It had seemed like a much better idea before walking to the village square. Heizo is laying still on the ground, and there's only one soldier watching him. She would have formed a different plan, but the soldier's colors are flashing between impatience and longing. His colors and the way he keeps glancing back at an izakaya. Finally, after an hour of waiting, the soldier kicks Heizo-san in the ribs before walking inside the izakaya.
Kaoru grits her teeth instead of screaming and beating him with her bokken. One must have patience in life and art, her father had told her. So she watches his colors until they become stationary and makes her move. Keeping to the shadows, she creeps closer to Heizo. A glance at the soldier's colors proves him to still lurking in a corner, so she runs to him and starts pulling at the knots.
It would be a lot more difficult for her to untie the knots if her father hadn't shown her how to properly tie knots as part of her swordsmanship. However, it's still difficult to untie them in the dark. She almost thanks the gods when the last knot comes free but pulls at Heizo instead. "Kaoru-chan?" He blinks at her hazily, and she feels transfixed by his gold eyes. They glow like a cat's at night, she thinks. Out of the corner of her eye, she sees the soldier's colors move.
"Come on. Come on." She hisses the words at him, and he shakily stands. Her eyes dart to the alleys until she determines the darkest route. The soldier is close to the exit when Heizo stumbles into the darkness with her. Heizo's colors are disoriented, but he starts to turn to look behind them when she tries to press thoughts to him. 'Don't look back.' She thinks. 'They'll see your eyes glow.'
Her thoughts seem to snap him awake and the haze clears from his eyes. Kaoru bites back a shriek when he throws her over his shoulder and runs towards the forest. Now that the danger has passed, her fingers are starting to tremble and her knees feel weak. Heizo runs faster when the shouts of alarm start and she finds it hard to breath while being bounced like a sack of potatoes. At least his shoulder isn't bony, she thinks. How is it possible for anyone to run this fast?
Eventually, Heizo collapses to the ground with trembling limbs. "Kaoru-chan?" Kaoru looks over from her spot on the forest floor and Heizo groans pitifully. "I think I died. Am I dead?" His colors do seem rather exhausted and reflect pain. Suddenly, Kaoru is struck with the reality of the situation. She snuck out of her house and freed a prisoner from the king's army. Her Otou-san may murder her.
"You're not dead, but I hope you know what to do next." He throws his arm over his eyes, and Kaoru feels a pang of loss the absence of gold eyes. It's strange because she doesn't want to see his eyes specifically. It just feels like that moment with the ribbon at his stall, and she shoves it down instead of focusing on it. She needs to focus on here and now.
"Alright, so my adopted kids are safe right now. However, I can't go to them because I might risk leading the soldiers to them. I need to go somewhere they won't expect, and you need to go home." Kaoru blinks slowly at him as an idea occurs to her. "...Or we could both go to my home." He starts to sit up and she cuts him off before he can start. "My father turned you in, so they wouldn't expect you to be there."
She doesn't allow him to argue with her over it. Instead she grabs his hand and pulls him along. It's probably a testament to his exhaustion that he doesn't put up a fight. Her father is waiting on the porch when they arrive. She can tell the moment he sees Heizo. His colors freeze, and he drops into a bow, pressing his forehead to the wood. "I- I apologize for what I've done."
Heizo is frozen in shock only for a moment before he responds. "I think we should start over with a clean slate. I figure your Kaoru has done the hard part so why don't we move on?" Kaoru watches her father eagerly, watching the black lines thin out a bit. Koshijirou stands before bowing respectfully to Heizo. When Heizo mentions his children, an idea sparks in his head. "Why don't you come inside, and we'll discuss a proposition I have for you."
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At night she dreams of a city that looks as though it's been torn apart. It's walls and buildings are naught, but ash covered rubble. There are bleached white bones showing through the ash and outlines of figures burned onto the walls that still stood. It looks as though people died unaware of the impending danger. The moon is dyed red and seems so much larger than usual. There are cloaked figures checking the houses that are still partly standing.
