THE LEGEND OF KIWAKAAZI

Back in Nomposuro: Kaki was pouncing on Aran. Her fore and hind limbs were all fully stretched. For a moment there; just a moment there she was flying in the air. Aran had been hit hard. It was not Kaki’s strongest punch but it still did some damage. His left side had been scratched and he was bleeding. He was kneeling on all fours. His sikan dompesa (three-edged bone sword) lying a few centimeters from his right. Kaki was closing in on him. Suddenly, he picked his sword and disappeared. Kaki landed on the ground and turned quickly still on four limbs.

She growled and snarled at Aran whom was now behind her. He was smiling as if nothing had happened. To show Kaki the difference in power between himself and his second in command, he simply let go of his sword and disappeared. Before Kaki could blink, she had been punched in the chest – a right punch from Aran that sent her flying. She collided into a tree and passed out sitting in front of the tree. That was how fast he had become. That was how powerful he had become. Kaki did not stand a chance.

Aran caught his sword like he never let go of it and disappeared once again; this time, with his sword in his right hand.

Back to Kiwakaazi’s past: Two gentlemen stopped Kiwakaazi from hitting his father again. One grabbed his left hand and the second wrapped his arms around Kiwakaazi from behind. Kiwakaazi struggled to break free but the two promising research scientists who were equal to the task. They held on ever so tightly until Kiwakaazi was calm. He left the laboratory of the Central Research Bureau into Herbs and Medicines in a hurry and still in a very bad mood.

Nii Addo, son of Chief Amara and future heir of Amara Energy Group, was partying early in the morning. He was entertaining about four girls in his apartment when he heard someone banging so hard on his door that, he feared the person might break the door down. He opened the door only to see someone he thought he might never see again, Kiwakaazi.

Kiwakaazi entered without invitation. He walked past Nii Addo and straight to the hall. A few gentlemen, Kiwakaazi’s age, and, very sexy ladies were already at the party. Music was playing but not too loud to disturb the neighbors. Kiwakaazi shook hands with some of the gentlemen he knew and glanced at some of the sexy ladies. Nii Addo followed him and asked, “What happened to you? You look like my father when he loses money.” Kiwakaazi answered, “I don’t want to talk about it. I just need something to forget.” Nii Addo said, “I have girls. I have weed and I have wine. Which of these three do you prefer?” Kiwakaazi answered, “I want them all.”

The next day, at about ten in the morning, Kiwakaazi woke up to the sound of banging; banging on his door of his apartment. He did not return to his parent’s house. His head was spinning and aching. He had no memory of what happened the previous day after he answered Nii Addo’s question and he certainly did not want to answer the door. He just wanted to sleep but the one banging on his door was annoyingly persistent. He/she kept on banging forcing him to get out of bed and answer the door.

There were two men at his door. They were wearing white shirts with black stripes and navy blue trousers – the prescribed uniform for officers from the Imperial Crimes Agency (I.C.A.).  The two men did not want to enter Kiwakaazi’s apartment. They were in a hurry. They had just come to escort Kiwakaazi to the offices of their agency. Kiwakaazi’s presence was urgently required at the agency. Kiwakaazi felt a mixture of fright and worry. “What bad thing or things did he do?” he wondered.

At the agency, Kiwakaazi entered the office of the Director of the agency. There was one man already inside the Draco’s office, the deputy director of CREBIHEM, Obenfo Munyiwa.

“Hello Kiwakaazi, I am Draco Kalala, Director of the Imperial Crimes Agency,” was how he introduced himself. He went on to say, “We need your help. Something terrible has happened in Tumushie. This morning, we received reports of a possible poisoning of the people of that village from CREBIHEM’s branch in the village. I tried to contact your father but I couldn’t get a hold of him. I contacted the deputy director of CREBIHEM and he suggested I contact you too.”

Kiwakaazi could not shake the bad feeling growing in his heart and body. He felt uneasy thinking about it all. Tumushie has been poisoned and his father has gone missing. This is no coincidence. But what scared him was his temporal memory lost. What if he had a hand in what had happened?

“Kiwakaazi! Kiwakaazi!” shouted Draco Kalala. Kiwakaazi answered, “I am sorry.” Draco Kalala shouted, “Pay attention!” and continued, “We need you to travel to Tumushie to assess the situation and help calm things down in that village.” Kiwakaazi sighed. “Not Tumushie…,” thought Kiwakaazi.

