Foreword:
I got so damn heated after reading the manga and watching the anime I made up a different story just to console myself. I'm not an experienced writer so expect faults.
The story is a little different from the actual manga or anime. Firstly, Mine dies like in the anime, but that's about all that I'm keeping from the anime. Mainly because I'm an EsdeathxTatsumi shipper.
Everything else, expect it to be like in the manga. The scenario for the final battle is a little different as well as you'll come to read.
What I hate from the AGK verse is how little Tatsumi ever wins or overcomes. At the beginning we get so much praise about how much Tatsumi was a cluster of potential but except for Captain Ogre, Nyau, and the Shikoutazer, bro never gets a one v one win.
If you're gonna make the MC a potential man, well I better damn well see that potential turn into some damn thing.
Prologue
A snowflake fluttered from above landing on the boy's nose. That provided him with enough of a stimulus to wake him up.
His eyelids opened heavily. The sudden intake of light into his retinas reminded his body that it was alive and that it was awake. The first thing he noticed was pain. A great deal of pain. A pain that was deep inside of his chest. Every part of him was sore. He knew he had been out for a long time. Long enough for his muscles to have stiffened up and for his body to ache.
He quickly looked over the battlefield. The first thing he saw was blood. Mostly his. He had lost a great deal - enough to kill a normal person. The sole reason he was likely alive right now was because of his armor. The demon armor, Incursio.
Its healing abilities were incredible. He could feel it now. It was working, repairing the wounds and replenishing the lost blood supply. It hurt like living hell in that his broken bones were being forced back into position and his torn muscle fibers were being stitched together. The healing wasn't instantaneous and it was painfully sensitive. He was still injured and his body still ached. Yet he could still live thanks to the armor.
It was one of the renowned 48 Imperial Arms made by the first emperor, created from the flesh of Tyrant, a Super-class Dangerous Beast. It strengthened its user and provided resistance to many offenses. Enclosing his body in near-indestructible covering, it was a powerful defensive teigu. Yet, the effects of the war against the Empire was evident. It had sustained significant damage. Its surface was chipped and broken. Pieces were missing.
The second thing he saw was the bodies of the soldiers who had surrounded him. They were littered across the ground, each one with their own injuries and fatal wounds. Great structures of ice could be seen from afar... Throughout the skies he saw dark clouds spraying snow upon the world. A blizzard of unimaginable proportions. Upon seeing the storm that promised an icy death upon the world, a single name popped into the boy's head.
"Esdeath..."
Without a doubt, this blizzard must have been her doing. How she did it, the boy did not know. Something of this storm must've required unimaginable energy.
Looking over his shoulder, the boy saw the immense figure of a toppled giant. It was the Supreme Teigu, Shikoutazer, the weapon of the Emperor and Empire. Defeating it took all of the boy's soul and strength, to the very limits of his resolve. It was a miracle he was still alive. The immense mountain of the teigu represented the strength of the Empire, the might and infallibility of the Emperor's rule. Toppling it down was tantamount to a symbolic end to the empire. Yet, the boy knew that the war was not over
This war would not end as long as she was still alive. The battle... it wasn't over yet. Not until this snowstorm was over. Not until she was defeated. Esdeath.
The boy let out a grunt. His chest ached in protest as his lungs expanded and contracted, his muscles stretching and his bones aching. Placing his open palm on the ground, he tried to stand but failed utterly, toppling back down with a crash that made him rethink his resolve. Maybe resting for a bit wouldn't be too bad of an idea. His eyelids felt so heavy…
The faces of friends long gone flash into his mind, prying apart his nearly closed eyes. With a wheeze, he gazed towards the ice structures... he had to get there... and end this bloody conflict… He tried to crawl towards it... but the armor clinked as it grew small appendages to dig into the ground holding him in place.
"Incursio...?"
He tried to push forward but the armor resisted him. Why was it pulling against his will? He had to go...!
With sheer willpower, the boy pushed his body off the ground. The appendages that tried to root him was torn off of the floor.
"I'm coming... Hah... hah..."
He took a shaky step forward and immediately collapsed. Incursio responded immediately, trying to stitch up his wounds while taking the chance again to root itself to the ground. "Just focus on the damn wounds goddammit...!"
Adrenaline spiked through his body as he rose again. He had to see this through. He began to trudge towards where he could feel the battle taking place. The final battle.
