Chapter 62: (The End) Battle; The Answer
Meeting the Master Arc
Disclaimer: I don't own The Legend of Zelda; this is just a Fan Fiction
Featured Music: "Ranked Amongst the World's Best" – The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass OST. Chapter Briefing.
"The Best is Yet to Come (Instrumental)" – Metal Gear Solid OST. Scene 2 (Second Half).
"Story Mode BGM (Kage)" – Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition OST. Scene 3.
After having travelled all across the beautiful lands of Aurelia and, having taken part in each national martial arts championship in doing so, Link and his group of close friends led by his mentor Impa solve many problems and even emergencies; including the political crisis of Stralanavia, the missing miners incident in Palashia and even the invasion of Velkarez's military forces in Kaiohdrahl. Indeed their deeds go noticed not just by the ever-excited audiences of the championship tournaments, but by the general populace in their assistance through their problems, receiving many accolades and words of praise.
In having unfortunately come in second place very consistently however, and in having been unable to locate the 'answer' he is looking for in his fighting style, Link begins to despair; a despairing that soon takes him to a place of manipulation via a well-experienced martial artist by the name of 'Kaius Torquatus'. Kaius, mysterious and elusive in his origins, promises Link false deliveries of sanctity and redemption by offering to eliminate the 'Yin' side of his Aegir; something that he sadly does not understand is simply impossible, and something that Scaverin himself later comments on.
To do something as foolish as this would be tantamount to suicide; to eliminate one essential part of oneself.
Sadly, for the poorly-desperate young Hylian boy, he is out of options and in his despair he decides to take Kaius up on his offer; a fatalistic decision that sees the rest of Aurelia awash in one-thousand years of darkness and war. Kaius makes good on his offer to take Link on as his next blood-lusting apprentice and, as he does, turns him on Cyna and Bryda's Gylomecian armies of the south and the north like one would a confrontationally-hungry dog. He succeeds, and with incredible speed at that too, killing both Bryda and Cyna himself before assuming leadership of both their conjoined men; an incredible balance in the shift of military power that quickly sees him turn his newfound armies on the rest of Aurelia and, eventually, Hyrule itself.
Only one group of warriors and martial artists stood in their way; Link's former band of companions led by Impa and even the temporarily allied Scaverin and Raynard themselves.
They make the dreaded choice to confront Kaius and Link at Whiteblood Central but not before concocting a hardened battle plan; they choose to elect Zelda, perhaps the closest companion to their once-good friend Link, in an effort to rectify Kaius' surgery on his Aegir chords and re-balance him back to a neutral state. Although Link, reborn as the fearsome Fierce Deity himself very nearly kills Zelda in doing so, she somehow manages to succeed and brings him back to the light.
In having nearly died from Link's brutal attack on her, Zelda and Link receive a second dose of surgery via the well-fingered Veronika; she manages to save them both by splitting their very life-forces in half. By gifting Zelda with half of Link's, she saves her life; a surprising side-effect as a result however leaves her hyper-sensitive to almost any change within Link's person – indeed if he is injured, pondering thoughts to himself or even fighting, she feels him and every change within him, even at great distances. She takes in these changes and feels these sensations as Link finally takes on the advice of his first mentor Impa, and travels to Draerith alone this time, in the great hopes of locating the greatest martial artist who ever lived; an old woman by the name of 'Sun Hui'
Said to have taught Ragnar Romanov and even the greatest living soldier in the world, Sun Hui reveals herself as a hateful old Draerithian woman with little care for anyone other than herself; a sentiment she expresses quite readily even when listening to Impa's request in taking the blonde boy in as her next apprentice. Link finds himself challenged, to his very bones as Sun Hui breaks him down back to his bare essentials as if he were learning at day one.
She teaches him great humility, the 'one-inch punch' technique, the power of silence and most importantly… one final road to redemption in dealing with his great conundrum; finding an 'answer' in dealing with the Shinzui-et-Sanmiitai – the chaotic essence of nature's power hidden within the holy Triforce of Courage, and the hateful Kage Narumono lurking within it.
Sun Hui takes him to a far-off Draerithian waterfall and has him sit, perhaps simply for meditation; this lesson very quickly reveals itself however, when Kage Narumono himself steps out from behind the waterfall. Link's adrenaline hits its peak and he finds himself in mortal combat once again for the first time since his initial and bloody-faced fight with him in Hyrule's Water Temple. This engagement is much like the last however and neither come out the victor; just both badly bruised and wounded.
