Disclaimer: I do not own Soul Calibur, Soul Edge, Taki, Mitsurugi, Sophitia or Cassandra. These all
belong to NAMCO. Such a pity--they won't let me have them. Oh well. But this fanfic is mine.
Viator: By Your Side
The Sequel to Requietum:A Journey Home
by jin long
lycan11@yahoo.com
Chapter 1
It was nighttime in the southern reaches of the Ming empire, the place where the monsoon and the
rains passed at the exact same months of the passing years. Here was a place distant from the
relatively chaotic northern borders, quite free of invasions from the fearful barbarians known as
the Yuan.
In this place, rice was grown, owing to the fertile land and the monsoon rains. The fields spread as
far as the eye could see. One could say it somehow had the idyllic nature commonly associated
with the more rustic places of the world. In other words, it was a peaceful place, a place where
one could hide away from the world and sink deep into the quiet atmosphere of the green fields.
That quiet, however, was quickly shattered soon enough that night under a full moon.
Taki crashed brutally into her workshop, the door splintering under the impact as she collided with
it, coming to a stop as she slammed into the wall, knocking over a small shelf that had tools for
carving wood.
The demon-slaying kunoichi grunted as she rose to her feet to eye her attackers, five in all. Three
male ninja and two kunoichi stared back at her, ready to beat her down yet again if she resisted.
"So, we finally meet the one Toki mutters about night and day," said one, scratching his nose
through his mask.
"The famous Taki, wielder of Mekki-maru, slayer of Gel-o-fury," mused one kunoichi.
Taki squinted her eyes, feeling groggy. Somehow these five Fuuma ninja had managed to conceal
their presence from her, perhaps reining in the ki which now emanated all too strongly from their
bodies. In any case they had escaped her senses and had ambushed her on her way back from
delivering a repaired rake to one of the farmers here.
They had also managed to poison her, although she knew very well that it was a substance not
meant to kill her, but to aid in her capture by dulling her senses and making her want to sleep.
These five, however, did not know that Taki was used to such poisons and that her body was
quickly metabolizing whatever sleeping venom was in her blood.
It seemed quite insane to keep on giving herself some doses of almost every poison the Fuuma
ninja made, but Taki mentally patted herself on the back for doing so for some time. She could
never be too sure, after all, of what any pursuers Toki sent after her would employ to give
themselves the slightest advantage over her.
Such amateurs, Taki thought, standing around as if they have all the time in the world to deal with
me. Toki must be really desperate to take Mekki-maru if he had to resort to ninjas who thought
she would be easy to drug and kill.
Or capture, Taki noted.
Seeing that she rose, one of the male ninja quickly slammed a roundhouse kick into her abdomen.
Although Taki had managed to tense her stomach muscles in time to absorb the kick, she hadn't
been able to tense them enough. It knocked the wind out of her as it connected painfully, every
nerve in her body screaming out with pain.
Taki crumpled to the floor, clutching at her abdomen with one hand.
"Stop that," she heard one kunoichi say. "Master Toki wants her alive."
The ninja who had kicked her grinned, if the tone of his voice was any indication. "Yeah, but
Master Toki didn't say we couldn't rough her up a bit. I don't plan to end up like Geki did, you
know." He coughed. "I heard he lost his arm going after her."
Listening to them, Taki quickly scanned her workshop for a way to escape, or at least something
she could use as a weapon that was within reach but easily concealed.
Mekki-maru was not an option, as it was resting on a shelf a good distance from her right side,
in a darkened corner of her workshop. Taki knew that she had speed, but she knew as well that
she'd have to distract these five ninja if she was to get at Mekki-maru... or Rekki-maru, she
remembered, which was in the same place.
Finally, she spotted something she could use. It was the first thing she'd ever forged, a small
woodcarving knife that was nonetheless as sharp as her ninja-to. The carver's tool couldn't kill
demons, of course, but it could really be useful against humans, most especially if one knew
exactly where to strike and could do so with surgical precision.
