An Old Despair

"It's a shame really," The young man stated while looking upon the now bound master. "That it had to come to this."

The old master - maintaining their gaze upon the youth - did not reply and simply let out a soft sigh. Their breathing measured and controlled.

Around the apprentice was a group of mercenaries. Armed to the teeth. Blood dripping down from razor sharp claws, unconcealed kunai and stolen wakizashi's.

Behind them lay the corpses of the young man's friends and family. Those he had once shared a table with, danced with and laughed with. Now their bodies were broken and strewn up upon rafters that lined the temple's shrine.

A larger, more grizzled man put his shoulder upon the apprentice and guided him to step aside. The boy, looked up and nodded to him. Giving him a moment to speak to his old master.

"You've made quite the name for yourself, elder Ozai. Perhaps it would be wise now for you to tell me where you have hidden the locket."

Despite their best efforts, the old master couldn't help but crack a crooked smile. Their teeth missing from the torture they had just endured at the hands of their eldest student.

"It would be wise..." The elder replied coughing briefly, hacking up some blood as they did so. "But I doubt it would change anything."

The muscular man bent down, placing the head of his mace upon the ground just beside the old master and peered into Ozai's eyes.

"I see no fear, you are brave. The legends must then ring true. You are the hero of heroes. The one that had led Nemuce to it's greatest glory." He rose then and spread his arms wide and paced around. "Had you not split bread with the emperor himself? Bedded the heir to the throne? Rode among the Immortals? What glory is this that you chose to reside here of all places, in lonely spit of a town on the edge of the empire?"

Ozai gazed then at their apprentice, Ryu Nakamura, their eyes pleading for him to see reason. But Ryu simply averted his gaze. A slender mercenary noticing the interaction slid by Ryu's side and caressed his chin. Ryu smiled half-heartedly at her as he made to leave the room. He knew what was to transpire next. He had done his part in this mess.

He was escorted out by Eloisa, a foreigner of their land, but a master of the needle. She had been the one to end the life of his mother. He had seen great satisfaction in her eyes as she pierced the pupils of each and every one of his family members.

May they be blinded to the fact, it was their own kin and blood that had sacrificed them to the Watanabe's. In the afterlife, they would seek nothing in the way of vengeance.

The other mercenaries, on the other hand remained.

"And so it ends, here. The master of the wind, torn asunder by their own hands it would seem. It is a pity that greed runs so deeply into the young Nakamura. Perhaps you should have shown him the way of temperance. A much needed lesson in a world such our own is it not?"

Ozai lifted their head then and nodded. Whether in agreement or simply out of weakness to maintain their head held high, it was hard to discern.

"You will not find the locket here," Ozai stated a matter-of-factly. "It does not exist. You have fooled yourself hunting for such a treasure. Bo Dakei."

Bo Dakei laughed at this. "You take me as a fool as well it would seem. Well. If you don't know where the treasure is hidden..." He signaled to one of the men behind him. They brought forth the last remaining daughter of the house Nakamura.

"Yuri..." Osai whispered. A prayer softly found their way to their lips as they turned to the young child. Her face bloody and bruised. Her legs broken at an angle. She was like an abandoned doll of a flower girl. The floral pattern of her kimono remained unstained somehow.

"Do not do this, Bo Dakei. You are blinded by faith the locket is a falsehood brought about by the rulers of your land. They seek simply power and territory not understanding."

"HA! Lies, again." Bo Dakei picked up the master by his collar and gazed into his eyes. His own wide with malice and anger. Patience broken. He smashed his forehead into the skull of the person he had once idealized.

Dazed and confused, the master crumpled to the ground.

"Again, you remain resilient. Do you not see. With proof, with the bones of the True Emperor, your house would crumble. As it is already doing around you. The seat of the imposter would be uprooted and prosperity to this land would spread."

"Under your emperor's rule, my people have known nothing but famine and plagues." Pacing once more the giant of a man continued. "The gods themselves plea for me to weed out this stain upon the empire. I must wipe clean the soiled minds and bring forth an era of which the historians only dream of seeing again."

"You will bring blood and despair." Osai prophetically stated. Something caught the old masters attention. No one was paying attention to young Yuri anymore. Their gaze drawn to the charismatic man known as Bo Dakei, the Golden God.