They match each other, blow for blow, and as he comes back out of his inner confrontation with Kage it is his new mentor that pulls him back out if only to inform him of her next orders; to continue to return to the waterfall once a day and to fight Kage Narumono continually to look for his 'answer'… himself. Until he finds his answer, Link takes on great responsibility and workloads from Sun Hui by undergoing her brutal and cruel training program; an activity that, at the very least, keeps him occupied.
It is all he can think about… even while he is miles away from his good friends…
Scene 1
Link could only hold back a pained gasp as he attempted, with great difficulty, to lift up two large hardwood buckets of water up the long stone staircase back to Sun Hui's temple, his two small arms twisted 'round the long wooden stick used to carry the two buckets. On and on he had been fulfilling this one task (and duty) for his new mentor, Sun Hui, as part of her gruelling and cruel training regimen for him. Although the climbs themselves only took a few minutes and grew a little each time, they seemed to last forever for the poor young Hylian; one of the many aspects and funny little traits about time itself.
Over time, he had grown wise enough to keep his hair tied back as strongly as possible, and to take off the front of the sleeveless tunic he wore of Sun Hui's kung-fu school; two decisions that, albeit minor, helped his state of perpetual sweating and perspiration that triggered at his forehead and the rest of his body. Topless, he sweat through almost every pore in his body as he climbed up the stone staircase to Sun Hui's temple.
The only idea that kept him going, that was able to keep him going, was the thought of dinner; one of the few times he got sit across from her and something he was grateful for. He tried to keep the small smile from growing on his face from spreading, the thought of dinner just too enticing.
The sound of rain, powerful and emphatic, knocked and pattered against the small temple in which the tired and wounded Link sat in with his mentor, sitting across from her. Having at long last finished his lengthy training routine for the day, consisting of climbing up the stone staircase most of the afternoon, near-breaking his left and right hands against the hardwood plate for the 'one-inch punch' technique training and his last-of-day training; to meditate at Chigrave Falls – the mystical and mysterious location in eastern Draerith that allows him to challenge himself, and the one problem ever-heavily weighing on his mind.
Kage Narumono.
Link tried to keep his demonic second side from his thoughts as he reached down and, with shaking fingers, attempted with great difficulty to pick up the small wooden Draerith chopsticks the two used for eating with. The very chopsticks themselves, also similarly sensitive to the touch, shook wildly and unpredictably in his grip as he tried with little success to keep them from moving in his fingers.
The wounds he suffered across both hands were enough to keep him from handling the delicate pieces of food ware in the original way intended, leaving him frowning down firmly in a mixture of impatience, anger and frustration.
The old woman sitting across from him, Sun Hui by comparison, merely twirled the wooden chopsticks expertly within her bony fingers with little effort, bringing up the small bowl of rice to her nose to take in the alluring boiled smell of the lovely-looking food below her. She hovered over her own chopsticks over it and began to pull down at clumps of the tasty-looking rice, bringing it up to eat with, opting not to watch or comment as Link failed continually to even keep a single grain of rice within his own chopstick grip.
His patience running ever-low, Link held back a growl as he rose up his free right hand to assist his dominant yet weakened left; now gripping the wrist with which he used to eat with, he attempted to pull up another clump of rice before, very soon, failing again.
CLATTER
The shut-eyed Sun Hui snapped open her golden-hellscape eyes and darted them in the direction of the chopsticks that her student abruptly threw in ignorance and anger, glaring as she did. She darted her eyes back down to watch the young Hylian boy as he, rather carelessly and savagely, brought down his shaking fingers with which to eat the rice simply by unsubtly grabbing at it and bringing it up to his mouth.
CLATTER
A second clatter, this one somehow more emphatic than the first, made the listening Link flinch from pure fear in response; like a scared cat, he carefully rose up his blue-shaded eyes up to the firmly-scowling and disapproving face of his brutal mentor above him. She reached forward slowly and, as she did, Link pulled back from his seat in sheer uneasiness, like a pet being punished by its owner.
"If you want to eat like a dog…,"
As she began speaking lowly, her authoritative contralto echoing out in the small temple with which they stayed in, marked and spiced only with the powerful pittering and pattering of rain outside.