His trudging turned into walking which turned into jogging and then into sprinting. He had little energy reserves left but if he could use the last of it to end this war any bit quicker, he would gladly dive into the eye of the storm.
Closer now.
As he got closer he could see bodies strewn about. Frozen in glacier sized ice structures, impaled by sharpened icicles, or just plain chopped up. The world was strewn about into the very image of hell.
Yet the boy rushed towards the middle of it. He could hear clashing sounds now as he saw a giant dome of ice. His instincts told him that the end to all of this - should it ever happen - must happen within those icy walls. There wasn't a question. He had to get in. He tried to summon Neuntote, his auxiliary armament spear, but he failed to muster up the strength to do so.
Without other options, he began to pound away at the wall of ice with his fists. Chips of ice broke off as his severely wounded body pushed to break into the arena.
He remembered the friends he sacrificed to get this far... Sheele... Bulat Bro... Chelsea... Suu... Lubo... Mine...
He was remembering them now, his entire life with them as he prepared to die for the cause they gave to him. With a final punch, his bloody knuckles tore the wall of ice down as he flung himself into the arena and...
He witnessed Akame's final thrust pushing Murasame into the chest of Esdeath. Simultaneously, Esdeath flung a barrage of icicles that pierced Akame's body in multiple areas.
"No..." was all the boy managed to whisper. He wasn't sure for who he said that.
The two fighters crashed to the ground. The boy stood still for a moment before his body took the hesitant and inevitable step forward.
Followed by another and another.
The one closer to him was a raven haired woman, an assassin he was close to as a friend.
"Akame..."
Out of her body, he could see spikes of ice sticking out. Many of which were in fatal areas. Blood was seeping out. Too much.
"Akame...!"
"Mission... complete..." The girl whispered in a faded breath.
The boy knelt down and cradled the girl. The first member of Night Raid that he had come across.
"The... the hell... Akame...!" He breathed out with a shaky voice. His hands tried uselessly to apply pressure on the bleeding areas to stem the bleeding. But there was too much lost already and too many holes.
The girl opened her eyes to glance up at the boy. Her eyes shone with the same redness of her blood.
"Tatsumi... I'm glad... you're alive..."
Tatsumi remembered the night he promised her after Sheele's death. That fateful promise he made and swore in his heart.
"You kept it..."
The girl's eyes closed. Tatsumi felt the girl who held grow limp as the soul left the body, entering a deep and long rest.
Tatsumi heard a shifting noise from afar, alerting him that the biggest danger was still moving. He turned towards the blue haired woman whom they called 'The Empire's Mightiest.' Esdeath.
She rose to her feet in a proud and elegant pose despite her wounds. She was missing an arm and some fingers. From the chest where Tatsumi had seen the mark of her teigu, the handle of Murasame stuck out. The One-Cut Killer of which even a graze meant death. It was an undeniable cut at the very core of her body. Tatsumi could tell right away - it was over.
Even so, Esdeath wore a smile. Tatsumi could not comprehend the meaning of that smile.
"Tatsumi..." Esdeath spoke. "You're alive."
Her tone was happy. As if she had found her treasure. Tatsumi could not even find it in his heart to spite her.
"Yeah... I'm alive." Tatsumi confirmed, his tone grim and heavy.
"Thank goodness."
Ice began to form from the bottom of her feet. Tatsumi flinched but relaxed lightly as he felt no bloodlust.
"I lost... Now I die." Esdeath declared.
Tatsumi felt his blood pump as a severe sensation welled up from within. It felt like anger or disappointment or sadness, he couldn't put his finger on what. The very core of her worldview, Tatsumi knew was that 'the strong live and the weak die.' That was why she was fine with wasting countless lives. That was why she was fine now as she would waste.
"It didn't… have to end this way…!" Tatsumi growled. His teeth clenched tightly in suppressed emotion.
"... Maybe..." Esdeath said, the smile on her face grew wistful. She looked up at the sky, her pretty face a picture of silent acceptance. "At the very least… I'm happy... I'm dying... next to you."
"You're a murderer! A monster!" Tatsumi roared. "You should've died long ago!"
"Yes."
The calmness behind her voice quelled the storm within Tatsumi's conscience. For a moment, both simply just looked at each other. But the ice slowly forming its way up her body signaled the coming end. As the black markings of Murasame's victims crawled along her body, Esdeath breathed out her final words.
