Episode 11 Wanderer
Kunai’s eyes widen upon hearing the name. His grip on the door handle tightens. Breathing deeply, he forces himself to remain calm and turns back to Benton, standing in his dimly lit corner of his shop.
“Kimura, did you say?” Kunai whispers.
Mira turns from Kunai to Benton, looking at each with a puzzled expression on her face.
“Yes,” Benton replies, “Kimura indeed. In fact…they supplied the hybrid themselves. Takuya Kimura. He was one of their own.”
“What?!” Kunai gasps, failing to hide any hint of shock now. “It couldn’t be…”
“No, not at all,” Benton murmurs, “it’s not a surprise at all that the former leader of the Myougun had relatives. They were a powerful family in Showa Town in their day, that’s for sure—still are. Though some of their luster has disappeared indeed due to the political realities of being related to the founder of an evil empire. But Kimura certainly still has very distant relatives living in Showa Town.”
Kunai turns back towards the door, his body still shaking slightly. He nods. “Very well. Thank you for all the information you’ve provided.” He turns to Mira. “Let’s go.”
Hesitating slightly, Mira finally nods. She glances at Benton, standing in the shadows, once more, before following Kunai out through the door, back into the sunshine of New Leaf City.
Kunai, Zack, Mira, and Ophelia sit around a table inside a restaurant just under the shadow of Bigger Ben. Nighttime has fallen; moonlight splashes onto their table by the window of the restaurant.
“Kimura, huh?” Zack sighs, leaning back in his chair at the table. He picks at his plate of octopus balls absentmindedly. “Old man Kimura always kept his secrets his own, so I never really figured out much ‘cept what I could sneak out of him. But nice to know he’s got family.”
“Apparently they are a powerful clan in the Zipangu region,” Kunai mutters. “I wonder if they’d be friendly to us or not.”
“Probably,” Zack replies, “else Kimura woulda mentioned he’s got family. That he didn’t shows he didn’t trust ‘em or have their support.”
“So by the way this conversation is headed, I’m guessing we’re headed for Showa Town?” Mira asks.
“Most likely,” Kunai answers. “We need to find out how the Kimura clan is related to the Anti-Paradox. We might also be able to gather clues from them about the whereabouts of Takuya Kimura. We’ll need to track him down in order to get Benton’s Anti-Paradox from him.”
“But if that Anti-Paradox was a failure, why would we want it?” Ophelia asks hesitantly.
“Even if it was a failure, it’s the best lead we’ve got so far,” Kunai mutters. “It’s possible that there are other Anti-Paradoxes in existence out there, but with our current information, this is the best we could do. It’s also possible that even if Benton’s Anti-Paradox is currently imperfect, we can somehow perfect it. But that’s something we’ll figure out once we actually obtain it.”
Mira suddenly glances out the window into the brightly lit streets of New Leaf City outside. She gazes into the night sky for several moments.
“What’s wrong?” Kunai asks.
“No…nothing,” Mira murmurs slowly. “It’s just…ever since we arrived in New Leaf City, I feel like we’ve been followed.”
“Followed?” Kunai raises an eyebrow. “I haven’t noticed anything…” he mutters to himself.
“Wouldn’t it be lucky if it happened to be this Takuya Kimura guy we’re lookin’ for?” Zack exclaims brightly, breaking the tension unexpectedly with his comment.
Kunai suddenly stands up, leaving his unfinished dinner on the table. “At any rate, it’s better that we leave. We’ll head to a hotel or something tonight, and then tomorrow morning we’ll start for Zipangu.”
Ryuu sighs, grumbling to himself as he picks his way through a massive library full of shelves filled to the brim with books. He navigates his way through one lane of shelves, eventually coming to a shelf against the wall of the library, by the window. Sunlight filters in merrily through the window, warming the otherwise cold wooden floor panels of the room.