"You can live and sleep outside like a dog."
FWIP
SCATTER…
The light sound of Link's bowl of rice being tossed carelessly and ruthlessly to the ground made him flinch again and lower his cerulean-shaded eyes in pure shame. She placed his now-empty bowl back down on the table before them both.
"If you want to live and sleep like a person…," she began again as she reached over for her own bowl of rice before lightly pushing it forward to glide over toward him.
Link's eyebrows lifted in sheer shock, oceanic eyes widening to match.
"Pick up those sticks."
Her hardened words, more of an order than a request, made him gulp down a small load of nervously-gained saliva before he reached down, shakily again, for his fallen chopsticks. Link tried again, and this time with great difficulty and careful-laid pressure to grip at the chopsticks with both hands, his left holding it mainly and his right balancing the bottom end of them.
With incredible difficulty, and for such a menial task at that, Link attempted to balance the chopsticks as best he could and found himself sheerly sweating in the endeavour; his wounds greatly hindering even the most basic of motor functions. Sun Hui, opting instead to be uncharacteristically patient, darted her eyes up down from the task her student attempted to the blonde boy himself – a pensive look on her wrinkled expression. At long last the narrow-eyed Link somehow managed to collect a small clump of boiled rice within the two chopsticks and, as he did, very slowly and carefully rose it up to his mouth and lowered his sweat-stricken fatigued head to match it.
All in one he finally managed to down the rice with his mouth, eyes shut as he did into an effort-filled sigh. The watching Sun Hui put on a very small smirk to her face, satisfied as she rubbed her right hand across her chin thoughtfully; an old consistent habit she loved to carry with her, as she lowered her left hand to grip at the third bowl resting on her left. Pulling it up she began to sip down at the small bowl, revealing it to be simply a container for water, having essentially donated her very food to the boy in favour of yet another lesson.
The pair shared a well-earned period of silence; an oddly comfortable one that left Link grateful and, in a strange sense, safe.
2
Twenty-four months later…
"Now… you have spent two years perfecting this."
Link, having grown a few inches taller and now sporting light stubble on his facial complexion and his hair having grown a little longer, stood in a hardened frown of his own, his oceanic-eyed gaze fixed forward; the dark-green sleeveless tunic he wore now had signs of use within it – it appeared weathered and used. The same hardwood board held up by two iron plates and a stand he practiced on for two years straight stood before him.
"Show me…," Sun Hui began again, standing behind him and ever-watching him with a hardened glare on her wrinkled face, gripping the staff she liked to carry at her side. "Show me the power of the 'one-inch punch'!"
His back to her, Link opted to nod slowly in obedience, setting his small Draerith shoed feet apart as he leaned his dominant left hand forward; he hung it directly pointed at the hardwood board, side on, its palm opened up and fingers directly resting on it. The Hero of Time shut his sea-shaded eyes briefly before very suddenly re-opening them and simply grunting out as he slammed his abruptly-conjoined fist at the board.
"Hmph…!"
SLLLAMMM-CRRRRAAACCCCK
The hardwood splintered and broke within his touch almost instantly, and much more roughly than when Sun Hui first demonstrated the technique to him; a display that made the watching old woman slowly curl her hardened glower into a small and satisfied little smirk. She nodded her head at the incredibly-huge gaping hole he left in the board and re-opened her mouth.
"Good…," she began as he re-opened his own eyes and sighed out lightly, as if in relief. "There is very little else I can teach you now… all you have left to do… is to find your 'answer'."
Link lowered his eyes in thought to Kage Narumono and the Shinzui still resting within the holy triangle and his very body itself; a concerning thought for the boy but one he felt fairly confident he may finally have an avenue with, especially after two straight years of constantly fighting him. He turned to face his mentor behind him and bowed forward in respect and gratitude.
"Thank you… sifu…," he responded, drawing out another hardened frown from her in response. "I owe you… so much…"
"Hmph…," she began, briefly 'rounding her body to face her robed back to him, her long white ponytail whipping with her. "I suppose… for a Hylian man… you weren't absolutely pathetic…"
Link's dirty-blonde eyebrows shot up in sheer shock, almost unable to cohere a response to her; he very carefully and hesitantly raised up his blonde-haired head to face her back, mouth held agape and open in display of his shock. Finally, however, he was able to restore full function to himself and bowed again in respect and gratitude, smiling as he did.
