“I understand and thank you my lord.” Zreal turned and left. This is quite unusual, he thought. Why send humans, no matter how capable they are? No human could be powerful enough to survive what is coming. Though he truly believed that last thought, it brought him little comfort. Brit was not one to underestimate anyone or anything, and he knew that there was more to these mysterious warriors than flashy sword techniques and speed. There was something more about them, but in order to eliminate this new annoyance, he would have to discover exactly what these humans were capable of.
***
Chapter Twenty-Six
Kita pointed across the grasslands toward a copse not far off. “I think we should stop there and collect our thoughts.”
“Yes, we should,” Kenjiro agreed. Once they’d dismounted and picketed their horses—who immediately commenced to grazing—the four warriors sat in a circle, each buried in their own thoughts.
“I don’t think we should leave just yet,” Kita said. “I can’t speak for you two, but our main purpose for even coming to Japan was to reach Kyokoza.”
Kenjiro looked back toward the billowing black smoke in the distance. “We also had very important business there.”
“We’ve been blinded,” Akemi said. “We know not where to go or what we are doing. I think perhaps we should double back and take the risk of seeing if there are any survivors in the city.”
“And with us,” Kenjiro added, “we bring the possibility of attack to any survivors who remain.”
Akemi frowned. “What choice do we have?”
“There is always a choice,” said a disembodied voice.
The warriors spun into back-to-back positions—all except Kenyatta, who smiled—with their hands over the hilts of their weapons. Not far from the group, the air began to shift, as though bubbling. The space warped and swayed, and out of the seemingly liquid air stepped a feminine figure that practically glided from the light. Recognizing the figure at once, Kita relaxed and straightened, trying not to look surprised next to Kenyatta. Seeing the other two at ease, Akemi and Kenjiro relaxed, but only a bit.
“Nice of ya to catch up with us after all dis time,” Kenyatta said. “Me wondering when ya come see us again.”
Kita snickered to himself at the confused looks on Akemi’s and Kenjiro’s faces. Understanding the western tongue as a second language was a task alone, but understanding Kenyatta’s version of it was another matter.
The wind blew through the copse, rustling leaves and swaying tree branches from side to side. Taliah slid a few strands of hair from her face and smiled. “Me watchin’ the both of you for some time now and I admit I’m impressed.”
Akemi and Kenjiro looked even more confused. The way her accent came and went made comprehension nearly impossible. It was like hearing information in pieces.
Kenyatta huffed, a smile slanting across his face. He walked up to his younger sister and they shared a long hug, followed by Kita, who seemed to enjoy the hug more than a bit, the ninja noticed with amusement.
Kenyatta stood to the side and motioned to their two new companions, who were still trying their best to decipher the thick accent of Kenyatta and the lighter one of his sister. Kita was the only one who seemed to be fully understandable. Kenjiro glanced at his sister. Perhaps our way of speaking the western tongue might be just as strange to them, he mused.
“Taliah,” Kenyatta introduced with an open hand in the direction of the samurai. “Our new traveling companions …”
Taliah walked over to them before Kenyatta could finish, and offered a slight bow at the waist. “Samurai Miyamoto Kenjiro and Ninja Demon Hunter Miyamoto Akemi,” she greeted. “It is a pleasure and an honor to meet you. Your reputations precede you.” She smiled. “I am Taliah, Kenyatta’s sister.” She looked over her shoulder at her brother. “I am sure he has told you all about me.” Kenyatta shifted uneasily, suddenly taking interest in an imaginary trail in the grass. She smiled as she noticed the strained look of the two siblings, both of whom were struggling to understand her words. She shifted to the native language of the land.
“Perhaps now you can understand me better, as my accent is much less present in your dialect. Our grandfather and aunt made certain we were well versed in as many languages as possible, and your tongue was one choice to learn.” The siblings visibly relaxed.
“How do you know who we are?” the samurai asked. Taliah held back her amusement at the huskiness in his voice.
Akemi noticed too, but she was less hesitant to laugh at her brother. This Taliah was quite a rare and exotic sight for the samurai, who made a great show at not noticing her fine qualities.
“Partly through hearing of your exploits and partly through watching you up till now,” Taliah answered. There is someone who knows quite a bit about you. All of you.” Her smile deepened at the expected puzzled expressions, and a glimmer of light flickered across her eyes. A few heartbeats later, the air began to bubble again, and another figure stepped out. Akemi’s mouth fell open but no sound came.
Although he showed no outward surprise, Kenjiro was also taken aback by the emergence of their teacher. He smiled as he dipped into a humble bow. “Sensei Akutagawa. We are relieved that you are well.”
All four of his former students quickly moved in front of the man and dipped into respectful bows.
“Sensei,” Kita said. “We are relieved by your survival of the attack on Kyokoza. We came as quickly as we could.…”
Sensei Akutagawa held up a hand with a gentle smile. “Say no more, Kita-san. I know you’ve all come as quickly as you could, and I am fine.” He looked his four students over with fatherly pride. “I am glad you have found each other.” The four looked at each other and then to Akutagawa.
