Chapter Text
It hadnt stopped raining in Inazuma for weeks by this point.
Normally, Kazuha would enjoy the rain. Leaning back into a woolen blanket, curled on his mat, listening to the pellets drop onto the tin roof above his head before rolling off onto the land around his modest home. It hadn't been his childhood estate in the least, but in irony, Kazuha felt freer within that little one-room house than he had ever felt.
The closeness of nature felt intimate to him; a friend he could always rely on.
But now...
Thunder rumbled across the sky again and he tensed up unwillingly. The harsh rain splattered his face as be searched desperatrly for any form of cover. He could hear the Shogunate soldiers' shouts from behind him in the distance, obscured by rain and Kazuha's strained heartbeat thumping loudly in his ears.
His friend's Vision was burning his hand even through this rain. But he didn't let up. One thing the collapse of his clan had taught him was endurance, and he was not going down so easily.
Or at all, he nodded surely to himself.
He slid down a hill cliff, legs shaking from a multitude of ailments, and dashed his way into an old, dilapidated house. the roof was full of holes, yet he found a corner that was still relatively dry, and plopped his weary body down.
It was so hard to keep his eyes open...
Once he was off his feet, away from the pressure of Shogunate persueants, his body began to scream at him with everything he could imagine.
His head was pounding and pounding, a migraine setting in. His limbs were shaking, clothes drenched with cold rain and sweat, even a bit of blood here and there. Numb...His feet and fingers felt numb, his throat was parched like a desert. He was tired...
Kazuha leaned back, trying to steady his irregular breathing.
It would be fine. He...just needed a bit of rest. That was all.
He'd be fine.
~
Kazuha barely got any rest at all.
The thunder storm continued during the night, jolting him awake every hour or so. He felt even more exhausted in the morning after than he did when he tried to sleep the night before. Nonetheless, he stood up, bracing himself against the wall to ease the dizziness.
His stomach groaned, longingly, and he winced. Of course...adrenaline had kept his stomach quiet for the past few days while he was being chased, but that didnt mean he hadn't been starving the entire time.
And now, those effects were finally rearing their ugly heads as he was "safe."
Kazuha shook his head to keep the dizzy spells away, and slipped a hand between the fabrics of his haori, cold fingers trying to soothe his empty stomach.
I will be fine, he told himself, clutching his friend's Vision with his other hand --that also ached and burned like toxin in an open wound, for some reason. I will make it to Ritou, and then fish from the copius fishing ponds they have scattered around the docks.
The sound of fish eased his mind. His father had taken him fishing in Ritou plenty of times when he was a young boy, he knew even the secret spots well enough. His stomach growled beneath his hand once more, also delighted at the prospect of fish.
He took up a steadier pace, praying to some diety --not the Raiden Shogun-- that he would find safety in the island...
~
Of course, the universe was against him today.
Kazuha slid down against a tree, trying to catch his breath. His position obscured by some rocky cliffs around the city, some boxes stacked up beside the tree just in case. He winced as the sun began to shine intensely down onto him, worsening his migraine.
Nothing. He had severly underestimated the amount of people flooding Ritou. And with more people, came a higher demand of food, which meant there were not even scraps to spare.
His stomach ached and growled under his hand and curled into himself further, trying to ease the empty ache plaguing his organs. For once, the sand around him looked quite enticing...but he wasn't a fool. He didn't need some kind of illness attacking his system along with the other slew of problems he was facing.
But still...
He sighed, pushing himself up a bit. While he was no longer being persued, he had caught sight of posters with his name and face on it, promising a tidy sum of Mora for his body and the Shell he was desperately holding onto. The foreigners in Ritou were extra vigilant, keeping their eyes peeled for the criminal who would provide them with enough money to send them back to their homeland.
His stomach growled again and Kazuha stiffened, breath shallow. Seems they might need to keep their ears open, too.
He sat up against the tree, blocking the sun from his view as he scoured the beach. Well, he wouldn't get caught today. Despite the entire universe weighing on his shoulders in sickness, he wouldn't let anyone touch him.
Double vision greeted him as he looked around for any means of escape from Ritou. It was hard to focus on anything with a fever, combined with hunger and dehydration, but he soon found his target.
An enormous, regal Liyuen pirate ship, docked only a little bit away from his current hiding spot. It scared him just the slightest; this was no rickety boat that Inazuma had. The wood was a dark, polished chocolate, the cream-colored sails billowing in the wind. A dragon was carved into the wood at the helm, warning anyone of even setting foot near the ship.
But Kazuha was too weary, delirious, and desperate too heed that sign.
A plank was extended onto one of Inazuma's docks, and the crew was going back and forth, setting down some boxes, and loading up others. They were laughing and talking merrily, but Kazuha's eyes were drawn to...
There. That box, with the lid propped open.
He felt a gust of wind blow through him, as if urging him to take this chance. It whispered wishes of luck and promised him a new beginning, if only he could lift his heavy foot and take a step forward.
A sharp whistle cut through the air, and the unseen Captain called her crew back onto the ship. Fear pierced Kazuha's heart, and the adrenaline that had sustained him this long kicked into his system again.
As the crew turned their backs, he dashed out of his hiding spot, using the wind to boost him as he lept onto the dock. He jumped inside the box, crouching down and sliding the lid back on with bated breath.
It was cramped, so very cramped. His heart was pounding in his ears as he held down the wooden lid atop his hiding place. He felt the footsteps of heavy boots on the dock beneath him, heard the chattering of people, and smelled the slight stench of Liyuen alchohol as someone bent down, and hesved his box up.
His empty stomach lurched, and he closed his eyes. He was waiting, just waiting for this person to get confused at thr box's uneven weight. The fact that maybe they had one extra. Maybe they could smell him, or something.
Kazuha waited to be abandoned on the dock, so close to freedom but so far away.
And yet, the person carrying him never stopped walking. They walked up the incline, jumped down onto sturdy wood, walked into a dark room, and roughly deposited Kazuha on the floor. They whistled a familiar tune as they walked away, and slammed the storage door shut.
Moments later, he felt the lurch of the ship beneath him as it began to sail through the waters. Nausea jumped to his throat, but he forced it down.
Carefully, he nudged up the lid of his crate, tired eyes glancing warily at his surroundings.
A dark room. Stacks and stacks of crates. A door with a circular window, sun shining through it.
Kazuha couldn't stop a soft laugh of disbelief as it slipped from his cracked lips.
He had done it.
He was free.