Chapter 1

Chapter 1

TEN YEARS LATER

“Recruits! You’re only one step away from becoming an official samurai of Earth!” With his hands behind his back, Captain Robert Williams boomed at hundreds of new samurais. “But first, I would like for you to listen to me carefully, samurais! I expect that you learned everything during your training.

“You are the warriors of Earth; sworn to protect, to serve, and to die for every single Earthling! Since the day our Lady was murdered by the Martians, we had been sending thousands of the troops to Mars for the last decade, but they never even made it there. However, only thirty percent of them came back alive… at the cost of the lives of their comrades… their limbs… and, as well as their own wounded hearts. I hope you’re fully prepared for the fight you may or may not win. Expect the unexpected!

“Today, you will be joining one of the most powerful troops, known as Sora, on Earth! Why Sora, you may ask? Because we are strong and ambitious! We are blue! We are sky! The sky takes us to anywhere we want -- our goals, dreams, and even loved ones! Mars doesn’t have such an ambitious sky like ours! That’s why we are here to win the war in the name of Lord Terra!

“There’s also one more important reason why our troop is called Sora. A few years ago, the Moon was attacked by Europa, who was also an ally of Mars. From there, we joined together as a force. From here, we can see the moon in our sky, looking over us, yes? That’s why Earth and Moon are connected! You’ll be working with some of the greatest samurais of the Moon.

“I hope you’re ready for the upcoming greatest battles in history, Earthling Samurais. Please stand by until your name is called. Until then, you’re dismissed!”

~EARTHxMARS~

Kawa was staring hard at his mini tablet in his hand. Sighing lightly, he looked up at the large Earthling spaceship, Limitless. It was his first time to see a spaceship since the day he and his father tried to escape. It was still much bigger than he expected, but it was not as big as the Europan spaceship was.

He adjusted his dark blue sash, which was tightly tied around his waist. It had been a few hours since the Captain’s speech, and his name still hadn’t been called yet.

Loud yet annoying laughter reached to Kawa’s ears. He glanced over briefly at the group of Lunan samurais. Damn hyenas.

“Hey you! What are you looking at us for?” One of the Lunan samurais yelled.

“Hn.” Kawa turned away from them. He had always hated the Lunan samurais -- no, basically everyone who was from the Moon. They were the ones who threw Earth into the depression of the economy. The Moon sent their businesses over to Earth and brought the valuable raw materials back with them. So at least to Kawa, it was basically considered as stealing their resources, especially food, water, clothing, weapons, and so on.

“Why do we even bother working with the Earthling samurais? They are so full of themselves!” The short Lunan samurai scoffed at Kawa. “It’s no wonder that we haven’t beaten Mars and Europa yet!”

“Be quiet, Michael.” The blonde-haired Lunan samurai snapped. He was just walking by when he overheard the conversation. “We are working with them. So what? It’s not the end of the world. At least we’ll be able to get all the help we need.”

“Ah, James! Sorry! Didn’t mean to tease… whoever that guy is.” Michael was rubbing the handle of his sword in the scabbard with his own thumb. “But I’m itching for a spar!”

Kawa narrowed his eyes in anger at the Lunan warriors. No matter how much his superiors had been telling him about how revenge or vengeance would not bring anybody back nor would do anyone a favor, he had been waiting for a long time for a battle against at least one Lunan samurai. The Moon had been causing Earth a lot of suffering for a long time. “You want to battle with me? Then, come!”

“Fuck yes!” Michael yelled out of eagerness, about to draw his katana before he got interrupted by his comrade.

“Don’t be stupid.” James sighed in frustration. “We are not here to fight each other. Sorry, Earthling guy, but Earth and Moon are now allies. So, get over whatever grudge you’re holding against us. The past is, after all, just a past.”

“Fine, whatever!” Michael let go of his sword handle with a loud annoyed sigh. Before walking away back to the troops of Lunan samurais, he turned to Kawa briefly. “You’re lucky this time!”

“I am not done with you.”

“Excuse me?” Before James could return to his troops, he turned to Kawa with a look of confusion on his face.

“I’ve been waiting for this moment for a long time,” said Kawa with a big grin on his face.

“You gotta be kidding!” Michael gave a soft chuckle. “It’s pretty stupid of you to challenge us like this!”

“Shut up, Mike,” James said calmly yet dangerously, only making Mike scowl in return. “I think I understand what this guy is talking about.”

“What?” Another Lunan samurai asked in confusion.

“What’s your name?” James asked as he was drawing his very thin katana out of his scabbard. 

“Kawa Takayama. I’m more than pleased to hear that you’ve accepted my challenge.” Kawa turned around so that he was facing James directly.

“Japanese descendent, eh? It’s quite rare to see an Asian samurai from Earth!” said James almost cheerfully. “Name’s James Miles. It’s nice to meet you!”

Before Kawa realized what James did, the Lunan samurai quickly swung his sword through the air, creating a gust of the wind. It was flying towards the Earthling warrior.

The faster the gust was, the sharper it became.

