WARNING; Implications of rape, sexual assault, violence and gore ahead. Possibly rated MA

This contextual setting is not essential to the main plot if you wish to skip to the next chapter.

Memories Past

Part 2

Deep into their battle Kazuo and Shaba struggle to defend themselves. They are engrossed with their clashing blades and using all their concentration to not slip up in their fatigue.

Descending into the garden from the dark grey clotted skies, a swamp green and white masked snake with sharp finned spines along its writhing form strikes. It roars down slithering through the air as if submerged in water.

Yoichi stares in horror at the massive translucently shining demon, but Kazuo and Shaba remain fighting with only a glance to the opaque thing as the evil men obliviously continue their attack.

The Hollow opens its frighteningly large jaws and in its smooth descent, sweeps in and devours one of the bestial threats who could not see the Hollow as their impending demise. From its' dive it curves its sleek body back above the clouds, satisfied for now, although everyone who saw it knows that it will return.

The sub-human men are about to retreat from the baffling sight of their comrade disappearing into thin air but think better of it as their bloodlust calls them to finish off the entertaining and determined family. Yoichi's parents are becoming weaker and the opponents grin with the evident knowledge. Even though they no longer have the numbers the father and mother look ragged with numerous yet minor wounds. Tiny cuts litter their bodies and with every movement the burning irritation they feel increases. The only good thing about this winter is that the negative temperature numbs most of their pain. Kazuos wounds consist over his hands and face, as he had his armour plat for protection, while Shaba has many all over her body, as the enemies can easily cut through her thin gown.

Shaba shuffles over the wet stones to stand by her husband. They are both in front of Yoichi with ridged stances and dense foggy breaths. Shaba turns to her terrified child yet always has the enemy in her peripheral vision. "Yoi-chan, when your father and I start to dance we will make the enemy turn their backs to you. You need to take that opportunity to run. Get out of the mansion and to the forest. It may be very scary, but I know you can do it. Please, let us handle this scum." She glances at her poor daughters deformed hand with empathetical concern before facing the men as they creep closer.

The men do not want to waste time. They do not know how their accomplice had disappeared right in front of them mere moments ago and that may have shaken them, but it does not stop their amoral minds from persevering with their goals.

Yoichi's voice comes out weaker than she intends for it to. "But Mother…. I…I can still help." Yoichi hisses at the end of her words as the all too present burning of her wounds mix with sweat paining her further.

Shabas face is set in a scowl but her voice comes out comforting. "No Yoichi. This is not to be debated. We just want you safe. So, when you know the time is right, go." Shaba runs her free hand through her daughter's frazzled sandy blond hair and gives her forehead a loving peck. "Please listen to me and be safe."

Yoichi cannot stop her searing tears and sobs. "I love you Mother, Father." She closes her eyes with her yell. "Don't you dare die on me!"

Shaba nods to her daughter and Kazuo gives her a saddened smile on the verge of tears himself. (I do not know if we will survive but I at least want you to, Yoichi.) He cannot afford to hug his daughter though he badly wishes to. (She does not deserve to go through all this.)

The parents thrust forth with a relentless attack, hoping that they can distract the opponents long enough for their daughter to escape: The only thing out of all their riches that is worth saving. At the back of their minds they sense the snake demon circling in the clouds and dense smoke far too close above them.

During the intense clash Yoichi sees her opportunity and hobbles as fast as she can behind the fighting foursome. Every movement brushes against her detached finger stubs but she can't bring herself to stop holding it so close to her body because she is instinctively stopping the bleeding. She glances behind her, hoping that they can share a last look together, but because they need to concentrate Shaba and Kazuo continue fighting. Yoichi watches from behind the torn paper doors which the men had come through. She stays as she is confident that with her gone, her parents stand a better chance of winning.

She is very wrong.

The Hollow snake comes back from above the smoke and clouds. The scales on its belly shine yellow from the increasing fire of the village and it twists above, targeting its next victim. Yoichi's parent's internalised panic rises as they spot it.

Distracted in just a moment and a misplaced block becomes Kazuo's downfall. The adversary's blade parts flesh and bone and detaches his foot from his leg, like paper against a flame. With his agonising cry echoing in the court yard the snake demon has found its next meal.

Unaware of the Hollow, the man who had caused Kazuo's pain slashes through his armour and aims for his heart but misses and impales a lung instead. Gasping and screaming Kazuo realises with a teary glimpse to his hiding daughter and beautiful wife that this is his end.

