The Crown of Thorn: An Original Play Script

Act I, Scene 4

SCENE 4

(The scene opens to NOBARA and LUCIO sitting side by side on the sofa together. It is evening now.)

NOBARA

You've got a lot of explaining to do, buddy. What the actual hell just happened today? Are you trying to tell me that you were once a human like Seichiro too?

LUCIO

For lack of a better word, yes. It's too bad there wasn't some pretty girl like you there to save me when I first turned into a demon, maybe I would have had a chance to snap out of it.

NOBARA

What about Lee? Is he going to go after Seichiro again?

LUCIO

Don't worry about your friend, Lee won't be bothering him anymore. When a human becomes a demon, we no longer have any use for them, even if they become a person again. You know, despite how much you seemed to hate him, you cared enough about him to keep him from becoming a demon. Maybe you aren't such a thorny rose after all.

NOBARA

I'm not a monster, you know. Seichiro might have been an ass, but I couldn't just let him go like that. Besides, the last thing I want is another people-eating demon running around. I guess if I don't have much time left, I might as well make use of it, right? But if it worked for Seichiro, maybe we could turn you back into a human if we made you remember your real name.

LUCIO

No...I'm afraid not. It's been too long for such a thing to happen anymore. Over the decades, I started to regain some of my memories, bits and pieces. But nothing was the same again. I still can't recall the name I had when I was a human. A previous contractor gave me the name of Lucio, and I've had it ever since.

NOBARA

Decades? How long have you been around?

LUCIO

A hundred years, perhaps? I'm not quite sure, it's hard to keep track when you've been wandering the world for so long. I'm tired...I don't want to keep doing this forever.

NOBARA

What would happen if you learned your real name?

LUCIO

I'd probably move on to the afterlife, I suppose. It's the best I can assume.

NOBARA

So where'd you come from anyway? You certainly don't look Japanese.

LUCIO

Hmm...it was Sweden, I believe. I lived in an isolated, rural little village with my parents.

We were poor, but we did our best, we worked hard and we were happy. We were rather humble people, we farmed for a living. I was just a young man when it all happened. It was the day of a festival in our village, we were going to have a feast, so my mother sent me out to gather wild mushrooms in the woods for a stew.

NOBARA

So what happened?

LUCIO

It's a bit hazy, but I recall smelling smoke on the way back home. When I returned to the village...the entire place had been set ablaze. I was in a panic, rushing about, searching for my parents, but they were nowhere to be found. The fire was too widespread, I was helpless to do anything. My home was razed to ashes and cinders, and I never found my father and mother again. They must have perished in the fire. I had lost everything, I didn't know what to do or where to go, I was so stricken by grief...and then he appeared.

NOBARA

He? Who's that?

LUCIO

It was Lee. The ruination demon appeared before me. I didn't find out until decades later, long after I became a demon...but he was the one who set fire to my village. The one responsible for all of my loss and grief was him, but when I met him for the very first time, I never even knew it.

I made a pact with him, my wish was for him to take away all of my pain and make me forget everything.

NOBARA

So that's why you forgot your true name? Because he turned you into a demon?

LUCIO

That's correct. After Lee turned me into a demon, I lost all of my memories, and eventually I inherited the name "Lucio." But over the years, my old memories that were locked away began to resurface, hazy bits little by little. Of course, not all of them returned. If Seichiro had fully become a demon, the same thing would have happened to him.

NOBARA

That's awful...wait a minute, why am I feeling sorry for you?! You're the one who's going to devour my soul!

(LUCIO lets out a chuckle.)

LUCIO

Indeed. Perhaps you're not as thorny as you think you are.

(NOBARA suddenly stands up.)

NOBARA

Alright, I have an idea! What if I get on your good side by figuring out your true name? You'd like that, right?

LUCIO

I doubt you can, but you're welcome to try.