"Thank you… Sun Hui-sifu."
"You may call me… Liling."
He blinked in surprise a second time, re-raising his blonde-haired head to face the old woman; she turned her hardened glare on him – a look that he had become familiar with.
"Liling Xiang is my name," she added on and, realising the quizzical look on his face was one of misunderstanding, she re-opened her mouth to elaborate further. "My real name," the newly-introduced Liling spoke again in a slight sigh through her throat. "I've used 'Sun Hui' since the beginning."
"The… beginning…?"
"Since I took on my students in martial arts," she explained briefly, hands still joined at her back. "Since I passed on my skills…"
Realising who she was referring to, and one of which he had met in recent history, Link could only nod in response, his thoughts returning to one of his more difficult bouts; a fight for his life with Ragnar Romanov.
She's finally talking to me with some form of respect, Link realised to himself silently.
"Maybe this is the time I can press her!"
He allowed his ruminations to carry on in his actions as he re-opened his mouth to reply to her.
"Your last one was… Ragnar, wasn't it sifu?" He asked her curiously, tilting his head at her. She nodded, unsurprised of his reputation.
"Yes…," she began, pacing forward toward one of the small fountains in her beautiful temple garden, as if to look down it, arms ever joined at her back. "He was talented; an excellent fighter with remarkable natural instincts… and one major weakness."
The listening Link could only blink back at her, curious on whether he should press her. "W-Weakness…?"
She curled her frown into distaste, shaking her white-haired head down at her reflection in the fountain's reflection of her face. "His patience," she responded with, turning back to face the blonde boy behind her. "He had none… in fact he was so resolute in taking shortcuts with his training, even after mastering what I taught him, made the decision to have me unlock his Aegir points early."
Link's eyebrows rose in realisation, her words bringing them back to words he remembered being discussed about Ragnar at one of the tournaments he once attended. "Y-Yeah… I… I remember hearin' about this, I think."
"It helped to access his full potential as a martial artist extremely early…," she began before shaking her head in disapproval. "But his lifespan was cut in less than half," Liling finished with a hardened shut of her golden-shaded eyes and a shake of her head. "Poor Ragnar… he will be dead within the next couple of years with the way his body is now…"
Link's frown grew sadder and a little more morose in sudden realisation as he lowered his eyes from hers.
No wonder Ragnar could beat me so easily last time, he thought.
So why did Kage push him to the brink then?
"Maybe it's a testament just to how strong the Shinzui's power really is…"
"But still… even as powerful as Ragnar's natural abilities were…,"
Link re-rose up his blonde-haired head to face his mentor as she turned back to the fountain behind her and, as she stared back down at her reflection a second time, he couldn't see the small smile of pride forming on her face.
"They could never even hold a candle… to my first student."
Link's straw-haired head tilted at the old woman, curious and unsure. "Y-Your first…?"
Her smile only grew as she thought of the man in question, nodding. "Yes… they call him now… the 'greatest living soldier'… 'in the world'."
The shocked Link, in great spite to having been told of the man mentioned before, could only widen his eyes in vehemence.
"He was… he was truly… one of a kind of your otherwise pathetic group of men…," she smiled again, re-raising her white-haired head and shook her head as if to think back to her time with the boy she spoke of. "There was… and there will never truly be another martial artist or man like him again."
The listening Link, even more curious, tilted his head at her and upraised an eyebrow as he did. "W-What was his name sifu?"
She seemed pensive for a moment, almost as if she were deciding whether it was worth telling him, before finally Liling turned to face him with a frown. "Vikeruce," she finally responded with. "Sathryon Vikeruce."
Having never even heard of the name before, or even the clan the man was seemingly from, Link could only lower his eyes in attempted thought before shaking his head. "Why have I never…?"
"Their clan lives far-off in the Dracolian continent I'm afraid," Liling smirked back knowledgeably. "He comes from the only clan in the world able to harness the elemental power of lightning and thunder."
The listening Hero of Time's eyebrows shot up in realisation, memories of Impa's words to him and his group of friends regarding the existence of such a family. "Damn…," he murmured out. "I had no idea."
"Yes…," Liling nodded back, beginning to pace a second time as she lowered her ponytailed head. "Very early records of the world, that have now faded into mere legends, tell of a connection that the Vikeruce clan are descended down from the Sorcerer of the Divine Divide himself."