Taki stretched out her arm, keeping an eye on the five ninjas as she grasped her carving knife
and quickly hid it with her palm.
"Hmph," snorted another. "Posing as a blacksmith and a wood-carver in this stupid Ming empire...
I'd beat the hell out of her just for the trouble she gave us finding her."
A fist smashed into Taki's face, cutting her lip and drawing blood. She remained silent, however,
mentally sealing the pain away from her senses.
She was becoming cognizant, finally.
"That Mekki-maru thing's got to be around here," mused one kunoichi.
"Let's see if I get her to tell me where," one male ninja, the one of medium build, Taki noted,
remarked, grasping at Taki's smithing hammer. "A broken hand should do the trick. If there's
anything to make a person scream, it's got to be broken bones."
Another male ninja took a handful of Taki's midnight ebony hair and raised her head up roughly.
"I guess you can tell that you'd better start talking." The ninja sneered, but Taki's face didn't
show any emotion at all. "Toki told us that there's nothing you don't love more than smithing
or basically just making things with your hands," he said.
Taki shot a glance at the ninja who had picked up her hammer. She knew where this little
conversation was headed and what would happen to her. She pushed the urge to act all
too rashly back into the recesses of her mind. Timing was everything, she knew.
"Wouldn't it be a pity if your precious hands somehow got mangled?" the heavily-built male ninja
finished, jerking at her hair violently.
Good. He was so vulnerable, Taki thought. He hadn't realized that she had full control of herself
and could easily move whichever part of her body she wanted to. The inner part of the male
ninja's arm was exposed, the soft flesh easily cut by a knife that cut through wood.
Now was her chance.
With a slight flash of steel the heavily built ninja bellowed, letting go of her hair as he fell back,
his forearm spurting blood like there was no tomorrow. The little woodcarving knife was razor
sharp, and it had slit open the heavily-built ninja's forearm. It was such a deep wound that it
was even possible for all present to see bone.
Taki did not pause, attacking the only target between her and her ninja-to, the ninja who held her
smithing hammer. He yelled, raising the hammer to strike her, but Taki blocked the motion of his
arms and sank the carving knife into one of his eyes. With a sucessive motion, Taki slammed
her palm at the base of her carving knife's handle, sinking it in deeper into the ninja's eye.
The ninja cried out with pain, his grip on Taki's hammer loosening as he reflexively grabbed at his
eye. Taki caught the hammer and with an angry yell slammed it brutally against his jaw, rewarded
quite audibly by the sound of breaking bone.
The ninja stumbled back, unable to even scream in agony as he grabbed at his mangled jaw.
Taki quickly closed in on him and swung the hammer at the side of his knee. This time she heard
an audible pop that indicated a dislocation of the ninja's knee. Her attacker collapsed to the floor,
grunting in all too obvious pain.
She wasn't going to be captured. She wasn't going to die here. She was never, ever going back
to Toki.... These thoughts crossed Taki's mind as she dove towards the stand for her ninja-to,
desperately reaching for one blade of the two there. Any blade would do, as long as she could
drive these ninja off with it and gain time to escape with both ninja-to she owned.
Her hand grasped Mekki-maru's handle. She could control this one, it was all right, Taki thought.
Just as long as she had either Rekki-maru or Mekki-maru, everything would be alright and she
would get out of here just fine without having to defend herself more than necessary.
Taki drew the cursed blade.
The moment she did, a sensation of pure and absolute rage overwhelmed her.
Taki felt it acting on her emotions, acting on every frustration she'd had and endured these past
eight years. It became very tempting to give in to it, to give total catharsis to just about every
emotion of rage, sadness and frustration.
She'd thought that she'd managed to gain some great degree of control over Mekki-maru, over
the madness it would induce in her.
She thought that all her training to control it had been enough.
But Taki now realized that she was very wrong.
