Erik Tuttle
"Zero Signal" .4.


>>CHAPTER SIX<<    "Martyr"


	Soft skin moving against mine took me from my slumber. Beside Ryoko I 
awoke, becoming conscious to the world around me. My wife and I were entwined in 
each other's arms, cool air blowing in from the balcony washed over our bare 
skin like waves lapping up against a foreign beach. The new jewelry that we had 
given each other the night before was all that kissed 
our body's this morning. Ryoko stirred in her slumber and pressed her warm body 
to mine. I felt her breasts press up close and her hips grind against me. She 
opened and closed her mouth taking in a few breaths and then lay still once 
more. Cradling her in my arms I turned my attention to rising sun 
that shown off the balcony and into the room. It was early--to early to get up 
now--so I let my head fall back to rest against the carpeted floor. The sun came 
into the room as my thoughts went out and off into space.
	Crunching beneath our feet the old dirt trail led back to a hut that I 
shared with my new wife. Under that warm sun we walked, arms tied together 
letting the forest's green splendor wrap around us. "I really had a lovely time 
in the city with you," Ryoko kissed my cheek.
	"Haha! I had a wonderful time to Ryoko! To bad we can't go back again!"
	"So did we really spent up all of our money?"
	"Yeah," I thought for a moment. "Maybe after this Nagi thing we could get 
jobs and move into the city."
	"Hey great idea!" Ryoko stopped walking and jumped in front of me to get 
my attention. She spoke. "Tenchi why don't we forget about the whole thing and 
go back now! We can have a new life together! One that is free of this Nagi 
woman and everything else, it would be just you and me happy in our own life 
together."
	"Ryoko please don't talk like that you know what I'll say."
	"But Tenchi!"
	"It is just something that I have to do and besides they are my people! I 
need to defend them just as I would defend you."
	"Oh Tenchi, it just seems so unfair. You're the scapegoat. Can't you 
understand that?"
	"All I am is a man and that is all I can be." Ryoko's shoulders dropped in 
despair, right along side her wounded heart.
	"Dearest you know how much I really do love you. You know that I would 
cast my path aside if I could."
	"Yes I do. Please lets go home."

	For some, life in marriage is a horrible thing. It is tedious and 
aggravating. To others it simply is. You exist with your chosen other, living a 
normal, tedious life devoid of love or passion. My marriage was, however, none 
of these things. I love my wife totally with all of my heat and soul. No longer 
are we considered two lonely separates, but one complete 
whole.
	I swung the axe down hard and split the log at my feet. Out in the forest 
chopping wood was a good time to reminisce and be alone with my happy thoughts 
of all the good times spent with my wife. Five years had gone by like a quick 
summer breeze, sending a warm stream of tender memories sliding across my brain. 
Ten years, I had known her for ten years now. In that time there were warm 
nights spent in the hut, and the sweet teas Ryoko had learned to make over the 
years. Days of comfortable hikes to the cliff were the two of us had spent our 
first night in each other's arms. The art that my wife began to 
create was astounding and captured life in every aspect. Beauty, nature, 
solitude, love, she could pause it all and move it onto the paper. Smiling at 
these thoughts I loaded the wood I had cut into my cart and began my trip back 
home. I took a step towards home and fell to my knees. My head was tingling as 
if my brain would ooze out of my ears while I gave a grunt of 
pain. What was this? My eyes snapped down the road to home and I knew what was 
happening. Long ago grandfather had told me that one-day I would be able to 
sense the Jurai energy when another used it. This was it, I was sure. Who would 
be here and at the hut? My head cleared from the pain that had never 
really been there. I rose to my feet and brought the sheathed Tenchiken to my 
side. Trouble was on the wind and I could smell it, what was more, I could sense 
it. All was not well back at home and Ryoko might need me. Ryoko! Oh no! 
	"RYOKO!"
	Blazing down the path and through the woods, my feet carved a new path 
paved by desperation. I could no longer sense any Jurai energy so that meant 
that who ever had wielded such power was now gone. Clearing a hill I looked down 
into the small flat land where my home was kept. There was no fire, no 
rancid smoke or burning flesh, no cries of pain, no fleeing animals, nothing. 
Nothing with the exception of blood stained grass and a hut that now stood in 
two different pieces. My gasp shook the stillness of death from the air and 
brought me from my stunned vision. I took to the path once again calling my 
wife's name. "Ryoko! Ryoko!" Reaching the house I turned left 
then to the right. Forest around my right side was cut and broken.  Had I not 
been more surprised then I would have surly missed the hand poking out of the 
grass below the broken wood. I ran to it. It was lax. It was pale. It belonged 
to my wife.
	"Ryoko!" Up in my arms I took her to support her. "Ryoko!" She was not 
moving. Her body was broken and beaten and bloodied. There had been bloodshed 
and she had not come out on the top. Convulsing eyelids brought her deflated 
gold eyes to me once more. "You are alive!" Ryoko's mouth moved upwards in smile 
and then puckered for a kiss. I moved her close for our 
last kiss. I knew that she was gone. She was not coming back. Our lips never 
met. Her body had gone limp in my grasp. I opened my eyes to see her; life had 
vacated her form and rocked her head back in death. "What? Why? No! You're not 
dead you're not! Please you're strong an- and remember you can't kill a demon in 
this world! You can be brought back like all of the others that I've fought you 
can come back! So hurry! Hurry back Ryoko!" Something was amiss; she wasn't 
vanishing as the rest of the demons had. Held close she was dead to stay, the 
tears began to burn in my eyes. "What's wrong! It's not working! Ryoko no 
please!
AAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaHHHHHHHHHHHHHAaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!
W H Y  D O N ' T  Y O U  W A K E  U P !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

