Chapter 11

“Well, well. Would you look who it is.”

The heavy hand on Koji’s shoulder spun him around, and the young man beheld a jovial face that he had only briefly glimpsed before. It was Captain Theo from when he had first been introduced to the Order of the Unbroken Path and the city of Behalan.

Theo was no longer wearing his Order uniform, and he wore his shirt slightly parted where Theo could see many bandages tied around his body. He was unshaven, but his face looked healthy, if a bit pale.

“Captain Theo!” Koji exclaimed. “Rena told me that you had survived. How good to see you!”

“Nay, it is I who should be saying that it is good to see you!” Theo grinned. “If it were not for you driving off those interlopers back on the road, I doubt any of my soldiers would have survived. You saved my life, lad. For that, I will always be in your debt.”

“Hear, hear!” A group of men sitting behind Theo cheered, raising their flagons in a toast.

Koji found himself being maneuvered toward Theo’s companions and sat down among them.

“Now, lad,” Theo continued. “I hear you’ve chosen to join the Order as well! That is good to hear. Fighting for humanity is a noble and worthy goal, and I am glad that a strapping young man like yourself has chosen to join our ranks. Not that I’ll be doing much fighting in the future,” Theo sighed. “It’ll be mostly deskwork for me. But you, Koji, you’ve already done well for yourself. Barely half a week in the Order’s ranks and you’re already a hero!”

“People keep calling me a hero,” Koji pointed out. “What’s up with that?”

“Why, it’s spreading like wildfire through the Order’s members,” One of Theo’s drinking buddies laughed. “You and your amazing powers are living proof that magic can be defeated. You’ve been singled out by the High Lords as one of our finest soldiers in our battle against the Magecroft Organization. Besides, the High Lords have awarded you a medal to commemorate your courage, did they not? They don’t just give those out to anybody in the Order.” 

Theo nodded in agreement. “Only those who have distinguished themselves by helping the Order out in special ways are given medals. And judging by how you trounced those miscreants out on the road, I’d say that the High Lords’ praise for you is well earned.”

“I mean, I do have the powers and the medals, but I don’t think of myself as any kind of hero,” Koji shrugged in what he thought was a humble manner. “And it wasn’t like I was trying to be a hero back there when we first met, Captain. I was just trying not to die. Anyone else would have done the same in my place.”

“Well, the rest of the Order calls you a hero,” Theo told Koji, patting him on the shoulder heartily. “And before long, so will the people of Behalan. Thanks to you and your efforts, we may finally be in sight of securing the entire city from the interlopers at last. The end of thirteen years of war might be at long last on the horizon. And that’s something I’ll drink to.”

Eventually Koji was able to disentangle himself from the merry gathering and bought himself dinner. To his pleasant surprise, Rena was the one to deliver it to him, and she sat down across from him as he ate and told her about his adventures in the city of Behalan in the past few days. Rena was a good listener, gasping and covering her face at the right moments. Again, Koji left out the part about meeting the cloaked person in the shipyard, but otherwise he told Rena everything.

When he finally finished his story an hour later, Rena reached across the table and took his hand in hers.

“You’ve really fallen on your feet since we found you,” Rena smiled warmly at him. “I’m so happy for you, Koji. I’m even happier that you still choose to come talk to me even though you’re hailed as a hero now.”

“To be honest, I don’t know about this whole hero business,” Koji admitted to Rena. “It’s nice to be seen as someone important, I suppose, but at the same time, I don’t really feel like I did anything spectacular to earn the title of hero. I just did my best given the circumstances that I found myself in.”

Rena shrugged. “You may think so, but I have a feeling that your skills and abilities will prove to be very helpful to the Order and your fellow soldiers. Don’t think too much about it, Koji. So long as you continue to help humanity and the Order, I don’t think that you’ll have too many problems.”

Koji and Rena continued to talk for a long while, but eventually Koji bid her a good night as he walked home to rest for the night.

As he lay down for the night, Koji thought about his home back on Earth and wondered what his parents might be doing. They had probably gone to the police about his disappearance by now and started a nationwide manhunt for him. While he wasn’t extremely close to his parents, he did care about them and wanted them to know that he was alright and safe.

Still thinking about his parents, Koji closed his eyes and fell asleep.

***

That night, Koji dreamed that he was walking through a grassy field, not unlike the one that he had first woken up in when he had first arrived in this world. However, it was cloudy and misty in his dream, and as he walked, he could not shake the distinct feeling that someone was watching him.

Coming from all around were voices, voices that Koji recognized from his life in Japan. He heard his father calling out for him, and his mother’s voice pleading for him to come home. Then he heard his schoolmates and friends doing the same, their tones desperate and faint.

Koji wanted to call back to them to tell them he was fine, that they needed not worry about him. But his own voice did not work in his dream.

He kept walking through the fog, the mist clinging to him with cold and clammy ethereal fingers. He tried to summon up his power to blow the mist away, but the golden light did not come to him when he willed.