Ryuu drops a stack of books onto the floor next to him. “Damn librarian leaving me to do this organizing work…” he mutters under his breath. He turns and stares out the window, looking into the sunny tree-lined horizon outside.
“I wonder how Kunai and everyone else are doing…”
He turns back to his task at hand. Ryuu pulls several books from the top shelf out, shuffling through them. “Tch, this is all dated and useless garbage.” He throws them to the floor in a separate pile.
Suddenly, a particular volume catches his eye. Ryuu pulls the book free from the shelf, staring at its heavily bound leather cover, with numerous runes written all over it. His eyes widen as he examines the book.
“Impossible! This is…!”
A dark-haired individual stomps about the lonely streets of New Leaf City, now quieted at last as night has fallen. However, many people still traverse about the boulevards, while cars zoom by on the streets. He gazes up as he passes a lamp post, staring into its brightly glowing light. A soft buzz emanates from its light.
He continues to stare sternly at the lamp post, studying it almost obsessively. A small group of people pass by him on the sidewalk, giving him strange looks.
“The hell is that freak doing?” a man shouts.
“Shh! Don’t say that so loud!” a girl scolds, laughing as she speaks.
The dark-haired man finally averts his attention away from the lamp post to stare at the retreating backs of those mocking him. He turns silently and stares into the window of an open shop next to him. His own reflection glares back wordlessly.
He places a hand up to the right side of his hand, which is heavily wrapped in bandages. “What are these doing here, anyway? It’s probably time to remove them.” He speaks in a deep, raspy voice.
“Our second pupil is gone anyway,” he says in a high-pitched, womanly voice.
The individual suddenly grabs his bandages with his right hand, and tugs at it. The bandages slowly unravel and fall to the ground, revealing his right eye, in which there is indeed only one pupil.
“Hey, you!” A voice suddenly rings in the air as the manager in the store rushes out, gesturing at the individual standing gravely before him. “I don’t know who you are, but you’re scaring away my customers! At least pick up those bandages you just threw to the ground!”
The dark-haired man turns slowly to the manager, his eyes eventually falling onto the slightly overweight man in front of him. He opens his mouth to speak.
“Die.”
Screams burst out loud in the streets of New Leaf City, as blood squirts into the air.
A dash of early morning sunlight falls peacefully onto the forest of trees outside the Mushroom Shrine in Zipangu. Several Crows leap into the sky, cawing as they do so.
Kunai, Zack, Mira, and Ophelia stride along the unblemished path leading towards and past the shrine. The two girls stare about at their surroundings as they walk along.
“This place is so beautiful!” Ophelia says, stooping to pick a flower from the untouched grass.
“One o’ the few places the Myougun never touched,” Zack comments, snacking on a bag of octoballs as he walks alongside Kunai and company.
“Speaking of which, traveling in the Maple World has become so much easier now with the empire gone,” Kunai says. “Five years ago, we would have encountered a host of Myougun lackeys and Paradoxes by now.”
“Indeed, the world’s changed a lot since then,” Zack replies thoughtfully. “Well! Guess we can pat ourselves on the back for a job well done defeating the Myougun!”
Kunai glares at Zack sneakily. “You can’t exactly pat yourself on the back when you were working with them half the time. Where were you when we were fighting the Triplicates, huh?”
“Heh heh!” Zack smiles.
Mira glances anxiously behind her. “Footsteps…” she murmurs.
Kunai turns to Mira. “Did you say something, Mira?”
“Huh?” Mira cries, jerking out of her thoughtful trance. “Oh no…never mind.”
From somewhere far above, hidden among the trees, lurks a group of bandits. They hide within the branches of the trees, muttering amongst themselves, peering down at the group below.
“That one’s definitely a hybrid!” one of them cries.
“Be quiet…” a Chief Bandit appearing to be their leader whispers. A scar runs across his right eye, a Dragon’s Tail at his side. “Some of those people with her look strong. If we’re gonna do this right, we have to take ‘em by surprise.”
“Aye aye, Cap’n!"