Drive-in. [powered_otaku]

[sweetsalome]

    It was a nice, warm summer night, the sun had gone down and it had cooled down to the point where you could sit outside and not sweat.  The drive in, was two screens, a parking lot, and hills that surrounded the parking lot and gave a perfect view of the cars and the screen.  Salome had walked from her house, and bought two tickets before climbing up on one of the hills and spread the blanket her grandmother had given her.

A grandmother, yeah that was still weird.

Sitting down on the blanket, she put the basket down next to her and took out a bottle of water.  Once she took a long drink, she text messaged Hiro to know that she was there.  Hopefully he would be able to spot her.

Comments

[sweetsalome.livejournal.com]

She feels foolish for doubting him, for making him explain himself and his love for her. She knows that he is a good man, that he would never use her in substitute for someone else, but still she is scared. Years of paranoia and bad relationship habits are hard to break, especially when you've had them drilled into your head the way her father did to her.

Placing her hand on his knee she looks up into his face and gives him a gentle smile. "I didn't mean to question you Hiro, I . . ." She shakes her head, unable to figure out a way to continue. Finally, after a beat or two she speaks, "I love you, and I want to be the best person I can for you. I compare myself to her probably more then you do, she sounds so wonderful, and that's what you should have. Someone wonderful." Lifting herself up, she kisses his mouth briefly.

"I have survived this far, there is no way I am going to leave now. Not after I've met you, my heart. No one will take me away from you." She makes the promise softly, and there is conviction behind her words, but she doesn't know his enemies. She does know her father, but she won't think about that, not now.

"No, Saint Christopher was a big, strong man who said that he would only serve a master who feared no one. He served a king who made the sign of the cross when someone spoke of the devil, so Christopher went to look for the devil. He found a man who claimed to be the devil, and so he worked for him. In the end the man avoided the cross because he feared Christ, and Christopher gave his life to God. Instead of fasting and praying in his service to God he carried men and women across the river. One day he carried a child as heavy as lead across the river, and when he set him down the Child told him that he had carried not one child, but the weight of the world. Then he disappeared." When she was done with the story, she smiles, "I was in to Saints and Martyrs for awhile."

Looking back up at the statue, she frowned in thought, finally she spoke, "Was it worth it, in the end? In the end when Daigoro got his revenge, was everything better?"

[powered-otaku.livejournal.com]

"We are still new to each other. Of course you should question. After all, if we do not, then how will we learn of each other? Do not be afraid to question me, especially if you are unsure. I will not lie to you." He lays his hand on top of hers. "And I think it is time that I told you everything."

Holding her hand, he unfolds himself and takes her over to the couch. He lays back on it and holds out his arms for her to come lie against him.

[sweetsalome.livejournal.com]

Salome has no idea what he is going to tell her, she knows a little about him, what she feels is the important parts but not everything. Watching him, she holds up one finger to indicate that he should wait for her. Walking back to the bed room she pulls on his tee-shirt and then walks back to the couch. Kneeling on the edge she gives him a grin before sinking down into his arms. She knows that laying against someone naked would probably get them both sticky and sweaty.

Plus, she really wants to wear his shirt. It's such a girlfriend thing to do. "You can tell me anything, Hiro. You can ask me anything too, if you want."

[powered-otaku.livejournal.com]

He smiles seeing her in the shirt because it is such a girlfriend thing to do. He folds her up in his arms. "First I must tell you the legend of Takezo Kensei as it was told to me by my father. At least the general one. There is no need to go into his various deeds.

"Takezo Kensei was a powerful wildman. One day he found a sword, frozen into the snow. With his great strength, he pulled it from the snow and with it he could focus his strength and his courage. Japan was on the verge of war. In order to help, he wished to learn how to wield it properly so he went to the Dragon of Kiso Mountain. The Dragon told him that he would be willing to teach him if Kensei would give him all his love. Kensei agreed. Kensei became a great warrior - a sword saint (which is what Kensei means). After many adventures, Kensei defeated White Beard, thus saving Japan. He married a beautiful princess. The Dragon came to him to collect his price, demanding the life of his princess. Kensei cut out his heart and gave it to him, telling him that all his love was there, then died.

