Perspective: XXX

  Four months have passed since the announcement. Four months of refining, training, and waiting. Finally... the time has come to move from Edo toward the forests of Kina. Tomorrow, we begin the march. Most of the time, I trained with the Samurai in the castle courtyard, smashing their wooden bodies—and sometimes their fleshy ones—without mercy. But tonight... the last night before hell, I decided to sit atop the highest roof of the castle, under the cold stars that looked like dead eyes.

  I was cleaning my sword. The white cloth sliding over the black blade. My sword was clean... too clean, and I hated its cleanliness. I want it filled with red, with her blood, with their blood. Losing is not an option for me. I will kill her. I will kill the memory.

  Suddenly... I felt a presence beside me. I didn't feel his energy, but rather his "weight" in my mind. I gripped my sword and was about to cut in an instinctive motion, but when I saw who it was... I stopped. I slowly returned my sword to its scabbard. He was sitting there, with that calm smile that never changed. A ghost from the past I had rejected. I said in a hoarse voice devoid of affection: "Your vacation has been long, Hong Min... where have you been?"

  He looked at me with that same look he always gave me. A look that wasn't pity, nor judgment. A deep gaze I don't understand, and I don't think I ever will. But I hated that look. It makes me feel like I am... He replied, his voice sounding like an echo in an empty room: "Are you sure you want to do this?"

  I looked at him, my gray eyes reflecting the cold of the night: "Today especially, Hong Min... I do not want to hear your useless words." Hong Min sighed, his voice carrying the sadness of a thousand years: "My friend... you are taking a path that is hard on your heart. A path of no return. A path that will burn you before it burns them." "I know my words won't affect you, for the fire has already consumed the wood. But my friend... for the sake of our friendship... please." He leaned toward me and whispered: "Before you kill her... look at her face at least once. Look at her eyes, truly." "And after you look at her face... you can talk to me and complain about me. For I am always here for you."

  Then he faded like smoke in the wind. I don't understand what Hong Min is saying. And I don't understand why he asks this of me. All my life I never understood Hong Min... even though I once was Hong Min, I still don't understand him. I looked at the sky. At the "Ornaments of the Sky"... the Jewels of Heaven... the stars, as I used to call them. As I looked at the stars, I tried to conjure her face. And I wondered: What was her face like, I wonder?

  The Next Day... We began moving toward the forests of Kina. An army estimated at over 30,000 samurai. Most of them in the "Sovereignty Realm," the elite of the elite, clad in heavy armor and wielding thirsty swords. An army... the Foxes wouldn't even be able to think of touching it due to its power. The earth shook and groaned under our iron feet. The Shogun family flags waved on the horizon like black clouds heralding a storm.

  The road was long. The journey took more than a week. And finally... we arrived. In front of the Holy Forest. We arrived in the pitch-black night. Samurai from all over Nippon gathered this night to burn every demon, and every traitor. Shogun Ieyasu was at the front, riding a massive white horse, surrounded by generals from Nippon's greatest clans. And I... "Dio the Oni"... was directly behind him, with the Hatamoto samurai directly under his command.

  When we arrived, and the armies lined up like a wall of steel, a terrible silence fell. One of the generals, an experienced old man, began to speak. He knelt on the ground before the Shogun’s horse and said in a trembling voice: "Shogun-sama..." "We only want the son of the Demon Lord. Just one head. There is no need to burn the Holy Forest... it could become your backyard, a symbol of your authority." "Let us ask the Foxes to hand him over... before we..."

  He did not finish. Ieyasu touched the general's shoulder with the tip of his sword, and said in a voice that was quiet but carried the weight of a mountain: "Because you are the closest general to my heart... I will forgive you for your words, and for your cowardice." Then he pressed the sword slightly until a drop of blood flowed: "But... there will be no forgiveness a second time. Mercy in war is a sin." The general screamed, his head touching the ground: "Yes, my lord! I am sorry!"

  The Shogun turned to the Samurai, and screamed with a voice amplified by Ki that shook the forest itself: "Samurai!" "Today is the day of reckoning for the demons! The day to end Nippon's eternal suffering! And the day of a new world and a new future for Nippon!" "Today... you will see what no ancestor of yours has seen before!"

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  I was still thinking, looking at the dense trees that seemed like an impenetrable wall, and the invisible barrier that had repelled all our previous attempts: How will the Foxes come out of their hole? And how will he burn a forest that constantly regenerates? This question was on every samurai's mind.

  Then... Ieyasu turned to the forest. And he drew his sword from its scabbard very slowly. The sword stayed at his side as he closed his eyes, breathing deeply. The sword was black... blacker than the night itself. It did not reflect light; it absorbed it. The Shogun’s aura was tyrannical, terrifying, to the point that the horses flinched and began kicking the ground. He opened his eyes, which glowed violet, and said in an audible whisper like the voice of Fate: "This dream world... I will fold it now... and you will depart in silence."

