EPISODE 1; TOME OF THE THIRTEEN RULES

This story begins thirteen years after Zanfar's defeat and eight years after my Dad and Mom's marriage. By the way, my name is Sanziri Nightbane, the first son of the Dreamweaver, Just Zan Nightbane and the Flame Knight and Demi-Dreamweaver, also current Princess Of Dreams, Ayumi Kirisawa.

It began one night, when I was eight years old, Keiran, the second born was seven, Saito, the third born was six and Ariel, the last born was five. That night, we heard the entire story behind how my Dad and Mom met each other. Back then, we were merely kids so we thought of the story we had heard that night as merely another fairy tale.

That was until Ryuuji, Saito and Ariel began to manifest strange abilities. Then our parents got us settled down. Five years had passed since and I was now thirteen years old. You can guess how old my siblings were then right? Anyway, concerning my siblings' abilities, Ariel had begun to manifest a strong golden flame. My mother explained that this flame was a manifestation of fire called 'Blaze'. A flame with the ability to burn away evil regardless of how strong or terrifying the evil was. Saito on the other hand manifested the ability to use a strong blue flame. This, my mother explained was a form of fire called 'Flame'. A power characteristic of those strong enough to stand up for those who couldn't defend themselves. Yet, my mother also explained that this 'Flame' was a double edged sword which also hurts the one who inherits it. We were all concerned for Saito, however, she appeared undaunted. For the third born, Saito had always had the maturity of a first born and she was so perceptive, the rest of us had come to rely on her even without noticing it. Ariel was considered the kindest amongst us four. Our parents often said, her kindness rivalled that of our grandmother, the current Queen Of Nightmares.

Concerning our grandparents, one would expect them to be old but nope, they pretty much looked the same as they did when Zanfar was defeated. I'm told people from the World Of Dreams stopped aging once they reached maturity. My gramps, the Nightmare King...well though he was part human...it's kinda hard to guess his age since his face is always masked by a mysterious shadow.

Kieran first manifested the ability to utilise Light, as well as a strange glowing sword, which my parents called the 'Nightbane'. As time passed, he began to manifest the ability to utilise other elements as well. From that moment, my parents received a summons from the Dream King and Kieran left with them often to visit the Dream King.

I hadn't manifested any abilities since but after seeing everything my siblings and parents could do, I began to realise that the fairy tales my parents often told us were most likely not fairy tales at all. My siblings might have thought I was depressed with my lack of ability so they did everything they could to cheer me up even going so far as to perform shows with their various abilities. I was happy to see how much they tried to cheer me up but contrary to what they might have been thinking, I was not depressed.

Thanks to many of my Aunt Ai's animes which were hits back in 2011, I had slowly began to realise a strange truth that had been forgotten these past nineteen years. That truth was that the true value of an object lies in its invisible qualities simply put there's more to it than meets the eye as Optimus Prime so finely put it. But at the same time I came to two other conclusions. Conclusion two was, my family was somehow cursed to befall a series of tragedies from the moment they fell in love, however somehow they overcame that but me was determined to avoid that path at all costs so I repeatedly asked my parents to repeat the story. They seemed happy because they seemed to think I loved hearing family history and I did enjoy hearing family history for one and only one reason...to avoid the path that would lead me to the series of tragedies I had heard about.

Me was young and pretty naive then. What I had failed to realise was that the shortest cut to a fate you want to avoid is the path that seems to avoid it almost completely. And the third conclusion was...well...you'll hear it later but for now all you need to know is that from the moment my siblings manifested their abilities, they began to undergo tutorship under the strongest Dream Knights. Part of the reason for this was because my parents wanted them to be strong enough to protect themselves. The second reason was because our Dreamweaver heritage made us homing beacons for antagonistic forces.

Saito thanks to her maturity and perceptiveness was entrusted with the task to lead and protect my siblings in battle. Kieran's abilities made him the optimum candidate for both offense and defense under varying conditions. Ariel healed their wounds and had the ability to break any curse inflicted upon them in battle thanks to her 'Blaze' and probably some ability she inherited from our grandmother Saito Kusanagi.

Anyways, it was always disheartening to see the wounds they obtained in battle and it was right around that time that I began to come to the third conclusion. Around that time, I also began to undergo tutorship under the greatest masters of all time, even surpassing the strongest Dream Knights. Though of course at that time, my masters were considered a nuisance and waste of time but like Optimus Prime said, "Never judge a book by its cover".

