Memory
Chapter XVII: Kuroi
By Salamon2
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Hello everyone! Did you recognize that last section of the last chapter? Yeah… It was Touchi's Dream he had while he was healing from the effects of the Sea of Memory. Will the other dreams happen? Only time will tell… only time… he he… Anyway, I see you guys appreciated the three in a row update… that's good to hear… now if only the reviews would be higher… Yes Salamon? What is it?
Salamon2 doesn't own Digimon. NOW YOU CAN CONTINUE TYPING! I'M ADDICTED TO THIS STORY!
Salamon… calm down… please…
NO I WON'T! TYPE!
ALRIGHT! ALRIGHT! Don't Puppy Bark me!
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"Keep Running Kari!" cried a red haired girl
"Okay Sora!" shouted Kari without thought, and she continued, but she couldn't go too far, and ended up pounding on a door. The girl tripped, and a young blonde boy, similar to Takevi when he had been under the Sea of Memory's affect was there, again.
"I want you to promise me something T.K…." said Sora
"What Sora?" asked the boy. Kari continued to pound on the door.
"That you'll take care of Kari…" said Sora
"But what about-" started the boy, who was interrupted by a laugh, not too far away.
"Promise me T.K…." said Sora
"Alright Sora… I promise…" said T.K.
"Good… Now go!" said Sora
"But Sora…" said T.K.
"Just GO!" shouted Sora, and T.K. hesitantly left the girl and ran closer to Kari. Suddenly, when T.K. stood next to her, the door opened, and they found themselves on a balcolny, with a basket, they looked over, and they couldn't go down without being killed, so they looked in the basket, and a rope traveled up. T.K. made Kari go first, T.K. followed, and out came the mist with red eyes, from the castle they had been in, it rose and surrounded Kari, and the boy seemed not to take notice of it.
"It's coming… he won't be able to stop me… and you won't be able to stop me from hurting him…" said the mist, staring directly into Kari's eyes, and suddenly Kari found herself falling, into darkness.
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Kari snapped back into reality, she had drifted off to sleep on the rocking galleon. She had been on one before when she was little, her parents had rented a sail boat and they had sailed through the Ryuku Islands, all she remembered from that was rough seas that made her seasick, the sea mist, and cold temperature. All of those things had given her pneumonia, which she did not recover from until she was eight, that time period was all hazy, fuzzy memories of a boy with large brown hair similar to the King of Kaymia were in there somewhere, but she didn't recognize the boy at all. All that she remembered of the summer of when she recovered, was a white cat, which was very strange, Miko wouldn't had permitted the cat in the apartment, but like most of her childhood memories it was a weak fuzzy one.
At least on her last boat ride she had been on they had had Dramamine to lessen her seasickness. Kari ran for a port and up came her breakfast, she definitely wasn't a big boat person. Small row boats she could handle, but sail boats and up made her seasick by just looking at them.
Takevi came downstairs hearing his wife's movements. She was laying down now, a seasick look was a boat her face, he sat down in a chair next to the bed. He held her hand, and looked lovingly into her eyes. She looked back with the same emotion in her eyes. She really appreciated his presence. Both of them were saddened by the disappearance of his brother, and were grieved at the thought of leaving him in Takenouchi, but Digitopia had invaded almost all of the coastal Islands… and Takevi needed to be at the front, and Kari would not leave him. But the night of his disappearance still was fresh in both minds, and replayed continuously in their dreams.
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Kari was walking down a hall, it was dark, it wasn't too far to Touchi's room, but far enough. All of the torches had been extinguished for the night, and Kari's only source of light was the moon from windows, and a single candle. She came to the chamber, and knocked on the door. It slide open slightly, and was unlocked. Kari opened the door, only to find the window open, and nothing in the room. Kari out and down the window, it was a long fall, and if he did fall, he'd be dead by now, and she'd see his body down there. His body though was not there, and nothing else was in the room. Kari though heard crying, so she turned around, and closed the door, only to find the Salamon. Kari picked up and held the crying puppy close to her, her candle flickered on the window sill.
