Sohma Kingdom History, Lesson 4-
The Elin River flows from the Northwestern parts of the Kingdom to the far east, almost completely dividing the country in half. The Sohma Capitol is built right in the middle of the rivers length and relies heavily on its strong currents for travel and trade. The Elin floods yearly though, occasionally creating devastation throughout the entire nation. Ever since the curse the already strong currents of the Elin of picked up turned the entire river into little more than out of control rapids.
Those who are brave enough to ride the untamed Elin for all it's worth find themselves transported directly into the Oni country. The river eventually empties out into the Oaltic Ocean, very close to the charred remains of the Oni capital. The Oni use the river just as much as the Sohma Kingdom do, but in Oni the waters are much calmer and easier to use, just another example of what the witches curse has done to everyone in the Sohma Kingdom.
Chapter 4- The Girl on the Beach
"No Kyo! Don't!" Yuki said as he tackled his relative to the ground, preventing him from slipping off his sacred bracelet.
A bottle then smashed against the back of Yuki's head, he winced in pain and looked down at the nearly-sobbing boy under him. Yuki had never seen Kyo like this, displaying apparent weakness. Yuki scooped up Kyo and began walking away from the angry mob, burdened by the weight of Kyo and the guilt in his own heart. He too had said these hurtful words about Kyo at different points of his life, but isn't that what he was raised to believe? 'No, it's just easier for you to believe that you're better than him because Akito said so, if Kyo's a monster than you're the devil.' The little voice in the back of his head sprang out to say.
"Get that monster out of here!" The chorus of yells from the crowd continued to echo. A large man of about 23 came up and approached Yuki, he smirked and swung his huge fist at Yuki's face. Yuki couldn't react in time because of his burdened and was forced to take the mans punch full swing.
"YEAAAH! Nice one man!" His friends cheered on with looks of bloodlust stuck to their faces. The attacker advanced on Yuki, beating up one of the Sohma brats and the monster-cat, he'll probably be called a hero for weeks to come.
The initial blow caused Yuki to drop Kyo to the ground and fall to his back, he could feel his face swelling up under his left eye. The man walked over to where Yuki had dropped Kyo and gave him a swift kick in the rips, Yuki thought he heard a crack. The man laughed as he struck again and again at the barely conscious Kyo.
"Stop it!" Yuki cried. "You're hurting him!" Yuki leapt towards the man and grabbed his arm, pulled it back in a awkward looking position and broke it like a twig. The man screamed in pain as he quickly countered at Yuki, who then grabbed his good attacking arm and broke that as well. "Let us leave!" Yuki declared to the crowd, who were now quickly advancing on them as Yuki injured one of their own.
Thing like "He's a monster too!" and "Hang 'em!" could be heard from the angry mob. Yuki saw this was not going to be easy.
"Just go…" Kyo said from the ground. His voice was broken and raspy.
"No, I won't abandon you to these savages!" Yuki bent over and scooped up Kyo. "Let us leave before anyone else is hurt!" Yuki declared, and with this declaration four more men from the crowd stepped out to attack. Yuki threw Kyo to safety and drew his Vorpal Blade, cutting the arm off one of his opponents and decapitating another. The other two attackers backed off and the crowd became fearful. Yuki put his blade back in it's shieth, gathered up Kyo and with his remaining energy he dashed out of the rioting village.
In all the confusing Yuki failed to notice where he was fleeing too. The forest stood right outside the village and the Oni had just gotten back. They saw Yuki running out of the town and carrying the boy who had killed so many of their numbers. The soldiers wanted payback and it would be easy to enact on an unconscious boy and his worn-out protector. They waited until Yuki was within the forest's grasp and sprung on him.
Yuki saw an arrow whiz by his head as he entered the dark forest and felt very sick of fighting. He laid Kyo down, noticing that another arrow had made a long slash across his face, another couple of inches and that would have been the end of Kyo. Yuki realized his mistake of entering the forest and again readied himself against the Oni. The three shooters made their way from behind the trees, all brandishing hatchets over their heads. Yuki threw his blade at one of the attackers and it embedded itself in the soldier's chest.
"He's defenseless now! Get him!" The other Oni yelled as they approached the weaponless boy. Yuki swiftly grabbed one of them by the wrist, immediately shattering it. The hatchet fell to the ground as Yuki twisted his opponent's neck. He grabbed the fallen hatchet and swung upwards, slashing the third mans jaw to ribbons. He cast the hatchet aside and pulled his blade from the body of the soldier. Soon more Oni would be upon them, and he didn't know how long he could defend both himself and Kyo.
Yuki again scooped up Kyo and ran further into the woods. Sweat poured from his temples as he raced deeper into the woods, desperately trying to come up with some sort of plan.
"The Elin…it's just up ahead…I can hear it." Kyo said between coughs, his eyes fluttering wildly.
'Of course! I'll just loose them by the river's shore, we'll just wait them out!' Yuki thought as he adjusted his direction towards the faint sound of rushing water. His heart was pounding and he wondered if it was actually loud enough to give away where they were.
