One: Her Name is Death

The day was starting up to a typical humid morning. The red orb of the sun was dipping beneath the Eastern Mountains, sending long shadows knifing across the panorama spread beneath it; and from the top of the cliff edge stood Shinimi, as she always did, looking down into the shallow mountain valley dotted with countless wooden, square houses and cherry blossom trees randomly stood around the village.

The wooden houses dominated the village floor, and other buildings such as schools, markets, herbal stores and clothes stores crowded around the wide natural clearing. Her family house sat by the mountain's towering walls, at the edge of the village at the far west.

Cherry Valley, a small yet profitable village, the only home she has ever known.

The twelve-year-old child stared down at the village from the thickly forested side of the Village. The village is what she calls 'home', but deep inside of her it was just a cage where she couldn't escape for freedom. She hated it and had every intention of running away, but sadly, she never had the courage to. Her mother would always stop her. She squinted against the sun, trying to make out some of the figures that were busily rushing around in pastel-coloured kimonos and Gi. Wide dark eyes stared sadly at her home, seeing her mother hanging the washing outside on the balcony at the front of the house. She was too scared of coming back. She was sent out to get some incense from the alter by the forest, but after retrieving none because the people in the alter bolted the doors on her, she was also very late and must have missed her dinner. She didn't felt too hungry, and she looked at her empty hands. Her long black hair swayed gently in the smoothing breeze, the tail of her hair was tied with a silken red ribbon and two tiny antenna-like strands fell over her small, pretty features and face. She bit her lip. Her mother was going to be angry at her-

Shinimi felt her blood stop when she saw the small figure of her mother pointing at her direction, her body expressed impatience and rage and she seemed to be screaming her name.

She set off down the dirt path that ran along the cliff edge, eventually curving off into the village and plunging into the crowds of people. That was when the usual gazing eyes fixed onto her; she could feel them watching her even with her face looking down to her tiny feet. Children hid behind their parents' backs and adults would dash to the other side of the path. Chewing onto a strand of her black hair in anxiety, she hurried off towards her home, her feet scuffing up puffs of dust from the scorched earth, where she saw the fuming small woman by the front door, her fists on her hips.

"For goodness sake, child! What time do you call this then?" Cried out her mother, her face darkened with a deep frown. Shinimi wasn't sure how to explain.

"I'm sorry for being late, mother," Came the tiny reply.

"Sorry? Sorry? You'll be sorry to know that you're not getting any supper and…" A Pause and Shinimi kept her tearful eyes onto the floor. "…where's my incense?"

"I couldn't get any…"

"You couldn't? And why was that?"

"Because they wouldn't let me in…" Her mother sighed angrily.

"Well, maybe if you weren't a bloody rupture-being, none of this wouldn't happen, right?" Her mother snarled.

Shinimi couldn't do much but she shot her mother the darkest glare she could produce, trying hard not to look weak. She only gained a hard pinch on her elfin-like ears. She cried out in ache and many of the villagers turned and faced her. Her mother dragged her inside of the house by the ear.

Their house was cool and shady, sheltered from the stark daylight by its overhanging bamboo roof. Only Shinimi and her mother lived in the house, but there was once a time where four people lived under the same roof. The house was always spotless and Shinimi can't even leave her small traditional wooden shoes by the door. They must be placed in the shoe-rack in the hallway, perfectly.
Her mother yanked her past the doors and spun around at her.

"You better get ready! Mrs. Sasaki will be down in less than ten minutes."

"Who's…who's Mrs. Sasaki?" Shinimi asked curiously, rubbing her now red-hot ear.

"This woman will, hopefully, identify what you really are," Her mother replied with no emotion. She rubbed her weary hands onto a tea-cloth made with white cotton. "You better get washed, nice and clean. I don't want to be known as the woman with a dirty child, as well as a rupture-being…"

Shinimi ignored the hurt that plagued inside of her, so she hurried up the stairs into her bedroom. Rupture-being…that word was always plastered on her. It means broken being or creature. She was label with this tag for as long as she could remember and yet it still hurts her, not matter how hard she denied it.

After Shinimi got freshly washed, her mother called her to come down stairs. Shinimi silently prayed for something good to happen to her, and that she would not screw this up…

When she came back to the tea-room, she saw an old woman sitting on a cushion, who rose when she saw her as if she was startled to even see her. Mrs. Sasaki, which Shinimi assumed, sat beside her mother and she had her eyes fixed firmly onto Shinimi.

