Chereads / Strength of Heart / Chapter 40 - It doesn’t end with death

Chapter 40 - It doesn’t end with death

Shizuko rushes home and barges through his door to see everyone there already waiting.

Asuna "You might want to sit down."

Shizuko "What happened?! Where's Jiro?!"

Aurora "Shizuko please sit down."

Shizuko "Don't touch me! Where is my brother!"

Zukiro "So only when he's dead you see him as your brother?"

Marvelle "Zukiro!"

Shizuko "What?!"

Marvelle "Jiro died Zuko."

Shizuko "How do you know?! Where's his body?! Why are you guys saying such things?!"

Marvelle "Zuko his light went out! I didn't want to believe it either but I can't sense his chi anymore. There is no body because we haven't went to retrieve it yet. We, we were waiting for you."

Shizuko runs out of the house, breathing hard as he just runs trying to find Jiro's body.

Marvelle "Zuko!"

Zukiro "Let him, he needs to see this. What he does after will be the true measure of his character."

Asuna "I want to apologize again. If I'd known it was just going to be Aurora and Jiro I want you to know that I would have never approved the mission."

Zukiro "But you did, it's your job to make sure these things don't happen."

Asuna "You're right, I blame no one but myself for this."

Zukiro walks away holding his chest. Marvelle just continues to stare at the direction Shizuko went.

Aurora "I'll go after Shizuko."

Marvelle "No, you're in no condition to help him."

Asuna "Don't worry, he'll be fine. Core members are following him."

Zukiro "Why didn't they follow Jiro and Aurora?"

Asuna "All of the Core members were sent off on missions as well and a few of them just came back."

Zukiro continues to walk away holding his chest.

Zukiro "Hmph! Do better!"

Asuna can't say anything because all he can think about is how he's doing as emperor. Nothing is going as planned.

Marvelle looks over at Aurora to see her crying.

Marvelle "It's not your fault."

Aurora "Yes it is, I wasn't strong enough."

Marvelle just grabs her and hugs her. Both of them crying.

Marvelle "Jiro will be with us always, what he did was for all of us. I know my son and I know he died for us with a smile on his face."

For the first time, Asuna is seen with a tear fall down his face.

The Core members main objective was to find Jiro's body. No one has found anything yet. It's raining outside and it's making it harder to find any clues. Shizuko just wanders around away from the Core members. All Shizuko can think about is what he said to Jiro before he left, it just keeps repeating in his head. His eyes start to get watery, but before a tear can fall his foot hits something hard and he finds Jiro's body. Shizuko just becomes stagnant as he's in shock to find his brothers body covered in blood, so beat up and damaged. One thing stood out to him, it was Jiro's smile.

Shizuko "How could you die?!"

Shizuko falls to his knees and just starts hitting the ground. His body starts emitting tremendous heat.

Shizuko "I'm sorry Jiro! Your death is my fault! There is nothing I can do to make it up to you! So when I kill the man that killed you, it's going to be for mom!"

He continues to punch the ground as his fists are being engulfed in flames, the rain can't put them out as it just evaporates when it touches his fists. The angrier he gets, the more steam that emits from his body. He lets out a loud lions roar that completely pierces the clouds evaporating all of the rain and forcing it to stop. When it just suddenly stops all of the Core members get confused and wonders what happened. Until they all hear footsteps and turn to look. Each of their eyes get big as they see Shizuko carrying Jiro, but the same steam is emitting from Shizuko's body. When he gets close to them, the Core members start to feel the heat as it burns them. All of them fall to the ground with their bodies burning from just Shizuko's anger.

Ageel "Shizuko calm down! Anymore heat and we're all going to be killed!"

Shizuko snaps out of it and takes a short breath.

Ageel is the only one who can stand and when he looks at his body and around him, he notices that all of their armor was almost completely burned off.

Shizuko just looks at all of them, thinks about apologizing, but then just walks past them.

Ageel "Hmph, never would have thought I'd almost die to pure emotions."

Shizuko walks all the way back to the village carrying Jiro. When he gets back, he sees a lot of people in shock and with looks of despair. Everyone feels something towards Jiro's death. Shizuko walks past everyone and can hear the murmurs of people talking about him and how it's his fault. Again, Shizuko's anger reaches its peak and before he snaps, Asuna places his hand on his shoulder.

Asuna "There is work to be done."

Shizuko just stares at Asuna clearly angry.

Asuna "Before you do anything you'll regret, think about the rest of your family."

Before all the civilians leave one guy stays calling out Shizuko. He yells at him telling him that even those with power are weak in the head.

Ceil "Arrogance, ego, dishonesty, your carelessness , all of which make you..."

Shizuko "Don't talk to me! Don't act like you know me! You could never understand what I go through! You don't have any power, any responsibility, you don't know what it's like to fight! Don't patronize me, or talk down on my family!"

