Aiko: Rise of The goddess of War

Chapter Two

Aiko slowly turned around to observe whoever it was that had an almost rusted katana blade to her neck. She snarled lowly when she saw it was Yamakazi, the middle aged Samurai who protected the borders of their village—with his men. But recently, things have changed. He would walk through the streets of Shiromizu day and night, bothering the peace of the villagers, even going ahead to take their goods they sold and she despised his very existence.

She fearlessly raised her hand that was covered in the blood of the fish she had been cleaning and shifted the blade away from her neck and moved backwards on reflex.

"Aiko, how are you?" He asked with a Cheshire smile and wiped the tip of his blade clean with a rag he pulled out of his cloak pocket. He placed the katana blade back in its sheath and raised a crooked brow at her.

"I dare not speak of my well-being with such a creature like you. You deserve to die a miserable death for all that you have done to the people of Shiromizu," she stated in an angry tone, her hands clenching and unclenching.

Yamakazi bent over his knees and laughed out loud. He laughed so hard that he had to lean on the table then his men followed suit. He quieted down after a while and stood straight with a scowl on his face.

"I have every power within me and ordained upon me by the Emperor to do as I please. Besides, these people are nothing compared to my power. I have protected them a lot and I can do whatever I want, when I can," he replied with a wave of his hand at the cowering market men and women staring at them.

Aiko eyed them in disappointment and glanced at Yamakazi who raised a brow in interest.

"All you ever do is strike fear in the hearts of every villager and I am surprised by the way the Empress allows such disloyalty. Does she not see and hear the distress of the villagers?!" Aiko yelled and Yamakazi frowned when a large lock of her hair began to turn a snowy white.

"Silence, you dark spirit! You have no right to speak such nonsense when you have terrorised us all! You destroyed our villages even before I was ordained a leader of the Bishamon Brotherhood! You very well know that you are an outcast! A demon sent by the Dark Spirits and everyone despises your existence," he growled out and pushed her to the ground, effectively dirtying her worn out dress.

Yamakazi turned her fish table over in anger and watched in contentment as his men stepped on the fishes. He pulled out his katana blade from its sheath and pointed it at an angry Aiko.

"If I am given the authority, I will end you anytime and anywhere. I would not hesitate to destroy such evil that you are. You are a destruction and I will live my life till the day I get asked to kill you, Outcast," he said in passionate distaste before marching off with his men.

Aiko stared at their retreating backs with anger written all over her face. She picked a stone and threw it angrily away. Her blue eyes caught a sight of the white locks standing out from her dark waist length hair. She shut her eyes tightly with her hands folded in anger.

Flashback

A ten year old Aiko jumped freely while her mother washed some clothes at the river bank. She twirled around while squealing, her long hair flying with the breeze from her twirl and the river.

Just when she was about to twirl again, she tripped, her body colliding against a rock. She heard her mother shout out her name as she hissed in pain.

"Aiko?!" Her mother called out.

Aiko moved away from the rock and checked her throbbing knee. It was grazed and irritated. Aiko began to cry and shrugged her mother's hands away from her body. The pain hit so hard that she cried harder and ignored the way the sea was churning and the clouds changing from white to a grey shade.

She touched her hair with her little hands when it began to transform from dark to white. She gasped and tried to run away from her own hair. She rose to her shaking feet and swatted her hair like an insect was on it. She did this until her mother was able to stop her.

"Calm down, Aiko. Do not panic, you'll get used to all these."

Aiko whimpered and hugged her mother tightly, allowing hot tears to flow down her pale cheeks.

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Aiko blinked out of her thoughts and stared at her dirty hands then snorted.

"I grew up with a disease that plagued me. I wish to be normal. The gods know how much I crave to be normal. I just want to be normal. I want normal eyes, I don't want to fall into rage almost every time when I see people hurt my mother. I hate the way the villagers look at me. Why am I cursed?" Aiko muttered as her eyes brimmed with hot tears.

"Aiko?" A familiar voice called to her.

She sniffed and stood up abruptly to stare at her childhood friend—Yoshiko.

"What now?" She asked and stood up, dusting her now filthy dress. She stared at her friend expectantly.

"I'm sorry Yamakazi ruined your stocks and all. But I hope you get better," Yoshiko said as he tucked a lock of his shoulder length hair behind his ear.

"Better? How and when will I ever be? All my life I have been called names all because of my identity, which I have no idea about. Yoshiko, stop acting like you care because I know you are also disgusted or afraid of me!" Aiko hissed and brushed past him.

