voices grew and grew until we exit the tunnel into an even bigger dome. Little lights were peppered on the domes walls. Nanites used for lighting. The base of the dome was littered with tents, sheds and circles of men and women going about their business. In the centre were little paths, the only road between the tents and all the makeshift encampments.
“Welcome. Just don't touch the whores if ya know whats good for you.”
“Uh huh.” I replied.
“Relax man, but I'yam serious bout the whores, they will make you sick. Living in these conditions does crazy things to a woman of the night. All her John's ain't exactly the clean type feel me?”
“I am not here for women and what is this place?” I interrogated.

A little boy and girl about ten years old came running around the corner into his arms as he crouched down to pick them both up.
“How's it going Trisa and Yon.” He greeted the two children with fatherly warmth, I knew they were not his.
We walked as he talked to the children about events I knew nothing about. Water. Gas clouds coming near the dome. Someone had brought food. The children would occasionally peek back at me from both sides of his head shyly.

We finally arrived at a clearing. Surrounding it, huts and shacks. Coughs and cries of pain echoed and bounced off the dome's walls.
The dome's habitable base was made of something along the lines of clay, it was very smooth and soft to each step. Yet, it was not slippery. We stopped. And my host made an odd whistling sound.
They came from all around leaving their shacks. Broken bodies, able bodies, old and young, men and women. The first one they looked at was me.
“I have brought someone special today.” Jack pronounced with unusual pomp.
Special? I wondered. The children looked up at me as he let them down.
“Hey, why are you bringing atten-” I began asking, worried about attention.
“Relax, relax, I just wanna introduce you is all, feel me?” He smiled back at me as a crowd formed in front of him and around us in the clearing.
Whispers and Jack's voice filled the dome.
“This is my friend Carth. He is our guest as long as he wishes.” He announced to the largely emaciated and sickly crowd.
“How can we trust him?” The calmest voice I had heard in a while questioned.
An old man stepped forward. His slanted eyes hid behind thick eye brows. His uncharacteristically black moustache and goatee were full, however, he was certainly getting on in years. He talked with a calm confidence. His walk was straight and purposeful.
“Where did you meet this young man, and why was he so fortunate to get your interest Jack.” The old man added.

This could be my chance on tracking down Kentaro, so I remained quiet.
This was as good as any place to start my search. A mobile armour would prove quite useful in defeating Kentaro, if I could somehow bring up the topic.
“Where does the young man come from?” He interrogated Jack with a friendly seriousness.
I snapped out of my reverie, these people did not seem dangerous and I do not think the authorities would believe any one of them I was here or for that matter about anything else.
“I was born and raised on Mars. My name is Carth. This is my first time on Earth. Nice to meet you..” I interjected.
“Call me John.” The old man stated, paused in thought for a moment that felt like a sermon.
“Very well.. You are welcome to stay. But first, what is it you are doing on Earth exactly? As I understand it they do not look too kindly on poor Martians such as yourself. And as you can see those of us that have managed to return to Earth are in disarray.” He added sweeping his hand in gesture to the crowd and dome around us.
The crowd burst into whispers and agreements to unknown questions.
“I am here to find something called a mobile armour, it.. is like a large tank with human legs. I do not suppose you have seen or heard of one?” I stated, not expecting anyone to know.
“No.” John replied as soon as I asked.
His reply was quick, too quick.
“Tell me, what would you do if you were to find such a thing? Who would you wage a war on?”
Just who was this man? Something told me he was not simply a slum rat.

A loud boom suddenly rocked the dome. Specks of debris showered down on us. Coughing and cries from the children followed.
“What was that?” I asked.
With a worried look Jack turned to me, “I think we were followed.”
“I think I should leave.”
“Before you do--” the John chimed in, “I would like a word with you.”
His voice and face remained calm and stoic. Even as white flakes of debris fell to his brow.
“Come with me. Everyone else get to safety, take the passages to the surface. They will be down here any second.. whomever they are.” He ordered the crowd with the authority of a father who had trained his children well.
A panicked aura filled the air.
Following John, we made our way through the crowd. Women, children, young and old were all scrambling for cover. Jack followed close behind me. We came to a shack and snuck in as to avoid the panicked crowds from following us in.
It was dark and humid within, the smell of dust and old books merged with the clean air we had just breathed before. The walls were littered with ancient looking tomes. Books. I had not seen one in some time. The old man walked up to the only empty book case. He tapped it three times and it slid to the right with a groan.
First, John walked inside. Then Jack, who let out an impressed whistle when he walked through the dark corridor. I did not know these two and for all I knew I was walking into a trap. Yeah, a long drawn out trap. I walked through, ready for whatever was next.

