• Prequel to Nobody’s Real


    It was a different dream that night. Usually the dreams were filled with scary monsters or super people. Tonight it was filled with robots. Not the robots like what you see in movies. These robots looked like normal people, but when they got angry they exploded and destroyed everything around them. One of the robots chased him. No matter how fast he ran, it kept getting closer and closer. Eventually it caught him and held him up by the throat with only one hand. It’s eyes twitched and then a digital counter appeared on its forehead. The timer began counting down from ten. He began to scream in terror. He awoke to his mother shaking him awake. “James! James! It’s alright, honey! You’re awake now!”

    James rubbed his neck. “Yeah, I’ll be fine, Mom. Go back to bed.”

    “I keep telling you to stop watching those scary movies.” She got up and stopped at the door. “Good night, James.”

    “Night mom.” He laid back in bed and curled up in the covers. He thought it was pretty embarrassing that he was seventeen and still had nightmares that his mother had to wake him from.


    The next morning he was thinking of the dreams on his walk to school. “James! James!” He didn’t hear the person yelling for him, he was too occupied with his newest nightmare. “James!” He finally stopped and turned to see who called his name. It was Patricia, a girl that went to his school. She was his age but just missed the cut-off date for his grade by three days. He’d known her for just about all of his life and had even considered asking her out once. He never gathered up the courage so he was content to simply be friends.

    “Hey, Patti.” He grinned feebly as she finally caught up to him. “You sleep passed your
    alarm again?” He looked at the general discord of her appearance. Her school skirt and jacket were wrinkled and she had the buttons of her top mismatched with their holes. She had taken two different socks and left her shoes untied. It happened often enough that nobody would bother pointing it out to her or teasing her for it.

    “Ohhhhh, yeah… I even set it fifteen minutes early today.”

    “You say that everyday.”

    “It’s true.” They laughed a bit then walked a few blocks in silence. “So, what was it last night?”

    “Robots.” He had felt safe enough to confide in Patricia about his constant nightmares. Anyone else would just laugh and make fun of him for it.

    “That’s different. I don’t think you’ve had one about them before.”

    He shook his head. “No, last night was the first time.”

    “What happened?”

    “Well, it looked just like a normal person. No matter how hard I tried to get away, it kept getting closer. It caught me and started choking me. I think it was also a bomb, it had a timer on its forehead.”

    “That is different.” They walked another block in silence. “Hey, did you hear there’s going to be fencing scouts at school today?”

    “Really?” James had never been special academically, he fit exactly into the average range of his school and the country. He was mostly tone deaf and was banned from touching a school instrument after he broke the neck of a guitar while trying to tune the strings. He was no good at football, soccer, basketball, or any other sport, except fencing. When it came to fencing, he was the best in his school. Most people called it a waste of talent with all of the automatic firearms, but James hadn’t touched one since he accidentally shot the instructor in the foot while the safety was on. “ Where from?”

    “Somewhere in the Plains. I hear they had to build a town around the castle in order to house the people that left Andormia. I think it’s the only school in the whole Shogunate. Apparently it’s a man and his two children who run it.”

    “Hmm. Well let’s hope they find me something special.” He gave his feeble grin again.

    ~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~


    The day passed and James’s fencing class finally came around. It was his last class of the day and he liked it that way. It helped relieve him of stress. He suited up and fenced as he normally did on a daily basis. After a while he took notice of who and where the scouts were. He quickly decided which people they were based on their clothing. In the fencing gym only fencing outfits and the school uniform was allowed.

    The man he took to be the father wore a straw cone hat, green flowing robes of the orient style, and sandals. White gloves covered his hands and a beautifully decorated longsword sheath hung at his hip. The son had similar robes but his were black. He wore a black cape and black sandals to compliment his robes. What really made him stand out was his bright red hair and the bandanna tied down around his right eye. A Dao sheath just as beautifully decorated as the father’s longsword hung at his waist. James concluded they were forged by the same smith. The daughter was a cute girl with long black silky hair tied up in buns. She wore white robes with accents of a light olive green. Across her back was a simple ninjato in a black lacquered sheath. When he watched her closely, it almost seemed like she had some unseen object wrapped around her that she had to move around in order to use her arms. It looked like she was used to the movement. He passed the thought off as sheer imagination.

