(Nanaki's note: Welcome, one and all, to Trials of the King! It has now been exactly ten years since this story first went up at Icy's, so I thought it was high time I got around to posting it here. I started work on this story almost immediately after I finished Mount Woe, and thus it was written (and posted at Icy's) entirely within the month of July 1998. And it wasn't even the only thing I wrote that month. Ah, those were the halcyon days of productivity... Anyway, in hindsight, taking a little longer to write it probably would have resulted in improved quality, but I was extremely eager to get started on Tempo Trigger back then, and I felt I had to do this one first. Why I didn't just do them both at the same time, I have no idea, since they really have nothing to do with each other, but oh well. Despite this being a rushed story, and despite being a hastily CT-ified version of a plot for an original story that I felt I wouldn't have time to write, people still seemed to like it a lot. Hopefully, you will too. Enjoy.)
The Trials Of The King Prologue
By Nanaki
March 3, 0 A.D.
Lavian Triggara squinted up at the clouds, trying to determine where the sun was. It was another one of those typical "Cloud Burn" days that always seemed to plague Porre. She had gotten burned pretty badly her first few days here. After all, if the sun wasn't shining, you couldn't get sunburn, right? 'Ha!' She laughed at the thought.
"General Triggara, it's time to begin." Her top aide whispered to her.
"How can you tell?" Lavian squinted at the sky again.
"Word has come from Choras. General Guardia wants you to eliminate all remaining resistance, as soon as possible."
"I don't work that way." Lavian shook her head.
"General Guardia will be most upset if he has to handle prisoners." The aide whispered apprehensively.
"General Guardia can kiss my ass." Lavian dismissed him with a wave of her hand. "Very well, but I'm following the original plan." She walked to the crest of the hill, stepped up, cupped her hands around her mouth, and shouted. "Matuyama-san! I am forced to demand your immediate!-" She stopped as one of the soldiers tapped her on the shoulder. "Yes? What is it?"
"Uh, general, the enemy soldiers are staked out on the other side." The soldier whispered apologetically. Lavian stayed silent for a second, then sheepishly turned around. At first glance, Lavian seemed to be quite the ditz, but almost everyone who had assumed that was dead now. She could do the job when it counted.
She cupped her hands again, and shouted, "Matuyama-san! I am forced to demand your immediate surrender! Please lay down your arms!"
"We will never surrender, as long as Goroda-sama continues to fight against Guardia!" A determined voice responded.
"Goroda has surrendered to Lord Guardia in Choras. I have just received word." Lavian geniunely felt bad as she delivered the news.
"Lies!" Most of Matuyama's soldiers instantly cried.
"Matuyama-san, you know I would not lie to you. You are an honorable warrior. Goroda has seen the wisdom of the Truce!"
"I will never the see the wisdom of peace." Lord Matuyama stepped forward from the trees. "Men are meant to kill one another. It is the way of the world. It is foolishness to fear death!"
"Do you know what this means?" Voices drifted from the trees at the base of the hill. "If Goroda-sama has surrendered, Matuyama-sama is now Shogun!" Shouts began to drift from the trees. "Sei i tai Shogun! Sei i tai Shogun!"
"Please, my people!" Matuyama waved for them to quiet down. "We will never surrender!" Then he turned back to the trees, and addressed the soldiers waiting within. "My people, we no longer fight for victory. That is impossible now. Now, we fight for our honor! Charge forward, and let us destroy the northern devils where they cower!!" With that, Matuyama drew his katana and charged up the hill.
"Matuyama!!" The battle cry echoed from the trees, and his soldiers followed the charge.
Lavian sighed and raced to meet him, Guardian troops practically oozing out of the woodwork. Matuyama was good, no question, but even the mighty warrior could not match the ancestor of Crono in battle skill. While their katanas crashed back and forth, the Guardian troops slowly but surely defeated his forces by sheer strength of numbers. Suddenly, the two supreme combatants were hit with a mob of fighting flunkies, and seperated.
Within a matter of minutes, only five of Matuyama's men remained alive, fenced in by a living wall of Guardian soldiers. Lavian waded through them and stepped into the circle. "You must surrender now. You have no choice."
"There is always a choice!" The soldier in front growled. He quickly took his shorter sword out, then quickly stabbed it into his stomach, cutting upward, and then sideways. Some of Lavian's men looked ill as his intestines spilled into the dirt. The Matuyama soldier behind him quickly struck off his head. The other three soldiers immediately did the same thing with their stabbing swords, and the same man struck their heads off as well. The Guardian crowd was quickly dispersing now. The last man drew his shorter sword, but his hands wavered as the blade neared his stomach. Lavian quickly stepped forward.
