AUTHOR'S NOTES: And here we go onto Paralogue 1. Because of Kamui getting her memories back a bit earlier than in-game, I've had to rework how she meets Silas, and also decided to introduce him much earlier than Revelation did because of reasons. Also, because it's paralogue 1... Mozu shows up. Also lots of Faceless. Anyways, for the time being this fix will go back to updating once a week, though if/when that changes, I'll keep people updated.
Happy Reading!
CHAPTER 48: A Tragic Start
Sing with me a song of Orphans and Blood…
Kaze led the way back to the war room of the castle, with Corrin immediately behind them. Azura followed, but trailed behind as Anna brought up the rear, and Corrin failed to notice Azura slipping a few coins into Anna's hands.
"I would recommend bringing Lady Kamui for this, milord," Kaze suggested, "as well as Lady Sakura and anyone else who you feel is valuable to leading the war effort."
"Kamui is a bit… intoxicated…" Corrin murmured, since he was almost certain that his sister hadn't moved from her spot on the wall where he had left her upon finding Azura.
"Oh, I don't think you need to worry about her being alert or not," came another voice, this one belonging to Oboro, "she's a wild party-animal kind of drunk. I'm sure she'll be just fine if you drag her along, even if you have to do so with her kicking and screaming."
Oboro did look a bit frazzled, with her normally neatly combed hair and finely groomed ponytail starting to show signs of disorder.
"Are… are you okay?" Corrin tilted his head.
"I'm fine…" Oboro sighed as she wiped her brow, "I just got done cleaning up the aptly named mess hall, thank you very much. I'm gonna have to start campaigning to limit Kamui to three drinks at a time or less though."
"What happened?" Corrin raised an eyebrow, wondering now how much of Kamui's story on the wall was actually true.
"Let's just say that she started dancing on the tables and spilling things, and now Felicia's a nervous wreck and there's a large burn mark on the floor and one of the walls." Oboro grunted, her left eye twitching, "Lord Corrin, if I may speak out of place here… do keep a better eye on your sister for me, please?"
"I'll… make sure to have a word with her about it when I can," Corrin promised. "And I apologize for any damage she might have caused."
"It's over now," Oboro shrugged, "I'm not trying to be passive-aggressive or anything; I just need to take a breath or two. I'm frazzled, and I look awful."
Corrin opened his mouth to argue that point; while Oboro did look a little frazzled, he figured it would probably be better just to silently agree with her rather than argue with a woman he knew took her appearance very seriously.
"Take your time," Corrin decided to assure her instead, "we need to round up some of the others anyways." he thought of Sakura, and then of Kamui.
Oboro took this time to get cleaned up, where to her surprise, she saw Kamui, who this time appeared much more sober. Her left eye twitched as she saw Kamui, although Kamui saw this out of the corner of her eye, and her ear twitched in response as she turned to face the blue-haired woman.
"Is that alcohol?" Oboro snapped as she noticed the bottle on the table next to where Kamui was seated writing.
"If it was anyone else I'd have lied and said it was vodka," Kamui admitted, "but no; it's just water. You Hoshidans do need better booze though, but that's not the point."
"I'm watching you, Kamui." Oboro warned, "don't do it again."
"Hey now… I might have gotten a little out of control." Kamui confessed, "I just wanted to apologize. I… can get like that sometimes, and I take full responsibility for my actions."
"I…" Oboro froze for a moment, "I'm actually surprised at that. You deflected so much of it when you were actually drunk; I kind of just got ahead of myself and assumed that you weren't going to take any responsibility for it."
"Nah," Kamui shook her head, "give me a few hours to sober up after a wild afternoon and I'll even clean up any damage I cause."
"You know I'm going to hold you to that, right?" Oboro quipped.
"I had a bad feeling you'd say that," Kamui joked, "but alright; alright. I concede."
"So anyways, your brother's looking for you," Oboro pointed out, "Anna and Kaze came back and apparently some of their news involves you."
"This should be good," Kamui folded her papers up, set them next to her drink which she then took, and rose to her feet. "Are you coming?"
"I'll tend to the camp," Oboro replied, "maybe do a few more chores until you all are finished."
Kamui decided not to get in Oboro's way, already feeling like she was on fairly thin ice with that woman. Whatever the case, she met up in one of the castle's war rooms with Corrin, Sakura, Kaze, Anna, and Gunter all waiting for her.
"Lady Kamui," Gunter was the first one to speak, "tell me—are you familiar with a young man by the name of Silas at all?"
"Silas?" Kamui paused, putting a finger to her chin as if raking her memories. "Silas? THAT Silas? Bloody hell where has he been?"
"I'll take that as an affirmative," Gunter's lip curled upward on one side.
"Well what are we waiting for?" Kamui continued. "Bring him in!"
"That's where things become a little complicated," Kaze warned, "he's en route with a small contingent of Nohrian soldiers towards Hoshido. Apparently they are trying to stop an invasion of Faceless. If we act quickly we might be able to deter the horde before they cause any significant damage, but we will have to hurry."
"Gear up then," Corrin commanded, knowing enough of the intricacies of the Astral Plane by now to know how much time would pass in the real world between a good night's sleep. "And sleep soundly. Tomorrow, we march at dawn."
Even with the lead Silas and his small company had had, they had not been able to stop the Faceless from rampaging towards a rural farming village. So sudden was the appearance of these monsters that the citizens had no time to prepare—and even if they had found the time, most of them were farmers, not fighters.
A older woman small girl armed with little more than a pair of hunting knives stood defensively around what remained of her cottage, fending off these enormous masses of meat from destroying what little there was left.