Shaba fights off the two men as she screams in torn outrage at her husband's fatal injuries. "You fucking sons-of-bitches. How dare you do this? I will tear you both apart. Limb from limb. Fucking cunts. How dare you? HOW DARE YOU?" She attacks with a ferocity not seen in Yoichi's entire life and manages to decapitate the disgusting man who had his eye on Yoichi and killed her Husband.

Yoichi stares with wide eyes, numb in her very core. That is until dread sinks her heart to her stomach and she vomits bile. She does not taste the bitter acid or realise that more tears are gushing down her face. With her sight fixated on the glistening masked snake torpedoing towards her father she yells out to his unresponsive corpse. "FATHER NO."

Yoichi reveals her hiding place to the remaining raider but is frozen on the spot as the demon takes her father's body in its mouth and shreds his flesh with grinding teeth. With swift piercing fangs it rains blood and gore over the adults on the ground, bathing them in liquidated chunky red.

The child closes her eyes tight and shouts, "NO. FATHER NO." She cannot help but hiccup because of the sobs wracking her body. At least she is not staring at the massacre.

Shaba roars with anguish and through the gory rain attacks the slimy piece of shit human that caused all her suffering. However, in her blind fury her scream is interrupted when a concisely and calm slice from the lower lifeform mutilates both her hands. After her delayed shock she shrieks louder, which Yoichi had despairingly not thought possible, and falls to her knees in grief, anguish and overpowering pain.

The blood covered man smirks in victory though his eyes rapidly scan the area, wary of the invisible adversary eating those around him. Too distracted by his lust to be careful of the monster lurking nearby, he takes his time and full advantage of Shaba's helplessness.

His gruff voice growls. "Shut the fuck up whore." But Shaba only stops screaming when he punches her jaw, causing her head to whip lash to unconsciousness.

The sadistic man's eyebrows furrow with her limp body lying in her husband's unrecognisable remains. He sighs and crouches over her body and waits for her to awaken. Deciding that she would look better clean he drags her to a pond by her stubbed arms and roughly rubs off the bits of drying flesh staining her pale skin. He rips off her nightdress and ties the stubs at the ends of her arms together with the shredded material; to stop have her bleed out as fast and make her feel more helpless.

Shaba groans with the ice water splashing at her bare skin though she is already becoming as cold as death. She will bleed out in approximately 15 minutes despite the pressure on her butchered limbs. Her eyes flutter open, but narrow with all her strength as soon as she sees what the man plans on doing. Shaba can feel the chilling water, but with her exposed flesh and blood loss she is quickly losing even that. In her heart her soul burns with storming rage and wishes she could kill him with just her vengeful glare.

He senses the heat of her expression and admires her porcelain-esk face. Even in extreme despair and anger she still looks magnificent: all sharp features and long dark brown hair. He smiles almost kindly while he slides his hand along her cheek upwards. She tries to bite his fingers and spits in his face as he recoils just in time.

He grits his teeth as he seethes with her efforts and seizes her long slick hair to drag her out of the water and back onto the red pebbles. Shaba makes no sounds as he does so knowing that it would only add to his pleasure to hear her sob and scream for mercy though she does struggle.

Her vision loses focus as she sees the blurry form of Yoichi watching and mouths 'run', but her daughter does not obey. The child is concreted with horrific fear for her family. Or what is left of it. Dizziness takes hold of the woman's mind and she becomes vaguely aware that the man has leaned her against a bridge and spread her legs.

The beast's hands become shaky as he feels her body to his dirty minds content; fuelling his desires without restraint. Shaba's blank stare irritates him, and he slaps her back to attention. He continues to touch her in ways of which she purposely does not respond. The scum leans next to her face, a gruelling simple mistake, and she head butts his nose with a joyous crunch. He recoils with a yelp, falls to the side and covers his broken feature. Although fresh blood flows through his fingers it is hard to tell as he is already covered in the filth. As weakness takes Shaba again she pleads with her eyes to her only child to simply leave her behind, but Yoichi has her own paralysation and still cannot move, not even to look away.

The man grins with the continued fight in his victim. He flickers his gaze to where Shaba seems so occupied, but he could care less of the maggot girl watching. This is why he wants her to be awake; for the thrill of seeing her suffer. He lifts himself back to his knees ignoring the throbbing pain on his face developing into a coagulating bruise and decides she needs to be penalized. Because he believes that he can take his time he grabs his sword from the floor and drags it across Shaba's swollen belly in a deep line of red.

This time Shaba does scream in horror and pain. (My baby, no. Not my baby. We may not survive this with the blood loss but why does he have to do this. Dammit.) He continues with deeper cuts, delighted in her symphony of agony. Her eyes dim again as she keeps passing in and out of consciousness. Blood loss has almost got her in its grasps and realising this the man, wanting the full experience, quickly undoes his rope tied rags and thrusts himself inside of the woman with blood as the only lubricant. She screams louder with his violence and violation of her body making his insane smile crack wider.

