Ichiro lumbers down the steps of the Lin Kuei temple. Having just spoken to the Grandmaster. His brother waits at the bottom, practicing his martial arts, his hands flowing like water, his feet dropping from one end of him to the other. "And what did he say?" Niro asked.
"Nothing." Ichiro responded, "Just to congratulate me." He sat down on the steps.
"The Shirai Ryu have not retaliated, you think Hiroshi possibly might not have been in league with them?" As he spoke his moves became rougher more precise.
"I shudder to think… Considering." Ichiro glances through the glare of the sun between the clouds. "Is this you saying I told you so?"
"No." Niro said firmly, striking forward.
"You are a very stubborn man, my brother." Ichiro said standing.
"It runs in the family." Niro said. His serious face cracked a smirk as he continued to train, turning his back on his brother.
Ichiro closed his fist around air, and a blue aura formed through it, then he flung his hand forward. The snowball struck Niro in the back. Who turned to find his brother tossing another snowball into the air, catching it repeatedly, as if it were hard as stone.
"Is that how it is?" Niro said.
His brother smiled. "Uh-huh." He flung the snowball forward and Niro spun, his hand cutting diagonally across the air, by the time the move was finished, Niro had cut the ball in half – shattering it - with a sword of ice.
"You've gotten better." Ichiro said.
"I've been practicing." That's not all, he said holding up his hand. "Watch." His arms outstretched he breathed in slowly, and everything from his fingertips to his elbows turned a transparent blue, like glass, a wealth of steam rolling off of them. When he breathed out again they morphed back to their original state.
"What was that?" Ichiro asked, intrigued and impressed.
"I don't know. But it's getting stronger. - Enough time goes by, I fear I will be unable to control it."
A soft whip, as an arrow struck Niro in the back. He collapsed over his brother, who tried his best to hold him. Ichiro cupped Niro's head placing it gently against the snow. "SHIRAI RYU!" he screamed. As other Lin Kuei warriors spilled out of the temple. "Take my brother." He said to two of them, taking up the fallen sword. They pulled his brother up to the temple entrance.
Ichiro walked in the direction the arrow had come from, standing defiantly out in the open. He held the sword at his side, looking into the trees. His eyes rose horizontally scanning them from bottom left to upper right for any sign of enemies. "Are you on the ground? In the trees!" He screamed. "Where are you!" An arrow zoomed out of the woods toward his chest, he stuck it down with his weapon. "Cowards! You stabbed my brother in the back! I stand here, in the open as he did… I extend to you an offer, in all my hatred, the undeserved honor to face me like a man! Accept this honor or I swear by God I will wipe your clan from the face of this earth!"
A barrage of arrows exited the woods – at least ten of them. Ichiro spread his arms out quickly, and a wall of ice blocked each arrow before it could reach him.
"So be it."
Twenty five Lin Kuei warriors stormed the battlefield. The Shirai Ryu exited the woods, charging at them.
The field was strangely silent. There were not hoards of screaming men, voices echoing across canyons, only the individual and soft sound of footsteps crunching against snow.
One of the Shirai Ryu had his bow drawn as he ran, he released the string and the arrow between his fingertips shot straight for Ichiro, who rolled out of the way, an Ice figure of him shattered by the arrowhead. Ichiro flung his sword and it struck the warrior in the chest digging deep enough to pierce through to the other end. Ichi charged at him grabbing the sword by the handle, he drove him forward pushing the sword deeper until it struck the man behind Ichiro's victim. Knocking both men over he drove the sword in until he felt it touch the ground.
Heading on, the warrior in front of Ichi swung a spearhead on a rope towards him; almost like a grappling hook, it cut lightly through the left side of his left hand at the wrist below his pinky finger. The rope twirled around his wrist, tightening up. Ichiro stumbled forward as the warrior pulled at him. This warrior, using one hand to wrap the rope around the other arm brought Sub-Zero as close as he could, before drawing his blade.