"I am Lavian Triggara. I would be honored to be your second." She held her katana high.
He looked at it with surprise. "Thank you. I am Atenak." He once again put the knife to his stomach. Lavian readied her sword, but he remained silent for a second.
"Are you ready? I wish to be perfect for you." Lavian asked with geniune concern.
"No... But I must... Hai!" And with that, he sliced his stomach open also. Lavian waited for the appropriate moment, then quickly lopped off his head.
"General... How could you do that?" Her aide held his stomach.
"I helped him to die with honor. It was easy." She shrugged, wiping her sword off on the ground. She quickly scanned the battlefield, then came to a realization. "Matuyama's not out there, is he?"
A soldier beside her also took a good look. "Damn it, no."
Lavian looked at the ground, dejectedly. "Oh, this is going to go on for a long, long time..."
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A ten year old boy looked up suddenly as a figure stumbled through the trees, clutching open wounds. He backed away at first, but then rushed forward. "Father, what has happened?"
"I have failed, my son." Matuyama replied sadly. "For this, I must commit seppuku. But first, I had to speak to you one last time..."
"Father, please don't! We can beat the Guardian devils!"
"Not now. Not at this time. You must stay in hiding, and slowly rebuild our forces, until the time is right. That is the only hope for eventual victory now. Until that day, we must learn to live without freedom." Matuyama then reached into his sash. "Take this sword, my son. You are going to be my second."
The boy held the long katana shakily. "I-I've never done this before, father."
"Just make sure to strike as hard as you can. Whenever you use this sword, strike as hard as you can. It was made by the legendary Murasama, and deserves as such. If you cannot do it correctly the first time, well then, that is just our karma, neh?"
"Hai." The boy responded softly. Matuyama drew out his shorter sword, and quickly slashed through his stomach. The boy waited until what he thought was the appropriate moment, then slashed at his father's neck with all his strength. Matuyama's head rolled slowly to the ground.
"Karma, neh?" He whispered. "Not while victory is still in sight. Not while a Matuyama still possesses this Murasama! I will make the Guardian devils pay for this humiliation, father! I swear it!"
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"How dare you?! He was my father!!" - Antoine D'Coolette, Sonic the Hedgehog #46
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The Trials Of The King Chapter 1
Heroic Sacrifice
By Nanaki
April 14, 1,017 A.D.
"You sure this is the brightest idea ever conceived Zeik?" One man out of many asked from their hiding place in the bushes on the outskirts of the forest.
"No. I have to admit that, Kaneta. But we've got starving people back home, and I know the mayor wants to give us the money for supplies. It's just that the Guardian regulations won't let him."
"So you think breaking in won't attract attention to us?" Kaneta grumbled.
"No, but they sure won't be expecting this." Zeik countered. "One of these days, I'll have to really do something about Guardia."
"Sure." Kaneta yawned. "We'd all love to. When is anyone ever going to?"
"Quiet! Now look up there." A third man next to them pointed toward an upstairs window.
"What is it, Omi-san?" Zeik crawled forward.
"Everyone has retired for the night, and there is a window ajar. We won't have to "break" in at all."
"You have the climbing equipment Mariko?" Zeik asked the darkness. The small woman behind him nodded. "One grappling hook. That window. Let's hope there are no special agents inside." With the ease of someone who had done it many times before, Mariko quietly and quickly secured the grappling hook. "You stay out here to cover our escape route."
"Still don't trust me in battle, huh Zeik?" She pretended to pout.
"No, I just don't want to risk you." He kissed her on the cheek. Then, he, Kaneta, Omi, and three other men raced up the rope. It was obviously an activity they were all used to. Kaneta was on point, with Omi functioning as the rear guard. Zeik was surrounded by a living shield of the other three men. He almost always protested the special treatment, but the others refused to risk the last surviving Matuyama.
"Zeik." Kaneta whispered softly. "The safe should be two rooms ahead, on the left. Extreme caution is required."
"How stupid do I look?" Zeik whispered back.
"I don't think you want me to answer that." Kaneta grinned. They all moved silently into the room. Fortunately, only one sleeping child occupied the inside. Omi quickly detected the safe behind a painting, and began tampering with the lock. It seemed to be fairly stubborn.
"I need some light here." Omi whispered at his quietest.
"Not much." Kaneta struck a match, then lit a small candle that one of the others procured from somewhere.
"Huh...?" The sleeping child began to stir.