Her vision blurs for a moment but then she's being held to a woman's chest. The figures stalk closer to their hiding place and she can feel the woman's shaking fingers digging into her skin. She runs into the ruined streets when the figures come too close, and Kaoru stares at them over the woman's shoulder. It's a short moment before they're seen. A shout of alarm follows and the figures chase the woman. The ruins echo with cruel laughter born from joy of the hunt. Spells and arrows fly at the woman, but they seem to hit against something solid before deflecting.
The woman is chanting under her breath, and the figures go the wrong way after she makes a few sudden turns. She gives Kaoru a light squeeze before setting her on the ground. Her eyes dark with grief as she pricks her finger and draws a symbol on Kaoru's forehead. Kaoru is standing on the ground when the woman presses their foreheads together and a rough sob escapes her. The woman whispers, before pushing her inside a crevice of a partially standing stone wall, "Make no sound, and do not be seen while I draw them away." She choked on a sob. "I'm so sorry to leave you this way. So sorry. May we meet again in the next life."
The woman runs back into the street after running her fingers through Kaoru's hair, and she watches the figures run after the woman again. Her clothes feel warm and wet on her side. Kaoru looks down to see her clothes soaked in blood, and she is uninjured. Tears burn in her eyes as she stares at the blood. A snapping of bone echoes through the ruins, and she slowly looks up only to see burning gold eyes and a bloodsoaked sword. She jerks awake at that point with her heart racing from fear, and her chest aching with grief. Kaoru has a feeling that she has never seen the end of that dream and she isn't sure she wants to know how it ends.
She stares at the ceiling, without moving from her futon, for a long moment. The soft blue lights that floated in lazy small circles on the ceiling could be mistaken for fireflies. They will turn a soft green before becoming bright yellow when the sun rises outside of these tunnels in accordance with the dojo's spells. The Kamiya Dojo exists in the tunnels under Tokyo and provides temporary shelter to abandoned and orphaned children.
These children are all that's left of the bloodlines that once populated the country. The ruler of Tokugawa was overthrown years ago, and a man called Takeda Kanryū took over. At first it seemed anyone would be an improvement over the previous ruler. Kanryū soon proved that to be worse than they could have imagined.
His first action was to cleanse his country of what he considered to be impure bloodlines while improving military strength. This meant those that had gods in their lineage would be pressed into military service, and those with demonic lineage would be executed with few exceptions. Anyone who showed a hint of magic would be taken for evaluation. If their abilities weren't useful, and they were of pure lineage, then they would be allowed to go home.
Children often show the most talent early on which often led to them being abandoned for fear of what would happen to the family should the child be traced back to them. After all, an impure bloodline doesn't stop at the child. Fear and ignorance is a breeding ground for bad situations. Within the first year of the new king, superstitions led several families to abandoning their children for things like having a birthmark. The king's army will usually send the falsely identified children back home only for those children to find their families are too afraid to take them back.
Orphans are usually smuggled through her dojo every few weeks. All of them have at least a drop of other blood in their veins, and it was well known that only those with other blood could have magic traits. Kaoru is an oddity in this. She can see a person's soul with their shifting emotions as well as a few other things, and yet has only human blood. This is something that remains unknown to anyone in this world. Even her orphans have no knowledge of this. For others to know would only put them at greater risk. The Tokugawa regime will always be able to find children of mixed blood, but there has never been a completely pure-blooded human able to wield magic. The soft lights dancing around the ceiling pulsed before changing to a soft green. Only a few more moments before the other Kamiya Dojo residents woke up.
The shoji shudders as a loud banging resonated through her room. She is almost across the room with her bokken in her hand and running evacuation procedures in her mind before she processes Yahiko's screeching. "Oi, busu, wake up! It's not like you've got a chance to get beautiful from sleeping in!" He's gone as soon as she snarls his name. She angrily rakes her fingers through her hair before tying it off in a ponytail in a series of jerky movements. He may have escaped her wrath for now, but Yahiko will get what he deserves in training today. Oh yes, there will be plans for Yahiko-chan.
