Chapter 23

When Koji finally came back to his senses, he found that he was kneeling on a cold, hard floor. His Order armor was gone, and he was left wearing just his tunic, pants, and boots. His face throbbed with a dull pain, and he couldn’t move any of his limbs. He could feel thick ropes and metal shackles binding him in place.

Koji surveyed his surroundings. He was still inside the High Lords’ meeting chamber, but now there were more Order soldiers around, all of them armed with swords and spears. They had gathered around him, staring at him with hard, cold eyes.

“Hey, what’s the big idea?” Koji demanded. “Let me out of these, right now!”

Nobody responded. Koji decided to channel his power into his hands, but he barely managed to start concentrating when an Order soldier behind him smacked him with the butt of his spear, breaking Koji’s concentration.

“I wouldn’t try that again, if I were you,” High Lord Tristan said, walking in front of Koji. The man’s face was set in an expression of scorn. “If you stay still, you might live a little bit longer.”

Koji glared up at High Lord Tristan, but did not attempt to access his power again, for the time being. High Lords Sampson and Eliana soon joined Tristan in front of Koji. None of them looked in the least bit merciful.

“You can’t keep me here like this,” Koji struggled vainly against his bonds. “You’re making a mistake.”

“You’re right. We can’t keep you here like this,” High Lord Eliana stared down her nose at Koji as if he were an insect that she wanted to crush. “Not after that parade we had for you. People will wonder where you have gone.”

“But we have a plan for that,” High Lord Sampson declared.

“Yeah? What’s that? You’re going to kill me?” Koji challenged. “You made me the Order’s hero, your golden boy! If you kill me, people are going to find out eventually, and you’ll be finished!” Koji hoped he sounded braver than he felt. In actuality, his heart was pounding and he was sweating underneath his clothes.

“Oh, you silly child,” High Lord Eliana said smugly. “We’re not going to kill you. The Magecroft Organization is.”

Koji blinked. “Wait, what?”

High Lord Tristan stepped forward. “If we just kill you here and now, you’re absolutely right that it wouldn’t end well for us. However, if we blame your death on the Magecroft Organization, you’ll become a martyr for the Order. People will rally to us and give us even more support than ever before!”

Koji felt a chill run down his spine. “But… but you need me and my powers! You’ll never be able to fight off the Magecroft Organization without me!”

“It will be a setback, it is true,” High Lord Sampson said, crossing his arms in front of himself. “But with the favor of Behalan’s citizens won from your death, I think we will have a good chance of eradicating magic from the city.”

Koji stared up at the three High Lords in shock and horror.

“I knew you were selfish,” Koji said at last. “And I knew you were liars. But I didn’t know you were this evil.”

“Evil?” High Lord Eliana repeated with a chuckle. “It is the Magecroft Organization that is evil. We are the guardians of destiny, the Order of the Unbroken Path! And destiny has decreed that you will die to help us complete our goals.”

“And what about all of them?” Koji jerked his head at the other Order soldiers who were gathered in the chamber around them. “You think they’ll just go along with you, even now?”

“You might have a point, if these were just any old Order soldiers,” High Lord Eliana replied haughtily. “But they are not. These are the elite guard of the Order, the personal circle of the High Lords' most loyal. They will not say anything about what has happened in here to a single soul.”

”Face it, boy,” High Lord Sampson sneered, his eyes glinting inside his helmet. “You were never more than a pawn in our game. A tool in both life and death. You made it so easy for us to play you to the whims of the Order that I am almost disappointed that you will no longer be around for us to use.”

As he spoke, High Lord Sampson reached his arm out, and one of the elite guards placed the haft of a battleaxe in his hand. The weapon had a handle that was covered in gold, while the curved silver blade was as long as Koji’s forearm.

“So, I suppose that brings us to the deed itself,” High Lord Tristan announced. “Normally this axe is used to execute dangerous prisoners, like that sea captain whom you helped apprehend at the shipyards. But now, Sampson will use it to take your head. If you don’t struggle, you won’t even feel it.”

Koji kept writhing and straining his arms. “You… you can’t do this! You’re all a bunch of corrupt bastards! The kingdom of Firosa will never be yours!”

High Lord Sampson stepped to the side of Koji and began to raise the axe for the killing blow. Light glinted off the blade and reflected off the Magicide crystals that were placed all around the room.