Yoichi watches still half behind the door, fearful for her mother, but believes she cannot stop what is happening. (If Mother and Father could not stand up to the scum, how can I? They have had years and years of experience and me? I have just had three.) Her vision of the event is obscured by the man hovering over her mother but once she hears Shabas' heart shattering screams her thoughts run rampant. (I have to … I must do something. Anything. I need to help Mother. I know she said to run but I must help. She is all I have left. Hold on Mother!)

Yoichi forces her dead legs to take a step from her hiding spot and robotically makes her way behind the oblivious man, gaining pace from her rising adrenaline. The pig is on his knees with his pants to his ankles thrusting between her mother's thighs.

Yoichi raises her Katana horizontally, at eye level and, as he pants in pleasure, she shoves it right through the back of man's neck ending him with a grinding twist. His gurgling of suffering eventually fades, and he falls to the side.

Yoichi sobs as she throws herself to kneel next to her tortured mother. She is too late. Shaba's gaze is already sightless. Her hands flutter in horror without touching over her mother's cadaver.

Although devastated in grief Yoichi senses something wrong and looks up with non-stop tears. The translucent demon rushes down from the sky and roars with a hiss towards her. With no time to mourn, Yoichi reluctantly detaches herself from her mother's corpse, slices her blade from its fleshy sheath and sprints back into the mansion.

(I have to escape.) At the doors she was previously hiding behind, Yoichi looks over her shoulder. But this last look allows her to see her mother meeting the same gruesome fate as her husband. She looks away from the worst of it, though the damage has been done long before the sight developed. (I couldn't protect them. I couldn't protect anyone. I must escape. Mother, Father I'm so sorry. So sorry.) Yoichi backs away from the scarring sight and runs in a random direction through the large estate to try and find her way out.

She cries in terror from all the screams that can be heard from outside and the lack of vision from the accumulating smoke. It is black, thick and hanging low in the air around her vision. She breathes heavier with her running and coughs as she tries to keep lower to the ground.

When turning down a hall she runs into two more malicious demons that, on sight, chase after the fresh meal. Yoichi realises that they are gaining quickly and turns around to try to defend herself. (I have not come this far with so many sacrifices to be killed here.) She plunges her sword through one's heart before it gets too close, but due to the shock of what she has done, as she is facing her victims' depthless eyes, she freezes and is attacked by the other man.

With her delayed efforts to participate in swordplay the able demon manages to deeply slice into both her biceps in one strike. She barely holds onto her sword and thinks this may be the end. She has no more defence. With the orange glow of the fire quickly rising the beast growls deeming her an unworthy kill and flees in the opposite direction in fear of the fire. (Good…riddance.) She is panting heavily now from blood loss, constant adrenaline and fear. (I have to escape.)

The building is disintegrating to chunky ashen bits. She comes to multiple fiery dead ends and with the roof about to cave in she has no choice but to stumble through the flames of a window to get away. She runs on the last stretch of hot coals and jumps through the paperless burning window. She drops her Katana as she rolls, stopping herself from face planting on the smouldering floorboards on the outdoor veranda, but collects it again despite the emerging burns on her shoulder, back, hands, legs and feet. She is minutely thankful or the adrenaline she feels otherwise she knows all her wounds would be too excruciating to move.

The young child makes it to the gravel path outdoors and breathes in the frosty clean air but coughs from the smoke of which she had been forced to inhale. She staggers a little further on to the glazed grass and sighs in relief of her burns. The house behind her smoulders into ash and the blaze continues devouring every bit of material it can. It stops for nothing, destroying the entirety of what remains of Yoichi's life. Her tears emerge again from her burning eyes as she cannot help but think of what she can never retrieve from the fire, the bodies, the relics and the memories, but soldiers on knowing she must escape. (I cannot stop now.)

As Yoichi limps on the frigid toothed stones her movements become increasingly hesitant. The cold is soothing, but the pressure on her fast-growing blisters diminishes any relief she may feel. (Curses.) She reaches the main gate with the village blazing partially around her. She is in the open but does not look back to see more of the destruction.

She strangles out a mournful sob. (Where the hell am I going to go ALONE in WINTER in the FOREST? Mother, Father what do I do?)

Before she can form any thoughts to offer as a solution she is barged from behind by a terrified escaping villager. Her arms do not move fast enough with her burns and slashes to stop her momentum towards the earth. It is so rough that her forehead smashes into a rock on the floor, splitting the skin open and greeting her with a temporary void of painlessness.