"That was the story my father told me."

[sweetsalome.livejournal.com]

Pressing her cheek against his shoulder she listened to his story and when it was finished she had tears in her eyes. She didn't know why, and she quickly tried to wipe them away, or to some how hide them from him. Tears were inappropriate, or were they? Swallowing hard she turned her head up and gave him a little smile.

"He cut out his own heart to save the life of the woman he loved? That is so beautiful, he must have been a very good, wise man."

[powered-otaku.livejournal.com]

She feels a sigh from him. "My father told me all his stories when I was little. He was the first hero I ever had. I wanted to be him. When I was small, I had a little plastic sword I would wave around at people and tell them I was Kensei. I wanted to be a hero, save people."

There's a mirthless chuckle from behind her. "You can imagine how I felt when I found out about my power, especially when I found myself in New York instead of the train in Tokyo. As I was walking, I found a comic with me on the cover. I could barely read it because my English was so poor. But I found the name of the artist and looked him up. I teleported to his place only to find him dead with his brain missing and the police suddenly accusing me of doing it. They told me it was November, when it had only been October. While they spoke to me, New York exploded and I teleported away, back to exactly to when I had left. To make a long story short, I and others managed to stop that from happening, but the man I was determined to stop, whom I had just run through with my sword, used telekinesis to try and kill me. In a panic, I teleported away, but I returned to Japan more than 300 years in the past."

[sweetsalome.livejournal.com]

Smiling into his arms she easily pictured him as a little boy, especially after the picture he showed her earlier. As her fingers traveled up and down his bare arm she spoke, "I can picture you perfectly, and you got what you wanted, you are a hero."

The time line is slowly starting to make sense to her, and as she pieces some things together she turns her head to look at him. "That's when you went missing, right? When Ando couldn't find you."

[powered-otaku.livejournal.com]

"Yes. I was gone for 4 months here. My father and Ando had no idea where I was. Ando told me that he and my father waited in Kirby Plaza every day for me to return because they were certain I would appear there."

"So, I landed in a meadow in bright sunlight. I saw a man on a horse atop a hill. He wore full armor and carried a banner with Kensei's symbol. He was not looking at me, so I looked behind me to see many men with bows stalkig towards us. They fired and I stopped time. I went to the horseman and teleported him, me and the horse away. He demanded to know what I had done, said it wasn't worth the money and ran away. I then found myself facing a man wearing the same armor, carrying Kensei's sword. When he took off his kabuto, I found myself looking at a gaijin. Blond hair and blue eyes. You can imagine my surprise when he told me that, yes, he was Kensei. A beautiful woman came up and yelled at him that he had failed to do what he'd been paid to do. He picked up a bottle of booze and wandered off. He did not care! You can imagine how I felt in that moment. My greatest hero was a coward and a drunkard."

[sweetsalome.livejournal.com]

She made a small noise in the back of her throat, picturing his father waiting in Kirby Plaza waiting for him to come home. How much he must have missed his son, and at that moment she had a new found respect for Hiro's father, and a sinking feeling in her stomach about her own. She knew that he would never have waited for her, or cared that she was even missing. Reaching down, she took Hiro's hand and squeezed it.

Eyebrows raised when he mentioned the man, and even she was surprised by the twist in the story. "So everything your father told you about Kensei was a lie? I mean, not that your father lied to you, but the stories were just made up, how did he get there, Kensei I mean."

