Of Cinder and Bone

by Kyoko M

  “Is she alive?”

  Silence. “She’s breathing.”

  Jack let out a shaky gasp of air. “Oh, thank Christ.”

  “I’ve got her now. Wait…” Movement. Then a weak female voice slithered through the radio waves.

  “Took your fucking time, didn’t you?”

  ~*~

  Twenty minutes later, Jack sat in the back of an ambulance with Fujioka on a stretcher as it rumbled its way to the nearest hospital. She had lacerations and second degree burns underneath the bandages adorning her arm, neck, shoulder, and side, and her face was smudged with ash and reddened on one side, but she was alive. He kept repeating it inside his head in a mantra just to keep himself sane.

  “You’re staring,” she croaked without opening her eyes.

  “Can’t help it,” he said. “Thought I’d never see you again.”

  She snorted. “Pussy.”

  Jack laughed hoarsely and took her hand, wrapping his long fingers around hers and kissing the back of them. “Yeah, maybe, compared to you. What the hell happened up there?”

  “Okegawa thought he could play chicken with me. He was wrong.”

  “Obviously.”

  She opened her dark eyes enough to send him a searching look. “Where’s Kamala?”

  “She’s safe. Waiting for me at the embassy.”

  “Good girl. What about the dragon?”

  “She’s with Kamala.”

  “Great. Now, get the hell out of Tokyo.”

  He lifted his eyebrows. “What? And just leave you here after what you’ve been through?”

  Fujioka rolled her eyes. “Yes, Jack, that’s the idea. I fulfilled my contract. I protected you and you got your dragon back. We won. Time to go home.”

  “Misaki,” he murmured. “Don’t do this again. Don’t cut and run after what just happened. It’s not the end of the world if I stay an extra day with you.”

  “What purpose would it even serve, Jack?”

  “You’re my friend. You’re hurt. You just survived an explosion, for God’s sake. You shouldn’t be alone.”

  “It’ll be a media circus once this hits the news. Trust me, I won’t be alone.”

  Jack went silent for a while. “I killed a few people today.”

  Fujioka shut her eyes, visibly hiding a reaction. “I figured you might have to. I’m sorry. I wish I could have spared you that. It’s not a weight I ever wanted you to carry.”

  He shrugged. “I’m sort of numb about it right now. I suppose it’ll all sink in later.”

  “It was self-defense, Jack.”

  “I know. Doesn’t make it okay.”

  “No one said it was okay. But it was them or you. You did it to protect those you care about. Speaking of which—”

  “Oh, can it,” he said with a huff. “I told Kamala I love her. Happy?”

  Fujioka smirked. “Did you, now? And what was her answer?”

  “She needs time to think. Understandable. I blurted it out when I thought we were gonna die. Figured she deserved to know.”

  “You should have listened to me and told her earlier, bakayarou.”

  He rolled his eyes. “Yes, the almighty Misaki is always right.”

  “Damn straight. And don’t overthink it. She needs time because you’re important to her. She doesn’t want to do anything rash. Nobody can say no to those big puppy eyes.” She brushed a stray lock of hair away from his brow.

  “Except you.”

  She cupped his face gently in her hand. “Except me. But we both know why, don’t we?”

  “Yeah.”

  Her eyes were suddenly wet. “I miss him.”

  Jack linked their fingers again. “I know. I’m sure he misses you too, wherever he is.”

  She closed her eyes. Tears fell. Jack slid beside her, until he was close enough to kiss her forehead. He held her hand and murmured that everything would be alright. It was a little white lie. What harm could it do?

  ~*~

  Jack had seen a lot of beautiful things in his lifetime, but he swore that seeing Kamala walk around the corner of the hospital hallway after what they’d both survived, took the cake. Possibly because the second she laid eyes on him, her entire lovely face lit up with relief, pride, and affection. Possibly because she raced down the hall and leapt into his arms. Possibly because her arms squeezed him so tight that he saw stars. Endless possibilities.

  “Useless,” she mumbled into his neck. “So useless, Jack.”

  “The most useless,” he confirmed, giving her a little squeeze of his own. “I’m going to set a world record soon.”

  He was loathed to do it, but he put her down a moment later and kissed her forehead, rubbing her shoulders. “But I’m in one piece, as promised, so you’re not allowed to unceremoniously murder and resurrect me.”

  “For now,” she said, and then glanced at the hospital room. “How is Fujioka?”

  Jack winced. “She’s… I think she’s in more pain than she’ll let on, but that’s how she always is. I’m sure the doctors will be happy to relay the extent of her injuries, but from what I understand, they’re trying to figure out how badly damaged her spine is from the fall. She was on top of the silo when the grenade blew. Apparently, she shot it out of Okegawa’s hand and it fell down the shaft of the silo. He tried to grab for it, but that’s when it blew and the roof caved in. She grabbed the ladder on the way down and it dislocated her left arm, but it slowed the fall.”

