Violence Under the Skin - Printable Version

The air in the common officer room was stale, heavy with the smell of cigars and tea. Only two officers were present at the time, Lieutenant Commander Victor Steiner and Captain Kaze Dagon. What was once a time filling conversation soon escalated from hypothetical scenarios to a discussion that changed the perspective of those two persons.

"Dead men tell no tales, need no air neither respect. Ask the dead if they care. Silence is your answer."
She paused.
"The time you lose burying them is the time more bretonians died and you were not there. Then ask the dead again.. If they care for your respect. And once again. Silence will be your answer."

"The bodies are but empty husks the soul has long since departed from it is true, But they died believing their cause was as just and as righteous as our own. When they got up this morning, they did not plan to die this day. So i will give them dignity in death. I will bury them and properly mark their graves, for the men and women they were. I am not a murderer."

"You just killed two men to push a button. How are you not?"

"Murderers do not ask men to leave first, murderers do not bury and mark their victims graves. I gave them the choice to leave, they did not As was their right. They stayed, i pressed that button because that's what was needed, i killed those men because they did not stand aside, despite having the option to do so.
Tell me, is that not an action worthy of respect?"

"And while you gave them that option, Bretonians died. Go stand in their ashes and ask their ghosts what do they think of your honor. Silence, once again, is your answer."

"That is my burden to carry, and mine alone. But i would rather it me than another. Yes, i am responsible for their deaths, But i still saw the mission through."

"Good for you. You could have been faster and saved more bretonians. How nice for your honor."

"Oh because Bretonians are that much more important?"

"More important than your honor? Yes."

"Honor keeps us Human."

"If being human causes the demise of our people, then I will gladly become a monster to avoid such."

"So in order to fight monsters you will become one, tell me how that benefits us?"

"Our people will be alive. And if my death is needed to for them to be safe away from the monster I became, then it shall be so."

"If all our people became monsters then we deserve death. We fight to keep ourselves from becoming the enemy, becoming a monster IS the enemy, thus we failed."

"Not all of our people. Just us. The ones that are willing to sacrifice everything, even who we are to ensure that Bretonia is safe."

He laughs. "Captain.. I believe i have greatly misunderstood you."

"We are the ones that should be sacrificed. Because of the oath we took at the beginning. Because of what we are. Of who we are. In the end, if i die as a monster, I will die gladly for I know I have fulfilled my duty."

"Yes...yes I have misunderstood you totally. You don't fight out of hate for the enemy. You don't despise them....No, of course you don't. You are indifferent to their presence, after all what is the difference between one enemy to the next really? No, Captain. You fight because of something so basic i am ashamed that i have missed it till now. Its not duty nor is it loyalty, although i have no doubt that those things stem from this one driving emotion. You fight out of Love.... And what love you possess! So powerful as to be mistaken for rage or hatred. You who care so deeply for Bretonians that you, out of pure love for them, will sacrifice your very soul to save them."

She raises an eyebrow. "Do not take me for a candid and frivolous princess."

He laughs harder at the remark.

"I am a captain of the Armed Forces. I show my love and devotion in my actions."

"Of course you do. Your actions speak far more of your character than your words could ever do. And such actions show such love as to almost defy description."

"This line of inquiries are leaving me somewhat uncomfortable. You talk of love when I am talking of duty. And love is not what we have most base. Fear is. And if I have to appeal to yours. I will."

"Not true Captain, not true at all. Terror and Love go hand and hand at times. Your Duty is a child born of your love for Bretonia and those within her. How could i fear a woman who is possessed with such feeling as you are? Scream at me if you will, strike me if you must. I do understand now, More than i did before at least."

"I will strike if I have reason for it. Now, do not make see you in the same light as I see a nuisance. Because then I will deal with you in the same fashion. Do believe that. Because I do strike hard.
And... When I start something, I do finish it."

"I have no question of your resolve, I do not doubt that you have had....less than pleasurable experiences in your life and for that I am truly sorry. However the fact of your motivations for fighting this war remain true. Your Heart may be hardened by your experiences, which is understandable, but your soul remains intact."

"Why are you sorry for something that has clearly nothing to do with you? And as for my soul, you know nothing. I am willing to become a monster because I was one once before. And the motivations for fighting for Bretonia are based out of love, yes. But it runs more deep than you think. I am a selfish person in that remark. So do not put me on a pedestal, do not say that I have a soul, do not mistake me for a woman of honor."

