"'The Armless Ghost?' As in the one famous in the Humanity War? That one, right," asked Kairi, and everyone looked at Tokuda in surprise. Tokuda said, "Yeah, but now, I'm just an ancient relic of the war that probably should've died on the battlefield." Ezekiel, interested in knowing more, asked, "Can you tell us about yourself?" Tokuda looked over at Bear, who was deep in thought, then said in a guilty manner, "It's a time I try my best to forget about. I'd rather not if I can avoid it." Ezekiel, noticing Tokuda glancing at Bear, replied, "I see. Well, if that's what you want, I'll respect it." With that, everyone then hopped in the carriage and resumed their journey towards their destination. Bear was pondering where he had heard that name before, but no memories came to him immediately, and he ended up empty. However, he still felt a bit uneasy about Tokuda, as he was technically sitting next to a former enemy of the demi-humans from the war. At this point, they had traveled for quite some time since then, maybe a few hours at most, with some of the party members making idle talk here and there. After a while, Tokuda noticed Bear staring at him and asked, "Are you sure I don't know you from somewhere? That green hat you have on seems sort of familiar." Bear then put his hand up on his beanie, then slowly took it off, staring at it. "There's a pretty cool story behind this, actually. If you're interested in hearing it." Tokuda nodded, and everyone else, while they seemed to not be paying attention, they were as curious of the story Bear was about to tell. Before beginning, Bear looked at Ezekiel and said, "Do you know of the Great Hero's Crusade that occurred 50 years ago?" Ezekiel shook his head, as this was the first time he had heard of it. Bear then said, "I'm pretty sure everyone else knows about it, but for you, I guess I should start with that so there's some context to the story I'm about to tell." Bear cleared his throat, then began his story.
"The Great Hero's Crusade was an event that occurred 50 years ago. In short, the Great Hero and his party set out to defeat the Demon God, an evil entity that threatened the existing peace of the land. The Great Hero and his party were quite amazing, and that would be an understatement to the skills they had. The Great Hero also wielded a mighty two-handed great sword named Heaven's Judgement, said to be forged by the gods in the heavens and cooled in baptized water. It was the only weapon capable of defeating the Demon God at that time," said Bear. "As the story goes, the Great Hero and his party were able to defeat the Demon God, but the Great Hero was forced to sacrifice his life in order to use Heaven's Judgement and stop the Demon God. However, no one can really say for sure if that's what truly happened since people couldn't find any trace of the Great Hero's body, and people say that there have been sightings of him every now and then. On top of that, some of the party members who lived say that he is alive, but other party members say that he's dead," said Bear. Bear then realized that he was getting a bit off-topic and said, "Oh, my bad! That's just a little bit of speculation on my part, as well." Bear sighed, then said, "It also seems that the Demon God reviving is a reoccurring event, and every now and then, the gods send another Great Hero to deal with the threat of the Demon God." Ezekiel felt a little uncomfortable after hearing that. It didn't take a genius to put two and two together, but he'd rather assume that he was wrong about what he felt was his true purpose here. Bear then glanced down at the green beanie and said, "My grandfather was actually a part of the Great Hero's party, and before they fought the Demon God, the Great Hero entrusted him with this. Ever since then, it's been a family heirloom, passed down to the youngest generation in my family. My grandfather gave it to my father, and then my father gave it to me." Tokuda, thinking he could get some answers indirectly from Bear, asked, "Who was your father?" Bear looked and said, "Since you were part of the human army during the Humanity War, his nickname may sound familiar since he was a war hero to the demi-humans. They called him 'The Red Bear.'" Tokuda's eyes widened in surprise, then he seemed like he began to recall past trauma. Tokuda looked down then quietly said, "The General of the Demi-Human Federation, huh?" Bear, not really paying attention to Tokuda's face, smiled proudly, then said, "Yep. He's the one who gave me this beanie. He was able to come back home for a short time before being sent out to fight again, so that's how I was able to get my hands on it. That was before he died in the line of duty, at least." Tokuda looked at Bear with intense guilt, then muttered, "So you're the son of the General." Bear said, "Well, yeah. Doesn't take a genius to put that together, I guess." Tokuda suddenly fell silent, only staring at the floor of the carriage.
