"This barn stinks!" Ensei yelled at the top of his lungs in irritation.
"Shut the fuck up!" a gruff, groggy voice hollered back, followed by the crash of a large rock against the boarded up window of the barn that served as Ensei's prison.
He waited, listening intently for several minutes before he sighed and let his shoulders sag. He had hoped his outburst, which had continued for about a half-hour already, would cause one of the Thieves to come into the barn to "teach him a lesson." He needed to beat the shit out of someone tonight.
He resumed his spot on the haystack and absently drew up a stalk to chew between his teeth. His eyes traveled, again, over to the spot across from him, where a dirty plate still lay on the floor.
He's been gone a long time tonight, Ensei calculated. Outside the barn, it sounded like everyone had settled down for the night. Maybe not everyone, he closed his eyes, trying not to think about what might be happening to his cellmate right now.
Instead, memories roiled like storm clouds across his mind, recalling his first days among the Satsujinzoku.
_ _ _
Ensei joined the Thieves of the Murderous Blade with the intention of killing every single one of them to avenge his murdered family. Revenge ate at him for almost a decade since his five-year-old, broken body had been left to rot in the woods after witnessing his family's massacre. Now, nearly 14 years old, as strong as any man among the Thieves despite his youth, and certain he would die taking them down, he put his plan into action. Day after day, he studied the murderers' routine, discovering their weaknesses. He stored each piece of information against the day when he would cut them all down to the last filthy dog.
The only hitch in his plan was Little Whirlwind, a fallen angel he'd found among the Thieves, living a hell on Earth.
When he had first come to the Thieves, Ensei had been forced into a fight with a skinny, ragged boy called Shousenpuu, "Little Whirlwind," for the other Thieves' amusement. Ensei had been shocked by the seemingly frail boy's power and ruthlessness. Yet, more than anything, his fighting style announced to anyone with a brain that the filthy, senseless boy had been trained by nobility. Even at his most bloodthirsty, he moved with remarkable grace and fluidity, his silver hair fanning out in the moonlight as he spun in the air and landed a crashing blow with his sword across his opponent's chest. It was all Ensei could do to hold off the little punk, and even at that, he'd nearly lost his eye, getting away with only a fresh scar cutting across the old one under his left eye, a souvenir from his first run in with the Satsujinzoku.
At last, Ensei's brute strength won out, as he grabbed a staff from a cache of weapons where they'd fought, blocked his opponent's vicious blade, and slammed the iron and wood rod across the smaller boy's midsection. The dirty, tangled white hair fell over the boy's face obscuring his expression as his knees quivered for several seconds before he finally, resisting to the last, crumpled to the ground and was carried off.
Though it had been plain that this "Little Whirlwind" had intended to kill Ensei, the taller boy could not bring himself to feel such murderous rage toward the obviously insane kid. Ensei knew that he could easily crush the pathetic child's bones and breath between his hands, so he opted for a strategy he'd discovered that tempered the impact of his strength—he fought him off with a staff. Since that night, Ensei had been dubbed the "Little Staff King," Shokonou, and the two boys were thrown together from then on, fighting side by side during the day and locked up together at night.
Despite his youth, Ensei established early on and often that he was no kid to be victimized by the thugs that enjoyed making sport of weaker beings. Except in very rare instances, Ensei managed to hand out enough severe thrashings and humiliations to his fellow bandits to make them steer clear of him. In a twisted way, he had gained respect among the Thieves because he backed down to no one.
Shousenpuu, however, Ensei quickly observed, suffered the full wrath of the Thieves, who starved and beat him every chance they got. Though Shousenpuu was supposedly Ensei's age, he stood at least a head shorter and had more bones than meat showing on his body. In such a weakened state, he appeared to be an easy target, but when baited by his tormentors, Shousenpuu unleashed a vicious and bloodthirsty rage that took several men to subdue.
During their daily raids, Shousenpuu was released under careful watch to wreak havoc on whichever innocent citizens the Thieves had targeted, making him a useful tool in the gang's quest for blood and treasure. However, the other Thieves considered him mad, subhuman and too dangerous to keep around, so he existed under a constant death threat. Part of the reason Ensei had been jailed during the nights with the feral, silver-haired beast, was in the hope he would kill him before the next morning, so fearsome was the boy's very existence. In fact, the only infallible way to keep Shousenpuu under control oddly came with the utterance of a simple word—Meishou.
Meishou was the Thieves' second-in-command and had taken a particular, revolting interest in the mad boy. Ensei had discovered this horror two nights after his fight with the boy when the ragged child was tossed naked onto the barn floor after receiving his "punishment" from Meishou for losing to Ensei. Two corpulent, grubby men dragged the boy in, his body battered and bloody, and dumped a large bucket of water over the small figure. He curled into a ball, his silver hair masking his face pressed against the filthy floor.
