Chapter II

Devil's Will

It was another day, and a beautiful one at that. The red and blue birds sang their song across the province, and it seemed all so peaceful. Aoi was in a good mood. Again he lay on Night's Envy's back while he roamed the meadows. He felt like nothing could spoil his day. He had woken up to a nice day, good breakfast, and a good swordsmanship practice. The sun shone over the Liao province's cities and mountain.

Aoi fell off his horse to the sound of a sudden explosion. He stood up and shook his head. He saw a huge cloud of dust forming from a city, and he heard screaming.

"Envy let's go!" said Aoi. He ran and jumped on his horse. "Go to the smoke!"

He waited anxiously, and looked down to see he hadn't moved at all. His horse was eating some flowers from the green spring-colored meadow.

"Can you pay attention for one minute?! We have to go!!!" said Aoi.

Envy stood around, ignoring Aoi.

"Hate to do this, Envy." Said Aoi.

He dismounted and found a stick, then remounted. He concentrated and the stick formed a small aura, but efficient. He smacked Envy's leg with it and he almost fell off when Envy dashed towards the province.

Aoi used all his strength and pulled himself back up. In minutes he reached the city.

"Envy wait here, alright?" said Aoi.

Aoi dismounted, and Envy ran away.

YOU IDIOT! thought Aoi .

Aoi ran into the city. People were running everywhere, and fires consumed houses. He looked around and saw armed soldiers killing the people.

"Bandits?" said Aoi.

They looked like bandits, and acted like them too. But they wore armor, and painted on the back of them were wolves with one bloody tooth, and the blood was painted black.

There was a small militia but they were defeated easily. A man took up a spear and stood in front of his wife and baby daughter. The soldier smirked seeing the soldier's hand and spear trembling in fear. He took up a sword and attacked viciously, and hit the spear away. He raised his blade high to kill the whelp. But the blade fell along with his body, three arrows in the back. Aoi stood in front of the man and aimed through running people, and fired hitting another bandit.

Aoi looked at the family.

"What are you doing?! Run!" said Aoi.

The man nodded slowly gratefully, and ran with his family.

A group of five bandits charged Aoi. He pulled three arrows from his quiver and shot three down. A bandit took up his sword and slashed down. Aoi blocked with his bow. He kicked the bandit away and rolled away from the other attacker. He pulled an arrow from his arrow from his quiver and shot the attacker down. He looked to his left to see another bandit coming for his head. He pulled another arrow from his bow but the bandit ran and kicked him in the head, pushing him over. He hacked down at Aoi, who used his bow to block the bandit. He was losing the lock, but saw his arrow on the ground next to him. He grabbed it and plunged it into the bandit's heart. Reinforcements came and charged Aoi.

Why are there always reinforcements? thought Aoi.

Aoi unsheathed his sword and readied himself. There were seven spearmen against him. There was one man he could not make out behind them, but Aoi decided to attack him after the bandits.

"You…don't really expect to win, do you?" said Aoi. "I just took out those guys all by myself without a scratch and you think you can win?"

The spearmen looked at each other.

"He's bluffing." said the man behind them. "But if you want to fall for it, it's fine by me."

The spearmen charged Aoi. He sighed and stood back. As they closed in he turned around and jumped off the wall, and spun kick a spearman. He landed on the man's throat and stabbed another man down. He crouched down as two spearmen stabbed at him, and he severed the legs of his attackers. He rolled back but before he could stab up the spears were at his neck. He dropped his blade and put his hands on the ground. The two spearmen smirked and raised their spears to finish him. They thrust their blades forward and Aoi quickly grabbed the poles of both and twisted them, so they would pierce into the ground. He took an arrow and stabbed the attacker, pulled it out and used it on the other. He won again.

The man that was behind them was laying back in a chair against the wall. Aoi grabbed his sword and readied himself.