Kawa barely dodged from the wind attack by diving and rolling on the hard ground. As soon as the sound of another gust reached his ears, he quickly drew his own katana, which burst into nearly unbearable hot flames.

“What?!” James blinked his hazel eyes in surprise at the Earthling warrior’s unfamiliar katana when it was able to block his wind attack. “Fire wielder? It’s my first time to see such another wielder as that sword is rare…! How did you get it…?!”

“Finally! A worthy opponent whom I can fight!” Ignoring James’s question, Kawa grinned again as he got up from the ground, wiping his dark grey baggy pants. “You really surprised me!”

“So did you as well.” James laughed. “Now I understand the reason why you are now part of the Sora troops. You’re fast!”

“Thanks! You’re pretty fast for a British person like yourself!” Kawa got into the usual sword fighting pose, in which he was holding his flaming sword vertically in the front, just leaning forward a little bit.

“Why, thank you! However, my ancestors came from the United States,” said James, running his hand through his dirty blonde hair. 

All of sudden, Kawa charged at James. He was running as fast as he could, hoping he could strike him while his guard was still down. Sad memories of his deceased family came running through his head. United States. Terra City, New York, United States.

James blocked Kawa’s flaming sword with his own thin one. Immediately afterward, they were dancing around, blocking each other’s attacks.

Every time their swords clashed with each other, it produced the large sparks, mostly coming from Kawa’s fire sword. It was quite amazing at how James’s sword did not break from all of these hits at all. The flames were growing larger and larger due to the wind coming from James’s sword.

“Shit!” James cursed at himself as soon as he realized that his own attacks were only making Kawa’s attacks bigger and stronger. He quickly jumped away from his opponent, but only stumbled over when Kawa was charging toward him again.

Their loud battle was attracting nearly every Earthling and Lunan samurai’s attention. They were gathering, trying to see and gamble on whoever was likely to be a victor. Others were trying to get information about either one or both of the fighting samurais. Some of the Earthling samurais learned that James Miles was well known as the Wolf Samurai of Moon due to his amazing speed and his powerful wind-type katana.

Before James became a Lunan samurai, his life was hell. He was an orphan who was abandoned by his own orphanage mostly due to financial reasons. They could not feed some of the children anymore, so they took them as far as they could within the huge glass dome that covered and sheltered the large civilization and left them in the middle of nowhere.

Even though there was no wind to follow on the Moon, James managed to get to the largest city, Sabrina City. He claimed that he was following the wind even though they were inside the nearly-200,000 square-feet glass dome, but nobody believed him until one day James entered the sword fighting tournament.

Nobody knew where, when, and how James received a rare wind katana, but he won the tournament almost instantly. When they said instant, they meant that James was able to defeat each opponent in under three minutes. Because of how fast he was and where he was from, he earned the name as the Wolf Samurai. After that, he got recruited by one of the Lunan captains, and that was how he got here.

As for Kawa Takayama? The rumor was that he was attacked by the Martian and Europan samurais but escaped somehow. He ended up in a hospital, but then one night, it was burned down to the ground. He somehow got his hands on the rare fire katana and accidentally used it, mostly like mishandling it.

Kawa was asked about it before, but he refused to comment or answer about it, stating that he would never care about what others thought of him. He lost his entire family to the enemy. And, the only thing he desired was to get revenge on Mars for starting the war.

As for becoming one of the Earthling samurais? He just signed up to enroll in the samurai training program. As soon as the Earthling commanders heard about the fire wielder, they fought for him. 

The collision between the katanas caused a loud clang sound. The samurais, trying to overpower each other, were staring at each other in the eyes.

Thinking that it was a perfect way to get the victory, James slid his katana across Kawa’s, creating a large wind gust in the process. Kawa was not able to keep his katana in his hand as it got caught up in the gust, flying higher into the air.

“I win.” Pointing his katana at Kawa’s face at the gap of just a few inches, James gave him the biggest smirk he ever had on his face. Kawa could feel a gentle breeze, coming from James’s sword, on his face.

“No, not yet.”

James raised an eyebrow as if Kawa was insane. Hadn’t Kawa noticed that there was a sword right in his face?

Kawa put out his hand at the waist level. Suddenly, his flaming sword landed on his hand right in between both men, making James pull away quickly.

There were mutters and whispers among the confused Earthling and Lunan samurais. It was when James noticed that it was not the sword's handle that Kawa caught. 

Kawa was holding the blade as if the flames were nothing to him. James mentally slapped himself back into reality from the shock he was in when he realized that the Earthling was wearing some kind of gloves. Flame resistant gloves. It was not big and thick as he usually saw the ones back on the Moon.

“Fuck,” James swore. There was no way in hell that he was going to lose. He was not going to lose his pride to an Earthling who just plainly hated every single Lunan.

Kawa tossed his sword in the air and caught it by the handle this time. “The fight isn’t over yet. Let’s continue now.”

James reached his hand into the pocket of his black sleeveless vest. “I’ll show you the power of Wolf Samurai!”

