The sun rose with an orange-blossom hue and slowly began to kiss the homes
of a small village in the country of Konan. From the west, a flaming red
creature flew, heading towards the same village. As it slowly landed on the
ground, just outside the limits, it changed into human form, its hair still
burning the same red color. It walked forward, towards one of the more run-
down huts, and pushed open the door. There, a man kneeled by his bed, his
obviously pregnant wife gripping his hand tightly as she huffed out her
breath, as if trying to grab it with her mouth.
The man looked up as soon as he heard his cottage door open. "Suzako!" he
exclaimed as he saw the brilliant figure standing in the home's doorway.
His wife lay there and continued her breath-catching. "What brings you to
our small home in the middle of nowhere?" he asked as he held his wife's
hand tighter. Suzako stepped forward and motioned for the man to move out
of his way. As the husband did so, Suzako finished his movement by placing
his right index and middle finger upon the wife's plump stomach and recited
a chant.
The woman immediately stopped breathing hard, and a warm glow surrounded
her body and began to brighten. The husband looked on with fear for his
wife's and his unborn child's safety. Suzako turned away from the woman and
took a seat upon a dusty chair in another corner of the one-room hut. "Your
child has been selected to be one of the Suzaku seishi and a symbol shall
appear upon his right forearm," Suzako said as he crossed his arms and
leaned back in the chair. Suddenly, the woman screamed out in agony and
arched her back in pain. "It's time," Suzako stated.
After hours of blood, pushing, and screaming, the woman finally gave birth
to a beautiful little girl. Suzako stood suddenly and stared at the child
in disbelief, and disgust rose in his eyes and the rest of his face. "This
cannot be!" he shouted at the woman and the man, anger obviously taking
away his cool demeanor. He lashed out at the woman and child with a strike
of his hand in the air. The man grabbed the baby, but fell to the ground
before he could protect his wife from the gust of wind.
When he lifted his head and looked at where his wife had been lying, he saw
her corpse upon the bed, covered in thick blood. The baby began to cry
loudly and her symbol appeared on her right forearm. "Please, spare my
daughter," the man begged as he clutched his little girl close to his
chest. Suzako looked at both of them in disgust and scowled even deeper as
he saw the symbol on the girl. "I shall not have a female be one of my
seishi, but I shall allow your insignificant child, live. unfortunately for
you and her, I shall remove her powers and give them to a proper child."
Suzako began another chant and the man watched sadly as the warm glow
around his daughter began to weaken and then completely disappear. Suzako
turned away and began to leave the room, not noticing that a small portion
of the power was still left in the little girl and that she was smiling at
him. The door slammed in the man's face as he lowered his head into his
daughter's face and began to weep for the death of his wife. Suzako took
off to another village nearby and gave the powers to a small red-haired boy
born just a few days earlier then the little girl.
