"You've learned much to being a ninja, son," a man said as he and his son stand in the middle of the living room in the building that they called home - It may be a run-down place, but home all the same. "That makes me proud."
"I try," the teenager said. "But father, why did you wake me up in the middle of the night? Is it more training?"
"No. It is now time to see if you are truly a ninja." With no warning, he leaps at the teenager ninja, slashing his shuiken. By pure reaction, the young ninja leaps back and blocks it with his large sword.
"W-what?"
"If you want to live, fight me! I won't hold back because you are my son. No mercy!"
With no choice, the young ninja fights back, blocking and attacking when he can. The battle between goes on for nearly an hour, wearing out the guy. But with determination to live, he finally manages to beat his own father and keeps him from continuing to fight by holding his sword against his neck.
"It's over, I've beaten you," he said as he pants.
"You know that it's not over until you finish me off."
"Huh? B-but father, I can't kill you."
"Do you want to keep your honor? Then do so by killing me!"
"Father... why?"
"Son, if you don't, I will kill you when you least expect it. I'm not giving you a choice. To be a true ninja, you will become one by killing me, your mentor."
"..."
With sudden movement, the father rolls away from the sword and turns, preparing to throw his shuiken. The teenager immediatly reacts, thrusting his sword forward... and through his father's chest, time seeming to halt.
"...Well... done... Koroku..." he said as Koroku pulls his sword out, the body falling to the ground. 'Now... I am out of that man's power... And Koroku... is stronger than ever...' he thought before falling into the darkness.
Koroku drops his sword and falls to his knees, looking at his hands. After awhile, he raises his hands to his neck, and takes the mask that he usually just hangs at. Pulling it forward, then up, he places it around his mouth and nose, where it belongs for now on. He vows to never take it off when in the presence of others, for ninjas in this society are considered non-existent. So he will therefore follow their lead and be of the shadows, where he and others were shoved into. He is now a true ninja.
Chapter VI: Evil Forest
The battle onstage starts by Haagen, using his attack on Zidane. Vivi covers him by using his Fire magic, causing Haagen to yell in pain with his armor burning his skin. Zidane attacks at the same time, making the Knight of Pluto fall back and start retreating. Marcus and Zidane attacks him and Weimer again, quickly gaining the advantage of the battle.
"My fury ends here..." Haagen said as he runs for it, leaving Steiner and Weimer to the battle. Vivi launches a Blizzard at the other Knight, freezing him temporarily. As he unfreezes quickly, he tries to attack Marcus, who blocks and counters with Rose at the back.
"I'm gonna be late for my date!" he yells as he follows Haagen's example. Garnet uses her Cure magic on Zidane as Steiner stands there in a loss of words.
"H-Hey! Come back here!" the captain yells. With no response, he attacks Rose. She quickly evades it with sudden speed, causing Steiner to nearly trip. Zidane clanks his dagger against Steiner's helmet, only hearing a dull ringing in his ears now. " Cowards! Attacking while your opponent is down!"
"Yeah, like you would not do the same," Rose responds as she jump away from Steiner's swing of his sword. "Too slow. Your anger blinds you."
"I will not take advice from a cowardly theif!"
While Steiner is distracted, Zidane and Marcus closes in from both sides and brings down their blades onto his armor. Only Marcus's sword manages to get through the rusty armor, cutting his arm severely.
"Bah! Only a flesh wound!" Steiner says as he holds his arm.
All throughout the battle, the crew of the Prima Vista were preparing to launch.
"Stabilizers configured!" Cinna said as he turns from the levers and gauges, facing Baku.
"Good!"
"Engine room is good to go!" Blank declares as he enters the room from above.
"Alright!" Baku said happily as they did their salute. "We're movin' out!" he announces as he turns to the conrtol panel.
"Roger that!" said Cinna as he goes back to work, and Blank heading downstairs.
"It's about time!" he said as he went.
Queen Brahne is not happy with this arrangement as she watches from her balcony as the ship begin to rise.
"Fire! Fire the hooks!" she orders as the soldiers load the cannons. With loud explosions, the hooks flies through the air and buries themselves into the wood of the ship, the sounds of the chains rippling. Everyone jumps out of the way, Zidane having to pull Garnet out of the way. Rose backflips away and crashes into one of the walls as the ship jerks suddenly, Vivi doing the same, being small. Zidane turns his gaze at the enraged queen.
'She's being ridiculious of getting the princess back! She could have killed her!'
