FireSamurai: Hello again everyone. I know it has been sometime since I updated anything but let me explain. I have moved in with my dad and his computer is not the best of them. I can't even work on my stories. So, I am taking the time that I am working on my homework at my aunt's house to post this chapter. I all hope you like. Gomen again.
Chapter 3 The Samurai Awakens
"Jiro, get your arm off...............AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" Areku awoke in a snow covered plain. When he opened his eye, he saw everything in red. He tried to touch his eyes but he felt something blocking them. He felt that his ears were holding the weird item in place. He took off the weird eyewear and placed it in his pocket. Finally seeing everything in the colors that they should be, he looked around, finding that Jiro and Ami weren't with him. Fortunately, he still had his father's no-dachi and his backpack. Unfortunately, He didn't know where he was nor did he know where Jiro or Ami were. After getting up and wiping the snow off himself, he noticed he was wearing different clothes. He wore this long red trench coat, which was good because it was snowing, white biker gloves, black shoes, dark gray pants and a sleeveless red sweater.
'At least the old man helped me blend in this time period.' He thought as he looked around. Noticing that there was a forest in front of him, he headed out. Though it was bright out, snow lightly fell everywhere. Thinking that the eyewear would protect his eyes from the sun, he took them out and placed them back on, returning everything to red. As he walked toward the forest, he saw that the birds were flying out of it.
'Something is coming.............' The moment he thought that, he saw a girl running out of the forest. From behind the girl, he saw dark armored men with swords and other ancient weapons. Their armor looked like samurai armor to him though he could not see their faces because of the masks they wore. Before he knew it, the girl collided with him. After both of them got up, he noticed that the dark armored men were not too far behind.
"Please sir, you have to help me." The little girl pleaded. Looking down at the girl, she must have been no more then 12 and about four foot ten too. He looked at the girl for a moment and just tilled his head to one side.
"But why are they after you in the first place?" Areku asked.
"Just please help me. Eeekkk!" One of the dark samurai put a hand on her shoulder. She jumped and ran right behind Areku.
"Hand over the little girl and you shall not be hurt." A dark samurai commanded. Areku looked around, seeing that there were only five of them.
"What would happen if I didn't?" Areku asked, his hand on his sword. The dark armored men then took out their weapons. The one that talked had a katana, as did another one. Another two had spears and the last had two sickles.
"If you do not, then we will have to make you!" He rushed Areku with his katana. Areku pushed the girl out of the way, took off his coat and the backpack and had his sword drawn in time to block the attack.
"Go hide kid." Areku said as he pushed the katana up and stabbed the dark samurai in his stomach area. What surprised Areku was that not blood coated his sword but a dark liquid did as black smoke came out of the wound. The other katana user attacked him from behind. Areku took out his blade and slashed him across the middle, cutting him in half. More of the black liquid stained his no-dachi. Areku then looked to his right and left noticing that the two spearmen were there. He charged the right spearman. As the spearman was about to lunge forward, Areku knocked it aside and hit him in the chin with the blade's hilt. Feeling the other spearman about to strike, he sidestepped to dodge the attack. Instead of the spear going into him, the spear went into the spearman that he attacked. After sidestepping the attack, Areku broke the spearhead off and whirled his no-dachi under his arm that caused the blade to go into the dark samurai's gut. After he removed his blade, both dark samurai fell to the ground, staining it with black liquid.
'Now where's the last one?' Areku thought. He looked around and noticed that last samurai was already heading south. Areku whipped his sword, trying to get the black liquid off. He then twirled his blade around and sheathed it. He picked up his coat and his backpack and turned around to see the little girl standing behind a large rock. She looked at him with a half terrified, half amazed look.
"You ok kid?" Areku asked. The girl nodded. Areku took off his eyewear and looked at the girl. She had light purple eyes with brown hair that went down to her mid back. She wore a red sweater and brown pants with black shoes. A blue headband sat on top of her head.
"What's your name?"
"Sakura. What's yours?"
"Areku." They both shook hands.
"Ok Sakura. I got to get going. I have to go find my friends. See you around." Areku was about to walk away when he felt a tug on his sleeve. He looked down to see that it was Sakura.
"Do you need something kid?"
"Would you help me get home? More of those evil men may come back and I wouldn't have a way to get home if they do." Areku sighed. He thought it over in his head. If he did go with the little girl, he might get some information on one of the element shrines that the old man was talking about. On the other hand, if he didn't he could find Jiro and Ami quicker. Sighing once more, he answered.
"Alright. So where do you live?" Sakura pointed toward the woods. He looked in that direction and noticed a large mountain behind it.
"Do you live in that mountain Sakura?" She nodded. With that said, Areku picked her up and placed her on his back.
