Episode 34 Fire in the Ground, Fire in the Heart

Arai quickly lays Ryuu on the ground over a huddle of blankets. He places a wet rag over his forehead, and places a small cup of steaming liquid up to his mouth, pouring it in.

Ryuu suddenly stirs, his eyes roaming about weakly. He suddenly opens his eyes wide, staring about him. Kunai, Arai, and Ivy are sitting by his side, staring nervously down at him.

Ryuu sits straight up, looking off into the dark distance, where the unknown depths of the mines ahead lie. Ryuu places a hand up to his extremely warm forehead, taking the rag off and laying it on the ground next to him.

“Ryuu! Are you all right?” Kunai cries softly in surprise.

Ryuu shrugs. Arai shakes his head, picking up the rag and attempting to place it back on Ryuu’s forehead. “We gave you some antidote, but you really should be careful. It was pretty reckless of you to get poisoned like that. You gave us quite a scare.”

“You should rest up, Ryuu,” Ivy mutters.

Ryuu grumbles under his breath, groaning slightly. He roughly picks himself up from the ground, reaching by his sheathed sword, which is lying on the ground nearby. He wobbles into a standing position, growling loudly. “I’ll be all right. We’ve got a Triplicate to kill.”

“Are you sure you’re gonna be all right?! After all that just happened…” Kunai murmurs.

“I said I’ll be fine!” Ryuu growls angrily.

Kunai stares at Ryuu in surprise, taken aback by his abrupt anger. Arai shakes his head, smiling to himself. “Ryuu, once he makes up his mind, no one can change it. It’s like he’s got fire in his belly.”

“Which isn’t very far from the truth…” Ryuu mutters. He fastens his sword to his side again, and glances off into the distance, where the mine begins to slope downwards. “Let’s just get going already. The faster we get out of here, the better.”

Kunai pulls himself out of a train cart, wobbling slightly and a sick expression on his face. Arai and Ivy follow after him as well, looking even worse than Kunai. Ryuu steps out of his own cart, glaring impatiently at the other three.

“Don’t tell me it wasn’t a bad idea,” Ryuu growls, “taking those things was the fastest way to get down here. Better than falling sixty feet from that slope.”

“I think I left my breakfast about thirty-five feet ago,” Kunai moans sickly, covering his mouth with his hand.

“Tch,” Ryuu mutters, “I thought you were made of sterner stuff, Kunai.”

“Anyway, Ryuu…” Ivy mumbles shakily, as Arai joins the three of them, wiping his mouth with his sleeve, “How come you never told us about Ayame? We would’ve understood…”

Ryuu remains silent, his eyes gazing off into nonexistent space. Kunai stares silently at the back of Ryuu’s head for a long while. “Ryuu…”

Ryuu suddenly sighs, lowering his head. “If you really must know…” he mutters. “It’s because even a part of me wanted to believe it wasn’t true…I suppose I really should tell you the whole story.”

“The whole story?” Kunai whispers.

“It’s true that by recklessly getting attacked by the Zakum Triplicate, she allowed herself to become a Paradox that way. However, instead of becoming a Level Ten Humanoid Paradox like all others would, she somehow retained her consciousness, and became even more powerful than the Triplicates themselves. It’s…strange,” Ryuu murmurs.

“The thing is,” Ryuu continues, “is that Ayame was one of the more powerful Joukai. She was a powerful Bandit, the very same Bandit that gave you the blood required in your Hybrid seal, Kunai.”

Kunai gasps out loud, his jaw dropping. “So, wait…I got my powers from…her?”

“That’s right,” Ryuu says in a low voice. “As Kimura so kindly told you, she was a Hybrid as well. A Hybrid Chief Bandit-Hermit, actually.”

Ryuu sighs deeply. “I was deeply in love with her. We were childhood friends, there isn’t a time that I can recall where I didn’t know her. However, during our work for the Joukai…we slowly drifted apart. I had my responsibilities, she had hers. I do not know how it came about, but one day…she resigned from the Joukai, and disappeared.