At first my lungs felt odd and my ears reeled at the loud rumble but after a few seconds the phenomenon subsided. I was inside a room, the walls were covered with runes, they were red hued and pulsated.
In front of me stood Jack and the old man, at least what I assumed to be them. Their eyes glared at me.
“The Harbinger, the struggler, will you be god or devil?” they chimed in unison.
“It matters not, even after this causality all your love shall become ash in your mouth.”
“Wha-, what are you?!” I asked in a fit of panic.
“Jinn child, we walk between here and thereafter. Forever.” They stated with a matter a fact tone.
It was then I realized these were the same beings that had spoken to Kentaro, way back at the ziggurat.
“Are you the one's Kentaro raved about before he went crazy?” Anger rose to the very tips of my ears and through my nostrils.
“Nay child, but we do know who you speak of. The Shaitain.”
“You seek power to fight your fallen friend. He was already strong enough to survive the brand of Shaitan. Now he seeks to make a new world.”
“A new world?“ I questioned, half expecting riddles as answers.
“He seeks to end the differences, the pain, sorrow, but like all things in the physical plane there is and will be great cost.” The Jinn that had been Jack pointed at me. Wall, ceiling, the runes all melted into my eyes.

Dead Bonds--
Sand filled my mouth, a turban covered eyes. I stood up in a panic, I had a feint idea where I was but was I really here or was I just seeing things. Jinn had all kinds of effects on one's mind, especially those of weak will. The sun's rays seethed downward from the sky lashing at the sea of sand as far as the eye could see.
“Your friend is in a temple not far from where you are.” The familiar voice of the old man boomed in my head, it now had an almost metallic and otherworldly quality to it.
“Is this real?” I looked at my hands, my caramel fingers were covered in unfamiliar runes.
“It is a memory, but danger exists even on this plane of existence. Do not take anything lightly, save for yourself.”
“Find your friend, you will see, if you want to.”

I walked up to the highest dune I could find and I began looking around for the temple Kentaro supposedly was at. In the distance I saw a triangular silhouette, a storm cloud bellowed above it and a sandstorm was taking form around me. Lightning struck the top of the triangle in the distance.
A little black dot, made its way towards the triangle. It was caped and even at such a distance I could see the cape, the dreadlocks, and the pierced ear of my good friend Kentaro.
I ran down the dune toward both silhouettes, lightning whipped the tip of the triangle as I approached and sand ground down everything around me. Every single hair on my body stood at attention, the static caused by the unnatural lightning.

Slipping into the entrance, sulphur flooded my nostrils as if to suffocate me. The air thick, I adjusted my breathing to half gasps. “Just what is going on?” I wondered.
A din filled the air just as it had when I had met the Jinn earlier and I could hear a conversation.
“..Just give us the word. Say it. I descend.” A voice like crunching steel boomed.
“It is causality, your lot in life until now was to bring you here, to us, God Head.” Another voice bellowed.
My hand trembled against the wall as I descended into the chamber the voices emanated from. A light the size of a dog came screeching at me. It spoke, “ah, yes you will do very well. We have a vessel.” Not knowing what was in front of me I froze, my jaw trembled. My teeth chattered into one another and if my bones had let go of my muscle tissue and skin I would not have realized it. The urine running down my leg left a warm sensation in my pants.
It laughed, a small elephant like creature. Translucent grey skin and eyes that lacked pupils stood staring at me hovering about, in what could be described as playful weaving.
Fear enveloped me. “Yes, allow us to whisper. For we whisper into the chest of men. Fear fuels despair, despair fuels hatred. It begins here, us the Shaitan.”
Two others joined in this odd trance inducing chant. I forced myself to look at the kneeling figure in the centre of the room.
“Kentaro, what..is going on?!” The words barely escaped my trembling lips and chattering teeth.
“You should not have come here.” His wide eyed face turned looking up at me.
Striding towards him with heavy steps, trembling, urine poignant to my nose.
“What do you mean, we..friends..these creatures what..?” My tongue gave out on me.
“Say it!” The Jinn bellowed in unison at Kentaro. Who turned and looked at the floor in thought.
“Sorry. Reza. I..am tired..” Kentaro stared back up at me smiling, kneeling, and tears cascaded down his ebony cheeks.
Gasping to speak, my tongue could not move. Was this the end of me. Of Kentaro. Our friendship? Why? Our friendship had lasted for a while.

My vision reverted to our childhood on Mars. Running from school everyday. Selling stims to the fiends to help our families eat. Flashbacks of our return to Earth, only for our parents to die in factory work. Kentaro had a younger sister, Albia, he had taken care of and I was an only child so I helped him. Until she was robbed by a pack of fiends and killed. We never found her body but that’s what we assumed. Kentaro had been taciturn and not his usual self since.
“I accept. My sacrifice is true. My humanity, no more. I give my teeth, my bones, my flesh, my blood to Shaitan..” Kentaro wept with conviction, gritting his teeth his back heaving with every word.
Shrieking echoed in the hallway and my head.
World reeling and unable to speak I merely watched as a flesh cocoon wrapped Kentaro where he knelt.
“It is causality, everything until now has led you both here. The God Head has played its part.”
The creatures stared at me and spoke in unison.
“You will struggle. What becomes of you only you control or will causality choose for you?”
The world reeled and blacked out before me.

“So that is what took place.”
Back in the underground dome I opened my eyes to the old man and Jack staring at me gravely.
“You..must go now.”
“What you do next is up to you..”
Screams and gun fire echoed outside the shack beyond the secret wall.
The hums of hover cycles used by authorities, echoed in the Dome beyond the shacks walls.
“Struggle..do not give into fate young one..for your friends sake and yours.”

To be continued... (stay tuned for the conclusion of this story, coming in four weeks.)

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