Freedom Samurai
New and old characters, new cities, new sorrow, and a new Hukari. But all have one goal; to kill Rau. SEQUEL TO STRIKE SAMURAI you must read Strike Samurai before reading this story. KiraxLacus AthrunxCagalli ShinnxStellar MwuxMurrue DearkaxMiriallia YzakxRaine NicolxSparrowxMeyrin AndyxAisha
Disclaimer:
Me: Hi everybody!
Olivia: Sorry bout the late update, but we've been working on other fics, and reading a lot!
Alex: Not to mention we've been busy…
Chelsea: CURSE YOU MATH!
Me: Yea…Well triangles and surface area aren't exactly my strong point, but oh well!
Olivia: Enough of your life story! On with the show!
Me: And Zordon, Lacus plays a key part in the sequel to Freedom Samurai!
Alex: SILENCE HER! SHE'LL REVEAL TOO MUCH OF OUR SEQUEL!
Me: Mikomi and Mirakuru would never…
Olivia: (Pounces on Sam)
Chelsea: Now Sam, how many times must we tell you? No rattling off about secret projects.
Me: (Muffled objections)
Chapter 10 Fall (Lost Dream) Part 2
Staring into her eyes, Dearka smiled. "If you're positive." The princess nodded her head and the man sighed. She reminded him so much of her. Miriallia noticed Dearka staring into her eyes and blushed slightly. "Well, we should help Kira with planning our journey. We have a library with maps and scrolls explaining terrain and which path we should take." Dearka snapped out of his reverie and shrugged. "Whatever, I'm really just traveling with them. I don't really care where we go." Miriallia sighed, "So if they took you to a lava spouting volcano, what would you do?" She asked with mock in her voice. The tan skinned ninja laughed, "High tail it right out of there." The auburn haired woman knew what he said was supposed to mock her own question, and she smiled. "All right then." An awkward silence ensued them both for a few moments before Dearka coughed into his hand. "We should get back to your parents and explain all this." Miriallia nodded with an embarrassed flush on her face. "Right."
The two walked from the hallway back to the dining hall where an angered royal couple stood, and an anxious samurai gang waited. Dearka made eye contact with Kira and grinned. Kira nodded with a smile and turned to the Emperor and empress. "Your daughter will be in good hands," the emperor glared at the brunette, but a thought seemed to strike him and he smirked. "Fine. We give you our blessing to take our daughter." Before any more words were exchanged, the man dragged his wife out of the room. The woman glared daggers at her husband and made him stop once they were out of ear shot of the dining hall. "What do you think you're doing?" The emperor smirked at his wife with a dark look in his eyes. "This just may be the way to get rid of the Phoenix. She may have been saved from your curse, but she won't be able to defend herself against my shadow swordsmen." The woman widened her eyes and chuckled. "A very good plan Mukiro. We'll finally complete our task, to destroy the last descendent of the Jeweled Phoenix." If you had happened to be in the hallway the two royals occupied, you would have seen their auburn hair turn black and their hazel eyes darken.
Kira rose from his seat when he'd seen everyone was finished eating and he took charge. "All right, we leave at noon, so we have to get ready now. Lacus, Shinn, Miriallia, and myself will over see the travel route. Athrun, you and Yzak will make sure our supplies are replenished. And Stellar, you can look after Mizu and Kitsu." Everyone nodded and set off to do their assigned tasks, but Dearka realized he had nothing to do. "Kira, what do you need me to do?" Kira turned to him and shrugged. "Take a break, you deserve one. You wanted to help the princess, and you saved her life. Just relax." The blonde stared after the younger man as he hurried to catch up to the others, or Lacus it so seemed. "He so got laid." The blonde man concluded before turning on his heel and making his merry way to the gardens.
His feet seemed to lead him towards a large tree that seemed to grow in the dead center of the garden. And for some Reason, Dearka felt most calmed here. Sitting down with his back to the tree, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Falling asleep was easy in this serene place, almost as if a spell was weaving its way around him. Dearka relaxed and allowed himself to fall to the darkness of slumber.
A young boy, maybe nine or ten, was running towards a large field, his violet eyes large and innocent looking. He had tan skin that seemed to match the dusty ground as he ran across it bare foot. His golden hair was messy and seemed to be the same beautiful golden colour of the waves of wheat grown in these fields.
Running to the tallest wheat field, he ducked into the tall wheat stalks that were at least a foot taller than him. Though any other child would probably become lost in an instant, the young boy knew exactly where to go. He soon came to a very small clearing in the center of the field where a large tree grew. A young girl about the same age as him was sitting up on a limb, dangling her bare feet over the edge. Her aqua eyes smiled at him and he laughed when he saw what she was wearing. "You got stuck in those?" The little girl huffed at the boy's laughter and crossed her arms over her chest.
