Akira sat in the patched-up castle with his hair over his eyes. He was trying to sleep, but the daimyo next door was busy proclaiming loudly that he would give the world to the oiran he had brought with him. Gardens, castles, and even mountains were part of the promises that the man had made in the last ten minutes.
"Tsk. She's got you in the palm of her hand," Akira muttered with a hint of disgust, but he soon remembered that it was not his concern what was going on next to him.
"The quicker I rid myself of you, the better."
A soldier nearby heard the words spoken by the wind representative, but feigned ignorance. After all, Akira was not there to serve the nation. His goals were way above a simple country, if he even had any concrete goals to speak of.
It was then that a desperate scream came from the outside. The soldier looked out the window only to see a huge tornado of fire, blood, sand, smoke, and many other elements mixed together with the flying bodies of his peers. In a fit of panic, the soldier ran back to look for Akira, but the room was already empty.
Moments later, the huge tornado dissipated, leaving nothing but a pile of dead bodies behind.
"A distraction? You haven't gone completely mad," Akira proclaimed from the middle of the disaster, having once again changed his attitude to the cold, stormy, unamused personality of the last encounter.
"It doesn't matter. You won't get away with the same tricks," he said, summoning violent gales around him.
After tying his hair, Akira turned towards the instigator of this battle. The boy who had been hidden thanks to his darkness magic up until that point was now standing in plain sight. It was not that his magic had been dispelled, but Akira used his ability to blow away the very energy that Izumo used to cover himself.
"Oh? Busted already?" Izumo said with an arrogant smile.
"You seem to be in a pretty bad mood again… What's up with that? Did you tie your hair too tight?"
Instead of an answer to the boy's taunts, Akira answered with a cut aimed at his throat—one that Izumo barely dodged.
"Not so talkative now, are we? You were way more fun when I and my friend were beating you up."
"Your friend, what was his name?"
"Why? Is some twisted honor binding you to remember the names of the people you've murdered?"
"Don't kid yourself. There's nothing in this world that can bind the wind of a storm. People make their own choices of who to remember. We are free, all of us."
After stating his views clearly, Akira took his fighting position, staring deeply into the eyes of the boy.
"All of us, except you," he added.
"That sounds like some personal grudge that I've done nothing to earn. Care to explain what that's about?"
"I see, so you're still ignorant. Even after all this time…"
The last sentence spoken by Akira piqued Izumo's interest.
"I doubt I can get you to explain what you mean by that, huh?"
But by the time Izumo finished speaking, like a typhoon, Akira had already passed him on all sides, getting ready to deliver a finishing blow to Izumo's neck.
"Live by the sword, die by the sword. You at least deserve this much."
But Akira's sword never reached its target.
"Are you sure you're after the right person? You should have known I specialize in this kind of stuff then," Izumo said after snapping his fingers, stopping time for Akira and his surroundings.
"You really pushed me to play every card I had by your second strike… Are all representatives like this? Scary bastards."
As he was speaking, Izumo kept himself busy dodging arrows from the castle. Because of the complexity of manipulating a higher dimension, Izumo had to limit his range to the small area his strongest enemy was being kept in. Still, that didn't stop blood from gushing out of the boy's nose.
After wiping himself clean, Izumo resumed his tornado strategy. Only, this time, his computational power was severely reduced. Hence, the tornado mostly served as the means to divert arrows.
That's when he was hit by a strong gale from behind, throwing him to the ground. Looking for the source of the strike, he noticed the man that should have been slowed down to the point of almost stopping. He stood straight, pinning a menacing look on the boy. Before Izumo could ask anything, the man, in a distorted tone, proclaimed thus:
"Nothing can stop the wind from beating. The wind only has to beat faster."
Izumo was stunned by that stupidly irrational power. After Akira took a couple of steps, he was completely out of the area the boy controlled. Thus, izumo was once again in grave danger. A fight he couldn't win was quickly taking shape in front of his scared eyes.
