Ren's eyes opened, then immediately closed at the bright light streaming through the window. She was not even hungover and her head was throbbing from the force of the sunlight. She pinched the bridge of her nose and turned away from the window with a groan.
If this was the afterlife, it was to bright; that bird was to annoying to be here and there was a severe lack of spear fighting so far.
Disappointing really.
Wait a second…
Ren opened her eyes again. This looked like a hospital. She looked at the curtain as her most recent fight filled her mind. Slowly, Ren reached down under the hospital shirt to where the sword had impaled her and ran her fingers gently along the bandages as she used her other arm to help herself sit up. Her hand felt bruised from the IV drip in her hand causing Ren to move much slower then she usually would. She wiggled her toes experimentally, suppressing a whimper of pain from her left foot and the muscles of her leg. Right, she had hurt that too.
It was so strange to have physical pain.
She leaned back, resting her back on the wall and moving her hands to rest protectively over her stomach wound. Her gaze drifted to her bedside table where Ren saw a vase of flowers, Ren did not know enough about flowers that she could say what they were, but they were a pretty violet color. Propped against the vase was her picture of her and Juro. Ren was surprised that had survived her fight. Juro had his hand on her shoulder and ten year old Ren was beaming at the camera with a toothy smile. That time of her life felt so long ago, like another lifetime.
Ren wondered where Kai was. He had better not be dead. If he was, she would kill him.
Ren had an inkling that the hospital room she was in was rather nice beyond the privacy curtains. It had a crisp, sterile smell to it and her bed was right next to a window. If she could move the curtain, she might be able to people watch and alleviate some of her boredom.
Where was her spear?
"Ugh…" Ren rolled her eyes. "How long have I been asleep?"
"About three days," a chipper voice from the other side of the curtain caused Ren to scream. The curtain opened to reveal Kai in some new and old clothes holding a very familiar looking weapon.
"Did you fix my spear?"
Kai nodded, before giving the weapon to Ren. She set it down next to her on the bed and held out an arm for Kai, who wasted no time throwing his arms around her neck.
"I wasn't sure you were going to wake up…"
"You think some punk ronin was going to kill me? Yeah, right." Ren hugged him back; probably squeezing the kid harder then was necessary. "You're okay, right?"
"Yeah, I'm fine." Kai laughed as he stepped back, Ren managing to ruffle his hair as he did so. "That girl with the dango hair, her name's Tenten and she took me to a local bladesmith to fix your spear. She said he's the best in Konoha."
"And how would she know that?"
"She's a shinobi, a weapon master. I think she has every weapon ever made!"
Well, that might give someone some credentials.
Ren picked up the spear and examined it closely, "I'll be the judge of that." Ren was picky about bladesmiths, a few too many used low quality iron and bragged about skills they did not have perfected. Ren knew enough about the smithing business to not get scammed by an overeager salesman.
She carefully pulled the sheath off to examine the replacement blade. The blade looked perfect, a copy of the original. Ren carefully placed the pad of her thumb on the sharp edges, she could feel the difference, the spear blade was strong and tapered off to a fine sharp point. Perfect for delivering devastating puncture wounds and slicing at her opponents over a range. Ren flicked the blade as hard as she could with a finger, listening to the ringing vibration that emanated from the blade. This was exceptional work.
"Okay, maybe she does know her stuff."
Kai looked smug.
Ren adjusted her hold on the spear, double checking the balance and weight distribution. With a slow release of breath, Ren focused on sending her chakra from the shaft to the spearhead. It took a moment, but the spearhead began to spark and crackle with Ren's chakra energy.
Perfect!
"I have your kodachi, too." Kai pulled it out of his own cloth belt that reminded Ren of her own. Actually, Ren was pretty sure that was her coat he was wearing.
Ren waved her hand dismissively. "Keep it."
"Huh?" Kai fumbled with the sheathed sword for a moment before regaining his senses. "A-are you sure, Shishou?"
"Keep it, you've earned it." Ren smiled and it was the brightest she had smiled in months. "I think recent events have proven that I won't always be there to protect you."
Kai blushed. Ren laughed heartily before her demeanor grew more serious.
"You need spear of your own that's a bit more durable then that staff was, you also need something smaller then a pole arm for close quarter combat. If you're that concerned about me, I'll pick up a bokken to replace it when we get out of here."
"Replacing a blade with a wooden practice sword? What sense does that make?"