"Salamon? Where are Touchi and Tokomon?" asked Kari
"Touchi… left… on a Devimon…" said Salamon through her sobs.
"He left! What's a Devimon?" asked Kari
"The evil form of Angemon!" said Salamon, who cried harder. Kari held the Digimon close to her and left the room, running towards her chambers.
"TAKEVI! TAKEVI!" screamed Kari as she picked up the pace.
"TAKEVI! TAKEVI!" shouted Kari running into the room.
"What is it Kari!?" asked Takevi who sat in a chair in the sitting room.
"Your Brother… is… gone!" panted Kari
"WHAT!" screamed Takevi, and the crying Salamon continued to cry.
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"Now is the time… we can't wait for the crests to activate on their own!"
"We can't release it, the lever won't move…"
"Then unless the situation changes, The Digital World, and all of the parallel worlds, are doomed…"
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"Tell me a story about The Digital World… It'll help keep me mind off this seasickness and your brother's disappearance…" said Kari.
"Alright, let me think… The Owlmon and the Gatomon? No… or how about the story of Kuroi? Yeah… that's a good one…" said Takevi, thinking out loud, and then he paused to clear his throat.
"Long ago, when the Eleven were only on their third generation of fighters…" said Takevi
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"Gooden sir, would you please give us lodging, while traveling through the forest when we were attacked by a band of Gypsies and one of our group was injured…" said a girl clothed in a green robe with a blue sash. She had very light brown hair, and blue eyes.
"Of course…" said a man, in his very early twenties, he had a very light, almost white colored hair, and the deepest blue eyes imaginable. He opened his door further, allowing the group ten to carry in their sick comrade. They were followed by five small girls, all dress in green robes with white sashes. He led them to his basement, where they could stay and heal the injured girl. He left them to get blankets and food for them.
"Why must we hid our identity from him?!" shouted Sotora, who was a purple haired girl with blue eyes.
"We do not know if he is a spy for them!" shouted Meai, the one who had asked the man for lodging.
"Well the important thing is we got a place where Takaia can heal…" said Mya, a lavender haired and brown eyed girl.
"But one of us will have to stay with her while the other nine hunt down those men who practically destroyed the Nyaromon Village…" said Taicha, a dark brown haired and eyed girl.
"It looks like she broke her leg… or twisted her ankle… I can't tell until she wakes…" said Jyoda, a blue haired and eyed girl.
"It looks like we might be here up to six months…" moaned Iora, a brown haired and eyed girl.
"What about us Sensei?' asked a small hooded girl.
"We need you five to explore the forest for us…" said Yamna, the eldest, and soon to retire of the eleven. She had blonde hair and blue eyes.
"Aww… Why do we always get stuck with the SPY jobs…" said another small girl.
"Hey, most kids your age would deal with the devil to go on one spy job!" said Mya
"Everything what you need?" asked the man, returning.
"Yes thank you very much…" said Meai, taking the provisions from him.
He started to head back up the stairs when he said "You know I never met the eleven before…" The girls were in shock.
"How did you-" started Iora
"I could hear you through the floor boards…" said the man.
"Then you know what we must do?" asked Jyoda, the man came down the stairs and faced them.
"Yes, go now… I'll look after the girl, go catch those men…" said the young man, and without a moment's notice, all but the injured girl vanished up the stairs. He came to the unconscious girl and started wrapping her leg in a cloth tied very tightly, and close to her skin. He also cleaned her bruises and cuts. She remained still for days, he fell in love at the first glance of her face, it showed her emotions, as though it were an open book to her soul. He could tell she was a kind fair, friendly person, who wouldn't give up easily.
And each day he nursed the unconscious girl, while the others searched for the men, who were rumored to have a camp in the woods somewhere, but so far all tries to find it were futile. The others had only come back once to check on the girl, but other than that they had stayed out in the expansive forest.
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"Wait a minute! I thought this was the story of Kuroi!" said Kari
"We have to begin the story with his parents or the rest of the story does not make too much sense… there would have to be explanations along the way and it would be a big mess!" said Takevi
"Okay then… please continue…" said Kari. Takevi sighed and concentrated trying to find his place in the story. "And then what happened?" asked Kari impatiently.
