Chapter 76

Blade of the Falling Leaves

An hour after first light, Heihachi of the Aki clan beheld his granddaughter as Thalassa held her in the air before the camera. Nimue tanned olive legs sprawled from fairly new hand-sewn shorts that she was already close to outgrowing, and she had already managed to unpin her badge from her light blue tunic.

The aged samurai's face was cracked with the rare smile, for it was her second nameday. Nimue shared Thalassa's mixed ethnicity and could have been mistaken for her younger sister with her blonde hair and blue, slanted eyes. Yet while Nimue was the second child born to one of the Children of Fate, and Instructor Aki had little doubt Thalassa saw her as a cousin, Nimue was actually the child of Quistis and Nida; the daughter of the late Azure Sorceress and her soiled Autumn Knight.

'Sofu!' Nimue said jovially, making Aki longingly trace his fingers across the screen of his tablet, which was stood on his maple desk.

It was the dawn after leaving Fisherman's Horizon. While White SeeD had sailed west with the Centrans, Neo-SeeD was heading northwest to the estuary of the Obel River, from where they would strike at Esthar with their full strength. Aki had been left in charge of the Island during recent events and had dutifully sat out festivities at Lenown and Fisherman's Horizon, though he had been privileged enough to hold Nimue in Centra. Except that might as well have been moons ago as far as the delighted toddler was concerned.

While few would dare presume the question to Aki, it was often asked why Quistis and Nida had not been present for the battles against Timber's annexation two years ago. Squall and Rinoa had met Ultimecia and Zebalga in the field. Surely if Quistis and Nida had been present, then Esthar could have been stopped back then, that the war would have ended two years ago? Aki had no doubt. Few would question the Azure Sorceress could have triumphed over Ultimecia, especially after the latter's narrow brush with death at Galbadia City.

The reason for Quistis and Nida's absence was in Thalassa's arms. After sixteen years of marriage, Quistis had unexpectedly fallen pregnant before Dollet's annexation. Knowing she could not birth naturally, she had reluctantly given the foetus up to a fertility clinic in Dollet City. During the invasion, their child had been eight months old. Quistis and Nida's sole priority had been infiltrating the occupied capital and recovering Nimue's statis tube for safe delivery to Galbadia City. Except that the statis tube ceased working as they had circled the lake at Castle Sarona, and their daughter was successfully 'born' a month early.

While Nimue was an ancient Trabian name, it had been fittingly decided on by the lakeside, and Aki had no issue with it, not least because it further helped to make her origins ambiguous. Ambiguity had been sensible caution, as Nimue was only the fourth child born to a Descendant of Hyne. Anti-Sorceress sentiment was high outside of the Empire, and neither Quistis nor her daughter could remain there. With the fall of Dollet and Timber within six weeks of one another, everyone in Galbadia expected Esthar to complete its world conquest, and it was only when the immediate threat of invasion abated that Quistis and Nida would leave their daughter's side.

Though they could not return to their ranch in Dollet. At long last, they resumed the ranks of SeeD. As for Nimue, it was decided she was best being raised by White SeeD, where only their elders and Thalassa would know her true identity. That way, she was not at risk of alienation from other children. When Nimue was old enough, she would be told the truth of her origins. But that day was not today; it would not be for many summers, and Aki may be reunited with Cid and other absent friends before that dawn came. Aki respected Quistis' judgment, if not his son's.

'Sofu!'

Now, Aki gently spoke to Nimue in Balamb's native tongue. She could not say much yet, so it would make no difference. But he was interrupted when the unmistakable voice of his compatriot, Yuna Kadowaki, sounded outside the shutter doors of his office.

'Aki-san?'

Aki gave his lifelong friend leave to slide them open. He stood as she bowed her head slightly before him, a gesture which Aki returned.

'Nida had reached us,' she said simply. 'With many moombas.'

Aki's gaze went distant, resting on some more sliding doors to the left of his desk that served to partition the room. The doctor had spoken in Balambi, though Thalassa was fluent courtesy of her late mother. 'Nida's back?' she asked eagerly.

Kadowaki was one of the trusted few privy to Nimue's existence. Her face changed when she remembered what day it was, and she forgot the mannerisms of her people to slide around the maple desk, making cooing noises at Nimue and wishing her well. Thalassa pronounced Kadowaki's name slowly before Nimue in a bid to get the delighted toddler to repeat it, but she lost her words after the first two syllables.

'Doumo arigatou gozaimasu, Dincht-sama,' Aki said abruptly. 'I must go.'

Thalassa nodded. She spoke lowly to Nimue again, to which the little girl started waving wildly. 'Baibai,' Nimue said, loudly and repeatedly. Aki gave Kadowaki enough time to give her regards to White SeeD and say her goodbyes before he hit the end-call button. Then, he took a calming breath, looking toward the left-hand partition again. Kadowaki watched him silently. Aki rose, walked to the partition and slid it aside.

In the centre of this space, donned on a purpose made replica, was the Aki clan armour. The horned helm, lacquered chest plate and shoulder shields were the colour of a tawny leaf, while the rest of the armour was a dark grey. Courtesy of Quistis herself, it was now magically augmented and could repel bullets without a projectile forcefield, and Aki himself had worn it during the Fall of Balamb. Nida had always preferred to wear his SeeD uniform, and Aki had never formally passed it down to him; custom now decreed that he never could, and Aki was not even supposed to think of Nida as his son.

Next to the armour was two katanas. The first was the clan katana, Aki, which translated to 'autumn' in the Common Tongue. Like the armour, the hard sheath and its handguard were coated in the colour of a fallen leaf, and the blade had spilled much blood in all three of the Sorceress Wars. Hence why Instructor Aki had been known as the Blade of the Falling Leaves during the First, and over the course of the Third, Nida became known as the Autumn Knight of the Azure Sorceress.

