Chapter Two: Ceremony of the Broken (I1B0C2)

             Chapter Two: Ceremony of the Broken

 

             “Can anyone out there hear me?” yelled a voice from the roaring tempest.

            Though his body was fast asleep, Hatasuko still could not find peace from the souls screaming in his head. When he heard these words, he tried to mentally sift through the endless darkness in search of the voice. He rarely heard coherent words in the tempest, and even then, it was almost always an exclamation of agony. It was almost always the sound of a lost soul screaming for someone who meant so much to them that, even in death, they could think of nothing else.

            “Yes! Yes, I can hear you. I can hear all of you! I can’t hear anything else,” Hatasuko answered into the emptiness.

            “I don’t know how, but I managed to piece myself together in that massive storm of souls. I remember screaming even when I had no idea why! But I found my memories, and I found pieces of the man I used to be. Please tell me, how can you hear me? Are you another lost soul?” asked the frantic voice.

            “I am not. I am Hatasuko, and I am the one cursed to carry the weight of the tempest. Their endless screams are my burden to bear.”

            “Are you God? Are you a ghost?”

            “I am neither. When I was younger, I believed I was a ghost left behind by the Interfectus. I can hear the voices of their victims; I carry the weight of the dead on my back. I really thought I was one of them, but in time I came to accept that I am still alive. I am haunted by a chorus of screams and stuck inside a tempest of souls, but I am alive for a reason. I am alive so that I can kill the Interfecti and end the misery that created my curse,” Hatasuko explained.

            Though he was still asleep and cursed to hear nothing other than countless voices, Hatasuko heard the tempest grow quieter in the background. This conversation seemed to have a calming effect on the restless abyss.

            “I can’t tell if you’re a fool or a hero. Maybe you’re both!” said the voice with a friendly laugh.

            “Is this your first time trying to speak? When I last fought the Interfectus, I heard another coherent voice in the tempest. Was it you? Who are you?” Hatasuko asked.

            “I don’t think that was me, sorry. My name is Sokaido, and the monster got me on Catena Island Four. When I was still alive, I was a fisherman who saw beauty in everything! I could look at an empty net and smile; I’d see a rising storm and sing a happy tune! I’m sure it drove my family insane, but nothing could get me down. Even now, I can appreciate the solace of this hopeless state. If nothing else, it gave me the opportunity to meet you! I’ve been given the chance to make a new friend,” answered the voice with an upbeat tone.

            “But are you really content in here? It’s like a dungeon for severed souls.”

            “I can make the most of it! I’ve always said that seventy-five percent of life is how you handle situations. We’re the artists of our own happiness! But the truth is that fear still lurks in my long-dead heart. Once I pieced myself together in here, the first thing I thought about was my family. I don’t even know if they’re still alive,” Sokaido whispered as his voice started to fade.

            Hatasuko opened his eyes as the tempest grew quieter in his head. The pulsing light of the stars illuminated the tree over his head. Every green leaf shimmered because the moisture upon them reflected the starlight. Hatasuko stared between the leaves and saw that the sky was a beautiful canvas of flashing lights. The stars pulsed with shades of red and blue, though they illuminated the land with only white light. It was the same white light that lit this world in every place and at every hour.

            “That’s not good. I lost my bow in the fight,” Hatasuko groaned as he struggled to his feet.

            When he glanced around, Hatasuko saw that he stood at the boundary between the meadow and the forest. He saw the silhouettes of broken buildings in the north, though the city of Bartric was most likely abandoned. After the Interfectus attacked, all the citizens were either slaughtered or scattered. It would take many days for the survivors to emerge and crawl back to the wreckage, now that the nightmare had fallen silent. Hatasuko looked the other way and saw two people sitting beneath a tree, though they did not sit closely. They did not look or talk to each other.

            “I can’t believe it. I think that’s the big guy with the shield,” Hatasuko whispered to himself.

            After verifying that he still had his sword in a sheath on his back, Hatasuko jogged toward this tree. As he approached, he saw that the large man sat in the grass with his warhammer in his right hand. He continuously curled and uncurled his right arm while lifting its weight. Hatasuko then noticed that the girl snacked on a small fruit while staring listlessly at the meadow.

