Chapter 4 : The Emperor's Tale


Summer began on a hot day that year, with the sun shining brightly, announcing even hotter days to come. Two teenagers made their way to their destination : a white-coloured building which they simply called "the museum".

One of them, a long-haired girl in a white shirt and light blue skirt, was leading the other, a short-haired person wearing a red shirt and black cropped trousers, through the museum and the crowd of visitors braving the heat.

Her mother would often take her to the museum on her birthday ; however, this year she sadly couldn't be there. So the teenage girl had decided to go with her best friend instead. Said friend stopped to observe the armours, then their comrade told them to follow her to another room, as she had something to show them.

A few minutes later, both teenagers stopped walking once again. In front of them was a glass case ; above it were ancient paintings depicting a legend concerning what laid inside : a samurai sword which was said to have belonged to an emperor long ago. The red-clad individual seemed fascinated by this centuries old blade which still looked brand new.

"I know its story by heart", their friend said.

"Oh? Can you tell it to me then?" they asked.

The girl cleared her throat and told them the emperor's tale without any hesitation :

"When the evil shape-shifting wizard, Aku, arose from the bowels of hate to ravage our homeland, there was a young emperor who, despite doing all he could to protect his people, was helpless against the demon's powers.

But he remembered his grandfather's grandfather's story of three monks who were gifted with mystical powers… so he rode to the highest peak of the mountainside, where the monks agreed to forge him an enchanted sword with great magic, the only weapon that could harm the monster who was ravaging his land.

Armed with the sword and the hope of his people, the emperor plunged into battle against Aku. His evil was no match for the power of righteousness.

And with the sword's magic, Aku's demon forces were implanted into the earth, forever petrifying him into the wasteland that he created.

Through years of hard work, the people rebuilt their glorious city with hopes never to encounter such an evil as Aku again.

The tale was passed on from generation to generation to remind all to always be alert, for the presence of evil is sometimes right behind us."

"That's the full story?"

She nodded. If there was a longer version of the tale, she hadn't heard of it. She had simply recited the narrative her mother told her word for word. She couldn't help but smile at the memory of her younger self always asking to be told the story of Aku, the emperor and the sword again.

"I guess this weird akuma -" her friend started, pointing at the dark figure in the paintings before being interrupted.

"His name's Aku."

"The name is a bit… obvious", they commented.

"Hey, I didn't write the story!"

The two friends observed the blade and the paintings in silence for a while before the girl in white and blue spoke again :

"You know, they say the Dark Tree is where he is imprisoned."

"Isn't that where your mother and her team are right now?"

Once their comrade had confirmed briefly, the teenager in the red shirt asked :

"Where have you heard this tale by the way?"

"My mother told it to me", the girl replied. "It was my favourite bedtime story. And it has been passed on in my family since… well, since it was written I think. My grandfather even said that the emperor from the tale was our ancestor and we were descendants of his grandson's illegitimate child or something like that…"

"You never told me that", her friend pointed out. "We've known each other since forever and I never knew you had an emperor's blood in your veins?"

"You remember how my grandfather was? He used to say lots of things. And… you know, he really believed all of them and stuff but about half of his stories weren't true."

She didn't need any more words to get her point across.

The teenagers moved on to other parts of the museum. Many of the things in it were there thanks the girl's mother and her team, and not all of them were exposed to the visitors' eyes. After a while, they left the building for the hot tarmac of the city street. And instantly noticed something was off. Indeed, all the pedestrians had stopped walking and were staring at something up in the sky ; the two friends followed their gaze. Was that a new building?

No. It wasn't. At first they couldn't see the giant's face properly, as the sun was in their eyes. And then, the monster produced laser beams powerful enough to sear the tallest buildings in two. The people in the streets were too shocked to react yet. When this gigantic creature moved, the city's inhabitants finally started screaming and running as far away as they could.

Except for the archaeologist's daughter whose jaw dropped even lower than it already was when she finally could take a look at the giant's face. No. It couldn't be. She had just told this story to her friend! It was only a story!

Said friend grabbed her arm and ran, and she ran away with them. The earth shook as the demon crushed all the tall buildings and levelled them with the ground. The girl broke free from her friend's grasp to take their hand instead. Together, they hid underground in the metro, hoping to escape this creature of legends. Other people were there and more kept coming in an attempt to elude the demon who was ravaging the city with only one hand. An eternity seemed to pass and he was still out there, destroying buildings and killing the people who didn't run fast enough.

"Mako?" the archaeologist's daughter whispered to avoid being heard by anyone other than her friend.

"Yeah?" they replied in the same tone.

"We need to go back to the museum."

"What?"

"Didn't you see?" she asked. "It was Aku. If the story was true about him, it might be true about the sword, too. We have to try!"

"You're crazy. Let's g-"

Before Mako could finish their sentence, a black mass of pure evil entered the metro to kill everyone in its path ; they and their friend didn't waste any more time and, along with the other humans around them, fled to the nearest exit not occupied by Aku's body. However, once the two teenagers were outside again, they set out to a different direction : the museum. With all the chaos around them, no-one would notice two young people stealing a samurai sword.