Ezekiel, attempting to lighten the mood a little bit, asked Bear, "So, the Great Hero's Crusade was the most recent event for any sort of hero to show up, right? What about the others before him? Got any stories on them?" Bear shook his head, saying, "Those are really old stories, most likely forgotten to history itself. I also don't have any since there aren't many who are alive anymore to tell you about the previous ones. The only thing I can really tell you is that some people have noticed that the Demon God revives every 50 years or so, although there hasn't been any recent activities involving demons." Ezekiel's bad feeling only increased after hearing what Bear had to say. Bear then said, "Well, we can only hope that the Demon God said 'fuck it' and decided not to revive this time." Ezekiel held in a laugh to himself as he imagined a Demon God actually doing that. A sober Suko asked, "Who all was in the party of the Great Hero?" Bear simply responded, "As far as I'm aware, you have the Great Hero, of course, my grandfather, I think two mages, one lizardman, an elf, and a few others. My grandfather didn't really go too into detail about them, though." For some odd reason, Ezekiel thought back to yesterday with the old man that bought soap from him. He still had a strange feeling about him but decided to dismiss the thought for now. Aqua then said to everyone, "W-We're getting close to Borene Kingdom!" Ezekiel and Bear popped their heads out of the carriage to see a massive kingdom surrounded by walls in the distance. Ezekiel's eyes widened with delight, and Kairi had a hopeful look on her face as their destination slowly became bigger and bigger.
Soon, they had reached the entrance to the kingdom. A large welcome sign read, "Welcome to Borene!" Security was pretty lax here too, with two guards half-assing their job. Ezekiel remembered the first time he passed through the gates of Wolfwater, and this was a sight that he could compare to back then. Once inside the kingdom, Kairi, who was unfamiliar with this particular kingdom, said, "We should probably find somewhere to stay for now. I'm not sure how long it'll take to actually find my parents here." Ezekiel, liking the idea, said, "That sounds good. I also wanna do some sightseeing since we're already out here." Bear then said, "I'll come with you, little bro." Suko nodded in agreement, looking around in awe. Tokuda looked unbothered by the kingdom, but he did keep his head down and didn't say a word. Aqua looked at Ezekiel then asked, "C-Can I come sight-seeing with you?" Ezekiel smiled and said, "Sure!" Kairi then saw local shops and their delicacies and said, "I can't wait to see what foods they have here!" They rode around for a short time, then found a place to park their carriage. All of them got out and admired the beautiful city that they had arrived in. One could tell straight away that this was more of an upper-class kingdom, with buildings displaying fancy architecture, people roaming around in upper-class clothing, and serving foods that one wouldn't dream of seeing in a common town. Kairi, who was rather used to all of this, said, "Let's look for somewhere to stay." The others then followed her around until they found an inn to stay in that had rather good prices for what they were providing. Everyone paid for their own rooms for two days since they wanted to do some sightseeing, test out new foods, and find Kairi's mother and father during those two days. With that, everyone decided to part ways for now and meet back at the inn a little later.
Ezekiel, Bear, Aqua, and Kairi went sightseeing, Suko was able to somehow get his hands on some alcohol and started perving on the local hotties, and Tokuda simply kept his head down and wandered about. Ezekiel was having a blast running around the kingdom since it reminded him a lot of the area he used to live in. He could remember all the shops packed together, and everything he could ever need was within walking distance. This kingdom's shopping district was the same in a way. The streets were lively with many people filling the streets, and laughter and music filled the air. Ezekiel hadn't realized just how much he missed this atmosphere, although he had this atmosphere on a smaller scale back in Wolfwater. Bear didn't travel all that much, but to him, it was good for him to try to do something like this once in a while. Bear breathed in a huge breath of fresh air, then exhaled, relaxing and thinking of this as a small vacation for him to just let himself go for a bit. Aqua, who wasn't great with large crowds of people, held onto Ezekiel's right arm the whole time. Aqua felt a little embarrassed doing this, but Ezekiel agreed to it, and she would rather be next to Ezekiel than have to face a whole crowd of people alone due to her shyness. Kairi was amazed by the things that she saw and the foods she saw people eating. However, many people recognized her, so Kairi was usually surrounded by people who offered free samples of their cuisines or simply wanted an autograph. She loved the attention that she was getting, but she usually pushed her way through the crowds just to catch back up to the others.
