Chapter 1
Nearly seven hours had past and miles away from the original camp site everyone was loading up the terrain dossers from their second camping ground. The grand duke made certain to distance themselves from the location the assassin struck last night. Before the incident, Raziel had made the decision that he and general Grechov would split up in order to locate the “seven chosen” before the person behind the attack on the Vailstone castle could obtain the legendary armor for themselves. Raziel also informed the general that the small time line they had set for themselves was no longer acceptable since Cain may have noticed the location of the armor from the map and may very well be racing against them to snatch the armor for himself! With this in mind and seeing as how they’ve made little progress, the royal convoy made sure to waste no time. The grand duke and prince remained in the most heavily armored terrain dosser, the general and lieutenant however, had separated from the convoy in the second most heavily armored terrain dosser. Only one of the seven chosen was out of the way and would certainly stump the progress of the quest, especially if it had become a race! So, with general Grechov and lieutenant Brookes on their way to locate another individual by the name of Kaz, the rest of the group continued on the original path to find a young teenager named Vincent.
The giant machine was within minutes of approaching its next destination. Christian was sitting next to the royal mystic once again. The royal mystic made a smacking sound with his mouth, but the young prince paid no mind to it. The mystic then made a loud sighing sound for attention yet the prince still did not notice. The royal mystic widened his eyes and looked at Christian, who was staring forward with anticipation for their next stop. The mystic was thinking to himself, what was needed to get this guy’s attention? He then coughed loudly and sighed louder than necessary, this had grabbed Christian’s attention, “You okay Mystic?” he asked.
The mystic leaned closer to the prince, “Ya member mak’n me spill my drink? It DID leave a stain. It left a big fat ugly stain.”
“Where?”
“WHAT?! What’a ya mean where? LOOK!” the mystic lifted the stained part of his clothing to prove his point. “SEE! Right tha.”
The prince squinted his eyes, but couldn’t make out the stained spot on the mystic’s clothing. “I don’t see it.” he replied.
“What tha? How do ya not see this? What’r ya not looking?” the royal mystic was annoyed the prince had startled him and made him spill his soda on himself earlier and was growing increasingly annoyed that Christian apparently could not make out the location of the stain.
“If you see any stain then why not just use magic to get rid of it?” Christian replied.
The mystic stared at the naïve boy, “I don’t use laundry magic.” he stated.
The massive tank stopped outside an orphanage, it was a rather large establishment, looking a bit filthy and run down. Seth raised an eyebrow, “An orphanage?” he questioned.
“Yes, Vincent Hitoshi. We could only pull up where he works for some reason. You’re welcome to come along if you like.” Raziel told Seth as Christian stood beside him.
Seth thought a moment to himself before standing up and joining them. The three left the terrain dosser behind and made their way inside the orphanage. They had walked up to a reception counter which was attended by a thin nerdy looking fellow. “Welcome, can I help you with something.” he asked.
“I’m looking for an employee of yours by the name of Vincent Hitoshi.” Raziel informed.
“I’m sorry sir, but I can’t give out personal information about our members of staff here.” The man stopped for a moment and made a puzzled look upon his face. “Are you sure you’re looking for an EMPLOYEE by that name? I mean, we have a Hitoshi here but, he’s not employed here. Look, just a moment.” The adult nerd turned his swivel chair around and opened a filing cabinet and twiddled his fingers through unorganized looking paper work which rest inside. His slender fingers finally rest on a faded tan folder. “Ah! Here we go. Have a look for yourself.” he said, handing the folder over to Raziel.
Raziel opened the folder and on the front page was a picture of a young man with silvery white hair. The grand duke was puzzled, a young teenager with silvery white hair?! It was quite rare, if not one of a kind. “Am I to understand that he is an orphan here?”
“Yes, sir! The boy’s been here his whole life cause’a that hair. Family believed it was a sign of a curse of some kind.” the man stated with a hint of sympathy in his voice.
Christian thought about the young peer’s situation to himself, and imagined being all alone in such a cruel world, “How sad. It must be so hard being all alone.”
“It is.” Seth replied as he placed his hand on the prince’s shoulder.
“Any idea where we can find him right now?” Raziel asked, quickly changing the subject.
“I’m sorry, is there any particular reason you’re looking for this young man? Has he done something wrong?” the man questioned.
“You must not get out much I take it?” the grand duke replied. He pulled out a wallet and showed the man his identification with the Vailstone royal stamp on it.
The man was a bit flabbergasted that the grand duke was standing before him. “I’m terribly sorry sir! I had no idea. He should be in the cafeteria with the other children. Down the hall, thir,...third door on the right!”
