Slash!

The sound of my sword slicing the air rang out like a battle cry. The smell of blood and death was everywhere, no matter which way I turned. But I didn't mind, in fact I rather liked it. My katana, which was usually as silver as the crescent moon was now a deep dark red. Raising the weapon to my lips, I licked off some of the blood, relishing the rich, coppery taste. I took a deep breath, forcing the rising eagerness down as I approached my last target. He knelt on the ground in a widening pool of red, cradling a badly broken arm. Jerking his head up he whimpered;

"Y-you're…you're…"

I gave him a wolfish smile, and cupped his chin in my hand. Bloody saliva ran down his cheek and pooled in between my fingers but I ignored it. In a silky, yet poisonous voice I replied;

"Yes, I'm afraid you are correct. Now, now don't be afraid. Your men offered good sport for me, you should be honored."

He flinched away from me, as if my words alone could kill him. Pink spittle from his mouth as he dethatched his chin from my hands.

"Please! I'll give you anything! Anything you want! Just please don't kill me!"

Sighing, I whipped my sword in front of his face, spraying drops of red in a perfect line across his nose. I looked at him, not glared. I wasn't getting angry, just growing bored.

"Look here, this is all from your men who asked for the very same thing. Look around you. You think they got what they wanted?"

Trembling, he glanced around; I could still see desperation in those eyes. A need to live, but then again he probably saw the very same thing countless times and ignored it as well. I brought my sword up high over my head.

"Look, you're beginning to bore me, so I'll just end it now. Look on the bright side; at least you can meet up with your allies when you all arrive at the gates of hell."

I struck. He never saw it coming.

My eyes flew open with such a wild snap; I thought they would pop right out of my head. Placing one hand on my forehead, I sighed deeply. I'd been having the same…dream? Nightmare? Whatever it was, I had been having it for the past couple weeks. It wasn't the fact that I was killing that kept scaring me; it was the amazing sense of rightness as I held the dream-blade in my hands and used it to kill. I sat up as the rattle of my bedroom door opening caught my attention. I turned to see my older brother, Kenji, peering in at me.

"Well there you are sleepy head. You missed breakfast you know. Mom was so worried that Dad and I thought she'd call in a whole team of doctors. She just kept on saying 'It's not right for Tori to still be asleep. She should be up by now. This just isn't right.'"

Kenji stopped and looked at me, blue eyes sparkling with curiosity and concern.

"Hey, sis, you okay?"

I stared at him a moment, befuddled, then I realized how I must have looked, covers all rumpled up, sweaty, and my hair a bit messy. Running a hand over my hair, and smiling I replied;

"Yeah, I'm okay Kenji. You can go tell mom that I've rejoined the world of the living."

He nodded, and shut my door. I could hear the rhythmic thump, thump, thump of his feet running on the wooden floor of the dojo in which we lived. Pushing my covers back I stood up, whatever that dream was about, it was time to get started on a brand new day.

After I had taken a bath, and changed into a plain blue kimono, I ran out of the dojo to see if I could find my brother. I ended up running into my father instead. I was the only one who had directly inherited my father's looks, the hair, the eyes, even the same soft spoken look. The only thing that set me apart from him was the obvious gender difference, and my fiery temper which I got from mom. He gave me a tender, loving expression, and placed a hand on my head.

"Glad to see you're up Tori. Kenji's out back and your mother's in the garden planting rice."

I smiled. No matter how much we disagreed on something (which we rarely every did mind you) I was still 100% daddy's girl. I dashed to the side of the dojo, where the garden is located, thanking Dad for giving me the low down on where everyone was. I stopped short of the garden. I heard my mother humming a tune to some lullaby that I'd heard when I was little, but barely knew the words to. I came around the bend just as my mother was moving to a new hole, she put down her things when she saw me, ran over and gave me a bear hug.

"Tori! There you are dear! How about you come and help your mom do a little gardening? I was thinking about some rice balls and beef stew tonight for supper. I nodded, and walked over to the garden with her, but not without a quick quip.

"By rice balls, do you mean those funny egg-shaped things that are kind of crunchy, and way too spicy?"

She turned to me; her face had a look of playful anger about it, running her fist through my hair she said gleefully;

"Oh? Is that how you feel about it? Well maybe you can go hungry tonight missy!"

Then she started tickling me, and soon we both ended up on he ground in a heap of laughter. I loved times like this, my mother and I were never as close and Dad and I were, but we made the most of it. We spent most of the afternoon working on the garden, and the rest of it cooking. Turns out I still need a few lessons myself on how to make the perfect rice ball. But oh well as long as it's edible right? Through the entire meal, I thought good and hard about telling one of my parents about my reoccurring sword fight dream. Sadly though, every time I thought I had grasped my courage, it went "Oh no sweetheart, I'm outta here." And was gone like dust on the wind. That night as I lay in bed, with the light of the full moon sliding in my window I thought about it. Should I have at least told one of them? Would it have been better to keep the silence like I did? I fell asleep, praying the dream wouldn't find me. It did.