Day 7: Scars
A scar is born
Warriors always wear their scars with pride, as trophies of the battles they went through and came out victorious.
But what people can't see, are the scars buried deep inside their souls tearing them apart little by little.
They can't see the hundreds of stories written behind each one of the marks scarring their perfect skins, the deep emotional wounds hidden in them and that torment them every day, eating them alive and haunting them in their dreams being these scars the hardest ones to heal or forget.
What people can't see is how those strong warriors who they claim to admire wholeheartedly, are also human beings like them to whom some days seem to be really hard to bear with. And today, is one of those days for one of the strongest and most respected warriors of Inazuma, their general, Kujou Sara.
Today is one of those days in which the deep scars of her soul still unhealed, rip open with every step she takes.
A heavy sigh escapes the general's lips as Sara finishes climbing the last one of the stony steps leading her to the Grand Narukami Shrine, taking a moment to catch her breath, before she raises her eyes to observe the sacred temple in front of her, the light of the lanterns illuminating it enticingly as the dark night slowly falls over it.
A feeling of calm washes over her as a chilly breeze blows, carrying with it the Sakura petals swirled to her feet to dance around her, captivating her with such a lovely sight, before they fly away scattering over the empty and quiet place after long visiting hours of comings and goings from Inazuma's citizens seeking for help or comfort.
Sara can't help but feel like one of those visitants as she begins to take a calm stroll around the sacred grounds, making sure everything is in perfect order, before she heads to the only spot that seems to bring her some comfort, dragging her feet tiredly as if the scars marring her skin were too heavy for her as to bear them.
A heavy sigh escapes her lips on her slow walk, before the sight of the majestic Sacred Sakura tree comes into view, eliciting a sad smile from the general who can't help but bow in respect and as if she was greeting an old friend, gazing at the beauty of the hundreds of Sakura petals embellishing its centenarian branches while sitting on her knees under their shelter.
A certain pink haired priestess can't help but watch this exchange from afar with a fond yet sad smile adorning her features, her heart clenching painfully at the pained expression replacing the usual solemn general's features.
She can't help but observe Sara, the distant look on her mesmerizing golden eyes gazing into the horizon, before closing her eyes to try and find some peace to the deep scars of her soul tormenting her.
She notices how the stiff position Sara adopts whenever she's knelt in front of the centenarian tree is nothing but loose, her shoulders slumped as her hands fall to her sides to clench a handful of dirt beneath her into a tight fist.
Sadness washes over the priestess as she observes Sara getting lost in her thoughts, giving the warrior time and space until she needs comfort.
The general, for her part, can't help but tighten her hold over the dirt in her fists, taking a sharp breath of air trying to fight the feeling of helplessness creeping into her and making her mind drift to times she'd rather not remember.
The image of an old grey-haired man soon comes to her mind, a look of disapproval shinning in his eyes, before anger exuded out of every pore of his body, his tight grasp around her wrist while he dragged her through the Kujou's compound to the most remote area of it hurting her even nowadays.
- You're nothing but a disgrace to the Kujou clan. Playing with the soldiers like one of those useless and weak kids on the streets, instead of training to become one of them.
He told her in pure anger, throwing her to the ground of a damp and cold room making her scrape her thin elbows and knees, before she looked at him with teary eyes, horror drawing on her face as he closed the door behind him with a whip in hand to teach her a lesson she'd never forget.
- Remember you're here to serve the Shogunate. To fight and die for it, useless brat.
He kept telling her, the thongs of his whip engraving each one of his words into her flesh and memory, her cries and yells for help getting lost in the sound of his punishment.
- Not only you're a complete disgrace as a tengu, but also a useless disgrace to the whole clan.
His words filled with venom seeped through the wounds left on her back.
- I should have left you die instead of adopting you.
His hatred echoing around the deafening silence, mixing with the last of his whipping drew a piercing cry from the small kid in front of him, before her "father" grabbed her by the hair.
- Maybe this will make you learn to behave and become a worthy soldier to the Shogunate.
He spitted one last time, his voice echoing inside the moldy walls, before he locked her inside the room with a loud bang of the door to leave, his footsteps sounding more distant as he kept walking away.