(Hey San, Optimus Prime never said that). Well, maybe, not out loud but that's probably what he meant. Okay, the greatest masters of all time were...my Playstation Neo and DVD player! Yes...it wasn't one or two or seven kung-fu masters I underwent training under. It was over five hundred episodes of Naruto, all the animes I'd ever borrowed from my dear Aunt Ai, a number of kung-fu movies and my trusty old abridged version of the Nightbane...the Playstation Neo. Thank God for virtual reality software.

Anyways, my story began one fateful day as I underwent harsh training under the PlayStation Neo. My Mom walked in and if you know anything about my Mom, Ayumi Kirisawa, the Flame Knight...it's that she has a really short temper.

"San! Don't tell me you're still wasting your time on videogames. Your siblings are putting all their effort into defending the Dreams Of Humanity! Even if you have no abilities now, you are still the son of the Dreamweaver! This means you have Dreamweaver blood in you and will most likely be a target for any form of Nightmare that has hostile feelings towards your Gramps, your Dad and I! You should take your training very seriously!" My Mom lectured as she got between me and one of my greatest masters ever.

"Mom, not now, I'm fighting the last boss now!" I exclaimed.

"You're not ready to defeat the last boss yet" she said.

"What do you mean Mom?" I looked at her expecting some awesome badass lesson and the lesson she taught me that day...I'll never forget...not even in the afterlife.

"You'll be prepared to defeat the last boss...the moment you learn to counter your Dad's ultimate move..." She said with a smirk.

Next thing I knew, a kick to the wire of the PlayStation Neo disconnected it from the socket.

"...THE STRATEGICALLY ANNOYING BUT EVER USEFUL...(UN)DETECTABLY STEALTHY DISCONNECT WITH NO WARRANTIES!" my Mom said and the TV went blank.

I stared at her with an awkward expression on my face.

"You're trying to say Dad defeated Zanfar with a lame move like that?!" I yelled.

"Yes...it's precisely because it was so lame...that it actually worked" my Mom said.

"Zan! Zan!" my Mom called.

"Yes Ayu!" my Dad called as he walked down the stairs.

"Tell your son to take his training as a Dreamweaver seriously! You may not have abilities yet but I doubt you want to start honing your skills from scratch once they begin to manifest!" My Mom growled.

"San! How many times...! Ayu, let me handle this...I'll get through to our son this day or so help me...!" My Dad said.

"Yes, there are some things only a father can teach his son. I leave this to you Zan" Ayumi said and left.

As she walked away, she heard my Dad's voice as he 'lectured' me.

"San! How many times...have I told you...to listen to your mother...!" My Mom heard this and smiled.

Then we heard the door to the house shut.

"...unless she lectures you about videogames..." My Dad said with a smirk as we high fived.

"Here's another one for you San. If you want to become strong enough to defeat the final boss...you probably can't do it without Soul Calibur" my Dad said and handed me a disk.

"Soul Calibur X?!" I exclaimed in excitement.

"Of course...your mom recalls the Strategically Annoying Disconnect With No Warranties. What she forgets is that I honed my skills by doing exactly what you're doing now. Not everyone learns the same way. Ryuuji, Saito and Ariel, they're methodical so they learn through things that can be explained theoretically. But you San...are a dreamer like myself. And aside from that, you lack the ability that your siblings have implying that you probably need to learn through a method that differs from their own" my Dad said.

"Yeah, I know" I said with a smile.

"But your Mom is right...until you learn to utilise and counter the Strategically Annoying Disconnect With No Warranties, the final boss is still too much for you to handle" my Dad said with a smirk.

"Hey Dad, I really wanna know...did you really defeat Zanfar with a lame move like that?" I asked.

"Of course..." My Dad said with a smirk and threw a punch.

"I disconnected him from his power source!" He said.

"You've got to be kidding me..." I said with a look of disbelief on my face.

"So how goes your training?" My Dad asked.

"Lately, I've began to feel that I understand and can conceptualize all the moves I need to beat the last boss but I just can't get my body to follow through. It's like my mind moves faster than my body. I can see the boss's moves coming but my body can't keep up" I explained to my dad.

He nodded with an understanding look.

"I see, back in my day, gaming was all about hand-eye coordination expressed through a hand-held controller, but with the advent of virtual reality software, it began to combine more and more of physical movement with mental conceptualization of the moves you wish to execute. Simply put, your kind of gaming is different from what I experienced back in my day. To defeat the final boss with your current style of training...you're going to have to raise your physical ability" my Dad said.

"Dad...don't tell me the Dream World exists inside a game" I asked with a weird look on my face.

"Nope, the principles behind the Dream World and its parallelisms with the Physical World are in some ways similar to Virtual Reality...however, the Dream World is no game" my Dad said seriously.