“Any last words, boy?” High Lord Tristan jeered.

Koji spat at him. “Go to hell.”

High Lord Sampson made a derisive noise and raised his weapon to its peak, and Koji saw the razor edge of the axe glint in the torchlight. Unable to think of anything else to do or say, he closed his eyes and thought of home.

All of a sudden there was a deafening explosion from the main doors to the meeting chamber, and Koji heard High Lord Sampson grunt in shock. Koji opened his eyes and looked around as best he could. His eyes went wide with glad surprise.

Striding down the meeting chamber’s approach was Makuro, holding up one of her hands as dozens of gossamer threads spun around the digits. She wore an expression of vicious glee, and behind her Koji could see that the doors to the meeting chamber were smashed open off their hinges.

“Who are you?!” High Lord Tristan demanded, snatching a sword from one of the elite guards.

Makuro smirked. “I think you know very well who I am, you heathen. I’m here to tell you one thing: magic is coming back to Behalan, whether you like it or not. Your regime is done, and so are you.”

Three of the Order’s elite guards rushed at Makuro with their spears, but Makuro slashed out with her hands, and trailing threads wrapped around the wooden shafts of their weapons. With a dexterous motion, the threads tightened and sliced through the spear shafts. Before the three Order soldiers could draw their side arms, Makuro flicked her fingers and sent a volley of threads whipping across their faces, drawing blood as they cut deep into their flesh. Blood sprayed across the walls as the guards tumbled to the floor clutching their wounds.

The rest of the guards in the room drew back, but they soon remembered that they outnumbered her over twenty to one and they charged at Makuro, weapons in hand.

Makuro simply leapt over the soldiers, landing next to Koji. With a wave of her hand, the threads severed the ropes holding Koji in place, leaving only the metal shackles on his wrists.

“Looks like my paperwork finally got through,” She said to Koji with a wink and a smile. “Just in time, am I right?”

“A few minutes earlier wouldn’t have hurt,” Koji said, getting to his feet. “You came here to rescue me?”

“Grazel’s idea,” Makuro said as she and Koji stood back to back. The Order’s elite guard had rallied and surrounded them with a thicket of swords and spears. “Normally I’d be able to take all of them down no problem, but with all this Magicide around I can’t cast like normal.”

Koji raised his hands, golden light gathering around them. “I think I can help with that.”

With a shout, Koji channeled his Mu abilities into a sharp whip of light, swinging it towards the closest soldier. The line of light cut through the armor and the man underneath it, and there was a burst of steam and superheated blood as the attack connected.

Meanwhile, Makuro ducked and weaved around the flurry of blows that her enemies sent her way, none of them landing so much as a hit before she used her threads to restrain and immobilize every foe that dared strike at her.

High Lord Sampson rallied and raised his battleaxe at Koji, going for a mighty high to low chop intended to split Koji down the middle. His training with Sylvia springing to mind, Koji dodged the strike and followed up with a roundhouse kick that knocked Sampson’s arm out of balance. Though his hands were still shackled, Koji was able to place both of them on the High Lord’s unarmored bicep, forcing his power to burn with all the will he had. Sampson roared in pain, but he was unable to shake Koji off before the Mu energy burned his arm down to the bone. The air began to smell of seared meat, and Sampson fell to the ground, dropping the axe in the process.

Meanwhile, Makuro had restrained nearly all of the other Order soldiers, though some of them were still resisting and struggling against the threads that held them in place.

High Lord Tristan was livid. “How dare you come here with your filthy magic and raise your hand against us!” He ranted, spit flying from his mouth as he raved. “You know nothing of our goals, of our struggles! You’re nothing more than a damn reprobate, a criminal! The Order of the Unbroken Path will not yield to you; not now, not ever!”

Makuro huffed haughtily. “Your Order was doomed the moment you set foot in the city of Behalan. You thought you could bind the people to your idiotic ideals, chain them to you as you sank into the ocean of regression. Well, no more. As we speak, my Dragoons are sweeping through the streets of Behalan, taking your people down. By tomorrow morning, your so-called Order of the Unbroken Path will be nothing more than an unpleasant footnote in this city’s history!”