"Mozu!" the older woman called out, "It's no use! They'll get you too if you don't run now!"
"Mother!" Mozu shouted, "I reckon you'll be all I've got left after these things are through here! I need to keep you safe just a little… longer!" She lunged at an approaching Faceless, deftly stabbing both of her blades into the holes of the monster's mask, knocking it over where a series of swift, brutal stabs had the now-butchered creature remain motionless where it had fallen.
"We can do this, mother…" Mozu pleaded, racing back to her injured mother and trying to prop her over her shoulder, "Just lean on your good leg and we'll get you fixed up nice and easy once we're out of here!"
"Run, Mozu," her mother warned again, "Run now and don't look back. Those cavaliers are not likely here to help us!" There was an army of horse riders approaching from the west, and any Hoshidan living this close to the border knew that that meant Nohrians. Thus far, that was usually also a really bad sign for Hoshidans, especially in the wake of Queen Mikoto's death.
"I… ain't… leaving… you!" Mozu bellowed as she mustered her strength and hauled her mother along and away from the ruins. They reached the woods and stopped to catch their breath.
"Now wait just a minute, ma," Mozu offered, making sure her mother was comfortable, "I know just the thing that'll help your leg and we'll have you up in a jiffy."
Whether the timing of the attack was fortunate or unfortunate was hard to say, but whatever the case, Mozu had not gone far when she heard the sound of something heavy barrelling through the woods from the direction they had come. Mozu squealed and turned right back around, screaming for her mother.
"Run, Mozu!" she screamed, but Mozu was petrified in horror as she watched a particularly large Faceless strike her mother before lodging a gigantic fist right where her sternum had been.
"MOTHER!" Mozu stood frozen in horror as she saw the last of her flesh and blood brutally slaughtered in front of her eyes. The creature paused, pounding its blood-soaked fists together as it eyed Mozu—its next target. Mozu clenched her daggers and gritted her teeth, trying to look imposing, although knowing deep down that she was merely masking her fear. She was terrified, but with the facade she managed to put up, she could have fooled most people.
"My name is Mozu Kobayashi," Mozu gritted her teeth to keep herself from trembling, "you killed my mother. Prepare to die."
With a piercing scream, she lunged at the creature with such ferocity that she managed to catch it off-guard and slay it within seconds. However, her screams attracted attention—a lot of attention, both from the Faceless and from the Nohrians.
However, much to her good fortune, these Nohrians were on her side, and led by Kamui's friend Silas. They had arrived to try and stop the attack, but, having failed that objective, were now on damage control trying to prevent the Faceless from escaping the village, and attempting to find survivors. Many of them aimed for the woods, trying to find the source of the scream, while others scoured the area for survivors and any of the monsters that were still rampaging.
This was also the scene that Corrin and his troops arrived on, and luckily for them, Lilith had positioned them right next to Silas.
"Anna! Kaze!" he exclaimed, "you brought reinforcements!"
"I'm a woman of my word," Anna smirked, although it turned upside down real quick after seeing the devastating carnage that lay in front of them.
"What's the damage report?" Corrin asked him. "I apologize for the lack of friendly introductions, but I'm sure you can tell as well as I can the direness of our situation."
"I've got men looking for survivors," Silas explained, "we heard a scream from the woods, but obviously trying to get there…" he motioned towards the woods where swarms of Faceless were engaged in combat with Silas's men.
"I'm on it," Kamui declared, "Silas… you and I will talk after all of this is over. Until then…" she clutched her Dragonstone and transformed, bounding off.
"...Has she always been able to do that?" Silas looked at Corrin, "I take it you're related to her, aren't you?"
"That I am, and it's a long story," Corrin explained, "I'll tell you everything once we clear this place. Sound good?" He wasn't trying to be rude to Silas, but he and his soldiers were much more concerned with trying to find and save anyone they could rather than make polite conversation. Silas nodded understandingly and raced back into the fray.
"Soldiers!" Corrin ordered, "Battle formations! Search for survivors and protect any you find. Show no mercy to any Faceless you meet along the way!"
While Corrin's army tore through the legions of Faceless that were still ravaging what was left of the obliterated village, Kamui tore through the woods, nearly giving Mozu another heart attack as she saw an enormous dragon leap out of nowhere. She was even more shocked when it transformed into a girl with purple curls, clothed entirely except her head and her feet.
"Hey…" she said calmly, trying to get this girl to realize that she was not a hostile force, "are… are you alright over here?"
"Waaagh!" Mozu cried, the despair of her situation finally sinking in, and any preface or facade of confidence dissolving on the spot, "no… my mother, my friends… my village…"
She didn't finish, but Kamui followed her line of sight over to a bloodied corpse with its chest caved in, situated next to the corpse of a Faceless with blood on its fists. She put two and two together and gritted her teeth.
"Can you fight?" she asked.
"I… I can…" Mozu nodded, "I have to fight! For my mother! For my friends! For everything these monsters took from me and more!"
Despite the grimness of the situation, seeing Mozu's newfound burst of confidence, however brief, had brought some much-needed light to an otherwise bleak situation. Kamui had made it her goal to make sure that this young woman made it out of this mess alive and well, and that was a goal and a motive that she would not give up under any circumstances.
AFTERTHOUGHTS: Mozu and Silas have not "officially" joined Corrin's army yet, and so they aren't listed here. Once the little arc of this story is over, they will likely make their joinings "official." Otherwise, thanks for reading, and remember... reviews are an author's lifeblood, and I enjoy your feedback, so keep 'em coming!