After saying this Shizuko's aura emits from his body again in pure rage. He tries to walk over to Ceil, but Asuna grabs his shoulder and shakes his head.

Shizuko "Don't try and stop me!"

Shizuko unleashes a flame wave that pushes Asuna back, catching him off guard and forcing him unconscious.

Shizuko "You think I don't know it's my fault my brother died?!"

Ceil "I-"

Shizuko "I didn't say you could speak!"

Shizuko walks towards Ceil with heat emitting from his body, steam coming from the top of his head, piercing the clouds. As he walks, the ground is burning/melting. When he gets close to Ceil he pauses and then looks behind him, to see Aurora. Aurora just stares at him with a cast on.

Aurora "What is wrong with you?!"

Shizuko "

Shizuko's father talking to him but Shizuko yelling at him saying he'll handle it since you haven't been a father. Your pride and joy is dead.

Shizuko's parents come to try and calm him down but they just end up making him more mad. Shizuko ends up talking to Jiro and that's who calms him down. But then ziku and everyone noticed what was going on. Ziku decided not to go because of his mom, but then Hiroyuki goes. Once Shizuko calms down, he falls to his knees and the seal appears on his wrist to his elbow with his eyes turning dark as him and Hiroyuki waste no time and attack each other. Their fight becomes very destructive as everyone tries to run away and all Aurora can do is lay on the ground in pain from the shockwave of their collision. Aurora grabs her ribs and slowly moves her hand away as her hand starts to shake because she's bleeding and in a lot of pain. Aurora starts to cry and look around for help, but there's none. She looks around and sees Asuna lying under some rubble. She crawls over to him in hopes of waking him up. Before she can get close, Bezune appears in front of her and reaches out his hand.

Bezune "What is happening?!"

Aurora clinches her teeth as she's moving and trying her best to wipe her tears.

Bezune "Hey, take it easy, you're hurt."

He looks up to see Hiroyuki and Shizuko in the center just going at it, every blow with the intention to kill behind it.

Bezune "Why are they?! How did they get close to each other?!"

Aurora "What do you mean close to each other?"

Bezune "Both of them have a curse. Their hatred for each other fuels their bloodlust and whenever they get too close they try and kill each other!"

Aurora "What?! Why didn't no one tell me?!"

Bezune "I can't talk, I have to stop this!"

Shizuko and Hiroyuki both freeze, struggling to move. Bezune stops and looks around, when he scans the entire area he notices Mireko.

Bezune "Mireko?"

Mireko "Don't just stand there! I can't hold them forever!"

Mikoto moves all of the rocks and boulders in the area using the boulders and ground to restrain both of them.

Mikoto "Bezune either knock them out or kill one! You pick!"

Bezune "Tch! Kill?! What is wrong with her?!"

He runs over to Shizuko and tries to knock him out, but before he can even land the hit Shizuko breaks out of the restraints with a wave a fire that knocks all of them back. Hiroyuki freezes all of the ones on him and breaks out of the ice. Both of them are emitting not only their element, but dark chi as well. They collide again, and it's like the others weren't even there. They get up and try to go back and put a stop to it, but nothing seems to work. At this point Asuna begins to wake up and notice everything going on. Before he can react and do anything, it's already too late. Hiroyuki and Shizuko are both charging at each other with finishing attacks. As they collide for the final time, nothing but blood is seen. Both of their eyes go back to normal and when Hiroyuki looks down he sees that he's holding an ice blade. He starts shaking and when he looks up to see who it was he stabbed, a tear falls down his cheek and he falls to the ground unconscious. Shizuko's whole fist is covered in nothing but blood now. All of the fire is gone and nothing but blood is dripping. He looks up to see his father in between both of them. He just looks at his dad in his eyes as they are both staring at each other.

Aurora "No!!!!!!!!!!!"

Asuna grabs her and just like before, he shakes his head.

Zukiro "No matter how you feel about me, no matter what you think or do. I want you to remember that I'm proud of you and I will always love you my son."

He smiles at him and then pats his head.

Zukiro "I'll be watching, continue to make me proud."

He falls over to the ground and his body turns cold quick.

Shizuko just looks at his body and then back at his hand. He continues to look back and forth and he starts to hyperventilate. He puts both of his hands on his head and starts to freak out. Tears fall out his eyes and then he too falls unconscious.

Aurora "Shizuko!!!!!!!"

She tries to run over to them, but then she falls on the ground and starts to cry. She tries her best to crawl over to them and manages to do so. When she gets close she just picks up Shizuko and holds him close to her. She rocks back and forth and just lets out all of her tears.

Aurora "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry!"

Asuna walks over to them and can do nothing but sulk at more deaths he couldn't prevent.

Aurora "Why didn't you do more?!"

