Tales of a Lost Sword 22

Episode 22 Plan for Victory
Three days after the defeat of Takuya Kimura.

Ryuu turns away from staring out the window of his office and instead stares into the faces of those gathered before him: Zack, Cynthia, and Fayvard. The three of them are seated side by side in chairs in front of Ryuu’s desk, waiting patiently for him to speak.

“As you know, soon the war against the Fatalists will begin again,” Ryuu says in a grave voice, “and you are the only ones whom I trust and who are strong enough to lead the war. Therefore, I am in the process of organizing you into squads that you will lead in the war ahead.”

“We’re missing quite a few heads, though,” Fayvard says lazily, leaning back in his chair.

“What about Mira n’ Ophelia?” Zack asks. “You don’t mean to leave ‘em out, do ya? They definitely proved themselves on our mission with Kunai.”

“Be that as it may, participating in a simple mission led by veterans and playing a leading role in a war are two completely different things. They have not graduated the academy yet and are clearly not ready to play such a large role in the upcoming war. I will speak to them separately later about what I expect from them,” Ryuu answers.

“And what about Kunai?!” Cynthia cries. “Surely he deserves to be here as well!”

Ryuu sighs impatiently. “Kunai will not be a general in this war. He has other responsibilities to take care of. At any rate, you should all just worry about your own squads.”

“I have Zaram and the others,” Cynthia replies briskly, “they’ll be enough for me.”

“Very well,” Ryuu replies. “At any rate, I also have to get into contact with Silver, and Rill still hasn’t returned from his mission yet… Both of their services will be needed in this war.”

Footsteps trample down the floor of wooden panels in the hallway outside. Students turn and stare in wonder as the mysterious new arrival passes by. Finally, he reaches a single door. He knocks.

Ryuu looks up. “Come in,” he says plainly.

The door clicks open and in walks the mysterious figure. Zack and Cynthia’s eyes both widen with surprise. Fayvard raises an eyebrow. “The hell’s going on here?” he shouts.

Zack jumps to his feet. “Ryuu—!”

Ryuu stares calmly at the figure, robed in black and whose face is hidden behind a pearly white skull mask. In another instant, he flashes a defiant smile. “Welcome back, Rill.”

“Rill?!” Zack cries, his jaw dropping.

The figure removes the white mask obscuring his face, indeed revealing the face of Rill. He bows low, his face expressionless. “I have returned from my mission, Headmaster Ryuu.”

“What’s going on here?” Cynthia questions. “Why is he wearing a Fatalist uniform?”

“This is the mission I sent Rill on,” Ryuu answers simply. “I asked him to break into the Fatalists’ dimension and join the Fatalists as a spy. He was the only one best suited for the mission.”

“You’ve gotta be kidding me,” Fayvard mutters, looking Rill up and down. “To go that far…”

“At any rate, good timing, Rill,” Ryuu says. “I’ll introduce you all to each other properly later, but I was just about to discuss our plans for the war against the Fatalists. You should sit down and hear this as well.”

Rill nods. “Very well, Headmaster Ryuu.” He pulls up a chair beside Fayvard and takes a seat.

Cynthia glances at Rill from the side, blushing slightly. ‘He’s rather handsome…’

“Anyway,” Zack begins, “what’s the plan for defeatin’ the Fatalists?”

Ryuu smirks. “My plan is…a coup d’état.”

Zack shifts uneasily in his seat. “A coup d'état, huh? What do you mean?”

“Tch,” Fayvard smirks. “So that’s your plan. You want us to take down that snooty Prince Arai, huh? It’s an interesting plan. You gotta have some guts to pull something like that.”

“What?!” Cynthia mutters, turning to Fayvard.

“Yes,” Ryuu says, “that’s exactly the plan. I want us to launch a coup d’état against Arai. He is currently the king of his dimension. If we can get enough people in his dimension to rebel against him, the Fatalists will fall from power. And that’s when we’ll come in and take advantage of the chaos. We will kill Arai and end the war against the Fatalists by taking the head of their leader.”

“You’re gonna kill Arai…?” Zack murmurs, gripping the seat of his chair tightly with his right hand.

“It’s a bold plan, I’ll give you that,” Fayvard comments. Next to him, Rill remains silent, staring with his cold eyes at Ryuu.

Cynthia nods. “Very well. It’s sound military strategy. I approve of your plan.”

Ryuu nods as well. “The main advantage of this plan is that we’ll be taking the war directly to the Fatalists, which means that the battleground will be their dimension, not ours. It won’t give them a chance to destroy our dimension. However, we don’t have much time left before they arrive, so we’ll have to prepare for the coming war as quickly as possible. Since we’re planning to take the fight straight to the Fatalists, we have even less time as we have to be the first ones to strike.”

“This isn’t gonna be easy…” Zack mutters thoughtfully.

“No,” Ryuu replies, “but I have faith in all of you, including Kunai.”

“Kunai?!” Rill hisses in the lowest of voices to himself. His eyes bulge manically as he hears the name, and his fists clench tightly by his side.

With a click, Kunai replaces his claw around his wrist. He grabs a Steely, feeling its grip in his hand. He turns around as someone shuffles about behind him. A young, grinning teenage boy with spiky black hair climbs into the room through the open window. A pair of goggles hangs over his forehead, while a quiver is strapped to his back.

“Yo, Kunai!” he waves, grinning widely. “I’m here just like you asked!”

“Ah, Xavier,” Kunai nods. He grabs a handful of Steelys. “Just hold on a moment, I’ll be ready to leave soon.”

“Take your time, take your time!” Xavier replies, looking around at the room. Inside, the room is built of great planks of wood. Through the windows can be seen the foliage of the great Ellinian trees. “I didn’t know the Maple World was so…how do ya put it, treeish.”

“It’s not,” Kunai replies, “this is just Ellinia. But I’m sure since the sun never rises in the Night World, you must not be used to seeing this many trees all at once.”

“Got that right,” Xavier retorts.

Kunai turns around, facing Xavier at last. “All right, all preparations are complete. Let’s depart now.”

Xavier grins, flashing Kunai the thumbs up. “All right! And you’re gonna honor our deal, right?! The others at the ARES Project would be pretty pissed with me if I came back with nothing.”

“Of course,” Kunai answers. “It wouldn’t be very fair if I didn’t. For helping me locate and defeat my other self, I will give you the Anti-Paradox.”
—END TWENTY-TWO—
Happy Lunar New Year, everyone. In celebration of the new year, here's a new chapter of ToaLS, out one day early. Next chapter will be posted on Tuesday as usual. Also – the next chapter marks the 200th overall chapter in the ToaL series. Lots to celebrate.