Episode 18 The Rule of Boom

A lone rider on horseback journeys hurriedly through the forgotten, desolate plains in the far eastern reaches of the world known as Night. A black traveling cloak shields this rider, though under the folds of his cloak is a shirt of chain mail bearing a coat of arms depicting a crescent moon next to a red cross.

The rider hurries onward, spurring his horse forward towards what appears to be a chain of temples sitting along the horizon under the night sky.

To the rider’s left, a train whistles loudly as it rumbles past in the opposite direction, some of the windows of the train lit up where passengers sit inside.

As the forlorn whistling of the train is carried away by the wind, the rider skids to a stop, leaping off his horse and approaching the temples.

Clasped to the rider’s side is a Lionheart, clinking softly against his chain mail as he trots up to the entrance of the temple.

“Halt,” a Priest suddenly says from the threshold of the nearest temple. A soft glow of a lantern from within the building illuminates the ground nearby, and the rider blinks dazedly while his eyes grow adjusted to the light.

“What is your business here?” the Priest inquires, glaring at the rider suspiciously.

“An urgent message from the Charemis Monarchy, delivered upon the request of the great King Norman IV himself,” the rider replies in a clear voice.

The Priest’s face becomes grave as he hears these words, but nevertheless, he nods in understanding. The Priest steps aside and motions for the rider to enter the temple.

“What business does the King have with us?” the Priest murmurs, as he leads the rider to a seat at a wooden table inside the temple.

The room is dimly lit by lanterns hanging on the walls, and by a pair of short, expiring candles lit on the wooden tabletop.

“We usually never communicate with the outside world unless the King wants to discuss matters of the Third Phoneme with us,” the Priest continues.

“Ah,” the rider agrees, “that is exactly what he’d like to talk to you about.” With that, the rider withdraws from inside his pocket a scroll sealed with the same coat of arms written on his shirt.

The Priest takes the scroll without so much as a murmur, though his face remains set in a grave expression, with a look of utter disparity.

With a tap of the scroll with his Magicodar, the Priest unseals the scroll and begins reading it immediately. Though his face remains fixed in that permanently grave expression, his eyebrows narrow as he reads, a sign of a troubled mind.

Outside, a girl of about fourteen or fifteen breathes heavily as she lets a golden Helios fall to the floor, as she hesitates to take a rest from her task of cutting wood.

The girl wipes a stream of sweat from her brow and with a heave, plants the axe into the center of the stump on which she’d been splitting planks of firewood.

She takes a seat on the stump, catching her breath at last. This girl has a tangled mess of dark brown hair, not quite shoulder-length but long enough to veil her ears. Holding her hair together is a hairclip made in the shape of a maple leaf.

This girl sighs as she assumes her break, sitting tranquilly upon her harsh seat as she stares up into the night sky, littered with myriads of twinkling stars amid the ocean of cold, heavenly blackness.

Far off in the distance rings the lonely call of a forlorn train, headed west back home from the far reaches of the often-neglected eastern lands.

This girl sighs again as she watches the distant lights glimmering from the windows of the passing train, watching just as the rider leaps off his horse and enters the building of the priests.

The girl narrows her eyes suspiciously as she notices these activities. She stands up again, and a soft breath of passing wind caresses her cheek as she does so.

“Strange…” the girl murmurs to herself, “unmistakably, that rider that arrived just now wears clothes with the crest of the Charemis Monarchy. It’s never a good sign when the King wants to speak with the Head Priest. What could be the matter this time?”

Meanwhile, far in the western shores of the Night World, Kunai and Ayame brace themselves under the wrath of the furious Leader Reed as he screams at his disciple.

Kunai turns perplexedly to Ayame, a worried expression on his face. “That couldn’t have been Ryuu and the others who rescued the kid, could it?”

“Impossible,” Ayame murmurs, “the only Priest we have among us is Ivy, and there is no way she would attack her own friends just now. Just what is going on here?”