Tumushie was the hometown of Obenfo Molade and Naa Lamle, Kiwakaazi’s parents. He assumed he was born there and spent at least the first twelve years of his life in Tumushie. But the people of Tumushie hated him. His peers did not want to talk to him. They did not want to play with him. They did not even want to come close to him. And their parents looked at him like he was the cause of something very terrible in Tumushie. He asked his parents many times, “What did he do to the people of Tumushie?” But his parents were unsure of his fault. He begged some of the children to tell him, “What sin did he ever commit?” But all they wanted to do was make fun of him or beat him up.

 He swore many times. He shouted it on several occasions. “The people of Tumushie will one day pay for what they did to him!” He did not want to go back to that village. He hated the name of the village. He hated the people who lived in that village. He hated how the village smelled. He basically hated everything about Tumushie. But did he have a choice? No! His work was to help friends, enemies and strangers. It comes with the job description. To treat all who needed his help equally even if they do not deserve it.

Kiwakaazi flew in a chopper to Tumushie. He was welcomed by the head of CREBIHEM in Tumushie. He shook Kiwakaazi’s hands and said, “Welcome Kiwakaazi! I am Ibele, head of CREBIHEM – Tumushie! It is an honor to have a great scientist like you coming over to help us!” Ibele had to shout because of the loud noise the rotating blades of the chopper made.

Kiwakaazi answered, “The honor is all mine! Describe the situation to me!” Ibele responded, “People suddenly started complaining of pain in various parts of their bodies; head, joints, abdomen and back. It first started as mild pains which aggravated after an hour. We have tried many analgesics including the tsofako (cure of a thousand ailments) and none of them worked. The tsofako worsened the situation and has caused three deaths already.” Kiwakaazi stopped walking. Ibele stopped too, and asked, “Is something wrong?”

The symptoms Ibele described were exactly what would be experienced if a man or woman was exposed to the poison that infected Princess Ife, if ever she was real. The same symptoms Kiwakaazi and his father were trying to cure. Kiwakaazi looked scared and worried. Kiwakaazi run his left hand through his long afro hair and answered, “No! I was just thinking. Okay, I think this poison was ingested. With the number of people already infected, I am guessing the poison must be in the village’s water supply. Let all those who are not infected stay away from the village’s water.”

Ibele looked terrified. Kiwakaazi asked, “What is the problem?” “Tumushie’s water serves six other villages in Nibooman (Western Empire),” he replied. Kiwakaazi shook his head and answered, “Then we have to get in touch with all these villages and warn them before it is too late.” Ibele took his phone out of his pocket and started dialing.

After a couple of hours, Kiwakaazi was already in his white lab coat getting ready to run some tests. He was on his way to examine the bodies of the three men who died after using the tsofako. He stopped in front of a large flat screen television on the wall on his way to the morgue. The poison had spread. Almost every kingdom and village in Nibooman had been poisoned. Even the capital had been affected. The cries of pain he heard broke his heart. He must hurry and find a remedy to this malady before it was too late.

“Nimdefo Kiwakaazi!” shouted a young lady. Kiwakaazi turned. The woman said, “Two men from the capital are here to see you.” Kiwakaazi felt fear. He did not know why but he felt overwhelming fear. He turned to meet the men – the same two men who first came for him from his apartment. They came bearing similar news – his presence is urgently required in Nyansapofie. Kiwakaazi answered, “But I just got here.” One of the two men said, “You know the poison has spread. Statisticians in the capital believe more than a thousand people have been infected by the poison and the number keeps on rising exponentially. You are needed in the capital where the best facilities are. We are sorry but there is not enough time. We must leave at once.”

So once again they flew by chopper to Nyansapofie, capital of Nibooman. This time, they landed at the air space of the Imperial Palace; Nyansapofie dan kese (the great house of Nyansapofie). Kiwakaazi’s fear grew. He continued to have the bad feeling he could not shake.

Kiwakaazi questioned when they landed, “Why are we here? I thought we were going to The Central Research Bureau into Herbs and Medicines.” One of the two agents responded, “We don’t know. The pilot claims he was instructed to bring you here.” The pilot took off and Kiwakaazi and his escorts had to continue on foot to the palace. They arrived at the base of a long flight of stairs towards two huge doors.

Two guards waited outside the huge doors that led to one of many halls of Nyansapofie dan kese. They were well built. They wore blue black trousers and yellowish shirts. They pulled the doors and opened them for Kiwakaazi to enter. The two escorts stopped. That was as far as they could travel. Kiwakaazi took his first step and slowly ascended the stairs. He was frightened. He had done nothing wrong and yet he felt something worse than terrible was about to happen. He continued to walk until he finally arrived at the opened entrance. He stopped to look back once again hoping those two escorts would follow him. He did not want to enter alone but his escorts were gone. He turned to look inside and entered the door. The two large men shut the door behind Kiwakaazi.