Kento and the rest of his friends came to the west wing of the palace, entering the Critical Care Unit of the health wing in the East of the palace. Tamemoto Takeshi, the general of the palace of Kyoto stood motionless, expecting the company of a few teenagers, confused by the recent happenings. He was by nature a very calm man. An ally could look into his eyes and put trust in him, whereas enemies would crumble to their knees and beg for forgiveness. But today his eyes, as grey as the shallow sea, were filled with calamity and uncertainty.
“Kento, I’ve been expecting your arrival, I believe Sensei Akio sent you the message to be summoned.”
“Yes, Takeshi-Sama, I have no idea what's happening. I mean my parents, are they alright? What happened to them? I saw them this morning.”
“I understand, right now I want you to remain calm, aggression will not diffuse the situation Kento-san.”
“Please let me inside, why did you call me? I want to know what’s happening, what happened to my parents?!” Kento, who was now agitated by the remarks of the general, frantically tried to get himself through the door, to see his parents. Never once in his entire life had Kento seen his parents sick and thought that they had fallen unconscious. It was almost impossible. His father Katsuro, a military general of the ninja army, and Miyuki, his mother, the chief physician of the Royal Medical Centre, both important figures in the frontline defences of Iga, now drowned in a coma, estranged and drifting away from Kento.
Kyuzo, who tried his best to remain calm, though he was a nervous wreck inside, attempted to soothe his brother.
After a minute or so, Kento was finally consoled. A moment later, the door was opened by Doctor Naoko. Doctor Naoko was Miyuki’s childhood best friend, and a doctor working alongside Miyuki in the health department. She immediately recognized the familiar face of Kento, who had Miyuki’s eyes and complexion. She embraced both Kyuzo and Kento. She motioned the two inside the room - Kento noticed her puffy eyes. She had been crying for a while, but she tried to make up her face when she saw Kento and the others.
She guided them through a few doors until they came to a room. Doctor Naoko rapped on the door and it opened. Kento was very anxious to see his parents. He was confused and he had lots of questions he needed answers to immediately. The sight Kento saw next rattled him to his bones. His mother and father lay in separate futons five feet apart. Both of their faces were paler than usual. The dark circles around their eyes made them look weary and aged.
Their skin looked dishevelled and detached from their body as if their souls had left their bodies. The image was petrifying. The rest of the peripheral environment dissolved as Kento entered this dark void which took everything else away and only left Kento and his parents who were in a critical situation.
The very thought resonated in Kento’s mind for a while. “Can you at least tell me what happened?” Kento inquired of the young doctor in a pleading tone.
“You might be aware that your mother and I have been working on our manuscripts on acupuncture and moxibustion. Well, we’ve been working on them for quite a while, but we stopped making progress a while back when I was called as a medic on a three-week journey to Hokkaido. It’s been a few days since I’ve returned and today is the second day I’m working with her after my return. We went to the library to conduct our research which went on for about two hours. Normally we would carry on our research for at least four hours, but today, upon her request, I adjourned the research sessions earlier than usual, which is quite unusual since she never liked to call off while we were working. I thought that it was because the books and all the dust were triggering her allergies. But little did I know that the moment we got out of the library she would collapse to the ground. It all happened so fast that I couldn’t tie together the ends of what just happened. In an instant, the hospital staff informed me that Katsuro-sama had been admitted to the health unit as well. Your father was coughing blood just before he went into a coma. Your mother, however, went in and out of consciousness. She tried to fight what was consuming her. After a few minutes, even with our best medical team in action, she was met with the same fate. She also started coughing blood and lost consciousness.”
“Could it be an internal trauma?” Kumiko inquired.
“I doubt it. As I said, Miyuki was with me the entire day and Katsuro was at the main gates awaiting the arrival of some important documents. Both of them came unscathed. We can confirm that there haven’t been any opportunities for Miyuki to receive any kind of physical contact.”
