Disclaimer-I only own Pànduàn, his family, his homeland, Kirshun, and the Odigan Rebels.
Warriors Orochi: Dragon of Judgment
Chapter 7-Recovery
Himiko sat in a char besides Pànduàn's bed in He Fei Castle. He had been asleep since the day before, after his fight with the Souless One, Kirshun. Himiko let a few tears drop. She was there and didn't do anything about the duel until it was too late. Pànduàn had been seriously hurt and she didn't stop it. She felt very useless and weak by that point. She couldn't help remember just what happened every time she looked at Pànduàn's silent face.
Flashback
Kirshun's polearm struck Pànduàn's risen blade with such force that the earth around him cracked and indented everywhere within fifteen feet from where Pànduàn was standing and every soldier within thirty yards was knocked off their feet and onto the ground. Himiko was one of those people. Himiko was practically knocked out, but she remain conscious enough to see that after a couple of seconds, Pànduàn's legs giving out and him collapsing on his knees. Kirshun brought up his hand and bashed the back of Pànduàn's head, knocking him unconscious.
This was because at that moment, something inside Himiko snapped. She raised not two, but four of her Goddesses of Light and fired a flurry of energy attacks at Kirshun. He was unprepared for the assault and was pushed back quite a distance. She managed to reach Pànduàn and was dragging him towards the gate. One of the Rebels charged at the vulnerable Himiko but was stopped by, surprisingly, Kirshun.
"No," he commanded. "Leave them be. We must replenish our forces. FALL BACK!"
At his commanded, all the Rebels immediately charged back into the forest until no one but Wu soldiers was left. The gates of He Fei opened and many men rushed to help Himiko drag Pànduàn back to his room.
She heard the door open but she didn't even turn around. She heard footsteps behind her but she didn't turn around. She felt two hands on her shoulders but she still didn't turn around. Then she heard Da Qiao's voice, "Are you okay, Himiko?"
Himiko sniffed, "Y-yes."
"Don't lie to me. I know your upset."
Himiko planted her face into her hands and began to cry, "It was my fault. I was there with him! I should've helped him! He wouldn't be this way now if I had stepped in!"
"But how much good would that have done?" They all looked towards a new voice at the door and saw Sun Ce standing there. Himiko grew an angry look in her face; her eyes red and swollen from crying, "What do you mean by that? I forced Kirshun back!"
"Yeah," Sun Ce said slightly annoyed. "But was he focusing his full attention on you or on Pànduàn?"
Himiko continued to glare at the young prince, but she knew he was right. Slowly, she turned her head back towards the sound, seemingly-lifeless body of the young lord of Cūnzhǔ. Da Qiao sighed, "Himiko...if you had attack Kirshun while those two were still fighting, or even worse, attacked when his attention was actually on you...you would probably be in even worse shape than Pànduàn is right now."
Himiko sighed and knew that was also true. She had no idea of Kirshun's true power but it appears that last time those two clashed they leveled Pànduàn's home village. But a thought struck her.
"Wait a minute."
"What is it?" Sun Ce asked cocking his eyebrow.
"Didn't Pànduàn say that the last time he fought Kirshun he leveled his home village?"
"Yeah? What of it?"
"Well, wasn't Pànduàn's village destroyed along with his family sixteen years ago? You know...when he was only five years old?"
Sun Ce and Da Qiao suddenly went wide-eyed and looked at eachother. Neither on had thought much on what Pànduàn had told them about his past but this...this didn't add up. How could a five year old supposedly kill a man who sold his soul for power enough to destroy his family? It wasn't possible...was it? Sun Ce lightly grabbed his chin and began to pace back and forth within the room. He was thinking hard about this information, "I doubt Pànduàn would lie to us but still this doesn't add up, but as long as he doesn't know how he survived that day there's no point in asking him. But how could a five year old Pànduàn defeat a Souless Demon like Kirshun?"
Although she never said it, the two royalty of Wu knew what Himiko had meant by pointing this out; there was more to this warrior of Cūnzhǔ than what met the eye.
Kirshun looked out over the castle of He Fei to his west. The mountains had given him a good view of the valley this castle was in which should have given him an advantage in his last attack. But someone was there he never expected to be.
"Pànduàn Shén," Kirshun half growled, half mumbled under his breath. Indeed, Kirshun hadn't expected the young warrior heir to what was left of Cūnzhǔ to have been a defender of He Fei along with that strange girl he was with. He despised the Pànduàn family, but held a grudging respect towards their last descendant Shén. After all, when he was only five he did defeat him. How could Kirshun ever forget what type of power that boy had bottled up within him?
Flashback
Burning, burning, burning.
That is what was happening to the house of the Cūnzhǔ Ruling Family. Kirshun, having sold his soul for power, had just slain Pànduàn Línghún, Shēnghuó Xīwàng*, and Pànduàn Huǒyàn**. Now it was on to the final member of the Pànduàn Family, Pànduàn Shén. It turned to his right to see the five year old heir to the Pànduàn family; the boy was crying over the butchered body of his dead mother. He expected this boy to be easy prey, to be fearful and terrified of his might.
But that isn't what he got.
When footsteps reached his ears, the young Pànduàn boy stood up and faced Kirshun, an enraged look on his face. This surprised Kirshun. A five year old brat thinking he could defeat the souless master of the Odigan Raiders? Unthinkable. A devilish grin grew under Kirshun's masked mouth; an evil glint crept onto his eye. He was unfazed by this boys sudden aggresiveness. He approached the seemingly helpless boy.
"Stay back..." the boy said in the surprisingly perfect language of an adult. This stopped Kirshun in his tracks. He had heard that this boy was supposedly a lot more advanced for his young age but this was far beyond expectance.
