Chapter Three- Kill the Village
The Capital- Imperial Palace
"Thank you, General Esdeath for your bravery in defending our nation and conquering the Northern tribes. As a reward, the crown has arranged for ten thousand in gold be paid to you." The young turqouise-haired boy sat upon his throne, still far too large for his small frame, as the large built Minister loomed nearby, chewing a fine cut of meat.
"I am grateful, your grace. I will send it North to my soldiers still fighting to secure our lands. They will be very pleased." She said in her usually calm voice, bowing her head in respect.
She had no care at all for money, merely to be provided with a never-ending string of conflicts to resolve—and enemies to defeat and humiliate. The Minister grinned maliciously as he internally reflected on what a perfect puppet she made: as long as she kept him in power to do as he pleased, he'd convince the impressionable and naïve child Emperor that she could destroy and dominate whatever she desired.
Esdeath continued, explaining how she intended to crush the Night Raid next, and the Emperor, pleased by this news, promised Esdeath that she would receive a reward more precious than money, and asked what she desired in addition to her payment.
"I think…" she looked up, her smile calm and assured, "I'd like to fall in love with someone."
The Emperor and Minister both froze, their hearts skipping a beat. They were so confused, how could they gift this to her? And why would someone with such a bloodthirsty heart and infamous reputation want to do something so normal? And just decide to do it?
The Emperor was pleased however for her decision, and promptly offered the Minister, though the Minister was shocked and uninterested, and Esdeath coldly rebuffed, making a comment about his age and weight to his offense.
"I see.. shall we begin looking for a suitor?" The Emperor asked, perplexed.
"I have very specific standards, not just anyone will do. I'll have my extensive list of qualifications written out and sent to you." She grinned.
Internally, she was already refining her list further. She had realized that Numa Seika - she hated even thinking his name he was so pathetic in her eyes and she was just trying to forget him as she did all her unworthy foes and pets – did meet another qualification as well but it was no matter. She came to the conclusion that to fully dominate her partner as she intended she would have to outrank him in every aspect, even years of experience, and therefore he would ideally be a few years her junior. She internally was excited just thinking of this, her new plan was so foreign to her, she rarely got to experience something so new that gave her such a rush.
The Coast- Manta Bay Village
Wood batons cracked against some makeshift sparring armor made of pillow cases and potato sacks. They barely protected the flesh beneath, as Wave was already bruised and sore. He was sparring with Genji and some of the older villager men, who were toughening him and the young boys up to deal with some bandits in the countryside. Reports from the Imperial army were coming in that the bandits were becoming harder and harder to contain and that villagers should prepare themselves to at least fend them off if not outright defeat them.
"You'll have to train without armor," Genji had told Wave before they began, "Because if you ever become separated from your Teigu, you cannot use it as a comfort, you'll have to know how to fight and survive on your own terms as well."
He was annoyed since his Teigu was so powerful he could take on anyone in the village with ease but at the same time he understood his uncle's advice. A weapon is only as good as its wielder, and the more powerful and deadly he could become on his own the more Grand Chariot's fury would build.
Wave was struck with a furious blow to the cheek by Genji's fist during his daydream. "You didn't think I'd go easy on you because I'm your uncle did you, Wave?" he asked, humored.
Wave wiped some blood from the inside of his mouth, his gum cut a bit. "Not at all, uncle." He replied, grinning as he pushed himself up, unexpectedly lunging, kicking up dirt as he did, and swiping down with a wood practice sword with tremendous force and speed, Genji barely able to put his arm up to block, breaking the wood sword in half over his shoddily guarded forearm.
"Ahh!" he cried.
"Uncle!" Wave shouted, eyes wide with fear that he had badly injured his relative. "Are you alright?' he put a hand on the shoulder, concerned as Genji grunted and looked down, before being grabbed by the collar and thrown down into the dirt.
"Never let your guard down. Your mercy will not be returned by a heartless killer. What do they teach you in the military these days? How to form a drum line?" he chuckled and Wave kicked his legs out from under him, sending him plopping onto the hard ground, and Wave threw dirt in his face to blind him while he jumped up and another older villager named Pyka ran towards him, but Wave managed to shift to the side, like a matador avoiding a raging bull, as Pyka slammed accidentally into Genji, prompting some hysterical laughs from the children and some sustained chuckles from the older men.
