The day was just starting in Aisugakure and all the guards were up and patrolling the perimeters of the palace. It had been three days since Maki had been sent home and now he was back and crankily doing his duties. He was still upset at not being in the loop when it came to the Princess but Hui had explained it to him and felt, slightly, better. Although he doubted he would ever completely forgive his captain until this whole mess was over and Setsuko was safely back home. Walking next to the courtyard, Maki looked out at the guard shift seeing his captain make her way towards him and inside the castle.
With an angry hiss, Maki left his post and made his way to meet his commanding officer in the middle of the courtyard. Many of the older guards looked down on him for his disobedient behavior and often berated him, but he just ignored them. With his hands clenched into fists, he stormed his way past many of his comrades and stood in front of Hui's path, making sure to block her. She stopped, her eyes slowly peering down at him. He was still in his teens so he wasn't just quite up to her height yet, but a few more years and he'd be taller than her. Then the fact that he was slowly surpassing her in kenjutsu also made him even more confident that he shouldn't have been singled out like he had been. Was he the only one that cared about Setsuko? Did no one else feel that sending her away was the worst idea that could have been made?! They didn't even know what was happening to her out there in Sunagakure! What if things were worse for her there?
"What Maki?" she asked with little regard for formalities.
"I can't believe you demoted me for speaking my mind!" he shouted at her angrily.
Closing her eyes slowly, she sighed, "Maki, I don't have time for this."
"Then make time dammit! I can't believe you'd trust some foreigners to take care of our Princess! We know nothing about them! And then to demote me for disagreeing with you; that's damn low," he argued, unrelenting in his need for confrontation about the situation.
Hui looked down at her personally taught pupil. She had high hopes for him but if he kept letting his love for Princess Setsuko get in his way he would never get anywhere. With his way of thinking he would forever be stuck in this cloud of worry. She did understand his feelings, she too once felt an unyielding love for someone, but that faded with time and duty. Rubbing her temples under her ornate helmet she couldn't help the exasperated sigh that escaped her lips. It was possible that nothing would get through his head about the reasons they never said a word to him about moving the Princess. As her eyes opened they looked over her shoulder suspiciously before grabbing Maki and throwing him under the covering of one of the many halls and jumping after him. Just as she landed on the stone a concentrated blizzard struck the courtyard cutting all the bodies inside to pieces.
The two soldiers looked on in horror as they watched the icy gale disappear and the body parts of their brethren fall to the cold, snow covered stone. Maki's eyes were wide and starting to tear up as he had never seen a gruesome sight such as this before in his life. Yes, he had seen many things before, but something of this caliber had yet to cross the eyes of the eighteen year old. Hui, however, had seen things like this before and so, while she felt utter rage, she knew how to control and redirect such feelings welling within her. Her steel blue eyes narrowed into a deadly glare as they surveyed the area, ready to avenge the many men that were just slaughtered. Her eyes found themselves falling upon four figures, but the one she paid attention to most was the one standing high above the others on the roof of the front gates. She knew exactly who it was by the clothes they wore.
"Spear of the Lightning Goddess!" Hui's voice shouted as her hands finished hand signs. Pulling a scroll free she unrolled it as the paper began to emit a bright, blinding light.
"Damn!" Meroko hissed as she stood atop a roof that surrounded the courtyard of the palace.
Lightning cracked in the sky as the clouds began to darken. A single bolt stuck the scroll and Hui, blinding all around them. Having no choice but to take her eyes off her opponent, Meroko covered her eyes. As she removed her hands, the light had faded and standing below her was Hui clad in variant shades of purple and gold. In her right hand there was a long spear with purple and white ribbons tied to it, billowing softly in the sudden stormy winds. Surrounding her dark eyes were dark make up in strange inconsistent patterns with a gold, jagged tiara around her forehead. Her long white hair was no longer in a braid but a ponytail with what looked like hair slowly and loosely falling out of the hairdo. As the wind blew around them the individual pieces of her skirt swept across her gladiator like sandals, her high collar rustled around her neck and she slowly put her long spear in front of her, ready for combat.
With a glare on her face, Hui leapt from the ground, "Shit! She's fast!" Meroko cursed as she was just barely able to dodge Hui's attack. As the attack struck the ceramic roof tiles a bolt of lightning slammed down in the exact same spot. "And she has lightning nature, perfect."
"Why are you running Ice Dragon? It's not like you," Hui spat as she rushed at Meroko again.
"Well I can't very well rush into things without first sizing up my opponent Hui. And in all our years, I've never once seen you have to resort to any jutsus in your arsenal. Come to think of it, I didn't know you even had any," she bemused as she landed gracefully a few feet away. "Whoa!" she again just barely managed to dodge, "Are you that mad that I killed all those guards?"
Hui's eyes narrowed into a look that many on the battlefield feared, "How dare you speak ill of the dead!"
Maki stood in the courtyard watching the two fight in the air, clashing just like bolts of lightning in the sky. Each strike was a thunderous echo and seemed to push each of them away from the other. His eyes widened when he felt something cut his cheek. Blood dripped down the side of his cheek as he looked over to see three of Meroko's accomplices standing in front of him. Each one was a different height and weight and gender. Pulling his sword free, Maki stood on guard, ready to take on the three alone and knowing full well he was probably not capable of such a feat. With no guards to back him up and Hui fighting the ringleader, he was left to do what he could to stop these three at whatever they were doing.