The man had brown hair on both sides of his face down to his shoulders, and a long, high pony tail. He has an X shaped scar on his left cheek. He had armor on both shoulders and on his chest. He had a red sash on his waist. From his shoulder armor were small red cloth, and he wore a red cape. His boots were red and gold, with golden metal feathers, as were his wrist gauntlets. He had green cloth coming from the back of his boots. His blade was sheathed and he had a strange looking crossbow tied to his waist. The crossbow looked normal but a small metal tank was attacked to the bottom, three inches from the trigger.

"Why don't you fight like a man?" said Aoi, cockily.

"I'm sparing your life, kid. Be happy. Besides I'm only working for the Black Fang for…debt reasons."

"What's your name?"

"Why do you care? You would never live to tell it if I stood up now."

"So what, you have no name? That's sad if you think about it."

"Ugh, fine. My name Is Dangun Jin. Leave now, and you live. Stick around and I'll kill you."

Dangun Jin pulled his right hand over to the blade's hilt on the left side of his waist.

"If you're so confident then attack." Said Aoi.

Jin burst up and slashed his blade at Aoi, expecting a clean killing blow. He blinked in surprise as the attack was blocked.

"Most men would die before they saw my face again." Said Jin.

Aoi ran at him and slashed down at Jin, who held his blade high and negated his attack. As his blade was brought down, Jin grabbed it and slashed across Aoi's stomach. Aoi took the blow and spun around, hacking at Jin's back. Jin lunged to the right and slid. He ran hastily at Aoi and got into a close head-on saber lock.

"So…who's the Black Fang?" said Aoi.

"Don't get involved with them, kid." Said Jin.

Jin pushed hard and broke the lock, winning. He stood over Aoi and roundhouse kicked his blade from his hand. As he was spinning back he pulled his crossbow from his belt and pointed it at Aoi's head.

"Now, don't let this happen again." Said Dangun Jin.

Aoi looked at Jin's sword. It's hilt was golden and it had a red ruby at the start of the blade, and one just above the hilt.

Jin smirked and put his weapons away, and left with the bandits. Parts of the city were in ruin, and children were hiding, crying, weeping. Aoi sighed, and collected his weapons. He saw Envy standing at the doorway.

"Thanks for the help, pal." Said Aoi sarcastically. He walked towards Envy when a child ran and grabbed his leg, crying.

"Please don't leave…" said the child. "I'm all alone now…"

Aoi looked at the little girl's face. He kneeled down to his view and looked at her. He was going to ask where her parents were, but he looked around and assumed they were killed. He let out a big sigh and looked at her weeping face again.

"Look I—" Aoi stopped.

He looked in the corner of his right eye for a few seconds. He grabbed the girl and rolled forward, careful not to hurt the girl. A rider rode quickly through where he was sitting. The warrior jumped off and charged Aoi.

"Leave her alone!" shouted the warrior.

"Wait you---" said Aoi. But he was interrupted by a few swings of a sword, frantically dodging the blows. He unsheathed his sword and smacked the blade away to his right. He jumped to his left and waited.

"Look I don't wan't to---" again Aoi was interrupted by a barrage of hastened attacks. He blocked as many as he could but a blow came diagonally down his chest.

Aoi went onto the offensive and slashed at the warrior, who blocked and almost countered, but Aoi dodged. He continued to attack fiercely until their blades clashed. The two got close, and Aoi grabbed the warrior's blade's hilt and lifted it, then kicked his opponent back.

"Vermin! I'll kill you." Said the warrior.

The warrior was masked under a silvery, grayish robe, along with a mask covering the head.

The little girl ran in front of Aoi and blocked him.

"Leave him alone!" said the little girl.

"But…he attacked you, didn't he?" said the warrior.

"Okay this is a little annoying. Who are you, exactly?" asked Aoi.

The masking and robe was unveiled. Aoi's eyes became wide-open to see a beautiful young woman, around his age. Her hair was cut to her shoulders, and it was a shade of brown and black. She wore an ice-blue colored shirt and matching skirt.

"My name is Kori Kaze….and…I'm sorry…I guess…" she said.

Aoi tried not to stare but he couldn't help it. She was stunning, and plus she was a very good fighter.

"Hello?" said Kori.

"Huh?" said Aoi.

"What happened here?"