Aurora just watches Asuna walk over to Hiroyuki. He picks him up and just walks away. Aurora looks around to notice everyone else just watching Asuna as well. Bezune goes over to Aurora and tries to say something, but she just tells him to be quiet and leave.

Bezune "But…."

Aurora "Just leave!"

Everyone else leaves them be as Aurora just holds Shizuko crying. She looks over at Zukiro and finally feels the flame in his heart fade away. Just causing her to cry even more.

Again Marvelle falls to her knees as she feels the flame for Zukiro go out. And all she feels is heartache.

Shizuko has a vision of him and Jiro just standing next to each other. Jiro looks at him and just smiles with a thumbs up. Shizuko closes his eyes folds his arms and looks away from him. In the same instant he feels Jiro hug him. Shizuko puts his hands on Jiro about to pull him away, but then he stops and hugs him back. They both look over to their left to see there father. Zukiro closes his eyes, smiles and then nods his head at Shizuko. Jiro goes running to Zukiro as he jumps up in excitement. Both of them look at Shizuko smiling as to say it's up to you now. Shizuko tries to go to them, but he can't move and they start to fade away. He looks down at his fist and then back up to realize what he has to do next.

When Shizuko wakes up, he and Aurora immediately head to his house to find his mom just laying there with pictures of Jiro and Zukiro.

Shizuko "Why did he do it?! Why?!"

Marvelle "He said if he didn't, you would have become something dark."

Shizuko "What's stopping me now that he's dead?!"

Marvelle "Shizuko you're just like your father when he was young. You can't help that you have a temper, but you need something to fuel it. Your father was hard on you and treated you the only way he knew how. His father did the same, being hard on you was the only way he could ensure that you would continue to get stronger. He wanted you to prove him wrong, he wanted you to get stronger in your own way!"

Shizuko "But he...…"

Marvelle "Don't you dare say he didn't love you!"

Aurora just stands outside the door watching, as she tears up.

Shizuko "He loved me?"

Marvelle "More than you know!"

Shizuko "So what am I supposed to do now?"

Marvelle "Your father told me he wanted you to finish what he started."

Shizuko "All of it?"

Marvelle "Yes."

Shizuko closes his eyes, clenches his teeth and punches the wall. All while tears are falling down his face.

When Asuna walks back into the tower of glass, he notices Kaji being held by Shidai.

Asuna "What's going on?"

Shidai "I found him sneaking around while trying to talk to you about important village matters."

Kaji "I told you, my sister told me to wait here for Asuna!"

Asuna "Let him go."

Kaji "Aurora told me to tell you that although we disobeyed your orders we have the cure for the plague."

Asuna "Really?! This changes so much! Quick Shidai, hurry and get these to our health specialists so they can run the tests and create more!"

Shidai "On it!"

Asuna "We may have lost today, but we also gained. He did it for the village."

Kaji "What did we lose?"

Asuna just looks at him and then gestures for him to sit down so they can talk.

Shidai holding the ingredients for the cure as he looks at them and wonders what exactly are they made of. He counts the tubes and counts 40 in total. Enough to make medicine that can cure an entire village. Shidai closes his eyes and then a vein pops out on his forehead.

Shidai "I have them, what should I do with them?"

Mayonaka "Destroy them! All of them!"

Shidai "All of them?"

Mayonaka "Yes! The less that survive the better!"

Shidai "Ok."

Shidai "He told me to destroy them, do I listen?"

Sinitro "Do as he says, we need him to continue trusting you."

Shidai "Right!"

Shidai grabs all of the tubes and is about to break all of them and waste everything. Before he can, he thinks about it and thinks about all of the people he would inadvertently kill. Instead of destroying all of them, he only destroys 35 of them. He keeps 5 in his pockets and then throws the rest to the ground. After doing that his heart sinks deep down in his body as he feels nothing but guilt. He grabs his chest, punches his face, and then tells himself to forget it.

Shidai "They're awful, but not everyone deserves this fate."

Shidai heads over to the medical specialists with the cure. When he gets there, all of the doctors hug and praise him. He starts to feel bad because they don't know what it took to acquire something so important.

Doctor "This is great! We can….."

Shidai "What is it?"

Doctor "There is no way this is enough for the entire village!"

Shidai "How can you be certain?!"

Doctor "A regular tube this size would normally contain enough ingredients to conjure only about 2 medicine bottles. We have 5 tubes here, so that's only 10 test tubes for a village of nearly 3,000."

Shidai "Ten test tubes?! That doesn't sound too bad!"

Doctor "I don't know if you're being optimistic or just don't see the full picture here. Let me explain it to you. Each test tube is only 36ml, this size is only good to fill maybe 7 and half medicine bottles. So there would be 70 bottles made give or take. It would mean only 70 out of 3,000 people would get to recover from this plague. Obviously not everyone is sick, and they could be more bottles created than just 70, but you have to take in consideration of anything happening. At the end of the day I don't know the exact number of people that will survive this year."