    ~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~


    As the end of the class neared, the scouts had eventually turned their eyes away from everyone else and towards James. As the bracket came down to the final two people, him and another boy in his class, the scouts sat and watched both of them fence. It was the longest match of the day. Coming to a close only a minute before the bell. James, of course, had won and taken notice of the scouts’ pleases looks. As he made his way out the door, the son pulled him aside. “You don’t have anything after school, do you Mr. Leonine?” James shook his head. “Good, we’d like to speak to you in private, that is, if you don’t mind.”

    “Of course not.”

    “Good, good.” He held a hand out towards the far corner of the room where the other two scouts were sitting at a table. They spoke quietly to each other as they eyed James. “This way, if you will.” He began walking towards the other two. As the scout stepped ahead, James glanced down at the sword on the man’s hip. Turning just in time to see the youth looking at his sword, the scout smiled. “She caught your eye, did she?” James started to speak but didn’t form any words. The man chuckled as he drew his sword. “Do you like her?” He held to blade out to James. “Go on, hold her.”

    James touched the handle gingerly before holding onto it enough that he wouldn’t drop it if the man let go. When he did, James admired the fine craftsmanship as he examined the length of the blade. He swung it a few times to see how it felt.

    “What can you tell me about my sword?” The man was still grinning.

    James looked up at the man then back to the blade. “It is a dao, a sword that originated in China. It is closely related to the scimitar of the middle east. The curved end allows more contact with the body when slashing, adversely making the blade useless when trying to stab.” He looked at the blade closer than before. “It took a while to make the sword, but it was crafted with extreme caution and skill.” He took note of a small engraving on the blade near the hilt. “Bahlem. Is that the sword’s name?” He held it out to the man.

    “Yes, yes it is. You seem to know a lot about swords.” He took the sword and put it back into its sheath.

    “I have a lot of spare time.” He looked down in embarrassment. “Swords are almost the only thing that interest me.”

    “Don’t be embarrassed. I spent every spare minute for a year learning about swords.”

    “What does it mean, Bahlem? If you don’t mind me asking.”

    The man chuckled. “You’d just laugh if I told you. Maybe some other day.” They neared the table when the girl spoke up.

    “Were my eyes deceiving me or did the great Leon just hand his prized sword over to a young man?” Her smile was big as she teased her brother.

    “Oh, be quiet.”

    “She’s right, though. It’s not a sight you see everyday, if at all.” The father laughed along with his daughter.

    “Hey, are we here to interview this kid or crack jokes at me? I can’t tell which.”

    “Sit down you two.” The father shuffled through a few papers then looked at the young man. “James Leonine. You are the single best fencer in this school, if not the city. What do you say to that?”

    “Well…” He turned red again and scratched the back of his head. “I guess it just comes to me. I don’t know how else to explain it.”

    “He knows a fairly good amount about swords.” The son grinned and nodded to his sister. “Try him.”

    “Hmm…” The sister eyed the boy then pulled out her ninjato, setting it on the table before her. “What can you tell me about my blade, boy?”

    James took a quick look at the sword. “It seems to be a ninjato, a sword favored by shinobi, or ninjas. It is physically similar to a regular katana except for its length. The shortened blade has several possible explanations. One, the ninjato originated as a desperation weapon. When a ninja found himself on the battlefield without a weapon, he would pick up a broken blade, many of which were often discarded after shattering. Two, it originated as a sleight of hand. Samurai were trained to fight with katana. When a ninja found himself up against a samurai, the ninja would have the disadvantage of a smaller attack range, but would be able to fight closer to the opponent and the samurai would not expect the smaller blade and miscalculate his attacks. The shortened blade also is said to be faster to draw than a full-length katana.” He looked up at the girl. “However, the historical accuracy of ninjato use is in question as there was no historical evidence of a ninjato before the Asian movie craze in America.”

    The girl harrumphed as the father laughed. “That was excellent, Master Leonine.”

    James started up again. “As for this sword in particular, it was originally forged to be a ninjuto and it was never meant to be any longer. It is fairly new, having been forged within the last few years and seeing little combat. It seems to be of the same smithy as your brother’s dao.”

