The Unbreakable Bow

"Pardon master, an unbreakable what now ?" Asked Kaito looking like ears aren't working.

"An unbreakable bow... I have gone to a far village near the border with Tabollba. It was empty. A good hiding place for the local thief who stole one of the pieces for project 'Unmei' . It turned out that he was just a young boy. He looked like a peasant, in fact, more dirty than a normal peasant would be.However, his weapon was something unique, a bow made of spirit magic, but what surprised me the most was the fact that he had no enchanted tool ."

"My lord, are you sure that he had no enchanted tool whatsoever? It could be a small ring ?" Wondered Miyamoto

"No, throughout this fight, I never sensed the usage of an enchanted tool. That bow was purely made out of natural soul magic. "

"Excuse me, but as far as I know, natural soul magic is only used in the making of enchanted tools .. you know, to put an enchantment on said tool... Since when did it create weapons on its own ?" Interapted Kaito .

"Well , Kaito, some skilled warriors like me and our Lord are capable of using soul magic to summon spirits mostly using enchanted tools with the exception of our lord, of course..."

Mocked Miyamoto gently

"Since when did spirits transform into bows ? "

"Well , spirits take a lot of different forms, so it might be a bow-shaped spirit despite the fact that spirits take only a form of mythical creature .But it takes a lot of skill and practice to control one properly... I must give it to the kid , he has unbelievable talent at such a young age , and his spirit was so stable that it seemed like an object . I never thought that there was someone capable of such thing.. It's truly unbelievable !"

Rin, who was listening, quietly cut the conversation short when he said :

"What is truly unbelievable is the fact that project 'Katto' was blocked by a mere spirit. Spirits are fragile beings . Our Lord shouldn't have found the slightest difficulty in slashing it in two . Am I right master ?"

"That is what confused me ever since our confrontation. A dense spirit ... That kid may have made a new discovery in the usage of soul magic, and I want to know how ... On the flip side , he made me realise something important. 'Katto' puts much more strain on me than expected ... Had I used a plain regular katana , I would got pass his defences and cut his head several times. Not to mention that he stole the two pieces of Unmei from right under my nose . He is a skilled thief alright, but not to the point I didn't notice it until he was gone. That is why I have decided to minimise the usage of Katto in actual combat until we finish Unmei. "

"But how are you going to finish it with all the pieces gone ?"

Barked Kaito

"Well, we know who has them, right ? All we need to find and this time we give him an offer . "

"What offer ?"

"Join us . We all want to know about that bow , right? I am sure we can satisfy his selfish desires .After all , he is just a lonely thief ."

"Oh , and when we are done with him , he gets it," Kaito said as he horrifically ran his thumb around his neck .

"Well, Kaito, that depends on him . If I see any usage of him , we will keep him for future campaigns. Rin , I suppose I don't need to ask you to track him down ?"

"Tell me master , does he have a green cape and hood ?"

The room fell silent .

"Yes..."

"Wait, wha-... how the heck did you know ?"

"I believe I already have his trail by accident . Do you mind if I enter three recent captives of mine ?"

"No , let them enter."

Rin gave the signal to the guards. After some time has passed , three individuals, head covered , chains binding their arms, were forced on their knees by the guards. Then, each one of them were unmasked , revealing their faces to the Lord . Their faces were unfamiliar with any of the present .

The one on the left with a long face and milk-chocolate hair was shivering in fear. He couldn't even look up from the terror he felt . On the right , the man took a quick look at them and then went back into staring at the floor ,his dark black hair hiding his forehead. In the middle , a blond man had fixed his eyes on the person facing him . The empty eyelids of the oni mask stared back . It became a silent staring contest.

"These are three troublemakers that my men have caught recently. They were planning to take part in the events at Canne, but they got into a disagreement.... It only took me some introgation from Louis over here.." He pointed at the man on left who kissed the ground the moment he heard his name.A grunt could be heard from the other two, but it wasn't clear which one exactly.

"... Apparently, they got their hands on the heir to the Tabollba throne and were planning to give her to us for a price until an unfortunate chain of events led to her escape..."

"How awful...if they had succeeded, I would have honestly had her send home in a royal caravan with a gift of their three heads . And may I guess that the unfortunate chain of events include a boy with a glowing bow ?..."

"Yes master. Apparently, a brown-haired boy with a green cape attacked them and distracted two of them , while a moving skeleton literally threw the big one miles away before taking the the princesse and then both of them mysteriously disappeared. "

Kaito snapped:

"Excuse me , but I think I heard a moving skeleton? Please Miyamoto...Tell me that is just another unique spirit? Huh?"

"Well.. -"

"It is most likely not . They said it could speak . Spirits don't speak . "

"That is what we thought about spirits forming weapons . So I believe we shouldn't just cross out that possibility. "

"Well, master . Depending on its appearance, it might indeed be a spirit. The only witness is sir Fred . Tell me Fred , how did the skeleton look like ? Was it glowing?"

The man mentioned did move, nor did he speak , he just continued staring at the floor .