Kunai rubs his chin meditatively. “Judging by the fact that we were attacked as well, it doesn’t seem as if the new player in our little game is on our side either. We have to be careful.”

“Right,” Ayame replies.

Ryuu, Ivy, and Sasha suddenly come running up, having exited from their hiding spot inside the second floor of the governmental building.

“Kunai! Ayame! You guys okay?” Ryuu pants as they arrive. “We saw that you were under attack, and we came rushing out as quickly as we could.”

Leader Reed and Lieutenant Claire momentarily blink in surprise at the unannounced arrival of Ryuu. Ryuu blinks back with a puzzled expression. “What?”

“WHAT IS APPLE THE ACTOR DOING HERE?!” the two gangsters cry simultaneously.

A sour expression cloaks Ryuu’s face, as if he’d just smelled something foul. “Ugh…not again…”

Sasha, however, despite Ryuu’s words, seems hesitant to fight or reveal herself, and Kunai notices this immediately. He turns to Sasha. “Sasha, what’s the matter?”

“Sasha?” Lieutenant Claire murmurs suddenly, upon hearing the words of Kunai. She turns immediately to Sasha, who is still attempting to hide from the view of the Reds.

“Hm?” Ryuu and Kunai turn to Claire wonderingly. “Do you know her?” Ryuu growls, though not in a threatening manner.

“Yeah,” Lieutenant Claire murmurs, as if in a daze. “I know her all right. I can’t believe it, Sasha…of all the people in the world, you’re here? You?!”

“What are you talking about?” Ayame cries, turning from Claire to Sasha, “How do you two know each other?”

“We were once classmates,” Sasha replies softly, “in Paradox Hunting School. However, for her own reasons, which are unknown to me, she left the school before she graduated, and joined the Reds. Five years later, I was assigned a case in Queen’s Port, about someone releasing Paradoxes upon innocent citizens.

“I later learned that it was Claire. I tracked her down, and by then I realized that she had become lieutenant of the Reds. I had no choice, they beat me. And I went back to Skylark City…defeated.”

Lieutenant Claire takes up arms again, making sure to allow the fading sunlight overhead to gleam on her cleanly polished Avarice. “I never expected you to show up here again, Sasha. You remember what I told you the last time we met, don’t you? Don’t you?!”

Sasha takes a cautionary step back. She growls angrily, shouldering the heavy load of her Berzerker. “Of…of course I haven’t forgotten!” she breathes, allowing the weight of the Berzerker to crash back onto the floor, creating a large cracked space in the ground.

“What do ya know,” Leader Reed smirks in a mocking tone, “that girl with the rock as her weapon is back!”

“I TOLD YOU IT’S NOT A ROCK!” Sasha yells back.

Leader Reed shrugs as he picks his nose nonchalantly. With a rather vulgar expression on his face, he examines the ‘treasure’ he’d just dug up. “Anyway, I told you, little girl.” Leader Reed pauses, flicking his ‘treasure’ away into the air. “I told you that we’d kill you if you showed yourself again on our turf.”

“Sasha,” Kunai whistles, “is that true?”

“Yes,” Sasha replies resignedly, lowering her head. “It’s just as he says.”

“What happened to cause this, Sasha?” Ivy murmurs. “Did you and those big mean gangsters have a fight?”

“I tried to stop Claire from releasing those Paradoxes,” Sasha replies, “but I failed miserably. As a result, I only got in the way of the Reds, and I was pathetically saved by the Blues, who thought they could recruit me. But because of those actions, both the Reds and the Blues marked me as their enemy that day, the Reds because I tried to stop them, and the Blues because I refused their offer.”

“Those damn bastards!” Kunai curses under his breath.

“Heh,” Leader Reed smirks, “Well then. I’m gonna fulfill the intents of those words. I’m gonna kill you right now, you rotten good-for-nothing girl!”

Leader Reed draws a pair of Tobis in his Blood Avarice, and clutches them gloatingly, smirking at the silent figure of Sasha. Without another word, he flings the Tobis through the air after Sasha.

