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Darkness Of HajinMon - Chapter 2 - A Shadow on the Sun
She surfaced, letting the cold mountain water stream down her naked body, washing away the sweat of her morning exercise routine. The water was chill against her skin, but she welcomed the cold. It invigorated her, made her feel refreshed and alive.
She climbed out of the stream, pausing to run her hands over herself to sweep away the clinging water droplets, then rubbed herself down with her towel before putting on her black leather costume, and easing her pack onto her back. Though small, it contained everything she might need for her journey to the shrine on the old map. She intended traveling light, living off the land.
Think of it as a wilderness survival training exercise.
She lifted her head to glance in the direction of the Sun, taking her bearings before setting off. Then she took a deep breath, and began to run in the direction indicated by the map.
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She set a medium pace, aiming for endurance and distance rather than pace, breathing deeply as she ran in order to maximize the oxygen entering her bloodstream. The rough terrain made stamina more important than speed.
The bright sun filtered down through the trees, illuminating the mountain slopes with a bright yellow glow. Insects buzzed around her as she ran, their bodies dancing like motes of gold. Birds took to the air as she ran past, calling out their alarm signals. She ignored them. In this instance, stealth was not a priority, and she had other things on her mind than appreciation of the beauty of Nature.
The expectation of violence came top of the list. There were small gangs of bandits hiding in the woods, including some renegades from various shinobi clans. Indeed, it had been a group of such renegades which she'd killed a few days earlier, after they had attacked her when she went to draw water for her daily needs.
Her hand strayed to the hilt of her sword. The straight-bladed ninja-to had been presented to her by her foster-father, Genra, just before she had gone to train under the guidance of Master Murai. He had sent her away because he had known that, if she had stayed with the clan, she would never have completed her training - too many people wanted her to fail.
Damn Kasumi! I don't care if she was angry, she had no right to say that! And then she left to find Hayate, and there was no place for me with the clan, not anymore. Damn her! And damn Raidou, for hurting Hayate and for being my father!
She pushed the thoughts from her mind - they served no use now. Though there had been a degree of rapprochement between her sister and herself, Ayane still felt hurt by her sister's betrayal. (1) And she could no longer bring herself to trust Kasumi, no matter how much her older sister tried to apologize.
You turned on me once, you could do it again.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
Hands cupped, she splashed the cool water onto her sweaty face, washing away the grime of her travels. She had pushed herself, to cover as much ground as possible, her steady pace designed to eat up the distance like the loping run of a wolf.
All those endurance exercises seem to have paid off. I'm glad that Father was a strict instructor. Without his harsh, even brutal, training methods, I'd never have made up for all the time lost when the rest of the clan wouldn't see me trained properly.
He may have pushed me till I dropped, but it's paid off in the long run.
I miss him. I always will.
She reached for her pack, lying by the side of the stream. Then she paused. She felt herself under scrutiny. Hostile scrutiny. With a slight, unnoticeable movement, she twitched a muscle in her right arm, causing the grasping end of a long, pointed throwing spike to slip down into her hand. She waited a second, then felt the hostile attention focussed upon her surge, felt her senses scream danger!, and spun to the side, right hand snapping sideways.
There was a loud bang, and the crack of a bullet passing through where she had been crouched a split second earlier. It was immediately followed by the thud of her spike striking home, and the agonized scream of its target. Spinning to face her attacker, she saw two men, one holding a gun, her spike in his chest, doubling over, a bloody foam starting to spill from the corner of his mouth. The other man held a length of wood with nails protruding from it. They were both shabbily dressed, and looked undernourished and dirty - the mark of bandits. As the gunman collapsed, his partner looked at Ayane, eyes wide. Then he dived for the gun.
She was quicker. Already moving forward before the uninjured man had moved, she dived forward, her hand striking the man on the side of the throat, fingers outstretched and locked rigid. The momentum of her attack drove the blow home with lethal force, crushing his windpipe. He fell gurgling on the grass.
Rolling to her feet, the purple-haired kunoichi stepped behind the collapsing gunman, pulled him back against her knee, grasped his head in her strong hands, and twisted. There was a loud cracking sound, and he jerked once, before going limp.
Then she stepped over to the second man, and brought her booted foot down onto his chest with crushing strength. The sound of breaking ribs, and the eruption of blood from his mouth, told her he would no longer be a threat.
Not even breathing hard, she pulled her throwing spike from its victim, and wiped it clean on the green grass, before returning it to the holder on the inside of her forearm. She felt no guilt for killing the men - they had tried to slay her, and had paid the price.
If you don't like the consequences, don't start the fight. .....
Bandits, wanted criminals, and such like - they tended to hide in the mountains, hoping to evade detection. They had no idea that ninja clans dwelt there as well. If they stumbled across the clans, they would be eliminated for security reasons. And sometimes they would find 'victims' who were far more deadly than themselves. These two had thought to ambush a lone, vulnerable traveler, and had paid for their actions with their lives. It was of no matter to Ayane. She lived, they did not.
Without so much as a backward glance, she picked up her pack, settled it on her shoulders, then set off, leaving two cooling bodies in the bright sunshine.
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The sun touched the horizon, turning the sky red, as Ayane made camp. She felt tired from the fast pace she had set, but there was something she had been wishing to try ever since she'd read about it in the old scroll. In the morning, she would have the opportunity.
The fire was small, so as not to attract curious eyes. The shelter was set away from the circle of light. Her pack was concealed high in the branches of the surrounding trees, out of the reach of prowling animals.
She slowly ate the small meal, savouring every mouthful. She hadn't used her supply of trail rations, instead gathering fresh food from the surrounding area. She once again thanked her teaching for allowing her to live off the land.