Suko was all over the place, hitting up any and every woman he could find. He would try to hit on some women by using terrible pickup lines like, "On a scale of one to ten, you're a baker's dozen," or, "I'd like to stick my sword in your stone while you call me King Arthur." Most of the women cringed pretty hard and thought he was creepy, but Suko paid no attention to it. He even went as far as to guess what color panties some women were wearing right in front of them. Suko got a lot of slaps in the face and even brawled a loving husband of a woman he'd tried to hit on. Suko, after wandering around town with no success of snagging a hottie, found himself a spot he would use to continue his pervy practices: a public bath. You already know what's gonna happen here, so let's just move onto the next character.
Tokuda made sure that he didn't stand out in the crowds, always keeping his face out of sight and moving quietly without a word. He hated being in large kingdoms since he always had a higher chance of being found out. This is why Tokuda preferred a lonesome lifestyle of only sticking to the roads. While walking around the town, Tokuda noticed a public bulletin board and saw his own wanted poster on it. The wanted poster also had his face well-drawn on it. It read, "Wanted: Tokuda Tetsuo, formerly known as 'The Armless Ghost.' Crime: Treason. Accused of associating with the Freedom Legion. Known to be armed and dangerous. Bounty (dead or alive): 100 gold coins." So, my bounty went up again, huh, thought Tokuda. Tokuda quickly looked around to make sure no one was looking, then he tore down the wanted poster of himself using his mouth and spat it in his pocket. The fewer people that know of me, the less likely I'll be found out, thought Tokuda, as he walked away from the bulletin board.
Everyone in Ezekiel's group soon got hungry, so Kairi decided that they should all meet back up at the inn and decide what to do. To Ezekiel's surprise, both Tokuda and Suko were already at the front entrance of the inn, and both of them were having a small conversation. Both of them saw the others walking up to them, and Tokuda decided to end whatever conversation they were having. Suko then said, "I'm hungry. Let's go to a place where they got lots of maids like The Crimson Tankard Inn." Tokuda simply said, "Food is food. I'm fine wherever we go." While everyone was trying to figure out where to go, Bear sniffed the air and smelled something that was off. He looked around, trying to figure out where the smell was coming from, but he couldn't pinpoint it. He smelled a scent of calm bloodlust as if someone was wanting to murder someone but was biding their time. Bear felt uneasy and was unable to pinpoint where it was coming from. He decided to ignore it for now and just be wary of their surroundings for the time being. Up on the rooftops of the wooden buildings, Bear failed to notice a hooded figure with pointy ears and green eyes, watching Tokuda in particular from afar.
The rest of the time went by quickly for Ezekiel. The party decided where to eat based on the recommendations of Kairi and the samples that she received, quickly ate, then everyone spent the rest of the time inside the inn in their own separate rooms. Ezekiel began reading his Book of Knowledge to learn more about this kingdom, Bear fell asleep immediately, Aqua was silently practicing her magic like Margaret had told her to do, Kairi was eating free desserts from the restaurant they had gone to, Suko was looking out his window and ogling any woman he could see, and Tokuda was inspecting his sword. Ezekiel then suddenly closed his book, thinking that he needed to practice magic a bit more, so instead of asking Aqua or Kairi for guidance on air and water magic, he decided to see if Suko could teach him the fundamentals of fire magic. Ezekiel knocked on Suko's door, and Suko, inside his room, asked, "Is it a hot babe?" Ezekiel said, "No." Suko then coldly said, "Go away." Ezekiel slammed his fist on the door, exclaiming, "Dude, help a brother out!" Suko was silent for a bit, then his footsteps could be heard walking over to the door. Suko cracked open the door a bit, revealing some of his face, then asked, "What do you need?" Ezekiel asked, "Think you could teach me some fire magic?" Suko thought for a moment then said, "I guess I could. However! I have one condition." Ezekiel realized that he fucked up, and to his unfortunate prediction, Suko said, "You're peeping with me tomorrow. I found a public bath that we can peep in, and man, the women around here have giant bazongas!" Ezekiel considered whether or not he really wanted help from Suko, but realizing that he had no other fire user around to learn from, he reluctantly agreed. Suko then said, "We'll step outside to practice then. Messing around with fire indoors isn't safe."