            “Is that an albapomus? That’s my second favorite fruit,” Hatasuko said when he reached them, though he immediately second-guessed his words.

            The dark-haired girl looked up at him with a nervous gaze. She tossed the core of the fruit aside and grabbed another white fruit from the ground beside her.

            “Would you like one?” she asked with a shy smile.

            Now that it was not hidden by her hair, Hatasuko noticed that the right segment of her face had the same dark scar that stained her arm and leg. It was a massive scar, certainly a burn scar, and it went as high up as her eye. Her right eye was clearly dead; it stared forward but saw nothing. It was sea-green, but her left eye was blue. The girl noticed him staring at her face, and then her smile disappeared. She quickly covered her face with her hand.

            “I’m so sorry, um, I didn’t mean for you to see that,” she said with a quiet voice.

            “No, I’m sorry! You don’t need to hide. I just woke up, so I’m not entirely lucid. I really didn’t mean to stare,” Hatasuko apologized.

            “Tch, Vaida knows that. No one wants to look at her,” said the large man.

            Before turning to greet the large man with the warhammer, Hatasuko accepted Vaida’s gift. He picked the albapomus out of her hand and gave her a warm smile as thanks, but she did not return his smile. With her hand hiding the right side of her face, her blue left eye looked at Hatasuko and then looked down.

            “Vaida… that’s a nice name! My name’s Hatasuko. Thanks for the fruit!”

            “You’re welcome. I like picking fruit,” she said. As Vaida spoke, a subtle smile flashed on her face again, but it quickly disappeared. Her left hand clawed at the dirt beside her leg.

            “Hey, Vaida, you know that doesn’t actually help anything, right? Your hand’s been burned as dark as your face, so it just looks the same,” said the gruff man as he dropped his warhammer and climbed to his feet.

            Hatasuko scratched his head at first; these two had seemed like friends when he first found them in the smoky city. Then again, he knew it was too early to make any assumptions about them. Nevertheless, Hatasuko finished the fruit in three bites and then walked over to introduce himself.

            “Are you the one who pulled me out of the city? I can’t thank you enough. You saved my life twice!” Hatasuko said with a gracious glare in his golden eyes.

            “Don’t mention it, boy. That’s what I do. I save the lives of idiots like you. I’ve been doing it for years, and I guess I’ll just continue until an Interfectus finally takes me down. It can’t be much longer, right?” he retorted with a hint of apathy.

            “Please don’t say that, Lazaro. This world needs you,” Vaida muttered quietly.

            Hatasuko looked over his shoulder at the girl sitting on the ground. She had moved her hand, and her dark hair danced in the wind. Her eyes both stared at Lazaro with a pang of sadness, though her right eye looked slightly off-center.

            “If you two run through cities and save people when an Interfectus attacks, then where is everyone else? Did they leave already? Was I really asleep that long?” Hatasuko asked.

            Lazaro shook his head and explained, “I don’t stay with the people I save because I don’t want to hear their worthless bullshit. I don’t like to hear people cry about the victims, and I don’t need people following me around like that stray girl over there. I carried you with me because you have potential. You’re naïve and you’re weak, but you have potential. I can tell that that wasn’t your first time meeting an Interfectus. I’m willing to take you on as an apprentice, but only if you understand that they’ll kill you in the end. No other conclusion.”

            “I’ve accepted long ago that pain is inevitable. I’ve come to welcome it.”

            “I’m not talking about pain, boy. I’m talking about death,” Lazaro retorted.

            “That won’t happen to me. The universe won’t let me die, at least not until I slay the Interfecti,” said Hatasuko.

            Vaida glanced up from her albapomus with a look of intrigue. She carefully watched Lazaro and Hatasuko with her good eye. With a sigh, Lazaro replied, “You have an inflated sense of self-importance, but I don’t really care. You’re going to die from this whether you accept it or not. It doesn’t matter. I want both of you to hurry up and finish eating; I have some weapons to show you. Pick up your fruit and walk with me into the woods. The sail-ranae aren’t far from here.”