[powered-otaku.livejournal.com]

He caresses the back of her hand with his thumb. "I followed him - Kensei. I asked him to tell me where Otsu was. It was one of his first adventures - saving Otsu, meeting the swordmaker's daughter who would become his princess. He pointed behind us. It was in flames. I was so upset, but he could not understand why I was so angry at him. As far as he was concerned, he had been paid and he could go get drunk. The woman who had yelled at him took his sword, telling him he did not deserve it and ran off. Her father, the swordmaker, had been abducted by White Beard and she was determined to get him back. Kensei was too drunk to help her, so I grabbed his armor, his kabuto</> and went after her. She was found by some bandits, who were ready to hurt her. I stopped time, took all their swords and piled them in front of me. They were so stunned, they ran away. She and I walked back towards the other refugees of Otsu and she tried to find out who I was, but I could not let her think that I was truly Kensei. I knew I could not stay, that she had to fall in love with the real Kensei. So, I sobered him up, cleaned him up, told him what he needed to do. And he agreed to become what he needed to be; however, just as we had said this, several bowmen showed up and shot arrows into him, killing him. I was afraid that I had just destroyed history. I pulled out the arrow in his heart and discovered that he was like me - a man with an ability. He could heal from any wound. At first he was frightened but I showed him what I could do and he understood then that he had a great destiny.

"It was also a good thing that he and Yaeko were attracted to each other. So, I set him on the path of his next adventure and when he completed it alone, I knew it was time to go.

"But I did not. I stayed with them, wanting to see the whole tale. He completed all the tasks I told him he needed to complete. We found White Beard's camp and went to rescue the Yaeko's father. We found out what it was that was going to destroy Japan - White Beard had made the swordmaker put guns together. Japan did not get guns for a very long time, which would have changed history had they been allowed to be used. During our escape, Yaeko and I fell behind and they fired at us. I used my power to escape. She, at that moment, realized I had been the one who rescued her from the bandits. She asked me if I loved her. I could not lie. I had fallen in love with her, even though I had no right to. Is that not what happens? Men fall for the princesses. She went to kiss me and I stopped time. If I had been smart...if I had even used my brain a bit, I would have stepped back.

"But I was not. I kissed her. And Kensei saw us."

[sweetsalome.livejournal.com]

The story was unbelievable, or seemed to be, and if she hadn't seen what he could do in real life she probably would have laughed at him. But she remains silent and listens to him continue on, her fingers entwining with his for a moment before letting go. Poor Hiro, his hero had been a fraud and he had fallen for the girl he wasn't suppose to. Even before he finishes the story she has a feeling she knows how it ends. Sighing silently, she picks up his hand and kisses the back of his hand.

"What did he do when he saw you kiss Yaeko?"

[powered-otaku.livejournal.com]

"He was angry that I would betray him so. He decided that I was a liar and that he would join forces with White Beard. He turned me over to White Beard, kept my senses muddled with opium. White Beard promised him Yaeko and part of Japan in return for capturing me. However, Yaeko was much smarter than they thought. She got out her bindings, released her father, managed to get me to come to enough to my senses to teleport us all away.

"That night I went back to White Beard's camp. I had to destroy the guns. Kensei was waiting for me. I begged him not to let Japan be destroyed for my mistake. He would not listen to me. We were in a tent full of gunpowder and I had managed to throw some around. We knocked over a lantern. I knew it was about to explode and I held out my hand to him. I still believed in him. I still knew it was in him to be a hero if he could see past his pain But he refused. He told me he would make me suffer. I could not wait. I teleported away and the tent blew up. In the morning light, I found his kabuto in the debris. I said goodbye to Yaeko and she promised me that she would tell everyone the tale of Kensei so that it would come back to me. I left her there with his sword."

He sighs deeply. "I returned to our time to find out that my father had been murdered. Ando saw it happen. A figure in a hooded jacket grabbed him and pulled him off the top of the building. When Ando raced over to the side, he found my father lying alone on the ground.

"I was determined to stop it from happening, so I went back to save him. I took him back to the day of mother's funeral so that he would understand how it felt to me to lose him. He convinced me, instead, that I could not be god and stop what was meantto happen from happening. However, I was determined that I would know who had murdered him.

"You can imagine my surprise when I found, when I froze time and looked into the face of my father's murderer that I saw the face of the man I had left for dead over 300 years ago."

