Even a life-long prosperity is but one cup of sake; A life of forty-nine years is passed in a dream; I know not what life is, nor death. Year in year out-all but a dream. Both Heaven and Hell are left behind; I stand in the moonlit dawn, Free from clouds of attachment. Uesugi Kenshin 1530-78 (Suzuki Zen and Japanese Culture pg. 82) *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* Chapter One: Mysterious Child of Magic A desperately cold wind blew through ashen base drifts of mountain born snow. Aoi Ryudouji clung tightly to the outer robes she had donned in preparation for the trip to Yuki-mura, the snow village. As she plunged through the ankle-high pillows of snow in her way, she took a look behind her. Tagging slowly behind were her partners and friends, Kazuki Ougano and Natsuna Tsunagu. The powerful martial artist and the skilled healer. Alongside Aoi, the master of the self-styled Shingetsuken style of swordplay, they formed the dreaded team of mercenary warriors known as the Kagami Bandits. The three of them took up any mission that caught their fancy, and travelled the exotic world of You’aen as they so pleased. Right now, there was no frivolous journey they were taking. This was strictly business. They had a mission to tend to. Slowly, Aoi turned her head around, lowering the hood over her head to stare at Kazuki and Natsuna. “Kazuki...” She began. “How much further do we have to go before we reach Yuki-mura?” The man in question thought for a second. Though he took a laid back look at life, he always liked to know where life would take him. And so Kazuki was a man that took great pride in travel and journeying. There was no place he did not know of in You’aen. Kazuki clutched the sides of his arms and rubbed feverishly to warm himself up. “Not too far, Aoi. I’ve been here a couple of times before; it’s not a long trip. Just try to relax a bit. Once we take care of this mission, we’ll be swimming in gold pieces.” Natsuna heaved a sigh. True, the mission did pay well, but the person paying the fee... “I still have misgiving about trusting Ietsuna Kagutaira.” Kazuki looked over to the raven-haired Natsuna. “Why do you say that? He seems trustworthy enough. And he offered us 20,000 gold pieces for a pretty easy job.” “That is exactly my point.” Natsuna said directly. “He hired us, the Kagami Bandits, and is going to pay us with a sum of money that would cure any poor village’s worries. All to retrieve some girl? Does that not seem to be a bit much?” As they continued walking, Aoi (as rare as it was) interjected. “But this isn’t just any ordinary girl. She is a magic user. Not like you, Natsuna. A *real* magic user. They were supposed to have died out hundreds of years ago during the Great Wars. If you believe in that sort of thing.” Natsuna thought about that for a second. The Great Wars were a bloody time in the history of You’aen. Twenty years of war against foreign enemies that were ‘unnatural’ in nature. Hundreds of thousands of lives were lost in those battles. The aged and now extinct religion of Shinkou argued that those wars were punishment from God for humanity’s self-indulgence and greed. This was a long time ago however, and most people had come to believe the wars never happened at all. But magic was very real. So real that it was feared. And by following history, the last recorded magic user died out at the same time the Great Wars ended. So it was no surprise that some people believed that the Great Wars were real. Natsuna was not sceptical. She believed in the wars with all her heart. Which was why she was looking forward to meeting this so-called ‘true’ magic user. “I’m anxious to meet her.” Natsuna said, with a small smile on her lips. With his usual, flirtatious self, Kazuki chipped in. “Yeah! I hear she’s fairly...” Natsuna looked at Kazuki oddly as he stopped himself. “Fairly what?” “You smell that?” The auburn-haired man said, thinking hard. “It smells like... smoke or something.” Aoi and Natsuna looked away from Kazuki and stared around the snowy area of this mountain path. As they continued walking forward, they came across a high cliff over looking the snowy village of Yuki-mura. A village that was in flames. Natsuna’s dark brown eyes went wide. “Oh great, this is all we need. Somebody is attacking the village.” Kazuki looked at the village down below. Dozens of people were screaming in terror, and more were being chased by an odd group of people. They were dressed in pure white body suits, with