Note : This is the translation of my original work published in french. This story may contain some mistakes, feel free to point them out.
Enjoy your reading!
Chapter 1 Last Night
The gods are dead. They died many ages ago, their existence going from myth to legend. However, they left a legacy to the men, a rock: the Hikari. A rock concentrating some of their divine powers, a rock capable of performing the most unimaginable miracles, A stone of pure and imaculate brilliance. Yet even this great power could not save a man's life.
The wind-swept dead leaves were swirling, while a driving rain was pouring down on the imperial capital. On this stormy night when the sound of cascading water and thunder was deafening, a lone horseman rode through the deserted streets, braving the elements. The sound of galloping through the muddy streets was the only evidence of life in this storm-swept city. Galloping among wooden and paper houses, sometimes with black tile roofs, sometimes with thatched roofs. The horseman stopped in front of the imposing door of the imperial palace and entered the interior. Dressed in his samurai armor, he walked with a brisk but sure step through the dark corridors of the palace, which, with a thunderous thunderclap, cast the imposing shadow of the warrior on the walls. He entered a room lit by a few candles with a bang. A pale man with blond hair was lying on a futon in the middle of the room, surrounded by five healers.
"Father!" he said with a high voice.
He took off his helmet which revealed the long pink hair of the warrior, who was actually a young and beautiful women. The weakened man opened his eyes wide.
"Luka?" He moans.
"Father! I left as soon as I heard the news!" she said in a worried tone, kneeling beside her father.
"Luka, my daughter..." is he struggling to say before he gets a violent cough.
"Father! What's wrong with him?" She asked in a harsh tone as she turned to one of the healers.
"We don't know exactly... we've never seen that before..." replied the healer, confused.
"What do you mean? Her illness cannot be cured?" shouted the young woman, indignant.
"Well... We've tried countless remedies, including the rarest, but none of them have proved effective," the healer confessed.
"And the stone? Have you even tried the stone?" she said.
"The Hikari? Yes... but we can't abuse it. We only used a few fragments," said the healer as he pulled himself together.
"Well, I'll allow you to abuse it! Go get a rock!" She barks.
The healers looked stunned.
"A whole stone?" timidly dropped one of the doctors.
"Execution!" the warrior spat furiously, her eyes shining with nascent tears.
The healers left the room in a hurry, leaving Luka and his father alone. The woman in armour, kneeling at the pale man's bedside, lamented as she held his weak hand. In the large, now empty room, the sobs of the pink-haired girl accompanied the sound of the heavy breathing of the dying patient.
On that harsh autumn night, within the walls of the imperial palace of Kyoten, as the flood was pouring down outside, a man's flame was extinguished. Divine power could not overcome the evil that was eating away at him. Thus, that evening, Taifu no Yohio, head of the Taifu clan and imperial regent, died, raising his daughter, Taifu no Luka, to the head of the clan and the head of the country of Hino.
As the months passed, the harsh winter that followed gave way to a blazing spring. The cherry trees in bloom coated their most beautiful foliage with a bright pink color. Life took its course in the town of Kurakama. As the sun had passed its zenith, activity was in full swing in the heart of the city. The wide central alleyway was crowded with people, children playing, laughing and hiding in the market stalls, much to the dismay of the merchants selling their products. People crossed each other to the rhythm of the blacksmith's hammer blows. Peasants selling their goods, busy craftsmen, well-dressed aristocrats or simple travelers passing through or looking for hospitality. All this little world was evolving under the watchful eye of the samurai who were watching over order and security. These warriors wore the colous of their lord. They were the loyal samurai of the Sanka clan. The imposing castle of the clan dominated the town, it was the central piece of the clan's domain, a little on the outskirts of the town but positioned on a high position and surrounded by a thick stone wall. In the center of the castle stood the dungeon, several storeys high and immaculately white. Dungeon, itself in height compared to the rest of the castle by these large stone foundations. Flags adorned in a powerful purple with a white symbol representing three triangles, flew proudly in the wind on the curved black tile roofs of the building. This fortress seemed impregnable, as did the countless lordly castles of the different clans that covered the great archipelago of Hino.
In this town a young ronin of about twenty years old and answering to the name of Gumi was wandering around. Her hair was shiny with an intense green color. These short hairs were tied in a bun, letting two green strands run down his face before stopping on his shoulders. She was wearing only a few pieces of clothing. Her neck was covered by a long scarlet-red scarf. Her main garment, dyed a flamboyant orange, is a large, even too large, hakama-shita, a kind of kimono worn for training and combat, a classic garment for a wandering samurai. However, instead of wearing a hakama, a wide combat pant that goes with the hakama-shita, her legs were surrounded by white bandages that went up to his chest, which acted as a bra, his wide hakama-shita exposing the top of her chest. A black belt cut by a white stripe encircled his waist and closed his suit. Finally, at the end of her legs were wide wooden sandals which, when she walked, makes a very distinctive sound. Her safe masculine gait was in harmony with his closed, hard expression. She seemed to be wearing only a katana, hanging on the right of her guard; she was left-handed, something uncommon in the warrior world. She hid her left hand in the jacket of her habit. Her right hand was holding a large blood-red umbrella. This umbrella, which had a banal appearance, actually hid a wakizashi, a smaller sword about forty centimeters long, with the handle of the umbrella acting as a sheath.