She was wearing a red sash-shirt that tied into a bow on her back. Around her waist, she wore a brown leather belt with golden bangles struck into it. Her pants were see through from the knees down and were a light orange color. She also had see-through added sleeves that started a few inches above her elbows and down to her wrists coloured light orange. Around her ankles, she wore one golden bracelet each.
The girl watched the boy climb up the tree quickly and sit next to her. "I could still whoop you!" The boy laughed, "Sure you could! I don't doubt you for a minute," The girl smiled and swung her feet slowly. The boy did the same. For a few moments, they just swung their feet in a comfortable silence, watching each other's feet swing simultaneously with the other's. Her soft peach skin, tanned and dusty from the sun and dirt roads contrasting with his natural tanned feet that were caked in dust. Without thinking, the boy's hand slowly inched towards hers that was closest to him and grasped it tightly. Smiling, the girl leaned her head on his shoulder, her short auburn hair grazing his cheek.
After a few moments, the girl sat up and prepared to jump down from the limb. "Hey, Uindo-chan, let's go to the river bank!" The boy smiled, "Whatever you say Hinote-chan." he replied back and followed her when she jumped down. The two took off through the field and back onto the road.
They walked at a leisurely pace towards the river, telling jokes and stories on the way. "And I told her a snake had slithered into the room!" The boy cried with a large laugh. The girl giggled and smiled at him. "You really are funny, you know that Uindo-chan?" the girl asked when they stopped at the bank of the river. The boy smirked, "Of course I do!" The girl smiled shyly and reached her hand over to him and grabbed his own hand. The boy looked at her in surprise and she looked back into his violet eyes with her aqua orbs with a strawberry red blush on her cheeks.
A green glow around the boys hands caused the girl to let go of his hand and watch amazed as the boy brought his hands in front of him to observe what was happening. "Uindo-chan, what is that?" she asked breathlessly. The boy smiled, "I dunno, but it's amazing!" he replied happily as small breezes began to blow around them. Looking back at the girl, he smiled. "It's the Crystal Swallow! My mother told me I might have it, but she could never find it in me!" The girl looked over his shoulder into his hands where small whirlwinds were forming and dancing in his palms.
"Do you think I have the Jeweled Phoenix?" she asked hopefully. He turned to her, "If I've got the Crystal Swallow, you have to have the Jeweled Phoenix." She smiled, and reached her hand out to touch one of the small whirl winds in his hand. But when her finger touched one, a soft red spark jumped, and the whirl wind became a vortex of flames. "Kuso!" the boy cried in surprise, getting a gasp out of his friend. "You shouldn't say words like that!" the girl shouted sternly. The boy leaned over and stuck his hand in the water, dispersing the whirlwinds and green glow. Looking back at her, he had an uncertain look on his face, "I really don't think we should tell anybody about that," he added with a grin. The girl just shook her head with a smile on her face.
The scene seemed to switch to night, but instead of a peaceful, quiet twilight, flames and destruction laid over a town. Flames seemed to spread over every surface that had not yet become charred. People screamed and ran around in fright, terror, and uncertainty. Among one of the houses, a young boy was trapped in a corner.
The violet eyed boy's eyes were wide in fright, and he didn't know how he was going to escape his burning home. Flames cackled and a wooden beam over head fell, too close to him for his liking. He began to couch and fell to his knees when he felt as though he couldn't breathe. Trembling, the boy let a tear fall from his eye. He was going to die. But then the image of his friend, the aqua eyed, auburn haired girl her knew so well.
The familiar green glow surrounded him and he looked up towards the flames, frowning. His eyes began to glow green, and a great gust of freezing cold wind blew past him and through the flames, making them disperse and die down. The boy then got up and ran out of his destroyed home to find soldiers in samurai armor displaying the royal insignia of the Martius Region Empire slaying the villagers. What scared him most was when he saw his mother trying to battle three soldiers. Her eyes were glowing light green and her arms had glowing light green markings etched on her skin. For a moment, the boy thought he saw the wind, with shimmers of green in the shape of a flying swallow aiming towards the soldiers.
He smiled thankfully when the three men fell and his mother took a deep breath. He ran to her, smiling. "Okaa-san!" he cried and ran into her chest. She smiled at him and her blonde hair framing her face blew softly as tears slipped down her tan cheeks. She embraced him tightly and whispered his name in his ear. But when he looked up, the boy saw a soldier behind them raise his sword. "Okaa-san!" he screamed, but it was too late.
