Post by Deleted on Mar 18, 2021 21:41:38 GMT -5
When Shakuhachi awoke he found himself in a small, dimly lit room face to face with another of the Mazoku. He wasn’t sure if this guy was with the last group he encountered or not, but whoever he wasn’t he didn’t look too happy. Shakuhachi looked around to try and see if he could find his friend, but he wasn’t anywhere to be found. Whatever he was going to face it would have to be alone. “Where did you find him? What was he doing?” The one who appeared to be in charge asked his grunts about Shakuhachi. “He and his friend were in a small out cove about twenty miles away from here. It’s a quiet little place; untouched by the people.”
“His friend? There’s another one?” The one in charge looked around to try and spot the other one. “He’s not here right now. We decided that that it would be better if was put to work; he had a strong look about him and anything that he could tell us we can probably get from this one too. Judging by the look of him I doubt he’ll be tough to crack, not for you at any rate.” “We decided? Who’s ‘we’ in this situation? I make the decisions, not you. Next time you’ll consult me those decisions.” The other Demon dropped his head in shame. “Anyway, you two can leave for me now while I talk to this one. I call you when I’m done.”
The two did as he said and left the boss alone. “We are the Mazoku who rule this region of Namek. For now you can just call me boss. Now typically when we capture runaways we put them to work. We have a few mines operating now and free labor is always something we’re looking for. If they can’t handle the heat and then we always have the farms as another option. Outlanders pay a lot of money for their crops and the rights to use our land so that’s been a nice avenue to explore as well. My friends tell me that they do not believe you would be suitable for either of those jobs; you do seem young. I’ll have to find something else for you to do.”
Boss grabbed Shakuhachi by the ear and dragged him out of the room and into the open. It felt like days since he had felt the sun and now that he did all he wanted was for it to go away. When he finally forced his eyes open he saw dozens of Namekians being forced into deep caverns when others coming out from the other side carrying carts full of precious metals and ores. “Namek is not naturally rich in such materials, so we have to go deep. It’s dangerous work but with no unions and free labor it’s not much of an issue.” Boss pulled Shakuhachi away from the mines and into a cavern on the other side of the facility.
“This is our prison. Typically we like to put people to work but sometimes no matter how hard we try to break someone it just never goes through. In that situation they become a liability and that’s a problem. Now we can’t exactly let people get away from here else they might go and tell someone else about it. We’ve done our due diligence when it comes to keeping this place under wraps as much as possible but the more we grow the more careful we have to be. We’ll keep you in here for now until I can figure out a better use for you. There are always opportunities that pop up for people so I’ll let you know when we find something.”
Shakuhachi was thrown into a cell with the door locked behind him. He didn’t hold out much hope of an 'opportunity' opening up for him, and in any case he wanted no part of this place. It only took a few hours before he realized that his opportunity would be keeping the guards entertained with daily beatings. He would be the punching bag where they vented their frustrations and tested out new techniques. The beginning was the worst, but eventually he settled into a routine that became a bit more manageable. The hopes of leading his people into a golden age quickly faded away as he became to accept his reality.
Those days eventually shifted into years and somewhere along the way he lost count of it all. His only desire at this point was completely his memoirs which where chiseled into the wall with a stone he had hidden in his pocket. His never accomplished as much as he would have liked to in his life, and so he didn’t expect it to take long. But was this really the end? Everything he had worked for, everything he had dreamed about since as long as he could remember. Was it really going to come to an end stuck in this damn cell? What happened to his fight? What would his friend Biwa think if he could see where he was now?
My destiny? My legacy? I thought I had it all figured out. My place was secured as the future leader of my people, the Namekians. And yet here I am, stuck in makeshift cell somewhere deep in the northern scar; putting together a memoir in a wall quickly running out of space. As I sit here etching my thoughts I wonder where I went wrong. I was young and brash, and for that I paid the price, or at least I thought I did, but life keeps collecting. I wonder what Guru would if he could see me here. I wonder if he would forgive me for what I did. I was only a boy when he turned me away; what else could I have done? It was a mistake. But that was the past.