The young girl was crawling to Osai. Blood trailed behind her as she fought to bring herself upright behind the master. She whispered something then into their ear. Before resting their head against the nape of their neck.

The masters eyes went wide for but a second, but no one in the room had noticed. Save for Bo Dakei. Ever attentive, ever listening, ever watching.

"What is this," He smiled at the two of them. "Had I been harvesting from the wrong field?" He picked up the girl by her crown and dragged her across the room. She kicked and screamed in protest but no one dare defy Bo Dakei as he threw her against a pillar. Her body literally cracking into the wood like the head of an axe.

The Golden God kicked her swiftly across the face. Her neck snapping so suddenly to the side - Osai thought her dead. But she moaned weakly against the floor boards as Bo Dakei lifted her up once more.

"Where is the locket, Onnanako?" He yelled into her ear as he shook her. "WHERE!"

Yuri numbly pointed skyward. Before crumpling once again to the floor. Confused Bo Dakei look into the open air above the temple. The Sun was shining brightly above them. It was half past noon. Not a cloud in the sky.

A deep chortle found it's way to his throat. Bo Dakei then laughed heartedly.

"What is this, has she gone mad in her last moments, I wonder?"

He looked over to Ashad - his most persuasive of torturers. Or truth tellers as he liked to call him. He beckoned the man to Yuri. But just as he was about to step forth.

A resounding shhhhhhiiiinggg sounded so loud and piercing it was as if his ears were ringing continuously. Confused he made to turn but found himself impaled to the spot where he stood.

A spear had been driven through the top of his spine, through his belly and into the floors of the temple.

A gasp came out of Ashad has he stumbled off his feet, backpedaling on his hands and feet as he made to turn to run.

Blood flowed freely now from the now Golden God's Mouth. His body still and lifeless.

Yuri remained still as a corpse mirroring the now dead leader of the Watanabe's. But there she also stood, garnered in ivory armour. Her one wing, clasp tightly to the slender bodice of her feathered armour.

Osai knew then that the rest of the mercenaries were doomed. The elderly woman kneeled before the Avatar. And closed her eyes. What transpired next was not for the faint of heart.

For Hope knows no fear, Hope has no mercy and Hope is relentless.

It is told, in an old proverb, that the death of truly innocent child, would be called forth to another world to save it.

Yuri decided she wanted to save her own world.

The one winged angel slid the spear from Bo Dakei's chest and walked past Osai. Who suddenly grabbed her hand.

"Spare your brother, Yuri." Osai pleaded.

But the request fell upon deaf ears, she moved to the inner sanctum. There she found her brother partaking in the passions of the skin with the demon woman that had murdered her parents.

Yuri lifted her hand and the spear flew towards the straddling seductress, spinning swiftly suddenly before severing her head from her body.

Ryu screamed and looked up at his now glowing sister. His mouthed dropped as he made to say something but she simply placed her thumb against his forehead as light spread from it like water falling over an urn.

The light continued to flow like this for many moments. It was like counting down to eternity. Osai thought as they stumbled into the courtyard.

Their was nothing there anymore except for two trees interwined. One ebony, the other ivory. The wood so lustrous it could've been mistaken for metal. In between, them was a locket.

The very one she had whispered to Osai, she had kept hidden. She needed it no longer.

In the oddest way, Osai felt a wave of emotion wash over them as they stared upon the young girl kneeling to pick up her spear. The blood remained upon the blade as she flicked the spear off to the side.

"My brother knows peace now. He had sought love in a place of hate. And I have found hate in a place of love."

She looked over to her teacher.

"Why are the God's so unforgiving, master?"

"I don't know child... Perhaps in some way they find this amusing. Or perhaps, it is us that must find forgiveness even in the face of death. But what you have done here is not how I had raised you to treat others."

Golden flames shot out in sparks around her as she stared with tears flowing from her eyes. The despair their was all to familiar to the older master. It was the same tears she had shed when she had taken up the Locket.

For within, was not bones of an emperor, but a simple promise. To give hope to a people that have lost it.

And sometimes the cost of finding hope, is a loss just as great.