BACK TO SCHOOL – A DIFFICULT PAST
Headmaster Sora's Chambers, The Military Academy
Ming Dai climbs up the stairs to the top of a small tower near the centre of the military academy. From the top of this tower, one could see for miles around and perceive any incoming threats to the military academy. It was once considered that this may be useful as an early warning against enemies, but enemies of such that calibre no longer oppose them. Now the military academy deals with enemies of a much higher standard, with royals and emperors, with mercenaries and imperial guard generals. There is no early warning against people so fast and so mighty.
As Dai reaches the top of the spiral staircase, he knocks before entering into Sora's chambers. The chambers are of a modest size for one of the most powerful men in all of Homeworld, with nothing more than a few personal belongings and a small window for him to gaze out through. As Dai pushes the heavy wooden door open, he notices that his master is straightening the contents of the room, tidying up, something he does so very rarely. Whenever he does tidy though, it is always for the same reason, as Dai has learnt all too well.
"Master, you're leaving us, aren't you?"
"That's right."
"Why now!? You must know that time is limited for us to stay here training?" Dai storms to his master's side. "You must realise that by now Queen Nadia is almost certainly bearing down upon us. You know that the man downstairs, that crazy pocket-worlder, he is the greatest hope that Homeworld has ever had, but he needs guidance. So, why are you leaving now that we need you more than ever?"
Sora looks back at his student. Its easy for him to forget just how young Ming Dai is. Compared to the many students he has taught over the years whom have had hundreds of years' worth of training, Ming Dai is not much older than Naruto. Finding the young man was a miracle, people with such talent are very rarely born and almost always brought into the imperial guard. In many ways, Ming Dai is just like he was when he was younger. Sora can only hope that their fates can be similar and that Dai can support Naruto in the same way he supported Akashi.
"I brought in Juan and Nina because they are more than capable of teaching Naruto," Sora explains, "I have faith in everyone downstairs. Together we are all building a force that will take down Furst. I have faith in you too, but right now I have business that I must attend to urgently."
"What could possibly be so urgent that you would leave us now?"
"I can't say, you know how risky that would be," Sora says quietly, "Nobody can hide from Nadia for long, not even I, so what I am doing must never be spoken, she must never find out. I can't tell anyone, even you, in case you know who takes the information from your mind, you understand that don't you?"
Painful memories return to Dai. He could have lived a much easier life if he had joined the imperial guard. He would likely have become a general eventually. If he had been clever with his plots he could have even gone on to replace one of the royals. That wasn't the path for him though. It was the tremendous pain of his youth that brought him to side with Sora.
"I would never give him anything after what he did to me," Dai says angrily.
"You wouldn't be able to stop yourself. The rage would overcome you and make you weak to his powers. It's not your fault, but you need to trust me now, understood?"
"I understand."
Sora takes a final look in one of his draws, glancing downward for an extended period of time. He has always kept the draws very private, with not even Ming Dai daring to look inside. The Muto family had always been a very private family, Endou Akashi had worked hard to see that this remained so after they became part of the imperial family. Ming Dai has always presumed that it is family heirlooms or photos that are hidden within.
"What happens when Nadia gets here?" Dai asks, "Who will defend the academy if you won't?"
Sora closes the draw with a smile. "They dare not come themselves, they will send in the generals first."
"But how do we know that? If Nadia notices that you have left there will be nothing to stop her."
"Nadia is the master of mind games, she is exceptionally intelligent and is wise to the risks of attacking this place," Sora says, placing a hand on his student's shoulder, "There may be another mighty warrior defending the military academy that she doesn't know about."
"Is there?"
"I honestly don't know Dai, but the possibility is very real. That's why Nadia will take a wait and see approach. Even if she can hear what I'm saying now, she will still do the same."
"Who is this other warrior?" Dai asks curiously.
"I couldn't possibly say, could I?"
Dai considers the implications of this new information, deciding to believe everything that his master has said. If Nadia is sending generals to test the waters at the military academy then the chances of bluffs working are much greater than on the royals. If the imperial guard generals didn't believe their claims that Naruto wasn't here, would the aristocrats in the military academy be able to hold them back. The aristocrats in the academy are mighty but probably not so powerful as an imperial guard general. Ultimately, the underground area is well hidden, unless someone revealed where it was then the generals wouldn't be able to find it. Unless Nadia and Swen came themselves, it would definitely be possible to keep Naruto hidden.