"Why don't I get things started," the woman of the three man group said as she walked forward. She was of average height with caramel colored skin and a full figure. Her, obviously, long black hair was kept in a messy bun atop her head while her eyes of gold burned with malice. Maki held his sword in front to guard himself, "Wind Style: Petal Dance!" she shouted after weaving hand signs that were far to fast for Maki to see.
Voluntarily, Setsuko stayed in her room. Sitting at the window in her bedroom, she stared out at the sand covered village. The look on her face was somber and almost lifeless. As she stared out at the people blankly the look Gaara had given her earlier that day haunted her. She had never seen anyone look at her like that before. There was…so much hate in his eyes. Where had it come from? Sure, she was used to messing up and being scolded and looked at with disappointment, but never with such anger. Her normally beautiful blue eyes were dull with confusion as she looked at the sand covered window sill.
Sighing to herself, she got up from the seat at the window and left the room. Flopping onto the couch lazily, she picked up the book she had bought the other day and opened it up. Feeling the spine bend as she did so, she took in the smell of the old pages and began reading them to herself. The light gleamed down upon the weary traveler causing sweat to drip from his brow. Reaching up with a free hand he wiped the perspiration away and looked up at the giant ball of light in the sky reminiscing on the task left to them by their village, her mental voice spoke as she read silently. She stopped a moment and stared at the words she had just read. A task left to them by their village. She was currently doing something similar wasn't she? Bowing her head, she sighed heavily to herself. Who was she kidding? This was no task. She was doing nothing but hiding away from the people that needed her. How could she compare herself to the heroes in the books she read? Especially if such an angry look bothered her so much.
Setting her book down on the small table in front of her, she sunk further into the couch, staring up at the ceiling. She could never be a proper ruler if things like this bothered her so much. Did she really even want to rule over people? Even after so long living in the palace she hated it. She was never able to do anything that Kazeku didn't approve of. She wasn't allowed to walk among her people, or directly assist the ninja. The only things she was really allowed to do was stand at the highest balcony and address her people with the laws and solutions Kazeku and other council members came up with; as if she had no say whatsoever. It was as if they didn't respect her at all! Turning onto her side, she closed her eyes and fell asleep.
Maki slowly got to his feet, hissing from the pain pounding against his skull. Touching his hand to his head he felt something sticky running down the side of his face and in his hair. Blood. He cringed at the sudden pain that scorched through his nerves. Looking around he saw that the three that had been attacking him were on the ground, unconscious and covered in rubble. Their bodies were scratched and bruised from the stones of the courtyard crashing down on them. As he slowly rose to his feet and limped over, he noticed burn marks too. What happened? he asked himself as he looked around at the mass amount of destruction. The hallways surrounding the courtyard were reduced to smoldering rubble and the ground was cracked, with the snow having evaporated.
The armor on his body was dented and burned causing him to discard it. As he tried to look for Hui in the destruction he toppled over from the pain his body had endured. Looking around his immediate area he remembered! Hui and her opponent were clashing above them in the sky when Hui unleashed a devastating tornado of thunder and lightning upon her opponent that swallowed everything within the immediate vicinity. Everyone had been struck. It was a type of attack that was meant to simply destroy everything. That's how he knew that Hui was serious about their opponents. If she was willing to go to such lengths to take them out, they all must be very strong.
"Maki…." Hui's voice echoed through the rubble.
"Captain!" he called back to her, trying to find out just where she was. "Hui! Where are you?"
"Ma…ki…" her voice called to him again, strained and faint.
He searched through mounds of rock and snow that had once again begun to fall, "Hang on Captain!" Beyond their battlefield he could hear the faintest echo of metal boots finding their way to them. Reinforcements. "Captain Hui!" Maki breathed when he finally found her under a pile of rocks and snow. He pulled her free and breathed a sigh of relief that she was okay.
"Maki…you…" she cringed in pain, holding her side which seemed to be bleeding. "You have to get away."
"What? Are you crazy! You're hurt; I'm not leaving you behind. Besides, I can hear the others coming closer. We're going to be fine," he argued stubbornly.
Slowly Hui shut her eyes, a soft smile slowly forming on her lips at knowing how Maki was. "I tried…" her muttered.
Maki looked down at her when he saw a strange glow from the back of her neck, "Wha-"
Hui's eyes flashed open, glowing purple for but a brief moment before returning to normal. She pushed Maki away from her and stood up, blood dripping from her side. "Sword of the Demon King!" she murmured low as she weaved a complex string of hand signs before pulling forth another scroll.
Maki watched as the scroll emitted a bright, blinding light like the last one had. She slowly reached her hand inside the light and pulled a large black sword with many smaller curved blades towards the hilt. The moment the sword was free Hui's eyes were engulfed in a red glow as was her body. It was as if her body was shrouded in Hell flames. As the piercing red flames began to die away, she stepped forward revealing a black boot. Pushing aside the flames she emerged fully and Maki was gripped with fear at what he saw. Before he could even react to defend himself, not knowing what was happening, the black blade pierced his chest.
It was too late by the time the reinforcements arrived. All they saw was their Captain run her blade through her favorite soldier. It was a scene that horrified them all. Seeing red demon wings sprout from her back, they watched as she picked up five bodies and fly away from the palace. They looked on in shock at the destroyed courtyard and the actions their commanding officer had just taken. All of them were reluctant to say it out loud, but they knew, they had to inform the Princess.