Chapter 2: The Search Begins
The Capital Zaphia (10:00PM)
The members of Brave Vesperia along with Rita and Estelle are now at the room of the said princess thinking of what to do next. The monster hasn't shown a real threat to anyone yet (aside from Yuri), so the problem is not so important that it would worry the citizens. Yet this threat could very well cause panic and disorder among the people if they were to find out that not even the famed Brave Vesperia can take it down. The people looked up to the members of Brave Vesperia, as they saved the entire world from the Adephagos. Luckily, the incident has only been known to Brave Vesperia, Emperor Ioder and Flynn.
Estelle gave off a huge sigh. She couldn't help but think what has happened to Yuri. It's like a repeat of what happened when she left the castle. She initially left the castle to look for Flynn and warn him of danger, now it's Yuri they have to warn about danger. The only difference from that incident with this incident is that they have no idea where Yuri is, they're not even sure if he knows he's in danger.
At this point, everyone sighed, they had no idea what to do. Usually Yuri would have made a plan by now; with him gone they had no idea what to do or where to begin.
Karol decided that he should take the role of a leader since he's the appointed boss of Brave Vesperia. Even though he was uneasy about the current events just like everybody inside the room, he felt that he needs to do it since Yuri would have probably done the same, that and everyone needs something to elevate there spirits.
"Alright then…" Karol spoke up and broke the silence; he then coughed as if getting ready to make an announcement. "Starting tomorrow, we of Brave Vesperia are going to begin searching for Yuri!"
"Anyone against this, please raise your hand."
Raven raised his hand and said, "I'm not against this, but I do have a question."
"What's that?" Karol asked
"Where are we going to begin searching?" Raven said "I mean we've checked every place that we went in our journey, and Yuri isn't in any one of them."
"Well…"
*Woof! Woof*
"Ah! That's right! When we go to an unknown area, we could ask Repede if he could smell Yuri!" Karol said confidently, "And anywhere that Repede picks up the scent of Yuri, we could ask the people near these unknown areas if they've seen him.
"Well at least we're getting somewhere." Judith said. "Ok then, count me in."
"Alright, we're leaving tomorrow." Karol then went out of the princess's room and headed outside towards where Yuri lived in the lower quarters. Repede and Raven accompanied him.
"Hey Judith, can I come along too." Estelle asked Judith. If Yuri is indeed missing, she'd want to look for him herself.
"Sure Estelle, but shouldn't you tell Emperor Ioder where your going?"
"I'm pretty sure he wouldn't allow that since he'd want you here for your well being." Rita replied in place of Estelle. "Well I'm going with you all. I want to give that guy a piece of my mind. Also, I hope to find out how that monster was using such condensed aer as a barrier."
"I'll be coming!" Estelle said despite Emperor Ioder might be against this.
"Then I'll just go tell Karol that we'd have to leave a little earlier for tomorrow." Judith said as she left the room.
Estelle then walked to her window and looked at the night time sky.
We'll definitely find you Yuri.
Zaphia (4:00AM)
As expected, when they left with Baul along with Estelle the empire was in panic. The tweedle brigade was apparently the ones guarding Estelle during that night, so one could say that luck was on their side. Emperor Ioder, who witnessed the events, only sighed and waved at the leaving party. He knew he couldn't stop her despite that he said that to leave it to someone else. But internally he gave a sigh of relief since Estelle has finally begun making her own decisions.
"Ok guys where to?" Karol asked the group.
"And here I thought that you had an idea where to begin." Rita stated in a sarcastic tone.
"I only stated what I really thought at that time! I have no idea where to actually begin!" Karol replied. He was a bit disappointed that despite they left the capital, they still hadn't decided where they should start looking for Yuri.
"Well, let's begin at Shizontania." Raven stated to the group.
"Shizontania?" Karol asked. He never heard of the town before and he certainly doesn't remember ever going there with Yuri.
"Shizontania was a town that Flynn was assigned too a few years back." Estelle answered Karol. "But due to a certain incident, the town was abandoned when the barrier blastia broke."
"I don't see why we should go there though." Karol said still a bit confused.
"Well you see, Yuri has been to Shizontania before." Raven said with a bit of pride knowing something the others didn't. "When he was still an Imperial Knight."
Rita, Estelle and Karol coughed and hacked at the statement. Yuri a Knight? That was a bit unbelievable. Yuri being the impolite person he is, and his tendency to get to fights with just about anybody makes it hard, if not, impossible to believe he was a Knight before, although he did mention that he was one of the knights before but they merely thought he was joking. It was hard to tell after all since he had a good poker face.
As everyone hacked, coughed and laughed at Raven's previous statement Estelle remembered something.
"Oh wait!" Estelle said when realization hit her. "Flynn mentioned a few years back before the ceremony, about Yuri! I couldn't ask who Yuri was back then since the guards were taking me back!"
After a bit of thought Karol decided that they should head to Shizontania. After all, it's one of the few places they haven't checked yet.
"Well it's decided, lets head to Shizontania!" Karol stated with the complete confidence of a leader.