Kunai steps forward to block the blow, but his efforts are immediately rendered unnecessary as a bright flash of smoke appears before him and a new pair of gangsters suddenly replace the empty space between he and Leader Reed.

Kunai steps backwards, to get a better look at these two new arrivals. He suddenly blinks, as he becomes aware of five other gangsters, dressed similarly to the two gangsters standing in front of him.

The first one, taller than the other, wears a Blue China Set, and is equipped with a shining Shinkita. Thrown loftily over his head is a Blue Pilfer, hovering over windswept locks of bright blue hair. Over his eyes is a pair of Green Sports Goggles, augmenting his mysterious, windswept look.

“You!” Leader Reed growls, hatred resonating in his coarse voice. “What the hell are you doing here?!”

The Leader of the Blues turns to his lieutenant standing by his side, and the attendants forming a circle around the scene, all of whom are equipped with Korean Fans. “We’ve come to interfere, Reed. There’s no way that we’re letting you get away with the Mayor’s life! That belongs to us!”

“You damn Blues!” Reed mutters, his fists shaking from anger. “Get them!” Reed orders, and a new host of Reds subordinates from within the Gigolo Casino emerge onto the scene, each of them armed with a Blood Avarice.

The air is soon suddenly heavy with the fire of stars and warfare as the two sides begin attacking each other. Kunai, Ryuu, Ayame, Ivy, and Sasha duck behind a green bench sitting on the sidewalk for cover.

Kunai turns to the others. “What are we gonna do? We gotta get Mayor Stan back and find out who ran off with his son. We should try to stay outta this fight.”

“No can do, Kunai,” Ryuu replies, “they’ve got Stan pretty damn well surrounded. It’s gonna be a chore getting him out of there without getting involved in the fight. We’ll probably have to knock down all their guys to get a shot at rescuing Mayor Stan.”

“We don’t have much time…” Ivy murmurs fearfully, “Stan’s hands! That bomb’s still wrapped around his wrists…if we don’t hurry, he’s gonna be blown up!”

“Ivy’s got a point,” Sasha replies. “I think we might have to split up into two groups: one to chase after whoever ran off with Stan’s son and the other to get Stan out of this safely and remove the bomb.”

“Dividing our resources seems like the best idea,” Ryuu admits. “Okay, so who’s gonna go after the captor and who’s gonna stay back?”

“Hm? What’s that?” Ivy exclaims suddenly, pointing upwards. Everyone else’s head turns skywards as a feather drops from the sky, lightly floating gradually from the heavens.

The entire group watches, captivated, as the feather gently slides down the air from above, and finally lands on Ivy’s shoulder. She picks it up perplexedly and cries in surprise as a puff of white smoke erupts and the feather transforms into a short, handwritten note.

Ivy takes the note and reads it out loud:

“That won’t be necessary.”

Following the last word is an arrow, pointing upwards towards the sky. “And then there’s an arrow pointing up at the sky…” Ivy mutters, glancing up, but failing to notice anything.

“Tch,” Ryuu scowls, “cheap magic tricks.”

“What is that about?” Kunai mutters.

“AH!” Sasha and Ayame exclaim simultaneously in alarm. “THE SKY!”

Ryuu, Kunai, and Ivy jerk their heads up immediately, and give equal shouts of alarm as the figure of a boy tied to a wooden chair rips through the air, falling down at an incredible speed towards them.

“He’s gonna splatter!” Ivy cries worriedly. She covers her eyes with her hands as the boy rapidly falls closer towards the ground.

“Not on my watch!” Kunai answers, as he expertly and swiftly weaves a powerful netting of spider web, and lays it out across the sidewalk.

As the boy crashes into the ground, he lands screaming and crying on top of the web, bounces around momentarily, and comes to a full stop, safe and sound.

“Nice catch, Kunai!” Ayame exclaims happily, as Ivy uncovers her eyes again and claps her approval.

“Good job, Kunai!” Ivy cries, hugging him.

