The Boy With a Flame

Infobox Television episode
Title = The Boy With A Flame
Series = Arc The Lad
Season = 1
Episode = 1
Airdate = April 5, 1999
Script = Akemi Omode
Next = Beginning of the Destiny

The Boy With a Flame is the first episode in the first season of the Arc the Lad television show.

Episode Overview

The series opens with an unseen woman praying to the Five Spirits of the world: Light, Earth, Water, Wind, and Flame. She reflects upon how even though humanity is protected by the Five Spirits, they seem to have forgotten about them, as they have become arrogant and kill one another. She begs for the Spirits to send them just one hope, and a glimpse of Arc is seen. Finally, she speaks of the Ark--a gift given as a covenant, which no one may open.

A tall man in glasses named Mr. Clive walks down a dark hallway with one of his employees. Clive apologizes for having to bother the man's assistance. The elevator door opens, revealing a group of men and their hostage: a beautiful young woman.

A blimp boards, which is carrying a large stone statue, although it has been wrapped up enough that the woman can only see part of its face. Two men discuss how impractical using a blimp to transport the object is, and then turn their attention to the amount of security that has been hired to guard it. One man suggests that perhaps Arc will come for 'it'. They mention that a facility in Horn was recently attacked, and that Horn is the same place that 'the girl' is from.

One of the girl's captors is a blonde man named Alfred who has been specifically chosen for the operation by Clive himself. He stands in the bathroom, staring into the mirror as he takes several pills. The shape of his body seems to change as he tries not to scream. Finally, he calls out the names of his sister, Chante.

The young woman has been moved to a mostly empty room. She leans on top of the room's only contents, a wooden crate, speaking to the growling beast inside of it. While the creature continues to growl, she speaks softly, insisting that everything is going to be alright.

As the blimp takes off, Alfred's body changes, a horrible brown appendage growing from his right eye. Gunshots and screams are heard, and the girl stares towards the door nervously.

Cut to a village burning. Bodies are everywhere, and people are screaming. A mortally-wounded man orders his son to run away, but the boy doesn't want to. The man prays that the Spirit of Flame bless him. As he dies, the boy screams, and an airship is seen behind him.

Several years later, the boy, Elk, wakes up from his dream. He has since become a Hunter, a group of mercenaries who take contracts for money. He is on board an airship, the Hien, with two other Hunters, Cougar and Bibiga. Cougar taunts Elk and his 'magic powers', and while Elk is ready to fight, Bibiga demands they stop because he would rather not crash the ship and die. Finally they come upon their target: the blimp that Alfred and the young woman are on.

Bibiga explains that the ship has been hijacked, and that no terrorists or organization has claimed responsibility for it. The Hunter's Guild was contracted to rescue the passengers and capture the hijackers. Elk and Cougar board the ship to carry out their mission. They see nobody in the halls, and when Cougar breaks down a door, they find a room packed with passengers who are relieved that rescue has come. They are ordered to use the evacuation pods on the upper deck.

One passenger speaks up, saying that there is only one hijacker, who was last seen heading to the cockpit. Cougar runs off to the cockpit, ordering a reluctant Elk to search the rooms in case any more passengers are still on board. Elk comes across a door with several bullet holes in it. When he looks inside he finds two bodies that look as if they have been rotting for much longer than they possibly could have been.

Elk hears a thumping noise from the adjacent room. He opens the door and finds the young woman, who had been trying to break open the wooden crate. He asks her if she knows anything, but she is too scared to speak. When Elk reaches for her hand, she cries out and the crate shatters, a blue wolf-like monster charging Elk. He ducks, though the monster was able to cut his upper arm.

When Elk prepares to fight, the girl rushes between the two, begging Elk to stop. She addresses the monster as 'Pandit', and says that he is a 'good boy'. Pandit calms down, and Elk is shocked that a monster would listen to a human. However, he remains focused, and orders the girl to get to an evacuation pod. She points at his arm, which has begun to bleed, and he simply tells her to leave before things get worse.

In the cockpit, the hijacker, Alfred, is with the crew. Alfred's left arm has been completely covered in bandages, as well as several across the right side of his face, including his eye. Cougar suddenly charges in, knocking Alfred to the floor and pointing a gun at his face. Cougar says that he is impressed that someone as injured as that could have pulled off a hijacking, and steps on Alfred's bandaged arm, hoping to hurt him.

However, three claws break through the bandage at the middle of Alfred's arm, and grip Cougar's boot. Cougar demands he let go, and when Alfred begins to laugh, Cougar pulls the trigger. A hand-like growth rips through from underneath the bandages on Alfred's face, and grabs the gun. As Alfred stands up, Cougar is heard screaming.

Elk hears the gunshot from the outside deck and hurries to the cockpit. There he finds the crewmembers and Cougar, dead and rotting, just as the bodies he'd found before--completely drained of blood. He travels to the top of the blimp, where he finds Alfred, who mutates into something Elk recognizes as a 'Chimera'. Elk demands if Alfred knows anything about 'White House'. Alfred seems shocked that there is somebody alive other than himself who knows about White House.

Alfred's left arm grows a bubble of tissue that explodes into the form of a melting, dripping face. A girl screams, and Elk turns to see the girl and Pandit. Elk is frustrated that she hasn't evacuated, but Alfred addresses her as Lieza, and prepares to drink her blood, believing it will both gain him the ability to control monsters, as well as complete his transformation into a Chimera. As he approaches Lieza, Elk has closed his eyes, and begun to use the 'magic powers' Cougar has taunted him for earlier--and Alfred bursts into flames.

Subdued, Elk again demands Alfred to say what he knows about White House. Alfred says that he was just an experiment, and was trying to get away from the organization. They're interrupted when another ship opens fire on the blimp. Lieza and Pandit slip way in the confusion in a small basket-like object with a parachute attached. Elk is disoriented, but hears the people who have boarded say that they can't find the woman or the dog.

One of the men throws a grenade at Elk, and he is blasted off the blimp. He falls down the side, but jams his spear into it, slowing his fall, and eventually bringing him to a halt. As he watches the men leave on their ship, he struggles to hold on--mainly from the injury to his arm from his brief confrontation with Pandit. When the blimp explodes and Elk falls, he is caught by Bibiga in the Hien. The episode ends with Elk and Lieza both watching the blimp's remains crash from their two separate locations.