The subtle creases at the corners of his eyes deepened as he smiled at the questioning looks. “You should know by now that coincidence is not an answer for happenings such as these. I am sure that you discovered that you were traveling to the same place for important business, yet you were unable to see that you all have a common goal against a common foe.”
“Yes, my young students. You began your training with me when you were but children, and now have returned to me together, for you are my most capable students.”
“Why did you not tell us that there were others like us?” Kenyatta asked.
Sensei turned his smile on the islander. “Does the tree tell every robin of others who have roosted on its branches? What reason would I have had at that time? Each of you possess different talents that you will discover in time. All I have done is guide you in your beginning years and keep you from destroying yourselves or anyone close to you. You now have the control and the will, which had marked the end of my duty years ago. I can see within each of you, experience and strength that I always knew you would attain.”
“Sensei,” Kenyatta asked. “Do you know what’s going on and why we’ve come here?”
“So,” Sensei replied, feigning hurt. “You did not come to see how your old teacher was doing after all these years? Always coming back for answers to difficult questions?” Kenyatta shifted uneasily, stuttering an apology. Sensei winked at Taliah and continued, wrapping an arm around his embarrassed student.
“Do not apologize, Kenyatta-san. Even your old teacher can have a sense of humor.” He looked at the others. “You have felt strange energies about the world lately and that is why you are here.” He turned his gaze to the dark black smoke rising from the city in the distance. “Before I tell you of what is happening now, you must know how the world came to be the way it is, and how each of you fit into this puzzle.”
Dusk had arrived, and the sky took on the familiar fiery orange hue. The wind whispered through the trees as if sharing secrets that only they knew. Squirrels and other small inhabitants combed the ground in search of nuts to store up for the night and the winter yet to come, while birds made their final flight to run chores before the dark arrived.
Kita started a campfire for the night
, while the others prepared the provisions. They would have a filling meal this night, as Taliah had brought plenty of food from wherever she’d arrived from. The horses were fed and watered and now stood at rest, back to front, heads hanging low as they napped.
Sensei Akutagawa and his students sat around the campfire talking and laughing and remembering old times they shared with their teacher. Taliah circled the campsite, creating wards against any type of unnatural creature that might find them, and setting alarms that would warn them of any impending danger.
Once finished, she came to sit with the others. Akutagawa took a sip of hot green tea and sat staring at the fire, looking into another place.
“Several hundred years ago, the world experienced a drastic change, and has been changing ever since.” Everyone listened quietly as the master spoke, like children hearing a campfire story. “As the histories have taught you, the Age of Technology was a fast-moving time in human civilization, and corruption had become commonplace.”
He took another sip of tea and sat the mug on the ground, still staring into the fire. “There were many wars of many different types. People fought each other for a multitude of reasons, and solutions were not forthcoming. Masses of people died for religion, cultural differences, differences in appearance, economic power, and most of all, money.” Sensei seemed to have spat the latter of the reasons. “The value of life seemed to be constantly diminishing. The pursuit of wealth had overshadowed value of life and respect of the ideals of those long gone.” None of the students really knew how old Sensei Akutagawa was, but it was rumored that his lifestyle and meditations had not only blessed him with a long life, but a youthful body as well. Perhaps this was why he seemed to know so much about the Age of Technology while he looked no older than his mid-forties.
“Many died because of the disagreements of a few,” Sensei continued. “Technology was a wonderful thing until it had been taken too far. Cures for diseases were found and used, but for a price. There were even machines created that could graft new skin to diseased or burned areas of the body, but for a price. Even lost limbs could be recreated and reattached. Technology had brought many wonders, but with them, high prices.”
Akutagawa looked over his students. “It is as I have always said, my students. Positive and negative cannot exist without one another in this world. When there is light, dark is not long behind.”
“Some few countries enjoyed many luxuries, but many other countries, some of which produced these luxuries, starved and suffered. The imbalance of the world was beyond what any of you can begin to understand.”
He leaned his head back and looked to the sky, closing his eyes, then opening them to stare at the dark, starry sky. “All times must end, and so they did. Only half of what I know is from memory. To my great fortune, my family had a library of books and a passion for boring their children with stories and advice about the world.” The master let out a self-deprecating chuckle.
“History has recorded that in one sudden, cataclysmic moment, technology died, and with that, everything not created by nature. Cars no longer ran because gas and oil could no longer be created or harnessed. Machines no longer created each other. Every luxury that people took for granted was gone, and no one knew why.” He took another sip of his tea.
“Because of the times,” Taliah said, picking up the story, “people believed that God had decided that humans were incapable of using their advanced tools responsibly.”
“God?” Kita looked at her questioningly.
Taliah made an impatient sound. “Did either of you study anything as children? Oh, you’re still children. Never mind. Sometime before, and during the Age of Technology …”
Kenyatta snarled at his sister’s tone, which suggested she was speaking to someone slow witted.