"I have no regrets, Tatsumi... I lived taking everything I wanted... everything... but you... you're my only regret."
Tatsumi stared as Esdeath's ice enclosed around her waist, crawling up her chest.
"In another life... I would have liked to live in your world. The world I never knew..."
"Y-you regret...? Now...!?" Tears formed unwillingly in Tatsumi's eyes, even for the monster that had tormented so many. Even if she had been such a terrible person... to Tatsumi alone... her love had been true. That alone made his heart sympathize for the woman before him.
"How fulfilling was it...!? Being the damn strongest...! Hurting others and never feeling a damn thing about it...! What's so good about that life...?" Tatsumi ranted. "There's not a damn thing you have at the end…!"
"Tatsumi... I love you..." Esdeath's body was engulfed in ice. "This love… I'll take it with me."
The ice shattered, spreading outwards in a circle. In its wake was a statue of pure white, a monument to a monster who had lost the only thing that she truly cared for.
The skies part as the dark clouds seemed to fade away. The boy blinked as rays of sunlight flood upon the land. The boy stared up in sorrow. Was it over...?
A burning heat suddenly resounded from within his body causing immense pain.
"ARRGGHHHH…!?"
Tatsumi clasped at his head where the pain resonated... no... specifically his right eye.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Tears trailed down his cheeks as he fought off an unimaginable pain that shot through every nerve in his system. With an expression of despair, he cried out towards the heavens which were opening to let the sunlight through. His eyes shown as he gazed upon the sky, one eye shining red as the other shone green.
After several minutes of intense pain, the boy collapsed there upon the ground as he stared at the clearing sky, warmth returning to the snowy ground.
"TATSUMI!" A voice called from afar.
With a heavy eye, the boy shifted his head to see Najenda, the boss of Night Raid - his boss.
"Boss..." He whispered. At least one face he knew. Someone he cared for had survived this bloody war.
Najenda and other soldiers of the Revolutionary war were approaching closer. Tatsumi felt his eyelids closing slowly.
"He's not dead," he heard Najenda say. "We have to get him back and patch him up. He's in critical condition."
Tatsumi's mind drifted off. The last thing he thought about was Esdeath and how unfair she was. At the very last minute of her terrible life, wishing for another one. When it was too late to take anything back anymore.
Tatsumi's eyes opened to a cabin room. He stared up at the white ceiling. To his side, he could see a window with light flooding through. His half lidded eyes rested on the window for a while before he shifted his gaze to the roof.
"...what...?"
He was alive. He survived the war. He took a deep breath. Pain flared up in his chest, causing him to gasp in surprise.
"Easy there, you're still wounded," came a familiar voice.
Turning his head, he saw the doctor of the Revolutionary Army. He was already a skilled doctor before the Revolutionary Army recruited him. He had joined only a few months ago but he was the lead doctor for the entire resistance. That was due to his affinity with the teigu Perfector, which vastly increased his precision in care.
"Doc," Tatsumi said hoarsely. "How long…?"
"You're in a bad condition, Tatsumi, but alive. You were out for 4 whole days," the doctor informed. "But you've still got a lot of healing to do."
"How bad is it?" Tatsumi wheezed.
The doctor walked over to the side of his bed, pulling up a chair before sitting down heavily, exhaustion evident in his gesture.
"We honestly thought we lost you for a second," the doctor replied. "If not for your armor, we wouldn't have been able to save you. In fact..."
The doctor picked up a mirror to angle it towards Tatsumi's face. Through all the bandages, Tatsumi noticed a strange distinction from his normal features.
"Incursio has partially fused with you."
Tatsumi's right eye, which was originally green, was now red with crossed slits. The doctor put down the mirror.
"We don't think anything too bad has occurred. You went overboard with drawing power out of Incursio... and the flesh of the dragon probably seeped into your system. It's residing mostly in your right eye for now."
Tatsumi didn't care about that right now. A few seconds of silent breathing passed before he asked the inevitable.
"And everyone...?"
The doctor looked at him. "Tatsumi... you should rest a little more. You're in no condition t-"
"What… happened… to everyone...!"
Tatsumi's outburst made a nurse flinch. The doctor sighed. His sullen gaze met Tatsumi's.
"Tatsumi... Of everyone in Night Raid... you're the only one left."
Tatsumi's heart stopped. He was the only survivor?