	I had gone back to the broken hut and placed Ryoko on the floor. A soft 
music could be heard throughout the rooms of the hut and I traced it to the 
jewel box I had given Ryoko at gift time five years ago. Inside the open box her 
carved figure danced to the slow tune. I listened to the music and watched the 
carving dance the dance of eternal life. The dance of eternal life and 
happiness! The DancE oF ETERnAL LIFE aNd happinESS ToGEtheR! HAPPINeSS AND LiFe 
ETERnal! ThiS DAMN BoX WAS MOCKING ME! A cry of pain and smack of my clenched 
fist fell the box silent into many small parts.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
SHE WAS DEAD! SHE WAS GONE! "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" How could I be so god 
forsaken STUPID?! What an absolute fool! This is the prICE I have been seT to 
pay. The price of ignoring my destiny! Yes I was fated by whatever powers be! 
Mocked and MARTYRED! This WAs IT, the work of Nagi! I knew it! Anyone else 
would have been no mAtCH for the powers of my WIFE! ANYONE! It had to be NaGi! 
She was supposed to DIE and I was supposed to K I L L her! I wheeled from the 
smashed box and left the room. Into mine I stormed and threw open my chest of 
belongings. There they were. The clothes. The city clothes. The city clothes I 
had never worn. The boots, the pants, the shirt, and the coat all from my wife. 
I could play destinies game. I could and I would. The clothes I had worn before 
tore from my body and I dressed in my new ones. I did not seek revenge, nor did 
I want anything. I was nothing and at my wits end. I was more lifeless than my 
wife's corpse set back in the main room. Nothing, the word repeated in my brain 
as a never-ending echo. I took Tenchiken. It was over, everything that had ever 
been was now over. Over and ended never to begin anew.

	Fires from the immolated hut set the light into my dead eyes. Watching the 
place I had grownup in burn to the ground met nothing. My wife burned in that 
place as well. In my hand I held her pendant of marriage. Cyan like her hair. 
Into the flames I cast it not to alleviate the pain, nor to clear my mind of 
her. There was no pain and she had never existed. Who wanted to keep a useless 
piece of jewelry around? What good was it for? Why had I taken it from her in 
the first place? Who cares to answer so many questions? The symbol burned along 
with the mountains. That's all that mattered. That's just the way it was.