With a scream of pure fury Taki attacked the ninjas she hadn't yet subdued. She began to lose
herself under the spell and promises Mekki-maru seemed to give her. The evil influence of the
sword flooded her senses and all control she had of herself vanished. All that remained was
a strong sense of bloodlust, a desire to maim and utterly destroy.
Taki wasn't sure of what happened next, only that three words echoed in her mind before she
felt the sticky warmth of blood on her skin.
Survive...
Death...
Kill...
Everything after these three words came in fuzzy snippets, almost like visions or even dreams.
Taki was no longer sure of what was real or what wasn't. It was all too confusing for her senses.
All that seemed to remain was Mekki-maru in her hands.
And screaming, screams of terror and pain. She felt more blood on her hands and felt Mekki-maru
cut into someone, rending flesh, cloth and bone. And screaming... just screaming... She could hear
herself screaming in unadulterated rage, and yet she could not feel the yell itself.
Another scream, not her own, met her ears. She didn't care... She didn't care... They should die.
They should die for ending the peace she had gained, the tranquil after all these years. They
should pay... If she couldn't live, if she couldn't be alive, why should they live?
Why should they live the way they wanted if she could not? Why should they even breathe the
same air she did? Why should they even exist? Why should she care about them? Why should
she even be decent towards them? Why... why...
Why?!
Taki sank Mekki-maru into yet another victim, smiling at the terrified cry that only metal severing
flesh over and over could elicit. She was enjoying this.
No! This isn't me! This isn't me... The demon-slaying kunoichi closed her eyes, fighting a different
foe. What's going on... what... who... Mekki-maru... demons... darkness... what...
Was this blood that was coating her face?
Was this her blood or someone else's that she could taste?
Who had she cut down?
What had happened?
Taki began breathing hard as she fought against Mekki-maru's influence, fought to calm her rage
and her survival instinct. She had to know what happened. She had to... had to fight Mekki-maru's
influence. She couldn't give in and turn into those who were her prey. She couldn't... couldn't...
"Hhhh...ahhh.....gghhhh...." Taki closed her eyes, gritting her teeth from the effort of trying to
break Mekki-maru's spell. "Hhhhnnhh!"
Gradually her senses began to return to reality. The demon-slaying kunoichi found herself bent
over Mekki-maru, clutching at the sword tightly as she pressed down on it. Taki raised her head
and opened her eyes, gasping for breath as she felt the evil sword lose its grasp on her. Sweat
cloaked her brow and her hair had come undone of the ponytail she usually bound it in.
Inadvertedly, Taki looked down.
She looked straight into the horror-stricken eyes of the only male ninja she did not recall attacking.
He lay beneath her, his mouth moving as if to scream, but all that came out of his mouth was a
choked gurgle and a good amount of blood as he began to go into shock.
The Mekki-maru-wielding kunoichi soon realized why.
Mekki-maru was imbedded deep in his throat, so deep that the blade had been sunk in all the way
up to the hilt. It pinned him to the floor, so far into his neck that it had actually imbedded itself in
the floor of Taki's workshop. It had severed his windpipe, such that the male ninja was slowly
asphyxiating to death, as the blade had unfortunately missed his jugular.
Taki rose, pulling out Mekki-maru from the ninja's throat as she did. The fellow gurgled some more
then went limp as he died.
Breathing hard, Taki took a good look around her workshop.
Her eyes went wide with horror.
It was as if she had painted the whole place with the blood of her five adversaries. Blood now
began to coagulate on the walls, on the floor, even on her anvil and some of her unfinished
wood carvings.
Toki's servants lay on her floor in varying degrees of evisceration. One kunoichi lay by the
splintered door, her throat slashed open so wide it was a wonder her head was still attached to
her shoulders. She was the least terrible-looking of the lot.
The other kunoichi's head had rolled to just about where Taki's anvil was, the body more or less
intact, which wasn't saying much as the flesh was riddled with terrible, gaping wounds that were
deep enough to reveal bone, almost as if the kunoichi had been on a butcher's block.