"I take it I can entrust the academy to you?" Sora asks while walking to the door.
"There is one last thing you must stay here for."
"What is that?"
"You need to tell them about the last war," Ming Dai insists. "The pocket-worlders deserve to hear about it from you who knows more about it than anybody else. That's fair, wouldn't you agree?"
Sora pauses. "Very well, I shall remain here until morning and I will tell them. Then I must leave for a while, OK?"
"Thank you."
The Next Morning, Beneath the Military Academy
Juan and Nina wander down the corridor towards the sleeping masses of pocket worlders and military members. Their progress has been good, this is definitely the best teaching experience they have ever had. Unfortunately, they have been informed by Ming Dai that this is not going to be another ordinary training day, today there is a grave conversation that needs to be had.
"Aren't they all so cute when they're sleeping," Nina laughs, mocking them with a snoring sound.
"Get on with it Nina, this is no time for joking around."
Even Nina can appreciate that what Headmaster Sora is about to discuss is no joking matter. It is a subject that has shaped everyone in this world and every pocket-world. It is the incident that changed everything. She begrudgingly adopts a more serious attitude and wakes everyone up, informing them that Sora has something to tell them.
Eventually, Sora descends down into the dark stony environment with them. Everyone gathers around to listen to his tale, pocket-worlders at the front and military members at the back. When complete silence descends upon the group, Sora begins to tell them what he knows.
"Ming Dai has reminded me that I owe you all the truth, so I am going to tell you all the truth about the last war that swept this world," Sora begins.
The pocket-worlders have heard a previous war mentioned many times but will now finally understand the gravity of that conflict upon their destinies.
"It all started with the Dark Dimension. That is what our scientists called it at the time. They found a world parallel to ours, identical in size but very different in terms of population. In effect, this world was our twin, we were grouped together in the endless void. The Dark Dimension wasn't like a pocket-world, it existed naturally. The Dark Dimension wasn't so fortunate though. We never understood the reason, but we knew that the Dark Dimension was dying.
"There were people living there, and they were all going to perish with their realm. They had knowledge too, they had intelligent people, they knew what was going to happen. Sadly, they were not a peaceful people. They decided that if their world was going to die, they were going to take Homeworld instead. There wasn't room for both of us here in their mind, so they declared war on us.
"The people of the Dark Dimension were not warriors like us, they were more thinkers, philosophers and wizards. They couldn't fight us themselves, they wouldn't have stood a chance. So, they decided to fight us using their own dead. They brought them back to life using a terrible technique you have seen before. When they brought back their dead, they infused them with a mysterious energy we had never seen before. It is an energy you all know as 'chakra'.
"Of course, it didn't work. You all know how hopeless it is to use chakra against divine energy. Naruto is a mighty chakra user but if it were not for his sudden breakthrough with divine energy, he wouldn't have been able to defeat Clyde. Chakra as an energy source is simply too weak in comparison.
"The people of the Dark Dimension didn't give up just like that. They got smarter, they always got smarter. They created gemstones to mimic our elemental understanding. Using these gemstones of power, the people of the Dark Dimension could fight like us. Some genius thinkers even managed to create gemstones that could use transcendent elements.
"After a while, a terrible rumour swept the cities of Homeworld. The rumour said that a gemstone had been created that could copy almost every element. Only a select few elements couldn't be copied by this gemstone. These elements are known as double-transcendent elements, elements like 'life', 'destruction' and 'enhancement'.
"Fortunately for Homeworld, it seemed that this almighty gemstone couldn't be used, it was too strong for anyone to control. It became a bit of a gimmick for the people of the Dark Dimension. The person who could control the all-powerful gemstone would become the ruler of the dark dimension. We all thought it was ridiculous, our scientists told us that controlling such a thing was impossible, but it wasn't. Of course it wasn't.
"Eventually, a young woman was able to control the all-powerful gemstone. That stone became known as the Dark Dimension's crown and she became the empress of the people who were trying to kill us all. Under her rule, the Dark Dimension became only more powerful, they created deadly weapons and incredible technology. The technology that was born under her rule gave children nightmares, they shattered the morale of armies. Eventually, Homeworld's resistance fell into chaos and we started to lose ground. Even the small towns started to come under attack.
