********* (I Love You) Aki LIV: Hitoku - A FFXI Love StoryFollow

AUTHOR’S NOTE: I’ve written part of the following chapter, if I can I’ll finish it tonight or tomorrow morning and post it up online.

Read, review, etc.

Previous chapters, aki, and Interludes

Part I - Connection (Enishi)

Kasho II - Kodoku (Solitude)

Part III - Reunion (Saikai)

Kasho IV- Suriyoru (Closer)

Part V- Secrets (Hiou)

Kasho VI- Hanarebanare (Apart)

Part VII- Longing (Akogare)
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(Chapter LI)
http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=10&mid=1151677343267156940

(Aki LII)
http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=35;mid=1153741144155412598;page=1#1153741144155412598

(Chapter LIII)
http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=35&mid=1153826582161798543
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Bonus Story: Rainfall Memories
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Aki LIV: Hitoku
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It was then that the linkpearl that I had taken with me out of the command center decided to crackle to life, finally drawing both Hitomi’s and my attention away from each other.

"Attention troops, this is the Marquisat of Tavnazia speaking. After talking with our generals, it has been decided that there are too many beastman troops upon the Archipelago for us to be able to defeat..."

My eyes lifted up for a moment and I could see that nearly everyone on the battlefield had their pearl lifted up to their ears with one hand, while keeping up the resistance against the hordes with their other hand. Hitomi then poked me lightly in the cheek to draw my attention before pointing downwards, where I saw quite a few of the Taru-taru Warlocks huddled around Hitomi’s and my own legs trying to listen in on what I realized probably was the only working pearl among all of them. I squatted down, so they could all hear what was being said.

"...Therefore, I am issuing an immediate retreat of all Tavnazian forces. You all will regroup with the civilian population base upon the mainland, and we will try to figure out where to go from there."

At this, the Marquisat paused and I realized that all the Warlocks around me were stunned at this news, even Hitomi.

"You all did well...and I promise you, Tavnazia will rise again. Good luck, and may Altana’s divine light guide and protect you all. Marquisat out."

I felt Hitomi’s hand squeeze my own through my armor, and then she dragged me away from the crowd of Taru-tarus that were starting to warp away in flurries of black magic clouds, and towards the ladder that I had climbed up upon just a few moments earlier.

"You should just warp away Hitomi, I’ll be fine. We can get back together again at the fallback point..." I said to her, thinking only of her safety.

She stopped moving for a moment, and turned her head to stare at me with icy-emerald eyes.

"No, I no lose you no more.," she said in her slightly stilted English before continuing to move onwards. I only laughed a tiny bit, and then gripped the top of the ladder with my hands and quickly made my way down it’s length, with Hitomi following me.

Taking her hand into mine once more, we started to dash back into the heart of the dying capital together. We had not gotten more than a couple dozen steps away when we heard an explosion from the walls that we had just gotten away from, raining stone chips upon the back of our bodies. Hitomi gasped slightly in pain as the fragments cut through her black robes and embedded themselves into her skin, but she never stopped.

We dodged around more burning buildings and dead/injured civilians, my mind desperately trying to remember where I had seen the Cardinal point various people towards as a way out of the capital to safety.

Suddenly Hitomi jerked on my hand and dragged me into an abandoned building doorway, causing me to nearly tip off balance and fall to the cermet-paved ground in the process. I looked at her from the shadows of the building, and she wordlessly pointed at a side alley we had just passed. Following the direction with my eyes, I then saw seven orcs marching out from there and fanning out, presumably looking for us when we had just blindly ran past them.

I cursed myself mentally at being so careless and then moved away from the door and towards what I could dimly make out as a couch in the corner of the room, curved away at an angle from the twin walls. Quickly, I drew my sword from the scabbard at the side of my body, and motioned Hitomi to get behind the couch first. Once I could see that she was situated somewhat there I joined her, my knees sprung in a half-crouch ready to attack anyone that might dare to check in this building for us.

Outside, I could hear the beastmen troops footsteps split up as they headed in different directions to look for us, and I closed my eyes trying to focus on telling where each set of footsteps was going to.

Why are they putting so much effort into finding just a couple of people? My mind idily wondered as I tend felt something suddenly brush against my lips. The hair raised up instantly on the back of my neck, and I flashed my eyes open only to find Hitomi kissing me.

She nervously pulled back, and blushed slightly. "Sorry..." she mumbled, but I couldn’t help to do anything but just smile at her.

"No worries...just know that no matter what happens…I am never going to abandon you again, no matter what. Okay?" My hand looped loosely between her fingers, and even through the Koenig I could feel her body’s warmth. She nodded gently and then kissed me once more, letting our lips dangle together for longer this time.

I was so distracted that I didn’t notice the orc’s approach into the building where we were until it was too late, when a gigantic hand grasped the back-neck of my Koenig body piece, and jerked me upwards.

"It’s you..." the orc mumbled, his words smelling like soiled Selbina milk as he jerked me over the edge of the couch and then pinned me up against a wall on the other side of the building. The splintered wood jabbed into me, my armor absorbing the majority of the damage, but my uncovered head wasn’t so lucky. As a sudden haze clouded my sight for a moment, I heard the orc talk again to me.

"Where is it?" he said in a tone of voice that indicated he was just as eager to kill me as to wait until I answered his question first.

"Where is what?" I asked in confused reply.

"The code, where is it?"

"Code?..." I replied with, still as lost as ever on what this beastman was talking about.

At that the orc bared his chipped, yellowed teeth at me and snarled before speaking again.

"The Eruntalon Code, we know you have it. We managed to track you down to this...place...when our sources were informed that you had the only surviving intact copy of it left."

Eruntalon Code...

As I mulled those two words over in my mind, I distinctively felt like I knew them. Yet no matter how hard I tried to grasp them with my mind, it felt like something or someone was trying to keep me from remembering what they were.

"The drawing...where is i-" it was then that a blast of frost came out of nowhere, slamming into the back of the orc monster and quickly solidifying his body in a case of ice. Stunned for a moment, I pushed the icicled beastman away from my pinned body and allowed it to crash onto the ground where it then laid motionless.

"Nice going Hitomi." I said quietly with a grin as I stepped over the corpse towards the couch where Hitomi had kept herself concealed until just when she had blasted the orc with that tier-four Blizzard spell.

When I was close enough to touch the couch’s surface with my fingertips, I then noticed that Hitomi’s breathing was growing heavier, and her hand barely had the strength to flick away a glob of sweat that had formed on her brow.

"You really need to stop casting Hitomi, last thing we want is for you to deplete all your mana again, like that time down in Eldieme. We’ve got a fair amount of distance to go still, and you'll need to conserve your strength if we hope to get out of here alive together."

Code...

Eruntalon Code...

If I have this, wouldn’t it probably be back at my place? If it’s as valuable as that orc made it out to be, I should probably get whatever it is before Hitomi and I leave...

"Hitomi, we have to make one small stop before we can leave the city. Would you mind accompanying me for abit back to my place?"

She gave me a wordless nod.

-fin Aki LIV: Hitoku