A scream pierced the boy's ears as the steel collided with his mother's back. Blood automatically sprayed from her lips and her eyes lost the green glow and returned to their violet shade. The light green glow disappeared and left behind small shimmers of green in the air above his mother's body. "Okaa-san!" he called and kneeled in front of his mother.
Looking up with anger and hatred, the young boy's eyes began to glow light green, and the shimmers floating above his mother's body awakened, sending bright green light all around them, and then flowing into the boy's body. He gave a small cry of pain when the green light entered his body, but then he became accustomed to it, and his body took over.
The boy, seemingly under a spell, reached out a hand at the soldier wielding the bloody sword, and sent a forceful wind towards him. The wind seemed to be laced with different elements, and they boy felt himself slipping. 'Is this what mother felt like?' he asked quietly. But before he knew what he was doing, he screamed, "Shoukyo Kaze!" The scream of pain from the soldier terrified the boy, and his eyes returned once again to violet and he fell backwards on his bum, using his hands to support him. He trembled as his eyes gazed at the scene before him.
Not only was the soldier dead, but their was nothing left but a skeleton and destroyed armor. And behind him, for quite a few feet, many other skeletons lay, with nothing but broken swords and destroyed armor on the ground. But the elimination wind was too late to save the people of his village. Their bodies lay undisturbed, even though they had been lying right next to the soldiers. Dearka then saw his mother's body. He felt the tears fall as he crawled over to her. He pulled her still warm hand to his cheek and said a quiet prayer. Looking down at her face, he bit his lip. Her eyes were open, but held no light in them. He reached out and closed her eye lids with his fingers gently, when he remembered: "Hinote-chan!"
Getting up, he cast a final, loving glance at his mother's body, and hurried off towards his friend's home. "Please be okay!" he cried into the night. he skittered away from burning buildings, sprinted past soldiers, and scampered over debris, never slowing as he drew ever nearer to his dear friend's home.
When he reached it, he was horrified to see the girl's parents lying dead at the feet of a soldier. From his armor, the boy knew this must be the general. But what made his eyes widen was the small form of his friend in the general's grip. She seemed to be unconscious, but her aqua eyes were opening slowly. "Hinote-chan!" the boy cried with tears streaming down his cheeks. The girl opened her eyes wide and looked down at the boy and smiled weakly, "Uindo-chan," she whispered weakly.
The general smirked down at the boy standing in front of him. "Why hasn't anybody killed this little brat yet?" One soldier hurried forward with his sword and was about to kill the boy, when light green light surrounded him and deflected the sword. "A Kaze Kabe…?" the boy asked himself quietly, but then felt the same powerful force in him stir. 'The Shoukyo Kaze? No! I can't use that again! I might hurt her,' he worried quietly. Instead, he reached his hands out like his mother had done, only not allowing much power to shoot from his palms; he pushed any soldiers close to him away from him and the general. Then, looking up at the man holding his friend in anger and hatred, he was about to send a wave of wind at him, but he felt someone grab him from behind.
"What?" he cried out in frustration. The general seemed to become tense, and the girl in his arms had begun to squirm and struggle. "Let go of me you baka-teme!" she screamed loudly. She tried thrashing her arms, kicking, and screaming, but the man wouldn't let go of the little brat. The boy had begun to struggle against his captor, and growled when he heard his captor's disgustingly calm voice. "Will you settle down now? I might get annoyed enough to kill you, you won't be any use to me then." The boy tried kicking the man restraining him in the danger zone, but the man's arm slid up to his throat and tightened his grip. The boy weakened quickly from the pain in his neck.
But then he felt as if the man was pulling him away from the soldiers and into the darkness, so he began struggling harder than before. The girl too saw her friend was disappearing, and reached out her hand in a gesture to hope he'd come back. "DEARKA!" she screamed hopelessly as he disappeared. Dearka looked towards her and shouted her name. She screamed his name again, and again. "Dearka! Come back! Dearka! Dearka!" she screamed.
"Dearka!"
"Dearka, WAKE UP!"
Opening his violet eyes quickly, Dearka deftly lifted a hand to his throat and felt the Crystal Swallow within him stirring in objection. But instead of seeing the collapsing desert town and his friend, he was looking into the eyes of Miriallia. "Miriallia?" he asked, a bit embarrassed as his adrenaline-pumped-blood began to slow down to a steady pace. The princess was looking at him with worry and lifted a hand to his fore head. "Are you all right? You were moaning in your sleep, and your fore head and palms are clammy," she asked worriedly. Dearka smiled, "Same symptoms after a nightmare. That's all," he added with a faraway look in his eyes.