His name was Shakuhachi, a Namekian from the Dragon Clan, or formerly of the Dragon Clan to be more accurate. At this point it’s unlikely they would still consider him apart of the family after the way he left them. But now he’s got bigger problems than an awkward family reunion; that problem is called Sanshin. Sanshin is the one who guards his cell. Sanshin has at least a few hundred pounds on Shakuhachi as well as the advantage of being allowed to drink more than the bare minimum amount of water one needs to survive. He’s not here right now, but he’s never far. It won’t be long now until he comes back, and when he does he’s bringing the same thing.
“What’s that? Someone’s coming?” At first he would get into position; try to defend against the daily assault. But now, what’s the point. “Ready for today’s lesson?” The guard grabs a hold of him and drags him into the torturers chair. As they beat and humiliate the young boy, he wonders if they even still care about what he knows. Are they still trying to get something out of him, or is it just for fun? “I’ll ask again; why did you come into our territory? Did you bring allies? Did you send anything back?” Of course he can’t say anything; he’s already told him what he can. And so they continue until they’re satisfied and throw him back in his cell. At least it can’t get much worse, right?
This goes on, and on for so long that he has lost count. Has it been months, or years? It must have been years by now. Every day the same treatment, but today was different. This time when he was thrown back into his cell, the one next to his was occupied. For however long he had been trapped in here, he had been all by himself. “Hello? Are you alright in there?” Understandably he was a bit hesitant; maybe this was just some sort of trick the Mazoku were trying to play on him, but what did he have to lose. “I’m fine. I think they might be getting soft on me.” He stood up and walked over as close as he could to the next cell over waved his hand out.
“I’m Shakuhachi.” The other Namek got up and greeted the resident. “I’m Koto; I j-just got put in here today.” Whoever this guy was he sounded young. He wasn’t anyone that Shakuhachi knew; maybe he was from the Warrior Clan? The guy didn’t sound like any warrior though. “From where do you hail? And what do they have you in here for?” The veteran tried to squeeze his head through the bars as much as possible to get a look at who he was talking to. “I’m from the Dragon Clan. I guess I must have wondered too far out from the capital and I was picked up by a band of raiders. I don’t know what they want; I just want to get out of here.”
The boy obviously was not getting the picture. But Shakuhachi was right; this kid was from the Dragon Clan. If this guy is grown enough to be venturing out on his own, Shakuhachi must have been gone longer than he had thought. The hope and optimism in believing that he may make it out of this place clearly belonged to a young and naïve mind, one which Shakuhachi could not let affect him. He had his own plans for today and although the predicament weighed on him, he wasn’t about to let it get in the way. The place they were being housed was barely standing and was clearly the work of incompetency which left options open for the captive.
Slowly but surely he had dug a hole which was so close to giving him his freedom. The captors barely gave him enough to drink to live, let alone work, but eventually it had all come together. Maybe the new guy could be of some assistance to him, and if he was lucky he may even find his way out of here too. He was just brought in here, and clearly he was fresh. He did not seem to possess much in the way of a power level, but it could just be enough. “Listen kid. I know you want to get out of here, but I have bad news. I’ve been in here longer than you’ve been alive, and they have no intentions of letting me out and so if you and I have going to get out of here, which we are, we’ve got to be proactive.”
The kid was nervous, as he should be, but eventually there was a response. “Well alright then, did you have something in mind?” The elder Namek pushed his arm though the cell and gestured for Koto to come closer. “I don’t have a lot of strength in me right now, and I know you don’t either. Thankfully for the both of us they elected the village idiot for guard duty so we might just stand a chance. They just got done with me so I supposed they’ll about ready to move onto you; that’s when we’ll make our move. I don’t expect you to take him out yourself, but all I need for you to do is to push him over to my cell; just push him and don’t stop until I say so.”
Clearly the young Namek was not sold on the idea, but trusting in elder he agreed to go along with the plan. And so they waited, and waited a bit more. About an hour went by finally the stooge himself showed up. As he took out his key and began to unlock the door he began his lecture. “He’s a few things you need to learn about how we do thin- UH.” Before he could finish Koto quickly pushed him back near his neighboring cell as per the plan and Shakuhachi leaped into action. With his left hand he quickly placed it over the mouth of the Mazoku, and with his right arm he coils around the exposed neck. Koto has his eyes closed, but he’s still followed the plan, still pinning him against the cell.