[sweetsalome.livejournal.com]

Okay, so she didn't know how the story was going to end. Sitting up, she turned to him, her eyes wide and her mouth open. "That bastard killed your father, because you kissed his girlfriend?!" Salome very rarely swears, but she's angry, completely and utterly angry, it's a feeling that she hasn't experienced in a long time. It's so much easier to feel angry at someone else's pain then her own. Still she can't believe that someone would take another man's life simply over a kiss. Trembling, she tries to calm herself down in order to ask her next question, to move on from this feeling. She can't even fathom how Hiro feels, or felt when he saw all this happen.

"How did he find your father? How did he live three hundred years? I - I . . . I am angry!"

[powered-otaku.livejournal.com]

"He was angry because we had fallen in love with each other. She told him she would never love him. He felt I had lied to him when I said she was his princess. I had never meant for it to happen, but he could not believe me." His eyes are downcast. "I understand why he was angry with me."

"Over 30 years ago, my father and others began what became known as 'The Company'. Using a cover company called Primatech. One of the founders was a man named Adam Monroe. My family name is not an uncommon one. He had no way to know that he was my father because they met before even Kimiko was born. I never told him I had an older sister, so he probably did not know.

"The Company's original purpose was to find those of us with abilities to teach them how to use their powers, to help them not hurt others. However, they found a virus that could kill us and began to refine it to take away people's powers. One of them made a strain so fatal that it would have killed everyone. Kensei wanted to let it loose, start the world over again with people he chose. My father had him locked up in the basement of The Company's property, but they did not destroy the virus, just hide it away." His eyes are full of pain. "He was locked away 5 years before I was even born. So,the anger he felt against my father was against him for imprisoning him. He sat for 30 years, until he managed to escape. He began to kill the founders who were not already dead. My father was the first."

He shifts a bit behind her, kisses her between the shoulder blades. "I went back in time, to the day that my father had him locked away. I found out where they had hidden the virus. I knew I had to stop him from getting his hands on it. I went to confront him, only to find that the person who had helped him escape was the most powerful of us. And Kensei had him believing that he was going to destroy the virus. Nothing I could say or do would convince him that Kensei was going to use that virus to kill us all. We fought. Fortunately, his brother had come to my aid. While they spoke, I confronted Kensei. I teleported us away. I assume they destroyed it because we are all still here."

[sweetsalome.livejournal.com]

As she began to understand her anger slowly ebbed and then faded away and she was left staring at him. Now that she wasn't quite as angry as she was before she listened to him more closely, feeling his pain in his words and in his eyes. "He didn't even know that the man he pushed was your father, he did it because he was imprisoned." She spoke softly, just wanting to make sure she got it right.

Shaking her head slowly she leans back against him, taking his hand and squeezing it, trying to comfort him, to some how make him feel better. She doubts her regular methods of doing that would be appropriate now and so she just keeps close and nods at his words. "Who was the person you found there with Kensei? Where did you go, when you teleported away?"

[powered-otaku.livejournal.com]

"I cannot tell you his name. It is not my secret to give. He is a good man. Kensei had fooled him into believing that he wished to destroy the virus, not use it."

His voice is full of sorrow. "You asked me if Daigoro's revenge was worth it. In this, I was my father's son. He had his revenge against both me and my father and it was up to me to finish it. But I could not kill him. Even after all this I believe in him. I know how to kill him, but I could not. However, revenge is still mine. I buried him. He lies in a grave - suffering life and death over and over again. I gave him even worse than my father did. He will get out some time. Of this I am convinced, but I can only hope that I am dead before that happens. I am the worst kind of coward."

[sweetsalome.livejournal.com]

His voice breaks her heart, she can feel it shatter into pieces and fall into the pit of her stomach. Her fingers are light and cool on his cheek as she slowly shakes her head, trying to get rid of the emotion that wells up within her. "No," her voice is a light, soft croak and she has to clear her throat before she can even continue.