Ren shrugged, "Weapons don't always have blades."
Kai nodded, seeming to take in the wisdom she was imparting. It was also cheaper, but Kai did not need to know that.
"Oh, the workmen returned your clan sash, too," Kai held out the cloth belt Ren had used to avoid getting electrocuted during her fight. It was in surprisingly good shape. "And I got some clothes for you out of the donation box."
"Thank you so much!" Ren noting the small pile of clothes in a nearby chair as she began to fumble with the IV to get ready to take it out like Juro had taught her during a hospital job. "Anyway, how did I get here?"
"I found a doctor who got you here on a giant slug, her name is Sakura and she is really nice!"
Giant slug… Maybe she and Kai had taken a few to many hits to the head. Now, whose concussion delusion was she in?
"That's nice," Ren hissed as she removed the IV, shaking out her hand to try and alleviate the sting. "Now help me up so we can get out of here."
Kai looked confused, "That's not healthy Ren."
"The kid has a point." A small old woman stepped into the room, holding a vase of flowers and reaching for her hip flask. Her large shawl reached to her knees in a pattern that was homespun and spoke of a very wet homeland judging by the pattern of water birds upon it. Her snow white hair was up in a bun."Perhaps you should stay in bed a bit longer."
Ren raised an eyebrow at Kai, who shrugged in confusion.
The woman hobbled over to the bed, placed her vase of flowers on Ren's bedside table next to the one that was already there and sat in an empty chair next to the bed.
"When we spoke at the tournament, you never mentioned you had taken a student." The old woman smiled wryly. Ren's eyes widened in recognition. "People who don't travel think all foreigners look alike, judging by your shared eye shape, slight statures and accents, you both must come from the same place." She gave Ren a wry smile, "As good as one of you is at hiding it."
"How-?"
"Your pronunciation of some words is a bit to forced to be natural, like this is a second language for you."
Oh, Shinju was good.
"He sounds like a cat with a hairball."
"Thank you?" Kai still looked confused.
Ren gave the boy a steely stare to keep him quiet.
Shinju leaned back in the chair and looked the part of a pensive counselor. She propped her elbow on the arm of the chair and examined Ren with a calculating stare. With that look, Shinju was assessing her in every way one would examine a tool before battle, Ren had seen that look in Juro's eyes many times growing up as he checked his kama scythes before a job. Whatever had brought Shinju here; it did not bode well for Ren.
"I've been hearing stories, stories of a spear master from a far off land who's been raising all kinds of hell for war profiteers and aspiring warlords all over the elemental nations over the last several months. There are so few people who practice sojutsu in this part of the world, shinobi find spears impractical, too much like samurai for them to feel comfortable to use it as a primary weapon. You really are something very special."
Ren's jaw clenched, "How about you get to the point."
Shinju sighed, "My people need your help."
"Why me? You seem a very capable fighter, despite your age."
Shinju laughed. "Age and cunning will always need to be balanced by youth and skill." She pulled out a very fat wallet that looked like an owl and placed it on the bedside table. "These are my winnings from the tournament, if you come help us, all of it is yours."
"Sorry Shinju, but Kai and I are doing good with the money I got from second place. Right Kai?"
Kai's eyes looked the size of ramen bowls. "Well… Actually…"
Ren blinked.
"I had to spend it all to fix your spear… So…"
"What…?"
"We have no money."
"You spent all my money?"
Kai blushed, "Seemed a shame to have you walking about with a fancy stick…"
Right back where she started a week ago. Ren could just scream. Though, she also could not say she would have done any differently, maybe not spent all of it, but half at least.
Shinju had covered her mouth with her hand to laugh quietly. Horrid old woman. Bet she knew all about them having no money again before she came in here.
Ren heaved a put upon sigh that left her wincing as she irritated her stomach wounds. "Okay, Shinju, why me? Why not hire a team of shinobi for the price you are willing to pay?"
There was a moment of silence as Shinju picked up the photograph of Ren and Juro off the bedside table. She examined it closely and Ren felt her muscles tighten, preparing her to spring as if she were under threat. Shinju turned the picture around, noted the date on the back and put it back on the bedside table as she had found it initially.
"You have already been there. You stood up to that gangster trafficking children out of my city and burned four of his boats in his own harbor. I believe you will rip out this monster root and stem the way a shinobi never would, because if I am right, you see yourself in those children." Shinju gave Ren a knowing look and Ren felt herself grow cold with the realization. The old woman's voice dropped to something just over a whisper. "After all, a normal woman would not have survived a seven pronged assault unless she had some sort of kekkei genkai to help her."
