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A storm fiercer than any Zura had ever seen in his life raged in the sky, howling through the city rooftops. A flash of lightning illuminated the man who stood in front of him, the Jouishishi leader, and the faces of his samurai in the shadows. They were samurai Zura once thought he belonged with, though now, they were closer to strangers than ever before. The war they’d fought together didn’t matter anymore. All that mattered now in this storm was the war he’d started with them.
The war that led to his exile.
“You shouldn’t have come here,” Hayato said, his swords shining in the lightning.
“No,” Zura said, holding up his own sword, a weapon worn by two years of practice for this moment. “You shouldn’t have stayed here.”
On that day eight years ago, they fought on the rooftops of Edo, and on this day eight years later, they were running on the ground in the shadow of the rooftops on an alien planet. Rakuyou. It was a planet where it seldom stopped raining, and when it wasn’t raining, the dust of ships taking off filled the sky with tan clouds. Many were pirate ships, but not all. Some belonged to explorers, and some belonged to desperate people trying to save their home planet.
Zura and Hayato were in the latter category, allies at last.
But will you trust me to handle this? Zura thought with a glance back at him. You once told me I could never be like you. You said I put everyone in danger.
Am I doing that again?
Explosions rang out behind them, and rubble and debris thundered to the ground in a storm of smoke and fire. The flames narrowly missed the samurai at the back of the group, and Zura flinched.
Then he yelled at everyone to run faster.
I have to get them out of here, he said to himself. I have to keep them safe. That’s what a leader does.
He’d been doing that for years, keeping everyone safe. But what if today was the day he failed? What if today was the day he proved Hayato right?
What if I never should have returned after all?
“Katsura,” Hayato said, “we can’t keep running forever.”
“Some of us have joint problems,” Sakai added helpfully.
“Joint?” Hayato said, snapping his head around to look at him. “Where?”
“My bones are about to crack,” Kusunoki said.
“Crack?” Hayato said as he looked at him instead. “Where?”
“In my pants,” Kusunoki said.
“Everyone has crack in their pants,” Ashikaga said.
“Hand it over.” Hayato held out his hand. “I haven’t had anything good since we left Earth.”
“Neither have I,” Kusunoki said.
“Wow,” Ashikaga said. “I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that.”
“Wait,” Hayato said, “you’ve tried crack? Since when?”
“Sixteen, maybe?” Kusunoki said. “I’m not keeping track. Why are you surprised?”
“Because as sketchy as you look, you don’t seem like someone who would be into drugs,” Hayato said.
“Oh,” Kusunoki said. “You were talking about drugs?”
Hayato stared at him. “What…kind of crack were you talking about?”
Before Kusunoki could elaborate, Guren shoved him aside and said, “Katsura, most of us are in our thirties. We can’t outrun that monkey.”
“Thirty isn’t that old,” Ashikaga said. “Only one of my knees hurts today.”
“A new record,” Kusunoki said.
He rubbed his hands together and said, “All of my joints are fine. Let me fight the monkey.”
“No,” Zura said quickly. “No one is fighting the monkey.”
“Then what are we doing with Mr. Monkey?” Hayato said. “In case you haven’t noticed, Mr. Monkey is trying to kill us.”
“I’ve noticed,” Zura snapped, and then he took a deep breath and stopped running, letting everyone pass him. He didn’t need to communicate his intentions to Elizabeth. Elizabeth already knew, and he was leading everyone else away.
Well, mostly everyone else.
“Is this your plan for dealing with him?” Hayato said. “Because I don’t think so.”
Zura turned to face the explosions, and Hayato turned too, and the sound of more footsteps told Zura that Guren, Kusunoki, and Ashikaga were also there.
“We’ve been with you for too long to abandon you now,” Ashikaga said.
“If you’re going to fight the monkey, you won’t be alone,” Kusunoki said. “It’s a big monkey.”
“No way,” Ashikaga said, watching the giant space pirate tear through the rooftops. “I thought it was a small monkey.”
“It’s more of a gorilla,” Guren said. “Wonder if it’s related to Kondo.”
“Kondo’s legs are nice,” Kusunoki said.
“That’s not relevant,” Guren said.
“Kondo’s legs are always relevant,” Kusunoki said.
“Unlike you,” Ashikaga said.
“That wasn’t very nice,” Kusunoki said. “I’m going to feed you to the giant monkey.”
“I think he only eats bananas,” Ashikaga said.
“Then turn into a banana,” Kusunoki said. “Aren’t you a shapeshifter?”
“I can’t turn into fruits,” Ashikaga said.
“But you are one,” Kusunoki said.
“We don’t have time for this,” Hayato said. “Katsura, what are your orders?”
“Run,” Zura said. “Let me handle this.”
Silence.
“What?” Hayato said. “We can’t do that.”
“You have to,” Zura said. “When you stepped down as leader and chose me to take your place, you entrusted me with the responsibility of protecting this organization.”
“If the leader dies, the organization dies with him,” Hayato said. “You’re the one who should run.”
“I have leaders all around me,” Zura said. “I have nothing to fear from dying. So for now, take the burden of being the leader again. All of you.”
He walked away from them, walking towards the fire, towards the giant monkey.
Towards Neptune Shokaku.
“Hayato,” Zura said, “you will recall I lost that time I challenged you. Even when met with you, the greatest enemy I had ever faced in my life, I couldn’t rip off the coward’s skin I trapped myself in. You didn’t have to see who I really was because I knew that if you killed me, there would still be someone to fight for our future. Our future is hanging in the balance now. Everything is hanging in the balance.”
He thought of Ikumatsu back home and knew the people they were fighting could hurt her from very far away, and his hands clenched into fists. Protecting her started here. Protecting everyone started here. “This is my fight, and it’s my fight alone. This is where I show my true colors. This is where Runaway Kotaro stops running and the Prince of Madness comes alive. And this is where you run with the others. Keep running towards tomorrow—I’m gonna make sure it’s the tomorrow we wanted.”
With that, he was engulfed by the smoke and the fire, surrounded by Shokaku’s snarl. Zura yelled and ran through that fire, ripping off his jacket and one of his sleeves.
“Monkey!”
Shokaku was waiting for him, and their weapons clashed. When Zura fought Hayato, he fought with almost everything he had. Almost. There was a barrier he wouldn’t break, a barrier that kept the beast inside him from escaping. But now that beast was free, and it made itself known with all the blood it spilled. This blood didn’t matter. This wasn’t the blood of a comrade. This was the blood of an enemy, and he was going to spill it all.
Winning this war starts here.
Keeping everyone safe starts here.
Going home to her, going home to everyone…it starts here and now with me spilling every last drop of your blood.
There’s nothing holding me back anymore.
To the beast that slashed wildly at the enemy and protected everything he held close to his heart, Zura waved hello.
We meet again on this planet of dust and rain.