"Handle it Kaneta." Zeik whispered urgently. Kaneta walked over to the bedside, then quickly unsheathed his katana. "Holy-! No, that's not what I meant!' Zeik stopped him in an almost normal tone of voice. Kaneta sighed and put the sword away. Zeik hurried over to the bedside himself.
"What's going on?" The kid asked sleepily.
"You're just having a weird dream." Zeik reassured her. "Keep on sleeping."
"Okay." The kid rolled over, and was out like a light. Zeik glared at Kaneta.
"Damn it!" Omi cursed under his breath. "What is all this crud? Rust? 'Nother candle." Kaneta quickly produced one. "Well, that explains a lot." Omi sighed. "It's not a combination lock. Why is there so much rust? Lousy Porrian weather." He grumbled.
"In that case, leave it to me." Zeik drew his own katana, and aimed at the lock.
"What? No, you're going to wake everyone..." Zeik charged forward, stabbing his sword into the lock. It barely clicked as it snapped open and fell into Omi's waiting hand. "..Up. Well, you're good." Kaneta broke into a grin.
"As if you didn't know." Zeik smiled back, then over at Omi. "Hurry, my good man. This is taking too long."
"Almost there..." Omi shoved a few more bank notes into his pack, then quietly closed the safe, and replaced the lock as best he could. He gingerly picked up the painting and placed it back in front of the safe as Kaneta snuffed out the candles.
Suddenly, voices came from outside. "Hold it right there!" They all tensed, and remained motionless, waiting for lights and special agents to flood the house. But only a dim glow invaded the window.
"That's coming from outside..." Zeik was the first to observe. Then they dimly heard sounds of fighting. "Crud... Mariko!" Then, heedless of the danger from inside the house, he bolted back toward the window as fast as he could go. He slid down the grappling hook, Kaneta right behind him, with most of the others not too far back, as the household began to stir. The last man unhooked the rope on his way down.
Zeik unsheathed his katana and charged through the underbrush as the sounds of fighting intensified. 'Why did she go so far away?!' He demanded of himself. Soon, screams erupted, but by the time he arrived on the scene, all was quiet. He stood still for a moment, not believing his eyes. Six special agents lay sprawled on the ground, the torches they had carried burning out on the wet ground. They were all clearly dead, while Mariko, breathing with effort, lay in the middle of them. "Mariko!!" He ran up and knelt by her side. "Why didn't you wait for us?!"
"They were almost at... ..the house. I l-led them away from... ..it, and they caught up... I had to give you time... ..time to get away."
"I can't believe you beat six special agents at once! I'm very proud of you."
"Thank you..." She smiled through the pain. "I hope I have... ..brought us much honor. Now, Matuyama Tuvai, take this." Zeik gasped at both the sound of his real name and what she held up.
"It's the Murasama! Why did you bring it here?"
"I always bring it... ..in case you ever need it. You must accept it Tuvai. You must become the force to lead our people. You must... ..do what Goroda would not... ..all those years ago." Then, her eyes began to close. Zeik noticed a disturbing amount of blood flowing out from her side. "I loved you Zeik, Tuvai... ..I hope to meet you again someday..."
"Whoah! Stop speaking in the past tense here!" He shook her gently. "C'mon, you're going to be all right." Only then did he noticed that she was no longer breathing. "NOOOO!!"
Omi walked forward and put a hand on his shoulder. "Karma, Matuyama-sama. There was nothing we could do."
Tears began to stream down Zeik's face. "There was plenty we could do! If you hadn't taken so long with the lock...!"
Omi began to get mad too. "How do you ever expect to defeat the northern devils if you cannot even think like us?!" Kaneta put a hand on Omi's shoulder and guided him away.
"He needs some time alone. Now, he can think like us, but he can also think like the northern devils. That is exactly why we will triumph."
Suddenly, Zeik stood up, and held the Murasama above his head. "For Matuyama, my people, and especially for you, Mariko-sama!! I will destroy Guardia!!" The others remained silent for a second, then broke out in cheers.
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"Mariko-san, it was your karma to die gloriously and live forever. It is mine to be Shogun." - Lord Yoshi Toranaga, Shogun
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Nanaki (at age 16, said): That one's for you, my fellow Wild ARMs fans. Yes, his name is Matuyama "Zeik" Tuvai!
(Nanaki at age 26 says: Inserting an asterisk into the middle of a dramatic scene kind of breaks the tension, dingus. Though if I actually COULD communicate with my younger self, I doubt story advice would be the first thing out of my mouth. I'd probably shout something on the order of, "Tell Brooke Worlton you love her, you idiot!!" Then I'd punch that nervous kid in the face.)