Arc 3: Mission – Zion Orb Retrieval
Part 2: "What Makes a Great Captain?"
**One week after departure**
I stepped onto the vast waters of some massive place. One step after the other, my black boots rippled the water as I stood fully above it—boots not submerged. It was like a cave of sorts, dome-shaped, with water as the floor and, what seemed like, a mixture of gray and blue mana aura swirling endlessly throughout the walls and ceiling. I had been here before—plenty of times.
In the middle, there was a house. It was old-fashioned style with wood frames and simple, intricate designs. The colors gold and brown lighted the place, and the secondary colors—white and red—had shaded it. There was no front door, nor any walls, covering the section of the house I had seen. It was like half a house, completed only by the wide wooden deck that served as both the outside and the inside at once.
There, in the center, was a man in a black kimono sitting by himself, smoking a long black pipe. He sat where the deck and the inside of the house met, and in front of him was a table with a board game he was expertly piecing together. He was inside and outside it, as only part of the roof covered him.
As I walked nearer to the house, the man spoke out to me without even looking—still delicately laying down the pieces of the game in front of him without waiver, "Was starting to think you weren't gonna make it. Took you long enough." he huffed out a white cloud from his mouth.
I said nothing in response at first. Simply staying my pace with my head down and hands in my pockets, wearing what I always did—tatted and in my Black Wolves attire as my dangling cross earrings chimed with each step.
"Is this you complaining? Come on now, for someone who's been absent for five times as long, you're the last person to have little patience," I said, finishing my sentence with a vulgar, middle finger faced in his direction. My head still tilted down slightly, eyes closed, walking in a straight line on top of the rippling water.
The man chuckled, took a long, drawn-out smoke from his pipe, and blew it out in front of him, "Good to see you too, you damn brat."
My face finally lit up, though one could hardly tell. The signifier of my glee was my eyes opening just a bit wider, revealing my small black pupils. My expression, or lack thereof, held a slight smirk as I finally greeted him. "Stupid old man."
When I made it to the house with the half roof, I sat down on the floor with nothing but the table, a board game that had been expertly pieced together by a man with long black hair and a white streak for bangs. He wore a black kimono with a familiar logo on the back of it…
I didn't say anything else to him since I arrived and exchanged a brief greeting as I walked in. He rolled a die on the board, and it landed on a numbered side.
"Take?" he asked.
"Pass," I replied.
He grabbed the die again and rolled it. When it landed and revealed its side, it was a lower number than the last…
"Fuck. Whatever, go," I said.
He grinned and then held his sleeve up against his arm as he moved a piece on the board.
My turn. I did the same, but a different piece. We did this a couple of times in silence until he finally spoke up, "You're a few weeks overdue…"
"Valley Tournament. That's why," I replied. Our eyes focused on the board, moving pieces. Never once looking eye to eye since we started.
"Oh? You participated? That's surprising." He finally looked up, but I was still looking down at the board as he made a move without looking. His hand was on the piece like he had gotten me.
I paused for a bit, analyzing my next move. "Had to be done. Daz kicked my ass…" I said, finally moving a piece.
The man jolted a kick from under the table, slightly moving the pieces on the board as he yelped out a single laugh, and then more laughter, "You don't say?" he said after.
"Can you just go already? This round is already pissing me off…" I said, looking at him at last with a glower.
He sighed deeply and then said, "It'd be pissed too… you already lost, you damn brat."
He didn't even move a piece. I looked back down to the board again, and where I had placed my last piece had utterly ruined me without me realizing.
"You were safe where you were, but you'd only delay the inevitable." he said as he prepped his pipe and began puffing smoke, "Sometimes you have to make the right moves in the beginning to set you up for a smooth sail later…" turning away from the board now and raising a leg, he placed his forearm over it and stared out into the open side of the half house we sat in.
"Actually… scratch that… MOST times," he said lastly, pointing at me with his pipe.
He didn't even need to know every detail. He just needed to know the steps he was going to take. The way to those steps didn't matter as long as the steps were followed.
"But it was a good thing you did participate… I mean, look what happened. In the end, even Daz couldn't beat that thing in one go."—taking a hit from the pipe—"Polaris, that damn bastard. I hate people that play you for a fool to get their own way from the shadows. And to be working with a damn Apostle while he's at it… He's an absolute shame to the Valley."
I shouldn't have been surprised that he already knew the situation. He might have been away, but he always watched from afar.
"Also, nice job with that Syemore fellow. A bit flashy, and you're lucky he showed up when he did, but nice job regardless," he added.
"You saw that?"
"I see all, young pup." He took another hit.
"Yet you were surprised I participated?"
"Dramatic effect…"
"Right…"
We sat in silence for a bit as I finally turned away from the board I was sitting in front of and sat just as he—leg up and a forearm over my knee.
"I'm happy for you," he said solemnly.
I didn't respond. I simply looked out into the distance where we were both staring. The gray and blue swirling mana aura was all that was out there—so basically nothing.
"I noticed Belle when you both entered the Kingdom's Guild Draft—along with those band of idiots: Ryo, Rex, Zeno, Snow… reckless kids… And you still are!"
"I didn't even notice her until she became a captain. I feel ashamed…"
"Don't be. You couldn't have known. I didn't even know, and I know all things." he smirked, glancing at me now; the smoke swimming out from his mouth as he said it.