Silent tears flooded down little Sara's eyes as she curled up in a ball gasping for air, praying for help and for the pain to stop eating her alive, before the nauseating odor of mold mixing with the iron scent of the pool of blood beneath her and of the wounds sticking her shirt against her tiny body, lulled her to sleep.
Sara still remembers the way her hungry stomach growled around the four walls, screaming as if she was a hungry monster demanding for food after several days of being starved, until Kamaji took pity on her and sneaked in with some food for her, pity shinning in his eyes that did nothing but make Sara's stomach churn not wanting to witness such a look ever again.
The scars on her back still burn painfully nowadays with the memory of how despite of being soldiers, they treated her like a little kid who only wanted to have a normal childhood, until something changed and she witnessed and felt in her own flesh the disdain of those who once were her playfellows causing a new scar to be born and be carved deep inside her soul.
A shaky sigh escapes her lips as the words engraved in her mind come back at full force, ringing loudly as they used to do.
- Don't get closer to her, she's a bad omen.
The words slipping past their lips as she got closer to them to apologize for her father's punishments echoing in her mind as she remembers her playfellows hurrying away or avoiding her like the plague making her feel lonely, before she became the target of their distrusting gazes and cruel attacks filled with hate for what they had to bear due to the simple fact of talking to her. Or even worst, in revenge as a consequence of what playing with her innocently entailed to their comrades, the macabre destiny that awaited for them if they did the same.
The whippings of her father were nothing compared with the whispering and the glares showing hate of those who one day were her playfellows. They were nothing compared with the guilt tripping, the pain tearing her apart as she found the ugly truth of her innocent actions.
- I'm telling you that kid is no good. She's a harbinger of death, or why do you think Fujishito and Yasuke ended up dead after playing with her?
She heard some soldiers saying one evening after crawling back to the moldy and cold room where her father kept her locked in as punishment for having lost in a training fight against the soldiers, the wounds on her body bleeding out as hard as the new scar being born deep inside her soul upon knowing this.
She killed them.
It was the only thing she could think of, the kind smiles of Fujishito and Yasuke as they played with her to a tag game engraved in her mind as tears rolled down her cheeks upon how her actions destroyed families, the lives of those playing and serving with her, stripping them of a future and dreams…
Eventually, Sara grew empty of any kind of emotion in order to save the lives of those that once dared to be kind to her as well as those serving with her. To become a perfect weapon to the Shogunate just like her father wanted and to become what everybody was afraid of the most: a harbinger of war and death.
A lonely tear escapes her eyes as she remembers how the innocence inside her morphed into cruelty.
How the loneliness inside her turned into coldness upon losing everything and everyone around her, especially after losing the only friend she once managed to have to became the perfect weapon able to kill cold-blooded the hundreds of enemies' armies that dared to go against Inazuma, protecting her Archon and her people, slowly turning into a monster as the wounds buried deep inside her soul opened and bleed out until new scars were slowly born.
The general can only clench her fists, before opening them to let the dirt trapped in them fall back to the ground, taking a look at her calloused hands, only to see the crimson staining them instead of the trace of dirt still on them.
Sara can only clench her eyes tightly to try to erase the trace of blood haunting her, reminding her the thousands of lives she either took or helped to take with them, the last one that same morning.
Ever since the abolition of the Vision Hunt Decree, peace came over to the region and with it the distrusting gazes faded into acceptance, before the people she worked for and to protect to, learnt to look at her differently with something close to respect.
That same morning, Sara was patrolling around the city making sure everything was in perfect order when she heard rushed footsteps.
- General Kujou!
She then heard one of her men yelling her name in the distance, causing her to halt on her walk to look behind her.
- Heizou? Motosuke? Is everything alright?
She asked the detective and soldier respectively, waiting patiently for them to catch their breaths before talking.
- A little girl disappeared.
The soldier informed her still breathless, panting as he grabbed his knees in support.
- What do you mean? – she asked him confused yet in alarm.