  “Gods,” Kamala whispered. “Paralysis?”

  “Possibly. She still has feeling in her legs, but the swelling in her spinal cord is severe. They won’t know until they can get all her tests done.”

  Kamala nodded. “Then we will stay until it’s all determined. Pete is safe. The yakuza can’t touch her, not with the protection of the embassy. We’ll leave as soon as we know she’s going to be alright.”

  “Woman’s made of steel,” he said with a weak smile. “She’ll pull through. But… that’s unfortunately not the rest of the story.”

  He took a deep breath. “Okegawa survived.”

  Kamala’s eyes went wide. “What? I thought you said the grenade went off.”

  “It did. I guess the bastard’s got a fallen angel looking out for him. He just got out of surgery.”

  She clenched her hands into fists. “What’s the prognosis?”

  “Well, so far, he’s comatose. They won’t tell me much more than that. I figured you’d be able to coax it out of them.”

  “I’ll see what I can do. And what of Yagami and Watsuki?”

  Jack winced again. “Yagami’s in the wind again. And Watsuki didn’t make it.”

  She sighed. “Damn it all. Two steps forward, two steps back.”

  “Ain’t that the truth? Alright, let’s start putting out fires. I’ll call our families and let them know we’re all okay. You see what you can stir up on Okegawa.”

  “Give them all my love.” She gave him a peck on the cheek and then headed for the nurse’s station.

  ~*~

  Her plan turned out to be slightly easier to execute than she predicted.

  Step one: buy two coffees.

  Step two: visit a nearby gas station and buy a dissolvable laxative.

  Step three: treat the two officers guarding the room to free coffee and thank them graciously for their service.

  Step four: wait until one has left and the other is at the nurse’s station, flirting, while he waits to use the restroom himself.

  Step five: wait until the area has no witnesses.

  Step six: slip inside the room.

  That was how Kamala came to find herself alone standing in front of the comatose Kazuma Okegawa.

  Clutching an empty syringe in her fist.

  She stepped closer to his bed, her feet almost silent on the linoleum, watching the cloud of mist that filled his brea
thing mask and the steady puff of the ventilator, as well as the staggered red and green lines of the heart monitor. She didn’t have long. Just enough time to make a decision.

  “I’ve read quite a bit of literature on the statistical likelihood that comatose victims can hear the words of those around them,” Kamala said quietly as she came to stand at the head of the bed. “So, it’s unlikely that you can hear me, but for the sake of argument, let’s say that you can.”

  She placed her hands on the metal bar where his intact left arm was handcuffed to, the syringe clicking against it as she did.

  “The woman who saved my life is in this hospital, a few rooms over from us. It’s possible that she may never walk again. If she makes a full recovery, even then, she will never have the same mobility that she did before. Even if every broken nerve heals and every scar fades away, Misaki Fujioka will never be the same woman that she was before she involved herself with us. So, in some respect, this is the fault of the four of us: Jack, Fujioka, me… and you.”

  Her lids lowered over her eyes as she stared into Okegawa’s motionless, swollen face. “There is no one here to save you. I can end your life right now. I’m already damaged. I have already prayed for my soul’s deliverance for the sin of taking another life. You forced me to do things that I would previously consider unimaginable. It would not only be just if I were to kill you, but it would bring me a pleasure that I simply cannot find words to describe.”

  She leaned over the bed until their faces were inches apart. “You have taken an innumerable amount of innocent lives. You have ruined countless futures. You have caused endless suffering. The world would not miss you. No one would mourn your passing. Even if I am caught and sentenced for my crime, I feel as if it would be worth it knowing that I wiped your miserable existence from this world, so that you will be reincarnated as the worthless flea that you are in the next life.”

  She let her gaze rake over him. “However, in doing so, I would become no better than you. I would be taking the law into my own hands, and I respect this country and its justice system. The people you have hurt deserves to see you tried for your crimes. Death is the easy way out for you. I’m sure you knew that when you threatened Misaki-san.”

  Kamala held up the syringe at his unblinking eye level. “Do you see this? If the gods are fortunate enough to allow you to wake from this coma and resume faculties over your body, then there is one thing you need to understand. If you ever come for me and my loved ones again, then this is the syringe that I will use to end your life.”

  Then she turned and slipped out of the room, silent as a shadow.

  ~*~

  Kamala had been wrong.

  Jack did snore.

  She stifled a chuckle as she listened to the ‘snaaarrrr’ noise that exited his nostrils on every odd breath, shaking her head. She grabbed a large cotton blanket from a nearby empty bed and draped it over his enormous, limp form in the chair by the door. He didn’t stir, not even after she sifted her fingers through his unkempt hair to smooth it down.