Master Liling's words made the listening Link's eyes widen for the umpteenth time in a second bout of realisation. His memory went instantly to his very first meeting with the Sorcerer of the Divine Divide, years ago during his stint through Termina.
"There is no-one... not even within the descendants of my clan that can approach the obscene power of Majora's Mask."
That's who he was talking about, Link realised amazingly.
That's incredible.
"I hear now he is leading a nation he helped to build and reinforce in his native land of Dracolius…," Liling chuckled, shaking her head again in her light-faced smirk as she paced around her beautiful garden. "And that no-one within the ranks of Aurelia or Dracolius has even managed to challenge his authority and his skill… or even his military tactic knowledge."
"I guess he really was the world's greatest soldier if he can do all that," Link opted to grin back at the old woman, bringing up his arms to fold back at her. "Whatever happened to him?"
"I haven't heard from him in many years…," Liling claimed, her small smile devolving back into the hardened glare and glower she was known for. "I imagine he's busy leading his home country of 'Aselia' through its golden age right about now…"
As Link listened on, his grin slowly dropped as he took the information in, ever-curious.
Maybe I should go searchin' for this place, he thought.
It's always on the table once I finish everythin' here and at the world championships.
"In any case… there are only two things left for you to do now."
He brought his head back up in light surprise as she changed the subject.
"To finally break free of your shackles of the Shinzui…," she repeated again, brow furrowing before she re-opened her mouth to finish. "And to learn one final technique… my greatest one."
Link's eyebrows lifted up in shock once more and he opted not to speak, for fear of interrupting her, or worse; insulting the easily-angered old woman.
"I call it… 'Kiss of the Lynel'." She finished, eyes narrowing firmly as she did.
"Wow…," Link murmured back surprised. "Weird… you'd think I'd have seen Ragnar use-"
"I never taught it to Ragnar."
This revelation, so mind-bendingly startling, could only make him widen his eyes.
No wonder I didn't see him use this technique thing before, he thought to himself.
I wonder what it is.
"Now prepare yourself…," she began, stepping forward to affix herself into her usual beloved fighting stance, prompting the similarly narrow-eyed Link to lean forward into his own Loftwing-style Stance. "It has been unanimously agreed that this particular technique has been deemed too dangerous to be taught to any martial artist of any school…," Liling claimed, raising up her two rough-checked palms to diagonally hang over each other as they pointed at the boy, fingers outstretched as if they were snakes. "I haven't even taught this to Sathryon…"
Surprised again, Link tilted his head. "W-Why not…?"
"As kind and incredible a man as Sathryon Vikeruce may have been…," she began thoughtfully, lowering her white-haired head in disapproval as she shook her head. "I did not trust him. Not with this."
Link nodded in grave understanding.
"Now…," she began again, glaring back at him. "Prepare your fists!"
3
"Why…? Why do you continue to do this to yourself…?"
The sound of Kage Narumono's mixed baritone and tenor, spiced with a demonic trait to it, echoed out throughout the background of Chigrave Falls; an oddly calming flavour to the air that left the watching Link in a similarly harmonious state, in great spite to the obvious bloody confrontation that was about to take place. The power of the silver moon weighing down on him was heavy; a great compliment to the night air that surrounded them.
"Two years we have fought here, constantly… no matter what you do in this fight… and all fights to come…," Kage began again, his small devilish form finally coming out from behind the rushing and noisy waterfall behind him, his lava-like mirrored form of the blonde boy fizzling away at the water as he did. "You can never kill me… I am a vital part of you…"
Link thought back to Master Liling's advice that she so graciously gave him a mere few months prior to this exchange; a veritable god-send to him that finally left him with something he could do. He kicked himself inwardly when he realised the solution was so simple; bordering on day one levels of basic and a technique in which he himself utilised years back in his first journey across Hyrule.
Indeed; his very first fight with Kage Narumono – right at the end of his duel in Hyrule's Water Temple.
"You're right Kage," Link chose to defer to the demonic will before him passively, shaking his long-ponytailed head back at the older being. "I've never been able to beat you… not in how we normally fight anyway."