            Without any delay, Lazaro crouched and picked up his warhammer. He was still equipped with a whip and the odd sack, though the sack looked smaller than it did in the city. Lazaro kept his whip and his sack fastened to his clothes so that he did not have to hold them. When she saw Lazaro preparing to leave, Vaida scurried to gather her belongings. She picked up her short swords and sheathed them in the holster on her back. She hooked her whip to her left side, slung the sack over her shoulder, and then picked up the juicy white fruit with both hands.

            “What is a sail-rana?” Hatasuko asked Vaida as she rose to her feet.

            “It’s a vehicle we built. I think it’s really cool,” she answered with a cheerful voice.

            Hatasuko glanced over so that he could thank her, but he became distracted by her dead eye. He noticed with intrigue that she could make the same movements with both eyes. They both stared together at an object, and they both created the same expression, though they still looked very different. But when Vaida noticed him staring at her scarred eye, she flinched and covered her face with the albapomus in her right hand. Her fingernails almost looked unnatural because of the dark scars that stained her fingers; her hand became sweaty as she stood there.

            “I’m so sorry. I’ll, um, I’ll try my best to hide it,” Vaida said with a quiet, shaky voice.

            “Hey! Are you coming or not? I’m not gonna slow down for you,” Lazaro yelled as he walked between the trees.

            Hatasuko quietly said to her, “You don’t need to hide anything! It’s my fault. I haven’t talked to actual people in a very long time; I haven’t heard anything but the screams of lost souls. I don’t mean to stare, and I know I shouldn’t. I’ll try to stop. It’s just that your eyes… they’re really pretty.”

            Beneath the light of the pulsing stars, Hatasuko saw a flash of perplexion. Vaida’s eyes looked confused and grateful at the same time, but then they turned cold. As she walked swiftly into the forest, she replied, “I don’t believe you.”

            Hatasuko wanted to explain that he had not told a lie; he wanted to explain that he could not tell a lie because he could not think clearly for any amount of time—at least not without an interruption from the tempest of screaming souls. Even as he jogged behind Vaida and Lazaro through the starlit forest, he heard the voices of restless spirits shouting inside his mind. He was tormented by their anguish, but they sounded calmer than usual. The tempest often fell quieter in social situations, though those were few and far between.

            As Hatasuko dodged the low branches while running between the trees, he looked ahead and saw that Lazaro carried the shield with which he had blocked the Interfectus. Hatasuko struggled to see the shield since the trees partially shrouded the starlight, but it looked like a rectangle of black-stained glass. He had never seen anything like it. By the time he caught up to Vaida and Lazaro, several tiny creeks scattered the area. They walked through the starlit forest in silence, though they occasionally hopped over these small creeks. This went on for many minutes until they found two vehicles that were hidden in the woods underneath a tree. Hatasuko guessed that these were the sail-ranae he had heard about earlier.

They sail-ranae both about the size and shape of a canoe, each with four thin wheels underneath. Each boat had a foldable mast with a wide sail at its bow, though the sails were not in the upright position. In the back of one sail-rana, Hatasuko saw a long whip identical to the one that Vaida had used to save him.

            Hatasuko asked, “Is there a reason you two carry whips? It doesn’t seem like it could hurt an Interfectus.”

            Lazaro and Vaida exchanged an uneasy glance, and then Lazaro let out a heavy sigh. He dropped his weapons into the sail-rana and retrieved the whip from the seat. With a swift flick of his wrist, Lazaro swung the whip against a tree from over ten feet away. When the whip cracked against it and unleashed a burst of wood and bark, he pulled back his weapon and whipped it again in the opposite direction. He aimed for a closer branch, and when the whip struck it a moment later, the whip enwrapped the branch instead of hurting it. Lazaro sighed again, and then he pulled his weapon back into his hands.

            “Did I say something wrong? I don’t mean to question your choice, it’s just… I can’t even pierce the Interfectus with my sword,” Hatasuko admitted with a hint of nervousness.

            “Tell me, boy. Why do you think I chase the Interfecti?” Lazaro asked with a firm voice.

            Hatasuko scratched his head and glanced over his shoulder. Vaida returned his glance with an unreadable expression, but he quickly looked away so that she would not mistake his confusion with staring. He anxiously answered, “You chase them so you can fight them, right?”