Miriallia shook whatever thought she was thinking and smiled. "Well, we're ready for departure. So get off your bum and get moving!" she added in a playful tone. Dearka chuckled, "You shouldn't say words like that!" he stated with a laugh. Miriallia seemed to get a faraway look in her eyes when the line sounded familiar, but she rubbed it off and giggled. "We'd better get going, Yzak is having a 'leech' problem and he's not very happy right now." Dearka grinned, "Then I'll take my own sweet time." But none the less, he followed the princess towards the front gates of the palace.
Everyone looked ready to go, and true to Miriallia's word, Yzak did have a problem. Dearka and Miriallia smiled when they overheard his conversation with the little girl. The white eyed girl was having fun messing with Yzak's hair and asking odd questions, most of which he had no answer to. "Yak, why is your hair silver? I like it…" Kitsu told the man as she pet his hair. The man grumbled a curse and replied, "It's Y-ZAK! And my hair is silver because it was a dominant trait passed through my mother's genes into my own gene pool," but he stopped when he saw the others looking at him with funny expressions. "What? I did learn from quite a few scientific scholars from different countries when I was younger…" The other's gave him funny looks and Cagalli leaned over to Stellar and Lacus. "I didn't think he even knew the word scientific…" the two girls giggled softly, getting a glare from Yzak: who in turn received a death glare from Shinn, an evil eye from Athrun, and a You're-so-dead look from Kira.
Dearka and Miriallia reached the group and Kira smiled again, "Well, since we're all here, we'd better get going. We're going to trek through the Karasu Forest to reach Novemberus City. We should reach the city by night fall on the morrow or by day break in two days time." Shinn recognized the name of the forest, and grinned widely. Everyone nodded at Kira's orders, and followed him out of the palace main gate, and through the five stone walls that surrounded the estate.
Miriallia looked back once, but in distaste and disgust. Dearka realized her parents hadn't even bid her farewell. "Miriallia-" she looked towards him with a smile. "You can just call me Milly, didn't I tell you that already?" Dearka grinned sheepishly and turned serious once again. "Milly, are you upset your parents didn't say good bye?" The woman seemed perplexed by his question. "Upset? More like gracious, happy, joyful, all of those things! I am overjoyed to be out of there! You have no idea what it's like to live in a palace! All the rules, regulations, I'd rather be out in the fresh, dry air!" "You're tellin' me…" Shinn and Yzak mumbled quietly, but seemed to straighten up when they realized they'd said it aloud.
Dearka gave Yzak an odd glance, but turned back to the woman with aqua eyes. He noticed she was now staring at a large tree with a longing in her eyes. He recognized the look, and it scared him now that he noticed the similarities. 'Hinote-chan, Miriallia looks so much like her. She even has the same attitude towards rules like her. Hinote-chan,' he thought sadly. "Hinote-chan…" she mumbled, unknown to himself till it was too late. Milly looked towards him with bright eyes. "What did you say? she asked with a smile, she clearly hadn't exactly been listening. Dearka smiled weakly, "Nothing." Milly nodded uncertainly, and went back to viewing the outside scenery.
Two hours later, the group had found a lush cliff side overlooking the large Karasu Forest. Athrun decided it was time for a break since it was such a nice day, and Kira agreed reluctantly. No one was yet hungry, so they just took the time to be lazy and stand around, talk, whatever. Shinn was standing near the edge of the cliff and staring out at the forest, trying to find the lake in the horizon. Stellar was by his side and holding his hand. They seemed to be talking about something quietly.
Dearka was sitting against a tree while Milly sat up on a branch and swung her feet slowly, enjoy the empty feeling her feet felt up in the air. Dearka was staring at her, unknown by her of course, but the sound of something running through the forest atop the cliff they were skirting brought him to his ninja senses. A flicking sound, and then a whizzing whine no louder than the buzz of a fly caught his ear and he stood quickly and ran toward where Mizu stood before pulling the boy to the ground.
Everyone looked their way and were shocked to only see Dearka pull Mizu down to the ground. "Dearka, what are you doing?" Stellar shouted angrily as she started to run towards them, but stopped dead when a six bladed shuriken whizzed by her and hit the tree Mizu had been standing in front of. Dearka got up and helped the dazed boy up. He looked fiercely into the forest and narrowed his eyes. "What is that?" Kitsu asked as she suddenly popped up out of no where next to Athrun and tugged on his pant leg. Athrun followed her gaze towards a shadow that seemed to be growing closer to them. "Kira, we've got company!" The bluenette shouted out quickly before drawing Infinite Justice from its sheath and holding it out in front of him, ready for an attack.