Kento nodded, trying to comprehend everything Doctor Naoko had said. Naoko noticed the look of anxiety and concern etched across Kento’s face.
“Well, there are lots of tests that still need to be done to understand what has just happened. Until then let’s not try to jump to any conclusions.“
The minute she’d completed her sentence, there was a sharp knock on the door, and in came the symbol of the Imperial power of Japan.
Kento despised this man but bowed down to greet him. Following the great emperor came Sensei Akio, his face shallow and grief-stricken. That was enough evidence for Kento to believe that things were not headed in the right direction.
“Umm... I have to go and fetch the results of the tests done by our forensics team, pardon me, your highness.” Doctor Naoko excused herself and left the premises immediately after the arrival of the emperor. Sensei Akio, the monarch, Kento and his friends were all left in the room, and the tension and unease were getting thicker.
Hinako was petrified by what had happened to both Miyuki and Katsuro. She was weeping silently beside them. As she continued to ignore the presence of the emperor, he felt insulted. So in retaliation, he went up to her and attempted to trap her in a conversation.
Kumiko, her best friend, took Hinako’s side as the conversation happened. The rest followed. The Emperor smirked and said, “Breathe people, please. Crying isn’t going to help improve the situation at all. Besides this isn’t the only problem I’ve got now.”
It was his habit to talk garbage about people, even though those people served their bloodline greatly, and sometimes even helped him out personally during times of need. But there was hardly anything the people around him could do about it.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
"Hey kid, you are the older son of Hattori Katsuro. Right? Is it Kunto?” the emperor inquired.
“It’s Kento...” he answered with a bit of annoyance in his tone. The Emperor stared at Kento as if waiting for him to finish the sentence.
“...your Highness."
"That explains it. Kento, I feel sorry for the unexpected incident that happened to your parents. They were very skilful and loyal to the Royal Palace. But what happened to your parents is … well, how can I say this, enigmatic? The best men on the case have still given us no concrete evidence to even find the reason for all of this. But I must say that this isn’t the first time we’ve seen unexplained deaths, especially for people from Iga. So keep your options open. Death is inevitable, kid. Everyone dies at the end. It’s just a matter of when and how. That’s the great thing we call the circle of life,” the Emperor voiced insensitively.
“Your Majesty…” Sensei Akio interfered just in time before the emperor could say something more callous, and end up regretting it later.
“Miyuki and Katsuro are two of the most skilful and loyal people I have ever seen who have done work with exceptional dedication. I’m sure you feel the same too. Please, I urge you to do something regarding this. Kento and the rest of his friends will be willing to support you through the entire process…”
“That's enough… Well, come to think of it, your parents always worked with perseverance. Your father was one of the cleverest soldiers of the battalion. His military operations were straight-up successful, nothing less. Talking about your mother, she was just like your father. Thanks to her efforts, my daughter was saved when that Kōga traitor poisoned her with a deadly toxin."
Doctor Naoko walked in, bringing in some reports. The emperor seemed to recognize the young doctor.
“Doctor Namda?”
“It’s Naoko, sire.”
“Alright, Doctor Naoko… can you please bring those reports to me?”
“Sure, your Highness. But I doubt that there'll be anything useful for us to work with.” The doctor said, handing the reports over to the emperor.
The Emperor didn’t understand a word on the papers. He clumsily looked through the neatly written document and pretended as if he was scrutinizing it with every inch of his being. Even though nobody was convinced by his acting, he thought that he was doing a terrific job. Then he silently handed back the papers.
“Anything interesting, your Majesty?” Kento asked.
“You heard the doctor kid, there is hardly anything useful for us to work with. Why don’t we bring some tea over here.” The Emperor said, motioning to one of his minions. He tried to redirect and change the topic, which at the moment was in danger of heading in the direction of his medical knowledge that he spoke very highly of. His knowledge of medicine and the knowledge monkeys have on how the universe works had very convincing similarities.
