The Storm

Making it to the infirmary, Tourit saw his wife, who was already in labor. Rushing past the robotic bodyguard with little more than a nod, he wasted no time rushing to Tenshi’s side and grasping her hand. “I’m here now, my love. I’ll be right by your side every step of the way!”
Tourit’s father arrived shortly after his son. The guards stepped aside and saluted him as he walked in, faster than a normal pace. “Your child is going to be born soon.” He said, still trying to catch his breath a bit. “This is going to be one of the biggest days of your life.”
Tourit heard his father, but kept his attention completely directed at his wife, whose hand he clutched even harder than he realized.

Tourit nodded as he moved to give the doctors more room. His eyes were drawn like magnets to his wife. He was so focused on her he didn’t even notice a small vase crash into his back. “Come on my love, you can do it! Just stay strong! Stay strong for me, yourself, and our child!” He encouraged, breathing heavily.
Meanwhile, King Shark took notice of the guard standing outside the door. He thought something looked off about him, but another moan from his daughter-in-law drew his attention.

“He’s beautiful…So beautiful…” Tourit said quietly, as tears began welling up in his eyes. “I’ve already thought of a name for a boy.” He said, walking over to his new son. “Saba.” He patted the child’s head. “His name shall be Saba. Welcome to the world, little Saba.”
“The child is born, is he? I want to come in and see him.” The spy who had been creeping near the doorway was now trying to force himself in. He managed to shove his way past the two guards near the door, but nearly ran right into Shark, the new grandfather. “Pardon me, your highness. Forgive me, but I’m just so eager to see the new child!” He stated politely, trying to move around the new obstacle.
“What are you doing off your post? You need to go back to it right away.” The ruler retorted, clearly annoyed that this minor soldier was attempting to but it. “Ah yes, yes, your majesty I know, but I’m a sucker for babies! Please, I just want to take a peek, so I can tell my wife how cute they are.”
“There will be an announcement in the next month or so, you can look at him then.” The king stated, still blocking the way to the child. At this point, he was growing suspicious. His suspicion led him to the observation that this nosey soldier had no ranking mark on his pauldron, which was customary for any soldier in his army.

“Damn…This old bastard isn’t moving out of my way, and he’s probably on to me at this point…” the assassin thought to himself. “I’ll just have to run him through, then the child.” He prepared a venom tipped blade in both hands, preparing to strike. “Soldier, what’s your rank? I see no mark of ranking upon your uniform.” King Shark said, hand slowly moving to his blade.
“Now or never!” The killer suddenly ran a blade straight through the king with his right hand, and with his left he lunged at the newborn child. But something unanticipated happened; The blade was stopped just inches away from the child. The man’s momentum had been stopped, by the king clutching the blade that had been driven through him. It was still inside of him, and blood slowly started dripping to the floor.
It only took a second for the guards in the room to realize what had happened, and in a single instant the assassin had a spear stuck through his heart, another through his abdomen, and a third through left thigh. The whole scene looked as if it was suspended in time. The only sound in the room, other than heavy breathing, was the dripping of blood onto the floor. The unused dagger’s toxins dripped as well.
The silence was broken suddenly and abruptly by the loud crying of the newborn child. As soon as the assassin’s body hit the floor, the king sunk to his knees, but couldn’t even support himself on those, and fell to the floor. The room was now full of shouting, none louder than that of prince Tourit’s.

“Father! Father please talk to me, don’t die!” He cradled his father in his arms.
“Son, I’ve done all I can for this great kingdom. Its your time to lead…lead our people…” Shark coughed up blood with every syllable. “You’ve made me so proud…” With that, the great ruler, King Shark Sanichi, breathed his last. The wound was too deep. The poison too great.
Tourit was in absolute shock. The man who had raised him, taught him everything he knew, had just been taken from him in an instant.
Just then, a soldier ran in through the door. “Prince Tourit! Prince Salmo has been spotted at a small border town! Aquan I believe! He seems to be alone an-“The man stopped talking as he spotted his rulers cold body. “Is-is that lord Shark? Is he-“
Tourit heard Salmo’s name. He was responsible. He was the one who killed his father! His schemes were going to come to a stop. They were going to come to an abrupt stop, and the prince swore that the day would end in nothing less that Salmo’s head on a pike. “I’m going to kill him.” The prince said. Without another word, he ran out the door and began flying to Aquan.

Reaching the border town in minutes, due to flying at breakneck speeds, he spotted his rival, who was eating an apple and looking as calm as he could be. The very sight enraged Tourit, and he flew straight towards Salmo, attempting to land a punch to break his neck. To his surprise however, he had been aiming at an afterimage. The illusion faded as his punch went through it, and his fist instead met the ground.
“What’s the matter, Tour? You don’t seem like you’re in a real diplomatic mood today.”
“You bastard! I’m going to kill you!”
Salmo chuckled as Tourit flew towards him, unleashing a volley of attacks. Salmo dodged every punch, kick and headbutt directed at him with ease. He retorted with an elbow to his opponent’s face, and another to the chest.
“Whats the matter, Tour? You seem so worked up.” He smugly remarked. Tourit swung again, this time aiming straight for the face. Salmo ducked right under it, however, and backed up to give himself some distance.
“Don’t tell me, you didn’t lose someone you loved, did ya?”
Tourit didn’t reward his goading with a reply, simply charging at him again. Salmo quickly moved his right index finger, which caused a small ball of ki to come out of the ground and slam itself right into Tourit’s side. The prince was slammed into the ground and rolled a couple feet before he stopped himself. Getting up, he activated his more powerful state, and got ready to charge again, only to be stopped by another ball of ki, once again coming out of the ground. He was sent rolling on the ground once more, and had to catch himself. Before he could lift himself of the ground, a third ball of ki, coming from the soil below him did it for him. It carried him far into the air before finally exploding. Tourit caught himself midair after the explosion. And scanned the ground, to find Salmo right where he was before.
“Come on Tour, I’m here if you want to talk about it. Having a child die upon birth can happen to anyone, royals included.” Salmo grinned at his own tasteless joke.