"Everything that happens," he continued, facing back away, "regardless of how bad things may get… it all happens for a reason. You might not understand it when it does, but later on you will. And you will be grateful for those moments." He blew out smoke again. "Even when it's absolute shit."
"So inspiring…" I said sarcastically.
"You say it better then, stupid brat."
"I will. I'll take that and say it even better when I get back to the crew!"
"Good. I hope you fuckin' do."
"Good."
"Good."
We sat in silence again as he took another big hit from his pipe. Then he leaned over to his side away from me and a loud sound echoed out from below him followed by a cloud of smoke in my direction… and it smelled like shit.
"Dusty Old Man Magic: Dusty Old Fart Graveyard!"
I suffocated as it entered my nostrils, and the cloud of smoke enveloped the entire room.
As I coughed profusely, the man laughed maniacally with an annoying expression on his face and pointed at me as he said, "That's what you get, you fuckin' stupid brat! Fuck you!"
"Fuck you, you stupid old man!" I yelled as I chased him around this empty room. "Goddamn it, what did you eat? It smells like fucking death!"
***
After some moments, we finally settled back to the middle of the room. We talked about the crew and how everyone was, the mystery of the missing milk in the fridge, our newest member, Alice, and how much of an asset she was in terms of belonging. He was happy to hear it all.
But then…
The man began coughing profusely. It was raspy, and it didn't sound good at all. He coughed to the point that he even spat blood on the floor.
"Asura!" I yelled.
He stopped for a moment in order to reply, "Looks like it's about that time kid… here." he took out a paper slip with a symbol on it from his kimono sleeve and handed it to me.
"Not yet, damn it… I just got here!" I said as I merely looked at the paper slip.
"It's been happening a lot quicker recently… I don't like it either, but it has to be done…"
I seethed, baring my teeth. Not at him, but the situation he was in. Reluctantly, I grabbed the paper slip, and when I did, the house disappeared into a cloud of smoke, fading instantaneously.
We fell atop the water, and it rippled when I landed over it, but Asura fell to his knees.
"Old man!" I yelled, running over to him.
"Stupid brat… It's an illusion, remember?" As he said this, he disappeared as well into a cloud of smoke, and the gray and blue mana aura that swirled around us faded out.
I remained knelt from where Asura once was and looked to my left where the mana aura had dispersed, and there he was…
Covered within a plethora of vines and stone, Asura was plastered onto what seemed like a wall. His arms were spread out, and his legs disappeared into the vines and stone that looked like they were eating him alive. Only his upper body, head, and his arms up to his biceps were the only visible parts of himself.
He was nude underneath as the vines and stone seeped into his skin like veins. His head was to the side, tilted slightly forward, looking like he was in pain within an endless sleep… he hadn't been awake for over a year…
As I slowly walked over to him, I raised the paper slip he had given me and looked at it before I held it up to his chest. And when I did, I chanted the only spell he taught me, and the only spell I knew with the assistance of this measly piece of paper,
"Archive Magic: Bookmark."
After I said this, the symbol on the paper slip shot out, and it shifted into a large sigil over him. It glowed a bright silver for a few moments as if it were scanning him. And then, without warning, it slammed onto his chest, overlapping the rest of his body with rippling light in sync with his breathing. He whipped his head back and he gasped—still asleep all the while.
The motion blew a gust all around him and onto me. I didn't even bother covering my eyes. My black hair and my silver cross earrings fluttered as the gust slowly ended and his head flopped back to the side it had been hanging from. The mixture of stone and vine veins began to retract and relax. The pain on his face was still there as his sweat trailed to the tip of his nose and dripped down, but at least it was over for now.
He breathed huskily for a few seconds until he finally settled, remaining in a still, deep sleep.
The pressure of the air was gone as I surveyed the endless vines of the wall he was crucified on and from them, it seemed as if a mysterious red aura was running away through it.
I scowled at the aura and then trailed my eyes back down to him, Asura. The former Captain… No… To me—to us… He was still the Captain of the Black Wolves. And no amount of time away, not even death, will ever change that.
"Stupid old man…" I said, sympathy in my voice as I said the words. Not an insult. Not resentment. Just longing.
"Remember, once upon a time, when I had asked you, 'what makes a great Captain?'" A rhetorical question.
Then following my words, I walked over to him and pulled out a single unwrapped Choco Bar and stuck it somewhere in between him and some vines.
I stepped back and remained watching him for a moment before finally turning and walking away. When I had made it halfway through the top of these waters, I said, "I'll see you again soon… I promise."
Though he was in an endless sleep, his sweat had dried, and he held a serene look on his face. One could even say he was smiling…
I kept walking out of this place, which seemed like a cave, the wall before me opened up as if it were reacting to my presence—like it did not want to be near whatever I was…
When it had opened up fully, on the other side, the waters still flowed far and wide. More gray and blue aura filled the vast skies, and unknown structures decorated these desolate lands.
As I walked out, I stood there with my hands in my pockets, looking at it all, and said, "Shall we get going?"
When I said this, Ryo, Snow, Rex, and Zeno were all there, waiting on the sides—all standing or sitting in different positions. They could tell it was a good meeting between me and Asura today, but it also was one that needed no words. For the look I had said it all as silent tears of joy fell from my face.