The First Test of the Chosen One

“Principally, I realize that you have no reason to trust me," said the samurai, as a waiter filled their cups with sake.

“That's very true. For all I know, you're just distracting me while other troops attack Jeiku outside,” said Yume.

“Jeiku? That is a very strange name”

“Yeah, I know,” said Yume, taking a long sip of sake. "Hot damn that's really good sake. Waiter–" she waved at the waiter, who was now serving a crowded table of people playing dominoes. "–three more cups, ASAP"

The samurai raised an eyebrow.

"I will ask this to you now, hoping to get the most relevant information out of you while you are still sober," said the samurai.

Yume tapped her fingers on the table and stared at the ceiling.

“No, you answer my questions first. Question one: what are you doing here?”

At that moment, the serow burst into the inn. It ran up to Yume and gently butted her.

“What is it, boy? Did Jeiku leave you? He’s a grump, but you need to stay close to him, okay? I’m trying to talk to this friendly man, so you need to watch him. You’re his cute animal sidekick, and every great Hero needs a cute–“

Her heart skipped a beat. It was suddenly very cold in the room.

“There’s a Scalewalker here,” said the samurai. If looks could kill, the samurai would have been struck dead by Yume's glare.

"I knew it," she said icily.

The door to the inn swung open. A black creature stepped inside, with its great wings folded around its body like a cape. A hush fell as soon as it walked in.

“Show yourself, wizard!,” it shouted with a snarl.

Yume rose to her feet, chugged her cup of sake, and turned around with a dumb smile on her face.

“Hi, do I know you?,” said Yume.

“Do not play games with me, wizard,” said the Scalewalker.

“Why not? You clearly must be playing games yourself, if you think one Scalewalker can beat me in a fight”

The Scalewalker snarled, then let out an ear-splitting shriek. Its great wings spread, revealing its gangly scaled body and shriveled bony arms. Yume’s cloak spread out like a cape, revealing her glowing skin and shining armor. The Scalewalker lunged at her, and she rushed forward to meet him, clashing in a burst of light and darkness.

Back outside, the Scalewalkers cruelly slapped and scratched Jake, whose muscles wouldn’t listen to his commands.

“Come on, give us the Mask!,” they said to him tauntingly. One of them kicked Jake in the stomach, and they all laughed maniacally, like crows.

Jake pulled his arms and legs in close to his body. He could feel the Mask calling to him from his pocket.

Back in the bar, Yume and the Scalewalker fought, dancing around each other’s blows. Yume fired white lightning from her staff, which the Scalewalker dodged, causing the blast to strike and destroy the bar. The Scalewalker lunged forward in a counterattack, claws glowing black with evil magic. Yume batted it out of the way with her staff.

All around the fight, patrons of the inn ran upstairs, hid behind tables, or dashed out the door. All except the samurai, who serenely watched from his table, sipping sake.

The Scalewalker shot forth a blast of dark magic, which Yume blocked with a flashing white counterspell. Immediately afterward, the Scalewalker lunged forward and punched her with so much force that she slammed into the wall, leaving a large crack.

Outside, one of the Scalewalkers tore Jake’s hood off, cackling maniacally. Another one of the Scalewalkers grabbed Jake by the neck and held him high in the air.

“Now,” it said, breathing the stench of death directly into Jake’s face. “The Mask”

Slowly, Jake reached a bloody hand down into his pocket. He pulled out the Mask.

“At last. Our Emperor Imawashī will be pleased, very pleased,” said the Scalewalker. It reached its hand out to grab the Mask.

Before the Scalewalker could take it, Jake put the Mask on his own face! He screamed in pain as red tendrils of light grew like weeds from the Mask’s eyes.

“What have you done?,” asked the Scalewalker. It reached up to grab the Mask off of Jake’s head, but his hand was incinerated by the red light upon contact. With a pathetic howl of pain, it let go of Jake.

Jake did not fall. The red tendrils snaked around him and dug into his flesh. Jake screamed helplessly as he floated there. The Scalewalkers looked confusedly amongst each other.

Finally, the red tendrils disconnected from the Mask, fully buried themselves into Jake’s flesh and disappeared. He opened his eyes, which were now the eyes of the Mask. The ghostly white color and red stripes stretched over his head, blending in so perfectly that it was impossible to tell where the Mask ended and Jake’s face began.

Jake’s yellow eyes pierced the very souls of the Scalewalkers. They eyed each other warily. One of them, who was either very brave or very foolish, jumped forward to slash him. Jake grabbed its hand, then punched it in the stomach. With one last cry, the Scalewalker disappeared into a cloud of black dust.

The remaining two shrank down to the ground.

In the bar, Yume and the Scalewalker’s fight raged on. The Scalewalker had now drawn a sword, which he swung recklessly, leaving gashes in the walls and the floor.

Yume grabbed a table in one hand and tossed it at the Scalewalker, who sliced it perfectly in half, flew up close to her, and batted her staff out of her hands.

“Ha! You have been disarmed!,” shouted the Scalewalker like a proud child. “Now you are helpless to me!”

It brought its sword down hard on Yume, who blocked it with two gauntlets on her arms. She laughed.

“What?! What’s so funny?!,” yelled the Scalewalker.

“See, I just realized something. You haven’t been playing games.” As she said this, her eyes blazed. “I have”

With that, a glowing light exploded from within her, blasting the Scalewalker away and sending the walls and roof of the Whispering Dragon flying all across Bun'ya no Mura.

Yume scanned the rubble for any signs of the Scalewalker, but saw a much more horrifying sight instead.