She's already discarded a dozen revenge plots for him by the time she finishes pulling on her hakama and gi. Kaoru resists the urge to slam open the shoji and stalks through the tunnels with a wicked grin on her face. Perhaps what Yahiko needed was to clean the dojo floor until he could see his reflection. Of course, that would have to wait until after she had him clean the chicken coop. Oh yes, he'll think twice before waking her up like that again. She runs her fingers along the smooth tunnel walls on her way to the main room.
These tunnels had once been escape tunnels underneath the old city before it was reduced to rubble during one of the wars a few hundred years ago. The people that rebuilt it hadn't been aware of the tunnels buried underneath the foundations of the city. Or, perhaps they merely hadn't cared as they built a new foundation over them? Years ago, her Otou-san had cleared the tunnels of debris and rubble from where they had started to collapse in several places. "Can you see it Kaoru? This place will be where we teach the Kamiya Kasshin style. We'll save the children and give them the ability to wield the sword that protects. One day our peoples will live in peace and we'll give them the tools to do so. The tools to protect the innocents." She could still remember how excited he was.
They built hidden entrances through the foundation and into the walls of the buildings above. Her father developed relations with the Sekihōtai, a group that smuggled the children out of the city and referred to his tunnels as the Orphanage. Right up until Sozo Sagara, the captain of the Sekihōtai, told him it may as well be a dojo with how he was insisting on teaching every child. Her father had stroked his chin and narrowed his eyes in an attempt to look wise beyond his years, but his mischievous grin gave him away. "Kamiya Dojo has a certain ring to it doesn't it?" Her favorite stall vendor, Ogawa Heizo, set up a tented stall in front of one of their hidden entrances to use as a front for their smuggling. Her father had hit it off with Heizo after Kaoru had helped him escape the king's soldiers what seemed like a lifetime ago. He had been trying to hide his adopted children by moving frequently, and the children were moved into the dojo with the understanding that Heizo could visit whenever he pleased.
Heizo would try to visit his children every week or two. He would bring news to the children about how things were going in the city and he would bring children that he found wandering the streets to Kaoru's father. On the days her father visited him, he would send back a bag of candy for all the children until it became a tradition. Time had seemed to fly by with all the newfound happiness of raising children in the ways of the Kamiya Kasshin style as the assistant master. By all means she should have been beyond ecstatic seeing her father's dream come true before her eyes, but she couldn't shake a feeling of foreboding. A feeling that whispered to her in dreams that he would die if he left the dojo.
She had begged him not to leave the tunnels that week, but he needed to smuggle more children to the Sekihōtai. So she loaned him her ribbon with the condition that he had to return it to her no matter what, and he laughed at her worries. Kaoru couldn't sleep with the knowledge he wasn't going to come back, and the hope that he would. That night she followed him only to watch a trap being sprung on them by the Shinsengumi, an elite squad of Kanryū's army. His teachings rang in her ears. One life is nothing compared to ten of another. She could only watch as they took her father. To charge the Shinsengumi would be suicide, and then there would be no one left to take care of the children.
Sozo and her father usually met in a predetermined area before passing children, so they could ensure the area is clear of people. The children are still in the tunnels. Kaoru does not look away as they're beaten and she does not look away as they're dragged away from her. She cannot save them, but she will not forget them. Kaoru burned it into her memories, and carved it into her heart. From now on, she is responsible for the children and she refuses to fail them as well. The following days she learned that her father was executed alongside Sozo Sagara.
