Corpse March

Chapter 10

“Haru, wait!”

She bursts from the tent and slips. The grass is wet, but not with water. A curse looses from Haru’s lips as her forehead hits the ground. But when she lifts her head back up, she’s silent. Red clouds her eyes. It stains the ground. It pools and flows onto Haru’s hands. Blood. No matter how many times she sees it, it always scares her. But she barely even notices. Her eyes are instead locked onto Kagami.

“Kagami… hey, Kagami.”

She’s sleeping on the ground like she just fainted all of a sudden. There’s a broken teacup in her hands. How clumsy of her. 

“Wake up, Kagami. We need to get out of here.”

“WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!”

A voice like a crashing wave slams into her side. It takes her a moment to grasp that it’s Kikimi's. Slowly and painstakingly, Haru turns her head away from Kagami’s still body, waiting for her is the soldier girl’s gaze. It strikes her like a lightning bolt strikes the ground. It’s no wonder, then, that the punch that comes after feels like being struck by thunder. There are people out of their tents now. They stand in the corner of Haru’s vision, watching.

“MURDERER!”

Somebody grabs her shoulder. She shakes them off but forgets about KANNIBAL. Its blade swerves to protect its master. More blood drips from a fresh wound. It’s no more than a graze, but it’s enough to invite the sharks into the water. Chaos erupts. 

“MURDERER!”

“W-wait! You’re making a mistake!”

The first thing they take from her is her weapon. That’s fine, they can have it but the hands don’t stop there. No matter how much she tries to wrest herself from their grip, they keep clawing at her. Then there’s the voices. They come as whispers and as yells in equal measure. Their words begin to blur together. She blocks them out. There’s foam in her mouth now. There are guns pointed at her now. Enough that even her guard spell wouldn’t be able to block them all. 

“Pin her down!”

“Don’t let her escape!”

They force her into manacles, harsh restraints that bind her arms and her legs.  Once her struggle is rendered useless, they step back, forming a ring around Haru. They palm their guns and their knives in hesitation. She isn’t sure if they’re hesitating because they aren’t sure if they want to kill her, or if they’re just deciding how they want to kill her. These people who broke bread with her and watched her be wed, these are the people who are to be her executioners. For a moment, she’s overcome with hatred at the sheer injustice of what’s about to happen to her. Right now, she couldn’t care less about their grief or what, she just wants them dead. She splays her fingers, points away from herself, and exhales, preparing the incantation for a Flame Bolt. She doesn’t care who she hits anymore. Though, getting Kikimi in the crossfire would be nice. 

“Get your hands off of her.”

A calm, commanding voice cuts through the chaotic din. It sends shivers up Haru’s spine. At the entrance of her personal tent, leaning on her staff, with an expression that seems to look down on everything around her, is Tsumugi. Kikimi pushes her way to the front of the crowd. 

“This girl is charged for the murder–”

Her voice catches in her throat. 

“For the cold-blooded murder of student council vice president and beloved wife, Kagami Kentomi.”

“Is that so? Do you have any proof?”

“Proof?! This girl is an outsider–”

“That ‘outsider’ is my wife. She is an honorary citizen of Takakumo City. You have no right executing the very people you pledged to protect.”

Some tempers fizzle out while others flare even brighter. Faces in the crowd turn nasty. They stay hidden amidst hung heads, like predators hiding in the tall grass. Their grips tighten around their guns, but they can’t do anything, so they begrudgingly take their fingers off of their triggers. 

“Now, feel free to correct me if I’m wrong, but that sounded like a gunshot."

"...and?"

"Do you see a gun in Haru's hands?"

"No."

"Would it also surprise you if I said that Haru was with me when the gunshot rang out?"

"...No."

A scowl crosses Kikimi's face. 

"No it wouldn't."

"And that hole in the side of your wife’s head. It seems to be a bullet hole. Get me a tally of all firearms that use ammunition approximately...”

Tsumugi squints at the bullet hole. 

“.50 BMG… that’s the only ammunition class capable of even harming Kagami. I know that Kagami secured a permit for her honor guard to carry one .50 caliber sniper rifle. You four.”

She picks out four random people from the crowd. 

“Check the supply room, it might be gone. And you.”

She points at another person. 

“Alert Takakumo City about Kagami’s fate. We cannot allow the situation to get any worse. Everyone else, search the perimeter in trios. The perpetrator might still be here.”

Nobody says or does anything, frozen in their hesitation. Then, a single word sets the crowd alight. 

“MOVE!”

Suddenly everyone’s moving. Somebody steps on her head, once, twice, three times. On the one hand, it’s comforting to know that she’s been all but forgotten. On the other, ow. Thankfully, someone lifts her off the ground and moves her off to the side. 

“You okay?”

Tsumugi’s gentle voice reaches her ears. Immediately, all the adrenaline, all the hostility, all the hatred that had been building up inside of her just suddenly disappears. 

“Yeah… thanks for that.”

“Don’t sweat it.”

She can hear her smiling.

“Um, would you mind getting me out of here?”

“Not here. Bear with me for a moment.”