"Explain" I asked.

"It is possible to influence occurrences in the Dream World through imagination and action however, it is a world that has existed probably even before mankind. Simply put, the occurrences there are not determined by any one person. It is just as real as this world" my Dad explained.

"I see" I understood what my Dad was getting at.

"Anyway, I think it's about time I took you to meet your gramps in the Dream World" my Dad said.

"You mean...the Dream King?" I asked.

"Nope...the Dream King is your great gramps. I'm taking you to meet my dad...the Nightmare King" my Dad said with a smile.

A day later, we stood in the presence of the Nightmare King.

"Hello Dad" my Dad greeted.

The Nightmare King remained silent.

"San, greet your gramps" my Dad whispered.

"Yo gramps s'up?" I greeted.

My Dad knocked me on the head.

"What did I tell you about greeting him in the manner I instructed earlier?" My Dad whispered sharply.

The Nightmare King got up from his throne and approached slowly. I felt slightly nervous. He looked at me intently.

"So this is your firstborn son Zan, the one who hasn't been able to manifest any ability yet? It's surprising that he made it into Nightmare territory..." the Nightmare King said.

"Yes, I brought him here by using my sigil as a point of contact" my Dad said.

"That's not what I meant..." My grandfather, the Nightmare King said as he stared at me intently.

My Dad stared at him in surprise.

"The Dream World is the realm where the influences of good and evil are felt the strongest in. This boy, my grandson hasn't manifested any ability. For an ordinary human, the shock of suddenly finding themselves in the Dream World would be enough to trigger insanity yet somehow...this boy appears to be shielded" my grandfather said.

"You mean...?!" I exclaimed happily.

"Yes, you probably have abilities of your own" the Nightmare King said.

My Dad smiled when he saw the excitement on my face.

"It's probable that you might be even utilising your abilities unconsciously. The reason you appear to possess no ability now is that your abilities are somehow beyond our expectations, in that it might be an ability that none of your parents have. Something that cannot be understood might as well be invisible" the Nightmare King explained.

"Well, he's been undergoing harsh tutorship" my Dad said.

"Not your kind of harsh tutorship I hope" the Nightmare King said as he stared at my dad suspiciously.

"Ah...well" my Dad laughed nervously.

"I brought him here to commence training under your guidance. He may have all the skills needed at a mental level but he lacks the ability to execute them on a physical level" my Dad explained.

"I see. I accept" the Nightmare King said.

"You do?! You hardly agree to train anyone else but me!" My Dad exclaimed in shock.

"This lad...if he has been training on his own even while under the impression that he lacks ability...then he hasn't given up on himself. I respect that kind of determination" the Nightmare King said.

My Dad smiled.

Suddenly, my grandmother, the Queen Of Nightmares walked in.

"They've come a long way San. Give them some time to rest. Don't tell me you're going to have Junior undergo harsh training while fatigued" my grandma glared at the Nightmare King.

"Of course dear" the Nightmare King said.

"Come on San, let me show you around the Castle" she said as she approached me and led me out of the Throne Room.

"So where do you want to see first?" She asked.

"Gramps' wardrobe. Dad always said Gramps had a cool wardrobe" I said.

My grandmother laughed.

"Sure thing" my grandmother said as she led me to the Nightmare King's wardrobe.

Within his wardrobe were capes of various colours. Most of them were dark on the outside and had a dark shade of some other colour on the inside. Behind each cape was a word or some words.

"These capes are special to your gramps. Each word or colour is like a proverbial mark that commemorates some event in his life. Like when he met me, he was wearing this cape" my grandmother pointed to a dark cape. I stared at her with a surprised look on my face.

"That cape makes your first meeting seem like a funeral" I said bluntly.

My grandmother laughed.

"Well, when he first met me, I was at the brink of death and after we fell in love, he nearly died" my grandmother said.

"Hmm, hmm...I must definitely avoid that path at all costs!" I reaffirmed my resolve to evade the family 'curse'.

Then I noticed a cape that was as red as blood on the inside and as black as night on the outside. Behind it were the words 'Utterly Obliterate!'

"Wow! This cape is really cool! I'm sure there's a cool story behind it!" I exclaimed.

"Actually, your gramps has only worn that cape twice. The first time he wore it was when he confronted a rampaging rhinoceros that threatened his homeland. The second time he wore it, he decimated an army of Dream Knights almost single handedly to protect me and your dad who was just a baby then" my grandmother explained.

I had a funny expression on my face.

"Don't tell me each of these capes commemorate some past trauma. I must definitely avoid this path at all costs!" I said with a determined look on my face.