Kaoru was left to raise and teach the children alone, when she was barely more than a child herself. The dreams of a ruined city started shortly after that day. Kaoru had refused to eat or move from her futon for days after that, but soon she realized it was the same as giving up what had become their dream. Even worse, she was already failing her children. She refused to give up and two orphans with talents in spells became permanent dojo residents. They had self-appointed jobs to keep up the dojo's spells. Part of living in the dojo included growing their own food and raising chickens. Heizo would occasionally trade their excess goods for bolts of cloth and other necessities. Usually she only left the tunnels to smuggle children, but Tokyo was large enough that she could maintain anonymity by dressing in her best kimono and an elaborate hairstyle. It was an easy matter from there to listen to the gossip of the area every few months or so. However, leaving the tunnels always comes with a risk, however small, that she will be discovered and be traced back to the children.
She has a growing feeling of foreboding that the safety of the children would be in jeopardy soon. Heizo has not visited for three weeks now. Sanosuke Sagara, the new captain of the Sekihōtai, has neither smuggled children out nor sent them any new children for even longer. Kaoru came back to herself with a sharp snap. She has been standing in the shadows where the tunnel meet the main room doing nothing but brooding. It will do her no good to brood on what could be or what was. Not when the children depend on her.
If she doesn't hear from Heizo by the end of the week, she'll go through one of the hidden entrances and find him herself. She let out a shaky breath and took a moment to center herself before walking into the main room. The main room was where the tunnels merged into a large dome. Dark wood lined the tunnels and ceiling of the main room. The main room's wood included several ornate pillars from the original build as well as a lighter wood for the new pillars.
Tsubame, a timid girl with brown eyes and short brown hair, was already hard at work growing the food for that morning. Tsubame's hair falls over her face as she whispers to the plants. It's mesmerising to watch green lights, similar to the yellow ones that provided the faux sunlight above, dance around the plants as they speedily grow.
Yahiko, the vertically impaired and soon to be dead loud-mouth with unruly brown hair, is busy trying to look like he's not watching Tsubame while feeding the chickens. It's with a sense of impending karmic justice that Kaoru is watching a rooster eyeball the feed bag Yahiko is holding. She watches as the rooster bobs its' head while carefully strutting behind Yahiko. It lets out a mighty squawk as it lunges for the bag. "Wha- Stupid chicken get off!" Yahiko flails before dropping the feed bag. He stares incredulously as the rooster seats itself on the bag while crowing victoriously.
The tips of his ears turn red and his eyes flash gold when he realizes both Kaoru and Tsubame have not only seen the spectacle, but are laughing. Laughing at the Great Yahiko Myojin! He scowls before crossing his arms and haughtily raising his chin. "I'm the son of a great samurai not a chicken farmer." With that he sweeps out of the room proud of his grand exit never realizing that neither Kaoru nor Tsubame have noticed his absence.
When their ribs hurt and the laughter starts to die, Kaoru looks over at the rooster to see it proudly strutting around the feed bag. She grinned at Tsubame and they dissolved into giggles again. "Tsubame, did you need help making breakfast this morning?" Before the sentence is out of her mouth, Kaoru knows what to expect. Tsubame's eyes widened in horror, and her mouth freezes in an awkward smile. "No no! It's alright. You have to teach the classes and I wouldn't want to trouble you." It's Tsubame's fidgeting fingers and the colors for horror and fear that give her away. Kaoru feels her eye starting to twitch and her fingers ache for a bokken.
Her cooking is not that bad. Sure the rice is crunchy, meat somehow turns black, and soup takes on a strange gray color but it's edible and that's all that matters. "Kokekokkoo." They're both startled into giggles when the rooster crows and continues to preen in it's victory. When the laughter started to die again, they noticed the rest of the children had gathered around them with confused looks. Kaoru herds the children into the training hall and starts them on the practice regimen. The training hall's gleaming wood reflects the children's strikes and the echo of their voices.
It's easy to fall into the rhythm of step, step, strike, twist, and repeat. However, she cannot stop her mind from wandering. Where is Heizo? Why hasn't she received communication from Sano? A sense of foreboding in her soul grows with each question, and she's growing surer by the moment that she won't like the answers.
