The Real Thing

The sounds of wood burning in an open fire gives ambience to the night, in which Kayin stares down towards the ground. Trying to keep warm after the desert’s sharp drop in temperature, he holds tightly to a wool blanket, while seated directly in front of the fire.

Behind Kayin lay corpses of avatar wielders that were brave enough to challenge him for the sake of their wish to claim the title of king; one in which is stripped bare due to the wool blanket he had been wearing now belonging to the victor.

On the other side of the fire, Narada sits comfortably and hopes to doze off, but after having been faced with multitudes of attacks from so many avatar wielders, he can’t help but sleep with one eye open.

To his left, Kimiko stands guard with a few of her oni surrounding the party’s space. Kimiko glances towards Kayin, and notices his cold demeanor hasn’t improved in the slightest. If anything, after facing countless enemies in such a short amount of time.

It’s only gotten worse.

“How many does that make it now? Thirty two?” Kimiko asks quietly.

“In just three days since we left the border, too,” Narada groans, “Haven’t they figured out by now that it’s pointless coming after us?”

“It’s not like we have a tabloid to help us spread the news of Shango’s return.”

“But even my brothers and I didn’t need a tabloid, though. Word of mouth is far more than enough,”

Kimiko pauses, as one of her oni alerts her about strange shuffling in the distance.

Kimiko unsheaths her katana, and sighs.

“Maybe if someone wasn’t so adamant about killing all of them, then the ones left over could spread the news,”

Kayin immediately stands up, without saying a word, forcing Kimiko to back down immediately.

His darkened eyes tell both of them all they need to know.

“...I’m going.”

***

Kayin tosses another two corpses into the already heavy pile, before he returns to his seated position, and wraps the wool blanket around himself once again. Narada remains quiet, and sulks into a sleeping position, unwilling to ask about the details.

Kimiko kisses her teeth.

“Is this what we’re going to have to deal with until we reach the palace? We haven’t even had time to conjure up a plan to even get into the damn thing!”

Kayin remains silent.

A few minutes pass by, and Kimiko’s mind begins to race.

“Kayin!” she yells, desperate to get his attention.

However, Kayin continues to remain silent.

Kimiko walks around the open fire, and sits down beside Kayin. Instead of making a fuss as usual, she stares deeply into Kayin’s cold expression, unable to say a word. Through the woolen blanket, she pays close attention to the large and deep scars painted across his entire body, as well as the shivering he feels from having lost so much blood in such a short amount of time.

Damn it…

I can’t help but pity him.

Kimiko stares towards the ground, and reminisces about her kingdom’s destruction by the hands of the Chenzira.

“You were my sole target for hatred.”

“It was like my entire existence was kept here just to kill you.”

Kimiko glances back up towards Kayin.

“I can’t imagine what it’s like to be the recipient of that…”

“Especially when it’s coming from every direction,”

“Both from men and from gods alike,”

Kayin slowly turns his head to face Kimiko.

“But…it wasn’t long ago that you told me about how much you believe in yourself,”

“No matter the odds…no matter the foe…you believe wholeheartedly that things will still work out for you in the end,”

Kimiko smiles softly as a tear falls from her eye, which leaves Kayin shocked.

“I guess…that faith has rubbed onto me as well,”

“Because for some strange reason…I really do believe in you, Kayin,”

Kimiko immediately grabs hold of Kayin’s face, and squeezes his cheeks tightly. Her smile fades, and her stern look now captivates Kayin all the same.

“So stop acting like I’m the only one holding onto that faith,”

“You started this crazy journey…we could have both died in that dungeon, and you know it…”

Kimiko plants her face directly in front of Kayin.

“So make sure that you’re the one that ends it!”

“Not fate!”

“Not your sister!”

“But the KING!”

Kayin's eyes slowly expand, as he gazes upon Kimiko’s stern expression, and understands the authenticity behind her words.

Kayin slowly removes Kimiko’s hand from his jaw, and starts to laugh.

“That’s one hell of a motivational speech. You’d make a pretty good queen, you know?”

Kimiko freezes, and her cheeks become slightly rose tinted.

“...w-what?”

Narada hides his grin.

Strike two!

Kayin tilts his head as he ponders Kimiko being a queen.

“Or maybe a general?”

Kimiko kicks Kayin in his stomach, and immediately stands up to return to her post. As Kayin holds his stomach while pained, he holds his hand out towards Kimiko.

“What’s wrong with being a general?! That was supposed to be a compliment!”

“Unlike you, I don’t need to fish for compliments!” Kimiko retorts angrily without looking back.

Narada shakes his head as he stares at Kayin with a blank expression.

Shango does the same.

***

The following day, after travelling nonstop in desperation to reach the palace, Narada becomes exhausted, and asks desperately for a break.

“What?!” Kimiko furiously responds, “It’s only been four days, jackass! You were faster than this on the way to the border!”

Narada appears shrivelled up like a raisin, and tries desperately to plead his case, but no words seem to come out.

“It’s fine, there’s a small town nearby to the left. We can stop by there and let him recover.”

“The last time we stopped by to get some rest for his sake, we almost lost our lives!”

“Oh come now, that was just a coincidence. Unlike that strange city, I actually know this one. It’s on the maps and everything,”

“I’m telling you, we need to keep moving! Let’s just squeeze his magic dry and dump him in the desert where we found him!”

A small tear wells up in Narada’s left eye.

I swear to the gods, I will never like this woman…

“We’re going. End of discussion.”

The three of them walk into the town, and quickly find an inn. After dumping Narada in a room and letting him sleep, Kimiko and Kayin move to the market to find some food.

“We haven’t eaten in a week. How are we supposed to fight at our best when our stomachs are empty?”

“If this was your real reason, then you should have just said you were hungry.”

“No, Narada really does need some rest. He’s already doing more than he can as a semi-avatar wielder, so let’s also get him some food for when he wakes up,”

“I don’t have any money though,”

“...I don’t have any either,”

Kimiko stares at Kayin with a blank expression.

Kayin looks back at her with a playful one.

After stealing a bit of food from the market, the two of them manage to escape from their pursuers, finding themselves in a back alley.

“Some bread, some fruit, and a pack of nuts,” Kayin says as he counts their findings, “That should do for now,”

Kimiko grabs some of the grapes, and pops them into her mouth.

"What kind of king steals from his own people?"

"The kind that will surely pay them back someday!" Kayin retorts as he chomps down on an apple.

After eating a few of the items they took, Kimiko drinks from her flask of water and returns her attention to Kayin. 

“We really need to come up with a plan while we’re here. You know as well as I do that the palace is far too difficult to enter under normal circumstances,”

“Right, but considering Temi’s proclamation, I’m sure that people trying to present my head are allowed in. I think that we should use that,”

“But whose head are we supposed to use?”

Kayin grabs a bite of one of the loaves of bread.

“If we go back to the corpses I stacked yesterday, maybe we can find one of them that looks similar to me,”

“No, no, that wouldn’t work. Many people have already tried that, trust me,”

Kimiko and Kayin freeze in place, as they look up to see a man now hovering over them.

Reze grins, as his soulless eyes glisten in the darkness of the alley.

“I think instead…you should bring the real thing,”