AUTHOR'S NOTE: Chap'ta tree, up and ready for reading!
DISCLIAMER: I don't own ToS. (That means Tales of Symphonia. Learn it.)
Leaving the ruined village of Ozette… I decided for Meltokio to find a boat… thought Kuchinawa, as if he was writing in a diary.
He was now approaching the entrance to the woods. It was nighttime, but Kuchinawa had no fear, whatsoever of the supposedly haunted Gorrachia Forest.
Just like how he was treating everyone a few weeks ago, he blew off the rumors…
…and ventured inside.
Kuchinawa wandered through the woods, aimlessly, with the feeling of no reason to be alive. He kept his head down. There was no purpose for keeping mind and body alert. Monsters haven't been seen in the forest, when the four earthquakes shook.
While walking, a rock came within his view. With no regards, he kicked it.
It landed with a metallic clink. Kuchinawa looked up, upon hearing this alien noise in an area primarily of wood, to see a few Papal Knights standing there.
Kuchinawa stared at them. "Is there a problem, Officers?"
"Yes," said the one closets to him. "You were seen around the scene of the obliterated town of Ozette, doing some peculiar…things."
"What was I seen doing, precisely?" Kuchinawa demanded. "How long ago was this tip of yours obtained?"
"In recent hours. More like five to be exact."
The Knight behind him slammed the butt end of his halberd into the dirt. "Enough of this. You're coming with us to be interrogated, or will be forced under arrest."
Kuchinawa sighed an exasperated sigh. "Very well. I'll go quietly, if you take me to the end of the forest, closets to Sybak." Kuchinawa held out a hand. "Agreed?"
The Knight nodded, and waved his hand as a signal to encircle Kuchinawa. One took his sword from him. Kuchinawa allowed it. He had other weapons…
A few hours later, the group had reached the exit. The lead Knight declared they'd rest here for the night.
While they were stripping themselves of their armor, so they could sleep comfortably, Kuchinawa asked, "Excuse me, but what was it I was theoretically seen doing?"
"You were pulling bodies from the ground and freezing them in ice sculptures," said the same exact Knight that was expressing the first impatience with Kuchinawa back in the forest. "Your idea of a sick art?"
"No. I can't make ice sculptures in the middle of a warm season." Kuchinawa sighed. "It does sound like an art I'd like."
"Well, the figure was cloaked and masked, much like you, and we saw you leaving the village when the ice stopped," said a Knight, splashing water on his face to wash.
Kuchinawa thought back. He did not remember, or even recall, a cloaked and masked figure, making ice sculptures with the dead bodies left over of the catastrophe, in the same time period of him.
"Still," said the impudent Knight, who took his sword. "You're coming with us."
"I have not ever committed a crime…" Kuchinawa smirked, "yet."
"What ill do you speak?" said the same Knight. "Come on, now. You filthy Mizuho."
"I'm tired of your mouth." Kuchinawa flung a shuriken into his neck. Blood squirted out his neck like fountain, as his increasingly life-less body flew to the ground.
The other Knights, while astonished, did not hesitate to come after Kuchinawa.
Kuchinawa effortlessly pried his sword from the Knight's dead fingers. "You should have kept your armor…" Kuchinawa cut through one Knight "…ON!"
He dropped to his knees holding his side, while Kuchinawa spun around, his blade clearing the Knights head from his shoulders.
The head fell and bounced on the ground, and the body fell to the left.
A third Knight, with the long blade held high, struck for Kuchinawa.
The Mizuho warrior moved deftly to the side, where before another Knight could lift his weapon already had two quick stabs in his gut.
Kuchinawa took the long-bladed weapon and thrust it into the previous attacking Knight.
The fifth and final Knight stood, scared, unable to move. This strange man was not the one making horrific scenes with the dead. No. What he got was something worse. A mistake that ultimately cost his partners lives, and quite possibly his own.
Kuchinawa turned to look at the Knight. "Do you like music, Knight?"
"I…do…," he struggled to say.
"Then, sing for me." Kuchinawa threw another star into the Knight's shoulder. He screamed. Kuchinawa rushed forth and stuck his sword through the chest. Blood exploded everywhere. After a few seconds, Kuchinawa withdrew his blade and kicked the Knight over onto his back.
Kuchinawa wiped he blood from his blade and sheathed it.