Episode 2 – The Search For The Third Phoneme

The purple-haired girl groans wearily, raising a shaking hand up to the side of her head, massaging it. Ryuu peers anxiously down at her. “What, Ryuu?”

[Ayame approx. 10x Chief Bandit / Hermit Hybrid]

“Ayame, let me see your eye,” Ryuu mutters quietly.

Ayame blinks in confusion at Ryuu’s sudden comment. She shrugs and opens her eye wide, allowing Ryuu to draw closer and take a long, steady look at it. Ayame blushes slightly as Ryuu continues to hold his gaze. “Um, Ryuu, why are you looking at me like that?”

Ryuu finally draws away, nodding slightly and satisfactorily. “Just as I deduced.”

“Deduced what, Ryuu?” Kunai asks, turning to stare from Ryuu to Ayame. He nods over to her direction. “Isn’t it dangerous to go bring her journeying around with us?”

“There’s nothing to fear anymore,” Ryuu growls, “This is the real Ayame. The Ayame not consumed by darkness and the powers of the Paradox. She’s not going to harm us.”

“Wh-what do you mean?” Kunai asks in puzzlement.

“You see, I defeated Ayame by using something known as the Soul Potion,” Ryuu replies. “It allows me to temporarily transform into a Paradox and attack someone’s soul. It essentially destroys their soul by fragmenting it. However, I just merely attacked the Hybrid Seal placed there and separated the two souls residing inside Ayame into two: this side and the evil side.”

“Pretty skilled of you, Ryuu,” Ayame replies with a sly smile. “To be able to beat me with a drink.”

“Heh,” Ryuu smirks.

Kunai turns abruptly to Ivy, who is rubbing her eyes sleepily. He gasps at her astonishing transformation, reverting back to her regular human form. “The Hybrid Seal was able to hold back the powers of the Paradox?”

[Ivy – approx. 7x Priest]

“Yeah, that’s what it looks like,” Ryuu replies, turning to Ivy as well. “I’m not sure why it took so long to work, but we finally managed to contain it. The Paradox mutation isn’t gonna bother us any longer since it’s already completed. Plus, we’ve got it contained so nothing bad is gonna happen unless the Hybrid Seal is destroyed, an unlikely chance.

“The only difference is that the Phoneme is now gone from her body. I doubt it will cause any significant changes, but the Myougun should stop pursuing us since we no longer have a Phoneme among us anymore.”

“And what about the Triplicate attack? Will Ivy still be attracting Paradoxes and the like? If that’s the case, the mutation could start all over again,” Kunai replies worriedly.

“Nothing to worry about. Since the Second Phoneme requires that you break apart the soul and take the part of it containing the Phoneme, and we used a Hybrid Seal to separate the fragments of her shattered soul, the part infected with the Triplicate attack should be gone as well.”

Kunai nods in understanding, as a smile appears on his face. He turns to Ivy happily. “Well in that case, welcome back to being yourself, Ivy! It’s been a very long time.”

“Yeah! It’s good to be back!” Ivy replies cheerfully.

Ayame smiles to herself as Kunai and Ivy grin at each other. She turns to Ryuu, serious now. “So, Ryuu…now that we’re done with the introductions and the like, I suppose we should get down to business. We’re in the Night World, correct? Then we should probably start looking for the Third Phoneme.”

“Right,” Ryuu replies, “Right now that’s the most urgent mission of all.”

“We should gather as many forces as possible,” Ayame replies, “Arai—”

“No good,” Ryuu replies suddenly, his voice lowered a pitch.

“What do you mean, ‘no good?’” Ayame asks. “Arai isn’t…isn’t…”

“It seems he was the first casualty back in the Rift World,” Ryuu answers for her. “Our accomplice, Silver, also seems to have perished. We were all cornered and separated during the initial attack, as I’m sure you’re aware of.”

“I see,” Ayame replies. “Arai…” She shakes her head sadly, and turns to stare around at the others, including Kunai and Ivy. “So this is all the force we’ve got left, huh?”

