Team Legacy: Mach Blade

The "Origins" Saga: The Boy Named Mach Blade

The door to the bar opened, and an 18 year-old boy walked in. The bartender turned to the boy as he took a seat.

"Can I see some ID, kid?" The bartender asked. Normally, the bartender would have kicked the kid out right there; but when Recluse had come to power, the minimum drinking age had been lowered from 21 to 18.

The boy looked up, and then searched his pockets. For someone going to a bar, he was dressed pretty oddly; the boy was wearing a white trenchcoat, underneath which he wore a white shirt, all above long, white pants. He was wearing white shoes and fingerless, white gloves. His short, black hair was neatly cut, and his forehead revealed a black headband. The bartender was a little uneasy, however, as the most noticeable feature on the boy was his Sword, sheathed in a hilt at the boy’s side.

The boy finally found what he was looking for. "I’m sorry, I didn’t come here to drink..." The boy pulled out a picture from inside his trenchcoat. "Have you seen anyone like this?" The boy handed the picture to the bartender. As the bartender examined it there was a loud crash, followed by laughing and the shout of a girl coming from behind the boy.

"Well, look at this pretty thing!" One of the thugs said, his pals laughing as the thug held a young girl, looking only about 16 years old, by her hands. The girl was wearing a short-sleeved orange shirt, leaving her arms and hands completely bare, completing her outfit with a short orange skirt. Her feet sported only a pair of sandals, and her long, brown hair was tied back into two pig-tails. She was surprisingly attractive for such a young girl.

The girl screamed again as one of the thug’s friends grabbed her by the face. "Wow, I bet we can have a lot of fun with this one!" He said, licking his lips in anticipation.

The boy looked over the thugs; four in all, big and well-built men. All of them holding either knives or clubs at their sides, tucked under their belts. The girl struggled futilely against her attackers, and the boy sighed and approached the thugs.

"Now, it’s not nice to handle young woman like that!" The boy said nicely, smiling the thugs and the girl turned to him. "If it’s money you’re after, then I’m sure there are other places in this city that would have MUCH richer people to-"

"Shut that kid up!" The head thug said, and his other three cohorts charged him. In the blink of an eye, the boy grabbed a nearby chair and swung it at the nearest thug, breaking the chair and knocking him into the wall of the bar as he fell, unconscious. Another thug tried to get behind the boy, but the boy used the broken leg of the chair he had in hand to turn around with lightning-quick speed and toss it into the thug’s throat, causing the thug to gasp, hold onto his throat, and then fall down as he passed out from lack of oxygen. The last thug was still in front of the boy, and drew the knife out of his belt as he tried to stab the boy in the abdomen. However, just before the dagger connected, the boy was able to move out of the way and hit the thug on the back of the head with his sword, still sheathed, to knock the thug out. The boy then turned to the last thug, who had his knife out and was hovering it by the girl’s throat.

"OK, Mr. Hero, you better let me-" But in the next instant, the thug spat out in pain as his eyes rolled back into his head, dropping the knife and crying out as he suddenly grabbed hold of his "family jewels". The girl then quickly turned and kicked the thug on across the face, sending him sprawling to the floor. She then turned to the boy.

The girl, who had seemed terrified just a moment ago, now appeared to be VERY angry. She marched up to the boy and pointed her finger in his face. "OK, now what was that all about?!" She yelled, and now it was the boy’s turn to be shocked as he looked at the young girl. "I’ll have you know it took me 3 whole weeks to learn about those guys, discover how much money they carried on them, find out their weekly ‘binge drinking’ schedule, and get ALL SORTS of information on them, and NOW..." She looked around at the unconscious thugs. "Forget it." She quickly bent down and searched their bodies. "This is so NOT how I wanted to do this..." She soon came back to her feet with wads of cash in her hands, and her expression had changed to one of joy. "WOW, this is even more than I thought they’d have!" She said, smiling as she counted the money.

The boy continued to look on in disbelief, then scolded her. "Hey, you’re ROBBING them!" He said, pointing his finger at her as a parent would at a child. "They may have been wrong in trying to-"

"Wow, what are you, some kind of monk?" The girl said, looking the boy over. She then slapped the boy’s pointing hand away. "And would you get your finger out of my-!"

She was interrupted as the bartender fired a shotgun blast to the left of them. "You two kids get the HELL out of my bar!" He yelled, throwing the boy’s picture at them. Catching the picture and putting it back into his trenchcoat pocket, the boy grabbed the girl (ignoring her cries of protest) and carried her as he ran out of the bar as fast as he could. Soon, the two were out in the middle of an abandoned park, and the boy placed the girl on a dirty and rusty metal bench.

"Hey! What the hell do you think you’re doing!" The girl shouted, immediately jumping off the bench.

The boy looked at girl in disbelief. "I THOUGHT I was saving your life..." He said softly.

"Oh, you..." The girl said angrily, beginning to walk away. "Good-bye!" She said, reaching inside her orange shirt for her money. She then stopped cold. "My money! Where’d it go?!" She yelled, looking immediately running back to the bench and looking around on the dirty grass of the park. She then turned to the boy. "YOU! I must have dropped it when YOU grabbed me! How dare you!" She gritted her teeth in anger.

"Huh?" The boy said, reaching into his trenchcoat. He pulled out the money that the girl had stolen. "You mean this?" The girl gasped and then tried to grab the money, but the boy pulled it away from her. Angrily, the girl lunged at the boy, but the boy simply moved away and the girl landed in the muddy grass, getting her outfit dirty.