            “That’s wrong. As I said before, this campaign is one that can only end in suicide, but at least my sacrifice won’t be meaningless. I may be surrendering my soul to the Interfectus, but I’m not doing it for something as pointless as hope or revenge. I run into the fray just to pull people away from certain death. I don’t bother to fight; I gave up on that long ago. My only goal is to save the lives of those who get caught in the crossfire. It’s as simple as that. If you’re not in this to save lives, then I want you to run now and forget you ever met me,” Lazaro sternly explained.

            Hatasuko briefly looked over his shoulder once again. Vaida met his eyes and nodded, though he could sense confliction in her bright blue eye. She had accepted Lazaro’s conditions long ago, but Hatasuko could still sense something deeper in her. She shyly glanced away and looked again in another direction; the northwest wind pulled her hair in front of her face.

            After a short breath, Hatasuko said, “I still want to fight the Interfectus, but I can accept that I’m not strong enough. At the very least, I’m not strong enough to defeat it now, so fighting would be pointless. I’d probably just die. I want to help the two of you save lives.”

            Lazaro smirked and then tossed his whip through the air. Hatasuko caught it by the handle and watched the weapon bounce around him. The tip of the whip dragged across the forest floor behind him.

            “The whip is not a weapon, and you should not think of it as such. A whip is nothing more than an extremely long arm that can fold and take up a small space on our bodies. There will be times when you must pull someone to safety, and if they’re too far away, the whip is the perfect tool. That’s how Vaida saved you to begin with. When you practice more with the whip, you’ll start to get better at grabbing or wrapping something with the far end. I want you to master this weapon,” Lazaro explained with a gruff firmness.

            “Yes, sir. I will practice as soon as I have the chance.”

            Vaida added, “It’s easier than it looks, but I’d be happy to help you.”

            Lazaro nodded, but then he walked past Hatasuko with an ominous scowl. His large muscles tensed every time his foot fell flat on the forest floor. As Lazaro stepped closer, Hatasuko tried to see where he was headed, but he was too nervous to turn his head and look.

            “Do you need something?” Vaida asked the large, middle-aged man.

            “I never asked for your input, girl. This doesn’t concern you.”

            “Yes, sir. I’m sorry. I, um, didn’t mean to annoy you,” she mumbled with a shaky voice.

            Lazaro stopped walking as soon as he stepped behind Hatasuko. He reached over and unsheathed the sword from the holster on his back. Lazaro held the sword up to the stars and twisted it in his hand, examining the glistening blade. Though it was stained with soot and slightly chipped, Hatasuko knew his sword was in great condition. Lazaro nodded, placed the sword back into the sheath, and then walked back over to the sail-ranae.

            Lazaro went on to explain, “In times of disaster, our achievements become the instruments of our destruction. It’s a cruel paradox, but that is the reality of our world. Our buildings become prisons. Whenever the Interfectus attacks, countless lives are lost because people get trapped beneath the wreckage of their homes or wagons. You may be skilled with your sword so that you can fight, but you must focus on using it to save anyone who gets trapped. Vaida uses her swords for this same reason, as do I with my warhammer. A single strike of my hammer can blow a wall to pieces.”

            Hatasuko glanced over to the massive weapon sitting in the boat. In a way, it looked like a brick of steel fused onto a long shaft, but one end of the hammerhead was cone-shaped. The steel in this place came to a sharp point.

            “I’ll prove it, too. Just make sure you stand back, and don’t let the stray girl follow me.”

            With another sigh, Lazaro leaned down and picked up his warhammer. He looked through the starlit forest for several seconds until he saw a dead tree in the nearby clearing. Lazaro swung his weapon back like a bat, and then he charged toward the tree with a speed that was impressive for his size. As soon as he came close, he swung his muscular arms and crashed the warhammer’s spike into the tree with enough force to obliterate its trunk. A huge storm of wood and sawdust flew out from the broken tree, and then the trunk came crashing down.

            Lazaro held the warhammer over his head for protection as broken branches slammed into the grass around him. The sound of splitting wood echoed for several seconds until the dead tree had fallen entirely. Hatasuko had never seen anything this powerful in his life, other than an attack from an Interfectus.

            “I can’t believe how strong that is. You’re incredible!” Hatasuko raved.