"Speak you scum ! This is all your fault " Hissed his friend on the right.

"You have my permission to speak, so use it wisely."

Snared Ryuji.

"If-f if .. YOU WANT SOMETHING FROM ME THEN FIGHT ME FOR IT YOU BASTED "

All of the present looked at each other.

"Are you crazy?!"

"Alright , if a duel is what you want, then you shall have one ."

Ryuji calmly replied , standing up and turning his back on him to get his displayed katana . As everyone looked at him , Fred took his chance, revealing a hidden dragger in his ragged shoe ,jumping all forward to the venerable enemy targeting at his neck. As all the crowd was watching their lord , they still were quick to react, but it was too late . The dagger will enter the shogun's neck any moment now.

"This is for my broth -"

Then the offenser stopped mid-air, dropping his dagger. His arms unconsciously went for his throat, trying to free it from whatever had strangled him from the neck . A huge force wrapped itself on him ,squeezing his entire body. He couldn't feel the ground. Was he floating ? No, he could feel very sharp teeth cutting deep into his throat . Warm blood spilt as his hands desperately did anything they could to get the snake off him . He couldn't see or hear anything clearly. As his vision became more and more blurred , his uncontrollable movements got even crazier.

However, to everyone else, it was clear what had happened. A purple-white glowing dragon figure has indeed wrapped itself on the poor soul . Its form wasn't very stable. Parts of it would fade away into the air . It was like a burning eastern dragon but producing no heat at all.

"I was going to fight like an honourable warrior, but it seems that you have no honour anyway . " Then suddenly , the man stooped moving, as life has left his body. "Pardon me , it seems your time is up.."

As the dragon faded away, the corpse fell on the map, polluting the fine map with warm blood .

"Take him away,"

A guard took the body away in a hurry as the two captives both were now sweating in fear .

"Was that ..?"

"Yes , Kaito . You have just witnessed a perfectly made spirit from our Lord ." Pointed out Miyamoto.

Ryuji returned his katana to its place and turned..

"Now for these two..."

"My Lord ! Please forgive the ignorance of my companion. I-i may not have any information about the skeleton b-but I know something that might you find interesting "

"Speak then ...what is his name ?" Ryuji asked Rin, but before he could answer. The captive replied :

"Thomas, my lord , Thomas. The boy had a golden key. It looked very important. He risked his life over it . Maybe it has something to do with the skeleton master.."

The listeners exchanged looks. They didn't look pleasant .

"Anything else?"

"Well er-r no b-but"

"Very well , execute them , they know too much."

"Wait , NO.. please forgive us." The two men plied as the guards pulled them away.

"If please to be forgiven, then we shall have an honourable duel to the death."

With those words , at least Thomas accepted his fate . He would much rather be decapitated by the sword than be strangled by a dragon spirit. The moans of Louis could still be heard getting softer as he went.

"Forgive me, my Lord. I wasn't the one to capture them . I will punish the one responsible for not checking his shoes. "

"No need , Rin . He wasn't a threat to start with."

"Yeah, he really thought that his small knife would cut through the Shogun's armor."

"But we still shouldn't take our guard down."

"Now let's get back to our problem. The boy is now most likely in the Kingdom of Tabollba with three of the keys. Since he stole two of them , he is most likely to try to activate them . He would probably ask for any information about the keys . Unfortunately for him , almost no one knows about them for now ."

"Master , I think I have a good enough plan for the current situation. When we find him , we will send him a letter with a friendly bird. "

Kaito raised his eyebrows.

" Metaphorically, I meant. And let him find the other keys for us and then when he finds them and we either make join us or get rid of him and thus nobody will ever know about our plan . "

"Rin, I must say your plan is great, but it is still quite risky. I am not going to put a bet on a peasant. He might have some talent, but he can meet his doom easily. Plus, we are in a hurry and we won't wait for one man . I believe I have a better plan . We will spread rumours about magical keys that make dreams come true . People are greedy and will do anything for wealth or power . We utilise the raiders that the C.O.T.U.R has created for our own benefit .In no time , the location of the eight keys will be clear, and all we need will be to take them. It might be risky, but there isn't anyone strong enough to challenge me . Even in the worst case , whoever has the keys will need to come to us if they want to know how to activate them. "

"Well , master, I must say that it is also risky as we might face new unexpected issues with this plan . We can never know what lies in the shadows.. "

"That is why we need to get the keys as fast as possible. The C.O.T.U.R. is already planning something, trust me . If they deem us a direct threat to their authority, they do anything to crush us . That is why we need both Katto and Unmei ready as the quick as possible. If anyone has a better suggestion , then please enlighten us."

The room fell silent.

"Then , I have decided that we will do as I have said . And for the Republic and the coalition, Kaito tell the Republic about the fleet, and they will show their true colours. Tell them to join our fleet to defend the Odalu straites, and I will be present there . Miyamoto, keep an eye on any rebels remaining as well as the borders with Tabollba. Rin, take care of our plan and search for the boy, and if any news arrives about him ,tell me immediately. You can all leave. Goodnight. "