"I don't know… the story never went into too much detail around this point, at least I never paid this much attention to it at this point… she did have a sprained ankle… She was taking care of by the young man for a week or so, at first she was annoyed with him, but grew to be friendly with him in time.
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"So… what's your name… dear god it's been nearly a week and I don't even know that! And how did you manage to end up out here, far from the city?" asked the girl, trying to be kind to her caretaker to make up for her harsh remarks earlier in the week.
"I am Iano… I was found by the hermit, who used to live here. When I was a babe he found me in the wood, and has raised me to be his own son, he died not too long ago…" said Iano, forlornly.
"Oh I'm sorry…" said the girl, and both of them were silent for a while, the boy dared not look upon her face, but she couldn't help herself, she starred at his beauty, so much like her country's facial qualities were renown for, light blonde hair, and angelic blue eyes. She noted the muscles from hard labor, and simple clothing, he at the same time reflected the child he had been, and she had a large heart for downhearted children all around the digital world. She saw in him the loneliness of being raised by an old man, and the longing for him to know who he really was. She then broke the silence "if it's any consolation… I never knew my parents either… of course since you knew what I am a part of, you already knew that…" said the girl, who paused before saying "I am Takaia de Takaishi.
And so, as they waited for the others to return, they began a friendship, and Takaia slowly became evermore attached to the young man. A week and a half had passed before any sign of the rest of the eleven came. The group of girls came running into the field Iano and Takaia were talking in. Their clothes were ragged and torn, as well as bloodied, but amazingly they weren't mortally wounded, just a few cuts and scrapes that had bled slightly.
"HURRY! INSIDE!" shouted Daia and Iano led them to and inside his cottage, closing and locking the door behind him. He brought them downstairs, and they looked for somewhere to hide, he suddenly remembered, and pulled on a book on a bookshelf in the corner, and it opened as a door, showing a smaller room inside.
"Let me guess, you're an Underground Digimon Slave Railroad supporter?" asked Takaia as they all hid in the room.
"You've guessed it! What are you running from?" asked Iano
"YOUR KING!" cried Sotora. And Iano nodded, not really understanding the circumstances, and closed the bookshelf leaving the girls with only a single torch as light. The floor was covered in hay, and was muddy underneath the hay.
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"Wait a minute! What's the Underground Digimon Slave Railroad?" asked Kari
"A group of homes leading out to the wilderness where Digimon can escape and travel from house to house until they wind up in the wilderness, and are free from there…" said Takevi
"Ohh… I see… go on…" said Kari
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Upstairs he sat down and looked out his window over his bed, it faced the forest, and from the forest he saw a scout riding on horseback, he circled the cottage, looked in all directions and returned to the forest. Iano then snuck down into the basement. He let the girls out from their hiding spot.
"He's gone!" said Iano, and Takaia ran out to Iano and they hugged for the frustration was slightly elevated. The girls noticed this exchange and came out and filled the room, some gasped at what Iano did next, and he kissed her on the forehead, and then left her.
"TAKAIA!" screamed the girls after the boy had left.
"He kissed me…" said the bewildered girl.
"ARE YOU IN LOVE?!" asked Meai crossly.
"I don't know…" said Takaia in a small voice, looking off into space, trying to put pieces of the puzzle together.
"The question isn't that hard! Are you in love?" asked Taicha forcefully.
"I didn't even know what it was… but now I realize it's been happening so suddenly-" said Takaia
"We have to leave tomorrow then… at dawn!" said Taicha
"Why not tonight? The sooner the better…" said Mya
"That's what he, the king of this land, wants us to do… by dawn they'll have fallen asleep… giving us our chance for escape…" said Meai.
Later that night, Takaia escaped upstairs from the rest of the eleven who were sleeping. She wanted to talk to Iano, to discuss what had happened that afternoon, she found him in his bed reading a book by candle light.