Her appearance and her singular behaviour did not attract good looks at her, passers-by avoided crossing her path and her gaze. She didn't care, she wasn't looking for attention anyway, her ambition was greater and on this day of spring, on this day of renewal, her destiny was going to call her.
As she was about to leave Kurakama heading north, passing through an outlying area of the city between town and country, where patrols are scarce, her attention was drawn by cries of aggression. It was clear that the passers-by around her could also hear these calls for help, but they were content to pass by with their heads down. Gumi quickened her pace, she was heading for the origin of the screams.
At the back of a dilapidated house, three robbers held a frail young woman with long turquoise blue duvets under their yoke. Two of the robbers held her, despite the fact that she screamed and struggled furiously while they tied her hands behind her back. The third one, the chief, was standing in front of her, he was a mastodon, he was at least two heads taller than her.
"Look at that, what a pretty little piece of woman," he jubilated with his deep voice, a perverse smile on his face, while holding firmly the cheek of the poor crying girl.
"No! Let go of me or you'll be regretting that!" explored the young woman with her soft voice, but filled with fear.
"Oh? I think we'll rather regret it if we let you go!" he threw crudely, as he lowered his hand to the chest of the girl with the twin tail. His two companions sneered as they finished tying his hands.
"No, I confirm, YOU will regret it if you do not release her!" said the warrior who landed behind the brigands, her umbrella still on her shoulder. The leader of the thugs turned around, surprised. Then he put on a smile that was all the more perverse.
"Well, well, well, pretty girls come straight to us now, huh? That's a pretty dangerous weapon you've got on your belt, tell me. Go and surrender nicely or I'll have to give you a taste of my blade," he said in a confident tone, before he had a grin and put his hand to his crotch. "Well, you're going to taste it anyway! Which one do you like better?"
"Get your hands off me, you pig! Anyway, losers like you don't deserve me to draw my katana. I'll just beat you with this," she replied, brandishing her umbrella with both hands in front of the bandits.
"You little bitch! What are you going to do with your poor umbrella?!" he barked, drawing his poor-quality sword and rushing at the green-haired warrior with a view to striking her horizontally.
While easily dodging the brigand's clumsy attack, the warrior raised her umbrella above her head, pointing behind her. The umbrella fell, revealing the wakizashi. Her opponent being completely offered to her, the latter delivered a powerful vertical blow to his neck, cutting her carotid artery. The blood escaped abundantly, splashing the woman with the blushed wakizashi. The brigand's body fell heavily to the ground along with the umbrella. He only let out a few gurgles of agony before finally succumbing. Gumi wiped the blood from her face, her eyes wide open, her irises naturally green now red, a creepy smile on her face.
"Who's next?"
The two robbers clenched their teeth and their eyes were filled with fear and anger. They looked at each other to agree on a combined attack. They threw the poor turquoise-haired hostage to the ground and drew their razor blades before throwing themselves headlong at the warrior. Back in the fighting position, Gumi gracefully dodged the first attack and then easily parried the second. Wanting to give the two poor swordsmen a chance, she continued to parry and dodge their attacks in what might appear to be a choreographed dance. However, she soon grew tired of this little game and shortened it in the same way she had finished her first opponent. The two bandits fell heavily into the pool of blood that their leader's body had formed. The three bodies were now wading in a bloody pool. The red-eyed warrior methodically wiped her blade, robbed the dead and then turned to the woman on the ground. She had witnessed the whole scene, she was both impressed and terrified by the almost superhuman sword technique of this green-haired woman. Gumi suddenly walked towards her. Panic-stricken and her hands still tied, she closed her eyes and held her breath. The ronin suddenly severed the bonds that the frightened woman had in her hands. She opened her eyes again, the warrior with green eyes and a warm smile held out her hand. She grabbed it hesitantly, Gumi's strong fist took it away, lifting it in one stroke.
"Th-thank you for saving me... I can't imagine what they would have done to me if you hadn't intervened..." she stammered timidly as she came to her senses, but was reassured all the same.
"I have a pretty good idea of what they would have done. But don't worry, they won't be able to point their blades at you anymore," she says mockingly while looking over her shoulder at the bodies on the ground.
The blue-haired young woman followed the warrior's gaze and then turned her eyes away at the sight of the corpses. Slightly nauseated, she put her hand to her mouth. Gumi accompanied her out of this morbid scene, while taking care to retrieve her umbrella. Away from the sight of the corpses the woman with the duvet caught her breath.
"Excuse me... I'm not as comfortable as you are with the sight of..." she blocked, still confused.
"Death?" completed the ronin, sheathed her weapon in her umbrella. The young woman with the twin tails lowered her eyes and nodded, realizing the significance of these words. There was a silence.
"Thanks again for saving me. Is there anything I can offer you? Perhaps you would accept a little hospitality? You must travel a lot," she resumed after the embarrassment.
The warrior was touched, she wasn't used to having someone feel so kind to her, most of the people she saves from this kind of situation thank her austerely when they simply don't run away. What's more, it had been ages since she had stayed in a real house, between the infamous inns and wakes under the stars. She accepted willingly.
"I haven't had a chance to ask you yet, but what's your name by the way?" asked the woman with blue hair.
"Gumi... just call me Gumi. And what is yours?" replied the warrior to the umbrella.
"That's a pretty name!" said the young lady enthusiastically. "My name is Sanka no Miku, nice to meet you!"