    The father turned an awkward eye to his daughter. “You haven’t used the sword I made you?”

    The girl quickly grabbed the blade and sheathed it. “Well if you didn’t have me running off to do things every five minutes…”

    “Y-you mean you forged those swords?” James’s jaw dropped.

    The father chuckled. “Yes, I did indeed forge all three of these swords.” He briefly held up his sheathed longsword.

    “Your dao shows considerable age.” James turned to the son. “But it has seen battle many times and has very few markings to show it.” He turned back towards the father. “Your skill is amazing, Mr.…”

    The father looked shocked. “Oh, pardon us greatly. We forgot to introduce ourselves. My name is Liu Hiro. This is my son Liu Leon.” Leon nodded his head. “And my daughter Liu Hira.” Hira also nodded her head.

    “Liu… So it is your castle that sits in the plains?”

    “Actually, that’s mine.” Leon raised his hand a little.

    “But…”

    “Leon is Head Strategist for Oda Nobunaga. He took advantage of an open window while I was elsewhere living a peaceful life.” Hiro hesitated for a moment. “My peaceful life was destroyed with Valtagia. Since then I’ve been on the move. The longest I’ve stayed in place has been three months. I had hoped that I would be able to reclaim my peaceful life.” He sighed. “But it was wyrd that my peaceful life ended on that day.”

    “I can understand your sorrow. My father was a merchant. He primarily sold to wealthy customers in Valtagia. He was staying on a business week in Valtagia on that day.“ He sat in silence for a moment. “But weird, Master Liu? What is so uncommon about it? Is death not part of life?”

    Hiro grinned. “Wyrd. W-Y-R-D. It means fate.” He gazed at the young man as they all sat in silence for several moments. “But enough about the past. Anyway, what do you say? Do you want to join us at the castle? It gets pretty lonely with just the three of us.”
    “But I thought that you were scouting for a school.” James was completely confused.

    “We are, in a way. Let’s just say that it’s an extremely selective school. There is only one opening. It’s not so much for acceptance into the school as it is an… apprenticeship under the three of us. I think we are all in agreement that you are the best candidate.” He looked to Leon who nodded then to Hira who also nodded. Hiro looked back to James. “Still interested?”

    “Yes. Yes of course. I would need to be sure my mother approves, but I believe that she wouldn’t mind.”

    “There is one thing, of course that is an issue.” Leon pulled a small box from his robe and set it in front of James. “You are exceedingly average in all of your schoolwork. What I really want to know is how are you with logic.” He opened the box to reveal a chess set. “How good are you at chess?”

    “I’ve never played it before.”

    “Do you at least know the basics?”

    “Well, yeah. I have watched some other students play it in a small tournament.”

    “Then let us begin.” Leon began by moving the third pawn from the right forward two spaces. Eying the board James moved his left knight two spaces in front of his left rook. Hiro and Hira watched in interest as they played. Five minutes later James was in checkmate with only his king, a knight, a rook, and two pawns while Leon had only lost a bishop and three pawns. “Not bad for your first game, James. You definitely have the capacity to learn more, though. My classes with you will mainly compose of logic training,”

    “Thank you… Sensei?” Leon thought for a moment then nodded at the title.

    “I don’t suppose they teach you magic at this place, do they?” Hira grabbed a pencil and began sketching symbols.

    James shook his head. “No. The teachers here don’t think we will find any need for it with all of the technological advances.”

    She sighed. “Well I suppose that should be my subject then. I’m sure I can find quite a few things to teach you.”

    “Thank you, Sensei.”

    “There will be no need for that. You can call me Master.”

    James grinned. “Yes, Master.” He turned to Hiro.

    “Well… I don’t know what I should teach you. You already seem pretty skilled with a sword…” Hiro thought it over for a while. “But how are you with other weapons?”

    “Umm… I don’t know. I used a stick before they would let me use a foil and that’s about it.”

    “Interesting…” Hiro reached into his bag and rummaged though it a bit. He pulled out two sickles that were more like miniature scythes. “What can you tell me about these?”

    “They’re Kamas. They originated from the hand sickle. In both China and Japan peasants were often banned from weapons. This created problems when bandits would attack the peasants when a soldier was not around. The peasants adapted their working tools into weapons so they would be able to defend themselves. They came into great use when the ninja first started. Originally the ninja were simply the common peasants. When a samurai would approach, they peasant could easily assassinate the unsuspecting soldier.”