After a day, my training with my gramps began.

"Gramps...uh...before we begin, can I ask you for a favour?" I asked nervously.

"Of course Junior, go ahead" my gramps said.

"I want you to make a documented record of the key events that occurred in your life and my Dad's" I asked.

"And why would you want something like that?" My gramps asked.

"Gramps...don't tell dad but I don't want to go through the same thing he did" I said.

My gramps laughed much to my surprise.

"Fine...there are Thirteen Key Moments that made your Dad and I the men we are today. If you can defeat me in combat, I'll give you a documented record of those moments" my gramps said with a smirk.

I frowned.

"I'll take you on gramps!" I challenged.

"That's good but be forewarned. I'm not exactly a fan of your Dad's 'harsh' training method" the Nightmare King said as the Night(Black)Bane manifested in his hands.

"What?! You're going all out with abilities from the start?!" I screamed in shock.

"I doubt the final boss will wait to attack after you've prepared yourself!" the Nightmare King said as he charged in.

Initially, I had a hard time fending off his attacks and was instantly overpowered. Then I gradually began to perceive the path of his attacks but lacked the ability to counter them. I recalled my Dad's instructions and began to work on gradually increasing my physical ability through both gaming at home and physical exercises.

Then five years later, when I was eighteen, my gramps and I had a final showdown.

My gramps charged in with the Nightbane. I evaded his vertical attacks by side stepping and his horizontal attacks by ducking and leaping backwards.

"Impressive. In just five years, he has begun to match the ability Zan possessed when he battled Chaos" my gramps said.

"My body feels light" I thought to myself.

"To think this boy can battle against a sigil barehanded..." the Nightmare King thought with a smile and raised the Nightbane with its tip pointing towards me.

"He's going for a piercing attack" I thought to myself.

"Prepare yourself Junior!" he roared as he charged in with tremendous speed.

I rushed towards him. Just before his sword touched me, I sidestepped, grabbed him by the hand and directed him towards the path of his attack and with a one hundred and eighty degree spin attempted to elbow him in the neck. When my attack made impact, dust enveloped the arena. When the dust cleared, I realised my gramps had countered with the hilt of his blade.

"With just one try you've evolved from the strength your Dad had when he confronted Chaos to the ability he had shortly after the birth of the Pyrostellis Luminares. But it's all just physical ability. In terms of physical ability, you match your Dad at that moment however, the foes you might encounter in the future will require more than just physical ability. But at least, when your abilities begin to manifest, you won't be completely helpless" the Nightmare King said as he sheathed his blade.

"The document?" I asked him.

"Of course, I've been preparing it for the past five years. The improvement you've made in such a short time. Normally, one who would wish to avoid the path of his predecessors would try as much as possible to avoid a life of battle. The improvement you've made isn't one that can be achieved with half-hearted determination so why are you so determined?" My gramps said as he tossed a large crimson book to me.

"You're right gramps but I came to three conclusions five years ago when I commenced my training. One, the true value of an object lies in its invisible qualities. Two...I will avoid all the tragedies that my predecessors endured from the moment they fell in love and three..." I said as I caught the Tome.

On the cover were the words 'The Tome Of Thirteen Rules'.

"...I'm not going to be the eldest brother who was protected by his younger siblings!" I said with determination.

I opened the first page of the Tome. Within it were written these words.

"The one who opens this Tome must heed these words. Within this Tome lies a record of the Thirteen Rules! He who fulfills all Thirteen Conditions shall inherit the path of the Nightmare King and the Dreamweaver and of course...all the tragedies that befell them" the words said.

"Junior...if you are determined to avoid the path that fulfills all these rules, you might succeed. However, note this...even if after avoiding rules two to thirteen you somehow fulfil the first rule...know that you will definitely without a doubt inherit everything you've wanted to avoid!" the Nightmare King said seriously.

That night, I sat on my bed thinking seriously about my grandfather's words. I felt hesitant to find out what this 'First Rule' was after hearing those words but I knew deep within myself that to be able to avoid it, I must first know it lest I inadvertently fulfilled it. I gulped and turned the next page after the warning.

It was blank.

"Stupid Gramps! Don't tell me you gave me a blank book!" I roared.

Then words slowly materialized on the page.

"Huh?" I wondered and stared at the words deeply.

These were the words written on the first page.

"THE FIRST RULE: HE WILL DEFEAT A RAMPAGING RHINO WHILE WEARING A BLOODIED CAPE!"

"What the hell?!" I roared and shut the book. "Don't tell me you're trying to play with my mind gramps!" I put the Tome down, turned off the lights and lay down to sleep.