There was a struggle; Shakuhachi was using any and all energy he had left. Eventually the struggle ended, and the one Mazoku Namek fell to the ground. “I can’t believe I just did that. I’ve never killed before.” Shakuhachi quickly reached through the cell spacing and grabbed the keys off of the body. He opened the door and took his first ever voluntary step out. He looked down at the man who had caused so much pain in his lift over the past… however many long years it had been. There was no sympathy; no remorse. He raised his leg up and slammed his foot into the throat of the Mazoku, startling the younger Namek in the process.
“If you have any reservations about this I suggest you get back in your cell. If they found us after this they won’t waste the time or energy taking us back. They’ll take care of us the easy way and so if we leave now, you have to know what you’re getting yourself into.” Again the boy looked unsure, but at this point he didn’t have much of a choice. It’s not like the other Mazoku would believe that Shakuhachi had done it all by himself, right? “I’ll take your silence as a vote in; now follow me.” The elder Dragon walked back into his cell and revealed a tunnel dug underneath the stone slab he slept on. “And to think; if they had given us beds I never could had hid this, huh?”
They quickly scuttled down the hole and onward to what they hope is their freedom. “I have to admit I only made this breakthrough recently. I haven’t fully explored where this leads to and so you better not lose focus.” The boy is not going to much use in a fire fight but if everything went well they wouldn’t have to worry about that. They crawled through mud and rock for about ten minutes before finally making into a clearing where revealed itself to be a part of a cave system. “I was hoping for a bit of sunlight to bask in once I finally made it out of that place, but I suppose this will have to do.” Shakuhachi turned to the wall and started pounding away on the foundations.
“What the hell are you doing?” Shakuhachi didn’t answer, instead he continued to pound away until his intentions revealed themselves. The tunnel in which the two had used to escape eventually caved in, leading in useless in any attempt to follow them though. “Have a little faith, will you?” Shakuhachi created a ball of Ki in his hand for a source of light, then tore of one of his sleeves, threw it in the center of their little cove and set it alit. “I don’t know about you, but I could do with a rest right about now. It’s not the safest situation but I’m willing to take the chance. We’ll stop here for now, sleep for a while then carry on later.”
Koto didn’t have much interest in sleeping however; clearly his nerves were out of control. “Really? You want to stop here? For all we know this cave could be under their control. They could attack us in our sleep. Hell, they could attack us while we’re awake and it wouldn’t matter now would it.” Shakuhachi laughed at that. “That’s exactly why we should sleep, isn’t it? If they find us we’re dead, whether we’re awake or asleep. If I’m going to die then I would hope to die well rested at least. Now, if you aren’t going to shut up then you’re going to have to find another travelling companion, so just relax a little, because you’re going to need me.”
Shakuhachi wasn’t stupid though; he knew that resting for any longer than just a couple of hours would be a risk not worth taking. As long as he could get in just a few hours of sleep it should be enough to make him useful in a fight. As the elder slept he was cursed with visions of his past. In a way his cage had protected him from having to deal with his actions; he was able to run away from the consequences. But now that he was on the outside, or very nearly there, the ability to escape what he was running from was going to be much more difficult. Whether he liked it or not there weren’t many options for where he could go when all of this was said and done.
Shakuhachi was able to take advantage of it the sleep, but of course the younger could not. When he awoke, he rolled over to see Koto as active as he was before. “It’s about time you woke up. I don’t mean to appear as if I’m in a hurry, but there men somewhere out there looking for us, probably with orders to kill us on sight; you do remember that, right?” Shakuhachi sat up and rubbed the smog from his eyes. “Don’t worry; I got you out, remember? While we’re here I feel like I have to ask you. It’s been a long time since I’ve been on the outside. In fact it’s been so long I don’t even know. I want to know what’s changed since I’ve been gone. How’s Guru doing?”