The ninja whose arm she had slashed open with her carving knife had his insides strewn all over
her smithing tools. Chunks of flesh surrounded him, obviously his own, judging by the fact that
a good number of his limbs were near bare and their bones visible.
Finally, the ninja whose eye she had stabbed was all over the place, nearly all of his limbs
dismembered from his torso. His remaining eye looked out at the world in pure, consuming terror,
lifeless as it was.
It was a scene she had seen only once in her life, when she had pursued a demon that had been
butchering villagers for both fun and consumption. That such a scene was right in front of her
right now, in her sanctuary of a workshop, made Taki want to puke badly. The scent of now-drying
blood assailing her senses did not help any either.
It was a complete bloodbath.
"Oh, Kami-sama... what have I done...?" Taki struggled to make herself move and pick up
Mekki-maru's sheath. Wiping the blade on her clothes, she slid the cursed blade back into its sheath
with trembling hands and an audible click. The sword did not seem to object, exhibiting no energy
whatsoever that would have stopped Taki from sealing it back in.
Somehow, Mekki-maru had been calmed yet again by human blood.
-------------------------------
Taki breathed in deeply. Such power Mekki-maru had. There was definitely no way she would ever
give it to Toki. If it had acted on her in such a manner and had turned her into what had
mercilessly slaughtered five ninjas, who knew what would result if Toki got his hands on it.
She'd thought of returning to Japan and going after Toki himself after discovering a shard of Soul
Edge among the remains of one of the ninjas she'd killed. But she had reconsidered. It would have
been suicide to do so, and it made more sense to go after the source of the evil sword.
Now she was headed northwards, close to the center of the Ming empire. From there she could
probably make her way across the vast desert to the west via the old Silk Road. Rumors had
been circulating once more that Soul Edge still existed, and the source of such talk seemed to be
the west yet again.
She'd departed soon after killing the five ninjas at her workshop, taking only an extra set of
clothes, her armor, Rekki-maru, Mekki-maru and the small woodcarving knife that had in part
saved her life.
Taki thought about Mekki-maru and how it had managed to overcome her control over it.
Meditating on the question, she'd reached an answer. An answer that she should have realized
so long ago, at least four years back.
An answer she should have realized as she began to carve a figure from a block of pine wood
the length from her wrist to the tip of her middle finger, the width half the breadth of her palm.
She'd begun carving it four years back but had almost forgotten about it until she gathered her
equipment for her departure.
It was there, near her ninja-to in the corner of her workshop, not quite complete yet, as the body
still had to be carved and the head was yet to have hair, but she recognized the face she had
carved into it.
Sophitia.
It was that chord which Mekki-maru had struck to subvert her control over it. It had somehow
discovered that she had much frustration over not being able to be with Sophitia and had
taken advantage of that one chink in her mental armor.
Mekki-maru had taken advantage of her sadness and anger over the circumstances keeping
her from the young Greek she'd fallen for so long ago.
Mekki-maru had also amplified her desire to survive the encounter, to not be taken to Toki, to
not lose the deftness of her hands, but it all boiled down to the fact that she wanted to see
Sophitia and be with Sophitia.
Taki had closed her eyes and had decided to take the little figurine with her. Stuffing it into her
pack, she had quickly left her workshop in the night, certainly under cover of darkness so as
not to alert the village to her absence just yet. Or cause them to discover what had happened
at her workshop.
As she departed, Taki wondered about Sophitia once more and how she was. Had she been
wed to the one she did not love? Had she any children by this person?
Was she, at the very least, happy?
Looking into the face of the wooden effigy of the Greek, Taki sighed quite audibly.
After all these years, she still loved the young Greek.
But again, the circumstances were at their worst. Taki had the overwhelming feeling that there
was no way in hell or heaven that the situation would change and it would be possible to live
a quiet life with the Greek she so loved.
