Tales of a Lost Sword 14

Episode 14 Shooting Star
A small fire crackles merrily in a pit in the middle of the camp. The deep night sky above is lit up brightly by the light of the moon and the stars. In the darkness, the trees surrounding the Mushroom Shrine stand quietly, only the very tips of their vast branches stirring softly as a nighttime breeze whistles by.

Kunai sits silently by himself on a log near the campfire, his cape wrapped about him. Nearby, Mira and Ophelia are fast asleep in their sleeping bags. The three captured bandits, Zaram and his men, remain tied up and hanging by rope on the branch of a nearby tree. They too appear to be asleep.

With a soft crunch of leaves, Zack returns, carrying with him a tiny portable lamp. He takes a seat on a log nearby Kunai with a sigh. “Well, I fetched a little water so we won’t be thirsty through the night.”

Silence remains, as Kunai merely stares deeply into the flames of the fire. Suddenly, Zack speaks up. “I guess I gotta apologize, Kunai.”

“Hm?” Kunai turns questioningly to Zack.

“Yeah…” Zack says thoughtfully. “I met Soma when I was journeyin’ after all that Lilith business was done with. I met him at a shady bar. It was the middle o’ the night, too. But we got to playing cards and before I knew it I was squealing my whole life story out to him. Apparently he was a mercenary. But I honestly didn’t think he would be that dangerous at the time.”

“Is that how he knew about me and my sword…and about Ivy and Lily?” Kunai asks.

“No,” Zack replies, his face darkening, “see, when I told him about our travels, he already knew about you.”

Kunai’s eyes widen in response. “He already knew about me?!”

“Yeah,” Zack continues, “apparently…he’d heard ‘bout you from someone named Tide.”

“Tide…?” Kunai mutters. A brief memory of Silver’s bumbling but well-meaning friend returns to Kunai’s mind momentarily. “I see. You did mention you met Soma in a bar. I suppose he must have been one of Tide’s associates.”

“Seems he was obsessed with learnin’ more about you, too,” Zack adds, “he kept askin’ questions like it was going out of style.”

More silence. Zack sighs, staring down at the ground, his brown eyes lit up by the flames of the campfire. “To tell ya the truth, Soma Vesta was a demon. He lived to kill and shed blood, that’s all. From the moment he heard ‘bout you, all he wanted to do was to kill you. That’s all he lived for.”

“Thanks to him, though…” Kunai growls, his voice low, “I know what I have to do now. I can’t hold back any longer. If I want to win the upcoming battles ahead, I can’t hold back. I have to fight with that same kind of determination.”

“Can I ask ya a question, Kunai?”

“Eh?” Kunai exclaims, surprised. “What is it?”

Zack narrows his eyes, firelight dancing in them. “What do you fight for?”

“To defeat the Fatalists, of course!” Kunai says firmly.

“S’that all?” Zack replies. “I wanna beat the Fatalists, too. S’nice to think you fight ‘cause you care about the world and don’t want it to die, but people are selfish and don’t do nice things for the world unless it affects them.” Zack laughs nervously. “Guess what I’m tryin’ to say is…people who fight battles like this are motivated by somethin’ more selfish than simply wanting to save the world.”

“Then what is your selfish reason for fighting, Zack?” Kunai asks.

“Hmm…” Zack says thoughtfully. “I guess it’s to avenge my lil’ brother and sister. They were both attacked by Paradoxes when we were younger. That’s the reason I got caught up with this Phoneme business in the first place.”

“Your little brother and sister?” Kunai repeats, his eyes widening. “I see…I had no idea. As for me, then…I guess the reason I’m fighting is to avenge Ivy and Lily. Arai is the one who took them away from me…even though he journeyed with us for so long, laughed with us, fought with us…to think that he’d do something like that. I want to make him pay for all the pain and suffering he’s caused not just me, but the world!”

“As I thought,” Zack says after a moment of silence, “you’re still not over losing them. Even though it’s been five years…”

“Of course not!” Kunai shouts rather suddenly. He abruptly collects himself, catching himself for the outburst. “Sorry…but this isn’t the kind of thing that really goes away over time. Besides, isn’t it the same way with you and your siblings?”

“I guess so!” Zack replies, grinning slightly. “But it’s still not good to obsess over it too much. Sometimes the only way to get over somethin’ is to move on from it.”

