Chapter 1
Dedicated to Grace Akallo, the real Onkei Tenshu, who had to go through the real Lord's Resistance Army. (I exaggerated a lot)
A small girl was thrown in front of a man sitting on a throne.
The child shivered, curling up into a ball, trying to take back the little warmth she had from the burlap bag she had been thrown into. The lass might have been warmer, but her captor had taken away her jacket, hat, and mittens from her when she was kidnapped.
The small, unknown village she lived in, The Village Hidden in the Snow, was not a good place to be jacket-less.
It was no use. Sill shivering, the schoolgirl looked up, looking at the man who had taken away her freedom. He stood up, giving her a better view.
He had a dark, pointed face, whit black hair spilling out to his shoulder blades. HE wore tough armor with spike on, and had a small tuft of a beard. He reached down, grabbing the girl's chin and pulling it upward so he could look at her face.
"She looks healthy enough," the man grunted, and looked at the soldier, "Take her into the cottery."
The warrior, made his left hand into a fist, putting his open right hand over the knuckles, and bowed.
"As you wish, Ji Ensui," he murmured.
He picked up the child from the collar, and roughly threw her over a shoulder.
Her stomped into a giant room. Through slits, the girl could see that it could easily fit eighty of the biggest house in her town.
She was thrown onto a small cot in a corner of the room. For five minutes, or five hours, she didn't know, but she lay there until a small hand gently appeared on her shoulder.
She looked up, surprised, and was face to face with a boy her age. It took her a few seconds to determine that he was a boy, because his heart-shaped face was covered with cuts and bruises, and his shaggy, blood-encrusted hair fell down to his shoulders.
But through the mask of obvious pain, he smiled, and said in a husky voice that was worn out from yelling, "Hello, there, I'm Toriko. You?"
She lowered her eyes shyly, "Onkei, Onkei Tenshu" she said.
"Onkei Tenshu? Doesn't that mean grace of God?"
Onkei nodded, "I like my name," she said, "But yours, doesn't it mean captive?"
His large blue eyes saddened, and he nodded.
"Hai. Yes, it does. They rename everyone here. That's why I'm over here."
He reached into his baggy, muddy pants, and pulled out a small, circular stone tablet on a thin chain. He pulled out a sharp stone, and carved in her name.
"Here", he said, handing her the necklace, "In the beginning, when they renamed the first captives, they forgot their original names. So they came up with this so the rest wouldn't go the same way as them. I've got to go."
Toriko began to crawl away, careful not to disturb any of the other sleeping children.
"Wait!" said Onkei, grabbing his sleeve, "Don't go; I'm scared."
He came back, smiling.
"You don't know where you are, do you?"
She shook her head.
"Well, you have every reason to be scared. This is Mikoto Hantai Gunryo. Onkei, you're never going to go back home. Your going to die here, probably not even at age ten. I mean, look at Goumon, he's been here since birth, and is now thirty-eight."e He