Magic Knight Rayearth Fan Fiction ❯ The Man Who Fell to Earth ❯ Walk Softly ( Chapter 6 )

CHAPTER 6:

Walk Softly…

 

 

Strange dream this morning. All I remember was hearing “Puu!” Over and over again. “Puu! Puu!” I guess it was supposed to mean something, but whatever it was, I can't tell. Plus, now I have a craving for marshmallows. As far as I know, I don't even like marshmallows.

 

Harry put down his pen, satisfied with his dream entry into the journal. Patricia was right that he had only bits and pieces. If it was part of some grand whole, he wasn't seeing the entire picture just yet. Maybe he had to give himself time. He'd only been writing in it a week, and that made almost three weeks since the accident.

 

Why had he been walking that road at night? There wasn't much out there but the ranch itself. Was he an escaped mental patient? Now that was a scary thought. He shoved those away quickly and started on his more productive morning stretches.

 

As he stretched and heard popping noises, he wondered how old he was. The people at the hospital had a guess but no real answer for him. To Harry, all he really knew was the date he'd been hit by the car. That would make his birthday, or at least his current awareness of his self, March third—just like Umi.

 

He hobbled to his window and looked outside. The morning sky was blue and inviting. He decided in his heart that outside was where he really wanted to be. The problem with his plan would be in actually getting there.

 

Because of already having students in wheelchairs and motorized scooters, there were several smooth nature paths on the ranch grounds. If he escaped now, he could avoid the counseling session with Patricia. He liked the woman and found her helpful, but it was the draw of the blue sky that was influencing him right now.

 

He packed a book in the travel pouch on his chair. Then he stuck his head out the door of his room to make sure no one was coming. There were noises from farther down the hallway, but the coast was clear.

 

He sat in the chair and pushed the wheels as hard as he could to get outside. He'd made it almost out of the building when Jessie found him.

 

“Hi, Harry. What are you doing?”

 

He winced because he didn't really want to tell her in case she tried to make him go back to Patricia. “I'm running away,” he admitted.

 

She put her hand on one hip and assessed his situation. “Where are you going?”

 

“Outside. Anywhere but stuck inside my room or someone else's office,” he said with a sour look on his face.

 

She bent down low, putting her face level with his. “Do you want me to help?”

 

Harry looked at her suspiciously and then asked in a mock mafia boss voice, “You turnin' me into the Feds?”

 

She laughed and took hold of his chair from behind. “I have a class to teach next period, but I can sneak you past the guards,” she said jokingly.

 

Harry thanked his lucky starts he'd found Jessie. Though he hadn't pushed the wheels too much, it was very tiring. Steve had definitely been right that he should be building his upper-body strength.

 

Jessie pushed him down the ramp and on a path that went behind the building, well out of sight of Patricia or others unless they were on the grounds. “Do you want to go to the gazebo?” she asked.

 

“No,” he said, though he thought the place lovely. For some reason, he felt the need to be near the water. “I'd like to go to sit by the stream.”

 

“Your wish is my command, though I'd be remiss if I didn't point something out,” she said as she walked. “You can't stay out there all morning, and how do you expect to get back when you're done doing whatever your doing?”

 

“Well, you'll come and get me, of course,” he said sweetly, batting his eyelashes at her in a flirtatious way.

 

She laughed at his manner, but inwardly she knew she'd look for him at lunch when she had free time again. When they'd gotten to the water, she parked the chair under the shade of a tree and then set the brakes so he wouldn't unwillingly roll away.

 

“Thank you, Jessica,” he said to her after letting out a sigh of satisfaction.

 

The look of pleasure on his face as he closed his eyes was enough to silence what words might have come out. Instead, she took another look at him to fix it into her memory, and then she went back to the school to teach her next class.

 

-&-

 

Umi stood by her office window scowling at the blue sky outside. In truth, it was a lovely day. It was a day like Cephiro had in the best of times. While Cephiro was never far from her heart—no experience so strong as that could ever allow itself to be anywhere else—everything since she'd met Harry seemed to take on some character of Cephiro. It was maddening and distracting to no end.

