Chapter 14: Yorokobashii Mirai; Boku-tachi no Atsui Yume ga kanau (A Joyful Future; Our Passionate Dreams have Come True)
Disclaimer: Zoids Chaotic Century (Kijū Shinseiki Zoids; lit. New Age of Animal Machines Zoids) was originally authored by Michiro Ueyama. I merely borrowed Ueyama-sensei's caharcters. But some of the characters in the story are my own.
Near the northwest border of Nagano, a group of ninjas are having a training session in early mid-autumn morning.
"Michael-sensei, have you seen where Yasmine went?" a seven-year old boy asked his mentor.
"I think Melissa is still training your sister, Matthew-kun." the chuunin replied to his student.
"In that case, I'll just look for them." the genin then told his teacher.
"How about the task I assigned to you? Have you finished it?" Michael asked him in return.
"Just look at my work, sensei." the boy responded.
The higher ranking ninja then went to where his student has had his training. Even though he was still very young, Matthew was already capable of doing things that would normally be impossible for ninjas of his age and/or level. However, considering who the boy's parents are, the chuunin has learned that he should always anticipate that his student would always exceed the expectations of most of their fellow shinobi.
At a nearby pool, Matthew has found his sister and her mentor. The two of them were taking a break when the genin boy arrived there.
"Hoy Yasmine, wanna test and see how much I've surpassed you?" Matthew told his sibling.
"Atashi ni amakumite muracchakumaru nai, otohtoh yo!" Yasmine retorted to her brother in order for him to not underestimate her.
"Van-sama and Fiona hime-sama's son never fails to impress all the high-ranking ninjas in the tribe. And I also have to admit that the same runs true for their daughter. The twins surely make their parents proud of them." Van's subordinate thought as he followed his student to where he was heading after he checked the completion of the boy's task.
It has nearly been ten years since Van and Fiona got married together. Just as Van planned, the two of them settled at the Byakutaka's village nearest to Niigata and forged much stronger camaraderie with the ninja tribes there. The two of them have been blessed with fraternal twin children: Yasmine (who also goes by the name Minori) and Matthew (who also goes by the name Tohya). Matthew has inherited nearly all of Van's facial features, including the red rectangular facial mark on his left cheek and shadow-black hair color (which is spiky and usually set in crown-like manner like their father's hair, but is much more messy) but he also got Fiona's purplish-red eye color, peachy-white skin tone and blue triangular facial mark on the forehead. Matthew's personality greatly resembles that of Van's. Conversely, Yasmine took after Fiona's appearance, but like Matthew, she got she the same hair color as their father and the same red rectangular mark on her left cheek. Also, the color of her eyes is black just like Van's eyes. Personality wise, however, her character is halfway between Fiona' personality and Van's character. Nevertheless, both twins inherited their father's perceptive cunning with their mother's subtle-detailed intellect.
In front of their home's koi pond, the Byakutaka leaders have a little sweet conversation about their children.
"Van-narachoh, do you think it's just a coincidence that our children were born of our second wedding anniversary?" Fiona asked her husband.
"Not at all. I wanted my children to be born near our wedding anniversary to make their births especially memorable, hime." Van has retorted smugly to his wife while he remembered the fact that more than a year had passed before he took away Fiona's virginity (and sacrificed his own in the process).
"Van-narachoh, we did good, ne? I mean, from being my personal guardian ninja, you became my boyfriend, then fiancé, and now my husband and the father of my children. Thank you so much for always loving me and taking very good care of me and my family through all of this time." Fiona said warmly to her husband as she reciprocated his teasing attitude at the moment.
"I think God had planned this for us right from the day we were born. He created us just for each other alone. And I thank you for always loving me faithfully and remaining by my side through all of this time." Van responded with an equally loving statement. "Koishiteru, Fiona-hime!" he has added as he pulled her close to him and kissed her in the lips this time.
"Koishiteru, Van-narachoh!" she responded to her husband after they disengaged their lips from each other.
"Would you want to see how much my twins have improved? I bet they are already sparring with each other along with their friends." the Byakutaka master asked his wife. "Also, the twins are now asking me if they could have winter training this year since they are now genins." he continued.
"Now that you mention it, it appears that winter is arriving relatively early this year, perhaps at the fourth or fifth week of November." the blonde responded to her partner as he led her to where their children are training. "By the way Van, Hotaro nii-sama and Eru nee-sama asked me if it fine for them to watch the chuunin and jonin exams." she asked in tow.
"Naturally, its fine for them. After all, your older brother and his wife would be your parents' successors." Van immediately consented.