A katana cut across where Ichi's neck would have been if he hadn't ducked. He wrapped his roped arm around the Ryu soldier's arm just under the shoulder locking away the katana. The soldier reached into his belt pulling some throwing knives nestled between his fingers. He jammed them into Ichiro's neck, jaw, and shoulder blades.
Ichi collapsed to his knees as the blood flowed across his right side. Around him the Lin Kuei were losing the battle. The two training houses had been raided, and many of the Lin Kuei warriors inside killed. The temple itself remained untouched. But the boy's quarters had been burnt to the ground by a force that had come up the other side of the mountain.
Ichiro reached up as his enemy's sword was raised above his head, it came down, temperatures lowered to the point that the katana broke like glass when it struck Ichiro's arms, shattering the rope around his wrist. Ichi stood, clasping his hands around the warrior's neck. His powers were not infinite, their extended use, and his blood loss during the battle had begun to weaken them. He poured all his energy into killing the man. His hands were cold as ice, transferring that energy to the man's throat.
He thought about how he would watch as the frost closed around the man's eyeball. How he would get revenge for what happened to his brother. He would close both fists together and watching this warrior's head shatter in front of him. He groaned like a raging animal, breath hissing from between his teeth.
"HANZO!" Ichiro heard one of the Ryu cry behind him.
Instead of frost closing around the man's eye, Ichi watched as blood poured into his whites around the pupil. Convinced, rightfully, that he was the only Lin Kuei warrior left on the battlefield, and that his powers weren't working fast enough. He pushed the warrior down into the snow, they both reached for the broken sword, the jagged edge still sharp.
Ichi's hand grasped the sword, he held it high above his head - WHAM
A jagged stone struck him from behind.
"Hibiki..." Hanzo said grasping his neck. "You - you saved my life."
Hibiki took the Lin Kuei warrior by the scruff of the collar tossing him down into the snow, he was conscious but weak.
"You fought with honor." Hibiki told him. "What is your name and title clansmen? That I may praise you and my victory after your death."
"My name is Ichiro, a master of this temple... - I have no surname... You killed - " he strained in his weakened state, "my brother."
"What's with the rock?" Hanzo asked.
"I lost my blades in the battle." Hibiki said. He held out his arm "Give me a sword!" he roared into the battlefield.
As a Ryu stepped forward to offer his sword to Hibiki, Hanzo stopped him. "No." Hibiki looked offended. "I'm sorry," Hanzo said, "These training grounds have been all but wiped out. The temple may be intact but the victory is ours. Now as you said he fought honorably, and lost - yet I have no blade - and you have no blade - it's fate. This man is meant to live."
"Kill me so that I may die with honor!" Ichiro screamed from his icy grave.
Hibiki's breath blew out in front of him. "It's cold out here." he said quietly. "Hasashi, you are frequently right. You fought this man, I will respect your wishes and spare his life. We need not be barbaric." Hibiki went along to signal his men.
"I killed your man inside the temple." Ichiro offered. "I murdered the Shirai Ryu spy. - Hiroshi! He confessed as much to me before I sliced off his head."
Hibiki went back, kneeling down, getting into Ichiro's face, he spoke barely above a whisper. "I know not what this... Hiroshi said to you before his death. But I can promise you he was not sent by us."
Sub-Zero raising his head as best he could, while Hibiki walked away; "You knew the location of the Lin Kuei temple!" Ichiro said in confusion. "He gave it to you!"
"We had to search for it." he said nonchalantly. "Should we take him prisoner?" He asked Hanzo.
"No, leave him. I'd like to get back to my family as soon as possible. Besides why spare him and take him prisoner? The people of the village would just have him executed. - If he doesn't die here we'll give him a chance to mourn the loss of his brother. I'd want at least as much if it were my family."
The two men as well as the other surviving Shirai Ryu from the battle made their way towards the mountain pass, behind them Ichiro screamed "I swear to you letting me live will be your end! I will take vengeance for my brother!..." His screams continued, loud, fierce determined. "A storm is coming!" He laughed heartily which morphed into a violent cough, "you can't make it through the pass alive! You hear me! You're all DEAD!"