Ren shot out of the bed like she had been electrocuted. She stalked towards Shinju like a tiger on the hunt, her temper running hot as she limped across the room.
"I'm no shinobi, I'm not a mercenary, I won't do just anything for coin. I will not put my student at risk to do what your own village's capable of doing on their own power!"
"My country's military has been destroyed by this war, you stupid girl. Those I can ask only say that it is not a priority because none of those children belong to our nation! You are right in one thing though, you are no shinobi. Shinobi have a nindo to push them forward through adversity, you're just a punk with a pigsticker!"
"Excuse me?" Ren snarled.
"You heard me. We both know you would have beat me in the final match, but you don't have the drive to see something through to the end!" Shinju got to her feet to bring herself almost level with Ren's chin. "If they had not stolen your student, can you honestly tell me you would have fought them? If you had run, they would have found more people willing to hunt you down, eventually bringing too many for you to win."
Kai looked pale.
"You are a reckless little girl, your fecklessness will get that boy killed! You must stop drifting through life and find your own drive and purpose in this world or you will die on a battlefield of your own creation!"
Ren's hands were shaking in rage.
"They say students inherit their nindo from their masters," Shinju sneered. "Was your master like you, Ren? Irresponsible and selfish?"
Ren grabbed the old woman by her shawl and effortlessly lifted her off the ground, pressing her against the wall with one arm at her throat as her feet dangled helplessly in the air.
"How dare you speak of my master like that?"
Kai was pulling on the back of Ren's shirt. "Put her down, Ren!"
Ren could barely hear him through the sheer rage and fear pulsing through her ears. Juro was a great man, dead or alive, she would not bear an insult to his name! Some mouthy old woman had no right to talk about him like that!
"Ren please!"
Kai's terrified plea rang through Ren's mind like a bell.
Ren lowered Shinju to the floor and stormed out of the room, limping as fast as she could, ignoring a pink haired doctor's exclamations about her stitches coming undone leaving a trail of blood behind her as she did so. She was blind to the the visitors moving out of her way, she was deaf to the shouts and shoved past the people trying to get her to have a seat and get her wounds looked at. Ren had ceased to feel pain, but she was crying from a wound so deep that marked her beneath her skin and into her bones like a fresh wound that none could see.
She slammed the door to the staircase that led to the rooftop and climbed tirelessly and she felt her chakra flow through her body like a burst dam, it made her skin feel like it was cast from iron, metal and steel. It was an armor finer and stronger then any daimyo, shogun or emperor could afford. It encased her like the cocoon of a caterpillar, so light and delicate that she felt like she could fly even clad in armor as she was.
She slammed the door to the roof closed behind her and stormed around to the side of the roof, hiding behind several boxes of building supplies as she did so as a small herd of nurses came through the door. Ren leaned against the wall, listening to the nurses' fuss before they gave up and went back downstairs. Ren applied pressure to her stomach wound and looked out over the village.
Through the chain link fence Ren could see a quarter of the village. The people looked happy, business seemed to be booming and she could hear children screaming joyfully in the streets. It was much different from her own home. The children were taught to be quiet so as to not attract undue attention. The old stories of lone heroes were no longer sung around the hearth on the coldest nights of the year.
Times were changing. Everything was changing so quickly with the world moving into a state of peace. She wished Juro were here to see it. He would return to medicine, Ren knew, he would devote his life to one location to help people. Ren… Ren was not sure if that was the life for her. She liked being on the road, meeting weird people and occasionally fighting them.
Ren's future was in her own hands in a rapidly changing world and she was not sure how to handle it.
If only Juro were here…
Ren wiped her eyes as the pink haired doctor came out onto the roof next, if the nurses did not see her then Ren doubted this one would do any better. Ren watched her look around before leaning back against the wall to continue looking out over the village. This village was so peaceful. She felt her eyes close.
She could feel something come up to her on her right side. Probably a cat or something more insidious.
Odd. Ren thought she was quite well hidden.
She turned her head to find the pink haired doctor sitting next to her, gazing at her kindly with an air of gentle concern.
Ren jumped, her arms moving up defensively. "How the hell!"
The doctor put her own hands up, "I'm sorry!"
