Dragons
To say that the streets of Shirasagi were bustling on any given day was a slight understatement.
Which was why there existed those who preferred the silence of night.
A silhouette of a cloaked figure darted beneath the twilight's cover, bare feet masking their already silent steps.
They passed into Castle Town, where the ruins of the Ganglari explosion still remained, undistributed out of reverence. This could not be said for the rest of Hoshido, which was very much rebuilt. In the years following the war, reconstruction efforts were passionately led by Princess Corrin of Nohr and the few Hoshidans who trusted her.
And then the assassination attempt came.
Many recall the moment that the Traitor Princess was putting the finishing touches on a newly-repaired Hoshidan shop. One moment, she was smiling and making idle chatter with the folk around her. The next, shuriken flew out of the crowd and into her back.
She could have drawn her blade, but Yato remained sheathed, patiently resting on her hip. Instead, she coughed out her phlegm-stained blood and rose from her staggered knees, setting right back to work, as if the venom coursing through the small knives had no effect.
Collapsing to the ground a few minutes later, her body was promptly rushed to Shirasagi Castle, though not as urgently as Hinoka would have appreciated had she known about the incident. Not many shrine maidens could counteract a ninja's poison, let alone do it willingly when it was coursing through the blood of the one scapegoat responsible for Hoshido's plight.
Thus, no one batted an eye when Princess Sakura gave just the slightest bit of hesitation before healing her 'sister' back to health. Under the orders of a very distraught Queen Hinoka, the Traitor Princess found herself exiled from Hoshido, out of her own safety and respect to the Hoshidan people. Heartbroken, Corrin disappeared from record, unable to finish mending the wounds she had caused.
Out of guilt from forcing her beloved sister away from her, Hinoka herself continued Corrin's work, using her own two hands and the ever-beating Hoshidan heart to finish restoration efforts. Once her efforts alongside her countrymen were done and her country restored, it came to pass that no one would be able to tell that just four years ago, the capital of Hoshido was set aflame and torn asunder by foreign hands. They wouldn't see the ruins of Fort Jinya, nor the breach in the Wall of Suzanoh. Most importantly, they wouldn't see the blood of the Hoshidan countrymen that stained every square inch of soil. Visually restored, emotionally content, and politically neutral with their western neighbor, Hoshido had but two reminders of the Great War of Betrayal:
Shirasagi Square, where amidst the ruins of Ganglari's explosion lay a single statue. Dedicated to the late Queen Mikoto, it was a proud sculpture commissioned by Queen Hinoka and built by the finest Hoshidan craftsman. To the Queen's shock, rumor soon spread that its mortar was secretly set with a few drops of Corrin's blood, collected off the shuriken extracted from her back. What the symbolism represented varied from citizen to citizen, though few of them had benevolent forebodings.
The stranger looked at the image of the late queen, smiling weakly at the thought of happier times. Mikoto smiled back, surrounded by the chaos and rubble that heralded her demise.
The other memorial was less subtle, but without a doubt more reverent. Acres of sakura blossoms stood rows upon rows in a grand cemetery, each tree's trunk inscribed with a name of those fallen in the war.
Each syllable of each name was thoroughly engraved in a tragic mental image of the figure walking solemnly through the field. Even then, they could not find in themselves the peace to appreciate such a fitting and peaceful field of pink and green.
Running their hand along the carved lines, the trespasser made sure that no name went unappreciated by their fingertips.
Port Dia.
Fort Jinya.
Shirasagi.
Bottomless Chasm.
Countless names, countless theaters, one singular fate.
Slain.
Orochi - Slain in Cheve, in the service of the late Queen Mikoto
Reina - Slain in Cheve, in the service of the late Queen Mikoto
Scarlet - Slain in Cheve, in the service of her homeland
Hinata - Slain on the Wall of Suzanoh, in the service of Prince Takumi
Oboro - Slain on the Wall of Suzanoh, in the service of Prince Takumi
Kagerou - Slain in Shirasagi Castle, in the service of Prince Ryoma
Saizo the Fifth - Slain in Shirasagi Castle, in the service of Prince Ryoma
The cloaked stranger finally stopped at the Castle Gate, flanked on each side by two trees taller than the rest. Bowing their head reverently, the figure could barely find it within themselves to dare stain the final two epitaphs with their touch.
Prince Ryoma of Hoshido - Slain in Shirasagi Castle, in the service of his homeland
By his memorial tree lay Raijinto, embedded into the ground and kept in place through a magical stasis field. It was a haunting sight to see the holy blade of Hoshido pacified against the grave of its former wielder. The way the blossoms fell around it made it seem almost... serene.