"That's when Homeworld's luck started to change. One of those towns was the home to our future emperor, Endou Akashi. Of course, his town survived, because he was there to protect it. Akashi being Akashi, he decided that he would go on to help other towns, one of which was mine.
"It was remarkable really. The Muto family was strong enough to hold back the enemy in our village, but when Akashi arrived we actually started to advance against the armies of the Dark Dimension. We started to protect other towns and were stunned when we heard about another that had managed to resist the enemy without our help. That town was being protected by someone we thought to be a hero, Furst Jonas.
"Jonas was the only other person who had managed to hold them back. He had a double-transcendent element just like us but he was even younger, I couldn't believe it. He wasn't as strong as Akashi though, back then Jonas needed Akashi's help. The two future emperors decided to work together against the Dark Dimension. Back then we had no idea that it was his goal to become the god of Homeworld.
"Eventually, by uniting all of Homeworld, Akashi lead us to victory and we won the war. Akashi managed to defeat their empress despite her claims of invincibility. The people practically demanded that he be made emperor. It felt so right, when he was in charge the rest of us were just so comfortable.
"Where the battle-hardened veterans of the past had tried to use to discipline to win the war, they had failed. This idiot won the war with only a smile and unbreakable determination. Thousands of people were affected by him, I believe you heard Carmen's story about how she came to believe in his leadership.
"Akashi didn't win the war alone though, he was helped by the man who studied their technology and who used their terrifying machines against them. The man who studied their technology went on to become the empire's chief scientific advisor. Naturally, this was Furst Jonas, keeping close to power like the snake he was.
"Endou Akashi used the war to unite Homeworld. Furst Jonas used the war to supress Homeworld. That is the sort of man you are now fighting against. I hope that explanation is satisfactory for you, because now I must take my leave."
Rather suddenly, Sora turns and leaves the speechless pocket-worlders to their own devices. It all comes flooding back to him. He had believed naively back then that Furst Jonas was his friend. The future tyrant worked hard, often missing out on sleep so that he could finish his contraptions of war and experiments. So many times, Furst Jonas sacrificed his own comfort and then entrusted everything to he and Akashi. It was impossible to know the sort of man he would become back then. Sora now knows that Jonas was a dictator before they ever met one another, but he often wonders about the young scientist who helped them during the war. Just for a moment, was Furst Jonas their friend?
Ming Dai runs after his master.
"I'm coming with you," Dai says, "If you don't want me to get in your way then at least let me walk you to the first town. I don't think you should be alone right now."
"Thank you Dai, I would be glad of your company."
Later that Day
The days training is progressing smoothly. Progress is made. Breakthroughs occur. The anti-Furst army grows stronger. However, the mood is sombre, particularly amongst the pocket-worlders, as they reflect on Sora's story of how the current situation came to be. Homeworld was once in exactly the same situation they were, it was on the brink of being wiped out and only a hero arriving at the last moment saved them.
Mirai spars with Lara, firing an explosion towards her. Lara counters this by teleporting to Mirai's rear. Just as the leader of the Hidden Leaf military suspected. She turns, aiming a kick towards Lara's head. The head general is too fast though, avoiding the kick and knocking Mirai's other foot out from beneath her. This leaves Lara towering over Mirai, the victor in their sparring session.
"I lost again," Mirai sighs as she hopes up to her feet. "Oh well, I reckon I'm going to break through any day now, then we'll see if you can still beat me."
"Why are you so cheerful?" Lara asks, "You lost. You were inferior. You understand that don't you?"
"Then why are you miserable?" Mirai counters, "You won didn't you? I thought it was fun, I like sparring with you, so why aren't you smiling right now? Is the headmaster's story getting to you?"
"No, I already knew most of it."
"Then what?"
Lara looks around with a disgusted glare, "It's this place, it brings back sour memories."
"Ah, I see, you spent a lot of your life here didn't you?"
Lara nods. "I came here for the first time when I was a young woman, though I don't remember arriving. I was made to forget my past, everyone who comes here is. My earliest memories are of training in this place."
"You sort of grew up here then?"
"I'll show you."
Without warning, Lara grabs Mirai by the shoulder and teleports the two of them to a new room. It's a similar atmosphere to below, slightly damp with walls haphazardly constructed out of lumps of stone taken from the surrounding moorland area. In the corner is a steel frame with a thin piece of fabric on top loosely resembling a bed and in the corner is an old wooden bucket. The most distinct thing about the room though is the decoration. Each of the stones on the wall is marked with a series of vertical lines, clearly scratched on by human hands.