Taki could feel the sadness welling up yet again within herself as she traveled.
----------------------
to be continued...
belong to NAMCO. Such a pity--they won't let me have them. Oh well. But this fanfic is mine.
Viator: By Your Side
The Sequel to Requietum:A Journey Home
by jin long
lycan11@yahoo.com
Chapter 1
It was nighttime in the southern reaches of the Ming empire, the place where the monsoon and the
rains passed at the exact same months of the passing years. Here was a place distant from the
relatively chaotic northern borders, quite free of invasions from the fearful barbarians known as
the Yuan.
In this place, rice was grown, owing to the fertile land and the monsoon rains. The fields spread as
far as the eye could see. One could say it somehow had the idyllic nature commonly associated
with the more rustic places of the world. In other words, it was a peaceful place, a place where
one could hide away from the world and sink deep into the quiet atmosphere of the green fields.
That quiet, however, was quickly shattered soon enough that night under a full moon.
Taki crashed brutally into her workshop, the door splintering under the impact as she collided with
it, coming to a stop as she slammed into the wall, knocking over a small shelf that had tools for
carving wood.
The demon-slaying kunoichi grunted as she rose to her feet to eye her attackers, five in all. Three
male ninja and two kunoichi stared back at her, ready to beat her down yet again if she resisted.
"So, we finally meet the one Toki mutters about night and day," said one, scratching his nose
through his mask.
"The famous Taki, wielder of Mekki-maru, slayer of Gel-o-fury," mused one kunoichi.
Taki squinted her eyes, feeling groggy. Somehow these five Fuuma ninja had managed to conceal
their presence from her, perhaps reining in the ki which now emanated all too strongly from their
bodies. In any case they had escaped her senses and had ambushed her on her way back from
delivering a repaired rake to one of the farmers here.
They had also managed to poison her, although she knew very well that it was a substance not
meant to kill her, but to aid in her capture by dulling her senses and making her want to sleep.
These five, however, did not know that Taki was used to such poisons and that her body was
quickly metabolizing whatever sleeping venom was in her blood.
It seemed quite insane to keep on giving herself some doses of almost every poison the Fuuma
ninja made, but Taki mentally patted herself on the back for doing so for some time. She could
never be too sure, after all, of what any pursuers Toki sent after her would employ to give
themselves the slightest advantage over her.
Such amateurs, Taki thought, standing around as if they have all the time in the world to deal with
me. Toki must be really desperate to take Mekki-maru if he had to resort to ninjas who thought
she would be easy to drug and kill.
Or capture, Taki noted.
Seeing that she rose, one of the male ninja quickly slammed a roundhouse kick into her abdomen.
Although Taki had managed to tense her stomach muscles in time to absorb the kick, she hadn't
been able to tense them enough. It knocked the wind out of her as it connected painfully, every
nerve in her body screaming out with pain.
Taki crumpled to the floor, clutching at her abdomen with one hand.
"Stop that," she heard one kunoichi say. "Master Toki wants her alive."
The ninja who had kicked her grinned, if the tone of his voice was any indication. "Yeah, but
Master Toki didn't say we couldn't rough her up a bit. I don't plan to end up like Geki did, you
know." He coughed. "I heard he lost his arm going after her."
Listening to them, Taki quickly scanned her workshop for a way to escape, or at least something
she could use as a weapon that was within reach but easily concealed.
Mekki-maru was not an option, as it was resting on a shelf a good distance from her right side,
in a darkened corner of her workshop. Taki knew that she had speed, but she knew as well that
she'd have to distract these five ninja if she was to get at Mekki-maru... or Rekki-maru, she
remembered, which was in the same place.
Finally, she spotted something she could use. It was the first thing she'd ever forged, a small
woodcarving knife that was nonetheless as sharp as her ninja-to. The carver's tool couldn't kill
demons, of course, but it could really be useful against humans, most especially if one knew
exactly where to strike and could do so with surgical precision.