"Whoever the Dawn Dragon chooses to draw this blade from its sacred slumber, by honor and by duty, tasks upon themselves to guide Hoshido as her rightful ruler," the figure recited, reading the plaque in front of the sword.
It was a controversial decision, but Queen Hinoka and Princess Sakura wanted no part in preserving their claim to the throne any more than necessary. It was a Nohrian spell that had been requested to keep Raijinto locked in the soft grass, and even now, no one had dared to publicly disturb the blade out of honor for its former user, or perhaps in fear of ruling the kingdom. There was no doubt that some had tried their hand in secret, but Raijinto had not been displaced.
Walking slowly to the katana and falling to one knee, the stranger extended their right hand towards the hilt, not finding any comfort in the feel of the bindings that composed its handle. Lightning arced into their palm but their steady motion did not waver despite the thousand needle-like sparks piercing their nerves.
"I still don't know why it chose me," they whispered solemnly, wrapping their fingers around the tang and quietly dispelling the holy barrier that kept it in place. "Of all people, why did Raijinto choose me, Ryoma? Why would the heir of this cruel fate be me?"
In one fluid motion, they pulled Raijinto out of its holy sheath of dirt, causing the night sky above to darken even further with storm clouds. As rain began to fall, the stranger let Raijinto kiss their flesh, sating the blade's thirst for their blood. Running their thumb and index finger past the lightning's aurora, the stranger watched as red droplets trickled down the keen blade from hilt to tip before nourishing the grass below. Letting the rain droplets fall on Ryoma's sword, the thief swung it outwards to dry before flourishing it with the poise of an expert swordsman, plunging it back into its earthen scabbard.
"Eg'de ruoy fo yh'trow d'nif uoy yam doolb s'rehtona. Rebmuls ruoy ot nruter, Raijinto."
With the spell recast, Raijinto's barrier was restored and it returned to its slumber, patiently waiting for the hand that would rightfully claim it.
Moving on, the stranger knelt by the final tree, wiping the tears that shamefully fell from their eyes. They had done this enough times to know it wasn't the rain that dripped down their cheeks.
Prince Takumi - Slain on the Wall of Suzanoh, in the service of Hosh-
"You are not welcome here, traitor," a voice called out, causing the cloaked figure to turn their head.
Hana. Both katana were already drawn.
"Didn't Queen Hinoka make herself clear the first few times you were caught?! You are trampling on the graves of-"
"It is my duty, samurai. As their sister," the stranger replied simply, removing their hood and letting free her long white hair.
The cherry blossoms mixed with the rain as the Yatogami left its sheath.
Sneaking past the rest of the guards, Corrin made an effort to suppress the blood that dripped from her arm. Hana was knocked out somewhere by the wall and dawn would come soon. As usual.
The Nohrian Princess tied her cloak in a tourniquet to pause the bleeding, all the while walking towards her final destination. Five years before, her bare feet had walked these steps escorted by Kaze and Rinkah, greeted by a woman she would later call Mother.
Now, there would be no one to welcome the bleeding, dripping, exiled Princess back home. Not like there was anyone the year before, or the years before that.
Kneeling at the Throne of Truth, the Nohrian drew Yato and laid it across her thighs, praying silently for forgiveness as she lighted incense in reverence to both the Dawn Dragon and her fallen family members.
...
A footstep.
...
They were waiting for her to acknowledge them.
...
"You aren't the first ninja sent to kill me," Corrin sighed, her eyes still closed as she rose from her position. "And I will not let you be the last."
The interloper took another step forward, leaping off the balcony and out of view of the reflection of Yato's flat. Their subsequent footsteps were near-silent despite the heavy-sounding fall. Corrin couldn't make out a face through the assassin's hood, though the robes of a Hoshidan archer gave away her opponent's disposition.
An archer? Corrin wondered. Why an archer?
"You're quite bold to enter Shirasagi, right under Queen Hinoka's nose. Not to mention you take the path that tramples our fallen heroes' graves, as if what you've done wasn't enough," the assassin taunted.
In a heartbeat, Corrin twirled her blade as she deflected the first shot perfectly.
"They were my brothers! Did your contractor not tell you who I was?!"
The second shot whistled by her ear as it resounded in a metallic clang with Yato's flat. It was far right, but just wide enough to imply that the archer made the slip intentional.
"I know very well who you are, Kamui."
That name, one she had not heard since Hinoka had exiled her, made Corrin hesitate for just a second.
A second was what it took until the third arrow flew into and through her unarmored shoulder, almost prompting her to scream. The guards outside convinced her not to, instead suggesting a sharp inhale of pain. The archer saw this stifled pain and his smile was visible from underneath the white hood.
