"Disgusting. How has he not been overthrown yet?"
"How can we!? They have guns, men and money. What else do we have other than our farming tools! We can only submit..." the man spoke with a bitter smile, a look of resignation on his face.
"Huh? It's you!" The man's eyes widened as he pointed at Mio, who had been hiding behind Isshin, and had just poked her head out to the side when the Village Head walked upto Isshin to thank him.
"Lord Isshin! Please get away from that child immediately! And you damn devil! I thought I told you leave this place and never come back! The pirates attacked us because of you!" he yelled, with visible anger on his face.
"Ah!...." Mio hid behind Isshin, her body trembling from fear, tears pooling in her eyes.
'So this is the reason a little child like her was wandering alone to her, barefoot, and in the cold to her inevitable death.' he thought, his eyes narrowing, pupils shining.
"You! You never listen huh?! Come here you Child of Disaster!" the man walked closer as he held her hand, forcefully trying to pull her away from Isshin, when...
*Shiiing*
A red line appeared on the Head's wrist, as him entire hand slid off, being cut cleanly from his arm, before the stub of his arm spurted a fountain of blood, causing him to stumble backwards and fall down, crying in agony.
"Help! Help me! Aaaahhhhh!"
"Stop the bleeding or he'll die! I'll tie the bandages!" the doctor exclaimed as he hurried over to treat his wound, tying a tourniquet over his bicep, stopping the flow and loss of blood, and pouring alcohol over the wound to disinfect it, causing the man to instantly black out from the immense pain, as the doctor bandaged the stub, before using some smelling salts to wake him up, so as to not let him go into shock and die.
"Why would you do that, Lord Isshin!" the wife of the Village Head shouted angrily at him, while hugging her husband.
"He had the audacity to insult and lay his filthy hands on my ward, and so, deserved to lose that very hand."
"You don't know who you're protecting! That girl is a monster, who brings nothing but-"
"You would do well to watch your words, should you wish to still have your head on those shoulders." Isshin spoke, causing her to abruptly stop talking.
"We're leaving, little one. This village has nothing to offer us, with everything burnt down. We will have to try our luck elsewhere." He said, as he held her hand gently, turning around, and walked in the direction of the seashore, towards the Pirate ship, hoping to find any useful goods like a map or compass.
...
The two walked towards the sea shore, away from the village, an uncomfortable silence hanging in the air. Isshin then suddenly stopped before...
"If you do not wish to speak about why what happened in the village did happen, that is entirely alright, I won't ask. But-"
He turned towards her, and knelt down onto one knee, to her height, as he placed a hand on her shoulders
" -if you ever wish to tell me, when you trust me enough, then, I will be there to listen." he finished, as he pulled her to his chest, wrapping her with an arm.
Mio, who was shocked at this sudden kindness, this unknown, warm, emotion that she never experienced in her entire, short life, burst into tears, as she cried into his chest, clutching at his clothes as if she were afraid that she would lose this feeling if she were to let go, for even a moment, as Isshin smiled down at her, his eyes softening into cresents, patting her head, soothing her, reassuring her, as she let out all of her pain and sadness.
...
A/N: So I did tell that I wouldn't be posting a chapter today, but it didn't sit right with me to miss a chapter within the first week of starting it (I also want to rise in the rankings, been falling pretty hard, gotta pump those numbers up!) so I just posted another shorter chapter and have deleted the notice of not posting a chapter, not that anyone would have noticed, as I removed it within 2 hours since I posted it.
Unfortunately, the flow of powerstones and collections have slowed down to a trickle, so I'm gonna need you readers to pull through on this one. You can do it! Gambare!