Tales of a Lost Sword 38

Episode 38 Intermission I: Those Long Gone Days
Rays of sunlight stream into the corridor where a youthful boy with curly locks the color of gold sits, reading. He is straddled atop the marble balustrade lining the hallway, which is connected to a massive castle looking down at the town below. The cool, open air plays about the boy’s face, as he sits absorbed in his leather-bound book, turning its old, yellowed pages every now and then.

The boy looks up as he sees two approaching figures coming down the hallway. The faces of the two figures are hidden behind pearly white masks in the shapes of skulls. They glide slowly along the hallway like ghosts, oblivious to the young boy observing them from atop the balustrade.

As the two men approach, the boy closes his book with a snap, dust from the volume rising into the air and quickly disappearing into the sunshine. The two men turn their masked faces towards the boy as they approach sight of him.

“Ah, Prince Arai. What brings you out here so bright and early in the morning?” one of them inquires.

“I was merely reading from the tome Grandfather lent me,” the young Arai answers. “The one about the false dimension…”

“Ahh…” the other masked Fatalist murmurs slightly uncomfortably. “With all due respect, Your Highness, but you should refrain from reading horrible things like that.”

“Why?” Arai questions. “Grandfather has chosen me as his emissary to the false dimension. It is important that I understand the workings of the false dimension.”

“Yes, well…”

Arai narrows his cool blue eyes wonderingly. “Am I incorrect?”

“N-No, that’s not it at all!”

The first Fatalist that had spoken turns to his companion. “Come, let us leave. We have a meeting with His Majesty the King to attend to. We apologize for our insolence, Your Highness, Prince Arai!”

Arai turns his head and watches as the two men depart down the corridor, the sunshine streaming in over their backs. Returning to his book, the young Arai reopens it, skimming through the ancient words and texts jumping out at him.

‘It is lonely, living in a world like this…’

The younger Arai stands still, his eyes averted towards the ground. Very little sunlight now enters the drafty hall where his grandfather sits upon the throne. Grendel surveys Arai through narrowed eyes, his staff grasped in his right hand as he sits.

“Arai, my grandson…” Grendel says, his voice reverberating through the hall.

Arai merely continues to stare at the ground, a frown on his face. He trembles slightly.

“Prince Arai, first in line in succession to the throne…” Grendel thunders, gazing sternly down at Arai from his throne. “The parallel dimension grows stronger by the day. The rise of the Myougun troubles me, while that fool Kimura threatens to foil all our plans. You know your responsibilities.”

“Yes, Grandfather,” Arai mutters, still avoiding his grandfather’s eyes.

Without another word, Arai turns to leave. He trudges along the marble floor slowly. All of a sudden, his grandfather speaks again.

“Just because you are my grandson by blood does not entitle you to take this throne. You must first earn the right to challenge for it.”

Arai freezes, gritting his teeth. However, he does not turn to face his grandfather even as tears well up in his eyes. Nodding just slightly, Arai exits the room in a half-sprint.

Grendel watches Arai leave the throne room from his lofty position. He sighs, shaking his head ever so slightly. Suddenly, a royal attendant, a eunuch, enters the room from a doorway behind Grendel’s throne.

He gazes at his king, who appears to be deep in thought. “My greatest apologies, Your Majesty, but are you sure you should send your only grandson out into the wilderness? He is a delicate flower. If he were to sympathize with the heathens there…”

“It is precisely because he is my only grandson that I am sending him there,” Grendel barks with a hint of impatience in his voice. “He is the only one that holds the ability to unseat me from this throne. He must be removed from this kingdom at once.”

Arai falls to the ground hard, having been knocked down by a floating mannequin. The headless mannequin holds a Redemption in its hands, as it charges once more at Arai.

However, Arai merely remains frozen on the ground, his eyes widened fearfully. Out of nowhere, a young boy with bright red hair jumps into the fray, cutting down the mannequin with his sword. The mannequin falls to the ground, sliced cleanly in half.

The boy bends over panting slightly, before turning around and offering Arai a hand. Hesitantly, Arai takes the boy’s hand and is helped back to his feet.

Glaring angrily at Arai, the boy frowns. “Come on, Arai, I know you can fight better than that! Why won’t you fight like it?”

Arai merely looks away, a sad look in his eyes. Frustrated, the boy grabs Arai and smacks him across the face, leaving a large red mark on Arai’s cheek. Arai merely grimaces and bites his lip, but otherwise makes no noise or protest.

“Ahh jeez, you piss me off!” the boy shouts, stomping about. He is wearing a white t-shirt and a pair of dark shorts. His flaming red hair gleams brightly in the sunshine.

“What’s going on here?” a green-haired, green-eyed boy not much older than the two suddenly strides into the scene. By his side is a sheathed sword. He wears a dark black jacket with an insignia indicating a higher rank than the two boys.

“Arai isn’t even trying, Master Fayvard!” the red-haired boy cries, pointing an accusing finger at Arai. “Talk some sense into him!”

“Calm the hell down, little Ryuu,” Fayvard orders. He bends over Arai, inspecting him. “You all right, Arai?”

Arai nods, wiping away a few tears in his eyes. Fayvard sighs, standing straight up again. He gazes up at the sky, which is a clear, bright blue. “It’s starting to get late anyway. Why don’t you go wash up and call it a day.”

“No, I want to stay and train some more,” Ryuu says, raising his sword again.

“Suit yourself,” Fayvard shoots back breezily. “Just don’t overexert yourself. You’re still not gonna beat me in the tournament, little Ryuu.”

“Oh yeah?!” Ryuu growls competitively, butting heads with Fayvard.

