Suikoden Tactics... And Beyond

So the story I've had in mind for my Suikoden fan fiction is sort of a sequel to events that took place in the video game Suikoden IV and its spin-off Suikoden Tactics.

Cover art for Suikoden IV's "sister game" Suikoden Tactics.

Suikoden Tactics is a strategy based Role-Playing game in which the characters are set up kind of like chess pieces. While the graphic style is very different from Suikoden IV, it takes place in the same world, and gives us a glimpse of what the characters have been up to since liberating the Island Nations. The game actually gives you the option of carrying over data that you've saved on your memory card from Suikoden IV, and this determines how you go about recruiting certain characters to aid you in your quest.

So when you reach Obel, you find that King Lino En Kuldes has been working hard to keep the Island Nations at peace. He has also recruited two former assassins, named Mizuki and akaghi, as his personal bodyguards (this is pretty much explained in the epilogue upon completing Suikoden IV.)
We also find out that the hero has been living on a deserted island, away from society.

I liked the idea of the hero choosing to live outside of society, in case his Rune of Punishment begins to have negative effects and the vicious cycle begins again. I decided to base my fan fiction around this idea.

In my story, the rune of Punishment becomes imbalanced. It doesn't actually drain the hero's life like it did before, but it has been causing him to have strange dreams and visions. He also feels some sort of gravitational force pulling on the rune, as if drawing him somewhere. Reluctantly, the hero decides to ask his old friend King Lino for help, and Lino, who has also been troubled by nightmares involving his late wife, decides to set off with the hero on his ship to find out what this mystery is revolving around the Rune of Punishment.

Official Konami artwork of Akaghi the ninja

Lino takes with him his spear and his most trusted crew members, including his personal attendant, Akaghi (Mizuki is off attending to Princess Flare on one of her pirate patrol missions.)
Akaghi is a ninja who once worked for a corrupt merchant and his mission in Suikoden IV was to kill the hero and claim the Rune of Punishment for himself. This would surely have killed Akaghi, and once he became aware of this, Akaghi dedicated his life to making sure the rune did not end up in the wrong hands. After the liberation of the Island Nations, Akaghi became Lino's trusted servant. In the video games, Akaghi uses only one chakram as his main weapon, but there is a special feature in Suikoden IV in which Akaghi confesses that he once had two chakrams, but he lost one. So for my fan fiction, Lino En Kuldes has given Akaghi a newly crafted chakram, identical to the one he uses, as a gift and token of appreciation.

The quest takes the hero, Lino and Akaghi far from Obel's shores, to a remote, uncharted island where the Rune of Punishment guides the hero deep into the bowels of an ancient ruin (Much like the ruins of Obel that we see in the video games) In these ruins, the hero finds an inscription of the Rune on a wall. When he touches it, the rune reacts and a powerful magical surge engulfs the ruins. While the hero collapses from the strain of this magical surge, Lino and Akagi draw their weapons and stand ready for combat, as the rune's power begins to summon its long dead victims to kill the intruders... And this is where you can see my first animated sequence telling the story.