Steiner smiles sadly. "But it does have something to do with me, not directly i grant you but in this moment in time, it does. I have flown under your command, Spoken to you like i am doing now. What you experienced has in turn affected me, because we have met. As for your soul.......I would simply state that you are not the only person to suffer hardship."

He pauses before continuing. "I do not believe you to be as selfish as you claim, we are all far more critical with ourselves. As i have mentioned, i do not know your past, not for lack of trying i assure you. You do have a soul and you are a woman of Honor, that much i know."

Kaze rose her face, and their eyes met. Stone cold. "Underneath my skin there is a violence you cannot fathom. We all have our paths to walk, and the one I chose for myself is one of solitude, for I do not want to share that violence with anyone undeserving. The only ones that do are the ones about to die, so I would thread carefully with your next words, Lieutenant Commander. For then, it will be your personal responsibility to withstand a storm of the likes few have ever seen."

He paces back and forth, considering all that has been said, his eyes glitter and cloud over as new thoughts and conclusions unfold in his mind. He stops and looks at his captain with an odd smile, and the look of a man who has come to the only decision he knew he could make, the look of a man who had made up his mind and would not flinch from this point forward.

"My words chosen carefully Captain...." He hesitates "....Kaze. I will not flinch from this storm. I am here to help, i believe that is my purpose. Let me."

Raising an eyebrow, Kaze looked ready to dispense judgement. Cold and distant.

"Do you know what my name means, Lieutenant Commander?"

"I can certainly venture a guess, if you'll let me."

"Do so."

He ponders her name for a moment.
Well i'd say its from Kusari...."
She rolls her eyes.

"Which would suggest it has roots in ancient Earth.. An old name... Kaze.. I wonder if it is related to Kamikaze"
She continues to look at Steiner with a raised eyebrow and a steel like face.

"Kamikaze.. Wind... No.. Violent wind.."
He begins pacing again muttering under his breath. Kaze leans on the wall and begins to tap her bionic fingers against the wall. Each tap sounding harder like a countdown. He pays her little attention, further loosing himself in thought.

"Wind... Kami... Divine... No... Yes... Divine Wind... And the ancient Japanese worshipped nature... Or revered it
... Damned... No... Divine Wind... Hurricane... Extreme... Extreme or Extremes? Either will do. That is my guess."
Flicking, unimpressed, a small speck of dust from her hand, Kaze pushes herself from the wall and walks towards Steiner, in silence.

Victor stands dead still, turning to face her completely and giving her his full attention now that he had issued his answer. She halts her walk mere inches from Steiner's face, and looks at him up and down.

He considers going straight into attention stance, as every fibre of his Being demanded, but he stood as still as he could physically be, looking at her face, glancing ever so briefly into her eyes, then to her ears, cheeks... He took the time to look at her, actually look. No longer the feared voice on the radio in space, Kaze Dagon now stood before him in all her majesty... And still he did not move.

"You are wrong, Lieutenant Commander. It means Wind. You over think, over analyse instead of simple action."

''Damned'' was all he really thought ''Was right the first time".

"Ah... I know."

"And Wind is something you cannot break, you cannot hope to yield at your beck and call. It comes towards you unannounced. And when it is right, it becomes.. "
She turns her back.
"Yoarashi."
Kaze muttered. Standing straight, with her back to Steiner, she continued.

"You cannot help me, Lieutenant Commander. You can only facilitate my path. And now you are obstructing it. Kindly remove yourself from my presence before I start to do what I do best."

"Because of a name you would reject all assistance?"
He couldn't help himself blurting that out. He had been down this road before, he was not coming to a roadblock and been told to turn around again.
"Air, water, fire... Even earth yields in time. True, you can't catch air, true you cannot break it. I desire neither."

"I asked you, Lieutenant Commander. Shall I issue an order?"

Now he was seriously conflicted... He could disobey an order... But she would be more than within her rights treat insubordination as she saw fit... Which he did not doubt she would do. Still... Leaving now... Damn. No... No, he would disobey... He braced for a bullet as he spoke.

"Sorry Captain...I'm afraid I can't."

She turns and quickly walks towards Steiner, steely face, cold eyes. As Kaze is inches away from him, that bionic hand punches the wall and makes a hole right to the side of Steiner's head, with a speed that was almost impossible for a human to achieve.
"Do you want the monster, Lieutenant Commander? Because the monster only knows one thing. And it is not love. Or reason."

His ear rang as the Monster inside Dagon stirred. He wanted to run, apologise or beg forgiveness, every gentlemanly bone in his body screamed for him to adhere to the rules that would normally bind him, but he silenced them... No ladies or gentlemen were to be found here now, here lay only monsters.