Artificial 3: The Valla Chronicles

Chapter 20: Calm Before The Storm

A few minutes had passed,
and I tried to think of ways we could potentially fight back,
but I scrapped each idea.
I gave the Ice Tribe Chief his staff back,
I give Reina the Dusk Tribe sword,
Niel the Shujinko No Yumi,
and finally,
I give Keiko back her sword,
which she reverts it back into a necklace.
Me and Terra go over the book again, and we discovered that a lot of these details were listed in Japan,
so after some apologies to Niel and the Ice Tribe Chief and his daughters,
we all head to Japan within the day and arrive by night,
we followed the book's bread crumbs all the way to MT Yari,
where we hiked for hours until nearly dawn.
At the very top,
we pay our respects to the temple owner,
and an old man with a wooden cane comes to greet us.

Sadly, no English,
but with Keiko and Reina,
they were able to translate.
More or less,
they said his successor would make me a new one out of the pieces,
but he wanted another sword of the same region.
For example,
Anakonos is a demonic looking knight sword,
so he requires a crusader or long sword to fuse the pieces of Anakonos to make a new sword.
I hand over Barack and tell him the sword has a demon in it.
"Musuko, kore de wanai watashi no hajime dansu."
He takes Barack and goes further down the temple halls.
"What did he say?"

Reina makes herself comfortable in a chair as everyone else finds a spot to chill,
even Niel,
the twins, Ice Tribe Chief,
and his daughters.
"He said son this isn't my first dance." Keiko says as she makes goo goo eyes at Chace,
not actually,
but she made it quite obvious she was crushing on my brother.
We waited at tops three days,
possibly four,
so to pass the time,
I sparred Chace with a weapon,
my signature Katanas,
he used his Split Staff and beat my ass with the both of them and then for fun.

Chace busts out his Raikiri Rajinto,
now I'm no sword master nor will I act like one,
but I did teach him some basic stuff I pucked up on YouTube,
not the greatest or best place to teach someone,
but hey,
YouTube has everything.
I won some rounds,
Chace won more,
but only because he was faster and stronger,
I won because of my footwork.
So,
in between each round,
we bonded over how shitty our lives were,
ya, we had a bad childhood,
Chace admits his wasn't ordinary by any means,
but he recognized people of authority as don't disobey them even if they were weaker.
"What the hell kind of orphanage did you and our sisters go to?"

I ask rhetorically to be funny,
but to my surpise,
Chace opened,
which is saying something because he's not a touchy-feely person like me,
he just kinda keeps his cards close to his chest,
whereas I'm an open book,
which is rich coming from me because of my lack of trust from my overly religious grandmother,
aunt, uncle,
the list goes on.
"We were put into a military orphanage, where our orphanage owner trained us daily until we passed out or puked.
Keep your head low,
no punishment,
we were the problem children,
anytime we were told to do something we didn't want to do,
we simply ignored him,
other children didn't have the spine to do what we did so if they acted out, they got belt whippings or starved for the night,
we're faster,
stronger,
more durable than the other kids, so why would we talk to those inferior to us?"

Wow, you kinda sound like an arrogant god there, buddy,
then again,
they aren't human and stronger than me,
so they have the bragging rights.
"Hey, just pointing this out if they made you three work out, but you ignored your orphanage owner and kids, then why did you work out?"
Chace chuckles. "Had to get stronger some way, working out during that time just built some muscles."
We share a cringe worthy laugh you'd only see in movies,
no real context behind the laugh,
just a bad joke with a bad laugh.
Chace's Raikiri Rajinto glows a bright yellow,
getting our attention,
and a small burst of electricity becomes visible around my brother's arm. "Raikiri? Rajinto?"

My brother asks,
the electricity stops popping around his arm,
and we agree to just call it for the day. The next day,
I trained with Niel outside at the same location I did with my brother,
we set up targets and practiced shooting, Niel getting that practice with the Shujinko No Yumi and I with my Revolver.
"You look like you have something to say, Niel."
We don't stop training and keep setting up targets against the target boards.

"Not really, I was just thinking to myself that I'm going to be working with the man I'm supposed to hunt and how weird it is that you've given me back the very weapon you said you'd take."

I listen as he voices his thoughts,
both of us are still practicing,
filling holes in soda cans and shattering glass soda with our bullets and wind construted arrows.

"The one thing that bugs me the most is that a lawless Demon Lord is claiming to fix a broken system and restore the Artificial race back greater than it ever was before and yet, he's done nothing but terrorize the Tribes." I holster the gun and examine our handy work.

"I'm not the monster everyone thinks I am, I'll admit I did a shit ton of wrong, killing Artificial Demons, disturbing the peace, stealing, killing a Tribal Chief and son, my regrets can go on but there's an old saying I believe in. The road to Hell is often paved with good intentions. I fought a Demon Lord that nearly succeeded in wiping our race off the face of the Earth. He told me to stop another him from happening......... I could have done so much earlier, and yet my own stupidity stopped me, I naively gathered the very weapons needed to unseal a Demon Lord parasite dragon creature thing, resurrected the very being I slayed to begin with and now here I am with beings I've wronged. Not to sound preachy, but I'm doing the best I can for the world, not just our race, I've seen the horrors the Water Tribe, Dusk Tribe, Wind Tribe and Earth Tribe have done, in the end whether you admit it or not, you're guilty by association and following the orders of the Wind Tribe and yet, I've spared your life not once but three times."

I go back to my position,
and I let my words sink in with Niel. "When you say it like that, yeah, we're not too different, I've been following what I've been tought was right, I've met people who tought me valuable lessons, I learned from each defeat, I saw the cultural differences of each Tribe, I see the corruption and I won't pretend to understand what led you down this path, but I can not agree with all the slaughter."
His Shujinko No Yumi glows bright green like the wind rune and gusts of air kick up.

"Maybe slaughtering the people wasn't the right choice. Maybe there was a better option, but not doing anything while the corruption grows, while the innocent go hungry, get taken advantage of, or get bullied into death, that's no different then being apart of the corrupt system itself."
We agree to disagree,
and in ways he reminds me of Lars,
but in others,
I see myself and that he's waking up to my sense of justice.
Maybe he'll grow from this with Valla and Brandon's death?
Who knows,
but the last thing I want to do is kill a skilled and talented fighter.
Oh well,
if it comes down to it,
then I guess it can't be helped.