"Hah. Guess I was never in control," Izumo said as he looked for a way to escape to the castle.
But before the boy could find any other solution, raging winds came from every direction, cutting deep into his skin time and time again. Izumo could do nothing but stand there and cover his face.
"It's over," the stoic man spoke.
The boy fell to his knees, ready to accept another failure, when he heard his name spoken out from behind the trees.
That's when the attack that was tearing him apart stopped—no, it had been countered. But who would have the power to rival a representative?
"No…"
Ancient texts rarely spoke about such power. It often came from spell that had been banished by time. Within those texts, there was a spell that would let you, if only for a short time, stand proud within the ranks of the strongest mages.
Both men, standing in a daze, looked up. High in the sky, they saw the winged figure of a warrior coming to the rescue.
"How…" Izumo asked.
"Izumo! What are you thinking?"
*****
At the same time, in a camp far away, a fox pondered the choice she had made.
"You were supposed to take care of that girl, idiot. She would sacrifice anything for you, but you were too dense to understand…"
The girl with fox ears could do nothing but own up to her decision. She knew that telling them where Izumo went would lead to this. But she still decided on doing so.
"I also have a heart, you know? How can I not tell her? How was I to know she can actually do something!?" the girl excused herself while walking alone, leaving only a tear to reach the ground.
Back on the battlefield, the two adversaries were witnessing a magical miracle.
"Ten? What are you doing here?"
With no warning, a single flap of her wings shook the very ground they were standing on, raising dust, stones, and even small trees. The next moment, Ten sent the gale towards Akira. A gale so strong that it could be seen with the naked eye as it was morphing the reality.
The wind representative answered by stepping firmly onto the ground and concentrating his power on defense. The strength the girl displayed was enough to have the man completely ignore Izumo for a moment.
Ten did not waste any time and dove in towards the man, following up on her last attack with a strike that used her claws. It connected. Even if it was shallow, Ten managed to wound Akira.
Izumo was amazed by the power his friend was displaying. Under no circumstance should any mortal being, especially a young one, be able to hurt a representative in a fight using the same element. But Ten had done it. She seemed to be evenly matched with the man.
The boy joined in and covered Ten in bright light— light that blinded the enemy.
The moment he embraced Ten with his energy and felt hers, Izumo understood where that power came from. He wanted to scream at her, but the fight was too intense.
The two were exchanging blows at superhuman speed. The only hint at the sheer number of attacks exchanged every second was the dust that wouldn't settle. That was until the two flew high up in the air, the fight having taken to the clouds.
Both of them, as if perfectly synchronized, grabbed a piece of a cloud and threw it towards the other. While the cloud was disintegrating. Gases, water, and electricity all turned into tempests.
"They've transmuted the clouds into winds!" an onlooking soldier shouted before being put to rest by Izumo, who couldn't help but look at the two with a troubled expression.
"Ten… How—no… Why are you doing this?"
Few were the ones strong enough to understand, but every single current traversing the country had already been used and thrown to the other edges of Tsukide. Wind mages usually didn't need transmutation because wind was considered inexhaustible, but they had managed to rid their surroundings of it.
In a moment of negligence, Ten got knocked off. That's when Izumo's fears were confirmed.
"Ten! Stop it! Please!"
But in vain did Izumo scream, as the girl had already paid the price. Beneath that light armor, the girl was fading.
Tengu, while having bodies similar to humans, were closely tied to the element of wind, to the point of being called wind spirits by some. That's why they had this ability—the ability to use their very being as sustenance for their magic. Through a twisted form of transmutation, they would make themselves the wind they wanted to understand. That was the only way to be one step above the representative.
However, Ten was close to her limit.
At the sight of another friend throwing their life away because of his decisions, Izumo stood frozen. By now, the girl was almost fully transparent, and it was all his fault.
"No! Ten! Why did you do it? How do I fix it? Please tell me! Don't… Don't you dare leave me! Not you too!" the boy desperately shouted.