swords strapped to their backs. It looked like there were searching for something, or someone. “I don’t know who those guys are,” Kazuki cracked his knuckles. “But if they’re gonna tear apart a village just to find something then I think my fist is gonna get itself involved.” The quiet Aoi spoke up. “I don’t want to involve myself with the affairs of this village but... our charge is living inside it. We’ll have to go get the girl before those people injure her. We might as well help the villagers expel them.” Kazuki grinned at Aoi. “That’s cute, Aoi. I didn’t know you cared so much.” Aoi crossed her arms, looking away. “I don’t care either way. We have a job to do and if we fail, we’ll lose face. Not that I care about Ietsuna’s opinion, either.” Kazuki chuckled a little. Aoi was very cold person, but he could always see through that frozen shell of hers. “Okay Aoi, you loving humanitarian. Lets clean those guys out.” With that, Aoi, Kazuki and Natsuna expertly leapt down the snowy cliffs towards the burning Yuki-mura. *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* “Tell us where the girl is!” A poor man, of around 38 years in age, trembled in fear as one of the attacking assailant. He sleekly pulled out the Tanto knife from the back of his suit, and held it up to the pauper’s neck, still spouting hateful and direct orders. “Tell me!” He screamed, “Tell me where the girl is or I will kill you here and now! Do you wish me to do that?” The poverty stricken man shook his head. “N-No, please, don’t! I don’t know who you are talking about, I’m sorry!” “Errgh!” The white-suited attacker tossed the poor man to one side of the sidewall of a small hut. He stood up and looked around the place. The eastern and northern parts of the village were on fire, and many of the villagers were being cut down like cattle. This was not what they had come for. But still, they had their objectives. Nothing, not even innocent lives, could get in the way of it. Just as the man turned around to meet up with the rest of his group, Aoi leapt down from a neighbouring hut to meet with him face to face. The attacker took a look at this girl. Her face was garlanded by short blonde hair, with long tresses at the front, keeping only one of her shining blue eyes in view. At her neck was a precious necklace, a sapphire stone linked to a silver chain. Her attire was suited to a swordfighter of You’aen. A Yoroi hitatare form of dress, obviously adapted for a woman, coloured in white and blue. There was a symbol on the back of her garments, one that indicated the house of her swordplay style. The attacker could not recognise it, but he would have a fun time figuring it out. Aoi placed a firm hand on the hilt of her sword, keeping her blue eyes on this man. “Who are you? Why are you attacking this village?” The man smiled, sheathing his Tanto and drawing his long sword. “So you are a swordswoman, eh? Women have absolutely no place on the battlefield, my dear. You do not follow the Codes of Hokori, do you?” Aoi’s eyes narrowed. “Woman or not, that does not alter skill. Don’t mistake femininity for weakness. The Codes of Hokori are antiquated and obsolete. I follow the Order of Hizashi.” “It figures.” He said, lifting his sword into both hands. “Then lets see what you know. Anyone who stands in our way must be cut down.” Breathing a hard breath, Aoi gripped her sword, ‘Raiha’ and pulled it free from its sheath. She grabbed it with both hands, holding a steady grip on her blade and locked eyes with this man. He wasn’t like the other attackers; he seemed to actually be in control of their whole group. This was good for Aoi, however. When the brain is crushed, the body will follow. The attacker charged at Aoi with his sword at the ready, and as soon as he got close enough, he slashed at her in a diagonal cutting manner. Aoi tilted Raiha to a horizontal position, blocking the move with a streak of gold friction passing along two clashing blades. The assailant swished his sword at her again, in a vertical swipe. Aoi saw this with ease, and sidestepped to one side of his body. “That’s a foolish mistake.” Aoi thought. Now that she had a clear advantage over him, Aoi prepared to strike. However the man just grinned, crouching down and slashing his sword at Aoi’s ankles. The Kagami Bandit was caught well off guard, and did the only thing she could think of, and that was jump. She leaped straight off the patchy snow and into the cool night air. The second she reached the peak of