“Thank you.” Raziel said while putting his wallet back in his pocket. The grand duke, still accompanied by Christian and Seth, walked down the hallway and to the third door on the right. Inside was a cafeteria full of children of all ages eating their lunches and loudly talking amongst themselves.
“Try finding someone with white hair.” Raziel stated.
“Over there!” Christian blurted out with in a matter of seconds.
Seth and Raziel both turned at the same time a noticed the elderly white-haired cafeteria woman the prince was pointing out.
Seth smiled, “Good eye Prince Christian, but we’re trying to find the young man around your age with the white hair.”
“Oh yeah!” he said feeling silly.
The three tried looking over the heads of the children as they sat eating. One of the older boys looked up after he finished eating and stood up to put his empty tray away until he noticed the heroic grand duke was present. “Tha duke!” he blurred out with excitement.
This drew the attention of all the other young folk who were present. The grand duke blushed and smiled at the young children. Swarms of kids hoarded around the grand duke asking questions and wanting his attention. Raziel had wanted to find the white-haired teen, but didn’t want to ignore the children either, so he tried pleasing them with hugs, handshakes, and trying to answer some of their adventure questions. Raziel’s heart was that purely of a warrior, a man who lived for adventure, and deep down he truly loved to spread the word of his epic adventures and conquered beasts.
Christian was getting lost in the stampede. Nobody had really recognized him since he was not in the public’s eye often aside from a photo in a magazine here or there. Seth looked around at the different hair colors hoping to see Vincent, but was not successful. Seth felt someone bump into him from behind, he turned around to see a small black-haired girl who had dropped her stuffed panda bear. She looked up at him with a pair of lovely brown eyes. The small girl was a bit startled from running into the tall dark-haired stranger who towered over her. Seth noticed the stuffed animal and knelt down to pick it up. He remained in a squatting position after grabbing the furry bear and reached outward offering to hand over the small bear with a smile.
“Is this yours?” he asked
The small girl quickly grabbed the stuffed panda bear, “Fank you.” she quickly replied in a faint and timid voice before darting off into the crowd of children eager to see the local hero. Seth watched the girl fade away into the crowd with a look of pain on his face. His eyes began to water up. Christian glanced around and noticed Seth’s watery eyes and saw him making his way out of the cafeteria. The young prince was very puzzled by the detective’s actions, so he maneuvered through the hoard of children surrounding the grand duke to investigate. He opened the cafeteria door and walked into the hallway. He looked about and noticed Seth was near a small drinking fountain. The prince slowly approached the upset man. “Mr. Seth? You alright?” he asked.
The detective didn’t turn to look at Christian, but instead pulled out a small clothe and wiped his face. “Christian. Yes, I’m fine.”
“I thought it looked like, maybe you were crying or something.”
“I just needed some fresh air, that’s all.” Seth defended.
“Did something happen in there?” Christian wondered innocently.
Seth was silent for a moment and looked down into the drinking fountain, “There was, a little girl in there. She reminded me so much of Lilith when she was that age. She even had a stuffed panda, Lilith’s favorite animal.” he stated in a solemn voice. “It just hurts. I don’t get to see my little girl as much as I would like to these days.”
Christian remembered Seth mentioning Lilith was with her mother and realized she must not visit Seth often, “Oh, I see, because she’s always with her mother?” he asked.
Seth just looked down to the floor depressingly, “Yeah.”
While in the hallway the two of them had heard a loud yelling followed by a powerful snapping sound. This had gained their attention immediately.
“What was that?” Christian asked.
“Not sure,......” Seth slowly began walking towards another room, “....but I think it came from in here.” Seth opened the door and peered inside. Christian followed behind Seth, his face quickly lit up as he looked inside. It was an extremely large gym with a basketball court, swimming pool, and plenty of equipment for working out. But the prince was most pleased to see an isolated area for training with kendo sticks, which just so happen to have a young silvery haired teen practicing. Seth and Christian watched for a moment at the young man’s speed as he practiced striking upon a dummy. He showed plenty of technique and much promise for kendoka.
“That’s gotta be him!” the prince spouted happily. Christian walked over to the white-haired teen hurriedly. “Hey, how’ya do’n?”
The silvery haired young man turned with a glare at the interrupting royalty.
“Fine.” he responded, quickly returning to his training and striking a killing blow to the dummy. Seth started making his way towards him and the prince.
“Is your name Vincent?” Christian asked.
The white-haired boy slammed his kendo stick against the dummy once more before answering, “Yeah! Why? You wanna challenge me or something?” he asked in a frustrated tone.
Christian grew a massive smile on his face with excitement, “Heck yeah!” he answered running over and grabbing a spare kendo stick.
