บท 23: Black Crystal
Ryouma opened his eyes and he found himself in a church. He looked around and saw that there were rows of chairs with an aisle down the middle, where he was standing. At the front was a large organ and an altar. He didn't know how he got here, but quickly panicked as he remembered the Black Crystal and Arata disappearing. He shouted out.
"Captain! Where are you?"
He looked at his hand and embedded in his palm was a smaller Black Crystal. But he could feel Arata's energy coming from it. He tried to pull the crystal out, but it was stuck in his hand. He turned around, looking for something to pry the crystal out. He then froze as he saw one of the walls. There was a stained glass window that covered half of the wall. It depicted what looked like a light shining down from the sky and burning creatures that were on the ground. Ryouma felt that he had seen this somewhere before. It had a familiar feeling to it. As he saw the details in the church he realized where he was.
There was a loud knock on the door which pulled Ryouma from his thoughts. A young lady came out from a door on the side and walked over to the door. She removed the large wooden block that kept the door closed. With it gone, the door opened up. An old man came running in out of breath. What seemed like smoke was coming off of him. He was coughing loudly. Ryouma went wide eyed as he saw the old man.
"Father Carl?"
The old man turned to the young nun.
"Please get some water and prepare a hot bath for our guests."
Ryouma looked over curiously. He walked towards the old man slowly and then saw something move from behind him. A small child was standing there in burnt clothes. As Ryouma looked closer, she could see that it was a young girl. Maybe 5 or 6 years old, and she had even more smoke coming off her than the man did. She was also clutching something tightly to her chest. It looked like something was wrapped in rags and it was clearly too big and too heavy for her to hold but she wouldn't let go. Another young nun came forward. She approached the young girl and tried to take it from her but she yelled at the lady in response.
The old man turned around and knelt in front of the little girl.
"Do not be afraid, my child. No one here will harm you. You are safe now."
The young girl stared into the old man's eyes. She had a red tinge to her eyes. Seeing the red, Ryouma went wide eyed in shock. He slowly analyzed the young girl's facial features and rushed forward. As he observed her eyes, her nose, her red hair, he began stuttering uncontrollably.
"S.s...sis?"
The little girl continued to cling tightly to the rags. The old man smiled warmly.
"You can continue holding him if you want. But I think you both would benefit from a bath."
The little girl looked at the old man and then looked at the young lady behind him. She then nodded. The old man gestured to the young lady who led the little girl to a door on the side. Ryouma shouted with tears in his eyes.
"Sis! It's me!"
The little girl continued walking away, oblivious to Ryouma's shouts. Ryouma ran after her. As he went through the door, he was suddenly outside in a field. He turned around and the door along with the church was gone. He looked around in a rush to find the little girl. He then saw a large tree in the middle of the field. He recognized the tree immediately and ran towards it.
As he arrived, he looked around. He couldn't see anyone anywhere. He searched around the tree, looking everywhere for the little girl or something. But he found nothing.
"Is the tree significant?"
Ryouma turned. That was Arata's voice.
"Captain?! Where are you? Are you OK?"
"Don't worry, I'm fine. Tell me about the tree."
Ryouma looked around confused. But he listened to Arata and looked at the tree.
"This place is close to where I once lived. We would come to the tree and have little picnics. My sister would tell me stories and I would close my eyes and imagine what she was describing."
"Your sister?"
Ryouma nodded as he placed his hand on the tree. His eyes lost in the past.
"She's 5 years older than me. After our parents passed away, a church took us in and raised us."
"The little girl was your sister. And the pile of rags she was holding..."
Ryouma nodded.
"That was me."
"Ryouma! Come down from there! That's dangerous!"
Ryouma visibly shook as he heard that voice. He turned around and a girl was standing before him. She had a simple grey dress on and had her hands on her hips. She had red eyes and red hair and was looking up into the tree with a look of fury. Ryouma was shaking slightly as he looked at his sister. She was older now, she looked around 8 or 9 years old. She continued shouting at the tree.
"Don't make me come up there and drag you down! Ryouma!"
Ryouma looked up and saw a little boy hanging upside down. He had his legs wrapped around a branch and was smiling down at the girl.
"C'mon, sis. Don't be so uptight. Come on up!"
The little girl continued to yell bossily at the little boy who continued to ignore her. The little Ryouma just pulled faces from the tree. Even though she was trying to be angry, the little girl giggled every now and then.
"So even then you didn't listen to people."
Ryouma chuckled at Arata's comment as he looked up at his younger self. He looked down and found that his sister was gone. He looked up and he had disappeared too. He turned around and he was back in the church. His sister was sitting with one of the churches servants. She was braiding her hair as they talked. What looked like a five year old Ryouma was running around and playing. Ryouma looked around and smiled at the peaceful atmosphere.
However, his eyes widened as a sense of fear entered him. He turned to the door just as it burst open. The old man came in covered in blood. He was being carried in by two other nuns. Another nun closed the door. Little Ryouma froze as he saw everyone come in. The nun that was sitting with the young girl rushed forward.
"Father Carl, what happened?"
