ZERO STOOD ON THE DOCKS at the border of Aotoshi. He had hurried over there after receiving a message from his father that a childhood friend of his was going to arrive in Crenon shortly. He’d known Satsujin Oritsu since both of them were about thirty-four years old. This may sound rather old for a human, but maila age roughly ten times slower than humans, so a thirty-four-year-old maila would be similar in appearance to a toddler of roughly three-and-a-half.

Satsujin first arrived in the Unkempt when his mother, a maila named Noka, returned to the Unkempt when he was only six days old. Reportedly, she had snuck into Crenon on a trade ship and hadn’t been identified as a maila until Satsujin had been born, possessing the same physical traits of her species, from the pointed ears to the tough bones more durable than a diamond. Upon their child’s birth, her husband forced her to leave Aotoshi and exposed her as a smuggled entity. From there, she returned to the Unkempt to avoid persecution. All that Noka was able to salvage before she was forced out of her home was a swaddling cloth and her child, which she named Satsujin on her voyage back into the Unkempt.

Zero and Satsujin first met one another during the year 1801 when they both happened to be visiting family in the Banfel (northeast) region of the Unkempt. The two both realized that they happened to live within 5 miles of each other in the Jardiesh sector, with Satsujin being in the Terjar region (southwest). As a result, the two often hung out together. This happened so often that the other Maili in the Unkempt began to think that Zeronius II and Noka were in a relationship.

The two have kept up with one another quite well since then and still write to one another rather frequently after Zero left for Aotoshi, so much so that it was Satsujin and his father that Zero first told of his plans to stay in Crenon after the end of the Great Trifecta War to ensure that none in possession of the Fabled Swords may gain too much power over the other. Even after the death of Kunshu and what would seem to be the end of the saga between the Kenshis and the Mujihinas, he chose to stay behind and ensure the prosperity and virtue of the remaining members of the surviving Kenshi house.

Zero felt a soft smile develop on his face as he recalled these memories of years gone past. Before he could delve too deep into these moments of his past with Satsujin, however, he was jolted back into reality by the whistling horn of the ferry and the furious clang of the docking bell. He saw a flood of people leaving the ferry as he stood there, awaiting his old comrade. The line of people getting into Aotoshi died down until there were no people left on the ferry. Zero began looking around for Satsujin, only to see that he was not in the crowd of people checking in at the gates of Aotoshi. Suddenly, a jolt came from behind him. As he turned around, a familiar face greeted him.

“Long time no see, Zero!” Satsujin exclaimed playfully, breaking the silence that had been prevalent in the seconds prior. He was certainly the more energetic of the two, possessing a personality similar to that of a campfire: bursting with passion and warmth for those around him and yet able to contain himself if necessary.

“I suppose seventy-five years is quite a long while,” Zero replied, “even for us.”

The two began to walk to the gates of Aotoshi before being stopped by a member of the border patrol. Ever since the incident with Noka, the Aotoshi government has been rather reluctant to allow Maili into Crenon. Before the officer could stop them, however, Zero held up a card, roughly equal in size to a driver’s license.

“He’s with me,” Zero told the skeleton of a man.

“Very well, General Zero,” he responded as he opened the gate, keeping his head in a bow.

“You never told me that you were a military general now,” Satsujin began once more as the two began to make their way out of the docks and into the country.

“I didn’t?” Zero was puzzled by this. “Surely I must have mentioned it in at least one of our letters. After all, that was roughly seventy years ago. Perhaps you forgot.”

“Do you seriously think I would forget such big news from my greatest friend in all of my nearly two-hundred and seventy-five years on this planet?”

“You’re right,” Zero sighed, knowing that further debate would likely take up the rest of the day. “I probably just forgot to tell you and just assumed I had before then. That probably made the letters about the War of the Swords feel a bit out-of-place, huh?”

“‘Out-of-place’ would be the understatement of the century.”

The two continued to walk onward until reaching a park. Very few trees existed in this area, yet this did not stop the two of them from finding a bench underneath one of these mighty elm pillars.

“So,” Zero began, preparing to ask his friend a question that had been on his mind since first hearing of the news of his arrival, “what brings you to Crenon?”

Satsujin paused as if trying to formulate his words and plan out what he was going to say.

“I saw a call for a trip to Aotoshi,” Satsujin recalled, “and I decided to make my way over. Not very many others were willing to make the voyage, but I felt something toward this as if not taking up this offer would squander my last opportunity for doing something great. I felt it was my destiny to go here, so to speak.”

One particular word in that response stood out to Zero. Destiny. The word conjured up countless memories from his time in Crenon. The strongest memory of his was that of the prophecy that had begun the feud between the Kenshis and the Mujihinas.

“Fate is a fickle beast sometimes,” Zero remarked before looking at his pocket watch and noticing that he was running two minutes behind schedule for a feast with the royal family. “Good God! I apologize, but I have to get going now. I hope you’ll have no trouble finding me as I live just south and to the left of Akuni’s main palace.”

“Farewell then,” Satsujin called off to Zero as he began to sprint for his car.

Once he made it into his sleek black automobile, he took out his notebook, writing down “7:00 PM Tomorrow, visit the Prophet.” He closed the small book with a single hand, the pages creating a thud as they collided with one another. After setting his notebook to the side, he began to drive to the palace for Yukan’s birthday feast.