"The Bomb, launch it!" the queen cries as the main cannon comes forth. With a crack of thundering explosion, the cannon fires at command. What seems like a metal ball breaks apart to reveal a flaming creature. Steiner is quite oblivious to it as he take a potion and gets back on his feet, attacking Marcus while his guard is down. All the while, the others are watching the giant Bomb float behind the captain.
"Hey! Look behind you!" Zidane yells as he blocks Steiner's sword for Marcus and retreats, pulling Marcus along.
"I'll not fall for such an old trick!" Steiner roars as he gives chase and clashes his sword against Zidane's daggers. Zidane pushes him back and retreats even further away from the Bomb, which just grows twice its size.
"Please, Steiner! Behind you!" Garnets begs as she backs up as well. Rose stands back up from her momentary daze from the collision with the wall, then stares at the growing Bomb. Vivi does the same thing, being it's the first time to see one. Marcus and Zidane continues to block all of Steiner's attacks, stopping him from advancing onto them.
The Bomb grows once more, twice its new size now. And Steiner still doesn't notice it.
"Surrender at once!" Steiner yells with his cry of battle, rushing at Rose this time and hitting her in the shoulder. Rose and Vivi pushes him back, Rose with her swallow and Vivi with his rod.
"It's a bomb!" Vivi cries as he starts to back up against the wall.
"I will NOT fall for that trick!"
"Then you are really being stupid," Rose said as she starts to run, pushing Vivi from the Bomb as fast as she could.
"It's gonna blow!" Marcus yells as he ducks for cover, along with everyone else near the Bomb, which grows AGAIN.
This is only then did Steiner feel strong heat waves behind him. He turns and nearly soils himself as he spins and fall on his ass, scared out of his mind.
With the Bomb's explosion, Queen Brahne thinks that the ship is down and out. But as she watches, the ship emerges out of the smoke. The remaining chain dangling from the ship crashes into the buildings below. Even the ship bounces off of them, then up into the air again, trying to stay airborn. Garnet keeps a hold onto one of the harpoons, watching her mother as the ship drifts out of the city. Brahne snaps her fan in half as she glares at the ship - and her daughter - exit Alexandria and over Evil Forest, into the Mist.
--
"We're gonna crash!" Cinna shouts as the crew begins to panic, running in all directions and the alarms blaring in their ears. Blank runs down the stairs and out, trying to tell everyone to prepare themselves for the impact, but ends up crashing into the floor below. Zellen barely manages to grab onto the beam that is half-way out of the ship's window. Zenero and Genero falls from the upper deck into the control room.
"No frickin' duh!" Baku shouts as he clutches the steering wheel, praying to any god that exists to save them.
"Watch out!" The ship descends from the sky and into the forest, throwing Zidane, Garnet, Vivi, Steiner, and Rose off board. A giant boom is heard throughout the forest as fire roars to life over the trees.
"The idiots!" Blanks cries, thinking that they jumped off.
"Gah!" Zellen's support shakes loose from the ship's collision with trees, pulling itself and her out of the ship itself.
"Zellen!"
--
"Garnet..." Brahne said softly as she fans herself with a spare fan. "I never imagined you would do such a thing. Perhaps you're not such a helpless little girl anymore..." The twins comes over behind her. "Zorn! Thorn!" she yells over her shoulder. "Is our little experiment ready?"
"Yes, Your Majesty. It is combat ready!" Zorn squeaks.
"Easily terminate Princess Garnet, it can, Your Majesty."
"I need her alive!" Brahne bellows as she turns to them. They bow out of fear. "Bring her back at once!"
"Your Majesty, may I make a suggestion?" the man with the face mask on the balcony said at last while stepping forward. Short spikey hair that goes over the tied cloth on his forehead (left-over cloth bandana is knotted at the back and hangs behind him), a mask covering his mouth , nose, and chin, and black/silver clothes of a ninja. "Send me to retrieve the princess."
"Hm... Actually Koroku, I want you to eliminate that monkey, and the crew that were involved in the kidnapping. Once that's accomplished, then bring her back."
"Yes, Your Majesty," he said as he bows, then leaps onto the wall of the balcony, then off, towards where the ship is crashing.
'So he is still around,' Kuja thought, watching him speed off faster than most other creatures across the roofs. 'I wondered what has happened to him. But now, besides his appearance, my little kitty summoner is somewhere in the Evil Forest. Hm... Who knows, it might mean either a good thing or a hesitation to the plans.'
"Master Kuja!" one of the soldiers said as she walks onto the balcony. "Queen Brahne asks for your presence as soon as you can be available!"
"Carry on," he said airily, use to the whole process now. She salutes and walks away. "I suppose I best see what the fat queen wants," Kuja said as he starts walking off the balcony.