“For a long time, I would often wonder at nights where she was and what she was doing, and what fate had come about her. And now…now I know,” Ryuu answers.

Ryuu suddenly looks up, a cold, fiery gleam in his eyes as he stares directly at Kunai, Ivy, and Arai. “She has gone to work for the Myougun.”

Kunai’s eyes widen suddenly once again, as he gazes in silent shock at Ryuu. Ivy gasps out loud, staring at Ryuu in surprise. Arai remains strangely silent, staring forward with no reaction.

“The one you saw in Perion,” Ryuu growls, “and the one I fought in Sleepywood, they’re all the same person: Ayame, the Fifteenth Paradox of the Myougun and former Joukai Elite member.”

“How…how could she betray you…just like that?!” Kunai whispers quietly.

“She slowly became engulfed in darkness. I don’t know why, but she did. I even saw it coming, but I fooled myself into believing I was wrong. I so wanted to believe the best of her. She was greatly involved in the Phoneme business, more so than any Joukai member, alive or dead. I’m not sure what affiliation she has or had with the Phoneme stuff, but it seems it was a huge factor in her betrayal,” Ryuu finishes.

“Let’s continue walking,” Arai says suddenly. He strides forward, walking into the soft, rocky ground stretching before them, drenched in thick molten lava.

Arai carefully skips from rock to rock, careful not to step in the lava standing in large pools on the ground. Kunai and Ryuu follow, with Ivy scurrying from behind.

Kunai turns to stare at Ryuu briefly as they hop across the lava-filled floor. “So…now we finally know the whole truth. I can’t believe Ryuu kept it inside all these years…”

Suddenly the lava on the ground clears, and the floor becomes solid and rocky once again. Kunai and Ryuu dash forward to join Arai, who is already standing before an ancient-looking gateway, surrounded with faceless, cracked, and fallen statues.

Ivy brings up the rear, staring up into the depths of the stone chamber. Before them stands a door filled with many rune markings.

Ryuu strides up to the door, placing a hand on its rough, cold stone surface. He stares at the runes expressionlessly, running his fingers over them. They suddenly glow brightly, and a crack appears in the middle of the door, as it slowly slides apart, revealing an entrance.

Ryuu smirks as he sees the doors moving apart. “Heh, so after all these years…”

“Hm? Did you say something, Ryuu?” Arai asks, turning to Ryuu.

Ryuu shakes his head as the door slides open with a dull, stone creaking. “Normally a much more complicated seal is placed on the door to prevent us from getting inside, but even after all these years…Ayame had journeyed here once long ago, and she broke it. It seems these days the seal still remains broken.”

“So in other words…” Kunai mutters.

“She saved us a lot of trouble without even meaning to,” Ryuu smirks. The doors finally finish sliding open, and they stop with a loud clang.

A large cloud of steam and gas suddenly bursts out from within the chamber inside, drenching and engulfing the group. Kunai immediately holds up his arm over his nose, staring with half-closed eyes at the fog exiting from within the chamber inside.

“What the heck is this stuff?!” he cries, his voice slightly muffled by his sleeve. “It stinks like hell!”

A shower of sparks and flames suddenly erupts from inside, streaking through the floating steam. The sparks land at Ryuu’s feet. He steps backward in alarm, reaching for his sword and drawing it. The sword immediately bursts into flames, as Ryuu holds it up, poised for battle.

“Come out, Triplicate!” Ryuu growls.

A large shadow suddenly appears from within the screen of steam, and trail of flames licking across its lips, and flying through the air in sparks around it. Ryuu swings his sword violently, staring up at the beast. “Wanna fight fire with fire, huh?”

Next Time: Episode 35 Triplicate: Round Two!

Ivy: Wait…so this Triplicate breathes fire?

Kunai: Man, it’s getting hot, and my shirt’s starting to stick…

Ivy: Why don’t you take it off!

Kunai: …

Ryuu: Watch out for that fire!

Arai: Wee!

Episode 35 Triplicate: Round Two! coming soon!