"LOOK WHAT YOU’VE DONE!!!" The girl said, standing up and practically fuming at the ears in anger. She then swung her fist at the boy. "COBRA PUNCH!" She yelled, but the boy stepped out of the way. "CRANE KICK!" The girl yelled, swinging her leg backward in an attempt to catch the boy in his side, but the boy easily moved out of the way.

"Umm... you’re not very strong, are you?" The boy asked, to which the girl responded by swinging at the boy with her fists repeatedly, to which the boy responded by blocking all of her punches with one hand.

The girl stopped her attack after some time, looking in disbelief at the boy. "Are you even human?" She asked breathlessly.

"Quite human, really." The boy said, placing the money back into his trenchcoat. "But to think that a girl like you would do something so dangerous with those thugs... what was a young girl like you even doing IN that bar in the first place?"

"Hmph!" The girl sighed, crossing her arms across her chest. "I could ask YOU the same question, you know!"

The boy sighed again. "I didn’t go in there to drink..." The boy reached into his trenchcoat once more, pulling out his picture once again. "I was going to see if anyone recognized this girl." He handed the picture to the girl.

The girl examined the picture. It showed a young girl, about 8 years old, smiling as she had her arm wrapped around a young boy the same age (she was choking him in the process, though the girl in the photo wasn’t aware of that). Both the girl and the boy in the photo were wearing matching blue uniforms, and it seemed like they were at some type of dojo. The girl examined the girl in the photo... she seemed rather cute, actually, with her crimson red hair tied back in a ponytail...

"That’s cute." The girl said, handing the photo back to the boy. "So, who is she? Your childhood girlfriend or something?"

"No..." The boy said quickly, thinking back. "It’s just that..."

"Ow!" Rose said, falling onto the ground.

"Oh! I’m sorry Rose, I didn’t mean to hurt you!" Ken said, running down to Rose to see how badly she was injured. However, when he ran to her side...

"Hyaa!" Rose said, smiling as she grabbed Ken’s arm and pulled him down to the ground with her. Ken lifted his head up as Rose laughed, and Ken soon joined her.

"You get tricked really easy, Ken!" Rose said, helping Ken up. "At this rate, you’ll never become a Sword Wielder!"

Ken gasped. "I WILL become a Sword Wielder!" He yelled, slightly alarming Rose. "After all, it’s the highest and best form of fighting that can be learned here! Not even our Master was able to become one!" Ken’s eyes fluttered downward. "And besides, we made a promise when we first met..."

Rose smiled as the two walked down the stone path leading back to the main area of the dojo...

"It’s just that..." The boy said, still thinking back...

"Of all of the honors that a student of the Genshin-Long School can learn, the honor of becoming a Sword Wielder is the highest!" The Head Dojo Master said, addressing the small group of about 20 students, all of whom were still very young. Ken and Rose, both age 12, were among them. "However, the art of the Sword Wielder was originally meant to kill!" The Dojo Master said, and many students, including Ken and Rose, gasped. "Because of this, EVEN the very few of you who pass the ULTIMATE TEST and become a Sword Wielder, must vow to NEVER use the Techniques learned on ANY LIVING SOUL. If any among you still have foolish beliefs that wielding a Sword brings great honor and glory, you must rid yourself of such childish nonsense NOW! The truth is that learning to wield a Sword is learning how to kill! THAT is the ONE TRUTH you must NEVER forget!"

"It’s..." The boy continued to remember...

Ken turned in time to see the fire, the flame, the screams echoing across the horizon. Ken ran, his heartbeat so loud it almost deafened him to the screams...

"You must never touch those Swords in the Holy Shrine!" The Dojo Master’s words rang in his head. "No matter what happens, no matter how dire the situation..."

"Rose!" He yelled, the sweat running down his head, he could barely see her in the darkness...

"I’ll make sure you’re safe!" Rose said.

"Rose, we must..." Ken sobbed.

Ken looked over a boulder, gasping for air.

"ROSE!!!" He yelled into the night sky, tears streaming down his face...

"HELLO!?!?!" The girl said, knocking the boy in the head. The blow knocked the boy back to the present. "You’ve been standing there in a trance for the last 5 minutes! I thought you’re brain had shorted out, or something!" She looked at the boy, and the boy could almost swear he saw concern in her eyes...

"Oh, I’m sorry..." The boy said, blushing slightly.

The girl frowned. "Were you having a naughty day dream about your girlfriend?" She asked teasingly.

The boy turned red. "NO, I WAS NOT!" He yelled, and the girl dropped the subject.

"Well, seeing as how YOU’RE the one with MY money, I suppose YOU will be buying me a new dress, right?" The girl said, smiling as she began to walk out of the park.

"A new dress?" The boy asked, looking at the stolen money in his hands. "It wouldn’t be right, at least not with money we didn’t earn..."

"Whatever you say, Monk." The girl said. "If that’s how you feel, give that money to a charity or something. After all, I’m sure you can work in an iron mill or something for a couple weeks to earn the money to pay for my new outfit!"

"I’m not a monk!" The boy yelled, running after the girl. " I’m... called Mach Blade." The boy’s tone had softened immensely.

"‘Mach Blade’?" The girl asked. "That’s a Hero name if I ever heard one. I guess you really don’t like your real name, huh?. That’s just like me!" She said, stopping and turning to Mach Blade. "My mother named me Daisy, but I don’t like that name at all. I’ve been thinking of getting a Hero name too, like ‘Fighting Flower’ or ‘Daring Daisy’! Cool, huh?"

"Umm... I don’t hate my name, really..." Mach Blade said. "To be honest, I wouldn’t mind being addressed by my real name."

"Oh?" Daisy asked. "What is it?"

"It’s Ken." He said, smiling. "Call me Ken."