Episode 49 Rift

Ryuu looks up from the pyramid, taking his hands on the scroll and dumping it on the floor. He draws his sword and it automatically flares into a bright fire, and he holds it up, using its bright glow to light the path ahead of them.

The group stands at the peak of a small hillock nestled in the midst of a cluster of rolling hills. Below them lies a castle-city, bathed in darkness and dimly lit with candlelight within the tiny stone buildings.

Above them lies a dark, slightly overcast, moonless night. Starlight from the heavens stretch down and bathe the otherwise dark hills with their eerie glow.

Kunai stumbles up to Ryuu’s side, as he gazes down into the city lying in the valley below them. “So we’re really in the Rift World now…” he mutters.

Arai rises to his feet, rubbing the side of his head. “My…I had no idea traveling between worlds like this could be so painful.” He glances around the area as Ivy rises to her feet as well.

A slightly disturbing laugh suddenly rings out from behind the group. The four of them turn to see Shuriken standing in the darkened brush behind, a couple Tobis drawn in his Casters.

Kunai narrows his eyes at the smirk on Shuriken’s face. “What’s so funny?”

“I’d like to thank you for bringing me back into the Rift World,” Shuriken replies, the same maniacal smirk planted on his face.

“Bringing you back?” Kunai asks, raising an eyebrow. “You mean to say you’ve been here before?”

“You’ve been so useful,” Shuriken retorts, “Helping me get my revenge of Fyx…telling me all of your plans…Lord Kimura will certainly be quite pleased with the work I have done, making sure that you arrived in Rift safely.”

“Lord Kimura?” Kunai mutters in a low voice, his hands slowly clenching tightly.

“Heh,” Ryuu smirks, “I knew there was something fishy about you. Unfortunately, I did not figure it out in time. What are you going to do now, Shuriken…are you going to kill us?”

“No,” Shuriken replies. “The useless Phoneme will be taken to Lord Kimura. Kunai will be taken to Lord Kimura himself. Apparently, he’s grown fascinated with his…potential. I’ve been instructed to kill you two Joukai.”

Ryuu narrows his eyes, drawing his sword and preparing to fight. “Really…you underestimate us. Do you really think it’s going to be so easy killing Arai and I?”

Kunai waves his fist at Shuriken, stepping forward, aggravated. “If Ivy’s so useless, why does the Myougun want her so bad?”

“Her usage rate is one,” Shuriken replies, turning to stare directly at Kunai, “Meaning her Phoneme powers may only be tapped into one time. The almighty Lord Kimura already knows this. He first sought the First Phoneme, Ayame, but realized soon she was impartial; barely half a Phoneme. Lord Kimura is actually after the Third Phoneme, who, when compared to the other two Phoneme, is much more fertile in terms of service.”

“Why, though, Shuriken?” Kunai asks, “Why work for the Myougun? I thought you hated them.”

Shuriken sneers, laughing maniacally again. “Untrue. Though that is what I told you, I only detested Fyx, whom claimed sole responsibility for the slaying of my family and dear sister. However, the benevolent Lord Kimura promised me that if I should assist him in giving him the Third Phoneme…I shall be allowed to gain the knowledge of resurrecting my sister.”

Kunai actually laughs out loud. “Heh. Do you really think that Lord Kimura is gonna have you work for him and grant you your wishes? You must be dreaming.”

“Oh really?” Shuriken laughs, “You’ve no idea what you’re talking about. Be gone!” He summons an Avenger in his hand suddenly, and lunges forward, hurling himself and the Avenger at Kunai.

Kunai leaps out of the way, grabbing onto the Avenger and pushing his own body away from Shuriken’s. He reaches into his own pockets and draws a couple Steelys, and fires them in retaliation.

Shuriken blocks the Steelys with his shuriken and quickly turns, blocking another attack, this time by Ryuu, from behind. Shuriken’s Avenger falls to the ground, cracked in two from the impact with Ryuu’s sword.

Arai waves his staff, sending a chilling blast of ice hurtling Shuriken’s way. Before Shuriken can react, another figure, followed by two others, dart out of the shadows, and block the attack easefully.

The hood of the first figure slides backwards slightly in its attempt to block the ice attack, revealing a trail of long purple hair. Ryuu starts at the sight. He reaches for his sword, but looks up as the figure shakes its head.

“Let’s retreat for now,” it mutters to Shuriken, and the four then disappear, leaping down the small hill and disappearing out of sight.

Ryuu drops his sword onto the ground, so it lands with a soft thud. He stares off into the distance, where the four had disappeared. ‘Ayame…so you’re working with Shuriken as well?’