Kira took action immediately and shouted out orders. "Stellar, Shinn, cover Mizu and Kitsu!" The two teens nodded and Stellar retrieved Mizu from Kitsu as Shinn drew his bow with an arrow ready in his fingers. Kira turned to lacus and told her calmly, "I want you to stay with Mizu and Kitsu," the woman nodded reluctantly. Cagalli drew out her Akatsuki and swung a practice swung before resting the blade on her shoulder. Yzak had drawn his sword from his katana and was ready to fight as well. This only left one person…Dearka widened his eyes and looked towards the tree he'd been leaning against. "Miriallia!" he shouted.
What surprised the group was when the princess jumped from the tree and then rushed into the forest. "Miriallia, wait!" The tan ninja called after her, but before he could go after her, the shadow that had been growing larger and closer stopped in front of them, and ninja began to rise from its depths. Dearka's eyes widened when at least thirty ninja stood surrounding them with swords drawn. Then the battle began.
(I don't feel like going into detail for time consuming purposes, so try to still enjoy the battle)
Swords clashed and blood spilled onto the ground. Kira had already taken out ten or more ninja and was cutting through them like butter. Athrun was speedily killing his opponents, but still received a few cuts on his arms from shuriken and kunai. Cagalli was taking out large numbers of them with few swings of her blade and didn't have to really exert herself against the weak opponents. Stellar and Shinn fired arrows at ninja that got too close to their friends, and rarely had to fire fast to avoid getting hit. One kunai cut through Stellar's arm though and she had to drop her bow and pull out her sword, Gaia. Shinn growled angrily at the ninja who'd hurt the girl, and pulled three arrows from his quiver and fired them at the ninja. Stellar smiled at him and said, "Arigato Shinn, but didn't you over do it a bit?"
Yzak was having difficulty for as soon as one struck him, another jumped in at one of his defenseless areas. He was constantly being barraged by ninja that just seemed to keep coming. He looked over and saw Dearka too had the same difficulty, but he seemed to want to follow the princess into the forest. Yzak's ice blue eyes widened when it dawned on him. The ninja were holding them off and not trying to attack but to hold up an offensive defense. The Hukari weren't the ninja's targets, the princess was!
Looking over to his friend, Yzak shouted, "Dearka,-Watch out!- We're not the targets! The princess is! The ninja are blocking our way to the forest!" The tan ninja widened his eyes in realization. Of course! The pieces began to fall into the puzzle, why the ninja were so weak and easy and why they seemed to cluster together! "You bastards!" he cried as he slashed through the chest of another ninja and ran towards the forest with five ninja running after him.
Yzak smirked to himself proudly, but was yanked back to reality when his blade was tossed from his hand after a ninja used their sword to cut his hand. It was shallow, but stung like hell. "You'll pay for that!" he shouted angrily and stuck his fingers in a pouch on his belt and withdrew them to reveal three shuriken: one on each of his index, middle, and ring fingers. He tossed them at the ninja who'd wounded him and they had to deflect the attack with the sword. But Yzak smirked at the opening and tripped the ninja after ducking under another's attack.
But before he could take a breath, another ninja jumped him and they fell to the ground. Punches, kicks, the two rumbled and tumbled with each other, slowly nearing the edge of the cliff. Before the ninja knew what was happening, Yzak had brought them up and pushed the ninja over the side of the cliff. But when he turned around to take a breath, he didn't notice the rocky outcrop he stood on crack and it crumbled away, causing him to fall. "Yzak! Mizu shouted as the silver haired man fell. But the boy sighed in relief when he saw Yzak's hands grab the edge of the cliff and Kira run over to him.
Yzak's left hand's fingers lost their grip and he had to let go. He felt his right hand slipping, and was about to let go when he felt another hand grab his. He looked up into Kira's relieved face. "Kira, thanks-" he began, but felt something grab his ankle. Looking down, he saw the ninja gripping his ankle and letting go of the cliff. He knew Kira couldn't hold the weight as soon as he felt his grip slipping, but the brunette didn't give up. "Kira, let go! Now!" The silver haired man shouted, but Kira shook his head. "I can't! I won't!" Yzak sighed, "I'm sorry then," and he let go of the Hukari's hand. "YZAK!" Kira shouted as he fell.
Sorry for the late update, I've been…uh……busy! That's it, busy! That is if you call being lazy being busy, hehehe…Anyhoo, no real time for an author's note because I'm supposed to be asleep but I love you all enough to give you this chapter! So here's the preview to Chapter 12 Raine!
"My name is Raine,"
"So Princess, I must say: It will be my honor to be the one who sheds your blood."
"You're wounds aren't serious, but I still have to bandage them! So stop squirming,"
"Yzak…"