"Hold on kid." Sakura clenched tightly around his neck. Areku then bolted towards the woods. As they were a few meters away from the edge of the woods, an arrow nicked his skin. He turned his head around and saw archers lined up on a hill, arrows in their bows and ready to fire. Areku bolted for the trees once again.
'Damn it! I hate archers.' He thought as he ran through the forest, arrows coming down from out of nowhere. By the time the archers started into the forest, Areku and Sakura were already at the mountain's base. Looking to his right, he saw a cave going into the mountain. Hearing the archers behind him, he spent no time getting into the cave. As he got into the cave, rocks started to roll into the opening, blocking out the light from the outside. Areku put Sakura down and they both headed in further. As they went in, Areku noticed that there were torches on the way. The further they went in, the more torches there were. When they finally got toward the end of the tunnel, Areku saw an amazing site. He saw large buildings with beautiful lights everywhere. Small children were playing in the streets as the adults were chatting with each other. It reminded him of his Furame.
"Hey you!" Areku looked to his right to see two girls. One about five foot two and the other about four foot ten like Sakura. The taller of the two's eyes were yellow around the edge but got white the more it went in as the smaller of the two had sand yellow eyes. The taller one had light brown hair that went down to her waist and wore a white t-shirt with black paints and a sky blue open button up shirt. Gray armguards rest on her forearms. The shorter one had sandy blonde hair that went down to her shoulders and wore blue jean shorts and a dark tan shirt. She held two daggers with a chain connecting the two. Judging from height alone, Areku guessed that the taller one was 14 and the shorter one was 12.
"Something wrong?" Areku asked. Without a word, the taller one attacked with a punch. He ducked under the punch and elbowed her right in the stomach. This made her paralysis and she fell to the ground. The girl with the daggers then came in for an attack. She whipped her dagger towards his feet. Course, Areku was quicker and stomped on the dagger, stopping her attack.
"Is there like a target on my backing making everyone want to attack me?" Areku said as he grabbed the chain and pulled the other dagger out of the little girl's hand, cutting her palm. Dropping the dagger, he ran over to her and examined the wound. The girl hid her hand away from Areku.
"Get away from her you dark fiend!" the taller girl yelled out.
"It's ok little one. I won't hurt you." The little girl looked around Areku to Sakura. Sakura nodded and the little girl let Areku look at her hand.
"The cuts not deep and won't leave a scar but I do need something to stop the bleeding." He then ripped the sleeves of his trench coat to wrap it up in, making his sleeves shorter. As he was wrapping it up, he noticed the kanji of earth was on it. Making a mental note of it, he finished wrapping the wound. He then walked over to the taller woman and helped her up. After dusting herself off, she ran over to the smaller girl.
"Kaitsurin! Kaitsurin! Are you ok?" The taller girl asked worried. Areku just took one step, ONE STEP, and she immediately turned around covering the little girl, Kaitsurin.
"Stay back," She got into a fighting stance. "If you don't, I will punch you straight to the hell you came from." Areku sighted. This was just not his day. First, he rescued a girl without even a thank you. Then, while he was trying to get her home, he was being shot out. When he finally did get her home, or he guessed was her home, he was attacked.
"Satomi! Stop this!" All three looked at Sakura. She seemed a little mad at this point.
"Sakura? What are you doing with him?" the taller girl named Satomi asked.
"He defended me from some shadow soldiers when I went to get some flowers." Satomi eyed Areku suspiciously.
"How do we know he is not one of them? His fighting style is not normal."
"So? He saved me and I owe him my life." Sakura said, looking back at Areku. Satomi slowly broke out of her stance and walked over to Areku.
"Thank you for saving Sakura, sir." She put her hand out.
"It was nothing and my name is Areku." He smiled as they shook hands.
"Satomi Murakami," She then kneeled down to the little girl. "And this is my sister Kaitsurin." She quickly let go his hand and started down the path with Kaitsurin behind her. Seeing that Sakura was following them, He sighed and fell right in line after them. When they got into town, people were hiding from him but he did notice many things. He saw that most light were from torches. All of the buildings where made of clay or stone. He also noticed that there was one building that stood over all. He thought that was where the heads of this place were.
'There are at least streets here.' He thought. He then noticed a fountain in the middle of town. He stopped and went over to it, making all the children run away. He frowned as he dipped his hand into the water and drank it from his hand.
"The water is pure." He whispered.
"Yeah. There is a factory here were the water is made." Areku looked behind him to see the three girls standing there. The three of them then walked over and sipped some of the water.
"There are two types of workers at this factory, Snowers and Purifiers. The Snowers push snow into a large tube and the snow is collected into a vat. Then the Purifiers take the snow and turn it into water. The water is then pumped throughout the city in the under ground pipes." Satomi finished.