Ren sputtered incoherently as she scrambled back to put some distance between her and the doctor. She felt awkward in her hospital clothes, it was easier to portray confidence when she looked like a vagabond that no one looked at twice. Now she looked like a patient and therefore would draw the worst kind of attention, compassionate and capable. The pitying kind.
She was smiling of all things! "Mind if I take a look at your injury?"
Nothing she could do about that. Ren took a deep breath and pulled up her shirt allowing the doctor to press her glowing green hand to the bandages. Ren could feel the stitching of the wound begin to correct itself under the doctor's careful chakra control. She might be better then Juro.
"My name is Sakura, and I'm very impressed with your student."
"Kai? Yeah, he's a good kid. Don't tell him I owe him, he'll get a swelled head about it."
Sakura laughed. "How long has he been your student?"
"About two weeks. He kept following me around, figured I better formalize the thing. My name is Ren, by the way." Ren paused for a moment. "Thank you for your help on the mountain."
"Don't worry about it." Sakura pulled away, Ren could feel her wound closing as she did so. Her chakra control was truly marvelous! "Kai was so worried. He insisted on leaving his own room to stay with you after I fixed him up. He loves you very much."
Ren's heart seemed to jump into her throat. She had done so little to earn such devotion. After the things Ren had said to him in the forest, she was not sure she could love someone the same way afterwards if those things had been said to her in such a manner.
"I have a way about me." It would be best to play this off with smugness and good humor. "Kids and old people just think the world of me for some reason."
Sakura was reaching for something in the medical bag at her waist. "I met your sensei during the war." Out of her medical bag came a scroll with one of Juro's seals on it. "He wanted me to make sure you got this."
Ren took the scroll from Sakura carefully as if it were made of glass. "You… You met my shishou?"
"Juro came to the medic tents as soon as he arrived, he knew a lot of herbal remedies to ease pain and passing for those we could not save or tide over those in triage. I learned a lot from him." Sakura smiled, "When we had a free moment, all he could talk about was his student, a spear fighter so gifted she could perform hand signs with one hand and combine her sojutsu with genjustu. He waved your picture around the medical tents, wanting to show you off. Juro wanted to come back to you, he said you would be something great, and that he wanted to see it happen."
Ren sighed as she turned the scroll over in her hands. "Juro went to join the war effort as a medic, to die on the battlefield because he knew he was too sick… That he was already dying… So he left me behind."
"He hid it so well, I offered to try and heal him, but he said no. He didn't want to be sent off the battlefield, he wanted to spend what remained of his life helping others."
"I don't know why he went. It was not our war. We're not shinobi, we're a couple of rogue travelers… Foolish man."
The two girls where quiet on the roof for a few moments as Ren collected her thoughts. She listened to the sounds of life from the street below.
"I was not a good student for a medical ninja," Ren smiled grimly. "A lot of his techniques and teachings were useless for me, I like to brawl too much."
"You would have a good start, not many people could have the presence of mind to take out their own IV."
Ren shrugged, "Some people need to be punched in the face. That's how I do my part for society."
Someone who had the ability to not feel the blows of the enemy would never be good at fixing or empathizing with physical suffering. Juro said she had a real talent for close combat, and it would be good for her to embrace it and be learn the other things he could teach her to help protect herself.
A bloodline ability that could prevent death in battle through her own adrenaline and terror until her shallow chakra reserves dropped to low to maintain it. A skill that by design would help her survive the harshest elements of nature itself, blessing her with increased stamina and immunity to the effects of immense cold and heat. Ren had heard of others in her clan who had this ability, but they were long dead, the last one from her great-grandmother's time.
When she told Juro how she had escaped the warlord who killed her parents, how he had grazed her back with his blade, leaving a scar from the top of one shoulder to the bottom of the other, before his second blow shattered the sword against her neck. The big man with the gentle eyes grew frightened and made her swear she would never repeat what she told him to others. That kekkei genkai were deeply feared around the world, their wielders used as weapons in endless wars for power between nations and villages. That if she was found out, she would become something to study, a thing with no rights or freedoms. A tool in a world that she did not understand at the tender age of nine.
Ren owed Sakura her life. She did not owe her honesty or obedience.
She turned the scroll over in her hands. There were things Juro had never said to her in his quiet, low voice that sounded like the river running over rocks and stones for its steady tones. When she opened this scroll, a chapter of her life would come to an end, not with blood, death or violence, but the finality of what she had lost.