“Guru? You really have been gone for a long time. Guru passed away a few years ago. I was the last of his children he birthed before passing.” Shakuhachi was taken aback by the revelation. Although for a while now when he tried to sense the energy of Guru he came up empty, he thought that maybe it had just grown too weak to sense, not that he had passed away. Shakuhachi was conflicted on his feelings about this revelation. It was in some ways Guru’s fault that he wound up in this situation; refusing to pass on his title to Shakuhachi, who felt as if he was the perfect candidate to succeed him in leading the Namekian people.
That being said he knew that he could not place all of the blame on Guru, as it was his rash decision to kill one of his own in a moment of weakness which was what ultimately lead to his banishment. Now he was gone, but now that begged the question as to who was in charge now. “When I said Guru, you thought of the past Guru first? What about the new Guru? Who leads in his place?” Koto shook his head. “No one I’m afraid, at least no one since I was taken first a few days ago. Guru did not leave a chosen successor as he did not have enough trust in anyone who accompanied him. Unfortunately as of now there is no one to lead our people.”
This revelation was shocking to Shakuhachi, who could not imagine his people without a leader. “But if there is no Guru, who is in charge now? Who makes the decisions?” Koto looked a bit puzzled as he tried to come up with the right answer. “Well, right now? No one really, though that’s hopefully not for long. There are men of course who want to take over, but it’s been so long since a break in the succession that the people don’t know who to trust. There are some who want us to invite settlers from other planets to boost our galactic presence, and others who want to close of the contact with outsiders all together, and everyone in between.”
“There are even some who want treaties with the Mazoku, which from my perspective right now seems preposterous. Can you believe that? To be allies, to trade with these foul creatures. Anybody who even suggests that should be banished from the capital. Unfortunately the Warrior Clan is on hard times right now though, so I doubt there’d be anyone to do it.” Although Shakuhachi was removed from politics for so long he had not yet forgetting his past desire to step into Guru’s place. But what of these others? How will they fit into all of this? Considering the docile nature of the Nameks Shakuhachi was surprised to hear so many candidates interested in the position.
Just then, as Shakuhachi had more questions which needed answering, the cave they were in began to shake from all sides. “Enough politics for now, we may have trouble.” Shakuhachi leaped to his feet and grabbed a hole of the youngster. They quickly rushed for the exit, but they quickly learned that the cave was a myriad of branching paths and optical illusions. As they rushed they both began to feel the heat, figuratively and literally. “Damn it! We must be getting closer to the core; just how deep are we?” They shaking must have come from an earthquake; with how deep they were the effects were so intensely felt.
As they kept running eventually they began to see light at the end of the tunnel, but it wasn’t come from the sun. When they finally reached the end they found themselves staring into a storm of molten lava and rock spewing out around them. “Damn it. I don’t know if I have enough energy to keep us both safe from this, but I don’t suppose we have much of a choice.” Shakuhachi grabbed a hold of Koto and pulled him close. Then, he began producing an orb of Ki to surround both their bodies. “I don’t have much more in me do we’re going to have to do this fast. Hold onto me and don’t even think about letting go!”
Shakuhachi leaped from the clearing and they both flew through the lava. Although he tried his best to avoid the lava altogether when how much of it there was it would be impossible to dodge it all. Waves of lava crashed into the Ki shield which rocked them from side to side, but with whatever he had left Shakuhachi held on. Eventually they flew through it all and landed on the outside where things were a bit calmer. Shakuhachi put Koto and down and took a moment to catch his breath. “What the hell was all that? I know this place is dangerous but I’ve never seen a storm like that before. I didn’t know things could get that bad.”
A childish and innocent part of him had fled and he would never be able to get it back, but right now that wasn’t on his mind. Right now, the feeling he had was the best feeling he had in years and he didn’t want to do anything to risk losing it. He lay in the ground and closed his eyes, with the hope that he could just stay there forever.