"Her eyes…they speak something alien," She murmured for a moment, but then, clearing her thoughts, she came down to sit back, but her eyes never left her. She was old and cranky-looking, white hair sat like thin wires on her head and she wore a stiff blue and pink kimono.

Seeing the response, Shinimi felt instant anger boiling in her. The several years of storing depression and rejection was slowly starting to convert into rage, but she held that down too, even when it was incredibly eager to burst out to life. Shinimi stared at her, not moving. Her mother looked worried for a moment, but she bravely spoke up.

"Would you like some green tea, Mrs. Sasaki?"

The old woman nodded politely at Mrs. Fujikage, and then she faced Shinimi.

"What is your name, child?" She asked, her voice stern like steel yet weary.

"I'm Shinimi Fujikage," Shinimi muttered. The old woman's fatigued eyes widened.

"Hmm…her name is death," She replied, as if disgusted by her name. A moment's silence and her mother shot a hot glare at Shinimi and slapped her at the back of her head.

"Respect your elders!" She snapped and Shinimi gave Mrs. Sasaki a small bow, to which Mrs. Sasaki responded with a nod. Then she gave out the biggest sigh she'd given yet, and began to pick with one hand at a crusty patch on her neck. Shinimi wanted to look away, but her eyes were fixed on her own.

"Hmm, you're the year of the monkey. I can tell…Twelve, white…you're the planet Venus…Such unusual eyes! So dark and dinted-looking! No colour but black…No colour of an irises, but the pupils …come closer,"

Shinimi saw the burning glare her mother gave out from behind the kitchen door and she stepped towards the old woman as Mrs. Sasaki stood up. Mrs. Sasaki began to examine her face, not only with her eyes but with her fingertips. She spent a long while checking Shinimi's nose from different angles, and her ears. She pinched the lobes several times and stroked and bent the tip of her pointed ear for another long while. She then gave out a grunt to indicate she was done with Shinimi.

"Hmm," She faced her mother. "May I examine her body?"

Shinimi felt her heart stop but her mother replied.

"Yes, you may."

Closing the curtains around the room, Shinimi began to feel her blood pumping hard inside of her chest. Her mother closed the kitchen door behind her and stood there, watching. Shinimi watched carefully as the old woman examined her arms. She snatched her hand suddenly, surprising Shinimi. "My, my! You paint your fingernails black? Disgusting! And they are claws, just like a hawk!"

"Actually, they were already like that," Shinimi was surprised herself of her dark reply and naturally she snatched her hand back. That was when the old woman pinched her ears hard, just like her mother. She cried out. "Leave my ears alone!" The old woman suddenly stared at her and this time; Shinimi saw the burning fire of anger in them. She judged her wrongly as a sweet old woman. Mrs. Sasaki examined Shinimi's hands again, and then her hair.

"Such attractive hair," She replied. "It's like Saiyan hair…"

"She must have got that from her father," Mrs. Fujikage said from the door. "He is a Saiyan,"

"Interesting," She soon untied the shirt Shinimi was wearing and removed it. Shinimi's eyes stared in horror at her mother, who stood there, leaning on the doorjambs, arms folded, looking rather happy with what she was seeing. Mrs. Sasaki's cold hands ran along Shinimi's bare back, as if unbelieving that she had flesh-coloured skin. She hummed, rubbing her bony knuckles against her spine. Shinimi gritted her teeth and as the old woman stood in front of her, her interest grew somewhat more then ever before. Her eyes widened, fascinated. "Your teeth," She pinched Shinimi's jaw and opened them. She examined her mouth and her pupils dinted in horror. "Her teeth! Sharp as a knife!" Still holding Shinimi's mouth open as if she was a lion, she looked over her shoulders. "Mrs. Fujikage, please look at her mouth. Her tongue is extraordinary!"

Her mother walked towards the old woman and gazed down Shinimi's mouth like staring at art in a museum.

"Her tongue…" Her mother said silently, taken back. She stepped away from the plagued child. "It's a purplish-blue colour!" The old woman nodded at her mother's reply of horror.

"Interesting, and her teeth are jagged, like a tiger's jaw!"

Embarrassed enough, Shinimi pulled away and covered her mouth with her hand, giving the old woman and her wrecking mother a hot glare.