"I know you come here on the anniversary of your victory over us Hoshidans," he continued, slamming a glowing hand into the ground. Immediately, white noise followed by a sharp ringing overwhelmed Corrin's sensitive ears, ceasing as soon as it started and leaving everything muffled.
What was that?!
"By all means, traitor, you can now be as loud as you want. That was a silencing spell, a courtesy for the vigilant guards waiting unaware in the pouring rain. Wouldn't want you to hold back, now, would I?"
Letting her pain channel, the Nohrian's arm shifted into her Dragon Fang, nearly decapitating the archer with its huge reach.
"You risk so much to come here, all to honor the people whose deaths you orchestrated! The family you murdered!"
Backflipping over Corrin's fang, the archer's bow sang as another arrow pinged harmlessly off the dragon's scaled head.
"You know nothing of what happened that day!" the Princess retorted, her voice catching on her breath as the muffling spell did its work on her vocal chords. It came out like an underwater scream, reverberating off of everything and nothing at once. Even in her semi-dragon form, her voice echoed way more than it should have and the reverb was near-nauseating.
Cartwheeling into a leaping dive, the tip of Corrin's fangs knocked the archer into the air, sending him flying and eventually towards a painful descent. She did not, however, expect him to fire off a shot in midair, which was barely blocked by her transformed upper limbs. Landing gracefully on both feet, the archer darted out a window to the cemetery while Corrin was still off-balance. Snarling in rage, the dragon followed in pursuit, stampeding in her bipedal form in a manner not too characteristic of the normally poised and limber princess. Thankfully, no guards noticed her heavy footfalls that led back into the rainy field. A howling wind had arose, sending droplets and blossoms every which way- and hiding the archer perfectly.
"I know you tell yourself that you were supposed to save Hoshido..." the voice whispered from behind her, even amidst the sounds of the storm around her. Instantly, the Nohrian embedded her arms elbow-deep into the tree behind her, but there was no archer to be seen.
"...That you wanted to leave my countrymen alive even while marching an army to our doorstep. You wanted to spare their lives even while placing your foul king on our throne. That... was your dream."
"It was my dream," Corrin rasped, "And my responsibility as a Hoshidan! Even when I turned my back on them, I had every right and desire to protect them!"
Pinpointing the archer's perch, Corrin shot out a torrent of water from her hands, sending the archer crashing through a couple branches and back onto the ground. Leaping onto him, she aimed another jet at point blank onto his head and dug a hole nearly three feet deep with the blast, barely missing when the archer somersaulted backwards. Switching the grip of his bow, he swept Corrin's legs from under her, knocking the dragonstone out of her hands and forcing her to revert to her fully human form. Kicking Yato away, he knocked back an arrow and lowered it towards her head. Helpless, Corrin raised her hands in the way of the impending shot, not quite accepting her fate just yet, but helpless to change it.
"You think you protected your siblings by invading Hoshido? By listening to Garon? You didn't save anyone's life, Kamui. You couldn't even save Azura! Who did you protect, Kamui? What part of Hoshido did you save?!"
"You dare lecture me about the choices I had to make?" Corrin screamed, rocking onto her upper back and kicking herself upwards, slamming through the archer's jaw with her heel as she rocketed past him and towards her fallen weapons. "What does an assassin know about trying to save every person their own army was ordered to kill?"
She picked up her dragonstone off the floor and quickly morphed her left arm into a claw that held the assassin in place on the ground.
"How dare you... Don't you ever tell me what I did was wrong! I know I made the right choice! I saved who I could and avenged who I couldn't!"
With her right hand, Yato prepared to impale the archer and leave his body to the graves of his countrymen.
"And how dare you... you see yourself even remotely worthy to say Azura's name!"
Screaming wildly, she plunged Yato clean through the chest of her attacker, releasing her claw and shifting it into a spear. With a fluid motion, she kept Yato embedded as a bloody stake that kept her assassin in place, then switching both her arms to their primal state. Kneeling so that her body was the only thing her victim could see, she raised both her arms and stabilized herself in preparation to give the archer an incredibly superfluous nostril.
The tingle of a Dragon Vein made itself apparent, and Corrin decided at that moment that there was no such thing as overkill.
"Luos siht emusnoc, th'gin eht fo nogard!"
Her plea to the heavens heeded, Corrin felt a chill in her core as her spear-like appendage glowed purple with the Dusk Dragon's power that came from beneath her. Thrusting forward, she closed her eyes and found herself grinning at the thought of having the taunting archer's brains-
In an inhuman display of speed, the archer brought up his bow and narrowly deflected the spike from hitting his forehead, causing it to catch onto his hood and tear it off the robe. Hearing the sound of a bowstring snapping in half by the brute force instead of the splattering of grey matter, Corrin opened her eyes and found herself staring at the face of the revealed assassin.