 

And why hasn't Hikaru answered my email? she angrily wondered.

 

There were only two people who would take her confidences, and Fuu, she knew for a fact, was unavailable. She'd told Umi as much after her birthday phone call. Shidou Hikaru had no such excuse, and Umi was going to take things into her own hands, and the time zone difference didn't matter any more. Umi was going to get what she wanted.

 

She took her cell phone out of her purse and used the speed dial. It would be about midnight in Japan. She just hoped her red haired friend was safe first. She could yell at her later for not answering her mails once she knew she was fine.

 

She let the phone ring and ring. When it turned over to voice mail, she tried again. Umi had almost lost hope that Hikaru would answer when she heard a tired voice on the other end.

 

“Hikaru! Where have you been!” demanded the former Water Knight.

 

“In my bed asleep,” she said, clearly not quite awake yet to talk to Umi.

 

“How come you didn't answer your phone right away?” she asked forcefully.

 

Hikaru sat up, coming awake by degrees. “Hikari moved it.”

 

“Likely story,” Umi muttered. “Did you get my email?”

 

“Probably, but…” She shrugged in the darkness. “I just haven't had time to check it lately. We've been too busy training new students.”

 

It was true that Hikaru was busy with the running of her family Kendo dojo. Umi tried to be patient. She reminded herself that the world didn't really revolve around her, even if she felt this was urgently important.

 

That thought failed, however, when she realized she'd already gone ahead and made the phone call. She should at least find out what Hikaru knew. Maybe she had some latent power of the Pillar still left in her, and maybe she'd summoned Clef to earth. That would be no stranger than Princess Emeraude summoning herself, Fuu and Hikaru to Cephiro that first time.

 

“Hikaru, listen. I think Clef is here. On earth. With me,” Umi said, clutching the phone as she spoke.

 

The seriousness of her words made any sleepiness that Hikaru had fall away from her immediately.

 

“What do you mean? How can this be?” she asked with a stunned voice.

 

Umi's own voice rose in pitch as she answered, “That's why I called you! I sent you his picture by email, Hikaru. I need you to look and see.”

 

The redhead scrambled to the computer that was in the office and turned it on. She was so intent on getting to her email, she didn't even ask any questions. Umi did, though.

 

“Did you bring him here?”

 

“How could I?” she asked in shock.

 

“You had the will to be Pillar. How else could he get here?” Umi asked.

 

Hikaru was almost afraid to look at the email and attached photo. “Are you sure it's him?”

 

“Please, just look at the picture, and you'll see for yourself,” she said in a pleading tone. After the sound of silence went on too long at the other end of the phone, Umi asked, “Hikaru?”

 

“I'm here,” the former Fire Knight replied with a shocked sound in her voice. “That's not him, but yet… it is. I can't believe it.”

 

Umi nodded though Hikaru could not see or hear it. “I know. I wanted someone else to see it so I could prove I wasn't losing my mind.”

 

“Does he act like Clef?” Hikaru asked after looking at the picture again.

 

Umi hummed as she thought. “He does, but he doesn't. I told him that Clef was a magician, so now he has been learning magic tricks to entertain the children. It's not real magic, of course, and he probably did it as a way to tease me.”

 

“You and Clef did not start off on the best of terms in Cephiro, Umi, so if he is trying to tease you, that wouldn't be too strange for him,” Hikaru commented in a bewildered tone while trying to make some sense of it all.

 

Umi sighed. “Hikaru, I just don't want to believe it's him if it's not. Maybe my mind is playing tricks on me. I didn't think I was so lonely for him that I would start seeing things. I have Scott, and I love him. But… Well, you know how the shadows of our hearts can sometimes come to life.”

 

“I do,” Hikaru said, remembering Nova.

 

“And you didn't bring him here?” Umi asked again.

 

“No, Umi. I don't have the power of the Pillar here, and you know that,” Hikaru answered sadly.

