THE SILENT BLADE
CHAPTER ONE
THEY FIND PEACE…
Oh nonononon….
Mugen turned his eyes toward the usually stoic Jin.
Something was clearly wrong with the samurai… but what
could shake the warrior so?
One year ago…
They had been traveling with the waitress unstopping
for three days now, ever since they had left the
temple of Sion ju. They still had neither clues to
where the sunflower samurai was, nor any idea as to
where to go next.
The trio had entered the small town toward dusk and
though they had little money they had managed to
convince the tavern owner to let them stay the night,
he had no other business anyway.
Mugen was itching for a fight, it had been almost a
week since his sword had tasted blood and he
desperately wanted to kill something. To bad the
waitress, Fuu, had forbidden him from killing Jin.
Muguen then corrected himself, at least forbidden him
to try to kill and him. In the couple of weeks that
they had been on the road together he had seen the
ronin fight many skilled men, yet none had been
anywhere near the level of his mysterious companion.
And, now that he thought about it, did he really want
to kill Jin anyway? Sure maybe spare with him, but
only in fun, to see who the strongest of the pair
really was.
There was ways something about Jin that drew Mugen to
him. Though Mugen had lain with many beautiful women,
he despised their weak, fleshy bodies, their fragile
EMOTIONS… he shuddered when he thought that last word.
Emotions were not something that he had time for. That
was part of what made Jin enticing. There was no
unnecessary emotion in him. He was as cold and as
glorious as ice. Yes. Jin was ice and Mugen was a
raging fire. The more he thought about it, the more
sense it had made….
One year later…..
They had found the Sunflower Samurai and in the end
they had killed him. In the time traveling the two
swordsmen had come to think of Fuu as a sister and
when it was reviled that the samurai and his warriors
had been the ones to kill her clan and slaughter her
family, Jin and Mugen had destroyed them. The Fight
had been glorious to the more then slightly insane
Mugen. The blood had flowed, till the stone path
resembled a river red. In the end the two of them had
left none of the evil men alive, killing over one
hundred in a single night.
The townsmen had come to the dojo when they herd the
cries, the screams of the dying. And, Mugen, who now
shuddered when he remembered that day, he had turned
on them. The innocent men and women would have been
slaughtered in his killing rage had not Jin been able
to reach through his madness and calm him. The
beautiful ronin had done with one word "Mugen" what no
man or woman had even been able to do.
From then on the two warriors had been inseparable.
They had decided to remain with Fuu and together the
three of them had settled in the village where they
had killed all of the samurai. The townsfolk, had at
first been weary of the deadly creatures now in their
midst, but after a bandit raid had been halted by Jin
and Mugen the townsfolk had warmed to their new
"protectors". Fuu fit in well and quickly made friends
with all the local women and became a school teacher,
instructing the village children in reading and
writing. Jin and Mugen '.adopted' an abandoned farm,
one that had been left vacant in the wake of that
night and together they had made a productive silk
farm. In a complete surprise to Mugen, Jim had known
how to breed and raise silk worms Somehow it worked
and the two of them spent their days making the
valuable silk and their evenings sparing with each
other, since no other equaled them in skill. Their
nights, well their nights where spent in sparing of a
different sort…
That first year the three of them lived together had
been the happiest time in Mugen's life. For as long as
he could remember his life had been spent in a
constant struggle for survival, not a day went buy
where he did not take a life, this left him filled
with a nearly psychotic rage in his soul, yet with Jin
and his "sister" Fuu he had gained a sense of peace.
When he battled Jin the rage faded. When he was with
him his soul found rest.
Though they had spent a year together, Jin was still
as much of a mystery to the Rukyo Warrior as he had
been when they had first met. The only thing Mugen had
learned was that there was emotion behind the cold
facade that Jin played. And to his shock, these
emotions did not repulse him, but drew him even more
toward him. There was a deep pain, sadness and a
vulnerability hidden in Jin's eyes. These were
Emotions that Mugen was determined to reveal. He would
find whatever hurt his Jin and he would destroy it. Be
it man or beast, it would suffer long before he let it
die.