But the girl had decided. She gave everything she had left to trap Akira in a tornado that spun quick enough to rip apart everything it touched.
That's when she was finally able to land. She turned towards Izumo and smiled, running at him to give the boy a final hug.
Izumo could barely see her cute face, and when the girl hugged him, the fact he could not feel her touch broke his loud hard enough for the whole castle to hear the crack.
"Izumo, please live! If not for anyone else, please do it for Ten!"
With a shy smile, Ten whispered something in the ear of the boy who had fallen to his knees—words that Izumo was never allowed to forget.
Those careless whispers were the last words the girl said before disappearing, leaving behind her dear big-nosed mask that Izumo carefully picked up and put inside his breastplate.
In a couple of seconds, Izumo lost another one dear to him, not having the time to even mourn her.
*****
Things happened too fast for Izumo to react. In a couple of moments, he was saved by Ten and was the witness of her disappearance. Worst of all, he was completely powerless in all of this.
The girl had made her choice, and Izumo was left with the aftermath. No explanation, no consultation, and no chance to protest were given. Only a hug and a confession were passed on to the boy, who was once again powerless to do anything.
"All of those lives… you'd say I should have become stronger…" the boy said with a trembling, balled fist.
Izumo got himself on his feet and turned away from the chaos the girl had left behind and continued his walk towards the castle.
"Haha… More feelings to carry… What? I have a whole bag of those…" he continued.
"But… why did you leave me with such heavy ones?"
"And how many more will you back be able to carry?" another voice interrupted him.
From the slowly calming tornado, a wounded man stepped out.
His bloody yukata was telling a sad story—a story of sacrifice and futility.
"Why?"
The question went unanswered.
"Why are you doing this? What have I done to you? What's up with you, speaking like you know me? YOU KNOW NOTHING! YOU JUST STORMED IN HERE AND TOOK THEM AWAY FROM ME! LOOK! Do you see her? Neither do I! Why? Because she is gone! She sacrificed herself for someone like me, and you dare throw it all away? SCREW YOU!"
"She made that choice with her own free will. If anything, going out like this is a gift," Akira said with a straight face.
"A gift? From whom? You're insane! Your attitude, your twisted personality, your obsession, you're crazy!"
Choosing silence, Akira readied his sword.
"Stay away! I will not let their deaths be for nothing! I'm taking the head of that bastard and getting Mei back! After that, I swear you are next on the list!"
"I was not the one to kill that girl. That boy was also just a stone that had to be hurled away. Your anger is misplaced, just like his," Akira said, pointing at the forest. There, a loud scream filled with sorrow came from between the remaining trees. With it, an angry swordsman hurled his sword at the unbeatable man.
"Give her back! WHERE IS SHE? Give Ten back!"
The swordsman known as Ken quickly closed in on the representative and unleashed a burst of swings that no average human could keep track of. However, whether any of those were effective on the wounded monster was unknown to Izumo, for he had long since flown off towards the castle, refusing to look back on yet another tragedy.
*****
"Mei, that boy is causing a ruckus again. Is he really out of his mind?"
"My lord, I see no reason to bother ourselves with him. If you would be so kind, join me for a tea, and let the soldiers take care of a small man."
"Yes. You're right. I shall join you. No, even better, we should take this to the balcony. This way, we can crush his spirit once and for all!"
"My lord. What could you mean by that?" Her voice was shaken.
"Hehe~. Come, Mei! Let us show the boy who is the man you really love!"
Back at the castle, the daimyo approached the lady who had long accepted her fate, a leering look complementing his unpleasant facial features. It was after he grabbed the woman that his face got to meet the wooden floor. Yet his body fell separately.
The first reaction of the girl was to scream, but her fear quickly turned to shock when she saw who was responsible for beheading the daimyo.
"Izumo? But you were just there…"
"Mei, quickly! I don't know when that monster will get here. Let's look for Dad and get out!"