“You tried to kill me so that you wouldn’t lose face,” Koji left Sampson’s groaning form and regarded Tristan scornfully. “I might not support the Magecroft Organization like Makuro does, but even I can see that your Order is something that never should have come into existence in the first place. Face it, you’re finished here in Behalan.”

A motion in the corner of Koji’s eye made him turn, and High Lord Eliana darted from the shadows with a long dagger in hand. Makuro barely blinked before restraining her with her threads. But Eliana would not be so easily bound, for she slid a knife from her sleeve and cut the line. Tristan began to back off, but the threads that bound the other Order soldiers were beginning to grow tense under all the targets that were tied up.

“You wait,” Tristan seethed as he backed up against his throne. “Others will come. Others like me! The Order will not fall to you!” He reached behind his throne and snatched up a loaded crossbow, which he aimed at Koji.

Makuro stretched out a thread to stop Tristan, and at the same time, Koji laid his hands on Makuro’s arm. Golden light blossomed out like a flower blooming, racing along all the threads and charging them with Mu energy. Enhanced by Koji’s power, the threads seared and burned right through metal and flesh with a loud hissing sound, dicing all those who they held into bloody pieces. Eliana and Tristan’s screams were cut short as the threads severed their flesh and bone like a hot poker drilling through snow.

Finally, all was silent.

Makuro recalled her threads and turned to Koji with a grateful smile. “I am glad to see you are unharmed.”

“Yeah, me too,” Koji replied. In spite of all the violence and death, he felt as though a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders, that he had finally done the right thing. “So that’s it? The Order’s done?”

“In this city, at least,” Makuro and Koji began walking out of the chamber and out into the warm afternoon sun. Makuro stopped just outside the High Lords’ meeting chamber. “Hold on. Give me a second…”

She turned back to face the destroyed doorway, and held out her right arm. A storm of gossamer threads weaved around her hands and formed the shape of a grenade launcher. Makuro removed one of the cylinders from her belt and slotted it into the newly formed weapon and fired it into the building. There was an explosion of flame and the entire structure collapsed in on itself with a mighty crash in tons of stone and mortar, ensuring that nobody inside could possibly survive.

“Just to make sure,” She said and dismissed the launcher. “In part thanks to you, Koji, Behalan is about to start on the road to recovery. Magic is about to come back.” Makuro gave Koji a grateful smile and patted him on the shoulder. “You did well.”

“Yeah…” Koji tried to stretch out his arms, but the metal shackles stopped him. “I don’t suppose you can do something about these?” He asked sheepishly.

Makuro looked amused. “You don’t need my help getting out of those. Go on, give it a try.”

Koji closed his fists and concentrated, the Mu energy rushing to his wrists and shining there. With a burst of golden light, the shackles shattered and fell to the ground.

“You’re learning, Koji. I forsee great things in your future.”

“My future…” Koji muttered to himself. Then to Makuro, he said, “I don’t suppose there’s much point in me staying here. The Order is finished, and everyone’s lives are going to be better. Behalan is better off without me interfering."

“Maybe so,” Makuro acknowledged. “But I will stay in the area to make sure things get back on track, and to make sure that we root out all of the remaining Order sympathizers. Once the city finds out about what they tried to do to you here today, I don’t think that there will be very many people who will still support the Order. It’s a glorious new day for Behalan, and it’s all going to be because of you.” Makuro looked Koji in the eyes, her orange irises shining brightly. “Regardless of what you think or what anyone else says, you are a hero, Koji Hagane. Both to the Magecroft Organization and to this city. Don’t ever forget that.”

***

The rest of the day was spent following Makuro around as she and a squad of Dragoons went to the Order’s archives and liberated all of the magic items that had been confiscated by them. They would be returned to their rightful owners, and all the Magicide crystals destroyed so that the Order’s greatest asset would be no more.

As Makuro was still at work in the archives, Koji suddenly saw someone familiar wandering around the grounds of the Order’s headquarters.

“Sylvia!” Koji called out, running over to her.

Sylvia was clothed in a robe that covered her from neck to ankle. Her feet were bare, and her missing arm caused the sleeve of her garment to swing around in the breeze.

“Koji!” She exclaimed. Sylvia looked down at the floor. “Some of the other soldiers told me what happened! Is... is it really over?”