“Chaos Pill?” Kawa raised an eyebrow. “You can’t be serious. We are only limited to one pill per day. We can’t waste it on this senseless fight.”

“Senseless?” James scoffed, taking the red pill out of the pocket. “You must be fucking kidding me. You started the fight just because you don’t like us.”

“I have my own reasons.” Kawa shrugged his shoulders, playing with and spinning his flaming sword. “Didn’t you say that you understand the reason why I’m fighting?”

“Yes.” James put the pill into his mouth. “You’re seeking revenge. Fulfilling your desire is all you need. I know that feeling, Kawa, but that’s not the way we are supposed to fight for.”

“Then, what are you fighting for?”

“For the whole solar system,” said James simply.

“W-what?” Kawa was completely taken back. 

“You will never understand if revenge is all you think about.” James sighed lightly, starting to hear hums and purrs from his thin katana. That was when his true strength started to kick in.

As soon as he nearly vanished from Kawa’s sight, the Earthling warrior rubbed his eyes, making sure that he did not imagine anything. 

He was smart enough to put up his sword just in time for it to block James’s sword attack, but the powerful wind gust was more than enough for the Lunan warrior. It not only sent Kawa flying through the air but also put out the flames on his sword.

James’s fast and powerful attack amazed all of the samurais who were watching the battle. By now, they knew that this battle wasn't rookie level. They must have had some experiences before they enrolled in the samurai army.

“Ugh!” Kawa landed roughly on the ground. He moaned in pain and then took a look at himself. There were cuts all over his body, blood oozing a little bit. His spandex top even had some cuts even though the clothing was supposed to be invincible and uncuttable. That was how powerful the Chaos pill could make James to be. But that was not what he worried about. “You… you son of a bitch! You literally put out the flames!”

After struggling to get up and then successfully doing so, he swung his katana through the air two times before it burst into flames once again.

“You’re still fighting?” James gave him an amused grin. “Impressive. Anybody else would’ve given up immediately the second they saw me taking the Chaos pill.”

“Well, you’re not the only one with Chaos pills.” Kawa took out the red pill and then swallowed it quickly.

“Eh? The Earthlings already got their hands on the Chaos pills?” James raised an eyebrow in surprise.

“And improved it,” said the Earthling samurai. His opponent narrowed his eyes in suspicion when Kawa turned his own sword to himself.

“What are you doing?”

“If you haven’t heard about me, well then, please allow me to introduce myself properly.” Kawa began inhaling the flames inside his nose and mouth. Between exhales, he said, “They call me… Dragon Samurai of Earth.”

“Dragon Samurai?”

“My katana and I are one together,” said Kawa. “As long as we keep each other alive, we are fighting together as one. And thus, we are sharing fire… our rage.”

“Rage? But that’s… eh… odd,” James said awkwardly. “So, are you like… breathing fire? You know, like a dragon?”

“What are you, an idiot? When you take the Chaos pill, you will be able to hear your own katana.” Kawa almost rolled his eyes. “Don’t you hear it?”

That’s true. James thought to himself. But I thought that was the side effect of Chaos pills? Or is it just his imagination that he believes in?

Kawa blew out flames back onto his sword, making it lengthen up to fifteen inches. James was not sure if it was just an illusion because of fire itself.

The Dragon Samurai rushed toward the other samurai  as he thrust his now longer katana through James’s stomach, drawing loud screams, yelps, and gasps from other bystanding samurais. Or so they thought.

James was still able to block Kawa’s sword.

“So, you took the risk and assumed that it was an illusion? What if you could have gotten hurt?” Kawa asked in annoyance due to the fact that James was able to figure it out without even verifying it.

“I just have a wolf’s instinct.” James flashed a big grin before it was replaced with a concerned frown. “But fuck! You scared the shit out of me! I thought I was going to die for sure!”

Kawa could not help but smile a little bit. He hadn’t smiled for a long time. At least, not since the day Martians attacked.

“I forfeit,” he said, withdrawing his flaming katana. “You win.”

“What?! What the hell?!” James yelled angrily when Kawa turned away to walk over to the group of Earthling samurais. “What are you, crazy?! Giving up in front of…”

“Who?” Kawa stopped and turned to James. “What are you babbling about? We are comrades, aren’t we?”

“Bastard.” James crossed his arms. “Why did you fight in the first place?”

Kawa shrugged his shoulders. “Why not? You wanted to fight, didn’t you?”

“You’re a weird dude!” James laughed lightheartedly. “We have our own reasons, eh?”

Before Kawa could say anything, the samurais were cheering loudly and chanting Kawa’s and James’s names. Their celebration was cut short when the announcement started.

“ATTENTION FOR THOSE WHO HAVEN’T BEEN CALLED YET, PLEASE GO AND SEE CAPTAIN WILLIAMS.” The speaker nearby echoed all over the area.

Kawa and James looked at each other with questioning looks on their faces. They had not been called yet… right?

They returned to the ceremony where Captain Williams gave the inspiring speech only to find four more samurais waiting as well.

After asking them about what it was for, they only received the shrugs. What was it exactly Captain Williams wanted?