  “He only does that when he sleeps sitting up,” Fujioka said in a worn-out tone.

  “I noticed,” Kamala said, taking a seat next to the hospital bed. “Though I’ve certainly heard worse. My last ex snored like a freight train. It was a compelling reason to break up with him.”

  Fujioka snorted. “A pillow over the face will clear that right up.”

  Kamala laughed lightly. “True. Are you comfortable?”

  The bodyguard waggled the button in her right hand. “Oh, believe me, that’s an understatement. Spine injuries mean you get the good stuff. I’m on Pluto right now.”

  “Good. Let me know if I need to call someone in for you.”

  “Nonsense. What about you? How on earth did you escape this entire debacle with only a bruised hand? Do you know something we don’t?”

  “Clearly.”

  The two women fell silent, smiling faintly at each other. Kamala folded her hands. “Did the doctors explain everything?”

  “For the most part,” Fujioka said with a sigh. “They’re trying to be positive about it. We won’t know for a while what the outlook will be.”

  Kamala took a deep, trembling breath and pressed her clasped hands to her forehead. “I’m so sorry, Misaki.”

  “It was my choice,” Fujioka said. Her voice couldn’t have been firmer if it were carved out of diamond. “Mine and mine alone. I don’t regret it. I am my own.”

  “I know, but… what they’ve taken from you… I can’t begin to imagine how you must feel.”

  Fujioka shrugged a bit. “I’ve always been good at rolling with the punches. And the bastard who did this to me might have actually had a point.”

  Kamala lowered her hands enough to look at her. “What?”

  “Okegawa dug up old wounds. I didn’t realize how raw the pain still was until he rubbed salt into it. I wasn’t just fighting for the two of you. In some ways, I was fighting for myself, for what I lost before any of this began. Maybe that’s why it would be easier to accept where I ended up. I chose this path. I could have walked away long ago, and I didn’t, because of the injustice of it all. I wanted you to have closure the way I never got mine.”

  Kamala’s fingers closed over Fujioka’s, and the older woman didn’t pull away. “You don’t have to—”

  “I was married once. He was an idiot, but he was my idiot.” Fujioka nodded towards Jack. “A lot like that one over there. That’s why it struck such a nerve, the week we spent together. It was almost like having Kyōya with me again. His death happened so suddenly that I don’t think I ever truly dealt with it until now. Perhaps it’s all for the best. I have to face who I am and who I will allow myself to become.”

  She met Kamala’s eyes. “For a second, I gave in. I thought about giving Jack up when Okegawa offered to find my husband’s killer. And that showed me more about myself than I ever realized. It’s easy to bury the pain. Easier than it should be. And I don’t want that to happen to you.”

  She tightened her grip on Kamala’s hand. “I know what happened is unbearable, but you must face it. Talk to someone about it. Even if it isn’t Jack, you need to accept it before it’s too late and you let it fester. Taking a life can change you.”

  “It already has,” Kamala murmured. “I can’t go back to who I was before.”

  “No. You can’t. But you can heal. Someday.”

  Kamala nodded. “I will… try my best.”

  “Good girl.” Fujioka exhaled and glanced at the clock. “Go check your flight times. I’m not going anywhere, but you’ve got places to be.”

  “Misaki—”

  “Don’t make me climb out of this bed and kick your ass.”

  Kamala sighed and shook her head as she rose to her feet. “Unbelievable. Brahma help the poor soul who will be in charge of your recovery.”

  “Damn right.”

  A few hours later, after Jack and Kamala had gotten a minimal amount of rest in Fujioka’s room, their travel plans were in place, Pete included, and they said their goodbyes.

  Jack stooped over Fujioka’s bed and kissed her forehead. “Stay out of trouble.”

  “Never,” she said, grinning, and patted his cheek playfully. “My bill will be in the mail.”

  “Oh, come on,” Jack protested, pointing to the sling his arm was finally in again. “I got shot. Isn’t that the definition of you failing at your job?”

  Fujioka rolled her eyes. “Fine. I’ll knock off five-hundred.”

  Jack palmed his face. “I hate you so much.”

  That made her laugh. “Big boys don’t cry, Jack.”

  “Yeah, but my bank account does. You’ll get your payment after I’m stateside. Fair enough?”

  “Fair enough.” She beckoned him closer. He sent her a suspicious look, but bent in anyway.

  “Lover,” she whispered in his ear.

 
He froze. “What?”

  “That’s what koibito means.”

  He relaxed into a fond smile. “Bartholomew.”

  She arched an eyebrow and he blushed. “Hey, don’t look at me. It was my Dad’s idea.”

  “You never had a chance. Take care, Bartholomew.”

  He winked as he stood to full height and let Kamala sweep past him. The short scientist gave Fujioka a one-armed hug. “Thank you for everything, Misaki. We’ll be in touch. Please keep us posted.”