"Takaia, what's wrong?" asked Iano before she just fell on him, emotion just oozing out of her, she cried, and held on to him tightly. He didn't know what to do, but tried putting comforting arms around the stressed girl. He shushed her and rocked her back and forth, like a parent would for an upset child. After a minute of this they looked into each other's eyes.
"Iano… tomorrow… we'll be leaving… we might never-" started Takaia
"Shh…" said Iano trying to get her mind off of the emotions that caused this pain.
"No… I have to say this… I don't know what I'm going to do tomorrow… if I go I don't know if I could just leave you if you know what I mean, it's just like who I once was has been erased, and now I'm a new person entirely! And this new me… just can't go, without you… if you understand…" said Takaia confounded by her own words.
"You're in love… just like I am with you… ever since I saw you… you looked so beautiful… and I just have to admit, when I got to know you, you're personality matched… and I don't know… I just knew… that I was in love with you…" said Iano. And his right hand and her right hand grabbed one another, they both felt an electric feel when they touched, and they both knew.
They would never see each other again, and in the moment, their lips met. And that night is where the story of Kuroi actually begins…
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"WELL??" asked Kari impatiently, as if expecting the rest of the story.
"Don't you need rest?" asked Takevi slyly.
"Just continue the story! I can rest later!" said Kari anxiously.
"Alright then…" said Takevi
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The next morning, at dawn, Takaia awoke from Iano's bed, realized what time it was, and dressed. She crept downstairs to find her companions asleep, awoke them, and led them upstairs to make their escape. They were just about to open the door when they could see outside a group of riders exiting the forest from the window over the bed that Iano blissfully slept in. The riders came out of the forest as if they were water flooding the land.
"Quick! Back into the basement!" exclaimed Menai, and they scurried down the steps, and closed the door behind them, and hide behind the bookcase, using a handle on their side to pull it shut when they were all inside.
The head rider rode up to the door, he was dressed in brilliant golden armor, and had long flowing golden hair, and crystalline blue eyes. He dismounted his mount and marched up to the door. He then shouted as he pounded on it "OPEN UP! BY ORDER OF THE KING OF TAKAISHI!"
Iano, who had been asleep, got up, realized Takaia was gone, and that he himself needed clothes to address the knocker. He grabbed his grimy and patched beige shirt, pulled up his muddy pants, and then he pulled his belt tight. He then walked over to the door and opened it to see a fiery elder man.
"Have you seen the eleven recently?" asked the head rider, his hair had puffs of gray in it.
"Who wants to know?" asked Iano defensively.
"Your King!" said the man indignantly.
"I am sorry your majesty! I did not rec-" started Iano, bowing.
"Never mind that! Have you seen the girls?" shouted the King.
"I saw them a week ago, but they then vanished! I think they went to help at the local Nyaromon Village which has recently been under attack of a local Wolfmon.
"We destroyed the village at the beginning of the week!" said the King
"You've what!" exclaimed Iano
"After finding this! Nineteen years ago my eldest son was kidnapped wearing this! We were recently traveling near the village, and I found this in it with dried blood next to it, and I assumed they had been the ones to kidnap him and kill him… probably from my harshness towards Digimon Slaves…" said the King holding a fancily decorated blanket.
"But that's mine… I gave it to the Nyaromon recently since I no longer had a use for it… when I had left it I had cut my hand, and some blood had spilt…" said Iano
"Where did you come across it?! Well tell me!" cried the King furiously
"That is something the old hermit that found me in when I was only a baby…" said Iano. And with this said the old man's eyes widened as all the pieces of the puzzle fell together.
"My… my… son…" said the King. Both the King and Iano were in shock, for both had wondered whether the other had lived for the past twenty years.
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"My gosh! But wait… if he was the eldest son of Takaishi… and she was from Takaishi… that means they were brother and sister!" cried Kari
"Correct…" said Takevi
"My god!" said Kari in a disgusted tone; she covered her mouth as though she were sick.