“My, my…” Arai sighs, “Such a hassle. It looks like Shuriken is a traitor after all. And to think I let him have a bite of my cookies…”

“He tricked us from the start,” Kunai growls, “Joining our group, telling us that he’s out for revenge…when he’s working for the Myougun himself! He was only there to make sure we got here safely…but why?”

“Lord Fyx was actually a renegade within the Myougun,” Ryuu replies, “He’d been planning a revolt for a long time. He thought no one but he and his men knew about it, but in reality, the whole world knew what he was planning. The Myougun had probably already come up with a plan to get rid of him. Fyx wanted us all dead, but it seems Lord Kimura has other plans. We were just pawns in the grand scheme of things.”

“Dammit…” Kunai mutters, “I can’t believe Shuriken would do such a thing. I trusted him, too!”

“Shuriken’s job from the start was to make sure we got here without trouble, and he succeeded. He was never our ally,” Ryuu answers. “He’s our enemy, and always has been.”

“Damn…” Kunai curses. He turns from Ivy to Arai to Ryuu. “Let’s make them pay for all this! For all the pointless pain and suffering the Myougun have caused!”

“Kunai,” Ryuu replies, “From here on out, I don’t know the land. All I know about the Rift World is what Alcaster taught me when I was still a junior in the Joukai. We have to navigate our way blindly through this world, but remember one thing: getting the job done and protecting Ivy’s life is the number one priority. Place it above your own life. If it comes to a situation where one of us must die to keep the mission alive, then it must be done with no regrets. That means you keep moving without looking back. You hear me?”

“Yeah,” Kunai replies, “I hear you. But er…what are the chances of us dying, incidentally?”

“Quite high,” Ryuu answers. “Don’t forget that Lord Kimura will kill us in a second if he has or wants to. That includes even you, Kunai, though he never ordered for you to die.”

“So, what’s our next move gonna be, Ryuu?” Kunai asks.

Ryuu closes his eyes, concentrating thoughtfully for a moment. He opens them suddenly, and glances around the empty clearing. “We should set up camp here and wait out the night. We’ll head into town in the morning and see if we can find out where the Myougun’s base is.”

“Wait, we’re just gonna wait here till morning comes?” Kunai asks. “But shouldn’t we start moving while we can? A surprise attack is just what we need.”

“No,” Ryuu replies bluntly, “If we wait for the day to come, it’s true that we’ll run a greater risk of being discovered while moving. However, we will have a greater chance of surviving an attack compared to moving in the night, because although we’re covered in darkness, we don’t know the land, so we’ll either get lost or fall into a regrettable or otherwise inescapable trap.”

Ryuu shakes his head. “It’s basic tactics. As much as I hate to wait for the day to come, it’s our best chance if we’re gonna do this right.”

“What’re we gonna do in town tomorrow?” Kunai mutters. “Don’t you know where the Myougun’s base is? If we go around asking…surely they’ll find out about us.”

“You don’t think much, do you, Kunai?” Ryuu sneers. “The Myougun already know we’re here. It was their plan from the start to let the Phoneme waltz in here instead of capturing her. Even I have to admit, it’s a well thought out plan.

“No. During my studies with Alcaster, he told me that the Myougun possess a huge castle somewhere north of this area. There is a castle-town much like this one surrounding that castle. That is where the Myougun make their quarters. However, I have no idea how to get there, or what dangers lie ahead. I’d like to find someone who could tell us all this, if I can.”

“Someone?” Kunai asks, “You mean, someone like here? But—”

Ryuu shakes his head and raises a hand, interrupting Kunai. “I know what you’re thinking. Not everyone who lives in the Rift World works for the Myougun, or even has anything to do with them, for that matter. The Rift World didn’t just fall out of the sky one day as the Myougun’s headquarters. It has its own history, just like ours.

“The people who’ve lived here for generations, and centuries, they were here before the rule of the Myougun. Their predecessors were the original owners of this war-torn country. A lot of them don’t want any affiliation with the Myougun; in fact, a lot of them actually detest the Myougun.”

“And you’re hoping you’ll find someone like that in this town, in the hopes that they’ll give you directions on how to get to Mr. Kimura’s castle?” Kunai asks.

“That’s pretty much the plan,” Ryuu replies, “I know it sounds kind of lame, but if we don’t find out as much as we can about this area, we’ll be falling into traps at every corner.”

The sun dawns on a fiery, bright red sky early in the morning as Kunai stirs, sitting up and rubbing his eyes sleepily as he gazes around at the clearing. Above him, the sky appears to be a war-torn, bright red, with swirling orange and red clouds.

Arai is sitting in a corner over a small fire built of twigs, roasting what appears to be a cookie over it. Meanwhile, Ryuu is packing supplies for the group, while Ivy is sitting in her own sleeping bag staring at the scene silently.