“Wait! Let’s not do that.” Seth quickly intervened. “It’s probably not a good idea.”
“Ah, don’t worry Mr. Seth, I’ll go easy on ’em.”
Vincent was insulted, “You’ll go EASY on me? Just who tha hell you think you are kid?”
Christian smiled, “I’m sorry, I’m Christian, Prince of Vailstone. Seth is just worried it’ll be an unfair match up cause I’ve had training lessons from the grand duke, but it’s okay, I won’t go all out on ya.”
Seth was anxious, he hadn’t known of Christian’s training with the grand duke, but was fairly confident in the prince’s loss if he were to sword fight against one another.
Vincent’s short fuse was quickly burned out with the prince’s belittlement of him. “So, you think you’re real beast cause you got trained by tha grand duke, huh?”
“I’m pretty good. I’ve always enjoyed sword fighting so I’ve made sure ta get really good at it!” Christian bragged.
The two teens stood on opposing sides of the kendo training mats which lay on the gym floor. Vincent separated his legs and positioned his kendo stick in a defensive position in case Christian was to catch him off guard. Christian on the other hand stood before Vincent and still failed to show any real form or posture that displayed any knowledge of sword fighting skills, despite all the training he’s received from Raziel. Seth had little to no confidence in the prince’s skills, so he watched nervously for him.
Vincent grew impatient while waiting for the prince to strike. “Enough!” he spouted. The white-haired teen charged towards Christian with fury. “AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!” he yelled while running at full speed towards him.
Christian’s eyes widened in a panic, he started backing up, but was forced to block a powerful strike from Vincent’s kendo stick. Even though Christian blocked the hit, the force of the strike had still caused the prince to be struck by his own kendo stick, which had resulted in him being popped in the head. After the first strike Vincent swept his leg across the training mat and tripped up Christian’s footing. The prince had fallen on his back and in that very instant the furious Vincent smacked the prince’s kendo stick out of his hands with his second strike. Christian’s only line of attack and defense was sent flying fifteen feet away! Vincent had a look of disgust on his face and pure hate in his eyes as he looked down upon the rich boy.
He pointed his kendo stick to Christian’s neck, “You’re not a swordsman. You don’t have what it takes,...” Vincent raised the kendo stick closer to the bottom of Christian’s chin, “…and you never will.” Vincent lowered the stick and turned to walk away.
Christian propped his back up using his elbows, but still remained laying on the mat, “You don’t know that! You’re wrong!” he yelled, trying to defend himself.
Vincent turned and looked at the pathetic display, “HA! You gonna cry?! Isn’t that proof enough?” he mocked with a smirk on his face. He started receiving enjoyment out of seeing the spoiled rich kid have his feelings hurt.
“Okay, that’s enough you two.” Seth intervened. He walked over and helped Christian to his feet.
“Why don’t you learn how to use some basic skills before trying ta challenge me again huh!” Vincent instructed with a bad attitude.
“That’s not actually why we came looking for you, ya know.” the detective replied taking Vincent’s attention away from the prince. “The grand duke of Vailstone is here with us, he says your help is needed.”
“With what?” he asked.
Seth sort of fumbled to answer the young man’s question, “I’m, actually not too sure really. All I know is somebody’s tried attacking the royal family recently. Other than that, I’m a bit hazy on the details at the moment.” he admitted a bit embarrassingly.
Vincent smacked his lips to emphasize his lack of concern, “Screw the “royal family”, I don’t care.”
“HEY!” Christian snapped back, “That’s MY family your talk’n bout! And Raziel says we need your help!”
“SO, WHAT!? I DON’T GIVA A SHIT, MAN! NOBODY was EVER around when I needed help huh! Now what? I got like, five months left to go before I can leave this place and then I can do my own thing. I don’t need any of you! And I don’t want to help you. As soon as I’m eighteen I’ll be a man, then I’m gone. Never see me again.” Vincent yelled furiously back at the prince and detective both with such emotion. It was obvious there was a conflict of pain and rage with in the lonely teen. “All of a sudden you people come from outta nowhere and say you need me and I’m supposed to be happy and wanna help you for no reason?”
“So, you’re turning eighteen in five months huh? What’s eighteen, it’s just a number. Something tells me you’ve been a man a long while now.” Seth said trying to calm the teen down and reach a reasonable level of discussion.
Vincent shook his head, “Man don’t. Don’t come here from nowhere and start talk’n ta me like you know me man.” he was not amused and was mildly irritated at Seth’s attempt to bond with him.
“You said that nobody was ever around for you, you were referring to your parents?”
“Hey, SHUT UP. You don’t know me and you don’t know anything about my parents.” Vincent objected.
