Back to the pair. (I don't have much to say at the beginning of chapters..)


Raph went off the next morning to find them food. Katsumi thinks that maybe she can run off, but she isn't being held captive this time. She chose to stay with him. 'Now I know why,' Katsumi says. She paces, looking at the stone walls. The structure is beautiful, even in ruins. 'No,' Katsumi shakes her head, 'No, it can't be true.' She scoffs. "Baka. You are not supposed to show emotion. You can't feel anything."

She looks at her elite uniform. Her cloak is by the fire. The bright red symbol seems to, taunt her. Like it has known the truth the whole time, and yet still allowed her to wear it.

Katsumi can't take it anymore. She digs her fingernails under the stitches and rips the claw off her arm. Then she repeats with the other one. The black and red fabric are crushed in her grip. She walks back to the fire pit. The embers sizzle with the lingering fuel left in the sticks.

She looks at the patches again. Then, she balls them up and tosses them to the flames. "Who am I?" She asks. She goes off, searching. For what, she doesn't know. She climbs up the stairs, carved of large stones. Some are cracked, but she manages. She walks down the halls, admiring the faded tapestries, singed and blackened by the battle years ago.

She walks through a doorway, curious. There, it's a bed chamber, fit for a empress. It's destroyed, but somehow, it still holds the grandeur it had before. Katsumi looks around more frantically, more sure of her quest.

A mirror. She looks through the remains of the dresser. Then she checks the large closet, set with colorful stones in the walls. She finds a chest and opens it up. There is a mirror of gold, inlaid with opal. The glass is blackened from the fire.

Katsumi sits down. She pulls her skirt to the glass, wiping at the blackness. She rubs and rubs. But her skirt slips from her grip. She grunts in frustration and tugs. One hand one way, the other opposite. The fabric rips.

She takes the section and walks back down the stairs. She finds that the broken fountains are empty. She goes a ways outside the palace, finding a pool of water. It is in the shade of a large chunk of golden rock. Katsumi dips the black fabric in it. She rubs at the glass, so hard she could have broken it.

The black goes away. She works at it for a good part of the day. She gets half of it clear and stops. She stands up and walks into light. In the half that is cleanest, the picture is not one of a strong, fearless, devoted to the cause warrior. Instead, she sees ash, she sees messy hair and a broken gaze inside a single green eye. She looks dirty, filthy. No one would care about her. She was taken from her home, an innocent, and turned into a monster.

"Katsumi?" She hears Raph calling. She looks up. "Katsumi!" She stands up and walks back. Raph turns around, about to call her name again, but then he sees her. She is holding a hand mirror, pieces of her sleeves and skirt are missing. "Where did you go off to?" He asks calmly.

"Just.. just to find some water," Katsumi says, trying to regain her composure. But the shock of her life turning upside down keeps her from shutting all emotion inward. She walks over and sits by the dying fire. Raph sits down too, holding a plucked bird over the heat with a stick. He sees two crude circles of black on top of the ashes.

He looks at Katsumi. Her sleeves are missing the Empire's symbol. He smiles to himself. Katsumi doesn't see. She is staring at the fabric as it slowly burns away. But it is too slow for her. She takes the piece in her hand and tosses it on top of them, so she can't see the red claws.

The embers sizzle. Raph sets the stick down and stands up. "I'll find more firewood."

"What can I do?" Katsumi asks. She feels helpless. She needs to put her mind to something.

"Hold this," Raph says, picking the stabbed bird back up. Katsumi takes the stick and holds it over the fire. Raph leaves again and looks for sticks big enough to keep the fire going. 'She's different,' Raph thinks. He looks through the foliage, back at the ninja. 'She's unsure.'

He gathers enough and comes back. Setting the sticks over the embers, the fire starts to come back to life. "..Here's your bird," Katsumi says, handing him the stick. Raph looks at the meat. He takes it and holds it over the fire. Katsumi confirms her thoughts. He caught it for him. She should have gone out herself.

Instead she looked for a stupid mirror. She sits there, listening to the fire crackle. She smells the bird as it cooks. Her mouth waters. She's hungry. Raph looks at her as he turns the bird again. He takes the special knife off of his belt and lays the bird on the cloak he slept on. He cuts portions off the bones. He sits on the other side of it, picking a piece.

He chews for a little. He's gotten better at cooking. He looks at Katsumi. She isn't looking at the food. "Hey," he says, startling her from her thoughts, "there's plenty." He motions to the bird. Katsumi looks at the meat, nice and tender. She looks at Raph. "It's dead, it won't bite you."

