War of Rage

Today was the day when the life of the 13-year-old young man, Kawa Takayama, changed. It was also the day that Lord Terra’s beautiful wife was murdered.

“All hail Lord Terra!” the citizens of the largest Earth city, Terra City, yelled angrily. They were shaking every single weapon they could think of in the air. Axes, daggers, swords, clubs with spikes, guns, and so. “Kill them in the name of Lord Terra!”

“Father! Father!” Kawa barged into a house where he called home. “What’s going on? Why are they rioting right outside our place?”

“Boy!” Ryo hastily pulled his son into one of the rooms. “Where have you been all day today?! Your mother was worried about you!”

“Sorry! I was browsing this cool sword shop, and… then…” Kawa stopped out of fear, as if someone was eavesdropping on them. He whispered, “That’s when I found out the Lady of Earth was murdered. Is that the reason why they are angry?”

“So, the news traveled faster than I thought,” Ryo sighed lightly and turned his head toward the window. “Your mother and sister are out looking for you. We have to leave now. Then we will look for them. The Martians will be here anytime soon, so this place is going to be a battlefield.”

“So, it was a Martian who killed the Earth Lady…” Kawa clenched his fist in anger. “But why? They accused all of the Earthlings for killing Lord Ares’s wife in the first place… We had done nothing wrong!”

“We have to go now!” Ryo grabbed Kawa’s hand tightly, making sure not to let go of him ever. He was not even sure if his love, Maria, was alive. She went out looking for Kawa, but she had not come back for hours.

With or without her, they had to get out of this soon-to-be hellhole.

Just as Ryo opened the door, the violence began. The Martian samurais were marching along the wide road toward the angry Earthling mob. They arrived for them to…

Kill all of us, Kawa thought bitterly at himself. He tried to shake his head furiously, trying to focus on escaping with his father, “Do you know where Mom and Sakura went?”

Ryo did not answer him right away, but instead, he was dragging him toward their only one floating vehicle, “Get in now! Hurry!”

Kawa did so, and their flying car took off quickly into the sky.

“My son…” Ryo sighed in relief. He reached his hand into his pocket while he was keeping his other one on the wheel, “I’m going to call your mother.”

“Yeah, didn’t you call her when you realized that she did not come back?” Kawa raised an eyebrow in suspicion.

“I tried to, but she never picked it up. I will leave a voice message about where we are going and…” Ryo was pressing the dial numbers. “I hope she gets it.”

Kawa glanced at the battlefield below him. He had never seen anything like this such violence before. There was much more spilled blood than he thought. Besides, it was nothing like fighting video games he used to play with his friends. He had always admired the samurais because they were very courageous, brave, and strong. He always wanted to become one of them. So, why was he scared now?

“It’s ok, son. We will find them,” After hanging up on his cell phone, Ryo placed his hand on Kawa’s shaking shoulder with a smile on his face. “And then, I will make sure that we are safe.”

All of sudden, two loud thuds landed harshly on the top of the flying vehicle. “Stop your vehicle or you will be arrested as one of the suspects who killed the lady of Lord Ares!”

“Shit! Martian!” Ryo shouted. He turned the wheel all the way to the left, causing his car to spin out of the control.

Kawa was trying to hold onto the door, even though he was already wearing his seatbelt. Just as he opened one of his eyes, he gasped loudly when he saw one of the Martian samurais falling off his vehicle.

But that was not what he was startled by. After falling, Martian samurais used their boots to fly easily and gracefully, blowing hard with high pressure of air.

“Father! They are coming!”

“Fucking bastards!” Ryo yelled angrily, his foot slamming on the accelerator. His vehicle launched itself even higher into the sky, avoiding and deserting the samurais completely.

“Why are they attacking us? We aren’t even with the mob!” Kawa kept whipping his head around, making sure that nobody was chasing or following them.

“Because they are bastards who killed our Lady!” Ryo said angrily. “As soon as we find your mother and sister, we are going straight to the Moon!”

“Moon? But… didn’t they rob us out of our economy?” Kawa shook his head in frustration, recalling that his family had been struggling with finance for as long as he remembered. “Why Moon?”