Kyo was hacking up blood now, Yuki knew that if he didn't get help soon, they would be in deep trouble. Yuki finally reached the raging waters of the Elin, its cool mist splashing his face. He laid Kyo down on the muddy beach and inspected his wounds, the kicks to his ribs had left his chest multi-colored and swollen, his breathing was shallow and blood trailed from his lips. Bayroot, a plant that grew nearby would relieve some of the pain, Yuki knew that's all he could really hope to do at this time.
He left Kyo near the river to go quickly look for some bayroot. He ran up a little further east and looked under large clumps of dead leaves for what seemed hours until he had found three fat stalks of green bayroot, he yanked them from the ground and made his way back towards where he had left Kyo, but Kyo was no longer alone.
A whole battalion of soldiers were hovering around Kyo's body, their souls greedy for revenge. Yuki knew he could not take on 20 plus soldiers by himself, it would be suicide, but he had to save Kyo!
"Don't any of you move! I'm Yuki Sohma, step away from that boy!" Yuki yelled heroically as he moved closer to the group.
The soldiers turned their heads from Kyo and stared directly at Yuki, some mutterings were heard saying 'THE Yuki Sohma?' and such. Yuki had gained quite the reputation by now for being an Oni killer. One man, Yuki guessed to be the squad's leader stepped out. He wore long black tradition Oni battle robes and spectacles. His hair was long and billowed around him, he was no older than Yuki.
"I am Kaisuke Honda, heir to the Oni Kingdom throne. If you are truly Yuki Sohma then that means you are the heir to the Sohma Kingdom's throne. It can only be fate that has lead us to meet like this." He said as he approached Yuki with a friendly smile.
"Well Mr. Honda, I believe if could only be fate. Now will you please let my…" Yuki gulped and clenched his fists as he said this, "friend go?"
"Let him go? You want us to let this whelp who killed some of my finest men go? What on Earth do you take me for Mr. Sohma?" Kaisuke then reached for the collar of Kyo's shirt and dragged him up.
"Please, he's very hurt!" Yuki was grasping for his Vorpal Blade, 'perhaps if he killed their leader the rest would scatter?' it was a gamble, but it may be his only option.
"Oh I have no doubt about that." And with that same friendly smile he punched Kyo in the gut.
Yuki was at his end, he drew his Vorpal Blade and began to lunge himself towards Kaisuke. "Let him go!" Yuki bellowed.
Kaisuke smiled and said simply, "Ok." And with that he threw him into the Elin, the raging waters swiftly carried his limp body away.
Yuki stared dumbfounded as Kyo was no longer visible anymore, he prepared to jump in after him but Kaisuke was suddenly in front of him, 'faster than a lightning bolt' Yuki thought. "You should probably go after him, I imagine you'd hate for your friend to drown." Kaisuke's smile grew even wider. "Oh and Mr. Sohma, a little something for you to remember me by." Kaisuke then plunged a dagger into Yuki's side and left it there.
Yuki cried out in pain as Kaisuke twisted the dagger and whispered softly in his ear, "Yuki Sohma, I Kaisuke Honda will be the one to kill you." And pushed him in the Elin.
Yuki woke up slowly as usual, there was a dull throb in his side and his body ached all over. He glanced over to his right and he saw that stupid cat, sleeping with his mouth open and making all sorts of strange sleeping noises. He started to take in his surroundings and saw that he had been dragged to where he was, the Elin was about 4 yards away and sand was in his toes. He could he there sounds of waves crashing to the shore and birds singing in the morning sun. There were beautiful palm trees around him. 'Wait, beautiful palm trees! No tree in Sohma could ever be called beautiful!' he thought to himself and realized where the Elin had taken them, the center of Oni country. He tried to get up and move but found the bandages around his waist prevented him from getting up quickly. Bandages?
"Oh I see you've woken up! That's good, I was so worried." The voice of a young girl said. Yuki turned to looked at her, she climbed down from one of the palm trees and was carrying two large coconuts. He hair was short and brown, done up in two pig tails. Her smile was warm and gentle, and her eyes were breathtaking. She wore a simple top that revealed her shoulders and a blue skirt. Yuki couldn't speak, she had been the one who saved them!
"You washed up early this morning and you both badly hurt! I did my best but I'm not sure if it's enough…I'm pretty good at white magic spells so it really wasn't any trouble." She said as she tried to break open the coconuts.
"Excuse me miss, but what's your name?" Yuki said with his normal polite air.
"My name is Tohru Honda! Now I hope you like coconuts because that's really all that's around." She answered as she vigorously tried to break open the coconuts.
"Let me help." Yuki got up slowly and walked over towards.
"On no! You shouldn't! Mom says it's not good if move too much after being so badly hurt!" She said as she tried make Yuki lay back down.
"No, it's okay, let me try." Yuki easily opened the coconut. He suddenly knew it, this was her! This Tohru Honda! This is who we've been looking for, we actually found her, my god!
Yuki wasn't able to contain his smile as he opened the second coconut. "Thank you!" Tohru exclaimed as he handed them back to her, but then he noticed something odd on her right shoulder, a tattoo.
The Onigiri symbol of the Oni kingdom was right on her naked shoulder. Yuki knew enough about the Oni to know that all citizens of Oni get tattoos of a rice ball to signify their heritage. Tohru Honda, the girl they had been searching for, the girl who healed them, was an enemy.