--
"Oww... My back's killin' me," Baku grumbles as he got up from the floor. Cinna stands as well as Baku turns to him. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah, but the Prima Vista's wasted," Cinna answers.
"Just our luck to crash in this forest..." Baku said as he turns to look outside. "It's gonna get interesting..."
"What do you mean, 'interesting', Boss? I hear no one's ever made it outta here alive."
"Boss!" Benero said as he rushes into the room. "There's fire everywhere! It's outta control!"
"Quit yer whinin' and get it under control!" Baku commands. "And get the wounded outta here!"
"Alright!" Benero said as he does a quick salute before hurrying to tell the others that can still work.
"Get our goods outta here, too: weapons, item, anything we can use!" Baku tells Cinna. "There's no way we can survive if all our stuff is toast."
"I'm on it!" Cinna said as he does the salute, then starts running downstairs.
"And where's the hell is Blank!"
"Lookin' for Zellen!" Cinna manages to answer before getting out of hearing range.
"Zellen's back, huh?"
--
"Urg..." Zidane mumbles as he picks his head up, still empty of any air in his lungs. Taking a few gulps of it, he stands up and dusts himself off. All around is trees, mud, trees... and more trees. The feel of a foreshadowing is all around, so he starts heading for the cliff that has smoke pillaring over the forest. He stares down onto what's left of the Prima Vista, nothing but broken planks and fire. 'This certainly doesn't look good...' Zidane thinks grimly as he begin to make his way down the rocks.
Along the way, he finds the cloaked girl on the ship from the rafters, Rose, completely unconscious. Difference is that she doesn't have the cloak on anymore, revealing her completely of her wings, horn, and... tail. Zidane stands there with his mouth open, then shakes his head and walk over to her.
"Hey! Wake up," Zidane says as he shakes her lightly in the shoulder. He gets an instant response - a swipe in the face. "Ow! Enough with the claws!" he cries as he holds his cheek, which now holds three long scratches, bleeding.
"Where are we now?" Rose asks, not even going to apoligize for attacking him.
"I think it's Evil Forest," Zidane said as he offers a hand up. She just ignores it and gets up on her own, her face a bit bruised from impact against rocks, and one apparent broken wing. She winces when she tries to fold it against her back. "So, wow, wings and all that on you. You look pretty good with them!" She ignores the remark as well as she starts for the path down. Her shoulder is still bleeding from Steiner's attack. "Wow, talk about the cold shoulder." He quickly follows the limping girl, reaching the grounds as soon as she did.
It's worse to be up close to the wreckage, with piles of boxes and items all around.
"Phew... I'm beat..." Zidane hears Cinna say as the man picks himself from the ground, still exhausted, to look at what he accomplished in a short amount of time, apparently. "Hurry up and put out the fire!" Cinna yells. "I can't carry 'em all by myself!"
"Yeah yeah yeah..." Zenero said to himself as he carries the conductor over his head. With a heave, he tosses the sleeping man onto the trupetor.
"What the hell are they doin'? The whole ship's gonna burn up!"
"They're lookin' for Garnet... Can't find her anywhere," Zenero answers. "Maybe she fell off... Got squashed under the ship."
"This is great," said Cinna as Zenero heads back inside the ship. "First we kidnap her, then we kill her. We'll hang for sure."
'The question is, by who?' Zidane thinks to himself. Rose hangs back away from the ship, though Zidane doesn't notice as he walks towards Cinna. "Cinna!"
"Zidane, I'm surprised you made it!" he cries in shock. "I can't believe you jumped off! You're nuts, you know that?"
"I didn't jump off. I got thrown out from the impact, as did everyone on top deck." Zidane sighs. "So, is everyone okay?"
"Yeah. We've all got the devil's luck," Cinna said. "But if we don't find Princess Garnet, we're all deat meat."
"Yeah, I know."
"Where'd ya get those scratches?" Cinna asks suddenly, noticing the new addition to Zidane's face.
"Oh, these lovely presents came from that girl..."
"What'cha do now? Other than loose Garnet and jump off deck. And where's that girl anyway?"
"Present," Rose said behind me. Both Zidane and Cinna jump about six feet off the ground from the sudden voice. "For someone who takes on that captain, you get scared easily..."
"Shut up..."
"Whoa, what's with da wings?" Cinna said as he gaps in shock. "Horn and tail, too! What're ya?"
"..." Rose, again, doesn't answer as she start to walk/limp away. She intends both to get away from the questions, as well as find her swallow weapon. She can feel that there's a battle quickly coming.