“That’s right,” Ryuu replies. “From now on, I think we should be known as the Four Joukai.”

Kunai looks up in shock at the sound of the name. “The Four Joukai?! Then…”

“Yeah,” Ryuu replies gruffly. “Normally you’ve gotta undergo lots of grueling training and rigorous testing, but in these circumstances, who gives a damn. The four of us are the only hope left in defeating the Myougun, so we should all be known as the Joukai anyway, the former group responsible for fighting against the Myougun.”

Kunai nods, a grin spreading across his face. “Okay! So, anyway, Ryuu…before these two awoke, you were telling me about the Third Phoneme?”

“Ah, right…” Ryuu mutters.

Ayame glances at Ryuu swiftly, turning back to stare at Kunai. Ryuu continues. “You see, Kunai…we haven’t been entirely truthful to you all these years. You were only two at the time, so you were too young to remember, and I’d been personally delaying the time when I’d have to tell you this, not knowing when was the best time.

“You see, shortly before your father died on the job as part of the Joukai, you had a sister born into the family. Her name was Lily. However, your mom died not long afterwards which brought up the question of who would raise you two. To complicate things even more, Grendel confirmed himself that Lily was indeed the Third Phoneme.

“Thankfully, Lord Kimura and the Myougun had no figured out yet Lily was the Third Phoneme, but even so, we knew he would find out sooner or later and would try to pursue her. As a protective measure for both you and Lily, Grendel opened up the portal into the Night World and left her there to be taken care of, thus sealing her inside another world from ours, thinking no one would ever be able to find her.”

Kunai’s mouth widens more and more as Ryuu speaks. “So…so I’ve actually got family that’s alive somewhere in this world?” he gasps in amazement. “And all this time…I had no idea…”

“I’m sorry we didn’t tell you sooner, Kunai,” Ryuu replies, “But right now we’ve got to find your sister. She is in absolute danger right now.”

“Well, where is she?” Kunai asks.

“Tch,” Ryuu growls, “We’ve got no idea. Nor do the Myougun, I don’t think. All we can do is journey around this world hoping to run into her.”

“I see,” Kunai mutters, “So I have a sister…”

Ivy glances worriedly at the down expression on Kunai’s face. “Kunai, are you okay? You look a little pale.”

“Nah,” Kunai replies, grinning once again, “As long as you’re around and okay again, I couldn’t be any happier. I’m just so glad that the whole Second Phoneme business is over.”

“Heh,” Ryuu says, “But the Third Phoneme business is only just starting.”

“Hm,” Ayame mutters softly. “So I guess it can’t be helped. From now on, our one and only mission is to retrieve the Third Phoneme and hide it from the Myougun. This isn’t going to be easy.”

“So after all this time,” Kunai mutters, “My sister’s the Third Phoneme! I’d never imagined that another person this close to me would be involved in the Phoneme stuff again. Argh! What is it with this Phoneme garbage and the stupid Myougun?!”

Kunai leaps to his feet, kicking a large stone in frustration. Ayame shakes her head. “It’s no use sitting here and contemplating about it now. We’ve gotta take action and find Lily. I’m sure the Myougun are hot on the trail hunting after her even as we speak.”

Ryuu shakes his head in contradiction. “No. Before we do that, before we do anything else, there’s one minor thing that we’ve gotta do first.”

Kunai, Ayame, and Ivy turn to Ryuu curiously. “What?”

Next Time: Episode 3 Building Ryuu a New Weapon

Kunai: What is it that we’ve gotta do first before anything else?

Ryuu: We’ve gotta get me a brand new sword!

Ayame: Ugh…that’s what you get for busting it in the first place.

Ryuu: HEY! I did it to save you, you ungrateful…

Ivy: Look! A sign!

Kunai: Smith specializing in weapon making?

Ryuu: Gather one hundred Wild Boar teeth…argh! This is one of those stupid quests!

Episode 3 Building Ryuu A New Weapon coming soon!