24 Trial of the Heart
Ryouma turned around to try and find the voice. He then found that he was in a village. There was a lot of trees around and the village itself seemed to be within a large forest. The ground was shaking and people were running around in panic. An earthquake. Ryouma looked over to a large building and could see it about to cave in on itself. It looked like an inn of some kind and clearly housed a lot of people. People were rushing out of the building as fast as they could. Finally no more people were coming out as the roof caved in and crashed down. The walls were clearly unstable and would come crashing down at any second.
A woman that was in the crowd was being held back by the other villagers. She was shouting hysterically.
"My son is still inside. Let me go!"
Ryouma ached for the mother as he rushed into the building. The place was completely trashed and he guessed that he had barely a minute before the walls caved in and completely buried everything. Maybe even less. He heard sobbing coming from the other room. He maneuvered his way through the rubble and entered the room behind the bar. He saw that a large chunk of the wall had already caved in. Under a table was a little boy who was crying, clearly terrified. Ryouma looked up and could see the roof was about to collapse and fall right on the young boy. As he was about to call out to him, another voice sounded from behind Ryouma.
"Are you OK, little one?"
Ryouma turned around and was instantly stunned. In front of him stood a tall man with short black hair. He was quite muscular and wore simple clothes. But Ryouma was filled with rage when he saw him. It was the bandit that attacked the church when he was younger. Although he didn't have the eyepatch, and his hair was tidy, Ryouma wouldn't forget what he looked like.
The man completely ignored Ryouma as he rushed towards the little boy. Ryouma tried to stop him, but the barrier stopped him like it did before. At that moment, the ceiling shook and fell down. The man raised his arms and caught the heavy rock. Ryouma was stunned. The man called out to the young boy.
"Come on out, your mother is worried sick about you. I'll take you to her."
The young boy hesitated for a second before slowly coming out from under the table and stood by the man. He threw the large piece of the ceiling and quickly snatched up the young boy and ran as the place continued to cave in. Ryouma followed them outside.
They just barely got out in time before the walls caved in and the entire building came crashing down. Smoke and dust spread out around the area from the impact. The man carried the young boy to the large crowd and placed him on the ground. His mother came sprinting over, landing on her knees and hugging the young boy tightly. With tears in her eyes, she looked up to the tall man.
"Thank you, Sir Helon. Thank you so much."
The man simply smiled and nodded. He turned his head towards another building as if he sensed something and ran off. Ryouma was lost in thought seeing the bandit he hated like this. His surroundings started going dark as he felt disoriented.
He then found that he was in another room. It was what seemed like a little girls room. There were toys on the floor and little dresses hung up on a rack. There was a small bed by the wall and large window. Ryouma looked outside of the window and was amazed by the sight outside.
It was a large forest that stretched out as far as the eye could see. Ryouma could tell that they were high up, either a multi storey building or the building was in the trees as well as he was able to see over the top of the trees and the forest. He heard a giggle from a little girl and turned around.
A little girl around 7 years old was on the floor playing with a little doll. She was giggling as she brushed the dolls hair. The sound of a door closing could be heard. The little girl looked at the door and smiled gleefully. She stood up ran to the door and hastily opened it. She ran out and Ryouma followed.
The hallway outside of her room was very simplistic in its styling, yet gave off a warm feeling. Ryouma watched as the young girl turned a corner and followed her. As he turned the corner, the tall man was back and was standing by what appeared to be the front door of the home. The little girl ran to the tall man who bent down and picked her up.
"My little angel has grown."
The little girl beamed.
"Yup. I'm a big girl now."
The tall man chuckled.
"Is that so?"
"Can the big girl help get the table ready?"
Ryouma turned and a beautiful woman stood there smiling at the tall man and the little girl. The man smiled lovingly as he walked over to her with the little girl in his arms and gave the woman a kiss.
"It is good to be home."
The woman smiled as she stared at the man with love. Ryouma went wide eyed looking at the scene before him. He has a wife and child? Ryouma didn't understand as he thought about his hate for this man, and yet seeing him like this, he seemed so normal and....well, nice. Caring.
Ryouma's vision suddenly became blurred and things went darker. Ryouma could feel heat on his skin. He was now in the middle of a forest. There seemed to be a large forest fire. There were trees nearby burning but Ryouma could tell that there were plenty of fires across the forest.
"Leave them alone!"
Ryouma's spine shook at the loud scream. It was filled with so much pain. He turned around and was horrified at the scene before him. There were bandits slaughtering the villagers. Women and children were trying to run away as the men tried to give them time to flee. But the bandits were ruthless and clearly more powerful than the villagers. They were disposed of easily, killed ruthlessly with no sense of remorse. Ryouma walked through the village. His was filled with pain and anger watching all these innocents being slaughtered and he couldn't do anything about it. Screams filled the air.
"Please. Take me, but let them go. I beg you."
Ryouma looked behind him. On the ground was the tall man. Helon. He was on the ground and was covered in blood. He had a large gaping wound on his face and blood flowed out of it. Ryouma then saw a man with a glowing blue sword standing before him. He had the man's Wife's neck in his hand, strangling her. Behind him was another bandit who was holding a screaming little girl. She was crying and the bandit was laughing at the sound of her screaming.
