Tales of a Lost Sword 6

Episode 6 L Maze
“God dammit!” Ryuu growls, as he comes to a fork in the road. Three identical passageways lie before him, as he stands still, debating which way to go.

“They knew what they were doing when they built this place under the L Forest…”

Shrugging slightly, Ryuu takes the middle path. At once, the pathway begins declining steadily. The stuffy air reaches Ryuu’s face. He narrows his eyes. “It seems this place leads down into some sort of interior part of their hideout…”

Ryuu comes to a stop as he continues to navigate the underground maze laid out before him. The footsteps behind him come to a stop as well. He narrows his eyes, peering backwards into the darkness. But his cool green eyes discern nothing but shadows.

“Was that someone following me, or am I hearing my own echoes? I can’t tell…” Ryuu mutters to himself. He takes another step forward. A corresponding footstep echoes after him from behind. At once, Ryuu draws his sword, deflecting a bullet headed straight towards him. He raises his sword again, blocking the blow from Soma’s rifle.

“You!” Ryuu growls, his eyes narrowed into angry slits.

Soma grins, showing off his canine teeth. “What’s up, what’s up, what’s up?!” He pulls back, firing several bullets straight at Ryuu.

Ryuu agilely deflects each bullet with his sword. “I’m not gonna be that easy to kill, Soma Vesta.” Ryuu suddenly raises his sword, pointing it straight at Soma. “You’re under arrest for kidnapping and murder, Soma Vesta.”

Soma abruptly bursts out laughing, clapping his hands together. “Hahahahaha! That’s a good one! Me under arrest? Ya seriously don’t think ya got that much power t’arrest me, do ya?”

“Probably not,” Ryuu smiles, “but it won’t make a difference if I defeat you here!”

“Oh?” Soma whistles. “Show me what ya got!”

Ryuu bursts into a grin. “Now that’s what I like to hear!” With a splitting yell, he charges straight at Soma, bringing his fiery sword crashing hard down at the Corsair.

Soma responds rapidly, firing a blank at Ryuu. A burst of smoke obscures Ryuu’s view. He comes to a skidding stop, his sword crashing into the hard ground below him, hitting nothing.

As the smoke clears, Ryuu looks around, but finds that the Corsair has disappeared. “The hell did he go?!”

Footsteps sound all around Ryuu, though the Corsair still remains hidden, unseen. The footsteps grow progressively louder and then progressively softer, all the while echoing throughout the confines of the dark maze.

“Ya have t’catch me if ya can, Ryuu!” Soma taunts from somewhere within.

Ryuu growls, pounding his fist against the side of the hallway angrily. “You bastard! Show yourself and fight me like a man!”

Yet Ryuu only receives a trailing cackle in response. Sighing resignedly, Ryuu steps forward deeper into the maze. “Guess all I can do then is keep going through this damn maze and see if I can get somewhere more open.”

The penetrating darkness grows thicker as Ryuu makes his way further into the hollowed underground maze. He glances backwards, but sees only pitch blackness.

‘Those damn footsteps have been echoing behind me for ages. He’s still out there, somewhere…’

A bullet suddenly blasts its way across Ryuu’s side. He flinches just in time, as the bullet sinks into the ground just off the mark from his right foot. Ryuu raises his sword, ready to strike. Yet the darkness of the maze remains the same as ever, stubbornly dark.

Ryuu lights his sword with fire, using the glow from the flames to light his pathway. Soma appears behind him. Ryuu turns and swings his sword just in time, blocking Soma as he aims to knock Ryuu unconscious with his rifle.

Soma leaps backwards, a smirk on his face. He fires two bullets at once; Ryuu deflects each one. Without warning, Ryuu charges straight at Soma, swinging his sword violently. Soma dashes behind Ryuu, appearing behind him with the speed of lightning. He fires two shots at Ryuu, each one nailing him just behind his left shoulder.

Ryuu comes to a stop, lowering his sword slightly. He growls angrily, turning to face Soma again, blood dripping from his injured shoulder. He shifts his sword so that most of its weight is in his right hand. “I’m right-handed, you idiot.”

“Oh?” Soma cries. “That’s no fun. Why can’t ya be left-handed? Oh well, I’ll just shoot out your right side then as well!”

“I won’t give you the chance!” Ryuu howls, darting straight at Soma. He swings his sword; Soma dances out of the way, but slips, as the floor below him turns into ice.

Soma plummets straight to the ground, landing with a loud thud. Ryuu turns around to face the fallen Soma, a satisfied smirk on his face.

Soma grimaces, forcing his way back up from the ground. “Sneaky tricks like that won’t get me…”

But before he even has a chance to raise his rifle again, Ryuu pierces the ceiling of the tunnel with his sword, and howls.

“EXPLOSION!”

“Shi—!” Soma yells.

The ceiling rapidly begins collapsing as the impact of the explosion causes it to break apart. Ryuu hurls himself past Soma, knocking him roughly into the wall of the passageway as it collapses.

Several large pieces of rock fall on top of Soma, crushing him and the rest of the narrow passage as Ryuu emerges from it into a wide, open space at last. With one last, fiery jerk, the tunnel collapses into a heap of rubble.