"What is this place?" Mirai asks.
"This was my room."
Mirai can hardly believe it. She has always believed that Lara would have been spoilt during her time in the military academy. "Is this it? I thought you used 'light', I thought you were the most talented student in the academy. Surely Headmaster Sora would give you more than this?"
"Do you think the old man wanted us to lose our memories?" Lara asks rhetorically.
Mirai knows that this isn't something Sora would endorse.
"Emperor Furst takes a lot of decisions out of the headmaster's hands," Lara explains, "We students weren't meant to be people, we were meant to be tools. We were trained to harvest pocket-worlds. If it weren't for our teachers and our comrades we would have had no identity at all."
Mirai approaches the wall and runs her hand over a marked stone. "What are these marks?"
"That's a tally, one mark for every time I managed to do something better than Clyde."
Mirai recalls the rivalry between the two generals. One 'dark', the other 'light', they were always the antithesis of one another. Clyde's last request in his battle against Naruto was that he spare the lives of his colonels. Lara showed no concern at all when her subordinates were defeated. Mirai remembers the stories of how competitive they used to be, always seeing who was the best student in the academy, and that Clyde never managed to defeat Lara. How soul shattering it must have been to have been called inferior this many times.
"Why do this?"
"This was my identity," Lara explains quietly, "It's like you said, I was the most talented student. If I lost to Clyde, what would that make me? Every mark here though, ever mark here makes me more of a person. Every mark here shows that I was the best student in the academy."
"That's horrible!"
"It's these marks," Lara says. Suddenly, she punches a whole through the wall. "These marks are all so worthless, I hate them all. These marks used to make me who I am, now they mean nothing, now who am I supposed to be?"
Mirai would used to have been scared of Lara in situations like these. Most people still are, but Mirai can see Lara for what she really is in moments like these. Lara is a young woman who was never raised properly, a child who knows no better, because she didn't have family, she had these marks. Mirai's father may have died before she was born, but she was never alone, she had so many people who stuck by her throughout her life. Lara always had no one.
"Do you resent Clyde for breaking through before you did?"
"No, but I wish I did!"
"Why?"
"I always used to feel rage when Clyde rivalled me, oh 'how dare he' I would think," Lara explains, "But now his strength makes me feel secure. Now I'm not trying to keep ahead of him I'm getting weaker. My desire to be the best has waned and I hate it, I feel so weak, why do I feel so weak?"
"Lara, you've opened yourself up to others, that isn't making you weaker, it's making you stronger."
"Then why do I feel like this."
Mirai takes Lara by the shoulder, guiding her away from the wall and sitting her down on the end of her bed.
"You feel like this because you have something to lose now, because your enemies can make you feel so much more pain than before. It's that fear of loss and pain that helped you to defeat Carmen, to go further than you have ever gone before. So hold this pain close to you, because this pain makes you more human than any of these marks could ever do."
Lara never really understood how everyone else could be so happy in the military academy. Despite all these tick marks, she never truly felt that she had succeeded because she had beaten Clyde, she just felt safe. Clyde was always smiling though, laughing with his friends and working hard to get stronger. It all seemed so futile to her at the time, he had never been able to keep pace with her, what was there for him to be so happy about that she couldn't feel. It was this feeling, Clyde had more identity than she could ever dream of having.
"These check marks kept me going for so long, but they disappeared and it hurt, how do I know you people won't disappear?" Lara asks. "I felt so lonely when I lost to Clyde and all these marks disappeared. How do I know I won't lose you and all the others? How do I know I won't feel that agony again?"
"You don't."
This is the agony that mortals will never stop feeling, that only the gods are immune from. This is what separates someone like Lara from someone like Furst Jonas. Lara was led astray so early in life by her circumstances, Jonas never had the power to feel that agony at all. To Lara, other people were just inferior versions of herself, to Jonas, other people were ants and he would not even think twice about stepping on them.
"I can't guarantee that you will never feel that pain again, nobody could ever have that power," Mirai explains, "All I can do is make sure that while I'm around, you don't have to feel that pain any more. Isn't that good enough for now?"
Lara has no choice but to accept Mirai's answer.
She's just another one of them now.
"… thank you."