Ensei's stomach retched at the site. Were there no gods watching over little children? he pleaded to the deaf ears of heaven in outrage. How could such a beautiful flower as this be so trampled under foot, and no one stoop to lift him from the dust?
Ensei heard the cold, pitiless snickers of the men who'd brought the kid into the barn. They stood over him, whispering and laughing hideously, until one thug reached down and lifted the boy by the front of his hair and dangled him before him, waist high. The boy's lifeless body hung limply, but Ensei could see half-lidded eyes full of misery roll upward toward his abuser.
"You must be pretty good if Meishou keeps you alive," the thief glared down at the boy. "Let's see what all the fuss is about."
Still, holding the lifeless waif, the filthy brute unfastened the front of his pants and exposed his erection, quivering before the small boy's slackened face.
"Fuck," Ensei grunted and, before he realized what he was doing, he had throttled the attacker against the barn door, his fingers sunk deeply into the other man's throat.
"Die, you fucking pig," Ensei hissed and his fingers broke through the skin on the man's neck. However, just as Ensei moved to twist the man's neck in his grip, eager to hear the familiar crunch of bone as it gave way under his strength, a blow from behind slammed against his skull. In a flash of lights behind his eyes, darkness overcame him.
He had no idea how much time had passed, but he woke to a crushing pain shuddering through his ribs. Quickly, another massive blow came from a boot buried into his ribcage and Ensei lurched and dug his fingers into the ground, trying to catch his breath. His eyes immediately sought out the other boy, who was now obscured from his view by the first thief straddling his chest. All he could make out was a small fist, clenched so tightly at his side that the knuckles glared white through his skin, clamped down against the outrage being done to him.
That's right, fight, kid, Ensei's thoughts raced at the sight, and felt an answering power surge through his veins.
His hand moved like lightning and he clamped his grip around the boot that swung toward his side again. He effortlessly flipped his attacker onto his backside and jumped to his feet. Ensei took two steps toward Shousenpuu, but was grappled around the waist and driven into the opposite wall. It took Ensei all of a second to draw breath back into his lungs, but it was long enough for the other man to pin his hand to the wall with a knife through the center of his palm.
"Now how tough are you?" the bloodied attacker drew back and delivered a crushing punch across Ensei's eye, followed by another from the opposite direction.
Ensei's attacker had a considerable weight advantage over him, but living in the wilderness with Master Nan had given him endurance most full-grown men never achieved. He'd learned how to channel away pain, and his reflexes and reactions mimicked the survival instincts of the animals he'd spent his childhood playing with. All of those abilities came into play as he drove back the burning pain shooting up his arm from the hand impaled against the wall, and he forced himself back to his feet.
As his attacker advanced on him, Ensei leaned backward avoiding a hurtling fist, quickly shifted his weight and drove a crushing uppercut against the other man's ribs. Even as the thief howled loudly, Ensei distinctly heard bones cracking and he smiled with evil satisfaction watching the man land on his knees, clutching his side. He quickly reached for the knife and tugged on it to free his hand, but before he could slide it all the way out of the wall and out of his hand, his attacker regained his feet and swung both hands clutched together across the side of Ensei's face. The boy flew backward and landed on his back, dangling from the wall by his pierced hand. Before he could shake off his dizziness, his attacker landed a knee across his throat and began to pummel his face.
As Ensei's eyes swelled shut and he struggled against the weight crushing his windpipe, he sought a glimpse of the small hand still clenched tight, even after the other man let out a deep grunt and rose from his victim's chest. Tears of regret pooled up under the Ensei's throbbing lids. He'd wanted to help the kid, but he couldn't. In ten years, he was no more capable of protecting anyone than he had been when his family was killed. He struggled to lift his shoulders, to do anything, but his body was no longer responding to his commands. He'd stopped feeling anything. He could only see the small fist still clutching its rage.
The first thief finally dragged the second one off Ensei. "Ha-ha, shit, he fucked you up…one-handed," he cackled at his partner.
"Shut the fuck up," the second thug answered. "You didn't do any better against him. Did you get your rocks off?" he asked, glancing over at the white, fragile skeleton of a human splayed in the dirt. "You fucking owe me," he added enviously.
"Eh, I'm tired. You can have him next time," the first one stated and reached over to wiggle the knife out of the wall and out of Ensei's hand. The bloody hand slid down the wall, leaving a trail of ooze behind, and hit the floor with a thud
"Hey, you could probably get this one now," the first thief nudged Ensei's face with the toe of his boot. "I bet he's never let anyone near him," he added and licked his cracked lips.
"Fuck that," the second thief answered, his eyes widening. "He'd probably bite my cock off. You can have him."
"Tch, I don't want to work that hard," he shrugged casting a lascivious leer at the smaller boy. "I like the ones that don't fight."
Ensei listened to their hideous snickering grow fainter as they left the barn, and he lifted his eyes back to Shousenpuu, who hadn't moved, his hand still balled into a fist. He wondered if he was still alive, or if he had died that way, resisting to the end in the only way he could.