her jump; Aoi slashed her sword around her body in a half moon motion, creating a thin slicing wave motion. The attacker leader was confused, she was attacking from such a great distance, but he gasped as the sleeve of his shirt was cut open, revealing a shallow gash in his flesh. Aoi landed a short distance away, still holding her sword in defensive stance. The man just stared at Aoi, shocked, but also in some crazy way, thrilled. “I do not believe it...” He said surprised. “That was air wave stroke of the Sajia’en School. Are you a student of Sajia’en Kaira?” The gaze of her strong sky blue eyes did not weaken, but Aoi allowed herself to answer that. “That is correct. Master Kaira instructed me long ago. How do *you* know of him?” The man grinned. “He and I trained together when we were children. We mastered that move together. But he had never told me that he adapted that move aerially. So... he ended up training women. He always said he would.” “Who are you?” Aoi pressed that harder. Training with Sajia’en Kaira and his son, Sajia’en Keiichi was a very personal thing. Kaira was the man who raised and trained her. This man was more than he seemed. The attacker sheathed his sword. “My name is Koukuji Yoshinaga. I lead this group, the Himitsu Rikugun. In honour of your teacher, I will spare your life today. But we will come back for the girl. Just be ready to face me then.” Yoshinaga leapt up to the top of the hut with a grin then whistled into the air. Each of the white-clad attackers listened well, stopped what they were doing and began to flee. It was a call to retreat. Aoi watched on as the twenty or so men dashed out of the village rapidly, along with Yoshinaga. Quickly sheathing Raiha, she ran over to the other side of the settlement to see how Kazuki and Natsuna were making out. Kazuki fought off the last of the Himitsu Rikugun troops, while Natsuna took care of some of the ailing villagers. Aoi slid to a stop as she neared Kazuki. “Are you alright?” She asked. Kazuki just grinned. “I’m fine! You think I can’t handle those amateurs? I took care of them in no time at all. Natsuna’s handling all the injuries of the villagers too. But we have more important things to worry about.” Kazuki turned around to look at the fire raging a few metres away from him and Aoi. “We gotta put out that fire. But the natural well that they draw water from is all the way across the village. We can’t get water here to stop it from spreading into another area.” Aoi gritted her teeth hard. She didn’t want to be involved in this and she was more pre-occupied with Yoshinaga, but it was the right thing to do. But before she even made a step, Aoi and Kazuki’s ears rang with the sound of a woman’s voice... chanting. The girl stood by the fire, her arms outstretched and her long black hair flowing in the now hot breeze. “Mahou shiki... Mizu!” A jet of powerful, compressed water shot from her hands, in a spinning tornado. The blast instantly doused the hot raging fire before her, leaving behind damp remains of wooden crates and boxes charred in the fire. As the flames died down she instantly drew back her arms, turning around and dashing for other fires to put out. Kazuki smiled generously as he watched this girl go to work with her magic. “Aoi...” He started. “I think we’ve found the girl.” *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* Kaiser’s Afterthoughts ---------------------- * My first fantasy Shoujo-ai since Prophecy of Krishinda! Whoo! It feels good to ride in this saddle again. Well, let me just say this. I’m putting in a lot of effort into this story, so hopefully it will be a darn good read at the end of my efforts. Any comments or questions just e-mail me about it and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible. Oh, and here are a few translations and explanations for the Japanese dropped in there. Shingetsuken: New Moon Fist. Fictional Yuki-mura: Snow Village/Town Mahou shiki...Mizu: Magic style/skill/mode...water Himitsu Rikugun: Secret Army Shinkou: Faith, devout belief Explanation ----------- Tanto: Short knife. Yoroi hitatare: Standard form of (two-piece) Samurai dress between 12th and 17th century Japan. Codes of Hokori (Pride): A set of Swordplay traditions that frown on female swordfighters. Fictional Order of Hizashi (Sunlight): A newer set of Swordplay codes that allow women fighters, but look on life more harshly and have less caring towards death. Fictional.
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