Ren played with the brass ends of the scroll, rubbing her thumb around the edge. She thought of Juro's calloused hands writing prescriptions for his patients. His hands always seemed too hard working for the quiet, safe profession of traveling doctor, more comfortable with weapons then a pen. He would hunch over a table or desk, a stump once for an indigenous community in the Land of Earth that reminded Ren of her own home. How he would tell her stories of his life as a marshland farm boy with more siblings then he could count. His time as a hunter-nin and the skills he learned. On their last night together he told her the story of the great crime he committed to become a shinobi by killing his classmates and his betrayal of his nation by faking his death for freedom.
The swelling of emotion in her chest finally reached her eyes and she pinched the bridge of her nose to hold back the flood of tears that threatened to completely ruin the remnants her composure.
"We have counseling services if you need them. Someone to talk to about the war, coping with grief and the other things that are bothering you."
The pile of corpses I left in the middle of your town for starters. Are you going to ask me about that? Haul me into interrogation and study me like a science experiment when you find out about that thing I do?
Ren had the presence of mind to bite her tongue, Sakura seemed an intelligent sort of person and she was observing Ren with a gentle look that seemed to be looking straight through her. It would be best to nod along, be polite. Juro had taught her to build a peaceful retreat in her mind to manage her bloodline ability, alcohol was a quicker fix as Ren had been having so much trouble finding that space in her mind since the war ended and she was chased around the continent. She needed to try. Ren pictured her father's forge and imagined the heat of the fire on her skin and the melted iron being poured into the mold and glowing in the darkening room.
"I'm fine. It's just so final."
Please stop. I can't talk about it. Please stop being so nice.
The image was not working. She could feel her chakra tingling beneath her skin, forming an impenetrable shell within her skin and bones. Ren imagined going through her spear katas. Step, block, strike. Block, swipe, stab. The tingling was fading. She just had to focus on the katas in her mind.
"Thank you for bringing this to me."
Sakura nodded, her face glowing with a sincere warmth of an accomplished personal mission. "I'll let you read that in private. Just come back to your room when you're done, okay? Lady Hokage would like to speak with you about what happened on the mountain."
Ren nodded.
Sakura stood up and left Ren alone with the last words of her master. Ren took a deep breath and opened the scroll.
My dear student,
If you are reading this, I hope you stayed in Jin Town to make the delivery of this letter easy. If not, then I hope it came to you soon after you left in some capacity. Sakura was adamant that she would make sure you were found so my last words would be shared if I did not survive. If you are reading this letter, then I have died the warrior's death I wanted. I did not have to see you weep over my death bed, your tender heart on display to make me feel guilty for leaving you to face the world alone.
My dear student… Ren. I struggle now to tell you everything I should have before the shroud of death moves over the battlefield, but it has always been hard for me to talk about personal matters. For your sake, I wish I had been better as a father figure then just as a teacher. In truth, I had no idea when you found me in that mining town how rich you would make my life. I was living a life of cowardice, wasting the skills that I had once taken such pride in as a hunter-nin. Your words, your honesty, as you dragged behind you a spear that was too large for a nine-year-old girl forced me to make a choice about how to live at a time when I was uncertain that my life was even worth living after taking so many.
I was never very good at showing you how much I cared for you, partially because of my own nature and that I did not want to take the place of your parents, whom you clearly loved and missed. Therefore, as my end grows closer, I will pass on with a clear heart by telling you everything I have been to hesitant and scared to say.
I am sorry. I am sorry about leading you around the land because of my own fear and weakness, I know it was hard for you to not have a place where you could feel safe and grow up surrounded by people who loved you, but I am a human being, and we are often led about by our fears, a lesson I believe you are already understanding. My fear of my village finding me after believing I was dead for so many years, your bloodline ability being discovered and you becoming a tool against your will for a village that would let it define you more then it already did in your own mind.
I do not apologize for leaving you behind. It was a selfish thing for me to do to a young woman so skilled, but I could not bear the thought of you dying to protect a feeble man who was already on the cusp of his own demise. Nor could I bear the thought of leaving you alone to face the scars war leaves on the mind. You and I fight for our own survival, our freedom to chose who we wish to be in this world, it seemed wrong to rob you of that future out of your own stubbornness and compassion.