"Bandits…or something….and I came to stop them, I took down a couple." Said Aoi, pointing to dead bodies of bandits.

"You did that? You're just a kid!"

"I beat you didn't I? Besides you're about my age."

The two stared at each other for minutes, and Aoi kneeled down to the little girl.

"Where do you live?" asked Aoi.

"I lived here…but they burned my house and I ran, then I saw you and I hid…"

Kori watched Aoi and sheathed her blade.

Aoi sighed and scratched the back of his head, looking around.

"Look…uh…" Aoi begun.

The girl's eyes begun to tear, and Kori continued to watch.

Aoi sighed, and said, "You don't mind living in a small house, do you?"

The little girl's weeping face burst into a smile and she hugged Aoi's stomach. Kori gave a small smile.

Maybe he's not a jerk after all, thought Kori.

The little girl rode with on Envy Aoi, and Kori sat on her own white horse.

"So you seem to be a great fighter taking on those bandits. What do they call you?" asked Kori.

"What?" asked Aoi.

"A nickname?"

"Uh….not…really…"

"They call me Ice Wind."

"Why?"

Kori smiled and rode closer to Aoi. She put her hand on Aoi's shoulder and stared at it, in seconds ice begun forming on it. She removed her hand and the ice melted in the warm sun.

Aoi held out his palm and closed his eyes. They begun tightening and a ball of dark fire formed in Aoi's hand. He held it for a short while before it was consumed by the wind.

Aoi and Kori talked for a while longer. Five minutes after they stopped it became quiet. Aoi looked at the little girl. She glanced every short while at the burning city.

"So…tell us about yourself." Said Kori.

The little girl looked at her and said, "Well…my name's Zhou Liu. My foster parents were killed in the attack but I know my father is a famous war man. He went to join the Sun family's army and made me stay with that family."

Zhou Liu was a girl around the age of seven. Her hair was long and black and had the side of it pulled outward. Her clothing was sun orange and white.

"Teach me to fight." Said Zhou Liu.

"What?"

"Teach me to do what you did to those bandits!"

"No, it's dangerous."

"I can be just as strong as you!"

"It's still no."

"….Please?"

"No."

"…Now?"

"No!"

"How about now?"

"Sure."

"Really?"

"No."

The conversation continued until Aoi stopped answering. Liu continued to ask but eventually stopped. It was not long before they reached Liaozhong. Kori looked around at peasant men eyeing her, obviously wanting to hit on her. She held in a grimace, so she wouldn't be rude, and simply turned her head forward.

They stopped at Aoi's house. It looked no better on the outside than in. In the front was a fire pit, two small metal poles sticking up and one sharp metal stick to hold his food on.

A guard walked into Hex Wolf's room and kneeled respectfully.

"Lord Dangun Jin is here." Said the guard.

"Bring him in." replied Hex Wolf.

The room was glorious and large. It had red carpet over the stone floor and decorations all over the room. Dangun Jin stepped in and looked around.

"Nice place." Said Jin, laying back in a chair with his feet on the table. "Even bigger than mine."

Hex Wolf glared at Jin. He had always hated him but he was a strong warrior, who was a recruit to the Black Fang only by debt.

"Did you kill them?" asked Hex Wolf.

"I didn't feel like it." Said Dangun Jin.

Hex Wolf burst out of his chair and unsheathed his blade. He reached Jin very quickly and put the blade across his neck.

"My hand is a tremble away from bloodshed." Said Hex Wolf.

"Do it, because you know you want to. You hate me." Said Jin, smiling. "Oh wait, you can't bring yourself to. I'm your best general!"

"Nonetheless I would slit your throat in a second."

Dangun Jin looked down at the blade and back up.

"Good job." Said Jin.

Hex Wolf was furious. He removed the blade and kicked his head over. Jin rolled quickly and pulled out his crossbow. Hex Wolf put his blade back on Jin's neck, and Jin had pointed his crossbow to Hex Wolf's forehead.

"All I have to do is pull the trigger, and I could end this all." Said Jin.

"I would cut your throat before you had the chance."

Jin put his finger on the trigger, and Hex Wolf tightly gripped his blade…