Fanfiction uploader hasn't been working recently, so that's the reason for the age-long update, and plus I'm really stuck for time because of exams coming up. But here it is, the fifth chapter.

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"Wow, well look who it is..."

"Great to have you back!"

"It's been too long!"

Yunsung couldn't really spare more than a shake of the hand for his hometown's people. Every time he attempted a smile he felt terribly guilty. It felt like he was being a fake, smiling in spite of loss he felt he had caused. The sun was out, but Yunsung felt it was trying to boil everyone alive rather than providing a pleasant day. What was even more uncomfortable for him was that his old girlfriends came over to greet him, and it pained him to even look at them.

"Yunny!"

"I thought you'd never come back!"

He was starting to wish he never did. He knew he should have taken that canoe along the coast to avoid the town, but he'd decided it was useless coming here and not visiting where he'd grown up. He mused over whether or not to find his parents, but that was below ignorance, not grief.

His mother squeezed him tight. "Ohhhh, my Sing-Sung, I've been worried sick! But I knew you'd come back! I knew it!"

"Hi Mother."Yunsung mumbled uncomfortably.

"What's the matter?" she asked, lovingly looking up at her taller son.

"Nothin's wrong, Mum."

"No, something's wrong, you have a funny tone about you! Have you been dumped again?"

There was a involuntary but oh-so-familiar jolt in the side of Yunsung's head, "I wish you would stop saying that!"

"Well, sorry, but that always seemed the matter before." she shrugged, still smiling very widely.

Yunsung rested his gaze on her for a few moments. Her features were familiar and it came to him how much his mother looked like him and how much he loved her. He pulled his mother into a more inviting and comforting hug, one that most women, like Talim, seemed to like.

"Eh? What's wrong, honey?" she was politely surprised, but pleased too. Yunsung had rarely hugged her in public voluntarily. She ruffled his hair comfortingly like all mothers do.

"Have you been looking after yourself?"Yunsung found himself asking.

"Oh...well yes of course. It's a bit quiet without you around, but I keep myself going with hobbies and the like." she answered, that surprised highness still in her voice, "Whatever is the matter with you, though? You're very tense."

"Nothing."he changed the subject, "I can't stay long, I'm moving on again..."

"Oh! That reminds me! Did you get it? That sword you were looking for?"

"No."Something firey was heating the bottom of his stomach, "I'm very glad I didn't." he changed topic. "Where's Dad?"

"Oh, he's up in the Dojo, as usual. Go up and see him, he'll be delighted you're back!"

And his father was quite pleased to see him, but Yunsung didn't feel the same feeling towards him as he did his mother. He was feeling as if he had been terribly unfair to women all his life.

"Haha! My son! My son!!!" his father, black haired and with a large jaw, announced jovially, running towards him in his meditation robes, making others turn heads in surprise and endearment- it was rare that Yunsung's father let such emotions go. He gripped Yunsung round his head firmly, "Still got that edge, eh, son?"

"Yeah, Dad."He found he hadn't the energy to tussle with him.

"Something's bothering you." his father said, echoing Yunsung's mother, "But you can sort it, right?"

"Yeah." For once, Yunsung was thankful his father didn't consider himself an expert on family matters. He customarily re-introduced Yunsung with the members of the dojo- they hadn't changed much, except that they were a little politer to him than usual. Then he remembered he had come of age during his time away. To Yunsung's annoyance and guilt, his father pointed out the daughters of the prime members of the dojo- he appeared to realize at least that part of the problem with Yunsung's form was that he'd come home alone.

"Oi!"

Yunsung rolled his eyes before turning around to see a girl with stark, witchy black hair held in artfully half-done braids, making her way towards him. For a moment, Yunsung attempted to think what he could have possibly done now, but realized that is sister's face was of a kind of superiority rather than annoyance.

For a few seconds "Strings"(for her omnipresent hairstyle) simply looked at him, smiling silkily. Then she poked him in the chest, "You swore you would come back with a bride."

"Hullo to you to." Yunsung muttered.