Seth nod his head slightly, “Yes, I do.” Christian was intimidated by the young man’s fury and was shocked to hear Seth’s confession. “When I heard we stopped here for you, I knew I had to come along.”
“What, huh? You were friends with my parents and felt bad, but never cared to stop by or what? Or maybe you just wanted to see the guy with the silver hair, is that it?” the teen asked angrily.
“No, I know you got dealt a bad hand. When you were born, there was a lot of publicity about you and your silvery white hair. It drew a lot of attention, and there’re some crazy people out there with crazy ideas, your parents felt it was a sign of some sort of curse upon them. So, when your folks had given you up there were a few officers there to assure your safety.” Seth informed.
Vincent was fueled by Seth’s information and grabbed an additional kendo stick propped up against the wall. He faced Seth and threw it at him, Seth was a bit surprised, but still managed to grab the kendo stick in midair. Vincent slowly started walking closer to Seth, “So what’re you try’n ta say, huh?” he asked taking a speedy swing towards Seth.
Seth blocked the attack, “I was the officer on duty that day.” he said defending against yet another blow from Vincent.
“Na, man.” Vincent argued against the hurtful truth Seth was telling him.
“I was the cop your father handed you over to,........” Seth stopped talking to block another hit. “................to hand over to the orphanage.”
Vincent’s face turned red and he unleashed a barrage of strikes trying repeatedly to land in a good hit on the older man. Seth’s body movement usually appeared a bit sluggish, but he was certainly focused and moving quickly now. Seth remained on the defensive, allowing Vincent’s rage to continue and hopefully burn itself out. The silver haired boy struck from every angle. Vincent’s mind raced back and forth traveling through the past and present while he tried striking the black-haired man. He would strike against Seth as if he were striking against his parents, the orphanage, fate, and his loneliness. The detective would take steps backward to assist in taking notice of every blow from the teenager’s onslaught.
“What’s tha point huh? Why come’ere after all this time? Ta tell me this now?!” he questioned.
“Cause I wanted you ta know, I know!” Seth answered. “I know where you’re coming from.”
Vincent’s face turned even redder, “Ahhhh! You don’t know anything!” he growled still swinging wildly at the detective. “You can’t possibly know where I’m coming from, and don’t give me some rehashed crap about how your parents were never there for you either.” Vincent clashed his kendo stick against Seth’s and tried pushing him down while Seth resisted, each giving what strength they could muster to force away the other. “So what if you were there that day. It doesn’t change anything. That doesn’t make you special! You don’t mean anything to me! Your just like everyone else, always telling me you can relate we’re nothing a like!” the teenager growled.
Seth continued to stand his ground against the aggressive orphan, “You’re wrong Vincent, I too know what it’s like.” Seth paused for a moment, “That sense of abandonment. The deep empty loneliness that never goes away. That kind of loneliness that continues to eat at your soul everyday of your life, only helping to kill you a little more inside each day.”
Christian listened wondering if the dark pain Seth was referring to was his daughter never coming around to visiting him. Vincent became even more alert as he realized Seth was starting to press forward and push him back.
Raziel and the nerdy man from the front desk walked through the gym doors with a few students. They had all stopped upon seeing the two struggling against each other.
“What’s going on in here?” the man asked.
Vincent stopped his attack and started catching his breath, Seth lowered his guard “Nothing. We were just sparing.” Seth answered for him.
“Vincent, the grand duke is here! He wants to pay you a lot of money to travel with him for a bit. I wanted to tell you, you’ve been granted permission to travel with him if you like.” the man informed.
Vincent seemed uncertain, he still didn’t care to help out anyone but himself. “Hmmmm......” he groaned.
“Hitoshi is your last name, right? Doesn’t it mean benevolence?” Seth questioned.
Vincent looked at him, “Hitoshi was my parents last name.” he responded as if disowning his own last name.
“Hitoshi is YOUR last name, your parents just failed to honor it. Your parents failed to honor YOU.” Seth paused to catch a good breath. “This is your moment to bring honor to your OWN name. Break away from their footsteps of selfishness, do something your parents couldn’t.”
Vincent squeezed the handle of his kendo stick with his right hand as if strangling the life out of it. He glared his eyes, staring at the floor as if he were seeing through it. Multiple thoughts began rushing through his head. Vincent loosened his grip of the kendo stick and tossed it against the wall near all the other spare kendo sticks.
With his belongings packed, Vincent was seated on the terrain dosser with everyone else. The silver haired teen watched through his window seat as the orphanage faded into the distance as the search for the next of the chosen was to begin. No family around and no friends left behind, Vincent easily severed yet another part of his past.
