The Shadow of Issu

The River and Malice

“I have heard you can see visions, interpret them.” She spoke.

“Do you know about the stars, master? How they seem so infinite in the night sky?”

Hina did not answer, she had had her ears full with her grandfather speaking in abstract questions that were left open for interpretation. She refrained to such conversations, it was quite a waste of time. But right now, she tried to listen, for she wanted it to be an exception, this was the truth of her father’s demise at stake.

Hiro raised his head and stared into the empty ceiling above them. “The stars we see at night—they are not all that this world has to offer. Some stay, many come and pass, but they are not all the stars in the universe. Such are dreams, master, the dreams, visions; we can only see what we are allowed to see, but some of us can see more. In the Hundan Pass, a great and malicious spirit lives there, shadowing the canyon in a great distressing atmosphere, lurking, waiting for those who pass by it to capture its malevolence, where it haunts the poor soul with dreams of the tragedies that befell upon those whose lives were taken there.

I see that from the apparel you hide under those tattered cloaks speak of Goundo heritage, and you come from a well-known lineage… perhaps even the granddaughter of Lord Hase himself.”

“You are not far wrong.”

“Though from the looks of it, master. It seems I am not far right, either.”

“Lord Hase is my foster grandfather. I come here led by rumors of your ability to read these visions.”

Kaito chuckled. “It is not an ability to be called mine, master. It is simply something bestowed upon me by the land of Kado. Just as Goundo is given the Yasukagi, so have I acquired this passing gift of vision.”

“Was this not the reason why the Ukumari had an advantage, because of this ability”

“Why is it that people associate their victory with my acts? I simply did what I could as an Issian to them, I told them what I knew and it was upon their discretion and capability to do what they could with such information. There was nothing more that I could do for them…”

“Speaking in that manner, Kaito—you do not deny yourself a traitor?”

The man smiled. “I do not, master.”

Hina’s eyes narrowed, awaiting his next choice of words.

“Our country is a divided country. The strong survive while the weak perish, this is the fundamental truth of those who live in Issu. The place of what I used to call home was just south the borders of Raeko, the place from which the Ukumari bloodline heralds. When news came of their intention of Issian supremacy, I knew that it was only a matter of time before those who try to go against the powerful perish as they wither from the annals of Issu’s history.

Our village was a small village, unmarked in the newer maps. The Ukumari— I have no doubt that they are rather brutal in their methods, but it was through this relentless discipline of a unified mind that proved them better than even the fiercest clans here in Issu.

I saw that this was the only way that my village was going to survive. My dealings in the commerce of information spared the destruction of my village.”

“You believed that Issu was going to lose to the Ukumari. You lost faith in your own country, and decided its fate before the war even finished. Only a coward does that.”

“I also have no intention in denying what you say, master. I am a coward. When the Ukumari lost, they slaughtered everyone in the village. Everyone except me.”

There was an uncomfortable silence as Hina stirred in her seat. Kaito continued.

“So I fled here, and that was when it happened to me at Hundan Pass.”

“You acquired the visions?”

Kaito crossed his arms and leaned forward to the table. “It’s… The dreams, he was there. The great evil…” His pupils shrunk and they shook in something that seemed like fear, he began to shake, subtly at first, then vigorously, as if trying to shake away something invisible that was holding him. He began to whisper something. “G-Get… Get off of me… Let me go!”

Yua rushed to his side and buried his face to her stomach. She caressed his hair, slowly, digging each finger into that dry muffled brown hair of his. “There, there. It’s alright.”

“What has happened to him?”

“Worry not. It is his first today. This happens, I’d be more concerned when it does not.” Yua assured her as she stroked Hiro’s hair on her belly.

He? Who did Kaito Hiro mean by that? Hina wondered. A few moments passed and Hiro eventually recovered.

“The death of forty-nine Goundo Tenshando?” He asks.

“Yes.”

Hiro placed his hand to his chin, reminiscing. “Third year of the Ukumari War. A skirmish from the east mountains. The Goundo first Shin was wiped out, lord Hase was there, along with forty-nine survivors of an army a thousand men strong.”

Hina’s vision shifted—hearing those words, it was as if the world around her disappeared into ash. The colors turned dark, passing through a hole that unfolded into a bloodshot sky, specks of embers floating in the rainfall. Flags were burning in the twilight, the screams echoed loud and terrible. Shadows of men rushed against each other, rendering one another with swords, spears, and weapons of all forms of savagery. Hase was there, leading his men to the forests, as those that he left in the field fell by the swords of the Ukumari, painting the ground with death and running the rivers red.

The once glorious spectacle who was Goundo Hase, was limping his way across a field of corpses with arrows flying across the lit sky as the Ukumari’s advance started to quickly show its presence.

The scene shifted quickly, and there they were—fifty men, wounded, defeated, and shambling in the shadow of the great canyon of Hundan.

Then it faded away, like water. She witnesses a man who seemed to be pulling of what seemed like strings. He was atop some form of precipice, clothed in shadow as the blood-red sun forms only his silhouette and a menacing grin upon a dark visage.

Wonderful, she could hear a voice ringing in the chilled air. Wonderful. Wonderful. Wonderful. The man shifted his gaze. That blackened face turned to her. Suddenly, two embers emerged from that blackness— piercing with a deadly cold that froze her tongue and her ability of speech abandoned her.

She just stood there, motionless, defenseless, without her Kuratashi.

Absolutely Wonderful.

Then she heard a different voice, muffled, like it was beneath water. “Master Iyone, master Iyone! I knew we shouldn’t have come here, what is wrong with her?” It was Izuki’s.

Her vision began to blur into existence, before her, the Tenshando drew their swords as they pointed it at a frightened Kaito.

Hiro met her gaze, there was terror in them. “You saw him, too… didn’t you?”

Hina’s throat fell dry and cold. She stood up and told her men to lower their swords. Her head felt heavy and her breaths were rough and unevenly paced. “Did he kill my father?”

Kaito Hiro answered with silence.

“Who killed my father, Hiro. Who?!”

Suddenly the air turned cold and everyone fell silent. “Where is Ichiru?” Minato called.

“Outside.” Maru answered. “He says he wasn’t going inside the house for some reason.”

 There was no wind but the cold sting in the air was ever present. The birds in the canopies have already ceased their melodies and all the critters of the night turned quiet, as if they were hiding from something. The late sky darkened and the sun was nowhere to be found as the time of dusk fell upon them.

“The b-border.” Hiro muttered, his eyes looking at Maru whose foot had been on the drawn white line at the entrance of the door. “W-What have you done?”

Daylight slowly dissipated as the forest fell dark, and between those black spaces, something malevolent lurked and waited.

“Yua, light the lanterns. Before sundown approaches—”

A choking sound interrupted Hiro, but Yua hastily went to fetch what Hiro tasked her to get. He turned his eyes towards their only exit, and there by the last light of day, Ichiru stood by the entrance of the door. The old man shambled his way to them, his skin turned dark and sickening. Water, he whispered, clawing his neck as if something inside it was blocking his throat.

“Ichiru, what’s wrong?” Maru approached the old Tenshando, whose eyes began to become devoid of life.

“Water…”

 “Get away from him!” Hiro screamed.

Just as he spoke those words, Ichiru drew his Kuratashi straight into Maru’s abdomen. The young Tenshando stared into his friend’s eyes, filled with shock. He stumbled back and Minato caught him. The strike was just beside his belly button, blood welled in his clothes in mere seconds. The other Tenshando caught the message, unsheathing their swords and no longer recognizing Ichiru as an ally.