"Hotaro nii-sama and Eru nee-sama also told me six weeks ago that they are glad their child actually likes to study." Fiona told her husband as she remembered how her older brother spent a considerable time cutting his classes during his youth.
"That's their genius girl, Mitsuha, right?" the ninja master asked.
"Mochiron. Mitsuha is so far the only child of Hotaro nii-sama and Eru nee-sama." the princess replied sweetly to her partner as they continued walking.
Van then gently buried his face into Fiona's greenish-blonde hair for a second as he have suddenly started to carry her in bridal style while heading to where their little genins have been training.
Back at the training area, the Freiheit twins tested each other's prowess. For several minutes, the two of them were evenly matched, with neither letting the other get the advantage.
"My, my, Van-sama and Fiona-hime's children train together with all of their skills and strength. This kind of sparing is normally expected only for highly ranking ninjas such as captain-ranked chuunins like us." Melissa told her fellow captain-ranked chuunin.
"But remember, Van-sama is their father. So they must have been inspired at a very early age to become ninjas like their father and he must have allowed them to train at such early age." Michael answered to her.
The twins are very close to yet at the same time very competitive with each other. As Van and Fiona's first child, Yasmine is reserved and very polite to everyone. And even though Matthew is the youngest child, he was very protective of his twin sister. Whenever Matthew and Yasmine train with each other, the two of them are always obliged by their mentors to use blunted weapons so as not to injure each other. Yet the only blunted weapons they use are those bladed weapons intended to be constantly held by hands such as swords and spears. No surprise, their sparring venues are often littered with projectiles as they throw and deflect shurikens, needles, and kunai blades to and from each other. But in the end, Matthew was able to win over his older twin by placing her in a bind.
"Hey, Hey, I think you have too much training now. You should spend the rest of the day relaxing and/or playing with your friends." Van said to his children as he and Fiona arrived at their training venue.
"Mama, Daddy!" Yasmine called out to their parents as she tossed her bōken aside and ran towards their parents.
"Daddy, Mommy, am I still the strongest genin in of our age bracket?" Matthew excitedly asked them.
"Both of you are the best! You make us so proud!" Van told the twins. "But I have to admit that Matthew is still the top one genin in Nagano in terms of battle prowess yet Yasmine is very close to him." their father added.
"Don't worry Yasmine, you are superior to Matthew is other aspects and that makes the two of you equal overall." the ninja master continued.
"Like Matthew still hasn't mastered the skills of medical ninjas to the extent that you have, sweetie." Fiona complimented to their daughter.
"Then I need to train more to continue to be the number one ninja of our age. I won't let Kazuto-kun or Reiji-kun match me." their son told them.
"Very competitive, just like you and Raven are towards each other." Fiona said to Van as she remembered the times her husband and his rival would spar in order to test each other's abilities.
"Reiji-kun said you rivalry with uncle Raven continues today despite your friendship." Yasmine interjected.
"Right. This is pretty much what happens whenever Raven and I are having matches. But I must admit, he beat me in our first two matches." Van said to his children as he recalled the times he and his closest rival would spar ever since their childhood.
Out of the blue, another person called out to the Freiheit family as they prepare to take care of the mess in their training yard.
"Looks like your boy is eager to test my Kazuto's prowess in addition to permanently surpassing Raven-san's son?" a man yelled to them from afar.
"That voice and its Echigo dialect could only come from one person." Van said quietly. "Ruji-san, always popping out of the blue whenever I an important matter concerns you." he riposted as he turned his attention to his fellow ninja master.
"Uncle Ruji!" the Freiheit twins called out to their parents' friend.
"Hey there, Minori-chan, Tohya-kun. Looks like both of you are up sparring against each other again. Don't worry, my son will be here in just a while." Ruji greeted to Van and Fiona's children with the alternate names.
"So who is Kazuto-kun's sensei?" Matthew excitedly asked to Aoiroh master.
"I have placed him under Irvine's tutelage. I'm confident that he will succeed in making my son a jonin within six year's time." the Aoiroh leader told the genin boy.
"Nice to see you again after ten months, Familon-san! It seems you and Re Mii also have a very energetic child." Fiona said to Ruji.
"Please just call me by my given name. Well, Kazuto certainly got Re Mii's ever-feisty attitude. But sometimes he is quite impatient about what he needs to do." Ruji stated.
"But I'm sure my twins will be jonins within less than that time!" Van proudly mentioned to his comrade.
A minute later, a seven and a half year old boy with light brown hair but with Ruji's appearance came to their meeting area.