"No... Najenda... Boss was still ali-"
"She's dead. Her body was heading for the grave ever since her reckless use of her Magatama Manifestation. Shortly after saving you, her body gave out."
No... that wasn't right... how could that happen? Boss was always so high in spirit, showing no weakness at all to her members.
"Leone...!" he said, remembering the blonde assassin. "Big Sis...!"
The doctor sighed. "Leone died going after the Prime Minister, she managed to capture him... at the cost of heavy injuries. She was found dead."
Tatsumi's eyes widened. No... that couldn't be… Tatsumi had trouble controlling his breathing... Of everyone in Night Raid... he was the last one...? The youngest and newest recruit had managed to outlast the professionals and matured fighters? The doctor gripped Tatsumi's hand to stop gum from receding into shock.
"We have captured the Capital, the Empire has fallen…! Tatsumi, the Revolutionary War has ended. We won. We won, Tatsumi. We won...!"
Tatsumi didn't answer. Instead, he turned away. The doctor sighed as he drew back, standing up. The doctor had done everything he possibly could for the boy's body. There was nothing he nor his teigu could do to heal his heart.
"We will come back for you tomorrow," the doctor said. "Please try to get some sleep."
The doctor left the room, leaving the grieving boy alone with his thoughts.
A week passed. Most of his critical wounds had healed, but the pain still lingered. He could walk now, though only with a crutch. He slowly walked through the rubbles of the Capital. There were so many bodies that it still wasn't all moved...
Grieving families and survivors were still looking for their loved ones...
Tatsumi's gaze fell over the Capital. Destruction was all he could see. The giant body of the Shikoutazer that he spent the last of his strength to destroy was laying still towards the west side of the Capital. Except for the biggest structures, the ice had long since melted, leaving the full grim destruction behind.
A fulfilling victory.
Tatsumi wandered aimlessly without a destination in mind around the remains of the Capital he had dreamed of going to when he was an innocent and young boy. He gazed at the sad faces of the people he passed, the rotting bodies of the people that were slaughtered.
Was this what he had been fighting so hard to achieve? Was this the culmination of the sacrifices of his dearest friends?
Sheele, Bulat, Chelsea, Suu, Lubo, Mine, Akame, Leone, and even Najenda…
He comforted himself in the solace that they couldn't see this mess. That their sacrifice amounted to a devastation of many people's lives, regardless of their intent.
Tatsumi wandered around aimlessly, pondering deeply about nothing at all. He passed by broken rubbles of fallen structures, by people digging up and looting in abandoned houses, by the empty vacant streets. He wandered farther away into the forest without really thinking about how to get back. His feet were hurting but it was so far back in his mind, he didn't care. Then he reached a location that made him stop.
Tatsumi's feet had taken him to where Night Raid used to be. It was no longer there, the building had been completely destroyed. The entire area was a mess.
"It's over… it really is over, everyone…"
He didn't know what else to say. Everything he fought for was gone. The friends he made, the comrades he loved and cared for...
What the fuck was it all for!? He fought like hell but he couldn't protect jack shit! None of his dear friends were alive! The Empire was destroyed but at the cost of hundreds of crying families returning to a destroyed home...
"This was not what I had fought for."
The pain in his heart was greater than the pain in his body. Anger, sadness, grief... but most of all, regret. He wished he could have done more. Anything!
Tatsumi collapsed to his knees, wailing out a sorrowful cry to the ground, cursing his own weakness and failure. He blamed himself for surviving, reasoning that the only reason he had survived was because the others gave their lives to save his. He should have died after taking down the Shikoutazer. It would have been more peaceful if he had.
"It's not fair... it's not fucking fair...!"
Regret. Tatsumi's regret wasn't alone. Another existence was gnashing its teeth in remorse.
From within Tatsumi's soul, another roar joined his as it wailed in sorrow.
The dragon that refused to die.
Tyrant.
Shame, humiliation, embarrassment. Tyrant was a creature of pride and ego. Never in his life did he think of himself as a lesser being. Never in his 1000 years as a weapon did he bow to another.
The First Emperor's Imperials had only managed to capture him and modify him into a weapon because they sent an army of powerful weapon users to subdue him. Even as he was formed into the foundation of a teigu, Tyrant never considered himself as the defeated. He'd rise above them, all those Imperials; they had only managed to capture his esteemed self because he was swarmed and outnumbered. One on one, he'd never lose.