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Aiko paused in the middle of the pathway that led to the shores, where she lived with her mother. She looked down at her clothes and wished she had done something about it before thinking of going back home. She knew her mother would ask all manner of questions and she hated it when her mother always asked questions concerning the Bishamon Brotherhood.

"What do I do?" She asked herself and rolled her eyes when she remembered Yoshiko. "I have to walk all the way back to the other side of the village now, so I can borrow one of Yoshiko's sister's clothes."

She bit her bottom lip and was about to turn around when she heard her mother's voice call out to her.

"Why are you back so early?" She asked and Aiko turned around slowly. "And what happened to you!"

Aiko shrugged. "The usual. I was cornered by the youths again."

Aiko stared at her short haired mother and saw in her eyes that she knew she didn't believe her lie. She clasped her hands in front of her thighs and looked down at her mother's feet that were covered in worn out sandals.

"What exactly happened, Aiko?"

"I'm sorry, mother. It was Yamakazi again."

Aiko heard her mother sigh then walked up to her with a sad smile. She took the basket filled with vegetables and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"I understand that you pleaded with the Empress to at least let us sell fish in the market square. But you need to understand that we will never get peace of mind from the villagers who hate us. I am glad that just a few people buy from us but there is nothing we can do. Everything happening is my fault, mother."

"No, do not say that. You are but a child and you are yet to know who you are and who these people are," her mother said, grabbed the basket aggressively and walked away, leaving Aiko confused as always.

"Why does my mother always say this to me? She always speaks in parables or replies in ways that I don't understand?" She wondered out loud as she stared at the woman ahead of her on the pathway.

Just as she was about to take a step, she heard a whisper of numerous voices, coming from the thick trees and bushes around her.

"From my Demise, My offspring will rise.

From my pain, my offspring will gain strength. From my weakness, my offspring shall make war with those who ended me. Bloody war, shall my seed create. I, Hachiman-Shin will rise after the rise of my seed. Power of a thousand gods. Rage of the father.

Meekness of the mother. Rise my goddess of war."

Aiko swallowed as fear found its way into her heart. She looked around and immediately took off.

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New York.

With a scream, Aiko woke up from her deep slumber and hugged her body tight as the same whispers from her strange dream echoed around her. She began to cry softly then looked up in fear when her room door was opened by her parents who rushed to her bed.

"It's okay," the sweet voice of her mother could not even stop the whispers from the voices saying the exact same thing repeatedly.

"Did you have another dream?" Her bald head father asked as he ran his fingers through her hair, soothing her.

Aiko nodded her head and leaned on her father's shoulder when he pulled her into his muscled arm.

"Why do I keep having these dreams?" She asked in a cracked voice as tears rolled down her cheeks. "I want to close my eyes for once and not see these things that don't concern me."

"Baby, it's okay," her mother said and patted her back. "Everything will be fine."

"Maybe it's time we take her to see the doctor," she heard her father say, which made her move back quickly.

"No!" Aiko stated in a high pitched voice.

"Aiko, it's good for you," the woman beside her stated.

"I am not crazy," she replied. "There's nothing wrong with me, mommy. I don't want to go to see a doctor. I'm perfectly fine, I just keep seeing these things. I swear, it's nothing serious."

Her father sighed. "Aiko, we are going to the doctor tomorrow and that's that."

She opened her mouth to speak but closed it when she realized that they would not understand her point. She hugged her body again and watched as her father stood up and her mother relaxed more on her bed.

"I'm fine, mom and dad. You can go back to your room now. I'll try to sleep," she told them and laid on her bed. "I'll be fine."

"Ai-"

"No, it's fine. Go to bed, so we can be early to the doctor's office tomorrow," she said in anger but it came out dispassionately.

"O-Okay. Goodnight," her mom said.

Aiko waited till she heard them leave before she stood up from her bed to the mirror in her bathroom. She looked at her reflection and parted her hair and to her satisfaction, she found the exact same lock of white hair from her mysterious dream.

"Just like I suspected," she said and looked down in thought. "There has to be some meaning to what I keep seeing. Everytime I see myself there, it feels like home."

She pulled out a section of the counter under the mirror and picked up a journal. She flipped the pages open to the first page where a picture of her tattoo was and other pages where she had written some of her dreams and trance.

She opened a longer page, which she unfolded, that had the hand drawing of what looked like a map with the name of the village as a header.

"Where on Earth is Shiromizu?" She asked.

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