It was well into the beginnings of the Age of the Warrior when darkness struck. It's catalyst had been one of the closet members in Hamato Yoshi's life: Oruku Saki.
"SAKI!" Yoshi cried as he dodged the debris from the concaving ceiling. Eyes squinted and blurred with tears from both heat and panic. "I do not wish to fight you brother!"
Three flat blades bit into the hardwood floor a split second after Yoshi had somersaulted to much more bearable grounds. His and Tang Shen's house, their home, was being disintegrated from the intense flames started by his brother, Oruku Saki. Hatred and vengeance had finally blackened his heart. The only thing Yoshi could be grateful for was that his wife and daughter had not been here to witness this destruction.
"Fight or die, Hamato!" Saki hissed charging forward with a downward swipe. The blades of his steel claws catching the ends of Yoshi's robes as he caught Saki's wrist with one hand turning to one side to avoid the strike. Quickly, Yoshi slammed the heel of his hand dead center of Saki's forehead knocking him off balance. He grasped Saki's upper arm by fold. His foot swept Saki off his feet, using the momentum from his charge and flipped Saki and slammed him on the hardwood floor. Saki rolled over and swept his legs in attempted to knock Yoshi off balance. Yoshi jumped back still holding a defense stance.
"Stop this pointless fighting!" Yoshi pleaded upon deaf ears, "We are brothers! We should not be fighting each-other! Father-!"
"He was your father! NOT MINE!" Saki spat. He charged again jabbing and swiping his blades. Yoshi dodged most of the attacks but the fire had grown worse in their quarrel. Most of the landscape had disappeared in orange flames and the heat intensity was borderlining searing. Saki had effectively cornered him.
"All these years, you were the golden child. You were the one who was given everything! Status. Respect. Even the love of Sensei." Saki grounded his stance as he spat on the floor, like speaking of their father disgusted him.
"But it was never enough for you, Hamato Yoshi. You stole her from me." His lips pulled into a snarl-like frown and he told jadedly, "You stole Tang Shen from me! Miwa should have been my child not yours!"
"ENOUGH!" Yoshi screamed enraged. His wrist snapping hard as three blades flew from his hand with intent to pinned Saki to the ground. In an 'X' like strike Saki deflected the blades and grinned wickedly.
"That's right! FIGHT ME!" Saki yelled as he made a mighty leap his arms slicing down catching Yoshi off-guard in his vulnerable state. Blood splatter high onto the ceilings and painted Saki's horror-ridden face.
Tang Shen clutched onto her neck. The artery in her neck still spurting blood. The lacerations marking her body in three diagonal lines from neck and shoulder all the way down to middle of her stomach drenched her clothes in blood. The smell of perforated stomach added to the stench of smoke and fire. Yoshi stayed petrified hardly registering his greatest fears realized. Dread held Saki in an iron grip, freezing his veins and stealing the air from his lungs the same way Tang Shen struggled to breath.
Yoshi lurched forward, clutching onto her neck desperate to stop the spurts from seeping past his fingers. Her name a pleading wish as he crumbled with her in his arms. Her warm, brown eyes looked golden in firelight and the scarlet blood that streaked her pale face sparkled. Even in death, she was gorgeous, vibrant and full of life.
Yoshi screamed in agony as he rocked with Tang Shen draped in his arms like a porcelain doll. Tears, snot and blood streaking his face. His beloved wife, his soulmate cruelly ripped away because she wanted to protect him. Because she thought he needed protecting. Weak, little Yoshi. Can't even save his own wife. Can't protect his own family.
Saki fled the scene. His body hunched over a bush in Tang Shen's garden as he threw up the contents of his stomach, blubbering hard. His beloved Tang Shen had been killed. Murder by him. Saki collapsed onto the cold dirt ground coiled into himself. What had he done. He murdered her. He murdered her!
Like a grieving sigh, The Hamato House collapsed into itself. The fires consuming everything and spreading out towards the garden. Saki watched helplessly as the roof fell in. He scrambled to his feet, screaming out his brother's name as he circled the house trying to find an entry point. He couldn't save Miwa's mother but he could damn sure try to save his brother. Upon finding a bearably entry point Saki dashed inside but the supports gave out nearly seconds after he entered trapping him in the inferno. Without much of a choice Saki pushed forward back to the scene of the crime and found his brother hunched over his dead wife, unconscious.
With great effort, Saki hoisted both bodies and lugging them around as he search for an escape. Towering flames marked exits like angered sentient beings. Angry at him. Angry at his mistakes. Angry at his foolishness. Saki's eyes blurred with tears from the intensity of the searing heat. Everything smelled of burnt hair and burning wood. There was no foreseeable escape. Saki looked up into the midnight blue sky. One of the main support beams of the roof was positioned perfectly but was dosed in high burning flames. If he took it, all three of them would severely burned.
I can help you.
Saki snapped his attention to the far corner. The flames casted shadows on the floor, elongating to length of the barest shape of a human. A snap beside him brought his attention back to the support beam. The fires now parted oddly away from the charred wood.
Act quickly, Oruku Saki.