Kunai blushes, laughing modestly. “Heh, heh! It was…it was nothing!”

Ryuu bends over the child, untying his hands from the ropes binding him to the chair and helping him off the web and onto the solid ground. Ryuu examines the child’s blood red wrists, which had been chafed against the pressure of the rough material of the rope.

“Is your name Alex?” Ryuu mutters to the kid.

“Uh huh.” The small child nods frightfully, as if afraid that this new group of people around him is going to chain him to the chair again.

“Don’t worry,” Ryuu replies in a low voice, “we’re not gonna hurt you. In fact, we’re here to rescue you.”

“Really?” Alex’s face lights up immediately.

“Yeah,” Ryuu answers, “so don’t you worry, okay?”

Ayame grins, smiling contentedly at Ryuu’s reaction to the child. Ivy smiles knowingly as well, causing Ryuu to stare perplexedly at the two of them. “Ryuu is really caring deep down inside, isn’t he?” Ivy asks Ayame.

“Yeah,” Ayame smiles, “he sure is.”

“What?” Ryuu cries, upon hearing their conversation, “I-I’m not! It’s just that…that I hate hearing kids whine about this and that, that’s all!”

“Yeah, sure, Ryuu!” Ivy replies patronizingly, causing Ryuu to growl discontentedly.

“Anyway.” Sasha glances over the barrier their green bench creates. “We need to rescue Stan…”

“We don’t have much time left, either,” Ayame murmurs.

Ryuu’s eyes stray down as the young boy clutches his knees, shivering in fear. Ryuu reaches down halfheartedly and pats him on the head, prying the boy off himself. “I suppose now that Alex has miraculously fallen from the sky, we won’t need to divide our forces.”

“Let’s go then,” Kunai murmurs, and leaps into the fray without warning. Ryuu trails after him, his Twin Dragons gleaming like a rising sun in the light of the setting sun.

With a loud war cry, Ryuu splits his sword into two, and springs upon the nearest gangsters—the Blues. Their leader turns around abruptly and blocks Ryuu’s sneak attack from behind with his Shinkita, smirking haughtily. “Oh? We have more who want to join our little fight.”

Ryuu growls, struggling to push his weapon back against the strong leader. Leader Blue smirks again, laughing tauntingly this time. “Pathetic.” With a lazy swipe of his hand, he throws Ryuu back, who is forced to skid to stop the impact of the blow.

Meanwhile, Kunai weaves agilely between the gangsters, nailing them with a Steely at every opportunity. He easily dodges each successive retaliatory attack, and rejoins Ryuu after falling another half dozen gang members.

Sasha turns to the other two girls, watching as they cradle the sniffling boy. She bites her lip, unable to turn away from the pain of the young child crouching before her.

Ivy and Ayame, who are both meant over the child and attempting to comfort him, turn to Sasha. “Sasha,” Ayame mutters to her, “just go. I know you wanna go fight. We’ll take care of Alex.”

Still with a hint of slight hesitation in her eyes, Sasha nods, and turns to the fight, joining the violent clash before her very eyes. Sasha quickly locates Claire, and advances towards her, Berzerker raised over her shoulder.

Lieutenant Claire eyes Sasha as well, and smirks as she separates from Reed to join Sasha. “Well, well…” Claire smirks, “you seem eager to fight, Sasha.”

“I really don’t want to do this, Claire…” Sasha whispers, “I really don’t. I don’t know what made you go and join the Reds, but this isn’t the real you. The real Claire used to be my best friend, but now I just see a hardened criminal standing before me.”

Though her face still remains set in a futile attempt of indifference, a single tear rolls down Claire’s cheek. She quickly wipes it away, ignorant of the commotion behind her. “I had to, Sasha. After killing his parents…”

“We all know it was a freak accident, Claire. You didn’t mean to do it. Besides, Devon is dead.” Sasha pronounces the last syllable firmly, though her eyes clearly depict a different emotion within her soul.