In the center of the village’s road was Jake, floating twice as high as the buildings. It had one of the Scalewalkers in his hands. It was shrieking, not in the harsh threatening manner of earlier, but in a pleading tone like that of a wounded lamb. Jake tore its head off with the ease that a child would tear off a doll’s head.

To Yume’s horror, Jake dropped the corpse and the head down to the floor, where the other three Scalewalkers lied in various pieces.

Yume was utterly speechless. Jake turned his head to face her. She shivered at his yellow, pupil-less eyes.

“Jeiku,” she said shakily. “I think you should take that off”

“Do you?,” he answered. His voice was utterly evil, much worse than the voices of the Scalewalkers.

“Yes. You don’t know what that Mask does to a person. It provides great power, but it tempts you into doing things that you never would have done otherwise”

“I disagree. See, I wanted to do this. I wanted to kill them”

“I’m sure you did, but you need to listen to me. If you keep that Mask on, you’ll eventually find yourself doing what you did to those Scalewalkers to everyone,” she paused, considering her words. “I know that the power feels great. But it's a slippery slope, and you can't stop slipping no matter how hard you try or how justified you think your actions are. You say that you wanted to kill the Scalewalkers, but what if you realize you want to kill other people? Even the most fleeting thought, even being annoyed by someone you wish didn't exist, will get twisted by the Mask"

Yume's cloak billowed in the wind. She glowed brightly against the oppressive darkness which still hung over the village.

“You can’t go down this path, Jeiku. If you do, you will become eviler than Imawashī ever was”

Jake looked down at his hands. They were stained with much more of the Scalewalker’s black blood than his own.

Jake lowered himself down to the ground.

“Good,” said Yume. “Now, please take off the Mask”

Jake reached up to his face. Just as he placed his hands on his face, the serow came up and licked him.

“Get the hell off of me!,” shouted Jake. He struck the serow, sending it flying back. Nine black spikes shot forth from Jake’s hands and pierced the serow, pinning it to the floor and killing it instantly.

Yume’s heart sank. It was too late to stop Jake. She held her arm up to attack Jake with a spell, but Jake blasted her with a wave of red magic, launching her into the well, which exploded into fragments of stone bricks.

“You can’t tell me what to do, Yume! I am the powerful one, now! I am the one in control! I am the Chosen One!” Two large black wings grew from his back, and he flew up into the night sky, where he disappeared.

Yume pulled herself from out of the rubble of the well, asking over and over again to herself ‘What have I done?’

Imawashī slouched on his enormous throne, chin resting on his fist. He was covered in massive black armor. The armor was spikier than a thorn bush, and his helmet covered his entire face. He wouldn’t admit to anyone that it was actually quite uncomfortable.

His aide, Himei Hoshi, a gangly man with a black-and-red uniform robe, stood by the side of his throne.

“The report from the rice farmers came in this morning. All of the rice is dead,” he said, idly looking at a stack of papers in his hands.

“All of it?,” asked Imawashī.

“Great Emperor, the farmers (and I, for that matter) have told you dozens of times that you need water to grow rice. This area of Chū Nihon is simply too dry”

Imawashī sighed. “Oh how I long to see the Mask again”

The walls of the throne room were blown away. The bright midday Sun shone in. Imawashī leaped up to his enormous full height. Floating just outside the room, casting a long shadow on the floor, was Jake.

Hoshi cowered behind the throne. Imawashī clenched his fists, swallowed heavily, and said “So, I see the Chosen One really has arisen. I suppose you’re going to try to kill me now”

“No,” Jake responded with a tone that surprised Imawashī. “I’m not going to try to do anything. I will kill you now”

Imawashī felt true fear for the first time in five hundred years at that moment. He conjured a flaming sword from his hands and opened his mouth to shout a command at Hoshi. Jake was upon him before he could say anything. He punched Imawashī through the throne, pinning him to the wall. Imawashī felt an awful pain in his stomach. Looking down, he saw that Jake had conjured a sword and stabbed him.

Jake smirked at him, then removed the sword. Imawashī stumbled, bleeding black blood on the white floor. Jake grabbed him by the neck and slammed him into the ground.

Before Imawashī could catch his breath, Jake had punched him three times, each one embedding his head further into the floor. Imawashī half-heartedly swung his flaming sword at Jake, who caught it in his teeth and broke it in half.

“Please, spare me,” said Imawashī.

Jake leaned down close to him.

“No”

Jake grabbed his face, and tossed Imawashī through the roof of the throne room and far off into the horizon.

Jake stood alone in the throne room. He looked up at the Sun, shining down through the broken wall and roof, and at his gaze, it dimmed until the world was as dark as night.

Hoshi ran forth and kneeled at his feet.

“Please, Chosen One, spare me. I’ll repent, I’ll be good, I’ll do anything, anything you say!”

Jake laughed, and his laugh chilled Hoshi’s heart. The throne room’s damaged roof began reassembling itself.

“Repent? Be good? You misunderstand me. I didn’t come here to depose Imawashī out of the goodness of my heart. I came to take his place”

Imawashī’s throne reassembled itself. The ripped areas of the wall either came off or flattened down to leave a large window where the wall had been.

“I am the Lord of the Mask. I am the one who came from another world to conquer yours. I am the new Emperor of Chū Nihon. I am the Chosen One!”

Jake shouted this last part at the top of his lungs. He felt the power of the Mask coursing through his veins, he saw Hoshi cowering in fear at his legs, and through the new window, he saw large armies of orcs, onis, samurais, and other evil things. This was the ultimate fantasy. Nobody could tell him what to do, and everybody in the world would listen to him.

So began Jake’s new life as the Chosen One.