- A woman just informed us that her daughter disappeared from her home and she's afraid that the little one might have entered the forest. She told us that her daughter likes to go in there to play even though she has forbade it to her several times.
Heizou told her, a look of pure worry on his features.
As soon as Heizou said those words and gave Sara the description of the little girl, what was she wearing and where she usually went to play, the large black majestic wings of the general unfurled wide open to fly away, quickly traversing the sky searching for the little girl, before she flew deep into the forest, her wings dodging the branches blocking her way to find the little one alive.
A sigh of relief escaped her lips upon discerning blonde hair and blue clothes, before a loud growl filled the quiet air making her blood ran cold.
Sara quickly came down to the ground, her bow materializing in her hands to shoot at the gigantic and bloodthirsty monster looming over the little kid's lifeless body.
She kept shooting at the monster trying to stop it from keep hurting the little kid, before the monster fell to the ground with a loud thud.
Sara rushed to the little girl's body to take her on her arms and check her pulse, before she laid her down again to try her hardest to keep the kid's heart pumping blood enough to fly back with her to the city, to keep her alive, but sadly, it was already too late…
When Heizou and the soldier managed to get to the place where both she and the kid were, they couldn't believe what they were seeing, gasping horrified at the sight of the body of the monster full of holes while their general was next to it trying to bring the little girl back to life.
A look of pain and apprehension could be seen on both of their faces, before Heizou approached the stoic general, distress exuding out of her in her desperate attempts to make the little girl's heart pump blood again.
- General.
He said fruitlessly, seeing his general doing a cardiac massage to the child.
- General, she's… she's gone…
He whispered, a lump on his throat as he placed a hand on his general's shoulder to stop her as blood covered both the kid and Sara's clothes and a look of pure distress on her face could be seen.
Sara could only stare at the little girl's body hopelessly upon not have been fast enough to save her from the monster's claws, a new and even more painful scar being born deep inside her.
The always stoic general could only leave a caress on the kid's face, closing the little one's eyes as she prayed for her soul to find peace, before she took her in her arms to carry her back to her mother, apologizing for not have been able to protect her nor save her.
Yae's heart breaks completely as she notices the lost look on Sara's eyes looking at her own hands as her strong back shakes hard, quiet but heartbreaking sobs shaking her frame while filling the air as tears begin to fall down Sara's mesmerizing golden eyes fluently.
A shaky sob escapes her own lips as she sees the strong warrior in front of her crumbling down trying to fight her demons, before she steps into the darkness of the night to wrap Sara in a tight hug hoping she can alleviate and erase the pain the general is going through.
Sara tenses up upon the sudden embrace, before the sweet and soothing Sakura scent envelops her, relaxing into the tight embrace.
- I'm here, my love. I'm here…
Yae's soft voice whispers reassuringly against her ear, leaving a kiss on her temple as Sara leans into the pink haired priestess' body, placing her trembling hands over Yae's to interlace their fingers as another heartbreaking sob escapes her lips followed by a waterfall of tears, allowing herself to be vulnerable in the arms of her lover.
- I couldn't save her… I... I wasn't fast enough…
Sara cries, feeling Yae's hold tightening around her as more kisses are left on her hair, on her temple and nape.
- You did your best, my love. You tried to save her, you tried to bring her back to life, but there wasn't anything you could do.
Yae says, trying to alleviate the guilt-tripping Sara, knowing fully well how the little kid was dead even before Sara got to find her, probably even before Heizou was informed of her disappearance and ran to ask her for help…
The stoic general can only shake her head as her heartbreaking cries fill the quietness of the night, only silenced as she turns around to bury her face in her lover's chest, Yae's tight embrace easing the pain of not have been able to save that innocent little girl's life and that it's been eating her alive since then.
- I'm here my love. I'm not going anywhere.
Yae repeats again hoping her reassuring words and tight embrace can bring some comfort to the strong but tormented warrior in her arms, letting her know she isn't alone, that she's right there with her trying her hardest so she doesn't have to carry the guilt and pain alone anymore.
Hoping her words can stop the bleeding of the wounds tearing the warrior's heart wide away, before they could engrave in her soul new scars hard to heal.