Katsumi picks up a small piece. She takes a bite. It's good. She finishes it. Then she looks back for more. The meat had been split between them; Equally. She takes another piece and they eat in silence. "I know it wasn't going to bite me," Katsumi comments.

"Then why were you so hesitant?" Raph asks.

"..No one has ever given me anything," Katsumi looks down, "I've had things I've earned, things I took, and things that were taken from me." Raph looks at the knife at his side. He took it from her.

"I think this belongs to you," he says. He wipes the blade off on his trousers and offers it to her, handle first. She looks at it like, surprised. Then she shakes her head.

"It's an Empire object. I am not." Raph looks at the handle. The wrapping has the red symbol pressed into the leather. He frowns. He takes out a tanto and holds it over the fire. It grows red hot. He then presses it to the leather. He holds it there for a long time. Then he pulls it away and repeats the process.

When he is done, the symbol is gone. "I don't see the Empire on it," he admits, showing her. She looks at it, then sighs.

"It's more than just the marking," Katsumi says, like he's ignorant. She moves away and crawls onto her cloak. She's tired. Raph watches her get comfortable, then positions himself against a stone fragment. Someone has to keep watch.


"Follow the Emperor or perish!" Katsumi looks for the person saying the statement. But no other mouths are moving. Then she realizes, she remembers, she's saying it. "Did you hear me!" She screeches at the assembled.

Men, women, and children are on their knees. The village around them is on fire. The faces are scared, sooty, and tear streaked. She walks over to one of them in the front, holding her special knife in hand.

"Will you follow the Emperor?" She asks him. He looks at the blade, then at the ground.

"Y-Y-Yes.." he manages. Katsumi nods and a couple ninja grab under his arms and drag him behind her.

"You!" She points to the next. He nods frantically.

"Yes yes I will." He is out of the picture as well. Katsumi walks around and sees a young man. Presumably his wife and daughter are next to him, instead of being separated like they should.

"Get back to your sides," another elite states. The man looks up.

"I want to be with my wife," he states. Katsumi starts walking to him.

"He said separate," she hisses. He looks her firm in the eye.

"No."

"You are disobeying the laws of the Elite. What do you have to say for yourself?"

"You all can go rot in a-" Ninja drag him from his family. He is thrown to an empty space of the courtyard, for all to see.

Katsumi walks behind him after he's been kicked. She pulls his head back by his hair. "Swear loyalty to the emperor," she demands, setting her knife blade against his throat.

He gulps. "I refuse to be dishonest in front of my wife," he states. Katsumi feels the blood on her hand, on her cheek. She stands up, dropping the fresh corpse. She hears screaming, possibly from the wife, maybe the baby. She looks at the crowd.

They look at her with fear, the kind that renders them to do whatever you want. She used to like that, the power it gave. Now it makes her sick. She walks over to the woman. "And you?"

The woman looks up at her, with the rest of her dignity, "I shall follow my husband and see him in Tengoku (heaven). But you never will." The crowd exclaims again. Katsumi looks down. The mother has her baby against her chest. She was caught in the path. Red comes from both mother and child.

Katsumi hears someone carrying on behind her. She squats down. The child is quivering, in pain. The wound was not fatal. She looks into her eyes. They are green.

Katsumi wakes with a start. The night terror was real. She feels herself being squeezed, choked by the soot and words of the mother. "Katsumi, calm down.." She hears next to her ear. She looks at her chest. Two green arms are wrapped around her. They aren't constricting her, but holding her. She takes a few deep breathes. "It's just a dream, it isn't real."

"..It, it was," she says. She feels the tears, "It was a memory. I did that," she says, "to people in the southern portion. They hate me. I did it.."

"Did what?" Raph asks, smoothing her hair out of the tear paths.

"..I did what happened to my village, I killed those of a rebellion. I didn't believe their statement. That the Empire took them over after marrying into safety." Katsumi is numb. "It's true, isn't it? Everything I've been taught, it's wrong."

"..I can teach you the truth," Raph suggests, "Would you like that?"

Katsumi nods, as frantic as the man from the village wanting to escape her blade, "Yes."

"Then we'll start in the morning. But for now, sleep." Katsumi is lulled by his hand stroking through her hair. Raph whispers, "I'll watch over you.."


A memory and a promise.

She's in a rough point in her life.

I sense something.. budding. *smiles*