  Then... At the speed of light. With the most beautiful sword movement my eyes had ever seen, and the most terrifying. The sword cut the air simply. Slash. There was no explosion sound. Instead, we heard a sound that made our teeth grind... the sound of "paper tearing" amplified a million times. KRRRAAAACK!

  Reality itself tore. Ieyasu did not cut the trees... he cut Kina itself. Then... I felt the collision of two gods at the same time. The will of the forest (Kina) resisted the cut, trying to repair the torn reality. But the violet aura released by Ieyasu was stronger... it was a "poison" to existence. A giant violet wound appeared, stretching for miles across the forest. The trees touched by the violet light did not burn and turn to ash. No... They vanished. They turned into nothingness. Erased from existence entirely. A strange smell filled the place... not the smell of smoke, but the smell of rotten ozone, the smell of the Void. The forest... was dying. The barrier was collapsing. Then... the drummers began beating the massive war drums. DOOM! DOOM! DOOM! And the Samurai began to scream with one voice that shook the earth: "Yorishiro! Yorishiro! Yorishiro!"

  Perspective: Kage

  This place was a paradise in the middle of hell. A paradise no one could reach... no demon, no Oni, no gods from the outside. For the first time in my life, I felt alive. Not a tool, not a shadow. I wondered: How was I living before? How was I living in the hell of Dream and Ling Guo, when I could live here in this paradise happily? Every day was dancing and happiness. Nothing "special" had happened since the miracle of saving Yuta. But for me... the "unspecial" things were the most special. The world became colorful. It was no longer black and white. There were other colors in it: Green... the color of Mother Kina's love. Blue... the color of Yuta's innocence. Red... the color of life.

  But... Among these special days... today is a special day for me personally, more than any other day. Today is the day I end my previous life forever. I was in a place no one can enter but once in their life. Under the Holy Tree. In the heart of the forest. It was a giant tree, its leaves glowing silver, its roots pulsing with life. The tree said to be a part of Kina herself. There was no one but me... and the Matriarch Kinami. I was wearing beautiful clothes, a light green kimono embroidered with flowers, and a wreath of white flowers on my head. Matriarch Kinami held a special staff, containing a crystal rose that held all the colors of the spectrum. I was kneeling on the ground, and the Mother was in front of me. Then the Mother began to speak with tenderness and a melodious voice: "I, the heir of Kina, Kinami, and those who came after Kina..." "In the name of the Spirit, and in the name of the Earth..." She placed the staff on my shoulder: "I make Kage... a Fox."

  It wasn't something magically dazzling. Just words. But these words I will cherish all my life. After she said those words, a soft green light directed from the staff. It went to my black tattoo (the closed lotus flower and chains) on my chest. That tattoo that bound me to Ling Guo. The green light surrounded the tattoo... dismantled the chains... and erased the blackness. It made it as if it never existed. In that moment... I felt my body become light... so light, as if I were a feather that might fly with the breeze. The weight that had crushed my chest for years, the weight of slavery and surveillance, vanished. I took a deep breath... and it was the most delicious breath I ever took in my life. I am Kage the Fox. I am not the shadow of the Oni, and I am not the servant of the Watcher. I am free.

  In the evening... I was in my usual spot atop the high tree. I loved it because it looked directly at the moon. Yuta was sleeping in my lap, exhausted. He had danced a lot and run a lot celebrating me. I looked at him, kissed his small forehead, and whispered: "Oh Kina... please protect this child from every Oni. And if there is space in your mercy... protect me with him."

  Maru, whom I hadn't seen watching me from the adjacent branch, laughed. He jumped and sat beside me, and said with a warm smile: "Then, oh Kina... protect me too, side by side with the newest and most beautiful Fox." My face turned red, I replied to him saying: "Shut up... don't mock my prayers." He laughed and smiled at my face, his eyes shining with feelings he no longer hid. I wished in this moment that the world would truly stop. That this moment would freeze forever. I looked ahead to the horizon, to thank the moon.

  Then... I saw something strange. The forest... the far edges of the forest... Began to disappear. Not burning with orange flame. But something violet. A cold, silent fire, devouring the trees and reality with terrifying speed. And the smell... a rotten smell, the smell of the death of the air. The blood froze in my veins. Then... I began to hear the sound tearing through paradise. DOOM! DOOM! DOOM! The sound of drums piercing the silence. And the screaming of thousands of throats thirsty for blood... "Yorishiro! Yorishiro! Yorishiro!"

  I looked at Maru. His smile disappeared, replaced by the face of the White Warrior. Paradise... is being folded now.