"All right troops move out!" Carmine bellowed.

We were standing at the foot of a large rock hill that had entrances to the inside all around it. There was also a long, sinewy path leading up it to the top. Travis rubbed his forehead. "So we have to look for Gerudas in there, huh? Looks fun enough," he said sarcastically.

Carmine turned towards us. "My troops and I will go storm the bottom areas. You kids head to the top."

He turned towards two of his soldiers. "Eugene, Red! Go with Vincent!"

Travis waved his hands in the air. "No, no! We'll be fine by ourselves! Vinny and I are both skilled swordsmen, you see."

Carmine shrugged. "Fine, whatever. Just make sure you don't die on me. Now go make heads roll!"

Heads roll…I was going to kill again…

Victoria nodded. "Okay, see ya General."

The three of us made our way up the path leading to the top. "Gah! I cannot believe this!" Travis complained. "All I want are my note stones! I don't have time for this!" He turned towards Victoria. "Come on, babe. Just give me the notes stones, please! Make Uncle Travis happy!"

Victoria eyes twitched. "Uncle…? You're only a few years older than me!"

"Come on, just give 'em up already!"

I walked ahead, leaving the two to bicker amongst themselves. I had nearly reached the top when-

"Ugh!" I felt a sharp pounding in my head.

An image…me with my sword lashing out…delivering a blow to a soldier…

"Vincent!" I turned. Gerudas were running towards me, carrying their staffs. There were several of them further down, fighting Victoria and Travis.

Oh no…I was going to kill again…

I tried to push the memory further back into my mind, but it would not go away. It wasn't until I had received several blows that I finally lashed out.

I once again bloodied my sword…

Travis ran up to me and pounded me on the shoulder. "The hell where you doing, Vinny? Those bastards could've killed you!"

I rubbed my head. The image was gone…

"I… It's nothing. Come on, let's go tell the general we've cleaned the area out."

Victoria approached me. "A-Are you sure you're okay?"

"Y-yeah."

She looked at me with a saddened face before nodding and following Travis back down.

"Damn you bastards!"

When we reached the bottom we found Carmine firing his gun away at a sea of Gerudas. They were everywhere, and many of the general's soldiers lay on the ground.

"Ahhh!" Travis rushed into the crowd, hacking away with his sword, and leaping into the air. I followed suit, rushing through the crowd with my sword in hand, striking whenever I could. We managed to slaughter nearly all of them, Carmine then firing rounds of bullets to dispose of the rest.

He knelt down, gasping for air. "Wow…you kids know how to fight!" He stood up. "Those bastards are all dead thanks to you!"

Travis grinned. "Yup, those morons didn't stand a chance against my blade!" He turned towards me, laughing. "Man, those pansies were a lot weaker than I thought."

I nodded and approached Victoria, who was trying her hardest to heal soldiers with her note artes.

"H-Hey, I didn't know you knew healing artes."

Victoria looked back up at me and smiled weakly. "Well, yeah, but I'm not very good at them. The best I can do now is stopping their bleeding. It'd be better if we got someone to look at them back in the capital."

"Yeah…that reminds me." I walked towards Carmine. "Hey general, do you think you could give us a ride back to the capital?"

Carmine grinned. "Well sure! You guys are now officially heroes of Rhythm in my book!"

Victoria and I stepped into the throne room when we had reached the capital.

"Victoria! And…" Emperor Claudio approached us.

"It's Vincent, sir."

Claudio nodded. "Carmine told me how you two saved the capital. You have my gratitude." He grinned. "Vincent, consider yourself a citizen of Rhythm now!"

I was a citizen now?

"Thanks." I turned to walk towards the door.

So what should I do now…?

"Oh, I almost forgot!" Victoria reached into her pouch and pulled out the notes stones. "Emperor Claudio, what do you think of these? We found them in these chasms, but we don't exactly know what they are. Do you think you could have someone take a look at them?"

Claudio examined them in his hand for a while and then laughed. "Well, these look like duds to me!" He handed them back to Victoria.

"W-What do you mean?"

"Well…" Emperor Claudio scratched his chin. "These 'note' stones have been showing up all around lately. They don't appear to have any effects at all on people, so we've been ignoring them."

"Oh…" She placed the stones back into her pouch. "Well, thanks Emperor Claudio, we'll see you later!"

Travis was waiting eagerly outside the throne room for us. "So? What'd he say?"

Victoria sighed. "Turns out these things are duds. You won't get any gald for them on the market."

"W-What?! No way!"

"It's true…" She turned towards me and smiled.

"What should I do now?" I asked.

"Well, since you're a citizen now, all kinds of possibilities have opened up! You could get a job, work for the better of the community"-

I laughed. "Yeah, I guess."

Maybe it was better if I tried not to be depressed…

Victoria smiled. "Okay, so why don't you come back to my house? We should relax for the rest of the day."

"W-wait!" Travis ran up to her. "What about me?! I just had my dreams of becoming a super-billionaire crushed! I want to relax at your place, too!"

Victoria narrowed her eyes at him. "No way! Who knows what a pervert like you would do at my place? Besides, don't you have anything better to do?"

Travis frowned. "Ah, come on. I need a bath and a foot-rub, a massage, maybe?"

"You've got to be crazy if you think that I'm going to do all that for you!"

I walked on, leaving the two to bicker, a smile on my face.

Maybe it was better to be optimistic…

General Carmine approached me when I exited the castle.

"Huh? What is it, general?" I asked.

Carmine grinned, a cigar sticking out of his mouth.

"I want you and your friends to join the military."