"You killed them..." the boy Pànduàn said, snarling his teeth. "You killed my family."
Kirshun narrowed his eyes; something was right here.
"YOU KILLED THEM!" young Pànduàn shouted and what happened next surprised Kirshun and even...terrified him.
A fiery blue aura suddenly erupted around Pànduàn's body. A strong...unbelievably strong magical power eminated from Pànduàn's body. Kirshun raised his in front of him; enough to block most of the light but also to allow him to still see his 'opponent'. Kirshun couldn't believe the power of sorcery coming from the boy. The ground itself was cracking heavily from such a realise of power.
"I've never seen such a display of power," Kirshun thought. "The only other being that could possibly unleash this type of energy would be...no, it couldn't be!"
Kirshun then heard a clanking noise coming from beside him. He swiftly looked down to see his sword, the Black Phantom, sliding out of it scabbard and suddenly throwing itself in the young Pànduàn's direction, who caught it with any difficulty. The boy had a murderous look in his eye. Kirshun almost conisdered retreating, but he turned toward the body of the fallen lord of the Pànduàn family, Pànduàn Línghún, and grabbed the polearm used by the fallen man, Juggernaut. It was now two warriors using eachother's weapons in a duel. Kirshun couldn't believe it; he was fighting a five year old kid with the power of a Master. How was it possible?
With a great battle cry, the boy Pànduàn charged Kirshun. The duel had begun.
"That boy is blessed," Kirshun thought. "Right after that he was taken in by Master Zhìhuì Fǎshī."
He again looked out over the valley and stared straight at He Fei Castle Keep and frowned, "Lord Shén, no matter how powerful you may have become under Master Fǎshī, no matter what type of hidden powers you have, I will kill you and the Pànduàn line will by wiped from the face of this cursed world!"
It wasn't until early the following day that Pànduàn slowly opened his eyes. He was unsure of what hit him; he had a pounding headache.
"Man, what happe-...oh, yeah, Kirshun."
He tried to raise his upper body up but something was on his chest prevented him from doing so. He looked down his body and saw Himiko sleeping from a chair using his chest as a pillow. This surprised Pànduàn more than anything, "Was she watching me the entire time while I was out."
Pànduàn took this time to get a closer look at the young shaman's face. Sure he had seen her face numerous time during her traveling with him, but her face was never this close to his own. And since it would probably be awhile before she awoke, he might as well take in more details than before. The first real thing that caught his eye was right below her left eye: the yang and the yin symbol right next to eachother, pratically touching. She still wore her red band around her head with a bow in the back and the two ends going down the back of either shoulder. A white design was also on the ends of this band. Her raven black hair covered the top part of her head all the way down to the top of her eyes. This part of her hair was seperated into broad stripe-like strands that covered various parts of her forehead which all varied in size. Traveling up to the top of her head she could see the gold, crown-like object she wore on her head that was shaped like one half of a star with seven points but at the tips were diamond-shaped. Her black hair also made seven broad line sticking out from behind the gold headpiece, each broad hair line corresponded with the diamond-like point of the headpiece.
"Now that I take a good look at her face, she looks kind of cute," Pànduàn smiled but soon realized what he had just thought. "Wait, wha-?"
He didn't have time to finish his thought as he saw Himiko's eyes slowly opened. When she saw what her face was looking at her eyes grew wide and she quickly got sat up straight.
"Ah! Pànduàn! I'm sorry! I was waiting for you to recover but I guess I got tired and-..."
She snapped out of her worried state and looked quickly at Pànduàn, realizing that he was actually awake.
"P-Pànduàn...?" she asked hopefully.
"Hey Himiko," Pànduàn smiled.
Himiko's reaction wasn't what Pànduàn expected as she suddenly threw herself onto him and held him tight. "Pànduàn! Your awake!"
Pànduàn was speechless, "She's startled and worried what I might think when she found herself sleeping on my chest, yet she's completely unashamed of grabbing onto me like this? Heh, she's interesting alright."
She extended her arms so she could look into Pànduàn's face more easily. Pànduàn could tell she wasn't just happy he was awake, she was relieved as well.
"Come on!" she said. "Hurry up and get ready! Lord Sun Ce is probably wondering if your awake or not! I'll wait for you outside!"
She jumped off the bed and out of the room so he could get ready. Pànduàn smiled to himself, "Yes, very very interesting."
And with that he got up and readied himself for his meeting with Sun Ce.
Pànduàn and Himiko slowly made their way through the keep and into the war room where all the officers were discussing the defense of He Fei. They immediately looked up when the two entered the room; all with smiles on their faces.
"Glad to see your up," Sun Ce said."
"Hah, it'll take more than Kirshun and his ilk to get rid of me," Pànduàn smiled. "Now let us get down to business shall we?"
Sun Ce noded as Pànduàn and Himiko took their seats next to the young heir of Wu.
*Shēnghuó Xīwàng is Pànduàn's mother. She was murdered along with her husband and second child by Kirshun.
**Pànduàn Huǒyàn was Pànduàn younger brother, who was killed by Kirshun by the same attack that butchered his mother. He was only two years old.
Well, here's a little more look into Pànduàn's past and his relationship with Himiko grows ever closer. I wonder what Kirshun's next move'll be?
And here are the current results of the poll:
3-Naruto
2-Negima!
2-Inuyasha
2-Samurai Champloo
1-Bleach
1-Fullmetal Alchemist
1-Oh! Edo Rocket!
Hurry and send in your votes! This'll only be up for one more chapter!
~Teddypro