    Hira nodded. “Not bad.”

    “Hmm… Yet I don’t think you would be interested in even picking these up.” Hiro put the Kamas back into his bag. “That leaves me at a great disadvantage. I guess my classes shall consist of whatever I can think of that day.” James nodded and began to speak. “No titles for me. Just call me Hiro.”

    “Yes, Hiro. Thank you.” He looked at each one of them in admiration.

    Hiro pulled out his pocket watch. “Oh! It’s well past four. You should be running along home in order to tell your mother.” He reached into his sleeve and pulled out a scroll. “Give this to her. It should answer any questions she has.”

    James took the scroll and smiled at it. “Thank you again. Sensei.” Leon bowed his head. “Master.” Hira nodded. “Hiro.” Hiro grinned and bowed his head. He looked at each of them once more before getting up and rushing out the door to tell his mother.

    Once the door had closed and the three were left alone in the fencing room, Leon sighed. “Are you sure you want to do this to him? He seems like a nice kid.”

    Hira nodded. “Yeah. He has a girl here that will sorely miss him.”

    Hiro looked long and hard at the closed door. “That is up to him. Once he speaks to his mother about it, he will know what it costs.” Leon and Hira also turned to look at the closed door. After several moments, Hiro spoke. “Well, come along. We have preparations to make.”

    James ran out the front doors and charged down the staircase. He almost ran passed Patricia who was sitting on the brick railing waiting for him. He rushed over to her to tell her the good news when he saw her. Her head was down and she had obviously been crying. “So you’re really going, huh?” James tried to speak but his words were stuck in his throat. “I mean, I always knew we would have to go different ways eventually, you being such a good fencer and me being… well, me.” She wiped her nose on her sleeve. “I don’t even know what I’m doing with my life. I guess I’ll stay here and work at the flower shop. I’ll inherit it anyway.”

    “Patti…” He slumped, knowing what she was saying was true. “I’ll visit every weekend. They said I’ll be living in the castle with them, but they’ll bring me back home on the weekends.”

    Patricia wiped her nose and eyes once more. “Yeah.” She sniffed then looked up at him with a forced grin. “Let’s just go home. Finals are still three weeks away. We can worry about this then.”

    James forced himself to grin as he helped her down off the railing. “Yeah. Sounds good.” He hugged her tightly and she held on to him just as hard. After what seemed like hours they broke apart and began the walk home like any other day.

    ~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~


    The world slowed then eventually stopped. Hiro walked slowly down the same route James and Patricia had taken home. He stopped briefly at Patricia’s house and looked it over. Before long he turned and continued on down the road to James’s house. He looked at it from the outside then walked up to the front door. He entered without bothering to knock; he knew they wouldn’t answer. He walked into the kitchen where James and his mother stood in a half-hug as they looked over the scroll he had sent home earlier. He stood there a long while without saying anything.

    “Your time is almost up.” The voice came out of nowhere. It was a single voice yet sounded like a multitude all speaking at once. A figure appeared before him. At first it was a man, then a woman, then a man again, then a different man, then another woman. Hiro ignored the fact that the person was changing sporadically, he was used to it. They all had the same glowing white eyes and brown cloaks emblazoned with a blue crescent. The person was a Lunar Remnant, an impression of many ancient people that had long since died and been forgotten. They inhabited the Dream World, the place where everyone went in spirit when they sleep, only the Lunars physically lived there. “What is your decision, Liu Hiro?”

    Hiro looked at the two people before him for a long while. It was a tough decision. James would be a treasured apprentice and friend, but was it worth giving up his dreams for another ten thousand years? “I think I will take him. The usual arrangements?”

    “Yes. When you wake up tomorrow this will all have happened already, at least in the memories of you and your children. There will be no record of James ever existing although he will show up on your doorstep.”

    Hiro nodded. “Alright. I am finished.” He shook hands with the Lunar Remnant. The world flashed bright then became black. Hiro felt himself inch away from the Dream World. Soon he could no longer feel its presence. His spirit settled back and readied for the first of many nights of nothing but black.