Yet it was not this aesthetically impressive katana that Aki was staring at, but Masamune. The legendary katana had been carelessly discarded by Gilgamesh when the outworlder had laid claim to Ultima Weapon and had remained in the dirt before a cadet had fumbled it topside.

Foolish alien!

Masamune contained unimaginable power! Nakano, the Tenkai, had perfected her forging the second time around, and she had contained a more stable conduit to the Aether in an otherwise lengthy but mundane looking katana. Murasame had ultimately been a failed experiment, albeit highly destructive in the wrong hands; its making could not be undone, and it had reportedly found its way into the hands of the heavily dishonoured Akechi clan.

'Have you reached a decision, yet?' Kadowaki asked him quietly.

Aki sighed, sliding the door closed again. 'Let us go.'

The instructor led way to the deck, the doctor following silently. The passageways were mostly empty, what with the early hour and the excitement happening topside. Aki still had to sharply berate a couple of junior classmembers that were running to see the moombas, and as the boy called Edge was a repeat offender, he issued him a lunchtime detention.

Nida had been gone for several weeks now. All Squall had said was that he had been successful in getting the shumi to provide Neo-SeeD with moombas for the purpose of mass junctioning. Except ferrying those firelions southwest had proven to be laborious. Nida had travelled to Sorbald, a remote town on the peninsular of the same name that technically came under Esthar's influence after Trabia Garden's fall. Nida handsomely bribed a captain to smuggle the moombas onto a cargo ship, which had been free to dock at Balamb. Though as soon as news of FH's liberation spread, Nida bribed the captain further to sail southwest and meet Battleship Island before it reached the mouth of the Obel.

Aki deliberately took a route to the deck that would be far from where his son would board. The crowd of cadets and Neo-SeeDs ensured he remained out of his son's sight. Nida was in the midst of dozens of moombas, which fanned out from him like a spreading amber fire, intermingling with gleeful junior classmembers that were playing with them as they would a cat or dog. Nida's travelling clothes, suitable for the far north, were now sweat laden and he wore no cloak or headband. His hair was unkempt, and he had not shaved since the night Quistis died. His offhand hung limply from the middle of his buttoned grey tunic.

Nida was met by Squall, who had muscled his way into the centre of the din, while Rinoa and Selphie could not resist the temptation to play with the moombas. Aki could also see the black and white flickers of Angelo III at Rinoa's heels.

Then Aki noticed eight robed figures on the deck of the neighbouring vessel. To former occupants of Balamb Garden, those white and burgundy colours were unmistakable. They were the Disavowed; the exiled followers of Garden Master Norg. Aki felt a pang for vengeance, remembering their poor command of beast taming was responsible for the death of his great nephew, Kojiro, though he quickly suppressed it. They were stood in a circle, and they were motionless, though Aki saw the Children of Fate glance at them repeatedly.

What possible reason could Nida have had for bringing them here? On their great journey together, Aki had implored Cid to seek alternative financial backers to Norg and his henchmen. Alas, Cid had not been confident they would secure another handsome offer with the global post-war austerity, and he had come very close to sacrificing his principles to realise his dream.

Kadowaki remained by her dear friend's side, as Aki watched Nida without expression. It pleased him that Nida's last mission for SeeD had been successful, but he could betray not the slightest hint of pride, and a thousand such successes would do little to change Nida's dishonour. That was, unless Aki was prepared to do something so uncharacteristic of his people that it would defy millennia of tradition and spearhead unprecedented change.

What was Balamb, exactly? Legend held that Amaterasu had lost a war for supremacy against Hyne. Shamed in defeat, Amaterasu turned the Mikazuki upon Herself above the middle of the ocean, and from the ethereal droplets of her blood a series of islands emerged from the glittering, sapphire waters. Yet Hyne did not emerge from this struggle unscathed, as it was the wounds He endured from Mikazuki that necessitated His long slumber, during which time His dissatisfied Tools became populous enough to overthrow Him.

Balamb was the name given to the largest island of this archipelago by the Holy Dollet Empire, following the Deadly Alliance. Sorceress Jadis had annexed it and ceded the rest of the islands to Sorceress Adel, who had occupied the remainder until the whole archipelago was finally liberated after the First Sorceress War. The Esthari gave the islands their longhand name due to the white birds prevalent in the region. Over the decades since, 'Balamb' had come to be the shorthand name for the whole archipelago. However, before the death of the Tenkai, those islands were collectively known as Sasune, and the indiginoues clans still referred to them as such.

In the centuries since, the Albatross had seen such heavy migration that the Common Tongue had become its official language, and many of its native people had migrated to all corners of the world. Aki's closest friend for many years, Cid, had been of a Centran clan. Bismarck Dincht had also been of Centran descent, his parents having escaped the Calamity. Zell Dincht, the country's last recognised hero, had been adopted by a Centran clan. Balamb was always changing and adapting. It had had to. Although its indigenous people still abided by the honorific code wherever they resided, the old values had become muddled. Their customs were indeed archaic and had no place in the modern world.

The Blade of the Falling Leaves was also a national hero, and if someone as renowned as Aki himself asserted that his son could have a chance at redemption, then it would be so. Aki did not believe Nida deserved his infamy. Everyone lost loved ones in battle, and everyone made errors of judgement. Nida had seen a chance to end the war in Galbadia, and Quistis had strove for that chance knowing the risks to her and Eden. Hideyoshi's exile had been self-imposed after the Tenkai's death; he too had had many comrades searching for him, to implore him to cease his folly and return home.

Kadowaki was looking at him sagely again. Aki knew she was of a like mind.

'What will it be, Aki-san?'