Shidai "I-I had no idea."

Doctor "How could you? You're just a kid. Anyways, thank you. Although it's not everyone, you still helped save some. I commend you kid."

Shidai bows and then walks out of the hospital. As he walks out he gets this sad look on his face as all he can think about is what he has done.

Mest "I don't know how long it's been, but we still haven't found him!"

Mastab "Maybe he's..."

Mest "Finish that sentence and I will make it true for you as well!"

Mastab "I don't like the implication that you can kill me."

Both of them stare at each other and just have a stare down. Mastab raises his chi creating aura. Mest does the same but his goes higher and feels more intense.

Mastab says to himself "He does have the intent to kill me, hmph who would have thought he'd have it in him."

Kame "Why is there so many of these things?!"

As Kame continues to fight the void demons, hundreds just continue to keep coming. They are very weak, but the quantity is overwhelming. Even for Kame. He continues to fight as he's wiping out all of them, but just when he thinks he took care of them. He falls to one knee due to fatigue and is breathing very heavily. He looks up to see that he's surrounded by what could be almost a thousand demons. He stands to his feet, smiles and then gets into is stance.

Mastab and Mest are still having a stare down waiting for each other to make the first move. Before anything, a few demons run past them.

Mest "Why didn't they come for us?"

Mastab "Something I picked up about this place, these things are drawn to combat only. The more you fight, the more that appear."

Mest "When I first got here they were here, I wasn't fighting but they came."

Mastab "Of course, they look for people in order to get them to fight. If you just leave them be, they have no interest. They want you to fight so they can get stronger and eventually overpower you. Then they surround you, and once they do that, it's basically over for you. You will almost certainly die."

Mest "That means those demons were drawn by combat! That means Kame is over the fighting!"

Mest doesn't say another word, he just follows the demons and leave Mastab to ponder.

While Kame is fighting, the more and more demons come. While Kame is getting even more tired, he's realizing his eyesight is fading, everything is turning blurry. A demon jumps over to him and bites his arm. He screams, but then kicks it away. He grabs his arm and his hand is just covered in blood. Even with just one arm he continues to fight, attracting more demons. After some time Kame just falls to the ground. Before the demons could pounce on him Mest lands on the ground making all of the demons fly into the air along with the ground and Kame. Mest catches Kame and then runs back in the direction of Mastab.

Mastab "Great you found him, now can we hurry up and leave?!"

Mest "Give him a minute to recover."

Some time goes by and when Kame fully recovers he looks over at Mastab and then goes over to him trying to fight. Mest grabs him, but then Kame slips out and attacks Mastab. Mastab moves so fast that he goes behind Kame and knocks him out.

Mest "That's not like him, what did you do to him?"

Mastab "He's just out cold, we can't have him trying to fight while we're trying to leave. We don't need those demons coming after us while we're trying to escape this damned place!"

Mest "Guess you have a point, but why did he do that? It doesn't make sense unless...."

Mastab "Just forget it, I don't care! You have your brother, now let's go!"

Mest "Alright, let's give it a try."

Mastab places his hands in a form of a triangle. Mest closes his eyes as all of them appear in his created dimension for training. Mastab's forehead has veins that pop out because of how concentrated he is. He just keeps his eyes closed and hands formed until the right moment. Then he hears a bell ring.

Mastab "Got it!"

All of them feel different. Mest stops his technique along with Mastab, just for all of them to be transported back in the forest.

Mastab "Ah finally! Looks like someone sent the wrong man to the void for me to find. Now it's my turn to find you, when I do you're dead!"

Mest "Wait, who are you talking about?"

Mastab turns to look at Mest, but then he just disappears using his ability.

Mest "Wait!"

Before he can say anything else, he looks up to se the sky turning dark.

Mest "Hmph, came back right on time to fight."

Desir "Or right on time to die."

Ziku looks up and gets confused. The strength he can feel.

Ziku "Something's not right."

He goes outside and looks into the sky to see it turning completely dark all the clouds are gone, the sky is just black.

Kenchiko "Me and you have some unfinished business!"

Asuna "What is this?"

Hiroyuki "What is it?"

Both of them just staring at the sky. Then look at each other.

Obnimi "It is your death."

All the villagers look up and get worried, no one knows what is happening and as everyone is still sick, this just adds to the stress.

Omoi "It's not even close to being night, what is going on?"

Cyro "The eradication of this village starts now!"

Shizuko "What now?"

Ganju "Now, you die."

Kireina "Do you see this too?"

Ava "Yes, does this happen often?"

Aiko "Never actually."

Habi "Show me your strength."

Toko "Be prepared to fight, they really want me dead."

Hirishoja "They?! No! Just me!"

With the skies turning dark, the villagers afraid. What could this ambush be the result of?