Taki stretched out her arm, keeping an eye on the five ninjas as she grasped her carving knife
and quickly hid it with her palm.
"Hmph," snorted another. "Posing as a blacksmith and a wood-carver in this stupid Ming empire...
I'd beat the hell out of her just for the trouble she gave us finding her."
A fist smashed into Taki's face, cutting her lip and drawing blood. She remained silent, however,
mentally sealing the pain away from her senses.
She was becoming cognizant, finally.
"That Mekki-maru thing's got to be around here," mused one kunoichi.
"Let's see if I get her to tell me where," one male ninja, the one of medium build, Taki noted,
remarked, grasping at Taki's smithing hammer. "A broken hand should do the trick. If there's
anything to make a person scream, it's got to be broken bones."
Another male ninja took a handful of Taki's midnight ebony hair and raised her head up roughly.
"I guess you can tell that you'd better start talking." The ninja sneered, but Taki's face didn't
show any emotion at all. "Toki told us that there's nothing you don't love more than smithing
or basically just making things with your hands," he said.
Taki shot a glance at the ninja who had picked up her hammer. She knew where this little
conversation was headed and what would happen to her. She pushed the urge to act all
too rashly back into the recesses of her mind. Timing was everything, she knew.
"Wouldn't it be a pity if your precious hands somehow got mangled?" the heavily-built male ninja
finished, jerking at her hair violently.
Good. He was so vulnerable, Taki thought. He hadn't realized that she had full control of herself
and could easily move whichever part of her body she wanted to. The inner part of the male
ninja's arm was exposed, the soft flesh easily cut by a knife that cut through wood.
Now was her chance.
With a slight flash of steel the heavily built ninja bellowed, letting go of her hair as he fell back,
his forearm spurting blood like there was no tomorrow. The little woodcarving knife was razor
sharp, and it had slit open the heavily-built ninja's forearm. It was such a deep wound that it
was even possible for all present to see bone.
Taki did not pause, attacking the only target between her and her ninja-to, the ninja who held her
smithing hammer. He yelled, raising the hammer to strike her, but Taki blocked the motion of his
arms and sank the carving knife into one of his eyes. With a sucessive motion, Taki slammed
her palm at the base of her carving knife's handle, sinking it in deeper into the ninja's eye.
The ninja cried out with pain, his grip on Taki's hammer loosening as he reflexively grabbed at his
eye. Taki caught the hammer and with an angry yell slammed it brutally against his jaw, rewarded
quite audibly by the sound of breaking bone.
The ninja stumbled back, unable to even scream in agony as he grabbed at his mangled jaw.
Taki quickly closed in on him and swung the hammer at the side of his knee. This time she heard
an audible pop that indicated a dislocation of the ninja's knee. Her attacker collapsed to the floor,
grunting in all too obvious pain.
She wasn't going to be captured. She wasn't going to die here. She was never, ever going back
to Toki.... These thoughts crossed Taki's mind as she dove towards the stand for her ninja-to,
desperately reaching for one blade of the two there. Any blade would do, as long as she could
drive these ninja off with it and gain time to escape with both ninja-to she owned.
Her hand grasped Mekki-maru's handle. She could control this one, it was all right, Taki thought.
Just as long as she had either Rekki-maru or Mekki-maru, everything would be alright and she
would get out of here just fine without having to defend herself more than necessary.
Taki drew the cursed blade.
The moment she did, a sensation of pure and absolute rage overwhelmed her.
Taki felt it acting on her emotions, acting on every frustration she'd had and endured these past
eight years. It became very tempting to give in to it, to give total catharsis to just about every
emotion of rage, sadness and frustration.
She'd thought that she'd managed to gain some great degree of control over Mekki-maru, over
the madness it would induce in her.
She thought that all her training to control it had been enough.
But Taki now realized that she was very wrong.