That anger had fueled his existence, keeping his soul burning alive within his flesh that had been remodeled into a sword. Over the 1000 years of his life, he had been used and experienced many wars and warriors. Yet he kept his head aloft and high as the mighty dragon. He'd come back one day. One day, he would fuse with a reckless user, overwhelm his life and rebirth. He would slay them all.
Not once in his proud life full of experiences did he consider himself below another. He was the strongest. Among warriors, teigu users, and the danger beasts he had come across as an Imperial Arm, he always considered himself the more powerful.
That was until her.
Esdeath.
That ice woman. It had been over a thousand years since he thought it - 'If I face them, I'll lose.'
He remembered fear.
Standing in her presence reminded him of when he was a young dragon that was still growing. He had come across larger beasts and everything within told him to run. He was the prey to that predator. When he faced her in battle, it was the first time in a thousand years that he felt fear.
As the boy that was using him attempted to trudge towards that death incarnate, he had held him back. Out of fear. For his own life.
Now, after the war ended, he had enough time to reminisce. And he felt disgusted.
HE, who was the proud dragon - he, the tyrant that hunted - backed down. Tyrant felt unbelievably ashamed. He wanted to redeem himself - to power himself again and rise to the challenge that ice demon issued. He wanted to fight Esdeath.
But now, it was too late. Esdeath was gone. Dead. For as long as time would last, he would always be the loser.
Regret.
Regret.
Tyrant roared from within the boy he was fused to. Tatsumi felt the wave of regret within him surge as well. He gripped the sword that his parted brother gave him and drove it into the ground and wailed, screaming a scream full of pain.
From within, a reaction never to have occurred before happened. A spark of explosive energy.
Tyrant the dragon bared its teeth and swung its claws at the enemy it recognized, the one behind his regret - time. From a thousand years ago, the First Emperor's many scientists and alchemists worked tirelessly on the subject of time, finding many ways to alter it, to manipulate it. Tyrant had beared witness to the powers that had surpassed the laws of time. That was why Tyrant knew that time wasn't an existence he couldn't reach.
As it had evolved to best the cold, the heat, the sharpened pikes of its enemies, the surge of energy transpiring within the boy powered a new and unseen evolution within Incursio. The beast within roared and slashed. The feelings shared by the boy and the dragon spun into an ethereal force, becoming a weapon that could slash through the conceptual, the metaphysical, the laws above the world. And a hole was torn through time.
Tatsumi opened his eyes as everything around him ceased to be. Just a moment ago, he was screaming on the ground of the base of Night Raid. The world had changed into a dark expanse by the instant he opened his eyes.
Tatsumi looked left and right in confusion. Looking around didn't seem to help him gauge his location - he saw the same thing from anywhere. He brought his hands up in an attempt to feel something only to realize... he had no hands.
'Huh?' He wondered to himself. 'Where am I?'
Despite the incomprehensibility of Tatsumi's situation, he strangely didn't feel fear. Simply a calm soothing acceptance as though he made the decision himself to come here.
That is, of course, something he may as well have done.
A chill suddenly ran down Tatsumi's nonexistent spine. He knew this feeling all too well. It was a sense he honed in his life or death situations as an assassin - the sense of being watched. He was being observed. Tatsumi waved his 'head' around looking around at the darkness. He could feel the presence of something watching him... something hostile.
"Kid." A deep, booming voice emanated from around the void. It didn't seem to be spoken out loud yet Tatsumi understood that somehow, it was spoken and it was spoken to him.
'Who are you?' Tatsumi yelled out. Or thought out. He sure didn't use a mouth to say anything. It was like his thoughts were unprotected and sent out to the ether.
"How offensive. You used me for years and you say you don't know me?" The voice rumbled out in response.
Tatsumi thought for a second. The voice sounded familiar despite Tatsumi never hearing about it before.
'You're the dragon...' Tatsumi thought out. 'Incursio.'
"...Correct."
Suddenly, four red eyes with crossed slits opened from within the darkness, staring down at Tatsumi. They were large in a strange way. Tatsumi could only describe its size as they were as large as his mind would let him imagine them. "I am Tyrant the dragon. The weapon you call 'Incursio.'"
Tatsumi felt a comprehensive calm. Despite the power that resounded from the voice, despite its size, even despite the hostility emanating from the presence of the dragon - it felt as though none of this was an attack.