"Sumimasen, dad. Irvine-sensei came late today so our training got reset by an hour!" the boy said to Ruji.
"Kazuto, seems like you gave your sensei a hard time, ne?" the purple-eyed ninja master said to his son.
"No, it's him who's making me do all the chores you have assigned him or else he wouldn't teach me." Kazuto replied to his father.
"My, my, Ruji-kun is right-Kazuto certainly got Re Mii-hime's feistiness. No wonder Irvine makes him do the chores." Fiona thought.
"Well, that serves to drain your excess energy." Ruji replied to his son.
A couple of minutes later, Irvine also arrived at the scene as he brought some wagashi, dango, and inarizushi for the younger ninjas.
"Hoy, Irvine-san, is true that you're finally expecting your first child? At almost thirty, you're rather late at becoming a first-time father!" Van teased to his comrade.
"Better late than never! I'm rather surprised that you have finally succeeded in promoting one of your students into a jonin." The grey-haired older shinobi retorted as he took note of the fact that Van took one of Irvine's previous student under his tutelage after the boy flunked the jonin exams for five consecutive times.
"I took pity on him since I saw how I was when I was first beaten by Raven twenty years ago." The Byakutaka master riposted.
"Uncle Irvine, did you also bring a momo dango here?" Yasmine asked the older shinobi.
"I originally did brought one. But then I met Seijuro along the way. He and his five-year old daughter Mayaka were having a break from their nanigata-jutsu training, and his little brat asked me to give her the momo dango."
Yasmine then pouted as she found out that somebody else was able to have her favorite dessert.
"Don't feel bad about it. I have also brought here some kaki dangos." Irvine told the girl as he took out the persimmon-filled sweet dumplings from his bag.
"Yay!" Van and Fiona's daughter responded as she took a bite of her snack.
"By the way Van-san, Rosso-sempai and Viola-sempai also have had their second child just ten days ago." Ruji opened to his friends.
"Did they have a girl this time? I heard that Viola wants their second child to be a daughter." Fiona asked.
"Hai; they have named her Megumi." The Aoiroh master responded.
"I'm glad Rosso-sempai and Viola-sempai got what they wanted for their second child. I want to see Megumi soon." Van's wife responded.
"We'll head to the Kumoguma tribe's head village next week if you want to, hime." Van responded to her.
"By the way, Raven-san also told me earlier this month that he wants to have the examinations held before winter sets in." Ruji opened up to his fellow ninja masters.
"That's exactly what he told me last week. And I think that's just fine. Maybe Michael and Melissa here should participate so that two more chuunins who studied under me will be promoted into new jonins." the Byakutaka master answered.
While the Byakutaka and Aoiroh masters are having a little reunion and discussing about opening the upcoming ninja examinations to their other ally tribes, the same matter caught the interest of some others in Kuyuka after they had heard about it.
"Otou-san, let me join the upcoming examinations, please!" a seven year old dirty blonde-haired girl begged her father.
"You don't need to rush things. Take them at your own pace, Misao." the blonde samurai responded as he patted his child's hair.
"Thomas, I'm sure our daughter will be able to get it. After all, she had Maria nee-sama as her sensei." a twenty-seven year old persimmon-haired woman her husband.
"I must admit, although Van-san's older sister is a proficient teacher. Although may be soft, she is one that must never be taken lightly seeing that she has trained both mother and daughter well." Thomas answered to his wife.
"Okaa-san, Aunt Maria told me that Matthew and Yasmine are also planning to participate in the evaluations." Misao told her kunoichi mother.
"It seems the twins are passionate about their desire to be better ninjas than their father. I bet they must have nagged Van-sama and Fiona-hime to allow them to practice skills that would normally be considerably more advanced for ninjas of their age or rank." Catherine responded.
"I'm gonna show those cousins of mine that I could compare to them as a ninja." the younger kunoichi retorted.
Thomas then smiled warmly at his daughter as he saw how she had inherited his wife's enthusiasm.
"I could never ask for anything more. Having a passionate daughter with my loving kunoichi wife makes me feel complete." the blonde samurai muttered.
All of them who have fought against the dictatorship and oppression brought by Prozen and his clan have finally fulfilled their respective dreams that each one of them have passionately pursued. Now, it's their children's turn to dream big.
Finally, the final chapter of my first fanfic. I hope you will like it. And I'm hoping I could make a prequel story to this. Reviews are always welcome. Additionally, I decided to give Van and Fiona's children secondary names based on twin sibling characters from Log Horizon who have the same given names.