"Well to continue the story, Takaia was pregnant, and in a few short months, the others knew it as well. They excommunicated her from the group, and she didn't know where to go, so she traveled to the lonely isle of Tarel, a small island consisted of freed Digimon, and had been given their own rule but were still under The King of Takaishi, many centuries ago. It was also one destination for Digimon Slave runaways as well. She stayed with a group of Gommamon, who out of pity took her in, and she had the child there, in a small village named Takeh. She left the child in the Digimon's care, and then traveled to Kaishita, the capital of Takaishi at the time" said Takevi
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As Takaia entered the capital, she was met by it silence, the entire place seemed to be abandoned, but soon she saw a man, running out of his story and down a street, and she followed the man until she came to a square where she saw the entire capital had gathered around what sounded like a young man mourning. She pushed herself to the front of the crowd, only to be met by a battle axe pointed at the crowd, keeping them back, behind the solider was Iano, a mourning Iano laying over the dead King of Takaishi, their father. One of the guards held a green cloaked figure; she then recognized as Menai, she was holding a bloodied knife.
"He deserved to die! He annihilated hundreds of innocent Digimon!" shouted Menai forcefully. The crowd was in shock at the death of their King. A surgeon checked the King's pulse, and then stood.
"The King is dead… Long live the King…" said the surgeon, and everyone bowed to the shocked Iano. He looked around, and starred at Menai, and was infuriated. He had been getting to know his family, and now one of the people he had been trying to get to know was dead. His anger then wanted to rage out at the first person he saw looking him in the eyes, and then he saw Takaia.
"You can tell the rest of your group… that while I am King they may not enter the entire Kingdom of Takaishi! Or else I will personally kill each and every last one of them! And that includes you sister!" cried Iano ferociously. His eyes sparked with an evil presence behind them, and that scared Takaia. She ran from the bowing crowd, tears forming in her eyes. Thoughts of hatred towards her surrounded her and it tore at her soul. She though obeyed her brother though that night, and never again set foot on Takaishi again, nor any place else, she wrote a message to her son, and asked a mail rider to deliver it to Takeh on Tarel, and then walked out of the capital, using a rope she had also bought, tied it around a branch, using a log to step up, tied a knot securely around her neck and jumped off the log. She was found by soldiers the next morning, who brought her body to the King. She had been abandoned by duty and love. Iano, was grief stricken, although he had threatened her with death, his anger had spoken, and he had not actually meant it. He spent the rest of his years locked up in his chambers, until twenty years later the door was unlocked, and the King was found hung. His younger brother then became King…
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Kari cried using part of her dress to dry the tears.
"Too tragic? Well then you might not like the rest of the story…" said Takevi.
"Just continue…" said Kari brushing her tears away.
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Meanwhile, the Gommamon raised Takaia's child, and eventually heard word of her death. They raised him like one of their own, but as he grew older he noticed his difference, but was able to understand the Digimon's point of view. He was called Kuroi by the other Digimon for his cruel treatment of small mammals that weren't Digimon, like common Rabbits, that no one could explain how they had gotten there. Kuroi eventually traveled from the place he called home, and traveled into the Kingdom of Takaishi. He looked a lot like his father, he had very light hair, but his eyes were red, and pigment less, he was what others called an albino. His preferred color of clothing was black; he wore black pants, with a black long sleeved shirt, and always wore a black cape. In his travels he noticed the unfair treatment of Digimon as slaves, he didn't like the idea to begin with, so he turned his attention to giving the slave owner's their just reward, he would entice a slave owner's daughter with his good looks, and take them into the local Inn thinking they were about to share a night of love, but instead he used the tortures he had practiced on rabbits on the girls, and he left the bodies on the beds. It was a disgusting site to see, and all across the southern provinces of the Kingdom he went from town to town and did the same pattern. No one ever caught him, for he was several miles away by the time they discovered the bodies. The Gommamon had given him before he had left the note his mother had written before her death. It was marked from Kaishita, so he traveled to there, and came before the capital records building.
"Excuse me… I'd like to check for a record of a deceased person…" he said using his charm on the female clerk.
"What year and name?" asked the woman flirtatiously.
"Twenty years ago, Takaia…" said Kuroi.
"Last name?" asked the woman.