“That won’t be necessary, your Highness. Thank you,” Kento said, leashing the Emperor back into the conversation. There was a moment when all were left in silence, and the emperor broke the deadlock.
“Was it an ambush?”
“The possibility of that happening is very slim. We discussed that before your arrival, plus both of them were admitted to the hospital physically unharmed,“ Naoko said.
“So, they were poisoned? Or did they have a contagious disease or something like that?” Yamazaki inquired. And for a moment everyone started to accept that hypothesis. Then Doctor Naoko replied,“ It’s interesting you brought that up because I thought about the same thing but once we tested their blood, we couldn't find any poison nor any traces of a pathogen in it. Certainly, this wasn't caused by an external factor.”
Kento felt something quite unusual and peculiar about this chain of incidents. He wondered whether Doctor Naoko had thought about that, so he decided to put it out in the open.
“My mother and father both fell unconscious at the same time following the same sequence of events. Doesn’t that mean that everything was synchronous?”
Doctor Naoko, stirred by this assumption said, “Hold that thought,” and she left the room. She came back with another person, who wore the same uniform Kento's father wears when he is on official duties. It was a member of the advisory committee of the royal battalion of the ninja army, Masashibe Yamabe. The man had a worried face, a concerned look painted all over his face, eager to see his fellow downed colleague. “Yamabe, were you there when all of this happened?” Naoko asked. Yamabe was unresponsive for a moment as he was completely mystified by how Katsuro lay unconscious. He shook himself and said.
“Yes, I was there.”
“If you could please explain to us what happened.”
“Today we had the second assembly for this month. It was a discussion on how the province should reinforce its security around our perimeter. Katsuro was leading the entire proceedings. When he got up to read out his proposal to the assembly and was almost ready to begin his speech, he started coughing blood. And then, as if some invisible arrow shot him, he fell onto the ground.”
“Thank you very much Yamabe-san, thank you for giving us some details.” Doctor Naoko said and walked him to the door.
“The health team was quick to act and was able to admit Katsuro-sama under a minute after he fell unconscious.” Doctor Naoko carried on the conversation as the advisor left. “So that leads us to believe that both Miyuki-san and Katsuro-sama…”
“…Fell unconscious at the same time, which means that not only were their last moments in sync, but the entire scene was in synchronisation.” Kumiko said, completing Naoko’s sentence.
Kyuzo's mind which was tangled by the strings of confusion broke out a reply.
"Now that’s just brilliant. Out of all the scientific explanations you can come up with, the most formidable answer you can give us is some profane malediction. How the hell did this happen to our parents?” Kyuzo said angrily.
Kento was starting to get a bit lost too. He felt as if some crucial parts of the story had been hidden from him. Truly, what other explanation could there be? Not a single bruise, not a single trace of poison or pathogen in their blood. But both of his parents lay unconscious in front of him.
Sensei Akio who has been staggered by these new revelations was silent through most parts of the conversation.
"Could it be? Has the time finally come? The prophecy said that this day will come eventually, but not this soon. The star was protected by our very best. I must go in search of it.”
The sensei closed his eyes and transferred his consciousness to another layer of reality. Then he tried to focus on that one object. He kept searching and searching for its powerful presence. He could feel its aura, but the more he went in search of it, the more he got lost. Then once he ended up in the place where he was certain to find the object, it was not there. Everything was gone and he was stuck in a void and empty layer of nothingness. Morbid feelings struck him immediately. He knew that the words of the prophecy had come true. He must tell it to the others. Sensei Akio escaped and returned to reality. Then he found all of the eyes in the room were strained on him, curious. He knew what had to be said, and what had to be done. If they weren’t, this day would forever be remembered as the day when they lost two important souls; Miyuki and Katsuro.
“It’s been taken, the sanctity of the star has been breached!”
“What?” Kento asked quizzically.
Sensei Akio turned towards Kento, looked him straight in the eye and said in a grim voice.
“The Star of Izanagi… it has been stolen!”