Meanwhile, Arai rises to his feet, and walks off gloomily on his own back towards the Academy as Ryuu and Fayvard continue to spit taunts vehemently at each other.

Arai bends over the outdoor sink, cupping his hands and splashing some of the water on his face. He breathes heavily, before grabbing a towel forcefully and wiping his face with it. As he removes the towel, he suddenly spots an older man standing next to him who hadn’t been there before.

Jumping slightly, Arai takes a step back as he recognizes the man’s face. “You’re…” Arai murmurs, eyeing the man as he stands there in the half-shade, dressed in a trench coat and hat.

“The name’s Fain,” the man announces stoically. He reaches into the pocket of his coat and draws out a lighter and cigarette. Lighting the cigarette, the man takes a puff from it, exhaling and sending a plume of gray smoke into the air.

“F-Fain…” Arai mutters, eyes widened, but not in fear this time. “You’re one of Grandfather’s Fatalists. What are you doing here?!”

“Arai. Do you understand why you’re here?”

“Because Grandfather–“

“Wrong,” Fain firmly interrupts. “You’re here because your grandfather is your enemy. Listen to me, Arai. Your grandfather placed you here in this hellhole to get rid of you. You’re still too young to fully understand what your grandfather is planning, but he wants to destroy the world, our world. In your heart, you know yourself that you deeply, deeply hate your grandfather. But what if there were a way to defeat him? A way to gain the power to get rid of him forever? Would you take advantage of it?”

Arai swallows, staring silently for a long time at the Fatalist standing before him. “What…do you mean?” he says finally.

Fain inhales again from his cigarette, savoring the flavor. He reaches into his pocket again and this time retrieves a tiny, clear stone the color of sapphire.

“There’s been a change of plans,” Fain hisses. “Arai…the Fatalists have staged a rebellion against your grandfather. We have locked him into Zero Dimension, a chamber in a separate time and a separate space than ours. However, he has grown too powerful. We will not be able to hold him there forever. Therefore, in the time that we have bought…we must gain the power to defeat him.”

“You’re…going to kill Grandfather?” whispers Arai.

“We have no choice. Your Grandfather wants to control the world for himself. We don’t want to force this upon you, Arai, but you have no future where you are now. It is your choice…whether to embrace a future for yourself, for our world…”

A long silence falls between the two of them. Finally, at last, Arai nods, though hesitantly. “Fine. I will help you. What are your plans?”

“Good,” Fain says. Suddenly, he places the sapphire stone in Arai’s hands. “This is the Fatal Stone. You must first become a Fatalist, Arai. Once you do, from here onwards I will come to this dimension and train you to master your powers and teach you all you need to know, about the Fatalists, about the Phonemes, about the Sword of Nexon…”

From afar, Fayvard suddenly shuffles by the outdoor sinks. He stops and peers at Arai, standing in the shadows. Blinking, he walks straight up to Arai, hands in pockets.

Arai looks up at Fayvard as he spots him approaching. He takes a quick look to his left, but Fain has disappeared entirely. Quickly, Arai closes his hand, still holding the Anti-Paradox, and places it in his pocket.

Fayvard comes to a stop just in front of Arai, standing in the sunlight as Arai stands under the shade. He looks around. “Hm? I coulda sworn I saw you talkin’ to someone just now, Arai.”

“N-No,” Arai replies, “it was just me by myself.”

“I see,” answers Fayvard. He half turns, gesturing for Arai to follow him. “Come with me, Arai.”

Slightly perplexed, Arai follows Fayvard.

A couple crows fly by overhead, cawing loudly. The world is bathed in a dull orange glow as the sun prepares to set. Fayvard and Arai sit side by side on an old swing set in the middle of the field, watching the shadows grow longer and longer.

“Why’d you join the Joukai, Arai?” Fayvard asks suddenly.

Arai glances briefly at him. “Because I oppose the Myougun…” he mumbles, almost as if in recitation.

“Tch,” Fayvard spits, “if that’s why, then fight like you mean it! I’ve heard you’re really, really strong, so why don’t you show it? Ryuu is right to be mad. He’s a genius so everything comes easy to him. He was excited to have someone as strong as him. Don’t disappoint him.”

“Ryuu, huh…” Arai mutters, staring at the ground.

“He just wants to be your friend,” Fayvard continues. “The kid has a funny way of showing this stuff, but I think he really likes you. And it wouldn’t hurt you to at least smile a little bit once in a while!”

“That’s hard to do…” replies Arai, softly, as if to himself.

“Isn’t there something that makes you smile?”Fayvard presses.”Something that makes you feel happy inside?”

“Well, I like cookies…” Arai says, a faint smile on his lips.

The two of them, Fayvard and Arai, look up as they see Ryuu standing a few feet away, staring at them. As they spot him, he suddenly runs away.

Within a couple minutes, Ryuu returns, a whole stack of cookies in his hands. He forces them all into Arai’s lap, a good number falling all over the floor at his feet.

“Here!”Ryuu shouts forcefully, his eyes bulging slightly. “If you agree to learn to fight the right way, I’ll be your friend and you can have all the cookies you want!”
—END THIRTY-EIGHT–
Note: Fatal Stone = Anti-Paradox. Paradoxes do not exist yet (in the Maple World…they have always existed in the Night World. There are no such things as Paradoxes in the Fatalists’ dimension) so it does not make sense to call something Anti- something that doesn’t exist.

Thought you were gonna get to (finally) see the showdown against the Fatalists this chapter? Think again. This intermission series marks the midpoint of ToaLS (thematically, at least, if not numerically). Through this we get a peek into the early days of Ryuu and Arai’s lives. Poor Ryuu, giving Arai all those cookies. The poor bastard doesn’t know what he’s getting himself into.