"I see." Areku nodded. Areku saw something flying at him. He took his blade out and knocked it away. He turned to where the item landed and saw that it was a knife. Looking from where it came from, he saw that some people gathered together with some torches and small daggers and knifes.
'This can't be good.' He thought as he stood up. "Hey there. What seems to be the problem?"
"Look here, we don't like strangers in our good city, especially ones carrying weapons. Now put down your weapon and come with us." A man said.
"I am not putting down my weapon," He started, sheathing the blade. "But I will put it away. As for going with you, I will have to think about that." Areku turned around and started to walk way with the girls.
"Now just wait a minute there." The man said. He started to walk up to Areku and grab him by the shoulder, though something was poking at this stomach. He looked down to see the point of Areku's blade.
"Keep following me and you will get impaled." Areku sheathed his no-dachi again and was in a very pissed off mood. He had gone through a lot today and he didn't really want to go against a whole mob of anger townsfolk. As he had his back turned, the man took out a dagger and tried to stab him in the back. Fortunately, Kaitsurin knocked the dagger from his hand with her own dagger.
"All of you stop this." Kaitsurin ordered. To Areku's surprise, they all did. They dropped all their weapons and torches. They all looked like a child caught with their hands in the cook jar.
"This man," She pointed to Areku. "He saved Sakura from some shadow soldiers. He didn't even ask for anything in return. He even helped her get her back home, with archers on their tails. He deservers your respect." She commanded. Areku then scooted back to stand next to Satomi.
"How did she get this information?" He whispered.
"Sakura told us while we were walking here." Satomi answered. Areku nodded and watched the scene play out. Unfortunately for Areku, one of the townspeople noticed the bandaged hand.
"Miss Kaitsurin, what happened to your hand?" a woman asked.
"Well, when this man first arrived, Satomi and I attacked him. I cut my hand in the process, but-" She was cut off as they move pasted her and ran for Areku.
'Oh great, not this again.' Areku thought as he got his no-dachi out again. The moment he got it out, all the townspeople stop.
"Now why are you all attacking me again?"
"You hurt our greatest warrior. You must pay for this crime." It took all of Areku's strength not to laugh. Kaitsurin? Their greatest warrior?
"Look here, I was just walking this little girl home so she wouldn't get hurt. I do not understand why everyone is being so bent out of shape of me coming here." Areku finally said, being fed up with everyone trying to kill him.
"Just sheath your blade and come with us warrior." The same man that he almost impaled said. Following his orders, he sheathed his sword and followed the mob with the girls behind him. They finally stopped in front of a big building with many windows in it. It must have been at least a hundred feet tall, at least Areku thought that. With a deep breath, he entered the building. After going through a few hallways, Areku came to a room with five people on a giant stand (A/N: Like at the Supreme Court.). They were all in fine robes and clothes, making them look like rich people. There were two men on the ends. In the middle were a woman and another woman sat on her right as another man sat to her left. Areku looked over these people. He saw the man on the far left and immediately didn't like him. His black hair and facial hair gave him the look of a fiend. His shifty eyes didn't help either.
"Councilmen, we have brought you the stranger as order." The man said. The five councilmen murmured for a bit.
"All of you may leave now." The woman in the middle said. All of the townspeople bowed to them and left. The only people left in the room were Areku, the girls, and the councilmen.
"Warrior, please state your name." The man on the far right asked.
"Areku Kasamatsu." There was some more murmuring.
"So, Mr. Kasamatsu, where did you come from and how did you learn those sword skills? I believe that the art of the no-dachi died when all the samurai died out." The same man asked.
"I came from the village of Furame and I learned my skills from my father, Makoto Kasamatsu." The council was surprised at this. There was some more murmuring.
"How can you prove you claim Mr. Kasamatsu? Makoto Kasamatsu died five hundred and twenty years ago." Areku was shocked. Five hundred and twenty years ago he died?! Regaining his cool, Areku unsheathed his blade. The councilmen stood back in fear. Taking the blade in both hands, he put the blade in front of the head councilwoman.
"Here is my proof. This blade was given to me by him before I came here." Looking the blade over, the councilmen nodded and went "hmmm" and "aaahhh".
"You may take the blade back." Areku went up and sheathed the sword once again.
"So how did you come to be here Mr. Areku?" The head councilwoman asked. She was of pale skin and had white hair in a tight bun. Her face told Areku that she had much experience in her life.
"It all started when........." Areku told his story to the council. Seeing the look of the councilmen's' faces, they didn't believe him.
