I hold my sister, a young six year old brown skinned girl with a short bowl cut, a bandage over her left eye in a dirty pink kimono.
She buries her head in my tattered black kimono , her body shaking in terror.
"Kiki...did you have another nightmare?"
She nods her head.
"Okay...how about a story?"
She nods again, her tears leaving wet patches on my outfit.
"Don't worry, no harm will come to you. Now about that story...Once upon a time,the earth had two special beings, man and spirits.These beings existed on two separate planes of existence, seldom ever interacting. The spirits..."
"Um...brother, what does seldom mean?"
"Oh, sorry. It means "almost never"."
"Almost...never."
"Yeah, now back to the story. Some spirits had the ability to enter the human realm and chose to harm people, as a punishment, they were permanently bound to the human world. There were fifteen of them, including Ona(Pronounces as aw-naw) The spirit bound to the road...."
The sound of heavy boots walking across the gravel outside makes me stop immediately and cover my sisters' mouth.
I place my finger in front of my lips as I make a shushing motion to Kiki and she nods her head but her body starts to tremble once again.
We both watch at the silhoutte of the man through the poorly transulscent windows with cracks on them and moves to the door banging so hard, some of the hinges become loose.
"Wan! I know you're in there, It's the start of the new month so you'd better have the tribute ready!"
I raise up a mat and look at a pouch filled with gold coins.
I grab the sac in one hand and my sister in the other, about to exit through the back door when an annoying voice breaks the illusion of silence I made.
"You good-for-nothing son of mine, pay the man!"
An elderly man with one arm laying on a mattress, who had been watching me the whole time.
I grit my teeth as I stare at the excuse of a man I'm forced to call my father.
"Ah...so you are in there! Pay up!"
His banging in the door became more frequent and violent, the door almost falling off the frame.
"Okay! Okay!" I open the door and toss the bag at the man in eastern japanese body armor.
"So you can pay on time...for once.You know what, I'm in a good mood, if you kowtow right now, I can shave a few coins off next month's tribute."
"You already know my answer."
"Sadly, I do."
The asian man with thin black moutaches on both sides if his face as well as side burns turns round, dragging his mace against the ground, suddenly swings it at me, I just barely dodge as the spikes of the mace shatter a window behind me.
My sister screams as the glass shatters.
"That's going to be expensive to replace."
He says sarcastically.
He takes with his mace and the bag of gold as he leaves.
I rush back in and carry my sister in my arms as I do so, I hear a sickly old laugh coming from the one armed man in the room.
"I guess it doesn't pay to be disrespectful does it, boy? What was your plan earlier? To run away and avoid responsibility. Is that what I taught you?"
"Yes, you old crone! All you do is lay there all day, while I work to support this family."
"Making crap out of crap isn't going to earn you a living, go join the military and bring some actual pride to this clan."
"Clan? Surely you must be joking..."
I feel my sister crying in my arms so I stop.
"Once upon a time, I actually respected you."
He continues to laugh as the thought of taking a shard of glass end ending him replays in my head so many times I could have sworn I already did it.
"Sick old man." I mutter under my breath.
I take Kiki, bathe her and dress her in a slightly cleaner kimono and take her to our neighbour, Madam Kaze, an elderly woman that uses a walking stick and speaks in riddles.
I walk witha brown satchel slung behind me and Kiki holding her her hand as she skips innocently along the gravel covered road.
We reach the house; a hut with a thatched roof and an all to familiar rusted chimney sticking out from the side, active as always puffing our white smoke.
I bang on the wooden door but no response
"Ma Kaze!..."
Even Kiki knocks on the door but no response.
As we get closer, we notice something off, a large hole in the wall with cracks leading out from it.
I tell my sister to stay behind me we go in and pull out a gavel from.the satchel andgive it to her to defend herself.
We move closer and the smell of boiled beef in pepper soup, we walk to the kitchen and investigate where we meet the elderly woman herself, Madam Kaze in a grey kimono holding a wooden staff to support her legs as she dips a spoon in the broth and tastes it.
"Oh my...you nust have a taste,Wan."
She slowly walks towarss me, planting the wooden staff ahead of her to guide her movements. She was slow but elegant as she's been walking this way for a long time.
Despitr her lack of sight, she somehow knew exactly where to hold up the spoon to my mouth and as I take a sip, I cough briefly before being able to swallow it.
"Yep, it's just right. She says with a big smile.
"Can I have some, Madam Kaze?" My sister asks,innocently."
"Of course, the meal is almost ready."
"Madam Kaze, I need to ask, the wall, what ahppened to it?"
"Oh, that...some vagrants came over to get me to pay a tax but don't worry, my husband drove them away."
Both my sister and I look at each other with shocked expressions on our faces.
"Um...Madam Kaze, your husband is..."
"Oh Miyamoto...he was so kind but he made sure that I'd be protected, she holds the satff forward and pulls on the upper end, which revealed it was a sword in a sheath. Asshe pulls it out, the air in the room became so cold, I couldn't feel my finger tips and more frightening is above her , a giant cloaked figure with a blue aura and matching glowing blue eyes kidden by the hood of the cloak. Just as it floats towards us, she sheaths the sword.
Just then, we hear the same.sound from earlier, heavy boots aginst the ground and there are.three men in traditional japanese armor with ascrwny man holding a scroll.
The man says a few words in a language I didn't understand and a golden veil appears around the staff.
One of the men ina rmour steps forward.
"Madam Kaze, you have failed to pay your taxes for the third month in a row, we will no longer be tolerant with your decision."
"Sir, she's a blind old woma.."
I try to tell them
"Silence! You are on a premises that is about to be demolished, leave now!"
I tell kiki to lead her outside as I stand befoew the guards.
They leave through the front door but stopped by two other armed men standing behind a cannon.
I hear my sisters scream and as I rush tonher, one of the men tackles me to the ground, madam Kaze throws the staff to me andas I try to unsheath it, I see a large gash on my wrist and the words.
"Who are you and why are you trying to summon me? "
The figure is now hovering in front of me.
"Cleric, disband of this fiend!" One of the soldiers orders the elderly manbut he runs away in fear of it.
I pull the sword out again wven more leading to more slashes on my hand, the room starts to become ice cold, I can see my breath and everyone inside the building freezes up.
"I can release you from this but you have to pay me a price." The spirit says in a chilling tone.
"Piss off."
I tey to sheath the sword but my limbs are frozen.
"You shouldn't have sought what you cannot control..."
The room becomes covered in snow and ice,.the sheets of ice extend outside the hut and all the guards.
I lose consciousness but when I wake up I'm in laying on the cold ground of a prison cell with my right hand covered in a black cloth but I can't feel it, I unwrap the cloth and the hand is missing.
"Dammit, I really messed up this time."
As a guard passes, I stumble tonthe gate.
"Hey!"
He ignores me but bows as someone out ofnmy field of view approaches, a man in a pure white top with gold ascents on the sleeves making the shapes of Kirins.his bottoms are also pure white with golden lines at the lowest part of them, his feet are adorned with sandals that make a clapping sound sound against the earth as he approaches the prison cell.
"Wan of the eastern kingdom..." He speaks in a soft but authorittive tone."...I would like to speak to you regarding a task, one that could save your sister's life."