The watching chaotic aspect could only narrow a single hellish-red eye at him studiously and doubtfully, re-opening its mouth to respond and voice its inner concerns. "Nanda-ko…?" He mouthed out quietly in ancient Hylian, the very sound of the water sizzling at his feet echoing out and joining his quietly-spoken words. "What do you expect to gain out of this…?" He added on, re-raising his fiery-tinted curtain-haired head at the blonde-haired boy. "We've already danced this tune before in Hyrule's Water Temple…"
One of the corners of Link's smile upturned a little further as he opened his own mouth to reply. "This time's different."
Kage huffed. "How so…?"
"Because now I know I don't need you," he merely answered with, full and brimming with confidence. Although he sported a small grin on his face, the one his group of friends far-off somewhere in Aurelia knew him for, it was a different kind of knowing grin; something concrete – beyond even. "Now I know what you really are."
"Keh!" Kage scoffed out in angered laughter. "And what would that be?!"
His smile faltered, if only a little, as if to allow him to speak again. "You're me…," he answered with, his frown growing softer and his eyes weakening a little. "You're everything I left back in Kokiri Forest… you're my anxiety, my anger, my self-disappointment… you're my hatred, Kage."
The listening aspect of chaos could only widen his hellish-crimson eyes, taking a step back on the small pool of water behind him, causing a small splash. "N-Nani…? You're… you're wrong…"
Link opted not to speak this time, staring back at the wide-eyed Kage with a kind of pleading and saddened look in his eye. Kage's angered and fanged-face scowl returned, and in full force to match.
"NO!" He roared out hatefully, his demonic baritone knocking powerfully against the canyons of the Draerith countryside. "I'm what you want to be! I'm your answer! You can't live without me!" He began shouting out his statements, almost as if he were somehow bargaining with the boy. When Link's frowning-faced expression didn't budge, the demonic being's anger only intensified. "You only exist because of ME!" He screamed out hatefully.
Kage looked deep into the straw-haired boy's cerulean eyes and, finding no anxiety, horror or dread within them, his scowl only grew worse.
"RGGGGGAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGH!"
FWIP
Quick as a flash, the easily-angered demon of the Shinzui leapt at the young Hero of Time, his sudden movement kicking up water and wind in his wake. Pulling back his left clawed fist, he pushed it forward brutally and slammed it directly into the frowning-faced Link's right cheek.
SLAMMM
There was an odd period of silence emanating between the two; something Kage picked up on. He hung in mid-air, his fist still embedded in his Hylian host's cheek, before widening both eyes and uttering out a shocked gasp as he received an even stranger reaction. Link opted to merely take the attack, and fairly well at that, turning his head back up to face the hovering Kage Narumono. He rose up his left calloused hand very slowly and carefully, placing it to rest on the demonic being's outstretched left arm; Kage grunted out in shock and surprise, his very body itself beginning to flash in and out of existence.
"I renounce you, Kage," he spoke again, this time with a smile directed up at the flabbergasted demon. "And with you… I give up all my hatred… for Sheik, for Zelda…," he began again, lowering his oceanic eyes, holding back tears as he frowned deeply. "And… for the Great Deku Tree."
"N-No…"
Kage's horrified whisper, wide-eyed and frowning, was pre-cursor to a realisation that his existence had finally been compromised; he re-opened his mouth and, as he fell to the ground, splashing against the water and keeping his position on its top with his Aegir-control, he began to pull back from his Hylian host as if he were scared of him somehow.
"Masaka…," he uttered again in ancient Hylian, almost as if to express his sheer disbelief. "Nikushimi wa watashitachi ga sunde iru subetedesu…!"
His words, so dreamlike and wavy, went well with the phasing his body seemed to be experiencing before, finally, it happened.
Link watched on as Kage's form and figure slowly and finally vanished completely from existence and, with it, Link's very connection to the Fierce Deity and its prophecy. Almost as if to confirm his thoughts, the small blonde reached back into his inventory to pull it out and, as he did, he found its solid face-painted surface began to phase in and out of existence similar to Kage.
Soon, it too vanished in his very fingers, leaving nothing but air.
Link shut his eyes and, as the moon slowly dove back down the mountains to give rise to the morning Draerith sun, he let a grateful tear and a smile drop down his face as the sun kissed him. The sound of the morning birds echoed out around him; the perfect finish to his ten year long quest to find an answer.
At long last, he finally possessed that answer.
"Goodbye…," he whispered out, re-opening his oceanic eyes to allow the first and only tear to drop down his cheek. "Kage Narumono."