"You are no coward, Hiro. You are a good, good man, and your mercy in sparing his life is testament of that. Sometimes, sometimes death is a blessing, and sometimes, death is too good for some people." Leaning forward, she presses her forehead against his. "How can you say you are a coward, you did more then most people would ever do, you did not run away."

[powered-otaku.livejournal.com]

"How could I run away? It was all my fault. My father's actions were his own and Kensei had his right to take some action against him, though it should not have been murder. I suspect he knew later that he was my father, which made his revenge all the sweeter, I suppose. If he had ruined my father or something like that, I would have understood. I would have possibly sympathized. But killing him was beyond that. I could not let that pass."

"You do not feel I am a horrible person. That I would come up with such revenge? Christianity teaches you that vengeance is wrong." He gives a mirthless laugh. "Buddhism does as well, but we have changed it a little to suit us."

[sweetsalome.livejournal.com]

"People run away all the time, when they do horrible, horrible things. You stayed and you took care of what you needed to, there are people who wouldn't even do that. They would have stuck their heads in the sand and pretend not to see." She felt all too guilty about that last statement, she had hidden and ran away from her father many, many times.

"You took revenge on the man who killed your father, your actions are justified. I would be a hypocrite if I said you were a horrible person, if I judged you for what you had done. Especially after you have not judged me." Opening her eyes she slid her hand down to his neck and took a deep breath.

[powered-otaku.livejournal.com]

"Now you see why if you give me the word, your father will never bother you again. No one other than you would ever know." He gently kisses her. "He would never hurt you again. He would never steal your son from you and you would never have to worry that he might escape or get others to do the work for him."

"I want you to be happy, to live the kind of life you deserve to live, not the prisoner your father has made you."

[sweetsalome.livejournal.com]

It's so tempting, he could make it all go away, it would be so easy. Her tongue passes over her bottom lip, and she inhales deeply, thinking about killing him herself. She feels so guilty that she wants to do that, she feels guilty that she doesn't want to do it. "Oh, Hiro . . . Sometimes, I feel so bad, I feel that it's my fault. Because, I didn't fight him, because I . . ." her voice goes hoarse as she paled, "because I liked it."

It's a humiliating confession and all of a sudden she can't feel her fingers or think straight. She keeps her eyes shut tight, but she doesn't cry. "I just wanted him to love me. I wanted him to love me and he turned me into a monster."

[powered-otaku.livejournal.com]

"He made you like it. He wanted you to want him, to allow him to do anything he wanted to you. It is not your fault. He seduced you. And he is your father - you were taught to respect him, to love him. He twisted that. He is the monster, not you." He gently turns her around and holds her close. "You were young, wanting to be loved. All little girls want to be loved by their fathers. They want to be the most important person in their lives. I know this. My sister was the same. But my father did not take advantage of her. Your father did. He turned your perfectly normal feelings into something he could use against you to satisfy his desires. He does not care for you. He only cares for what he can get from you."

[sweetsalome.livejournal.com]

She doesn't want to believe him, she wants to think that her father still loved her, that no matter what he would always love her. Deep down, she knows that he's right though, his father got Jonba and now she was useless to him. Curling up in his arms she hides her face in his chest, her breathing ragged and uneven.

"I didn't do anything wrong? It's not my fault that he did this to me? I just need to know."

[powered-otaku.livejournal.com]

"No, it is not your fault. He used you. What he did to you is nothing a loving father should do to his daughter. He should protect you from animals like himself. If he wanted a son, he could have adopted or found a woman his own age to get a son from. Your son is the only beautiful thing to come from the evil thing he did to you." He can't even think of that innocent child as something bad. No matter how he came into the world, he's so sweet and innocent. They both deserve a better life.

[sweetsalome.livejournal.com]

She is so thankful for his words, for him being able to see that Jonba wasn't an evil monster. It was the one fear she had always had, that if anyone found out what Jonba was that they would hate him, scorn him for her mistakes. Opening her eyes, she slowly sits up in his lap and looks deep into his eyes, her fingers touched his hair carefully. "Do you love him, Hiro?"