War Song

Chapter 0.5: What Diverted Paths Were Paved

Trigger warnings: Infantile and Maternal deaths

The air which surrounded the Hikawa Shrine was not as familiar as it had once been. Maybe a few incarnations back the fresh scent of the cherry blossoms in bloom would settle the heaviness which weighed in the heart. Flashes of a face that was so familiar and yet not one that matched to the Spiritual Center and a burning ember that had always helped in their cause. Raven hair and violet eyes which had held mystery, a hidden passion and yet a heavy burden that held. Of a loneliness to be something that made the familiar specter not only ever-present because of their duty that was etched in blood. An oath that, in those previous incarnations, made their Spiritual Guide almost too aloof and leaving themselves vulnerable to their own self-destructive tendencies. So long as no blood heir were to be born from their womb they would be, forever-more, bound to the Earth and to the power of the star of which was her soul's core.

This once beautiful temple that was once under the care of a Fire Princess garbed in the drapes of a priestess, without her existence, was a damaged piece. A once vibrant focal point that stood alone in the aftermath of nature's wrath. The temple's flames which were sacred had been snuffed out. No patrons have visited in such a long time since the last family member whom cared for the temple had passed. The elderly man, widowed so young with a young daughter, had been quite the queer fellow; chasing the young pretty patrons that would pay homage and hang charms to the many kami for good fortune. One of the many things following the passing of his wife that made his life to leave him quicker was the death of his only daughter. Sakura Hino such a young and vibrant dreamer had married a politician not long after her high school courses were completed. Young love had held her heart stead-fast as her logic and hearing took a convenient holiday. Although her life would carry on for at least another decade it was when she came to be with child that the timer started to count down. Her husband leaving his still-young wife on her own more often in favor of his career was one of the many factors which lead to her demise.

It was a chilled, rainy April morning in which her body gave way to the signs of her child's readiness into the world. Yet the pain was so strong and overwhelming to where Sakura had known right away that there was something wrong. The weeks leading up to this day had been so quiet, so lonely, that voices in her head started to sing to her.

'It is not time for her my dear. She must sleep longer.'

'She does not belong here, she is needed elsewhere.'

'She must be born anew. Away from here.'

'Her fate is to be rewritten.'

The voices would sing in a melody that was almost beautiful. Like the voices of angels calling to her unborn daughter. Yet she knew, deep down in her soul, that they were voices of the demons which had haunted her dreams on multiple occasions. The dreams which were filled with fire, pain and loss: Of a crimson-haired woman standing alone in an empty field that was covered in blood as tears of the same color ran down her pale cheeks. Sword in hand as flames would dance as if under her command. This woman in her dreams would be crying, begging or just silent as the death which surrounded her would keep her constant company.

As Sakura had tried to hail assistance to a hospital as she had stood on that street curb she knew that the child whom had been with her, in her, was going to die before taking her first breath. Hours in a sterile hospital room before she felt the pains and aches of her body take its toll; she had felt it. It was such a fleeting feeling which made tears of grief spill silently on her cheeks. She had sworn she heard a soft sigh against her ear before the monitors blared and her body convulsed. The sound of that sigh, it sounded like that of someone that was tired…..exhausted to the point of breaking: Restless with no reprieve.

Sakura knew as she felt her heart cease to beat that the sigh was that of her daughter as her life slipped from her.

As the woman's body gave in and her heart stopped its beating all attempts were changed to trying to save the life nestled between her hips. The babe's blood pressure plummeting was the marker for the medical team to hastily open up the now-deceased woman to get the child out. Not even with a minute's passing though, the babe was retrieved, it was too late.

A small baby girl, completely blue, with umbilical cord wrapped around her neck had been what had taken the child as the separation of its safety bubble from the mother's uterus giving way to massive blood loss lead to Sakura's death.

The elderly man whom had made a fast arrival upon his daughter's admission into the emergency ward had been the only one there to see his daughter's body shrouded in sheets along with his would-have-been granddaughter. Her husband was nowhere to be seen until much later and after the elderly man had wept bitter tears of pain at the injustice of it all. As he had rested a hand over his covered daughter and granddaughter he whispered a broken prayer for the kami to protect them and keep them. With the mantra of his daughter's name upon his lips, so did too the name which had been chosen for the stillborn girl whom went with her mother.

Rei Hino

A name in which, in a different life, held much power and authority. Strong loyalty and morality for a warrior's hidden identity in a world which was filled with demons and beings which were out to cause harm to those less than able to defend themselves; A champion of good.

But in this life, she was not to be there…

Instead the soul which was to have been Rei Hino was born elsewhere…..

In a different world, in a similar setting, with no birth mother to nurture her and no true parent but under the care of a man much worse than that of a serpent in ambition and hunger for control.

Rei Hino was born as Rhea Abigail Stark

Her journey was only just beginning as the call to war thrummed through her veins

An ancient beat and song, a dance of which was familiar to her and yet foreign

It came at the time of great pain and loss

She never had expected it

She never wanted to believe it

The signs had all been there

But she ignored them

More could be said about her start into the abyss which was part of her truer nature as a harbinger child of war. But that is part of our tale to tell.

As she donned the lightly dusted colors of ash, tan and chips. The colors which had been donned by other soldiers before her as they journeyed through the sweltering heat of the desert sands, her fate had been sealed and the challenges ahead of her were to be set in stone. Her sanity to be tested and her being to be broken and then reformed before the final evolution that would give way to the Soldier and Warrior Princess the fates needed her to become.