A long pause follows.

“I was pretty surprised when I heard that Ryuu had married Sasha,” Kunai says hesitantly.

Zack nods in agreement. “Yeah, I was a bit, too, actually.”

“What Ryuu said when I asked him about it really stood out to me though…” Kunai mutters. “He said that ‘I need to move on.’ But it just seems strange…especially knowing how much he loved Ayame. It’s just…almost insulting to her memory for him to do something like that!”

“But he’s right,” Zack replies in an understanding tone. “You can’t stay stuck in the past forever…else there’d never be a future. Sometimes the only way to end the pain is t’keep going and act like everything’s okay.”

Kunai suddenly clenches his fists, and grits his teeth as he attempts to hold back the tears. “It’s…it’s so unfair!” he bursts out abruptly. “Why…why did we have to lose them? Why did I have to lose those two?”

Zack sighs deeply, his eyes looking deep into the flames of the campfire before them. The fire crackles merrily, oblivious to the world’s pain and suffering.

“It ain’t fair. That’s why it hurts.”

Kunai scowls at Zack, who remains silent for some time. Finally, Zack speaks again. “Kunai, if ya wanna keep fightin’ the Fatalists, ya gotta move on from this. Else there’s no way you can face them. Even though you lost her…Ivy died lovin’ you. I was the one who trained her to beat you with the Soul Potion. S’like it was just yesterday. I could see it in her eyes…how much she wanted to get stronger just t’save ya.”

“You trained her…?” Kunai murmurs, eyes widening. “I didn’t know that…thank you.”

Zack suddenly bursts out laughing. “What’re you thankin’ me for?”

“Hm?” Kunai replies. “Should I not have? But you helped both of us. For that, I have to thank you.”

Zack continues to snicker slightly. “Heh heh heh…you’re welcome, you’re welcome. Just don’t thank me too loudly. If those two over there heard you thankin’ me like this…ahh, how embarrassing!”

Kunai glances over at the sleeping figures of Mira and Ophelia. His eyes darken just a bit. “They’re still young…I hope they never have to feel the sort of pain we’ve felt.”

“You’re still pretty young yourself,” Zack replies.

Kunai shakes his head. “I’m the same age now Ryuu was when we first set out to defeat the Triplicates. I’m not that young anymore.”

“That so, huh?” Zack says thoughtfully. “Guess it shows. You’ve grown a lot since last time I saw ya. You’re…how do I put it…more of a leader.”

“Am I?” Kunai answers, glancing at Zack with surprise. “Although…that’s not much of a compliment coming from you.”

“Heh heh heh!” Zack laughs.

“I don’t feel at all like I’ve grown though…” Kunai growls. “If anything, I feel like I’ve regressed. Ever since I lost my ability to use that sword… I couldn’t even beat Soma on my own. Before the real fighting starts…I have to do something. I have to get stronger.”

With another sigh, Zack picks up a stick from the ground. He prods the fire absentmindedly with it. “You’re too hard on yourself, Kunai. You’re plenty strong already. But ya can’t expect to win every fight by yourself. That’s what teammates are for.”

Zack continues to prod the fire some more, its blazing flames reflected in his gentle brown eyes. He grins sheepishly. “Well! Maybe I say that just ‘cause I’m a Bishop and that’s in our nature.”

“You may be right…” Kunai says softly. He glares into the darkness of the woods around them.

Zack leans back in his seat on the log, gazing up into the starlit sky. Suddenly, a shooting star streaks by. “Oh! A shooting star! Better make a wish.”

The two silently stare up at the sky, just as another shooting star blazes through it. The infinite stars twinkle ceaselessly in the darkness of the forest.

“Zack…” Kunai says abruptly after some time. “Sorry.”

“Hmm?” Zack murmurs. “What for?”

“I didn’t mean to say as much as I did tonight,” Kunai says in a low voice. “Before I knew it, everything was just spilling out.”

“That’s not something to be apologizin’ for,” Zack retorts seriously.

Kunai smiles. “I guess Ophelia was right after all.”

“’bout what?” Zack asks.

“I did feel better after talking about everything.”

“Course ya did.”
—END FOURTEEN—
So you guys that are liking the chapters but not leaving any comments, you're actually reading them and enjoying them, right? So I should keep writing, right?