Wave smiled, before noticing the two men promptly jump up and come to attack him at once, now a little angrier from their hurt pride.
Wave slipped past Pyka's boorish tackle but was hit in the ribs with an audible crack from Genji's fist. A precision strike from an experience fighter, but Wave was able to momentarily ignore his pain and shock by locking his arm down, pinning Genji's arm under it, and spinning the older man around, flinging him to the side into Pyka, knocking him back down as he staggered to his feet. Wave bowed to the cheers of the onlookers, exaggerating his glory to further irritate the fallen men.
He remembered when he was a few years younger, sparring with Keno and Genji in this same place and getting destroyed.
He got frustrated, swinging with no skill, thrashing at the much older opponents, who got more amused than anything at his determination despite his lack of training or strength to match theirs'. However, despite choking on the field and feeling humiliated, Keno still approached the young man afterwards.
"You know, despite your lack of skill or training, you have the fighting spirit, and that's what counts." He said, warmly comforting the boy's broken self-esteem.
"Really?"
"Yes. You have a fury inside you that won't be calmed by anything, I've noticed it while I've been staying with your family these past few months, and if you channel that into a fighting method—you'd be unstoppable." Keno put his hands on the lad's shoulder and smiled, and Wave smiled back.
"In fact, I'd say that if your parents gave their blessing and you had the will to power through, a tour in the Imperial Navy under my command could really transform you into a promising soldier." Keno pondered.
"You think so?" Wave got excited thinking about adventures on the sea with Keno, who was an idol to him.
"Now don't get too excited too quickly, but I'm just throwing it out there, but I think I could pull some strings to make sure you could placed on my ship when I go back to duty in a month- and it won't be easy, sometimes it will make you want to go right back home, but I know you will persist through it. It's three long years of work, but by the end—you'll be a real man of the sea." Keno smiled as he spoke, building up Wave's confidence immensely.
Wave was now back in the present, his uncle Genji reminding him that they had some Danger Beasts to hunt in the plains before sundown.
The Coastal Plains
The two men crouched in the tall grass, observing a huge, bull-like Danger Beast sauntering about in the distance, mawing grass and grunting.
Genji signaled to Wave with his eyes and Wave understood. They cautiously approached, and whenever their movement in the grass stirred the creature they halted, perfectly still, itching with anticipation, until the beast again calmed and ignored the rustling.
Genji unsheathed his hunting blade incredibly slowly, barely causing any noise from the metal scraping the hilt. The beast grunted and reared up, showing its broad, dense body, strong like a massive ox. Wave was more than a little nervous, and started breathing slightly heavier and faster, but Genji calmed him with a reassuring hand to the shoulder. Wave settled, knowing that anything could set the beast off. Suddenly, Genji leapt forward with immeasurable speed, unsheathing his blade and plunging it into the beast's heart, slicing down with all his might, splaying it open.
The beast reared and moaned out in agony and confusion, thrashing about, and Wave jumped in as well, taking out his long sword and stabbing with ferocity into the skull, cracking it and destroying the brain. The beast, now totally dead, slumped over with a boom, shaking the earth briefly.
"Woah.." Wave said without thought, letting it slip out from his shock of killing his first Danger Beast on land.
"Great strike, Wave!" His uncle, drenched in blood and stomach fluid said, cleaning his massive knife while Wave struggled to get his longsword out of the skull, as the tightness of the bone was like a vice grip on his weapon.
"Thanks!" he said, finally pulling his sword back with all the force he could muster and nearly losing his balance, stumbling back in the grass, being caught by his uncle's hand.
"Man, this hunting sure is a mess." Genji said, noticing all the blood and guts he was soaked in.
"Uhh.. yeah I guess," Wave said, getting a bit disgusted noticing his uncle's hand had left a blood stain on his sleeve and arm.
The two men went to work pulling the great behemoth in a net to the village via a nearby forested trail, an exhausting feat. However, all their exhaustion left when they noticed black smoke in the sky near the village, and even left the creature's remains behind to investigate in a hurry, frightened for good reason after the reports of bandits ravaging the countryside.