Yoichi gasps awake with her face pressed in the pointy ground. She rolls over then quickly sits up from the cold gravel with a wave of vertigo and pulsating pain from her forehead. Immediately she feels her extreme fear, pain and adrenaline return and she knows she must continue to get to the forest.

The village, her home, is still set ablaze around her, but the blood from the gash on her forehead distorts her vision and blurs shadowy figures of all sizes scampering past her. Every figure she sees is half-clouded in shadows from the night and only visible due to the furious inferno. Clouds and smoke cover the moons light and soggy snow filters through onto her face.

As she breathes in and out the frosty air comes in a haze of grey. The severe stinging pain erupting from her shaking hands and her knees continues, but that does not compare to what catches her attention next. With the sting comes a throbbing burning on her right hand as she notices and remembers that two of her fingers had been cleanly sliced off. The bleeding has stopped, but she keeps it close to her filthy garments regardless.

She stares for a moment in shock at her wounds and tears from pain and panic stream again down her face. The adrenaline is fading and pain rising anew. Yoichi tries to wipe the blood from her aching forehead with the back of her healthy hand to prevent it from getting in her eye, but it flows down her face making her only able to see out of one.

When she shifts she can feel each deep gash twist and grind along her arms, making it extremely hard to move, let alone possibly defend herself. Exhaustion is also taking its toll. She may have been unconscious for an hour from sheer exhaustion and injuries.

Cradling her bloody arms and butchered hand to her chest, she brings her legs to the side of her body in preparation to stand. More pain filters through her muddled mind and she shuts her eyes in grimace as the pointy stones dig into some of her cuts, irritating them further. She has her shining Katana next to her but knows she cannot grip it because of her blistering fingers.

Breathing heavily, the thickening smoke from the flames suffocates what desperate foggy breaths she tries to inhale. Yoichi feels the persistent throbbing from the injury in her head and hand, but focuses on trying to not choke. Hacking from the thickening smoke, she feels the pounding headache from her heads wound worsen with every shuddering breath. She is trying not to hyperventilate from the horrific pain as she shakes; cold, wounded, desperate and alone.

Before she can bring herself to stand, a muscular man striding with purpose towards a building stops and turns his attention to her helpless state. He is holding out a long, broad and jagged blade which is saturated with blood.

The moment their eyes lock, Yoichi's heartbeat gets lodged in her throat. Time seems to slow, and she cannot help but to look down to stare at the end of the sword which steadily drips with the red she knows too well by now.

Time lashes back into place and even with her fuzzy one-eyed perspective, she can see him approaching with a malevolent smile. Illuminated by the flickering blaze surrounding them, the yellowy-orange light casts frightening depths to the shadows of his scruffy face.

Frantically shuffling backwards, Yoichi ignores each movement's agony. Nevertheless, she does not get far and simply shoves gravel around with her bare sweltering feet. She is too injured to use her hands or arms for movement and the man in his prime is much too fast despite her efforts.

Directly in front of her he wastes no time to impale her shoulder and lean in to twist the blade deeper with a sickening grin.

Yoichi gasps and lets out a pitched scream as the chilling steel pierces through her lung. Staring into his grimy blood splattered face, Yoichi can see delight dance in his eyes from her immense suffering.

Disturbed and terrified, Yoichi narrows her eyes and has the nerve to spit out, "Sadistic ba..bastard." In doing this, liquid gushing into her lung causes more blood to spatter and drip down his face.

He does not stop smirking even to go so far as to lick his rouge lips.

He drags his serrated sword out of her small frame resulting in a spurt of blood to trail after it. The shredding momentum causes Yoichi to be hauled and helplessly collapse to the ground on her stomach. She feels powerful heat drain from her chest and seep through the unforgiving stones.

(Blood. Why is there so much blood? Why does it not stop? Mother…Father….I am sorry….I…failed you both. Someone…. please… help….. me.)

Burning heat empties through the wound and then freezing cold is soon to follow, spreading from her torso downwards.

She hears petrified screams and sees, through bloodied tears, villagers burning alive and being slashed to bits by the barbarians running around in their bloodthirsty rage. Yoichi's cries' leave her wheezing and coughing up further precious life liquid from her speared lung. These sudden rasping movements are the foundations for her continued torture.

Having his fun with watching the child gasp and suffer, the murderer stabs her spine, through to her heart and further into the ground with the finishing sound of crunching gravel.

She is numb. No feeling remains in her tiny broken corpse-like body except the inevitable grip of death.

As Yoichi's warm consciousness dissipates, her blank eyes reflect the man stalking away in search of his next victim with the screaming blaze as his silhouettes backdrop.