She ate her food uncooked, after the traditional ninja belief that cooking food took the goodness out of it. She took her time, savouring the different flavours and textures of the meal, sipping water gathered from a stream on the way - she always refilled her water skins whenever possible, to ensure her water remained fresh and sweet, and to guarantee that she would never run out unless under adverse conditions.
The lavender-haired girl lay back on the ground, gazing up at the stars. There were no clouds in the sky, and the stars shone brightly down, a cold glitter of tiny jewels. She strained her eyes to make out the faintest ones, and strove to remember the names of the constellations, the stories they embodied, and how to navigate by them.
Ayane loved the night, at least when she was alone. No inane chatter to disturb her contemplation, no noisy people to break her concentration. Alone, there was utter silence, just the sounds of Nature - the wind through the trees, the calls of night birds, the rustle of leaves as nocturnal creatures went about their business in the blackness. She loved it. Here, there were no insults, no curses, no glares or salacious looks or obscene comments. Here, there was purity.
When Genra had lived, she had often lain under the stars with him, listening to his stories, asking questions of her beloved foster-father. He was the only one she had ever enjoyed observing the stars with, the only one whose voice she had loved to listen to. He had given her so much.
The thought of him, and of his death, brought a tear to her eye.
She hurriedly wiped it away. Though there was no-one about to remark on it, Ayane had long since learnt to suppress any sign of weakness, lest it encourage those who would hurt her to redouble their efforts. Only by appearing unconcerned by their taunts and insults could she hope to cause them to stop. It had become so ingrained that she acted untouched by emotion, even when she had no need to.
Genra's words echoed in her mind ; "when you have bad people around you, your attitude should be that Heaven has sent them to you for a trial ... to give you a chance to prove yourself." (2)
The words made her uncomfortable - she felt that, too often, she had failed to prove herself, instead reacting with anger when they had called her 'half-breed', or said that Ayame hadn't been raped, but had submitted to Raidou voluntarily and had then lied to avoid bringing dishonour upon herself. Ayane had reacted to those taunts with angry words, and fights had often started, either begun by herself or in response to her words.
She schooled her thoughts to still themselves, and looked back at the stars overhead. Here she came closest to that state of tranquility and oneness with the world that shinobi teachings, descended as they were from Buddhist philosophy, held to be that perfect state that the ninja should try to attain.
Here, as nowhere else, Ayane could be at peace.
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The sun had not yet climbed above the peaks of the mountains when Ayane awoke. The young woman stretched, feeling the ache in her muscles from the pace she'd set over hard going the previous day. Normally she would set out at a slower pace today, in order not to weary herself before she reached her destination. But now she had the opportunity to try the new spell she'd learnt from the scroll that had been hidden in the dojo destroyed by DOATEC during Genra's capture.
She closed her eyes, calling the words to mind. Then she opened her eyes and raised her hands. As she began to chant, she sketched kanji characters in the air before her
They hung there, drawn in scarlet fire, symbols of power, their magic contained, for now. As she drew them, she felt the growing power within them, the mystical force barely constrained by her will. Soon, it would be unleashed.
She was reaching the end now, her voice sure and commanding. Her long, slender fingers moved, tracing patterns in the air, and it was done. The words complete, the symbols finished, the spell needing only the trigger.
She focussed her mind, and triggered the power within the letters.
It was a fire, burning through her body, sweeping through her like a flash flood, liquid fire that ignited everything it touched. And it swept away the fatigue, revitalized her better than a day's sleep would have done.
She felt her sense expand, felt tiredness drop from her like a snake shedding its' skin. She was alive, as she'd never felt alive before.
A scream of pure ecstasy rose to her lips. But she swallowed it down. Even now, her innate caution wouldn't allow her to make any noise that might alert an enemy to her presence.
Is this what it's like to take Ecstasy, or to have an orgasm? I wouldn't know either way. But the feeling! God, I've never felt anything like this!
With a gasp, she brought herself back to the present. Looking around, she noticed that everything seemed clearer than before, edges were sharper, colours more vibrant, scents more pungent, sounds more distinct. It was as if she had suddenly gained the senses of wild animals, seeing and hearing and smelling things she'd not previously noticed.
This it was that the spell was designed to do - to reinvigorate the caster, to drive fatigue away and to give them strength and endurance greater than they had normally. Ayane could tell that it had worked, and worked far better than she had imagined. She smiled.
This is one spell I'll be using on a regular basis from now on. To pass up the advantage that this will give me would be stupid. I can travel faster than before, and still be rested when I set off the next day.
She moved to pick up her pack, then paused. It seemed to the ninja girl that some shadow had passed over the Sun, as the light in the little clearing had seemed to dim for a second, and the temperature had dropped. She looked up, but saw nothing overhead, no wisp of cloud to block the sunlight.
There must be some high altitude cloud blocking the light, then.
But she couldn't shake the sudden conviction that there was something else at work, that something had just happened which she didn't understand, but had a bearing on her. The hairs on the back of her neck rose, as if in the presence of danger, though she had no way of knowing where the danger lay.
And now she felt that she was being watched, that .... something .... had focussed its attention upon her, though what, and why, she had no idea.
Whatever it is .... it seemed to happen when I cast the spell. Maybe it's some kind of side effect, one the scroll didn't mention.
She hurriedly retrieved her pack from its' place in the branches, shouldered it, stamped out her little fire, and headed off into the forest, towards where the map indicated that the old shrine lay.
She steadfastly refused to look back over her shoulder as she went.
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(1) - a different take on the feud between them. I'll explain what happened between them in a later chapter. Suffice it to say, in this timeline, the feud started, not in childhood, but about the time of DOA1 ....
(2) - actually a quote from Hatsumi Masaaki