“Yeah. It is.” Koji said simply.

Sylvia seemed conflicted, but in the end she squared her shoulders and fixed Koji with a gentle gaze. “So be it. If this is how destiny wanted things to turn out, then who am I to argue?” She suddenly shrank back from Koji and hung her head. “I… I’m sorry, Koji. I know I acted like your friend, but you have to understand. The High Lords-”

”It’s okay, Sylvia. The High Lords lied to everyone. To you, to me, to everyone in Behalan. It wasn’t your fault. If anything, it was because I wanted to please the High Lords that led to you getting hurt. I don’t know if I can forgive myself for that, no matter if you’re my friend or not.”

Sylvia rubbed at the stump of her arm with her remaining hand. “I don’t know how things are going to be in the future, but I don’t want you to feel guilty about me. Accidents happen, and we aren’t always in control of what happens to us. Sometimes it can’t be helped.”

“Oh, can’t it?”

Koji and Sylvia turned to see Makuro walking over to them.

“I know what happened with the bomb in the Market District. Now, while I can’t legally bring back the people who died in that incident, I think I can still make it up to you, seeing as it’s my fault you lost your arm to begin with. Just let me see…”

Makuro dug through her coat pockets with her hands, eventually bringing out a short, stubby dagger with a faintly glowing white blade. Without any preamble, she gripped it and stuck the weapon into Sylvia’s chest.

Sylvia cried out in surprise, but the pale dagger disintegrated into threads of white light and scurried down to her injured arm, where they rapidly began to form into the outline of a new limb. In less than thirty seconds, Sylvia’s arm was completely restored.

“It’s… I…” Tears of gladness filled Sylvia’s eyes and she wrapped Makuro in a hug. The Magecroft employee looked surprised at the gesture, but settled for patting Sylvia on the back until she let go. “Thank you. Magic certainly is something!”

“And it’s only going to get better,” Makuro chuckled. “You should go home and rest, young lady. Koji and I have one final matter to discuss.”

Sylvia did not need to be told twice, and was soon gone.

“Now, Koji. I know you’ve had a rough time here, and I’m sorry I couldn’t get to you sooner. As thanks for helping me do my job, I’m going to make your wish come true.”

“My… wish?” Koji almost couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

“Yeah. You told me you missed your family and friends. So what I’m going to do is bring you back to them.”

Koji’s heart gave a great leap. “You can do that?” He asked excitedly.

“Would I be offering if I couldn’t?” Makuro said with a charming smile. She held out her hand and a swirling yellow portal appeared there. “This Gate leads back to Shibuya in Japan, on planet Earth.”

Koji couldn’t believe it. After three weeks of living as a friendless foreigner in this world, he was finally going to go home. But he had one more thing to ask.

“If I go back, will I still get to keep my Mu powers?”

“Definitely,” Makuro assured him. “A change in locale will not remove your powers. In fact, I don’t think that it’s possible to get rid of Mu-based abilities once they’ve been awakened. Certainly I don’t know any way to.”

“And everything will be just the way it used to be?” Koji ventured.

“Oh, no,” Makuro laughed. “I very much doubt things will ever be the same for you. Your experiences here in Firosa have changed you, Koji, but I think it’s for the better. Now, I can’t keep this Gate open forever, so if you’re going to go home…”

“You’re not coming with me?” Koji tried not to sound disappointed. He had come to see Makuro as a friend, and he wanted to see more of her.

“I need to stay here to help ease the city back into shape,” Makuro shrugged. “But don’t worry too much about me; I told you that I, too, am from Japan and I like to visit every once in a while. You’ve not seen the last of me. Now, you should get going,” she winked at Koji mischievously. “That is, unless you’d rather stay, of course.”

Koji didn’t need any further encouragement. He and Makuro shook hands, then he ran full tilt into the Gate.

After a sensation that felt like being splashed with cool water, Koji heard the familiar sound of cars passing, as well as the hustle and bustle of countless people talking. The smell of freshly fried takoyaki filled his nose, and the sight of skyscrapers and shops welcomed him back.

Koji stood there in the middle of the street and grinned widely, ignoring the looks he was receiving from passers by. To him, this was the best day of his life.

“I’m back,” Koji laughed. “I’m home.”

******

The End

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