“… most of the population of the world believed there was only one God. Wars were fought over beliefs such as these. The knowledge of multiple Gods is an ancient belief that has come around once more.”
She addressed the group again. “All knowledge of the creation of technology had seemingly been stripped away from humanity at large. There were even people who spoke of still possessing the knowledge of recreating some of the inventions of the past, but feeling as though the knowledge was just outside of their mind’s reach.”
“How do you know this?” Kenyatta said, looking at his sister as if he had just met her for the first time.
“That is for another time, Kenyatta. Suffice it to say that I have access to the recordings of all knowledge, in the non-physical dimension.”
She laughed at Kenyatta’s glassy-eyed look. “According to these records, it is believed by people from every part of the world that the Gods sought to simplify the lives of humans before they could destroy themselves and the world they inhabited, along with all other life that shared this world.…”
Kita frowned. “I agree with what you’re saying, but what about the benefits? Many vaccines and medicines were made using technology. My granddad used to say that people who were born handicapped, or invalid, were able to move about easier with the help of machines and motor-powered chairs. Families could even talk to each other over great distances with clever ear devices.”
Taliah nodded patiently. “Many did suffer and die as a result of the lack of advanced technological medicine. But there were long term effects. You are all examples of the long-term advantages of this drastic change. You have impeccable health, because the air in our cities is pure. You have less chemical imbalances in your bodies because your food was grown naturally. You never went hungry because all you needed was to raise your food on your own land without fear of toxins in your water.”
She looked at the ground in front of her. “That is not to say that the change didn’t come without new and different problems, or new manifestations of old problems.”
“People from lands that had been living without the luxuries of technology went on conquests against the stricken lands after the End of Technology, feeling that they had been chosen by the one God.” She shook her head. “Always has humanity been slow to learn. Unfortunately for some of these self-righteous peoples, punishment by the Gods was not the case, and many nations had to learn a costly lesson.”
“There are numerous books about this time of upheaval that is referred to as the Neo Feudal Times. When technological warfare was no more, the sword was raised once more to replace the gun. The martial warriors of old arose once more and these warriors took their place back at the front lines of their nations, defending their people and using the skills passed to them through the bloodlines and teachings of warriors long past.
“In many societies, honor annihilated greed, and nations reestablished themselves with a higher degree of tolerance and unity that was unheard of in times past. Illnesses and diseases were overcome by old medicine, and people began to realign themselves with the natural order of the world. The ancient sages were no longer thought of as wandering, mumbling frauds, but instead were more widely sought for their wisdom and aesthetics. During these times of upheaval, the true frauds sprouted from everywhere, but were also more easily discovered by people who had been manipulated time and again, and were forced to finally listen from within themselves, to find truth.”
“For uncountable years, nature has been waiting for humanity to return to it, and with a greater return to a value for life, the majority of humanity had begun to shift in thinking and action, moving toward better lives.” Taliah turned to Sensei Akutagawa, who now continued.
“As humans became healthier once again, so too did the world around them. People found that they became sick much less because they did not sit in place to allow disease to find them as easily. That is not to say that sickness disappeared, but it is much less common than before, as people had evolved to be stronger even before the change.”
“People found that different types of edible and medically beneficial vegetation arose and become plentiful, though these plants had always been there. Techn
ological remedies were replaced by more effective natural ones. It was as if the world itself had breathed a sigh of thanks for the release of the bondage that humankind had held upon it.”
“But as it has proven throughout the ages,” Taliah continued again, “humans would resort to other methods to achieve their conquests. There is always a flicker of evil in every society.” Kenyatta noticed a glimmer of disappointment in his sister’s eyes.
“Humans recovered long lost knowledge, including the ability to summon denizens of the dark world, as well as the use of magic for ill purposes. Because of humanity’s continued disbelief in the existence of magic, practitioners good and evil reappeared in the world virtually unnoticed, and the use of magical weapons arose unchecked. The dark realm watched with delight, knowing that humans still didn’t completely understand the different types of magic and their sources. It was only a matter of time and patience before denizens of the dark realms would roam this world in greater numbers than ever before.”
Now was her turn to look to the stars. She ran her fingers through her shimmering black hair. Sensei Akutagawa fixed them with his gaze. “Only one of you knows what you are,” he said. “And the rest of you must learn.”
***
Chapter Twenty-Seven
The camp sat in silence for a time, sipping tea and digesting the information. Sensei Akutagawa looked over the group thoughtfully, then spoke to Kenyatta’s sister. “You are the only one who understands who you are, and soon, I believe you will discover that you are capable of far more than you believe now.” He looked over the other four. Sensei could see the question in all of their faces.
“Each of you are unique. You were born faster, and stronger, and your vision and hearing reaches beyond that of others. You are more in tune with the world in nearly every way. Unfortunately, my knowledge of why this is so extends only as far as this young lady has taught me.” He smiled at Taliah, who spoke again.
Echoes of a Shattered Age Page 18