As time passed the two warriors became closer and
closer. Their farm flourished and their silk became
highly valued and well known. Their love grew stronger
with each passing day, and as their love grew, so did
their fighting skills. They had become an unstoppable
duo, twin furies of death and destruction. Those who
were privileged enough to witness them practice
together compared their technique to that of a dance,
a dance of death. They, it was rumored, became gods of
death, Shivas, when they fought and were horrible to
behold. It was said that should they face an army, the
outcome would likely be in their favor… no one could
no that soon all would get to witness this and see who
the victors would be….
The day that would change everything started off
beautifully. The sun shown and there was not a cloud
in the sky. Mugen should have suspected something,
weather was never this nice in early spring. The trio
had gone into town for a festival. It was a feast in
honor 0f the coming spring and the hope of a fruitful
summer season and fall harvest. Though both Jin and
Muguen had become much more tolerant of the villagers
in the time that they had spent living on the farm,
they would have most likely not come to the
celebration had Fuu not made them. The little
waitress-turned-school teacher could be a little spit
fire and when she decided she wanted her "brothers" to
accompany her to the party nothing would prevent her
from getting her way. Fuu felt her two adopted
brothers needed to socialize more, they always kept to
themselves. So it was on this beautiful spring day the
little family found itself in the middle of the town's
biggest party of the year. "Hey Mugen!" "Welcome
Jin-san!" "We're all so glad you both decided to
come!" came the greetings of the town folk who had
come to respect and genuinely like the two mysterious
warriors who guarded their little village.
And the Village was fairly small and unimportant town.
It was far away from the capital city of Kyoto and so
no one was prepared when, at the gates appeared a
large battalion of soldiers, all on horse back, with
swords and all appeared deadly. The festivities came
to a sudden halt. Approaching in the distance, a
larger hoard of men and horses could be seen
approaching. The Banner of the Empire could be seen
flying amidst the throng of men.
The mayor of the village broke away from the throng of
village men and approached a mounted soldier that
appeared to be in charge.
"Welcome to our humble village great sirs" he
stuttered "to what do we owe this great hono-"before
he could finish the soldier, a general in the imperial
forces, marked by his gold armor, cut him off "The
Emperor approaches" The man spoke in a deep voice that
oozed authority "He is on his way to the Summer
palaces and the normal mountain pass has been flooded.
His Highness will be gracing you 'village' with his
holy presence, make preparations!" With that the
soldier turned and rode out toward the approaching
troops, leaving his battalion in the village square.
Mugen and Jin had been quietly listening to the mayor
and the general speak, calculating what this could
mean, they had both been calm, but the moment the
soldier had said the Emperor would be coming into the
village Jin and gone deathly pale and Mugen herd the
normally silent warrior murmur in what sounded like
dread "Oh nonononon…."
"Jin, what's wrong?" Mugen whispered. But he got no
response and as he turned toward Jin Mugen was
startled to see …fear? In his companions eyes.
The moment that the mounted man had road off, the
silence in the village was broken and it seemed that
all of the villagers started to talk at once. "whats
going on!" "What could this mean?" the older men
whispered as the younger exclaimed in excitement "oh
the emporerer! I can not believe that he is actually
coming to our village!"
But Mugen heard none of this, he was focused only on
Jin, something was very wrong with him. Jin had
started to back away from the others and make his way
out of the crowd. As Mugen moved to follow, he was
intercepted by Fuu grabing his arm and halting him.
"Oh Mugen!" she squeeled "isn't this exciting! The
Eperor! Is coming here! I wonder if I will get to see
him!" He had momentarily been ditracted and when he
was finally able to detach himself from his eager
friend, Jin had disappeared.
What none of the townsfolk could have known was that
the General had ridden back to tell his emporer
something of great importance. Something that would
shake the empire forever more.