They had that guy wrong if they thought he wasn't fighting, Ensei decided and a smile struggled to take its accustomed place on his lips.
As soon as he was able, Ensei crawled across the floor to the sprawled form, and took his first close-up view of the boy's face, covered in filth and blood and his attacker's guilty seed. He sighed. The kid's eyes were wide open staring at the ceiling. Dead as a coffin nail.
"Shit, it's just as well," he mumbled sadly to the corpse. He would like to have known more about a kid like him. Still, the expression on the dead boy's face spoke volumes, even in death. Such hate filled his eyes, such anger clenched his jaw, that it lingered on into the next world.
"Sleep, kid. I'll do the rest," he vowed and reached up his functioning hand and moved to press the dead boy's eyelids closed.
"I'll kill every one of them," a spectral voice hissed from the corpse and Ensei jumped back in shock. "I'll make them bleed. I'll take them to hell with me."
It took a moment of panic and tangled thoughts for Ensei to sort out what was happening.
"Hey! You're alive!" he leaned back over to him, inexplicably happy that the boy lived, even though it meant his suffering would continue. It was impossible to know how to feel, but to Ensei, life meant hope.
Shousenpuu's glaring eyes swiveled toward Ensei's smiling face. "I'll kill every one of them. Every one. I'll slit their throats and wash in their blood."
"All right, all right," Ensei felt a chill race down his spine at the ruthless, insane words coming from such a young boy. He awkwardly stroked the matted silver hair out of the boy's eyes. He could not imagine, would not imagine, what darkness this boy had known. "I'm with you. We'll do it together. We'll erase every one of them. Chougai and Meishou too," he consoled the boy, naming the Thieves main leaders.
At the mention of the second name, the boy's eyes widened and he suddenly looked like a small child frightened of a monster in the dark. His body quaked uncontrollably and his breath came in short gasps.
As quick as he could manage, Ensei scrambled to find a tattered blanket to wrap around the boy's broken body and clutched the small frame against his own battered chest, wrapping his body heat around the shivering boy. Shousenpuu's head hung down, propped against Ensei's chest, and they remained that way through the night. Ensei decided that if they died in the night, at least they wouldn't be alone at the end.
"Aw, isn't that sweet?" Ensei heard a loud, growling voice through the fog of exhaustion.
Shit, he grumbled to himself, trying to find some shred of strength inside himself to fight the next round of battles that was surely coming. As consciousness slowly peeled away the night's fitful escape, the numbness in his body gave way to stiffness and then rolling pain. He tried to move and felt a limp weight on his chest, glancing down to see the smaller boy still sleeping, unconscious or dead. He wasn't sure which one to wish for his new comrade.
"What the hell happened to them?" another voice asked and dropped two plates of meager provisions on the floor in front of them. Ensei tried to open his swollen eyes, but the sun burning through the open barn door stung him.
"Don't know," the first one shrugged, "but Meishou's gonna be pissed. They'll be hell to pay for all of us."
"We'd better get them cleaned up and keep them out of sight for a few days," the other added and left.
Not long after, Ensei's eyes opened again to the sight of one of the thieves carrying a basket full of food, clothing and first aid supplies into the barn. He placed the basket down beside Ensei and knelt before him.
"You kids are fucking trouble," he grumbled and reached to remove Shousenpuu from Ensei's grasp. The larger boy's arm tightened protectively.
The thief sighed. "Hey, if you want your little girlfriend to live, you'd better let me tend his wounds."
"Fuck off," Ensei hissed, his voice crackling with dryness. "Get water. I'll take care of him."
The man shuddered involuntarily at the cold, dark look in Ensei's eyes. "Fucking trouble," he mumbled again and rose to his feet and left. He came back in a few moment's with two deep buckets of water and set them next to Ensei. "Why don't you be good kids and just die."
Ensei grinned at the man darkly. "We'll see you in hell," he muttered. He watched the man's face turn white, as he mumbled some expletive and retreated from the barn.
Ensei sighed, relieved that that exchange hadn't turned into a physical confrontation, and that it also produced a miraculous array of desperately needed supplies. He tipped the smaller boy's body back across his arm and his head fell backward, strands of his hair the color of moonbeams spilling down over Ensei's arm.
The kid still breathed, Ensei detected, so he started by washing the filth from the boy's face with a piece of cloth dipped in the cool water. The touch of the soothing cloth against his battered face shocked Shousenpuu into consciousness and he stared up at Ensei's pulverized face.
"What the hell are you?" hoarse words slipped through gritted teeth. Stunning teal-blue eyes as vast as any ocean stared up at him under half-closed lids.
"I'm your guardian angel," Ensei grinned broadly, the smile looking hideously out of place in the gnarled face.
"You suck," the smaller boy stated imperiously, and despite the pain, Ensei laughed out loud. By the gods or without them, Ensei determined at that moment, no man on Earth would beat them.