Prologue: Change

It happened so quickly, I was unable to stop staring into those volatile violet eyes; she came at me with her tantō ready to pierce my flesh. I didn't think I could move fast enough to evade her attack but I was surprised by my own strength. The strength that lies deep within me that questioned my very existence and doubted my own capableness. I would be strong for him, because I had stayed out of loyalty to my clan, but more out of loyalty to him. Loyalty and love.

I take hold of her waist and throw her over me, she lands hard on her back, and I quickly spin around to lunge at her, attacking her without mercy on her abdomen. She cries out in pain and blocks my next attack, landing a kick to my stomach. That sent me flying back but I remain standing my knuckles firmly on the ground to keep me that way.

She smiles and I smile back before we both send our knives at each other, back flipping we both avoid it at least enough to go unscathed. The next time I hold her gaze I witness the headband she always wore fall to the ground.

"You're getting better," she stated sarcastically, but I knew secretly that she meant more than she would ever dare say.

I replied with the same compliment, we both searched for our weapons and decide to return to the village. My father and Genra had coerced me into rigorous training for months, convinced that my brother would never return to claim what was rightfully his. I wanted many times to dissuade these false assumptions but anytime I even brought up his name he would only turn me down coldly.

Ayane was my only comfort in my turmoil, half-reluctant though she was at first I thought she would pity me but she had come to protect me and truly care for me. Even though I was a year older, I had always viewed her as the wiser. More trained than I in the ninja arts. The Hajin Mon sect was a part of my clan but worked in the shadows and no one in the clan except my father knew exactly what they were asked to do and their role in our way of life. I was slowly brought into the other half, the Hajin Mon. I had now come to know them as the darker half of the Mugen Tenshin.

"Your peace comes at a price," Ayane would say, one time when I would ramble on about the ideals of living in peace and tranquility and the bright future of the clan, she rarely said anything when we conversed but when she did I always gave her my absolute attention.

She would continue when the room was at its most silent, "Innocence."

By the near end of my year of training, Ayane and I had many encounters; we had become passionate lovers as was part of the full preparation to becoming the leader. I would have to obtain all the skills that were required for a ninja from swordplay to disguise and medicine to seduction. I was apprehensive at first but was unusually calmed by her guidance. Ayane at first thinking it might have been more preferable for a man to take this task, but decided that a man could only be taught and could not teach. Her hands lead my own to discover my own body on hers, she taught me to touch, to caress, to kiss, to hold, and to love, at least to pretend to.

At random times she would sneak in my room, we traveled to different villages and through forests and mountains so we had privacy, she would command me to show me what I had learned. First I wanted to refuse but afterwards I would seek her on my own. My heart still belonged to one alone, we both knew that. I sometimes wondered if she ever had to employ those skills on one of her missions. I could not imagine when I was with Hayate in the Main house with my father and mother that Ayane would have to do such things. It made me ever closer to her, her soul, her life, I craved it. I had changed by the end of my training I was not only stronger but smarter, faster, and more intelligent. My personality was more independent, my face was harder with the rough conditions we fought during the winter in the mountains and the lack of provisions that purposely had me turn to my instincts that won my survival.

Now, I had to learn to be a scholar. I would be shut up in the Main House that I had idealized to Ayane. I only hoped that she could continue to be by my side. My father was proud and my mother less, hoping this day never would come, she was slightly disconcerted by the change that touched every inch of my inner and outer profile. My parents wasted no time in teaching me strategy, calligraphy, cooking, horseback riding, dancing, singing, and make-up. At the end of each day I was racked with exhaustion and longed for a sleep. However, this time, at the end of each day, I reserved for him, to think of him, and to imagine what I would do when he returns. What I would say, what I would feel, and also imagine if it would be spring, summer, autumn, or maybe winter when he would arrive. His first words…I was impatient to see him but everyday I found peace. And where there was peace, doubt resided.

Nearly two years past, the very thought of his abandonment reawakened my fears.

No…I know in my heart…because we share a bond that transcends beyond kinship or the closest of siblings. I longed for sleep but my yearning for him was much deeper.

The next day, brought a familiar ally. Hayabusa Ryu had come. Ryu had been very supportive and he along with Ayane convinced me to stay behind after Hayate's disappearance. Onii-san…Ryu had promised me he'd search for him, never give up. He told me he loved me. He was unrelenting in loyalty.

When I first came to see him both he and I were surprised by my transformation though we did little to show these feelings. When we had a chance to be alone he informed me about my brother. Ryu was the reason why I was utterly convinced that Hayate would return but his news brought me even more worry.

Hayate had been living in Germany with another woman named Hitomi. He assumed the identity of a man named Ein and was mastering Karate under the tutelage of the girl's father. Ryu had no doubts that he was suffering from memory loss and did not advise any contact with him and the clan which might cause him harm.

"I don't mind waiting," I said as calmly as I could muster under the emotional duress, "Please, continue to keep an eye on my brother, and report to me when he remembers again."

He nodded, but was reluctant to leave me, struggling silently between his own longing and his loyalty to my brother, he left. That night I dreamt of Ayane, for reasons I had yet to know, she died in my arms and then there was only anger.

Another year passed, the winter was melting away, Ryu had not come back, and I heard no message from him.

The Council summoned both Ayane and I to the Council's room, the middle room of the Main House, my father, Shiden, would be sending the both of us on a mission that would test my aptitude to become the 18th leader of the Mugen Tenshin. The day passed fairly fast and we had a week to train before we would be dispatched to Hong Kong. I decided to take a walk alone past our village and into the forest. I had not walked far into the forest before I saw an apparition. As I drew in closer, the apparition became more and more real and I tried to fight off this weakness, this I believed was an early test of my abilities.

I cried out to it at first to see what would happen but then more eager, it was no longer an apparition. Close enough now to touch. I imagined this day, so many things I was suppose to say but I could not. We tend to think so much and then when the time comes the words do not come.

Hayate was here standing right before me and all I could do was cry.