“D-Dead?!” Claire stammers, taking a shocked step backwards. “It…it can’t be…”

“What’s more,” Sasha continues, her voice beginning to falter, “what’s more is…he died still loving you, Claire. I didn’t have the heart to tell him what I learned about you here.”

Claire falls to her knees, rendered speechless by this shocking revelation. She begins shaking her head slowly back and forth in denial. “Devon…Devon can’t be dead! I…I loved him!”

Sasha strides over to the fallen Claire, and pats her softly on the shoulder. However, Claire quickly swats her hand away, shaking her head. “I-I’m sorry, Sasha…for abandoning you guys.”

“Apology accepted,” Sasha murmurs, tears beginning to brim in her own soft blue eyes as well.

Meanwhile, the struggle continues between Kunai and Ryuu, the Reds, and the Blues. As they stand facing off against each other, several powerful explosions of white light erupt from the ground, scattering the gangsters as they jump in fright and surprise.

Beams of white light, as if shot expertly from a bow, barrel down from the sky, rocking the ground and creating large, smoking craters.

Another loud, blinding explosion of light follows, and as the light clears, every single member of the Reds and Blues, save for Claire, lies dead on the floor, with absolutely no sign of bodily damage having been inflicted upon them.

“Wh…what is this?” Ayame stutters, rising from her kneeling position and holding Alex close. Mayor Stan remains frozen, his feet apparently cemented to the ground. The incessant clicking of the timer on his bomb continues to ring repeatedly in the ensuing silence.

A flash of blue light darts past Ayame, and before she can react, Alex is seized out of her reach. The flashing blue light dashes straight across the empty boulevard, toward the mayor.

“Yo!” Zack grins, waving to Kunai, Ryuu, Ayame, Ivy, and Sasha. He places a cold yet firm hand over the mayor’s shoulder, clutching it tightly. In his other hand, Zack grips the shoulder of the mayor’s son as well, holding them close together. “Long time no see…”

“Z-Zack?” Kunai murmurs, cursing under his breath. “Damn, it’s another of the Naraku. When are you guys gonna stop bothering us?”

Ryuu draws his swords, combining them into one whole sword. A steady current of fire, ice, and lightning erupts from the hilt, coating the entire sword with it. “It doesn’t matter. We’re taking you down.”

“’Fraid I can’t let ya do that,” Zack replies mockingly, “’cause if I did, I’d be in big trouble. No, I can’t let you do that at all.”

“Dammit!” Kunai shouts impatiently, “You’re business is with us! Leave Alex and the Mayor out of this! They haven’t done anything to oppose you!”

“On the contrary,” Zack murmurs under his breath, “I can’t do that either.” The large smirk on Zack’s face suddenly disappears, to be replaced by a look of serious resolution. “My orders were strict and clear: kill the Mayor and his son.”

Zack’s eyes dart momentarily in the shocked silence to each face before him, noting the perplexed expressions of each person. “They have to die.”

“Wh…what?” Ivy murmurs. “Why should they have to die?!”

“Because,” Zack replies, “think, my beautiful flower. What might they know that could help contribute to the cause of my enemies?”

“Th-that’s…” Sasha stammers. “You can’t be serious!”

“’Xactly,” Zack grins, “you got it! These two nice fellows here know way too much about the whereabouts of the Third Phoneme for me not to do anything about it.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me…” Ryuu grunts hoarsely, his voice slightly taken away by shock.

“Mayor!” Sasha cries, “Is what he’s telling us true? If so—”

“Time’s up,” Zack interrupts in the softest murmur. “Boom.”

With that, the timed bomb around Mayor Stan’s wrists reads 00:00, and a devastating explosion of blinding white light and incomparable force ensues.

Next Time: Episode 19 A Priest Who Lost His Way

Kunai: I’m gonna kill you, Zack.

Zack: No you won’t!

Kunai: I’m gonna kill you.

Zack: No you won’t!

Kunai: I said I’m gonna kill you!

Zack: No you won’t!

Kunai: [sigh] I give up…

Episode 19 A Priest Who Lost His Way coming soon!