The abandoned city Shizontania (9:00 AM)
The city was clearly abandoned. Dusts and broken buildings littered the area, the wall of the city has fallen, and the barrier has completely fallen apart, much to Rita's dismay. As the group walked around following Repede, the dog then noticed something and began to run off towards the streets.
"Repede! Wait!" Karol shouted while running after Repede.
When they finally caught up to Repede, the party was shocked to find two female Imperial Knights patting Repede. From what they could tell, the two knights were twins, with orange hair and yellow colored eyes. The only notable difference between the twins (if I may so be blunt) was there bust size. Raven was the first to react.
"Who might you be my fine lady?" Raven said in his flirting tone as he approaches the 'bigger one' (as a note, they are the same height).
"Who – Who are you?" One of the twins asked him.
"Well I'm –" Raven was cut off from whatever he was planning to say when Judith hit him with her spear causing him to fall towards the side a few feet away from there current location.
"Forgive the action of our member." Karol said apologizing for a member of Brave Vesperia's action. Since he was the leader of the guild, he had to take responsibility. "Who might you guys be? I've never seen Repede being friendly with someone we've just met."
"Wait, you own Repede?" The 'bigger one' asked Karol.
"N – No! He belongs to a friend of ours whom we're looking for." Karol explained. "How do you know about Repede?"
"Well I guess we should first introduce ourselves, I'm Hisca Aiheap and she's my sister Chastel Aiheap." The Knight explained. "Who are you guys?"
"Well I'm Karol, the leader of Brave Vesperia, the one with the goggles is Rita Mordio, the Kritya is Judith, the old man is Raven and she's Estelle." Karol explained to the Knight, he purposely avoided talking about the part that Estelle is actually a princess, knowing the chaos they caused in the capital, they might as well have bounties in their heads by now.
"Well to answer why we know Repede, It's because he was the mascot of our squad a few years back, and he has the pipe of our former captain." Hisca explained.
"During the events that happened here, Yuri was given Repede when Lambert died." Chastel said after the explanation given by her sister.
"What are you guys doing here anyway?" Rita asked
"Well we were originally sent here to check on a mysterious light that was reported a few days ago and since we were in the vicinity, we came here to pay respect to our former captain who died to protect this town." Chastel said with a hint of sadness in her tone.
"Ah… ok" Karol said deciding that he shouldn't delve in further to the matter, "Oh can I ask you guys, have you guys seen Yuri?"
"Yuri Lowell?" Hisca asked. "Well we saw him a week and a half ago, when we were in our post, a town not far from here."
"He said that he was going to pay respects to Captain Niren in this town." Chastel continued for her sister.
"Hmm… I guess we can look for clues here." Karol said facing Estelle and the group.
Raven having apparently recovered from the slight beat up, was now with the party discussing there plans of action.
"Why are you guys looking for Yuri anyway?" Hisca asked Karol. She was a bit curious as to what happened with Yuri after he left the Imperial Knights. "Are you friends of his?"
"Well you see… Yuri has gone missing." Karol bluntly stated.
"Why would you be worried about him?" Chastel asked remembering Yuri's feat of great strength, and that the only reason he said that he joined the Knights was to put his strength to good use. "Yuri is pretty strong."
"Well you see, someone is after him and we want to warn him and help him against this someone." Estelle replied.
Karol then approached Repede who was still sitting next to the two knights. "Can you smell where Yuri is?"
Repede nodded in understanding and began to lead them towards the outskirt of town. The two imperial knights waved them farewell and headed back to their posts in the opposite direction.
Outskirts of Shizontania (10:30 AM)
After passing a forest which was brimming with life, and fighting a few monsters along the way, the group approached an odd looking castle, distorted to the point that it looked a lot like a face of a monster.
Repede led them to the door of the castle; he then stopped in front of traces of blood and a torn black cloth. A fight seemed to have occurred here. There were sword marks on the ground and on the wooden door, aside from that there were huge scratches on the wall and door meaning that at least one human and one monster was fighting here. The traces of blood in the other hand were dried up, but one could tell that this has happened recently not one that was a few years back, but a few days back.
"Could this be… Yuri's?" Estelle asked aloud, hoping that nothing bad happened to him.
"Who's there?" A man's voice called out.
The man that approached them was another knight.
"What are you guy's doing here? It's dangerous here!" The knight was apparently trying to warn them of the area they're currently in.
"Umm… We're sorry sir; we're just looking for a friend of ours." Karol explained.
Repede then barked and approached the knight.
"Huh?" The knight looked at Repede and with a bit of thought, "Wait, that pipe… You're Repede!"
"Repede? You know that guy too?" Rita and Karol shouted in disbelief.
Author's Notes:
I'm not actually quite sure if Estelle, Karol, Judith and Rita actually know if Yuri was an Imperial Knight.
Since this is my first fan fiction, and my first serious attempt at writing a story, I'll be correcting and editing previous chapters when I find the time or if someone points out something. I'll try to update as often as I can, and have it completed. After all, I don't want to have my first story ever written incomplete…
The new place and characters that you see here are the characters from the movie Tales of Vesperia First Strike. They're the supporting characters in the movie.
Flynn will make an appearance again later on; I just haven't decided how he would appear before the party.
Thank you to those who inputted a review. They really motivate me as a writer.
Corrections and clarifications would be helpful!