“Because they aren’t on good terms with Mars as well,” Ryo slowed down his vehicle, as it entered the atmosphere. “At least, they are not targeted by any Lord or Lady.”

“Why can’t we just go to Venus instead? They’re our ally, right?”

“It’s way too far. We will run out of fuel long before we get there,” Ryo pressed one of the buttons next to the wheel, opening the control panel right next to the wheel. He inputted the coordinations of the Moon until he heard the computer voicing that it was ready to go.

“Father?” Kawa’s tone consisted of so much fear. “Are you seeing it? Please tell me that it’s just my imagination.”

Ryo looked up from the computer only to widen his eyes in shock. What they were looking at was, apparently, one of the largest spaceships in the solar system. To the spaceship, the tiny flying car was like an ant. But, that was not what they were surprised about. It was an Europan spaceship that had been hanging around in Earth’s atmosphere for only Superior Being knows how long, waiting to strike down any Earthling who tried to escape from their own home.

The important question that the Takayama men were wondering about was, since when did Europa become Mars’s ally?

“Father… what should we do?” Kawa asked nervously.

Ryo could not help but clench his jaw in anger. “Kawa, they still haven’t seen us yet because we would have died by now. We have to turn back now.”

“HALT, REGISTERED EARTHLING VEHICLE! OR ELSE WE WILL SHOOT YOU ON THE SPOT!”

“Yeah, well, shoot my ass!” Ryo yelled right before he slammed on the accelerator once again. He cleared out the computer and set a random destination. Anywhere but Terra City on Earth would do.

The last thing Kawa could remember before he blacked out was roaring flames and loud explosions from their flying vehicle through the atmosphere, and their own screams.

~EARTHxMARS~

Kawa snapped his eyes open, gasping loudly for air before the oxygen mask was quickly placed onto his face.

“Please calm down, kid. Take a deep breath.”

He did so, inhaling so much needed oxygen. Soon, the oxygen mask was taken off his face that was regaining its normal color. He was still feeling drowsy, and his vision was completely blurry. He remembered where he was before he woke up. “Father… where… Where is he?”

“What is your name, kid?”

He avoided answering my question, Kawa frowned, but he answered anyway, “Kawa Takayama.”

“Thank you.”

Kawa could only hear the person--or doctor’s soft humming, as if he was in deep thoughts. For the next few minutes, he answered every question about his birthdate, birth place, family, school, residence, and so.

“Can you please tell me where we are?” He crossed his arms in annoyance with a deep scowl on his face.

“Owase, Japan. We were worried that you might have come from another planet or moon but we’re more than glad to know that you’re also an Earthling. You’re lucky that you only broke your leg.”

Kawa blinked his teary eyes one more time before his vision became much more clear. He could see that he was speaking to a doctor, as he could see the lab coat. “Owa… Owase? We flew that far?”

“You said you were born in Terra City, yes? Isn’t that where you flew from?”

“Y-yeah, how do you know?”

“Your fa… your car was found a few days ago after the crash. Someone set up the destination which led to here.”

“Where is my father? His name is Ryo Takayama,” Kawa asked again.

“I’m sorry, sir. He is dead.”

Kawa clenched his fists into anger. He did not dare to cry in front of the strangers, especially the doctor. “I… I see.”

“I’m sorry,” the doctor said again. “I’ll come back later today to check on your leg, okay? Stay in bed and rest, please.”

Kawa nodded his head and waited patiently until the doctor left the hospital room with the nurse. He looked down at his own palms.

Everything happened so fast. The murder of the Earth Lady… the attack of Martians… the failed escape…

He did not even get a chance to say goodbye to his father. He did not even know if his mother and sister were alive or not.

No, his whole family was dead. That was why Ryo did not want to say anything. If Maria did not come back as promised, then something definitely happened to her. She must have gone with Sakura looking for him.

It was… all his own fault. If Kawa came straight home after school, then his whole family would have been together by now.

No, it was all Mars’s fault. Fucking Martian murderers killed every single Earthling they set their eyes on. Kawa looked up from his hands with tears sliding down his face cheeks. He wanted revenge. He wanted to get vengeance on all of the Martians for what they had done not only to his family but Earth as well.

He was going to find a way to become one of the most powerful samurais of Earth, even at the cost of his own life.