Ryuu pants heavily from the effort of the attack and running to escape the falling tunnel. “That ought…to do…it. Not even I could have survived that.” He suddenly turns his attention into his new location, raising his sword to get a better look at it.

He is standing in a wide open hall, completely dark except for the light of his sword. The hall is rather cool; the floor is made of marble, while pillars of stone line the walls of the room. A single throne is placed at the head of the hall, where a lone fat man sits.

“Well, Ryuu, I see you have found your way to my abode,” a squeaky voice says aloud.

Ryuu jerks his head immediately towards the throne, where the fat man is sitting still, watching him with a look of revulsion on his face. The man is nearly bald; just a few wisps of hair sit atop his fat face. Several deep, long scars run across his face, a particularly nasty one going all the way from just above his left eye to his jaw line.

“Duncan,” Ryuu growls.

“I’m glad you still remember me,” Duncan smirks.

“Of course I haven’t forgotten you,” Ryuu retorts, “you’ve been causing a hell of a lot of trouble on the surface with your schemes against hybrids. What have you got against hybrids anyway?!”

“Ryuu, Ryuu…” Duncan sighs. “My actions are not motivated merely by a grudge I have against hybrids. My actions are far, far more nobler than that. You see, hybrids are filth. After spending so much time with them, surely you’d realize that. But, oh wait—you are one yourself. Nevertheless, you’ve seen what those Fatalists have done. To the world. To me. Your buddy Kunai did this to my face. Hybrids are filth. The world is better off without them. Now that the Paradoxes have been exterminated, hybrids are the only evidence left of that troubled time in our world’s history. Surely you do not expect society to keep the remnants of those awful beasts that only bring back such horrible memories?”

“Shut your trap,” Ryuu howls in return, “you know better than anyone that you helped cause those types of tragedies in your duties with the Myougun. All you’re doing is just rambling. I know for a fact that behind those words of yours, all you care about is hording power.”

He raises his sword, a cold fury blazing in his eyes. “I’m gonna do what I wish I’d done a long time ago. Kill you.”

Duncan laughs rather abruptly, a high-pitched, piercing cackle. “I just dare you to try and kill me, Ryuu.”

In a flash of blue light, Ryuu teleports right next to Duncan, standing right next to the throne on which the fat man sits. Ryuu points his sword straight at Duncan, allowing the blade to rest across his neck.

“Before I do,” Ryuu says in a low voice, “tell me where you’re keeping the girl Mira.”

“Mira?” Duncan asks. “Ah yes…that girl. Capturing her in order to lure you here was so easy; it was even worth sacrificing Soma to do so. But I’m afraid I cannot tell you where the girl is hidden, Ryuu. You shall die now.”

“Don’t screw with me!” Ryuu shouts, his voice echoing throughout the empty throne room. “You know where she is. She’s just an innocent girl that has nothing to do with this!”

“Innocent?” Duncan whispers. “How innocent can she be? She is a student at your academy, Ryuu…you’re training her to be one of your soldiers in the war you’re fighting. She is not innocent. She is stained with the blood of your sins, Ryuu.”

Ryuu’s grip tightens around the hilt of his sword, but still he does not make a move. He narrows his eyes. “I’ll ask you again. Tell me where the girl is.”

“I’ve no more time for this, Ryuu. Die.” Duncan claps his hands suddenly. “Kunai! Kill this man, now.”

Ryuu’s grip slackens just a bit at the summons by Duncan. “Kunai?” he asks, his eyes darting into the darkness around him.

However, no one comes. Duncan glares into the darkness impatiently. “Kunai. I ordered you to kill this man.”

Ryuu turns back to Duncan, a frown on his face. “You’ve gone mad, Duncan. I don’t know who the hell you think you’re talking to, but no one’s here.”

“Impossible!” Duncan shouts, his voice quivering slightly with nervousness for the first time now. “Kunai! Kunai…! Where in blazes are you, Kunai? Kunai…!”

“There’s no one here to save you,” Ryuu announces in a cold voice.

“This can’t be!” Duncan shrieks, terror now fully rising in his voice. “You cannot kill me, Ryuu! Do not kill me! I beg of you…! I’ll…I’ll tell you where the girl is! She’s in the prisons! On the first floor of this hideout, down the passageway to the left of the entrance!”

“Thanks, Duncan,” Ryuu says. “Now you can burn in hell.”

With one swift strike, Ryuu slices Duncan’s head clean off his body.

Kunai freezes at the entrance of the prison, Mira standing not far behind him. His eyes widen, his body unable to move, as he stares into a reflection of himself brought to life. Except, the reflection carries a massive sword shaped almost like a giant butcher knife.

The reflection sneers, his eyes bulging wide with maddened glee. “It’s been a very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very long time, Kunai… But I’ve returned from the depths of hell just to see you again! Aren’t you glad?”

Kunai struggles to open his mouth to speak. Finally, with all the effort in the world, he manages to move the tensed muscles in his mouth.

“Myou.”