"She has signed here… de Takaishi…" said Kuroi looking at the paper.
"Ahh… here it is… Princess Takaia de Takaishi…" said the woman.
"Princess?" asked Kuroi with interest.
"Yes… according to this obituary, she was one of the eleven, and then was excommunicated due to breaking one of their oaths…" said the woman
"Which one?" asked Kuroi curiously.
"Having a child…" she said.
"Does it say who the father was?" asked Kuroi
"It says some peasant named Iano… let me check that for you…" said the woman and several minutes later the woman was shocked.
"What is it?" asked Kuroi
"There is only one person listed here under the name of Iano, it's listed as a nickname of our King! The slut!" cried the woman, Kuroi then attacked the woman, and he was offended by what the woman said of his mother. He snapped her neck, killing her instantaneously. He then ran out of the building, his mind trying to absorb the new information he had received. His rage developed more and more, and then he looked up, to the King's palace, and he knew what he wanted to do. That night he climbed up the wall, a technique he had learned living with Digimon, and looked in each room, found an empty one, and climbed in. He then explored the castle, and listened for servants going to the King, he followed one, and saw which door it was. He then went into the room next to it, luckily also closed, and climbed the ledge until he came to his father's room. He waited until the servant left, and then burst into the room, shocking the King. The latter reached for a bell to call a servant up, but Kuroi jumped up and blocked the King's way to the cord.
"Who are you!" cried the King.
"What! Don't you even recognize your own son?" asked Kuroi evilly.
"What!" exclaimed the King.
"That's right… you got your sister pregnant and I'm the result! How did it happen!" barked Kuroi
"Well… I didn't know she was pregnant…" stammered Iano.
"Newsflash she was!" said Kuroi
"It had to have happened the night before we realized that I was the prince of Takaishi…" said Iano hastily.
"What?" asked Kuroi curiously.
"I had been kidnapped when I had been young I had been kidnapped, and raised by an old hermit on the edge of the wood. One day your mother was brought to me injured and as I took care of her we suddenly grew to love one another, until… it just happened…" said the King to his son.
"So you're saying that Love just overcame the two of you and then the next day you found out oops you're brother and sister!" said Kuroi putting the pieces together.
"Yes… and what's worse is I think I even contributed to her death… you see a few months later she came back, just preciecly the day your grandfather was assasigned by one of your mother's former comrades, I hadn't known she was excommunicated so I took out my fury on her… and the next morning they found her outside the city hanging from a rope…" said Iano, and suddenly Kuroi overtook the royal, rage overcoming the younger man. He knocked his father unconscious, and made him pay for what had happened to his mother by hanging him, making it look like suicide.
But the rage stirred within Kuroi would not stop there, so he took it out on each and every member of his family, he organized a group of Slave Digimon angry with the human dominancy, and easily convinced them to uprise. Using his new army he invaded the capital and overtook the palace, finding each aunt and uncle and killing them and their children. The town was set on fire as to distract the people of the town from the screams from the palace. He finally came down to killing the last aunt when he came across two young boys.
"Prepare to die young ones!" shouted Kuroi, rage controlling him.
"Don't kill us… we are but servants!" screamed the younger of the two.
"How do I know this isn't a lie?" asked Kuroi
"You need servants if you're going to take over..." said the older.
"And we can be those!" added the younger
"Long live the King!" exclaimed the older
And they were placed as servants. And the rule of Kuroi lasted for a week, for the boys had tricked the new King, they were actually his last living cousins, they poisoned is food, and in the morning the new King was found dead by an ever curious public, and the two boys claimed sovereignty. But some say that although the body of Kuroi was killed, the rage that had engulfed him, and now swears to destroy every last living family member of The Takaishis.
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"The End…" finished Takevi, and there leaning against his chest was his wife tired head, she had just fallen asleep, and rightly so, the story had taken several hours to tell, and it was now well past midnight. He kissed her on the forehead and then stood and placed her head on her pillow, walked to the door, and said silently to himself "sleep well my wife… for the war that is yet to come is nothing yet compared to the bloodshed Kuroi did.
To Be Continued…