            “As far as I know, it’s the only weapon that has ever hurt an Interfectus. I nearly died in the process, but I once broke the armor on that bastard’s leg. I don’t think any other weapon could’ve dealt that much force,” Lazaro said as he set his warhammer down in the sail-rana.

            “Are you serious?! You hurt an Interfectus? I didn’t think its skin could even be pierced! That’s the most amazing thing I’ve ever heard.”

            As Hatasuko stared at his mentor, he heard the abyss of howling voices grow louder in his mind. They could feel the sense of hope which surged through his system, and they grabbed onto this energy. Some of the screams grew hopeful, although they were still unintelligible. Some of the screams cried on as ever before.

            “The Interfectus is a demon which wears its shadow skin as armor. There is a spot on its ankle which is essentially the boundary between two plates, and that is where I struck. I snapped the plate of armor and made a shield from its skin,” Lazaro explained.

            Hatasuko glanced over to the shield inside the sail-rana. It looked like a black, semi-transparent rectangle, though as he looked more closely, he saw that it resembled the skin of an Interfectus. It shimmered slightly from the pulsing starlight that pierced the trees above.

            “Only an Interfectus is strong enough to block an Interfectus,” Vaida said as she walked up to his right side.

            “You don’t know how incredible this is! You two must be the most powerful people in Agrideī,” Hatasuko raved with his golden eyes open wide.

             “No… I wish. Lazaro may be the most powerful man, but not me. I’m pathetic. I don’t know why he even lets me come with. I probably just slow him down. I’ll probably just slow down both of you,” she confessed with her eyes half-closed.

            “Vaida, how could you say something like that? You saved my life back when we-”

            “I don’t have time for this. We need to finish up quickly. I have a few contacts in Lumipyla whom I haven’t seen in ages. There’s no sense in wasting time here,” Lazaro ordered.

            Lazaro walked over to the sail-rana and grabbed the only weapon which Hatasuko had not yet seen. It was the strange-looking sack that Lazaro and Vaida had carried during the attack. Hatasuko watched as Lazaro finally opened the bag, but to his dismay, the sack was only full of rocks. Lazaro picked up a rock that was half the size of his big fist, and then he tossed it to his apprentice. Hatasuko quickly passed the whip into his left hand and caught the rock before it hit the ground.

            “So what is this for? Breaking windows?” Hatasuko asked.

            Lazaro simply scoffed and shook his head. Though Vaida held a whip limply in her hand, Lazaro passed her the sack of rocks and asked, “Boy, what do you know about the third weapon of the Interfectus?”

            “The third weapon of the Interfectus is a scattershot of shadow spheres. The demon makes a cluster of energy balls and launches them onto a crowd. As soon as they hit something, the shadow ball explodes with a burst of blue fire. It’s possible to dodge it if you’re lucky, but it’s the deadliest weapon they’ve got,” Hatasuko answered.

            “That is correct. Over sixty percent of the people who die in an Interfectus attack are killed by the scattershot. The shadow balls explode if they hit something solid, and that includes a rock. Hatasuko, you’re gonna need to work on your aim and your throwing arm. In time, you’ll use this weapon to strike the scattershot in the sky, make the bombs blow each other before anyone gets hurt. Sometimes you’ll miss, sometimes you won’t. Sometimes the explosions will hit the others, sometimes they won’t. But over time you’ll save some lives, and that’s the only thing that matters. Do you have any questions?” Lazaro asked.

            “That’s brilliant! You’ve really thought this through. Thank you for taking me under your wing, sir. I’ll do my best to make it worth it,” Hatasuko said to his mentor.

            Lazaro nodded but said nothing. He quickly looked around to make sure they had gathered their belongings in the sail-ranae, but he froze when he looked over at Vaida. He walked toward her with an ominous expression; Hatasuko saw her slink away and hide her eyes. He had already noticed that Lazaro treated the scarred girl terribly, but it was not his place to intervene. He was new to the group, and therefore he did not question their relationship. When Lazaro finally reached Vaida, he ripped the albapomus from her scarred right hand, took a huge bite out of it, and then dropped it on the ground.

            “Vaida and I have something to discuss. In the meantime, I want you to roll the sail-ranae toward the river. Just follow the creek. It shouldn’t be far,” Lazaro said to Hatasuko.

