Old versus New

The two of them stood on the ship with no movement at first. Slowly but suddenly came a massive gust that nearly knocked Kari off balance. Manriki jumped into action with a massive burst of speed and gripped his sword with both hands. He charged with a thrust and Kari had to do something quick. She instinctively moved to the side and let Manriki keep charging. However he slowed his speed down and swung violently in a circle, cutting Kari’s skirt but missing her leg entirely as she fled from the swing.

“How?! What’s that sword made of?” Kari asked, now standing where Manriki stood.

“This sword is made partly of adamantite, diamond that has been magically processed. True adamantite is a lost art, but I processed enough adamantite with tungsten. Not only is it hard to melt down and scratch, but it’s perfect against energy weapons such as plasma bullets and your sword or to protect me from magic produced by Demons or Elves.”

‘Damn…! I’m gonna lose this unless I can attack directly.’

Manriki held his hand out, palm forward, and smirked.

“Fire!” he commanded and a small fireball shot from his hand at about the rate of a baseball. Kari then blocked it with sword but with her hand behind the tip of the energy and it bounced back towards him. Manriki blocked it with his sword and it simply turned to smoke.

Kari decided that she had to win at all costs, pulling out a second energy sword and prepared her stance for a two-sword style. Manriki smiled and revealed his sword was actually two swords that were together. Kari did not like that surprise but Manriki looked quite amused by the fact. Manriki swung each sword in an equal but distinct way, proving he was also a skilled ambidextric.

“If you concede me the victory, I’ll be happy with 10%,” he said.

“You said five!”

“That was before you doubled it with another sword.”

Kari continued to cross swords for Manriki for at least five minutes until suddenly Manriki, on the edge of the ship’s roof, sat down to drink something from a flask concealed in his coat pocket. It was amber in color from the small drips that escaped his lips and exhaled a relieved breath after drinking.

“Sit down and enjoy yourself,” he said invitingly as he offered the flask.

Kari charged up to him and had the energy pointed right at his chin with only about an inch between Manriki and the blade. Kari looked at him with a proud look and smiled, to which Manriki looked either confused or indifferent; this depends on what their own interpretation of Manriki.

“I win, Mr. Nobunaga. Care to open the box for me now?”

Manriki held out his hand and slowly clenched it shut. As he did so, the energy in the swords slowly withdrew and started causing Kari some pain. She struggled to keep the energy out in a solid form, her face becoming red and tired and her strength slowly fading. Soon she dropped the blades and clenched onto her dominant hand with a scream in absolute agony that echoed in the hollow sea air. She clenched onto her hand and looked at it with her eyes watery and then jerked head towards the Demon who put his sword back into its sheath.

“You defeated Honda Wolfgang? I think not,” he told her with disappointment. “As to our amended agreement, you give me 10% of the Pirate King’s loot. Gotcha?”

“…gotcha…,” Kari replied.

The two sword fighters climbed down and walked to their peers. Dai wanted to comfort his captain but she’d have none of it. Yumi was clinging onto Manriki’s arm and was telling him how amazed she was that he defeated a Pirate Lord. Kari began walking back to the Cobalt Star to get the box and keys so that Manriki could work on opening it.

About half an hour after waiting came Kari, along with Sorbet and Olaf, to see the way for the treasure of Artemeus. Manriki, sitting outside with some sunglasses on and laying on a deck chair out on the pier, lifted them and smiled to see the bunch of Humans coming to him.

“Hahaha! So the great children of the Suzuka line appear before the humble grandson of a mechanic.”

“Shut up Manriki. Can you open it?” Dai asked impatiently.

“Settle down Human. This is some old but pretty advanced tech my grandpa used. I might need a moment to figure it out and…,” Manriki stated but stopped when Yumi took the box and cardkeys and suddenly pushed them in and pulled them out in a random order. Manriki looked appalled and took the box away.

“Are you insane!? What if it…?” Sorbet was saying when suddenly there was a clicking sound. Then two more of the same sound.

The box opened slowly to reveal a mechanism with a circle screen with lines going vertical and horizontal. Then a mechanized voice turned on and it began humming.

“Hmmm… hmmm… where… am I?” spoke a female’s voice.

“We’re in the Republic of Feldar. I’m Kari Suzuka, descendant of the legendary Artemeus.”

“Artemeus… legendary?” it spoke with an amnesiac tone. “What year is it?”

“It’s the year 3009 on the Human Calendar. April 21st actually,” Olaf stated.

“I’ve been… inactive for nearly 300 years?” the female voice stated with a somewhat melancholy tone. “Wait! What about Shino or Oliver? Maybe Kasugai?”

“I’m sorry, but the reason we’re hearing you is because they died,” Kari stated. “How about you tell us your name?”

“It’s… it’s Maya.”

“Well Maya, maybe we should fill you in on all the old stuff.”