'What are we doing here? What is this place?'
"We are in a gap between the past and the present. You can consider this an alternative dimension." The dragon answered.
Tatsumi processed the information slowly. He had no idea what any of that meant or what it entailed. But he did understand the most important part. 'So I'm not dead, then.'
"Not quite," the dragon replied. "We are only able to converse because we have partially fused. Currently, our bodies don't exist. Our souls are being flung back through time."
'Flung back through-? How is this even happening?' Tatsumi asked again. 'Did you always have this ability?'
"No," the dragon growled. "This is the first time. This is something you and I share."
Tatsumi took another few seconds to process what Tyrant was saying. The only thing he managed to understand so far was that one: he wasn't dead, and two: he was going back in time, allegedly.
'Are you telling me... you can manipulate time?'
"I am. Though, the current ability is not one I have had before. You are also responsible for it. As much as I am."
'H-How am I responsible for this? I didn't do anything-'
"Boy." The dragon's voice thundered, cutting Tatsumi off. "Do you know what they called me when I was alive?"
Tatsumi gazed silently on the dragon's eyes.
"They called me Tyrant the evolving dragon." The deep voice rumbled. "In harsh climates, I would adapt to the environment, becoming stronger, faster, more resistant. That was how I always overcame my obstacles."
Slowly the gears turned in Tatsumi's mind. He remembered having a similar conversation back a long time ago about when his friends were alive. He was told about the unique traits of Incursio and its consistent ability to evolve to its user.
'So... you evolved to turn back time?'
The red eyes bore into Tatsumi's soul. The dragon seemed to pause before answering. "Not by myself."
Tatsumi would have gulped if he had a mouth.
"An evolution like this... this should have been impossible for me. My evolutions were always simple in the pursuit of survival. Tougher armor, thicker fur, more eyes. A power to manipulate a principle of the universe was something I could never have dreamed of doing."
The dragon's eyes squinted at Tatsumi.
"It was you, brat. You have no idea about it, which pisses me off to no end, but within you, you have the capability to perform extreme growth."
Tatsumi shuddered. 'I... I don't understand...'
"I don't expect you to. But it was because of the feeling we shared that caused this to happen."
The eyes of the dragon seemed to lower.
"Regret."
Tatsumi felt the weight of the word.
"We are both creatures of regrets. We shared the same feeling - to desire a chance to right our wrongs. That was why our souls resonated." Came the explanation. "That was when your potential for extreme growth overlapped with my ability to evolve. Something I never witnessed occurred. We overcame the bounds of time."
Wisps of light suddenly seemed to flow into the dark.
"You have a chance. To change your future. A gift from the universe, I suppose."
The lights flowed more and more. It was beginning to blot out the darkness. The previously empty dark void of this mindscape filled with an extreme light.
"What you will see next is the past. Your past. And the present." The dragon's eyes squinted. "Our time is running out, brat, so I'll leave you off with this. Find me again. Fight with me again. When your potential and my evolution clashes, our growth…"
The light flooded every bit of Tatsumi's vision covering everything in white. It was blinding... overwhelming him…
"... is explosive."
—
Tatsumi blinked.
"Huh...?" Tatsumi whispered as his vision returned. He was back in his own body. He could move now. "I'm ba- GRRRGGGHHH!"
Tatsumi crumpled as a searing pain flowed into his head. Years worth of memories seemed to be crammed into his brain at once. His nose began to bleed as his body pumped up blood towards his head in order to soothe the over-processing neural circuit.
"Arghh... GAHHHH...!" He cried as he clutched his right eye. Unbeknownst to him, Tatsumi's usual green iris was a deep red. The redness faded away slowly as the pain died out...
"W-What the fuck is happening..." Tatsumi wheezed. "Was that… a drea-"
Tatsumi gasped as he looked around. He was not in front of the ruined Night Raid base anymore. He noticed he was on the middle of a road in a cleared out forest. He was wearing a white, high collar jacket over a tan sweater vest, a pair of black pants, brown gloves and combat boots... exactly the choice of clothing he made so many years ago, when he was setting out towards the Capital.
Shaking, he peered into the distance to view that in the furthest distance, the outline of the giant kingdom of the Capital. Memories crashed into him of the time he was the innocent child who dreamt of becoming a hero.
The imperial year was 1024 as a young man gazes upon the Imperial Capital, his eyes shining with wonder and hope.