            Hatasuko nodded and ran over to the two boats. Though they were both somewhat heavy, he managed to easily roll them over the forest floor by pushing them from behind. Each boat had a steering wheel at its front, though it looked to be locked in place; the boats did not veer off course as he rolled them away.

While the tempest of souls screamed inside his tortured mind, Hatasuko narrowed his eyes and focused on the gentle sound of branches swaying in the wind. He heard the patter of his own footsteps moving across the forest floor. He heard the quiet movement of water flowing through a tiny creek.

And even though he quickly walked away from Lazaro and Vaida, he heard it very clearly when Lazaro smacked his heavy hand against her face. He felt a shocked confusion at first, but it quickly morphed into a flood of sudden anger; he immediately stopped pushing the boats. When he ran into the clearing, he saw Vaida half-crouching beneath the starlight. She held her hands on her cheeks, but he saw starlit tears streaming from her blind eye.

            “What the fuck is wrong with you?!” Lazaro shouted.

            “I’m sorry! I’m so sorry. I just froze… I was so afraid. I’m sorry,” Vaida whimpered.

            As Hatasuko watched with anger, he squeezed his hands so tightly that he warped the wood at the back of a sail-rana. Vaida dropped onto the ground, but she did not use her hands to hold her weight. Her jacket had fallen open in the commotion.

            “Do you think he gives a shit about your fear? A man died in there, and you didn’t do a goddamn thing to save him! What do you have to say for yourself? That it’s not your fault? That you’re just afraid of fire? It can’t hurt you any worse. I should just leave you here,” he yelled.

            As Vaida lifted her hand and covered her dead eye, Hatasuko watched with an onslaught of conflicting emotions. When she realized that she had hidden her scarred face with her scarred hand, she slapped her left hand on top of it.

            “I know I’m useless. I know I’m ugly and weak and afraid. But please don’t cut me loose. I know I can become better. I have to. This is all I’ve got,” she said with her quiet voice.

            “You have one more chance. I’m tired of dealing with your shit.”

            Hatasuko was hidden from their view by the trees which shrouded the starlight, but he watched for another minute. In this time, no words passed between the two. Vaida stayed on the ground in a pool of her own misery, but Lazaro stood apathetically with his back against a tree. He stared toward the treetops with his cold green eyes. Hatasuko sighed and continued pushing the sail-ranae toward the river.

            As he pushed, he whispered to himself, “I haven’t even been with them a day, and I think I already hate my mentor. He might be an awful person, but he’s strong. I can’t let this opportunity slip away. Not when I’ve been given the chance to save souls from the tempest.”

            For many minutes, Hatasuko jogged alongside the small creek while pushing the boats. He watched with intrigue as several starlit creeks converged into the mouth of a narrow river. Though the river was not wide, it was surprisingly deep. The sail-ranae could easily enter the river, and the current appeared to flow quickly southward.

Hatasuko remembered that Lazaro wanted to travel to Lumipyla, which was almost halfway across Agrideī. This meant that they would have to boat south until they eventually reached the massive east-flowing river, which would carry them most of the way to Lumipyla. Once he parked the sail-ranae at the riverbank, Hatasuko turned and ran back to his new friends.

            He said to himself, “I don’t know if it’s an affront to the tempest, or perhaps a betrayal to the promises I’ve made to the screaming souls. I know that I swore to slay the Interfecti, and that hasn’t changed. That will never change. But until I become strong enough to fight the demons that put them in this place, I will save as many lives as I can. Even if I have to work beneath a monster that disguised himself as a man, I will do everything it takes to fight the misery in this world. It’s the only way I can apologize to everyone I couldn’t save.”

            When Hatasuko returned to the clearing where he had last seen Vaida and Lazaro, the starlight shone slightly brighter than before. He looked at the sky between the branches and leaves; the stars shimmered brightly in the endless sea of darkness. Lazaro stood in the same place as before with his back against the tree. Vaida stood at a short distance with an aterpomus in her hand. She held the black fruit closely to her face, but she had only taken a few bites. There was a clear sadness in her eyes, but she gave a small smile when she saw Hatasuko.

            “Everything should be ready,” Hatasuko announced to his new friends.

            Lazaro nodded and muttered, “Alright. Then let’s get out of here. I’m tired of smelling smoke.”