“You killed my father, and I won’t forgive you!” Tourit yelled, as he dove straight towards his enemy.
Hearing Tourit, Salmo’s grin disappeared, and he was thrown off balance. Tourit’s blow, a kick straight to the face, connected and sent Salmo sailing through a stairwell.

“What? Your father?” Salmo snapped. “That wasn’t the target…That assassin I hired failed…” He thought to himself as he picked himself up and wiped the dirt off his armor. As he saw Tourit coming back towards him, he moved more of his fingers, and five new balls of ki blasted his opponent backwards. Tourit was prepared for the trick this time and managed to guard himself against it.
“I’m done playing the diplomat, Salmo. You want war, I’ll give you a war.” He declared, drawing his blade. Salmo barely had time to draw his own short sword to defend himself against the other prince’s blade.

Tourit pressured his blade down hard, intent on slicing his enemy in half. His concentration was broken after a simple flick of Salmo’s left thumb sent a ki blast sailing into his back. It was just enough to throw him off balance and provided Salmo an opening to slash his rival. Tourit backed up in time to only catch a flesh wound, but a painful flesh wound. Blood quickly began flowing freely from the new gash. He didn’t have time to dwell on it as Salmo attempted another slash. All he could do to stop it was to catch the blade with his own hand. He grimaced in pain as the blade cut into his skin. Gripping the short sword, he thrust him own sword towards Salmo, who in turn dodged, opting to let go of his own blade to do so.
Tourit clenched hard and broke the tip off the Hokkyoku’s blade, and let it fall to the ground.
“We are going to win this war, Tourit. And we’re going to go to your capital and slay all of your ilk when we do.”
“You’re going to lose, and I’ll make sure you and your people suffer for your actions.”
Salmo put his cocky grin back on. “We’ll see. Tetora mines!”

All of Salmo’s fingers began making crazy and erratic patterns. Tourit barely had time to react as a dozen balls of ki flew at him from every angle. They were all tracking him, weaving barely past him as he dodged. Finally, a blast hit his foot. About half the others followed, pelting him. Tourit finally let out a huge explosive have, detonating the remaining blasts, and incinerating all the nearby buildings.
Salmo was hiding behind the wreckage of one of the larger buildings. “Dammit…He’s not as out of it as I hoped he would be…The plan was to kill the kid so he’d be so mad he couldn’t think straight. Seems as if the killer I hired took out his father instead…Damn…Guess I gotta cut my losses.”
Stepping out from his hiding spot, he called out to his opponent. “Hey Tourit, I’m leaving now. You got the message. If you’re smart, you’ll go home and start drawing up surrender papers. If you’re a moron, you’ll follow me and let my men butcher you. Your choice!”
Salmo began flying off, back towards Hokkyoku. As mad as Tourit was, and as much as he wanted to give chase, he knew Salmo had a point. In the state he was in he could probably still beat Salmo alone, but he didn’t stand a chance if he got his friends to gang up on him.
Tourit began flying back home, nothing in his heart but shame. Upon landing back at the castle entrance, several high ranking officials began to crowd around him.
“Prince Tourit! What action will we be taking?”
“Prince! Shall we mobilize our forces?”
“Prince Tourit, are you alright? They say you went to Aquan.”
Tourit held up his bruised, beaten arm. “Prepare all of our men, including the reserve. We’re going to be harder on Hokkyoku, more than we were before.” He began walking back towards the infirmary. “And its not prince Tourit anymore. With my father gone, its King Tourit now.”

Walking back into the infirmary, he saw that his father’s body had a white sheet over it. Without saying anything, he nearly collapsed into a hug on his wife and new son, gently sobbing.

Hugging his wife and cradling his son, Tourit’s tears slowly stopped. He stood himself up and caressed his new child. “I swear.” He started.
“I swear on my life that no harm will ever come to you. Be it in the grandest war or learning to walk, I swear that no harm will ever befall you my beloved son.”
He gently kissed his child’s forehead. “Such a shame that a beautiful baby like this would be born amidst such ugly conflict.”
Right then and there, the new king made it his solemn vow to protect not only his wife, but his new child. His father had raised him and his brother Haddock with love and care, and he would show the same love to his child.

“My people, my loyal subjects…” Queen Tunla started. “The rumors going around are true.” The murmurs in the crowd grew much louder.
“Your king, my husband, has passed.” Now the crowd was in an uproar.
“The culprits, the kingdom of Hokkyoku, will not go unpunished. But now is not the time for hate. Now is the time for grieving.”
Tourit stepped forward. “In my father’s death, I have become the ruler of Pashifikku. I am no longer prince Tourit Sanichi, I am now king Tourit Sanichi.” He bowed, and stepped back, not knowing what else to say. “A crowning will have to take place soon, my love.”