"So Mr. Kasamatsu, you are saying that a taomagician came to you and your two friends to come here and stop Hyakuhei?" The councilman to the far left asked. Areku nodded to this information. All the councilmen laughed except for the councilwoman in the middle. She just looked Areku in the eyes, searching for something. She then nodded and then banged her mini-mallet.
"Order, order." Everyone started to calm down. "Mr. Kasamatsu."
"Areku please."
"Areku, I can not speak for the other councilors on the board but I believe your story. I will do everything in my power to find your friends and these shrines with these element powers you speak off. Until we can get more information, I would like for you to stay with Kaitsurin, Satomi and Sakura." Areku nodded, as did the girls.
"Miss Councilwoman, I would like to know why everyone is frightened of me and in some cases trying to kill me." The councilwoman sighed.
"I am very sorry about this Areku but we had to be safe. We didn't know if you were a shadow soldier or not but by the way you acted just now I believe you are just as human as the rest of us. This meeting is over." She banged her mallet one more time and everyone was dismissed. Walking out of the building, Areku took a sigh of relief.
"That was easier then I thought." He said, as they walked to the girl's home.
"I still don't believe your story Areku. I mean, you can't just hop five hundred years into the future." Satomi said, lowing her head to think. Sakura just smiled.
"Don't mind her Areku. She is just sore that you beat her earlier." Areku smiled and nodded. When they finally reached the home, it was nightfall. The girls headed in but Areku stopped at the door.
"Something wrong Areku?" Kaitsurin asked, titling her head a little.
"I will sleep out here tonight." He said, sitting down next to the doorway. Sakura then pouted a little.
"You can't do that. You might get sick sleeping out here." She said, pulling at one of his arms. Areku's eye then looked over at Satomi.
"Come on girls. If Areku wants to sleep out here, I think we should respect his wishes." Satomi said, nodding to Areku. Sakura pouted as Kaitsurin just sighed.
"Go on in and get ready for bed. I will be in shortly ok?" The two younger girls nodded and headed in. Satomi then took a seat right next to Areku.
"That is very kind of you to sleep out here. I understand that you do not want to disturb our home." Satomi said. Areku nodded and for a few moments, there was a still silence between the two.
"Are you really from another time?" Satomi finally asked, breaking the silence.
"What do you believe?" Areku answered. Satomi then brought her knees up to her chest.
"I believe you came here for a reason. What that reason is, I do not know but I know it is important." Satomi answered. She then looked back at Areku, noticing that his hair was covering his right eye.
"Here, let me get that out of your way." She felt Areku tensed but she continued. Moving the hair aside, she saw the scar that went across his eye.
"Oh my...........how did you get that?" Areku sighed and looked up at the moon.
"I would rather not tell that story. I have done something terrible to gain this scar."
"I see."
"May I ask a question?" Satomi nodded.
"That man back there at the fountain, he said Kaitsurin was their greatest warrior. What did he mean by that?"
"Well, in this village, there was an old master skilled with his fist and other weaponry. When I was four, I started to train with him. I wanted to protect Kaitsurin if any shadow samurai came into the city. Before I knew it, she was training with the master too. He just died a year ago, god bless his soul. When I was six and she was four, the councilmen had picked us go into this shrine. What happened freaked me out. One minute we were in this room together, the next Kaitsurin disappear and reappeared with the kanji of earth on her right hand. When we were eight and six, I found out that Kaitsurin had become the warrior of earth. The day that they made us go in was the day she got her armor, the armor of earth Jishin. They then tried to train her powers with the earth armor. She has gained some control over them over the past few years but not much. The only thing I could do at the time was to stand by and help her along. Though, sometimes I wish I had gotten the armor instead. If I had gotten the armor, Kaitsurin wouldn't have do this and be pressured by the council to jump to our aid when ever a shadow soldier appeared." Areku shook his head, his no-dachi leaning against his shoulder.
"That is a great wish but Kaitsurin still got the armor. I say it must have been fate that made her get it, nothing more. Though she does need more training with her daggers," Areku then yawed and stretched a little. "If she is going to be a great warrior, she would have to learn how to use her weapons properly." Satomi chuckled.
"And you need to work on your foot work as well." Areku finished. Satomi just chuckled some more as she got up.
"Thank you Areku. Sweet dreams." Areku nodded to her as she went inside. He then looked up at a hole through the mountainside. He saw a giant moon just like the night he left Furame with Jiro and Ami.
'Be safe my friends.' He thought as he drifted off to sleep.
FireSamurai: Areku must have had a lot of fun in this chapter, being attacked all the time. Now, to answer reviews:
Dragon and Sword Master: I do not know when I will update that story. I may even rewrite it. I do know that it will be after I finish either this story or the Element Warrior series.
I must go now. Next chapter is chapter 4 Finding Fire. R&R!!!!