Once outside, Suko explained the basics. "Dragon magic isn't too different from fire magic, and fire magic isn't all that different from air or water magic. You really just have to envision what you want, and then pull out the mana necessary to do it." Ezekiel grinned, getting a stupid idea. He quickly flashed the signs of a shinobi from a certain anime, making the hand signs for horse, serpent, ram, monkey, boar, horse, and tiger, then drew in a sharp breath, saying, "Fire Style! Fireball Jutsu!" Ezekiel imagined himself breathing out a fireball, then breathed out powerfully. He could feel the mana coursing through him and up to his mouth, and it felt much warmer than it did with air or water. However, all that hype was for nothing, since only a small flame was shot out from his mouth, and then it pitifully died out after a second. Suko stood there, not sure what to think, then he fell to the ground laughing. "What the fuck was that pitiful shit," said Suko, laughing to the point where he was crying. Ezekiel looked embarrassed and said, "Shut up, you fucking pervert! Where I come from, that usually works!" Well, it usually works in the anime at least, thought Ezekiel. Suko continued to laugh, so Ezekiel tried again, and this time he got a slightly bigger fireball that lasted for about as long as the first one. Ezekiel decided to ditch the hand signs, realizing that he was focusing too much on the signs and looking cool instead of producing an actual spell. He decided to concentrate on only getting the fireball to produce its round shape. Ezekiel continued to practice this until he got a decent-sized fireball to appear. Suko, who finally stopped laughing and noticed his progress, said, "You pretty much got the basics down. Now you just gotta practice and improve." Suko then walked back inside the inn, leaving Ezekiel to practice on his own. Ezekiel was proud of himself for getting this far with it in a single day.
However, now his problem was how to make the fireball go forward without burning out too quickly. Since fire depends on oxygen to burn, could I apply air magic to the fireball? The oxygen atoms in the air magic should help the fireball burn longer, and I could also use the air magic to propel the fireball forward at a faster speed. It also seems that mana itself is a fuel source for fire magic, so by mixing in a little bit of raw mana to the air magic, I might be able to keep the fireball burning a little longer, thought Ezekiel. Deciding to give it a try, he used his right hand to make his fireballs with raw mana in it and used his left hand to create air magic to be used as a propelling system to shoot the fireball forwards faster. This didn't work exactly as Ezekiel had planned, however. The fireball's distance wasn't increased, but rather the air magic actually blew out the fire on his first attempt at it. Ezekiel realized that he forgot to compensate for how much oxygen he'd be adding by propelling it forward. Too much oxygen can blow out a fire if there's not enough fuel, thought Ezekiel, who couldn't believe that he overlooked such a simple concept. He adjusted both the amount of air magic used and the amount of raw mana used, finding just the right amount of both to use, then practicing it over and over until he got the feeling of it down. All the while, Aqua, and Kairi were silently watching him from the window of their rooms, smiling at the progress that he made. There was also another person watching Ezekiel under the cover of night, and it was none other than the hooded figure with pointy ears and green eyes. Interesting, but not my target, thought the hooded figure, as they quickly left the rooftop where they were observing both Ezekiel and Tokuda, who was now asleep with his sword on his bed.
Ezekiel, worn out from his magic training, was now collapsed and spread out on his bed. He used up too much mana once again and was surprised to see that both Kairi and Aqua came out to help him when he suddenly collapsed during his training. They then both carried him up to his room and placed him on his bed, letting him rest. Although that happened, he was happy that he was getting a hold of fire magic and the basics of it, since now he had more magic to work with. Ezekiel's mind wasn't tired yet, so he began thinking of ways to combine certain types of magic. Water and fire, if used properly, could probably make a smokescreen of some sort if I evaporated a large amount of water, although I'd need to test it out a bit first. I could shoot boiling hot water bullets that might do more damage if it makes contact with skin, thought Ezekiel. He kept thinking of different things he could try until he found himself dozing off to sleep for the night.117Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRB3gURomA4