Kunai stands up, shrugging off his blankets and walks over to Arai and Ryuu. “So we’re gonna head into town today?” he asks.

Ryuu grunts in confirmation. “Yeah. We’ll head there as soon as we’re done packing.”

As the sun rises in the midst of the red, Martian-like sky, Kunai glances around as he walks next to Ryuu, Arai, and Ivy through a busy street in the castle-town.

On either side of the road are vendors with booths set up, vying to sell their products to passersby. Ryuu shoves a vendor with a turban on his head away as he approaches him.

Kunai sighs and glances up at the sky, which is red instead of blue. “Say…why is the sky red instead of blue here?”

“No one really knows why,” Ryuu replies quietly, “However, long ago the Rift World was well-known as a country who was constantly in war and valued the sight of battle. Legend has it there was so much fighting going on the clouds and the sky were stained with the blood of countless dead soldiers.”

“Of course, it’s just a legend. No one knows whether or not that’s really true…chances are, it’s not,” Ryuu replies.

“So how are we gonna find someone to tell us everything we need to know, Ryuu? It’s not like we’ll just bump into a random person who happens to know all this information…” Kunai mutters.

Ryuu turns his head to reply, but suddenly cries out in surprise as he bumps into someone, causing her to drop her book to the floor.

Ryuu takes a step back and scrambles to pick up the book, handing it back to the girl he’d bumped into. Standing before him is a young girl, with shoulder-length, curly silver hair, surrounding a set of deep gray eyes.

Kunai opens his eyes wide, as he scans her, noting the heavily bandaged arms and the Asianic Bow strapped across her back next to a quiver filled with arrows painted a sickly green.

The girl silently takes the book back from Ryuu and immerses herself in it once again, turning and walking away from the group, ignoring them.

“Um…wait!” Kunai cries.

The girl stops in her tracks, and silently turns to face Kunai, piercing him with a hollow glare. Kunai takes a step back in surprise, and turns to Ryuu.

Ryuu steps forward, and holds out his hand to shake hers. “Hi. My name’s Ryuu, and sorry for bumping into you,” he says out loud. “Ugh…that is so unlike me to say sorry,” he mutters to himself.

An arrow suddenly sings through the air past the narrow space between Ryuu and Kunai. The both of them jump back in alarm. Kunai turns and sees the arrow planted deep in the dirt ground, dripping wet with a slimy green poison. ‘Poison arrows?’

Ryuu narrows his own eyes, staring into the girl’s strangely blank ones. He pores into her gray eyes, watching the flicker of two black pupils in her right eye. “So you’re a victim of the Paradox as well.”

The girl starts in surprise at the sound of the name, looking slightly shaken for the first time. However, she narrows her eyes and turns, stomping off.

Ryuu lunges forward suddenly and grabs her by the shoulder, forcefully turning her around. “Are you mute, or otherwise incapable of talking? I asked you a question.”

“Ryuu!” Arai cries out. “Don’t lose control!”

“People are so quick to anger,” the girl mutters quietly, “But so careless. It is a dangerous combination. One would think that by now people would have learned death creeps at every corner, ready to reveal itself through its ominous doorway. Why…I could so easily slip poison into your meal.”

Ryuu lets the girl go suddenly, taking a cautionary step backwards. He stares at her intently. ‘I’ve never seen anyone like her before…’

“Uh…what’s your name?” Kunai asks slightly hesitantly.

“Silver,” the girl replies quietly, and turns around again, sticking her nose in her book and walking off.

“Hey…uh, wait!” Kunai cries, chasing after Silver.

Silver turns again, narrowing her eyes threateningly at Kunai. Kunai blinks at this sudden malevolence. “I, uh…well, you wouldn’t happen to know anything about the Rift World would you?”

“And if I do?” Silver hisses.

“We would greatly appreciate your help if you know anything,” Kunai replies.

Arai steps forward cheerfully, leaning on Kunai and waving a cookie in his hand. “There’s a cookie in it for ya!”

Silver sneers, shaking her head. “I rather be buried alive.”

Ryuu suddenly collects himself, shaking his head. He chases after her, clenching his fist tightly. “Oh, so you’re perfectly okay with living under the shadow of the Myougun, huh?”

Silver suddenly freezes, her eyes widening slightly. She turns to face Ryuu, looking directly into his eyes. “Myougun, did you say?”

Next Time: Episode 50 The Kingdom Plagued With Darkness

Kunai: So you will join us and help us, won’t you?

Silver: Revenge is my purpose in life. I do not help you out of sheer kindness.

Arai: Oh come on! Don’t you want a cookie or anything? [loud crack in background] Ow, ow, ow!

Kunai: …

Episode 50 The Kingdom Plagued With Darkness