"Quickly! Take the children out the back. We don't have much..."
The door exploded as debris flew everywhere. A tall man with scruffy black hair walked in. He was holding a glowing blue sword. He wore a grey eye patch and had a grey and black armor on. He signaled forward and bandits rushed the place. They trashed and ransacked the church, grabbing the nuns and throwing them before the man with the blue sword. The screams of the women ignited the fury within Ryouma as he tried to rush forward to fight but a force prevented him from interfering.
Instead he had to watch as they beat and stripped the nuns. Father Carl tried to fight against the bandits but was already injured and the bandits just beat him to a pulp. Little Ryouma and his sister were thrown into the middle with the rest of the nuns.
A sick grin appeared on the eye patched man as he walked over pulled Ryouma's sister up by the hair and looked at her. Both Ryouma's shouted.
"No!"
"Sis!!"
The little Ryouma rushed forward angrily at the man. The man simply used the back of his blade to slam into Ryouma, sending him flying into the wall hard and everything went black. Ryouma looked around at the darkness with tears in his eyes, yelling hysterically.
"Sis! No! Sis! I won't let him! I can stop him! I'm stronger now! Sis!"
Arata stayed silent as his heart ached for Ryouma. Although he was within the crystal, he could see everything that was happening, as well as feel what Ryouma felt. He didn't expect Ryouma to have such a painful story for someone so young. They were only 11 and yet Ryouma had been through so much. Arata was shocked thinking about how bright and happy Ryouma was. He never expected him to be holding all this pain.
Light returned. It was the church, but the place was completely ruined. There was blood everywhere and everything was broken and destroyed. In the corner, little Ryouma opened his eyes. He looked up to see he was lying in his sisters arms. She had bruises all over her and she was crying as she held him.
"Sis?"
She opened her eyes to see him awake. She couldn't say anything in reply, instead she pulled him in tighter and cried more. Ryouma watched his sister holding the younger him. He slid down beside them with a deep pain in his eyes. He tried to reach out but there was a barrier of some kind that prevented him from reaching them. Arata noticed that Ryoumas sister's clothes were torn up and she was practically naked. Rage filled him seeing the state of her. He could sense the rage within the hurting Ryouma as well.
"I never saw her smile again after that day. It was as if that man had stolen all the life from her."
Ryouma was shaking as he sat there on the ground. He tried again to reach out to his sister as the room began to morph and change. Now they were in an alleyway. Ryouma slowly stood up as he looked around. He wiped the tears from his face as he walked down the alleyway. He saw a man walking down from the other side. Then four kids who were completely covered from head to toe in rags came rushing by, bumping into the man. They didn't stop as they continued running. As the man checked his pockets, he realized he had been robbed. He started yelling at the kids.
"Thieves! Get back here!"
He continued yelling as he started chasing them, but they were too fast. Ryouma followed them. They weaved through a marketplace before stopping at an open street. They looked behind to see if they were followed before going down another alleyway. They all laughed.
"Nice moves back there. He didn't see it coming haha."
One of the kids pulled out a small bag and shook it.
"Sounds like a good amount of Gems. I think we'll be well fed tonight."
The others nodded happily. The Kingdom of Kakuso used the standard currency of Gems. The Gems had five colors, each color determining it's value. The basic Green Gem was the least valuable. 20 Green Gems were worth a Blue Gem. 50 Blue Gems were worth a single Red Gem. 100 Red Gems were worth a single Purple Gem. And then 1000 Purple Gems were equivalent to a single Gold Gem. Having a Gold Gem was the pinnacle of wealth. The typical yearly wage for a common worker was around 20 Blue gems a year.
The young boy opened the small bag and poured out the Gems inside. They were all Green except for one which was Blue. One of the kids came forward and picked up the Blue Gem. With her long hair flowing out from the top of her rags get up, you could that it was a girl.
"We really struck it good with this one. He actually had a Blue Gem. It would be good if we could eat something sweet."
The young boy that had opened the bag slowly removed the rags from his head. Bright red hair was revealed as he tucked the rags into his bag.
"We'll see what sis wants to eat."
The others all nodded as they unwrapped themselves before walking down the alleyway. There was a small gap in between a large fence that the four kids all squeezed in. They walked a little further until they came upon the underpass of a bridge. Underneath was a bunch of random junk lying around, stacked to create a type of fort. They walked over and found a young teenage girl with red hair sitting in the midst of the mess. The red haired young boy rushed forward with a smile.
"Hey sis, we're back. And we hit it big this time. We can go buy something good to eat. What do you feel like?"
The young girl didn't respond and just sat there. Ryouma sighed watching the younger him plead with his sister. He was so energetic yet she remained so cut off.
"I did all I could to make her laugh. Or even smile. She gave up on life. I did all that I could but she wouldn't fight anymore and she eventually...."
Arata felt the sadness within Ryouma and mourned with him.
"I tried to do something. Anything. But I couldn't help her."
"But what if you could?"
Ryouma turned. The voice sent a chill down his spine. It had such a cold and menacing tone to it. The cold voice continued speaking.
"What if we could give you back your sister?"
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