Far off in the fog, a large, dark shape began to come into view. As Koji got closer, he could see that it was a door that looked to be made of stone. There was a metal ring set on its polished surface, and the same emblem as the one that was on the mysterious gold coin he had found at the smugglers’ apartment was carved into the door.

The sight of this door made Koji apprehensive. He circled around it, but the door seemed to be connected to nothing. With no other options, Koji gripped the metal ring in his hands and pulled.

The door resisted at first, but then glided open as if on oiled hinges. Behind the door was a black void, but Koji wasn’t afraid.

He stepped into the pitch black rectangle and felt himself begin to return to the waking world, but as the dream began to disintegrate, he heard the cloaked figure’s voice once more.

“Saraba, Koji Hagane…”

***

Koji’s eyes snapped open, and he found himself safe in his bed. There was a tapping sound coming from the window, through which sunlight was streaming.

There was that same messenger hawk from the Order perched outside, carrying a scroll on its back.

Koji sighed and swung his legs out of bed, the dream already fading away from his memory. He opened the window and took the message, unrolling the scroll next to the window to read it.

Dear Koji,

Please meet me at the Order’s headquarters at noon today. I wish to help you grow your powers, as well as speak to you on various matters. Please wear your armor and Magicide crystal.

For destiny's true path, Sylvia.

Koji rolled up the message and put it down. Then he went and got his armor out of the wardrobe, laying it out on his bed. Afterwards, he went downstairs and ate breakfast. He figured it would take him a while to walk to the Order’s headquarters, so he decided to get an early start.

And so it was that at noon, Koji ascended the slope to the Order’s main base. Koji still found his armor to be somewhat heavy, but it was a breezy day and there was significant cloud cover, so he wasn’t too tired by the time he arrived.

“Koji! Over here!”

Sylvia called out to him from beside the stables. She was wearing her full battle gear and she had her shield with her as well.

”How are you?” Sylvia asked once Koji came closer. “Did you sleep well?”

“Yeah, I slept alright,” Koji said with a shrug, his dream all but forgotten.

“That’s good. Eating and sleeping well are the foundations of being a good soldier, and by extension, a productive member of humanity,” Sylvia said as if reciting from something.

“Sure,” Koji nodded. “So, what did you want to meet me for?”

“Your power is impressive on its own,” Sylvia told him. “But I’m sure you learned back at the shipyard that you can’t always rely on it. I’m going to teach you a few fighting tips and techniques that you can use when in battle. Don’t worry,” she smiled at him and winked. “I’ll go easy on you. Don’t worry about using your powers just yet; I want to see how good you are without them.”

Sylvia led Koji over to a sparring field where there were numerous Order soldiers drilling with their weapons and practicing with each other.

Soon, Koji stood half a dozen paces across from Sylvia, holding his short sword. Sylvia had her longsword and her shield.

For the next three hours, Sylvia knocked Koji around the place, often stopping to correct his stance or to teach him a move that he could use against one of her own maneuvers. Koji accrued a collection of bruises and scrapes, but by the time they stopped, he felt as though he had learned a couple of things that he could employ the next time he was forced into close quarters. He knew he had miles to go before he could even be half as skilled as Sylvia, but as he reasoned, there was no shame in losing to the best.

“That was a good session,” Sylvia said as she and Koji washed the sweat and dirt from their faces and hands from a nearby basin. “We’ll make a soldier out of you yet! Now, once we’ve caught our breath a bit, I want to take you over to our archives and see if we can find records of anyone with powers like yours.”

“Wouldn’t that be magicians?” Koji asked doubtfully.

“It might well be, but even if it is magicians, we could study their texts and see if they left any clues about what you can do.”

The Order’s archives were located in a building that was a ten minute walk away from the sparring field, and they spent the rest of the daylight poring over tomes and scrolls that the Order had confiscated from magicians all around the city. Scores of Magicide crystals set around the building’s perimeters ensured that the magical texts could not cause any mischief.

Koji found himself fascinated by the texts about magic, as heavily censored as most of them were. He and Sylvia went through over two dozen scrolls and half as many books, but by the time the sun was sinking behind the horizon they were still no closer to learning anything about Koji’s powers.

“I mean, maybe we don’t even need this,” Koji sighed as he set down an iron bound grimoire. “My power’s always done what I want it to do. I think I could just need to be more creative with it. The High Lords say it’s not magic, so I don’t know if any of these books would have anything about it.”

“You could be right,” Sylvia acquiesced. “But even so, I would like to know more about your powers, and if they can be learned by other people. It could be the final nail in the coffin for the Magecroft Organization if we could equip an entire platoon with powers like yours. But we’ve done enough for one day. I’ll see you later, Koji. Have a good night.”

And with that, both of them left the archives and parted ways.

Koji took a carriage back to his home and had a wash to get rid of the rest of the sweat and grime, then fell into bed with weary muscles and bones. He was asleep in seconds and unlike the night before, he did not dream of anything.