BlazBlue:CT Material Collection Bang Short Story "Fortune favours the bold"
AD 2110. Thanks to the efforts of the 6 warriors the Black Beast is destroyed, and the war that spanned a hundred years or so between humanity and the Black Beast is finally put to an end.
The people started to call the 6 warriors as “The 6 Heroes”. However, humanity's joy was short-lived. The war which had dragged on for so long, had caused the world's population to drop to half it's original number, and various important cities around the world were destroyed. The damage the conflict caused was enormous. On top of that, from within the body of the fallen Black Beast a jet-black mist— later termed as sethir— gushed out, and covered the entire planet's surface.
Humanity's war with the Black Beast would become known as the “First War of Magic”. Amongst the 6 Heroes the genius sorceress Nine would combine her “sorcery” with the crystalisation of humanity's intellect, “science”, to form a new technology known as “armagus”. Books with details on how to use this “armagus” would become known as “grimoires”, naturally, humanity began to amass large quantities of said books. Most of these grimoires were controlled by the “ Void Space Information Management Bureau”
AD 2111. The Void Space Information Management Bureau which controls most of the “grimoires” increases it's influence, and establishes an organization for governing the whole world. It also changes it's name from “Void Space Information Management Bureau” To “Novis Orbis Librarium”, and gathered it's elite soldiers— later called Knights— and organised them into an armed fighting corps known as the “1st Thaumaturgical Division”. Their influence grew more and more. Placing the revival of the human race as an urgent agenda, the “Novis Orbis Librarium”—shortened as the Librarium, stepped forward to lead humanity.
AD 2112. About a year after construction began, the project deemed as the cornerstone of the restoration of humanity, the 1st integrated city “Izanagi” is completed. After the Black Beast was defeated the “sethir” it poured forth had covered the entire world's surface. The deterimental effects of excessive intake of sethir by humans as well as it's effect on the ecosystem was established.To escape the sethir on the planet's surface humanity moved into the hills and cut out cities to live in.
After that, the restoration steadily proceeded on, and construction of hundreds of mountain cities of various sizes proceeded till the later half of AD 2100. In the midst of those 23 multi-storied cities were designed and constructed, which would be known as “Hierachical Cities”, and the Librarium developed each respective city to be the centre of that particular region. In order to consolidate those 23 citites, the Librarium established the “Unified World Organisation”. With that announcement the Librarium governed the world both in name and in reality.
AD 2190. The 5th Hierachical City “Ibukido” withdraws from the “Unified World Organisation”, effectively announcing it's independence from the Librarium.
The following year 4 other cities follow the lead of “Ibukido”— the 6th Hierachical City “Yabiko”, the 7th Hierachical City “Kazamotsu”, the 8th Hierachical City “Wadatsumi”, and the 9th Hierachical City “Akitsu” and announce their seccession from the Librarium. From this point on the group of the 5 Hierachical Cities would be named as the “Ikaruga Federation”. The Librarium immediately brand the “Ikaruga Federation” as rebels and begins military suppression. However, the Ikaruga Federation's unity and military strength proves stronger than anticipated, and the duration of the war increases.
AD 2192. With the absorption of several smaller cities, the Ikaruga Federation's influence and teritory both increase. In response, the Librarium criticises the Ikaruga Federation's aggresive behaviour, and asserts that it has legitimacy and is the just side in the war. The conflict continues.
AD 2194. The key city of the Ikaruga Federation “Ibukido” mysteriously vanishes. Rumour is that the Librarium used some sort of orbital satellite weapon to attack, but until now the reason for it's disappearance has never been disclosed. With the loss of it's key city the Ikaruga Federation slowly begins to collapse, on top of that, their unity begins to waver. Their headquarters shifting from place to place, the resistance movement continues.
AD 2196. Having lost 4 Hierachical Cities, the Ikaruga Federation attempts to negotiate a peace treaty with the Librarium. However, the Librarium rejects the offer, and the Ikaruga Federation retreats to their last stronghold “Wadatsumi”, determined to resist to the bitter end.
AD 2197. The siege of Ikaruga which was expected to be a prolonged one unxpectedly ends abruptly.
A young Knight of the Librarium, Jin Kisaragi, infiltrates the castle alone and performs a lightning-fast strike— raiding the keep, he assasinates the supreme commander and ruler Tenjou. With the loss of their leader, the Ikaruga Federation finally crumbles.
In the lower half of the 13th Hierachical City “Kagutsuchi”, in the district which would later come to be known as “Ronin-gai”, the men were having a friendly chat. It was the early afternoon. The men had finished their morning's work, and were now stuffing themselves with their wives' homemade rice balls, catching a breather.
Approximately half a month had passed since the fall of Ikaruga. The survivors of the siege of Ikaruga, in their search for a place to start their lives anew, ended up in the lower half of the 13th Hierachical City. Unlike the strictly controlled uper half of the Hierachical City, the hand of the Librarium did not reach the lower areas, naturally making it a new haven for them. To the Ikaruga survivors, this became their new home. They built houses, grew crops, and had all the raw materials and goods nessecary for daily life.
“Alright, that should do it.”
The large male who was silently writing— his name was Shihigami Bang— raised his head. The finest ninja of Ikaruga respected and adored by his fellow countrymen, and once feared by all his enemies. Currently he was leading the former residents of Ikaruga in his dead master Tenjou's stead.
“Boss. What were you doing just now?”
Seeing the figure of the chief quietly writing something wasn't something normal, so one of his subordinates inquired with a puzzled look on his face.
“Mm. The truth is like this. I was writing a history textbook.”
“A history... textbook?”
It was an unexpected answer. His subordinate's voices were raised with incredulity.
“That's right. To redress those Library scum's wrong doings, and to clear up my master's regrets, that is my mission. So for that sake first we have to leave behind for the future generations a record of all the Library's transgressions.”
Hmmm, thought his subordinates as they listened intently to their boss's words with fire in their hearts.
“When I was young our master taught me all about the world and it's history. From what I can recall of them, I'm writing down these opening words right here.”
I see, thought this subordinates as they nodded vigourously with sparkling eyes.
“Even so I still can't remember all the small details.”
“The master's words, some portions I definitely recall without question. Such as that this 55-sun (about 165 cm, or 5.4 feet) nail will break, that I definitely cannot forget.”
“As expected of our boss. However, I don't think this 55-sun nail will break so easily nor that soon.”
“Mm. This a memento from our dead lord. It shouldn't be expected to break.”
That wasn't what he meant. He wanted to tell his subordinates that the “large iron nail” wasn't going to break physically, but he couldn't get the words out of his mouth. He had to handle his subordinates carefully with his hot-headnesses.
Bang slowly stood up, his fists clenched.
“Today we might only number in the hundreds, but the men sweat and toil, and the women weave at the looms and give birth. If we keep doing that, then soon we will number in the thousands, and ten thousands. This is the unyielding spirit of the Ikaruga people!”
“Yes sir!”
“Well then, it's about time to get back to work!”
“Yes sir!”
At their boss's signal, the men rose as one, and returned to their respective tasks. While Bang stared at their backs as he sent them off, he hefted a piece of timber, and wiped the sweat that had started flowing.
| Back to Taokaka Short Story: "Capricious Us" | Return to Main Page | Forward to Tager Short Story: "Trust You" |