But of course, he couldn’t. Koto quickly got him back up and to his feet. “What are you going? Just because we got out of there doesn’t mean we’re in the clear now. For we know they could still be looking for us. Whatever that storm was may have been caused by them because they knew where were and they were trying to flush us out. I know you’re tired but I’m tried too so how about we get up off our asses and get out of here. Once we get back to my village we can have a nice long rest when there aren’t people chasing us and trying to kill us.” Suddenly, a realization came to Shakuhachi; what happens when he goes back?
For now he still had this kid he had to take care of. What Koto said was right; they still aren’t close to clear yet. Whatever that storm was it probably provided a good distraction. He remembered the operation he was shown on his first day here, and that the cave they were in, while empty at the time, was probably connected to it. Maybe they had dug too deep and the planet was pushing back? Whatever it was it was pretty damn lucky for them and they couldn’t afford to waste the chance they were given. They weren’t ever going to get it that good again and so Shakuhachi dusted himself of and tried to sense any foes around him.
“I can’t sense anyone around else, not close to us at least. Even if I did I don’t have enough to fight anyway so it’s not like out choices change. You’re going to have to be the one in front because I have no idea of which direction to go in.” Koto didn’t know much either, but his mind was clearer right now than Shakuhachi’s was, and so for now he was forced into action. “I think we should head south then. I remember travelling north when I was taken, which I’m pretty sure is in this direction, so as long as we go here then we should be okay.” Shakuhachi wasn’t paying attention to where he was pointing, so he just followed his lead.
They managed to get a few hours rest before Shakuhachi woke up. He went to grab some wood to restart the fire, and that’s when he heard voice coming from a little to the south; from where they had escaped from. He got a bit closer and tried to focus in on where he heard them. “God damn it; look at this place! Years of work and now we’re not going to be able to get any production this. I told the boss we gotta go easy on the drilling but he got greedy. We pushed too much and now we don’t have anything.” These guys were clearly a part of the racket, but it was unclear at this point whether or not they knew or even cared about the prison break.
“You might want to keep your voice down. The boss aint here now but we know he isn’t far away either so why don’t you just shut up actually; I don’t want to get thrown in with you when he decided to punish you. And you already know that the only thing the boss cares about is results. If we tell him this place is useless he aint gonna like that one bit. Our only real choice here is to start rebuilding and salvage whatever we can.” This only made the other Demon laugh. “Salvage? Are you serious? Do you see anything here that we can salvage? Let’s face it: the lava destroyed our entire deep cave infrastructure and killed over half our work force.”
The two Nameks looked at each other and pondered their predicament. “I s-suppose you’re right. But what are we gonna do? The boss aint gonna like that answer. We gotta give him something, right? All of the equipment may be destroyed, but at least some of the merchandise must have made it right? I mean the stuff we pull out of the ground is surrounded by lava all the time so surely that survived, right?” The other Namekian had other ideas. “If you want to go fishing through lava to pick out a few shiny rocks then you can go right ahead. I on the other hand have other ideas. Right now, we’re in the clear. I say we book it and get as far away from here as possible, what do you think of that?”
“Well, I suppose that aint a bad idea. I mean I suppose sticking around here probably aint worth much good. The operation was good for a while but all good things must co-.” Before he could finish his sentence an energy wave pierced the Namekians chest, killing him instantly. “Wait, j-just wait I’m so-AH.” Another energy wave and now Shakuhachi was a bit spooked. He didn’t sense anyone coming, and he couldn’t see or hear anything either. Wait that seems familiar, suddenly there was a feeling, but that couldn’t be right. Shakuhachi kept his eyes on the forest and suddenly a friendly figure appeared.
It was Biwa. He knew he had been captured along with himself, but he didn’t know if he was still around. Suddenly relief fell over Shakuhachi, who revealed himself to his old friend. “Biwa, is that you? It’s good to see you. I didn’t know ho-.” Biwa sharply turned and gestured for two others either side of him to grab a hole of Shakuhachi. “Wait, what the hell are you doing? Biwa? It’s me, Shakuhachi. Who the hell are these guys? What the hell are you doing?” Biwa coldly approached Shakuhachi and starred him down. He didn’t say a word, instead he drove his knee into the captive’s gut, taking the wind out of his and knocking him unconscious.