No...
"T-takumi!?"
With his bow resting directly between Corrin's eyes, the ghost of a fallen hero smiled viciously as he too chanted a prayer to the ancient dragons.
"Erom ecno Fuujin revo rewop em t'narg ,th'gil fo nogard!"
The broken string reforged itself, glowing a bright blue as a bolt of pure energy shot straight into Corrin's right eye, not piercing the nerve but hitting with enough kinetic force to knock her entire body nearly ten feet into the air, sending her blinded form crashing into the mud and well out of any melee range. Its final prayer answered, the ghost of Fuujin Yumi began to glimmer in Takumi's hands, its glow fading even as its wielder freed himself of his trap, walking to Corrin's prone and helpless body.
"O-only a descendant of the dragons can sense their Veins," Corrin whimpered, trying desperately to crawl away. "Y-you're not... dead? Takumi... is that really you?"
All she heard was the sound of a bowstring being drawn.
"I... I g-guess... I deserve this... don't I?" the princess sobbed, unable to crane her head to look at her brother, the damage too severe. Instead, Takumi relaxed Fuujin Yumi, kneeling down to his sister. Not appreciating the tears that were falling from his sister's eyes, he gently cradled her head in his lap to let her see him clearly.
"Yes.. you do," he replied, neither angry nor pleased at the outcome. "But your work is not done here, sister. You cannot try to remedy your sins anonymously anymore. You cannot hide in the shadows any longer. The world is in danger once again, and it needs a hero once more..."
"H-hero..." Corrin groaned, shaking her head as little as she could. "I'm no hero... I was a f-fool... to think that I could've saved everyone..."
"Perhaps you are still a fool," Takumi sighed, looking upwards. "But Mother doesn't seem to think so. Neither did Ryoma. I was wrong about you many times, sister. But I'm right this time."
"What do you want from me? You're not alive, are you?"
Instead of a clear answer, Takumi gave Corrin the split remains of Fuujin Yumi, pressing it against her body as he pulled away from her.
"C-come back..." she groaned incoherently, causing the archer to almost feel a pang of regret for his fallen sister.
The princess heard more footsteps, and suddenly the familiar feel of Yato in her hand was made apparent. Likewise with her dragonstone, she was left in the mud to cradle three sacred weapons.
"Hoshido may not want you, Kamui," Takumi warned. "But they need you. Hinoka, Sakura... they miss you. Dwell on that, sister."
His message delivered, Takumi faded once more into mist, returning to the afterlife.
"Queen Hinoka, the breach was encountered before morning," a bruised Hana reported, limping on her right leg as best she could. "She... got the best of me, and fought with an unknown entity nearing Ryoma's-"
"Where is she," Hinoka demanded, already ready to move.
"She's... still there, and Sakura's not letting anyone get close. Our archers are ready to fire, on your order."
Corrin had the remains of Fuujin Yumi in her cloak, tied as a knapsack around her shoulder. Yato had absorbed what little power the bow had left, fading from its usual purple to a lighter azure. Crawling in the mud took nearly an hour, but she finally made it back to Ryoma's grave.
"Don't move another inch."
Rolling over, the disgraced princess was met with her Hoshidan sister, the one responsible for her exile those few years ago.
"I h-have to... Takumi..."
"She's mad, milady," Hana noted. "She's been delusional ever since we found her."
"J-just let me... touch it," Corrin pleaded, untying the knot around her shoulder and letting both halves of Fuujin Yumi rest in the grass.
"W-where did you find that," Hinoka questioned, before noting the Yato and the dragonstone in each hand of her pitiful sister.
"R-raijinto... let me... just let it-"
"Milady, the enchantment is still active. I doubt the blade would choose the one who killed its previous-"
Corrin felt herself being hauled to her feet, supported by the Queen of Hoshido herself.
"H-hinoka?" she cried, internally screaming at every step she took towards Raijinto.
"It's 'Sister,'" Hinoka replied with a smile. "It was never anything more, never anything less, Kamui."
Letting Corrin fall to her knees next to her brother's blade, Corrin gripped it not by the handle but by the keen edge of lightning. Blood dripped once more along the katana, and as Corrin returned to the hilt, the crimson smear from her palm stained its bindings.
Instead of keeping Raijinto for herself, which was already a shock to the guards and royals around her, Corrin placed Ryoma's sword back into Hinoka's hands, collapsing to the ground in pain.
"W-what do I do with this?" Hinoka questioned, seeing Yato being pointed back at her.
"D-do what you deem worthy... to a t-traitor like me..."
And with that, Hinoka swung.
A few seconds later, Anankos rolled in his tomb, awakening only to the sound of the Fire Emblem being reborn.