"Aww!"she laughed and hugged him. He was taken aback again, but recalled that his sister was getting older now at sixteen. Strings had held a pathetic promise with him for old time's sake, but she'd hugged him to show she'd genuinely missed him. Yunsung found himself hugging her back almost eagerly.

"Ok, that's enough!" she stuck out her tongue at him teasingly, pulling away.

"I missed you, sis." He smiled.

"Thought I wouldn't hear that! I missed you too, y'know!"she didn't wait for an answer, "Guess what, I'm married!"

"Oh." there was a predictable lurch in his stomach, "Con...Congratulations!"

"Thank you! Oh, Sing-sung, he's lovely!" Strings jumped up and down. "You'd love him too cos he's really into scimitars and he actually makes them at the blacksmith where he works and he gets such a good wage you wouldn't believe..."

Yunsung thought that he should be working at the blacksmith by now, working to earn for the upkeep of him and Talim. Strings, or Martha("Worst. Name. Like, ever!") was only sixteen- true, Yunsung should have been hitched before her- she was only fourteen when he left home. Soul Edge, plus his stupid idiocy for believing in Talim and even after defeating her in battle, had put a stop to any wedding. He hoped he could cancel out those factors somehow.

"...and he has this kinda yellow hair! Seriously, where does yellow hair come from...?"

"Yeah, thanks I get the picture!" Yunsung stopped her, grinning, "You're not doing too badly, then?"

"Oooh, I could spin!"she said joyfully, and she sounded convincingly thoughtful.

"You do that."Yunsung laughed.

"I intend to!"but she looked around herself at the large congregation in the Dojo, "But when I get home!"Strings winked, and dashed off.

Yunsung braved the rest of his reintroduction, a little lighter in his heart knowing his sister was doing well. It made him a little more satisfied that he knew another female was happy. He had learned that women were very unique and beautiful things indeed, and should be treasured. There was still the gnawing inside of him which demanded a woman to treasure for life. His journey to find Talim- he needed to be well rested to start the more demanding tasks ahead.

"Right, Dad, I'm off home."he said to his father, "To Mum's, pretty tired, hitting the hay."

"But son, it's barely evening..."he'd not finished showing off his son yet.

"Well, long journey, and I'm setting off tomorrow..."

"You are!?" Yunsung's father looked incredulous, "Heck, out of the cauldron and into the fire! Don't you know what's out there?"

"What is it?" but he already had a depressing inkling as to what it was. His father was flabbergasted.

"You haven't heard??? The slaying, of entire villages, after just a few precious months of freedom..."

"Yeah, I know, that's what I'm after..."

"Oh son!"his father embraced him, "You can't be after the creature! It kills in seconds!"

"I've got an advantage. I know how it fights. It's not a creature, Dad, it's a poor human being, corrupted by Soul Edge."Everything was finally flooding out of Yunsung at last, "Yes!Soul Edge is evil, I could have done nothing with it except kill more Koreans."

Yunsung's father opened his mouth and then closed it. He said after a moment, "That's no reason for you to go after it. You have to start to settle down, get a job, find a wife..."

Yunsung looked his father straight in the eye and said, "Tornado is my wife."

His father gaped.

"Well, I want her to be, anyway..."he muttered, trying to avoid his gaze and get out of the dojo.

"Son!"His father sounded more concerned than Yunsung could ever recall, "Son you can't be serious!"

"Talim is her name. I am going to find her, and tame her, string her up and carry her around if I have to. I'll rip the sword out of her body if I have to!"

"But..."

Yunsung was desperate for him to understand, "I met her, in Autthaya, and I love her, but she went to destroy Soul Edge. We said we'd wait for each other, and fight for the sword...but I guess she got there first...and...well, she doesn't mean to kill, she doesn't know what she's doing, I know it, I know the goodness is still in her...she was a god's gift..."

His father frowned and his face went pale, and his fingers propped up his chin. He gave a shuddering sigh. "There's nothing I can do to stop you, is there?"

Yunsung gave him a defiant look which appeared to dare him to ask again.

His father give Yunsung a third hug in twenty minutes. "Go home, get rested, and do it. Keep yourself alive."

"Thanks."

Yunsung set off, to his old house, where he'd be sheltered among family for perhaps the last time.