"Behave!" Her mother snarled and Shinimi stood there, her jaw tightened in rage as Mrs. Sasaki examined under her arms, and then began to move her bosoms around a bit. Shinimi clenched her hands into fists, wishing this would be over. As if Mrs. Sasaki hasn't done enough, she suddenly yanked Shinimi's pants to the floor, looked up and down, and faced her mother. Shinimi had had enough!

As Mrs. Sasaki turned to her mother, Shinimi pulled her pants back up. This certainly caught the old woman's attention, as well as her mother's.

"Excuse me, please step out of your pants," Mrs. Sasaki shot at her like an old teacher.

"No!" Came the hot reply. Her mother gave her a face painted with rage and disgust, as well as the old hag. "Leave me alone!" Shinimi's anger flowed so fluidly inside of her, it felt natural, and so more ammunition stored inside of her were ready to burst out of her.

"I have not finished, child!"

"I have a name you know, Witch of hell!" Shinimi snapped back.

"Shinimi!" Her mother screamed, her voice filled with anger.

"Leave me alone! You are not getting anything out of me! As if I don't feel bad enough as it is!" Shinimi burst out. The old woman growled irritably at her, a face a cross between an old woman and a pissed-off blowfish. Shinimi pointed an accusing finger at Mrs. Sasaki. "You better leave me alone now. I want nothing to do with you!"

"This is the reason why you have no friends, child!" Her mother snapped back at her, cutting Shinimi's courage right down. Friends…something Shinimi never had. Everyone feared her, as if she was a monster and no one wanted to be her friend. Her mother had her ways of rubbing hurtful things onto her. She was always blamed for everything, and this was the worse thing she has said…

"You must be a child of Satan himself!" The old hag croaked in fear as if it was the end of the world. Shinimi burst out laughing, scornfully.

"Go burn in hell!" Shinimi yelled back at her.

Her mother charged towards her, her face only inches away from Shinimi's, and she could feel her mother's infuriated breath.

"You better apologise to Mrs. Sasaki as well as me, child!" Her mother saw a response she has never been given by Shinimi in her life. Instead of doing what she was told, Shinimi grinned darkly, a sharp grin that was filled with fanged teeth. Her eyes stared back at her.

"No!" She hissed, but then she was interrupted when a sharp, violent snap of pain swiftly slapped at her face. Shinimi then noticed that her own mother slapped her, hard, across the face. Shinimi felt numb at first and she stood there startled, but soon tears of ache burned at the back of her eyes painfully and her throat tightened. She was staring at the woman who was supposed to love her, to protect her and to take care of her. But she was officially facing the eyes of her first enemy. Her mother, Mrs. Fujikage, always have been manipulative, and never treated Shinimi with the same respect and love she demanded from Shinimi. How did her father ever fell in love with a beast such as Mrs. Fujikage? She hated the children in her village since she was about ten…they have mistreated her and she envied the families they have, the homes they live, the money they own, the possessions they have and the love and respect they have from the creators. She wanted a perfect body and she wanted a perfect soul, but she knew she was different since she first looked at a mirror. Her mother's narrow dark-blue eyes contrasted with Shinimi's dark, dinted pupils.

Her mother sighed angrily and suddenly, Shinimi felt as if she was the blame again for being angry and unable to hold it any longer.

"Get back into your clothes!" her mother snarled heartlessly. Shinimi knew the reason why. Mrs. Sasaki was almost in tears to see Shinimi's reaction like a small child. Mrs. Fujikage came to comfort Mrs. Sasaki as Shinimi took her shirt from the floor slowly. "I'm terribly sorry, Mrs. Sasaki, but I have warned you how much of a selfish, evil bitch Shinimi is," Those words coming out of her mother finally made the cogs in her feet gear up. Without thinking, Shinimi turned onto the balls of her feet while sobbing and rushed towards the door. Her mother called after her and she was deeply tempted to stop by her command, but she urged herself to be free, urged herself to run as fast as she can. She was the fastest runner in the village, so she only replied her mother with a sob and hurried down the same dirt path, pushing everyone who was in her way away from her, hating everything and everyone…

…she wanted to get away from anything and everything…

She could hear her mother screaming her name in a voice of fury and rage, but Shinimi just remembered why she was hurt and she sprinted into the forest.