The man with the blue sword chuckled evilly as he stared at the man on the ground. He squeezed harder and there was a loud snap. The woman stopped moving. As the man screamed in agony, the scene changed yet again.
Ryouma looked around but he couldn't see much. It was extremely dark. He then heard the sound of someone sobbing. He did his best to try and find the source of the sobbing. He moved around and his eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness. He was in a prison cell of some kind. In the corner he saw a man covered in blood. The man had his head wrapped in bloody bandages. Ryouma knew that this was the man called Helon.
Ryouma felt strange watching this man in such a pitiful state, sobbing and crying in this dirty prison covered in blood. Although deep within, Ryouma still hated this man, his heart ached for him.
"The Bagaudae are a group of savage bandits that ransack and pillage small villages and towns, destroying everything in their paths."
Ryouma continued to stare at the man in the corner as the strange voice spoke.
"They take men that they see strength in and break them. Torturing them for weeks, sometimes months. They twist and corrupt them until they have a firm grip on their mindsets. And then they become a part of the Bagaudae and the cycle of violence continues."
Ryouma closed his eyes. He didn't want see anymore. He didn't want to know anymore of this. Although he matured quickly from his hard past, he was still a child and didn't want to know anymore. It scared him thinking about the bandits and their cruel methods. His mind was in disarray. The church. Father Carl. His sister. The man Helon and his family. It all hurt his head and his heart thinking about it all.
After a while he opened his eyes. He was now in a forest. On a small log in front of him was a small boy. The boy was just looking up at the sky, his little legs couldn't touch the ground. He seemed so happy and relaxed. Ryouma's sword then appeared before him. Ryouma grabbed it slightly confused.
"This is Helon. As a young boy."
Ryouma froze. The voice continued to speak.
"Our deal is simple. Give back the crystal and we will bend time for you to kill Helon here and now. Thus he will never become a bandit. He will never slaughter innocent people. Your sister will still live. Choose."
Ryouma grabbed his head as pain hit him. All the memories and visions he had seen now bombarded him all at once. His sisters death. Helon and his family. The church massacre.
"Are you OK?"
Ryouma looked up and the young Helon was standing in front of him with a curious look on his face. Ryouma, overwhelmed by the memories and emotions, leaped at the young boy. He held the young Helon on the ground and pointed his blade at the boys throat. Helon's eyes was filled with fear and he began breathing heavily.
"P-p-Please d-don't. I-I don't want t-to die!"
Voices echoed and filled Ryouma's head as his hand holding the blade shook.
"Kill him!"
"He's a monster!"
"If you leave him be, you will never see your sister again!"
"He tortured your sister!"
"End his life!"
Tears flowed from Ryouma's eyes as the blade pushed on the young boys throat. The young Helon closed his eyes, completely terrified. Ryouma couldn't think straight as everything was too much for him to handle. The voices continued to yell at him, pushing him. Ryouma closed his eyes as he gripped the blades handle tighter.
"Trust your instincts. Stay true to your path."
Ryouma opened his tear filled eyes. He noticed that his breathing had become ragged and heavy. He looked at the young boy under him. He was going pale from terror. He was covered in sweat and tears flowed down his face. Ryouma threw the sword away as he moved away from the boy, falling on the ground. The young boy got up and looked at Ryouma in horror. He got up and ran away as fast as he could.
Ryouma lay there trying to calm himself down. He felt his hand grow warm. He looked at the Black Crystal which began to shine. The light within it grew brighter and brighter, blinding him.
Ryouma opened his eyes slowly. He realized he couldn't see anything. Everything was completely dark.
"Try channelling Shadow Awareness."
Ryouma jolted at the sound of Arata's voice. It was no longer a sound that came from within but it sounded like it came from next to him. Ryouma took a moment to remember how to circulate the Energy before allowing the Energy to flow within his eyes. Things became clear and he could see again. He turned to see Arata with a smiling face, but Ryouma noticed that Arata had red eyes as if he had been crying. Ryouma touched his own face and could feel where his own tears had dried.
Arata placed a hand on Ryouma's shoulder.
"You are now my Shadowguard. I trust you with my life. From this point forward we move as a team. As a unit. As brothers. I know your story now. I can't change how things went, but I will do my best to make sure your future is bright. We will honor the memory of your sister."
Ryouma felt a mix of emotions, but mainly felt happy. He was touched by Arata's understanding and acceptance. Although he wanted to just serve Arata, Arata instead saw him as a brother. Ryouma wouldn't forget this day.
Arata felt kind of awkward. He wasn't good at these kind of moments. He coughed and cleared his throat.
"Well, I think it's time to get out of here. I don't know about you, but I am tired haha."
Arata stood up and stretched. Ryouma smiled at Arata's topic change. He quickly wiped his face with his sleeve and stood up as well.
"OK Captain. How do we get out of here?"
Arata turned to Ryouma with a big grin. He stared into Ryouma's eyes for a few seconds. Ryouma stared back in anticipation. Then Arata answered, extremely confident.
"No idea."