Izumo gently grabbed the hand of his sister, but the woman took it back without hesitation.
"What is it? Hurry!"
"Izumo, stop and listen for once! Father is in the dungeon below. Go save him! I… I am not coming."
"What are you saying now of all times? You're safe now! He's dead! I've killed him!" Izumo reassured Mei, but she didn't seem happy.
"Izumo! That's not something to be proud of! Since when does killing somebody come to you so naturally? You didn't have to bloody your hands, especially not with noble blood!"
"… Sis?"
Mei wanted to scold her brother ever since she last saw him, but she had only a moment to do so, as time was running out. She took a deep breath and continued in a calm voice.
"Listen well and stay calm, ok? I have to stay here. I am so close. I'll get our name back!"
Izumo listened to his sister as he was asked to, but he couldn't believe his ears.
"Mei, don't tell me… All this time… Was this why you left home?"
"Yes, Izumo. Soon, you will be free from your burden—"
"But it's the burden I myself have chosen!" Izumo shouted.
The loud scream made Mei look away. The violent demeanor of her brother even brought a tear to her eye, but it was nothing in comparison with the salty rivers flowing out of the boy's eyes.
"This can't be, Mei. Tell me this is a bad joke! For years, I've been doing my best for this family. For years I've been training so you would come back home, so Father could be happy. When I saw what you were doing, I could feel my heart break! I cannot believe you have been living to entertain those pigs for so many years, and for what? FOR WHAT? I'm already getting our family a new name! There is no need for you to walk down such a painful path!"
"Izumo, you still don't get it…"
"What more is there to understand?"
"I don't want a new name! I want what we've had! I want the old us! I want to walk down the old road that has been taken from us!"
His sister's words cut deep. All he had done, all he had been through. For his parents he was a hero, but for his sister, Izumo had always been the villain she had to beat in silence.
That was too much for the boy.
"Mei… Please… Please…"
Once again, as he did many times in the last week, Izumo fell to his knees, grabbing the slender hand of his dear sister.
"Say it isn't true! Say it's all a bad dream! I can't accept this! Mei! Please come back! I know how it sounds, but please give up on this crazy goal! We can find another way! You don't have to take this upon yourself! Please, don't transform all I've done into roadblocks! You're strong, sis. I know that. But look, I grew up! Look at me, please! It's your turn to lean on me! I can do even better. If this was not enough, I can try more. Don't let a stupid name stand between us!"
Mei looked her brother in the eyes and smiled, a smile that brought unwelcome warmth to Izumo's heart.
"I'm sorry, Izumo. It may already be too late," she said, placing his hand on her stomach.
The boy was left desperately gasping for air. It was Izumo's attempt at holding himself together. What he felt couldn't be true. He pressed his palm and focused harder. Thereafter, he looked his sister in the eyes. He wanted to say something, but he found it hard to speak as he was drowning in his own tears and snot.
"Mei… This can't be… not… not with him… not after I… That's too far!"
Izumo felt betrayed, so he begged his sister to say it wasn't true, but his sister couldn't find it in herself to answer with words—only kind, sorrowful eyes. The next line the boy heard came in a manly voice instead.
"Your friend, he was strong. A true swordsman."
With this, the detached head of the boy called Izumo fell into the lap of the girl called Mei. There, the last thing he saw was the inside of a small pouch. In it stood what seemed to be a small, pearl-white object that looked like a tooth.
Once he saw it, by slowing down time for but a moment, Izumo managed to leave behind a smile. It was a reaction completely unnatural given the circumstances, but the boy smiled.
If he could, he would have laughed, but he needed his body attached for such a task. So he settled for a wide smile. In his mouth, the hole left by a missing canine presented itself—a consequence of the fierce battle.
He had been defeated. He failed to get back his sister. He failed to protect his friends. He failed to become a samurai. What's more, he once again failed to live. To top it all off, his mind had finally broken, so he smiled.
There, held by his sister, Izumo closed his eyes, never to open them again.