With a scream of pure fury Taki attacked the ninjas she hadn't yet subdued. She began to lose
herself under the spell and promises Mekki-maru seemed to give her. The evil influence of the
sword flooded her senses and all control she had of herself vanished. All that remained was
a strong sense of bloodlust, a desire to maim and utterly destroy.
Taki wasn't sure of what happened next, only that three words echoed in her mind before she
felt the sticky warmth of blood on her skin.
Survive...
Death...
Kill...
Everything after these three words came in fuzzy snippets, almost like visions or even dreams.
Taki was no longer sure of what was real or what wasn't. It was all too confusing for her senses.
All that seemed to remain was Mekki-maru in her hands.
And screaming, screams of terror and pain. She felt more blood on her hands and felt Mekki-maru
cut into someone, rending flesh, cloth and bone. And screaming... just screaming... She could hear
herself screaming in unadulterated rage, and yet she could not feel the yell itself.
Another scream, not her own, met her ears. She didn't care... She didn't care... They should die.
They should die for ending the peace she had gained, the tranquil after all these years. They
should pay... If she couldn't live, if she couldn't be alive, why should they live?
Why should they live the way they wanted if she could not? Why should they even breathe the
same air she did? Why should they even exist? Why should she care about them? Why should
she even be decent towards them? Why... why...
Why?!
Taki sank Mekki-maru into yet another victim, smiling at the terrified cry that only metal severing
flesh over and over could elicit. She was enjoying this.
No! This isn't me! This isn't me... The demon-slaying kunoichi closed her eyes, fighting a different
foe. What's going on... what... who... Mekki-maru... demons... darkness... what...
Was this blood that was coating her face?
Was this her blood or someone else's that she could taste?
Who had she cut down?
What had happened?
Taki began breathing hard as she fought against Mekki-maru's influence, fought to calm her rage
and her survival instinct. She had to know what happened. She had to... had to fight Mekki-maru's
influence. She couldn't give in and turn into those who were her prey. She couldn't... couldn't...
"Hhhh...ahhh.....gghhhh...." Taki closed her eyes, gritting her teeth from the effort of trying to
break Mekki-maru's spell. "Hhhhnnhh!"
Gradually her senses began to return to reality. The demon-slaying kunoichi found herself bent
over Mekki-maru, clutching at the sword tightly as she pressed down on it. Taki raised her head
and opened her eyes, gasping for breath as she felt the evil sword lose its grasp on her. Sweat
cloaked her brow and her hair had come undone of the ponytail she usually bound it in.
Inadvertedly, Taki looked down.
She looked straight into the horror-stricken eyes of the only male ninja she did not recall attacking.
He lay beneath her, his mouth moving as if to scream, but all that came out of his mouth was a
choked gurgle and a good amount of blood as he began to go into shock.
The Mekki-maru-wielding kunoichi soon realized why.
Mekki-maru was imbedded deep in his throat, so deep that the blade had been sunk in all the way
up to the hilt. It pinned him to the floor, so far into his neck that it had actually imbedded itself in
the floor of Taki's workshop. It had severed his windpipe, such that the male ninja was slowly
asphyxiating to death, as the blade had unfortunately missed his jugular.
Taki rose, pulling out Mekki-maru from the ninja's throat as she did. The fellow gurgled some more
then went limp as he died.
Breathing hard, Taki took a good look around her workshop.
Her eyes went wide with horror.
It was as if she had painted the whole place with the blood of her five adversaries. Blood now
began to coagulate on the walls, on the floor, even on her anvil and some of her unfinished
wood carvings.
Toki's servants lay on her floor in varying degrees of evisceration. One kunoichi lay by the
splintered door, her throat slashed open so wide it was a wonder her head was still attached to
her shoulders. She was the least terrible-looking of the lot.
The other kunoichi's head had rolled to just about where Taki's anvil was, the body more or less
intact, which wasn't saying much as the flesh was riddled with terrible, gaping wounds that were
deep enough to reveal bone, almost as if the kunoichi had been on a butcher's block.