 

“I'm sorry I woke you,” Umi said woefully as she ended the phone call.

 

On the other side of the world, Hikaru touched the screen where the photograph flashed in front of her. If he was not merely a look-alike and he was actually Clef, then what did that mean for Cephiro? Was the world all the Knights had loved in danger once more?

 

Hikaru didn't know the answers, and her sleep, when she tried again, was troubled with the possibilities of what this man's appearance could mean.

 

-&-

 

Under the tree, Harry was feeling restless. Yes, he'd made his brilliant escape, but now what? He took out his book and started flipping through the pages. Joan had managed to get him a few books from the library on magic tricks. She even found one for him at a second-hand shop. That was the one he'd brought outside with him, he realized, and he immediately regretted it.

 

The book was old and not that well made. The sheets of paper were loose in the binding and fell out of the book, some floating on the wind into the water. There they stopped and waited invitingly, as if teasing or daring him to come retrieve them.

 

He was stubborn enough that the pieces of paper weren't going to get the better of him. Growling in frustration, Harry eased himself out of the chair. He was still a bit wobbly when he walked, so he'd have to try to get there by inching down to the bank on his butt. He almost made it safely to the water's edge when he hit a slick spot and went tumbling down without control into the water.

 

He landed on his arm, and rolled over to shout curses and epithets into the bright blue sky. He angrily snatched the pages around him and wondered how he was going to get out of this one. There was no way he'd wait until whatever time Jessie came back. If he did, what would he tell her? Oh, yes, Jessie. I just decided to take a swim in the ice-cold water. No problems. No problems at all.

 

Just when he was about to get really angry about his circumstances, he heard a teenager's mocking voice. “Looks like the cracker got dunked in the water.”

 

“Who are you?” Harry called out with a scowl in his face. He still couldn't see the boy.

 

Stepping into his line of vision, Harry saw a short, skinny black boy with braids. He looked perfectly healthy, so he wondered if the kid was one of those with non-physical handicaps.

 

“Derrick Johnson,” he said, standing like one of the rap singers from the glossy magazines. “If you tell anyone I was here, I'll have to put a cap in yo' a…”

 

“I get the picture,” he interrupted. “You get me out of here, and we'll work up a deal.”

 

Derrick made to walk away. “I don't owe you anything.”

 

Harry was so angry at being in his predicament that he took a small rock from beside him and threw it at the boy. When he hit him squarely on the shoulder, Derrick turned around and snarled at him.

 

“What'd you do that for?”

 

“I need to get out of here,” he said staring at him right back. “Are you too much of a little weakling to do that?”

 

Derrick had always been the runt of the group, so that got him where it hurt. “I ain't too weak for nothin'!” he said as he made his way down to the bank.

 

“Stop!” Harry shouted before he could hit the same slick spot that he'd found. “Get a long branch or something before we both end up on our as…” he looked at the kid, remembering he was in a school-like environment, “in the water.”

 

“You're going to pay for getting my shoes cleaned,” Derrick complained as he searched for a suitable branch.

 

He had to run down the bank several meters until he found one that looked long and strong enough. It was knotted and gnarly, but about six feet long and seemed strong. He went back down to the rocks and got close to Harry to help him stand.

 

He gripped tightly on the pole to get in standing position, and then he leaned heavily on Derrick's shoulder as they walked. Together the two made it up the bank to the chair sitting peacefully under the tree as if nothing had happened. Harry fell into the chair, breathing heavily, drenched from head to toe and simply exhausted.

 

“You're stronger than you look,” he conceded. “Do you life weights with Steve and the other boys?”

 

“Mr. Ford? Nah, I don't like his class,” he replied full of bravado.

 

“Whatever,” Harry dismissed. “You could show them a thing or two.”

 

That idea very much appealed to Derrick, and he would have asked more about it had they not been interrupted at that moment by a woman's shriek.

 

“Derrick Malik Johnson! You come here right this instant!”