"So, he was a fake, huh?" Mirai muttered as he reunited with Rai and Utsusuki. A soft sigh escaped him as he rubbed the back of his neck in frustration. Beneath his unshed anger, there was a flicker of calm, like the quiet after a storm. The clouds of battle and the rain of spilled crimson had cleared, leaving the sky open for a better future.
"Yes," Rai confirmed, his voice steady, his gaze distant. "He bore no crests, and his clothing and accent didn't align with the Akai Kiba. His real allignment seemed to be under the Tsukikage." The cold night air drifted through their clothes, brushing coolly against their skin. Utsusuki shifted against a nearby tree, the grass rustling softly beneath his sandals.
"I suspect he merely claimed the name to instill fear," Rai added, his tone edged with disappointment. "He was likely trying to build his own gang on borrowed infamy."
"I see… so I've been made a fool all this time." The masked samurai sighed, his voice lined with pain from his earlier wounds.
"…my condolences," Rai murmured, casting the samurai a sideways glance before looking back to Mirai.
"And you couldn't find Ryoshu, or that other guy?" Mirai asked, hope barely lingering. When Rai shook his head, Mirai's heart sank, accepting another dead end.
"If that's all, I'll take my leave," Rai announced with a faint smile, his figure dissolving in a blue light that briefly lit the dark forest before fading back to shadow.
"Right. Thank you," Mirai murmured to no one in particular, his hand drifting to his sword in a silent gesture of respect.
"So there's two of you?" Utsusuki mused, but his question received only a wry smile from the young samurai, who knelt beside him. He helped the wounded man to his feet, steadying him with a firm grip.
"Let's get you home," the young samurai said, casting no further light on the mystery. The masked man let out a quiet chuckle before nodding.
"Right."
The two limped back to the forest, their feet dragging against the blades of grass that lazily tried to flow against them. A quiet moment that one would pay their fortune to ensure, the moons and the stars gazing down upon them as the two warriors return to their abode. Although, their peace did not last long, as the flames had yet to be dwelled, not the flames that engulfed the town, but rather–
The flames that engulfed the hearts of it's people, the anger the feel for the losses they had gained.
"What's going on…" Mirai murmured, his hand slackened over his wounded comrad, though making sure he didn't fall.
The villagers stared him down with a look that didn't seem like contemptment, rather, fear. Their eyes grateful yet cower for their distant future. They gripped their torches, their grasp tightening against the firm oak wood that carried the flame with such ease, Yuri and Shou watching the chaos happen from behind the angry mob, the mother's hand hiding her child safely behind her from the uncertainties to come.
"Why do you harbor that man! He was one of them was he not!" Screamed one of the villagers, a young boy who seemed to had just peaked in his teenage years, now entering the gates of adulthood. His hair was curly and brown, eyes a beautiful emerald green that would make his brown skin shine.
At his words the crowd bursted into an outroar, their voices clearly swayed by his narrow vision, the smoke from the torch they carried seemingly blocking their gaze to what was truly before them.
"S-stop!" Yuri cried from behind realizing the duo that had came before the anger of the villagers, leaving her son behind her in safety as she pushed through their compact flock. "They are not the enemy!"
"They saved us! Do you not see?!" She cried, her hand reaching up to hold collar of her kimono, her grasp firm and her words clear.
"That may be true, but what about what they did in the past! What he did in the past!" the boy argued, pointing towards the masked samurai, the crowd backing him up on his rage.
"Should the past be damned because he turned a new leaf?! Do our suffering mean nothing in the eyes of rebirth?" The boy's voice quivered under the weight of his message, his words clearly not coming from unfair malice. He wiped his eyes that shed tears of vulnerability and weakness, before staring back into the eyes of the two warriors and the woman that defended him.
"My mother, died to your people's hands…many, many years ago." He muttered, his gaze to the floor and his hands balled up into fists. "May it had been you? That Im not sure of—"
"But as a warrior— no…as a samurai. You picked your allegiance and you should die by it! You carry the weight of their sins! You carry what that sigil means! What your blade fought for!" He roared between sobs, his breath hitching at every sentence.
"To come to us, limping before us, after knowing fully well what you were fighting for?! Begging for your life!? Forgiveness?! That's merely just a selfish act and a shame to all samurai!" The villager's anger only grew with the boy's pain, their boisterous cries backing up with strong words that would shake the heart of the samurais, Yuri looked down her mind knowing she's right, yet she struggles to fight against the boy's logic.
"Forgiveness should only be given through the act of ritual suicide! Repent for the lives you destroyed!" The boy demanded, his finger outheald towards Utsusuki, his hand quivering with rage and pent up emotion.
"Very well…" The masked samurai murmured, slowly pulling himself out of Mirai's supportive hold, standing on his own two shaky feet, the pain on his side quivering his resolve. Slowly, he unsheathed his blade, a moment of silence befell on the samurai's final moments, soon to be interrupted by a hand that would stop the path of the hilt on his blade.
"He's a victim, just like you all! Picked up in his time of need and forced to hold a depth he can never repay!" Mirai shouted, his voice stern yet there was a sense of plea towards the people. Their gazes lingered to eachother as they heard the young samurai's words. Shou watching from behind with a confused expression.
Mr.Po walked before the group, his hand behind his back and his face in a somber expression, one that's filled with understanding, yet it too carried a need for forgiveness and guidance.
"Whether we forgive this man or not, it doesn't matter," He stated, a soft worry to his voice. "No matter what we do now, we'll be force to relocate, that man was our only saving grace against those who had wronged us."
"This village is a village built on fear, all of us ran from someone in our life time, and seek refuge here– but with him gone we…" His eyebrows furrowed in concern and worry, finding a place to stay was the least of their worries, staying hidden was another, a far greater weight that would be brought upon them…
"I'll protect you," Mirai said in a burst of confidence, everyone turning to the young samurai in concern and a hint of curiosity. Shou's mouth was left somewhat agape by his sudden declaration, Utsusuki letting out a soft chuckle as though this was the perfect outcome.
"S-surely you jest- you alone can't—"
"I saved you from them didn't I?" Mirai retorted his hands on his hips in a silent yet proud declaration. "If you'd have me, I'd see this village shine through, and make you more than cowardice villagers in the middle of no where."
"Yes…" He grinned his soulless eyes twinkling with a vision to the future. Watching as the poor village before him transforms into a massive city right before his eyes, the scale so massive and grand that it made his heart skip a beat with excitement! "I'd like to make your small village,"
"Into an empire!"