They say students inherit their nindo from their masters. I hope my own lessons are something you carry with you into your future, though, we are not shinobi, I left that life behind long ago, but these words have continued to guide me through my life. I do not serve for love of money; I serve to offer a better life for those who could be crushed under the heel of the powerful. With that said, I leave my tools of war to the care of your peaceful heart. Let hate and vengeance not guide your steps, but use the knowledge I leave you to help bring forth a better world then I have left behind.
Ren means lotus, doesn't it? A flower that rises out of muddy water to bloom into something extraordinary and beautiful. Flowers that come out of inhospitable places to brighten the world, being constantly reborn everyday to make the best of bad situations. An old scholar claimed that the word ren was a value based in benevolence and protection of those weaker then themselves. You could not have been given a more fitting name, for these are all things I see in you everyday. Lotus flowers are tough, but disguise it with their outward beauty. The real lesson to take from them is how they flourish only in still water, I hope that is something you learn how to do when peace comes to the elemental nations. Though they teach one more lesson it will take you a lifetime to learn, the lesson of inner peace. To know who you are, what you are to others and the knowledge of your place in the world.
This is what I have struggled the most to say, and I regret not saying it to you in person, but written down for you to revisit in times of hardship while you struggle at the crossroads of life will have to suffice.
Ren, I am so, very proud of the woman you are becoming. Someone strong, emotionally and physically. A true master of sojutsu. A just soul with a defiant heart of iron. I wish for you to know and understand that in my eyes and heart, you are my student, but first and foremost my daughter. Watching you grow up has been the joy of my life and teaching you has offered me atonement for the lives I took in a previous life of callous violence and indifference to suffering.
Take the time you need to mourn my passing, when you have cried yourself dry and can think back to our time together with a smile, then I wish for you to begin to move forward with every secret plan you have harbored within you. In doing so, you will fulfill my dream. That you will learn to truly let people past your walls, to let them see what I see in you. To learn what it is to feel at peace with the world within yourself and beyond. I know that there will be times in your life where you have no hope, and aimlessly wandering through life is all you can handle, but do not let those feelings overtake you. Find a purpose in this world, a goal only for yourself and when you accomplish that, move on to something else or your life will become devoid of all meaning in the ensuing struggle. I want you to be truly, blissfully happy in whatever direction you choose to take your life, be it in traveling, running a business or finding someone who loves you for the same reasons I do and more.
If there is an afterlife cub, I will see you again. If there is not, then know that my last thoughts were of you.
Juro
Ren cried. She cried and cried until she was completely out of tears and reduced to horrid heaving noises from her aching chest. She had failed her teacher; she had not lived up to those expectations, but now was the time to fix that. Ren had hit her lowest point at the peak of the mountain. She had fought a ronin with the intention to die, to not fulfill the promise she had made to herself to become the teacher Kai needed.
Her last words to Juro were ones of disbelief and disrespect. That he would die for a life he had left behind so long ago, that gave him only pain and suffering. Created in his own mind a monster in the mirror where he should have only seen the best of men.
Juro had left quietly in the dead of night as Ren slept. There was really no goodbye.
Ren waited at the village gate as the moon glowed an eerie red, soon plagued by a vision of Juro being welcomed among her clan, enjoying the quiet life of a respected elder. The clan thriving with no warlord to destroy their way of life. Ren's mother crafting beautiful scarves and rugs while her father designed the most distinguished spears with fine materials from the heart of Metal Mountain. Life was so peaceful.
Waking from that dream was a terrible blow.
The painful wait for news at the end of the war as the doctors began to return home, the slight hope that he would be among them was something she would wish on no one. Ren waited for days, weeks, on the bridge to the little village, long past the time others had accepted their losses.
Because she could not bear to be alone again.
Ren read the letter again.
She read it a third time.
Ren had the ability to help people, to help a lot of people. Refusing Shinju was not the path to justice or to the path of inner peace her master wanted her to take. If she refused to get involved, to fix her mistake of not finishing the job in the Land of Rivers, Ren would be haunted by it for the rest of her life.
"I'm sorry, Juro."
Ren rose to her feet and wiped her tears on the sleeve of her shirt.
"I'll do better."
Lotus flowers bloomed anew each day. Perhaps Ren could learn to do the same.
END CHAPTER FIVE
A/N: I touch on grief a lot in my writing. I don't know why. It's something about the lowest point being hit and being able to get up again, put on foot in front of the other and focus on the future.