The Coast- Manta Bay Village
The two men arrived at the hill at the end of the forested trail, overlooking the village to see chaos. Hut roofs burning, smoke everywhere, the old men of the village being effortlessly overrun by the pillagers on horseback, cutting them down with rapiers and spears. Wave and Genji rushed in, filled with fear and rage. Genji leapt up, pulling a young raider off his horse, knocking it over and crushing the bandit's legs, before stomping his head in, a disturbing crunch following every vicious kick.
Wave knew there was no time to waste practicing his sparring techniques and went for overkill. He unsheathed a large, blue-ish black blade from his belt, and screamed from the top of his lungs, mustering all the anger he could to channel into it: "GRAND CHARIOT!"
There was a seeming storm brewing around him as dust and dirt and rubble spun around him like a tornado, floating in mid-space, before the black and blue armored suit constructed itself around his frame, sprouting from the sword in an instant, also bringing with it a strange shield-like hovering cover, appearing like an almost transparent wing-span. One of the arms of the suit also held the blade, now even longer and broader, in its hands.
Some of the bandits had stopped rushing about to gaze upon this, suddenly in fear that they had to face an Imperial Arms wielder.
"Retreat!" one of the leaders shouted, preparing to depart on his horse.
"No!" Wave screamed in a fury, swooping alongside him in the blink of an eye and slicing his head cleaning off his shoulders, leaving his limp, decapitated body to be dragged from the back of his horse into the night.
The rest of the bandits froze.
Wave turned to them with the blue, emotionless eyes of the suit.
"Now, the rest of you started this- finish it."
They charged him blindly, slashing at him with bats and swords and axes, him dodging all their blows with enhanced speed, punching through one's chest, breaking another's neck, and propelling one through a burning hut with a body slam, aided by the flight boosters on his suit. Wave distracting the other looters allowed the villagers to focus on putting out the fires and saving what was left of their homes.
As Wave finished off the last looter by impaling him and lifting his dying body in the air with his sword, he noticed his father and mother tended to Genji, who had been speared through the side by a looter, and was leaning against a hut, clutching his bleeding side and gritting his teeth, his complexion paling.
"No!" Wave screamed with denial, his Grand Chariot armor fading away in an instant. He ran over through the chaotic village to his side. "Uncle!"
The Capital- Imperial Palace Courtyard
Esdeath sat in the warm sun of the courtyard, taking in the cool breeze and pristine weather conditions. There were birds chirping, bees buzzing from flower to flower, children laughing in the distance, all as a servant had brought her a nice sorbet to sample from a local shop; all in all a picturesque day in the Capital.
But those things did not interest Esdeath at the moment. All she could focus on was the presence she had lured out with her being in the open. She could detect the presence of a killer watching her from a distance, possibly from an elevated vantage point. She suspected it was somebody sent from the Rebel Army, perhaps Night Raid, but she couldn't be certain.
She savored this feeling, knowing a fight was imminent, and could feel the anxiety and fear build up in whatever was watching her—they had to be fearful, they had been observing her too long; they were too hesitant. She especially looked forward to defeating whoever this assassin was and taking them to dungeons to torture them. But how to do it? Flaying them? Whipping them? Sitting them on a chair of spikes? Boiling them ali-? Then she stopped thinking.
She thought for a moment, thought she had lost them. 'Impossible.' She was shocked. But she realized they had retreated. The sensation of being monitored was gone. She had to admit she was disappointed, she was really looking forward to breaking their body and spirit, but she figured at least they were smart enough to know when a fight was too much.
'Maybe they went to get stronger,' she thought, 'A smart survival move for sure. At least next time we'll have a real fight.' She then licked the sorbet she had been brought, finally able to focus on the taste. "Huh, this is actually pretty good." She though out loud. "Maybe I'll treat the others to this when they return from their mission." Her Three Beasts had been sent to lure Night Raid out on a cruise ship called Ryuusen in the harbor. The plan had been mainly to take out some political enemies of the Minister, much to the chagrin of Liver, her most loyal, who despised the Prime Minister's politics but followed orders due to his devotion to Esdeath, whom he placed above his own personal goals. Luring Night Raid out was an added bonus, so via some spies they leaked information out among rebellion groups to get the word out about the assassination attempt.
'Maybe if my Beasts capture some of them alive, I can greet them… personally.' She grinned to herself, her fantasies of tormenting the rebels being even sweeter than the frozen treat.