The ninja whose arm she had slashed open with her carving knife had his insides strewn all over
her smithing tools. Chunks of flesh surrounded him, obviously his own, judging by the fact that
a good number of his limbs were near bare and their bones visible.
Finally, the ninja whose eye she had stabbed was all over the place, nearly all of his limbs
dismembered from his torso. His remaining eye looked out at the world in pure, consuming terror,
lifeless as it was.
It was a scene she had seen only once in her life, when she had pursued a demon that had been
butchering villagers for both fun and consumption. That such a scene was right in front of her
right now, in her sanctuary of a workshop, made Taki want to puke badly. The scent of now-drying
blood assailing her senses did not help any either.
It was a complete bloodbath.
"Oh, Kami-sama... what have I done...?" Taki struggled to make herself move and pick up
Mekki-maru's sheath. Wiping the blade on her clothes, she slid the cursed blade back into its sheath
with trembling hands and an audible click. The sword did not seem to object, exhibiting no energy
whatsoever that would have stopped Taki from sealing it back in.
Somehow, Mekki-maru had been calmed yet again by human blood.
-------------------------------
Taki breathed in deeply. Such power Mekki-maru had. There was definitely no way she would ever
give it to Toki. If it had acted on her in such a manner and had turned her into what had
mercilessly slaughtered five ninjas, who knew what would result if Toki got his hands on it.
She'd thought of returning to Japan and going after Toki himself after discovering a shard of Soul
Edge among the remains of one of the ninjas she'd killed. But she had reconsidered. It would have
been suicide to do so, and it made more sense to go after the source of the evil sword.
Now she was headed northwards, close to the center of the Ming empire. From there she could
probably make her way across the vast desert to the west via the old Silk Road. Rumors had
been circulating once more that Soul Edge still existed, and the source of such talk seemed to be
the west yet again.
She'd departed soon after killing the five ninjas at her workshop, taking only an extra set of
clothes, her armor, Rekki-maru, Mekki-maru and the small woodcarving knife that had in part
saved her life.
Taki thought about Mekki-maru and how it had managed to overcome her control over it.
Meditating on the question, she'd reached an answer. An answer that she should have realized
so long ago, at least four years back.
An answer she should have realized as she began to carve a figure from a block of pine wood
the length from her wrist to the tip of her middle finger, the width half the breadth of her palm.
She'd begun carving it four years back but had almost forgotten about it until she gathered her
equipment for her departure.
It was there, near her ninja-to in the corner of her workshop, not quite complete yet, as the body
still had to be carved and the head was yet to have hair, but she recognized the face she had
carved into it.
Sophitia.
It was that chord which Mekki-maru had struck to subvert her control over it. It had somehow
discovered that she had much frustration over not being able to be with Sophitia and had
taken advantage of that one chink in her mental armor.
Mekki-maru had taken advantage of her sadness and anger over the circumstances keeping
her from the young Greek she'd fallen for so long ago.
Mekki-maru had also amplified her desire to survive the encounter, to not be taken to Toki, to
not lose the deftness of her hands, but it all boiled down to the fact that she wanted to see
Sophitia and be with Sophitia.
Taki had closed her eyes and had decided to take the little figurine with her. Stuffing it into her
pack, she had quickly left her workshop in the night, certainly under cover of darkness so as
not to alert the village to her absence just yet. Or cause them to discover what had happened
at her workshop.
As she departed, Taki wondered about Sophitia once more and how she was. Had she been
wed to the one she did not love? Had she any children by this person?
Was she, at the very least, happy?
Looking into the face of the wooden effigy of the Greek, Taki sighed quite audibly.
After all these years, she still loved the young Greek.
But again, the circumstances were at their worst. Taki had the overwhelming feeling that there
was no way in hell or heaven that the situation would change and it would be possible to live
a quiet life with the Greek she so loved.
Taki could feel the sadness welling up yet again within herself as she traveled.
----------------------
to be continued...