Our fading memories

[Anadwen]

The strike was delivered with all the strength in Seiki's body. It came like a lightning from the sky, follow his form that leaped up and threw himself down to add more strength to the lightning-fast hit. The petals immediately followed the motion of his other hand, all collapsing onto the spirit at once in a blinding flash.

And the swords clashed.

[Wicked Basket]

With the spirit's blade now occupied, Sozen made his move. He lifted his blade above his head with both hands and brought it down in a powerful downward chop. Surely the spirit would not survive a blow that devastating. Right?

[Anadwen]

What a mistake.

In a blast of something black, both of them were shot away. Seiki was pushed away by the impact of the dark shape on the blade of his sword, narrowly holding it from his chest, till he hit a tree with his back. The very sword, harder than steel, in his hands bent...

Then the shape broke. Seiki almost collapsed to his knees, regaining his balance in the last moment, when something attacked him again. Another black blast. This one seemed to be far stronger...

He was frozen, he couldn't move. The crescent of shadows was drawing near too fast.

In an attempt to create a barrier, he raised his hands, and used the whirling petals, which were actually shards of his sword, to create a body shield for him, enveloping his form.
It was actually a little more than the blink of an eye when the shining white was broken by the black, but he could see the shards of his sword cascading down from his body in this form.

Then, he felt the pain. One of his white gloves fell down, and if his eyes followed it, he could see a huge hole, opened in his right wrist. If it was broken, he would be lucky. Like this, there was just a big part missing, bursting with crimson blood. It was a miracle that that hand was still capable of holding the sword - by all means, it should not be, not with missing tendons and bones. His white haori was torn at the shoulder, stained by blood, and thin rivers of red were running by the left side of his jaw, though they may have just been a result of other wounds he took.

Yet, he remained standing.

[Wicked Basket]

The blast hurled Sozen into a tree. He impacted the tree on his left side, shattering his mask and breaking his left shoulder. It was a good thing he was a righty, but now his shame was exposed by the scars on the side of his head. Sozen slowly managed to stand up. He felt a trickle going down the left side of his head. Apparently he had gotten a small crack in his skull as well. Wonderful.

The spirit had its attention on Seiki, who also looked extremely wounded. Seiki would need a bit of time to recover. If anyone survived this, it should be Seiki. He was next in line for Head of the Adachi house.

"Hey you," Sozen called to the spirit. "I still got 204 bones that aren't broken. Is that all you got?"

Sozen tightened his grip on his sword. This was perhaps the dumbest idea he had ever had.

[Anadwen]

The spirit turned to Sozen, hearing his words, and started approaching him, obviously noticing that his prey was weakened. The sword glinted, and the pair of sharp horns was aimed forwards as the head was bent forth.

Then, it charged with the sword before itself.

Seiki collected what strength was within himself. It was his duty to protect others, and he never, ever wanted to feel the shame of letting someone die at his hands when he could save them. There were battles for life, and battles for honor. This was the second kind.

And as the sword's strike landed, he could just feel his hollowed hand pushing Sozen back. The blade came through him, entering his body on the left side right under the ribs and coming out somewhere beside his liver on the other side... His back arched as he was in agony, but at the same time, the gleaming white sword in his own hand came through the middle of the mask, piercing it.

"Strike it... Now..."  He raised a desperate look at Sozen. If another blow won't soon kill the spirit, he was definitely going to die.

[Wicked Basket]

There he goes again with the whole 'saving his life' thing. It was awfully counterintuitive to risk your life to save someone just for them to do the exact same thing for you.

Seeing as this was an emergency, Sozen used something he rarely ever utilized: Kido.

"Hold your breath," Sozen told Seiki as he prepared to unleash his power.

The trio was soon surrounded by an aura of darkness and emptiness. It was devoid of everything, even air.

"Feel the emptiness of my soul."

With nothing such as air resistance to slow him down, Sozen began making lightning fast passes by the spirit, slashing at it with his blade on every pass.

As quickly as it had began, it ended. The whole ordeal had lasted only about five seconds, but Sozen had struck the spirit nearly thirty times in those five seconds.

Sozen skidded to a halt and turned to face the spirit to see how much damage he had actually inflicted.

[Anadwen]

The broken remains of the spirit's mask slowly fell to pieces and collapsed onto the floor. The entire white body, bloodied and battered, turned to ash, blown away by the wind. All that was left from it was the sword, still in Seiki's side.

He himself could hardly keep himself on his knees, and the dark pools of his midnight-blue eyes were hollowed and empty.

He felt cold.

Even if Sozen knew any good healing Kido, it could just stop the bleeding for now. For this, Haru was needed...

How cold it was.

[Wicked Basket]

Sozen went immediately to Seiki's side and examined his injuries.

"Damnit, Seiki," he muttered.

Sozen was not very skilled in healing Kido, so there wasn't much he could, but he would do what he could. Sozen cut off his left sleeve, revealing his very black-and-blue shoulder, and wrapped it around Seiki's wrist as best as he could with only one hand. The next order of business was using his healing Kido on Seiki's shoulder, which stopped the bleeding. Sozen then pulled the sword from Seiki's body. He was going to toss it aside, but he decided to take it along as proof of their success. Sliding the sword into his belt, he lifted Seiki and draped him over his shoulders, accidentally putting Seiki's head to left of his own, giving Seiki full view of his scars. Sozen started for the manor as fast as his tired and battered body could manage. He took care of the shoulder and wrist, but the sword wound was beyond his ability. He needed to get Seiki to Haru as fast as he could. He couldn't let Seiki die on his watch. He couldn't fail again, especially when it was the heir of the Adachi house on the line.

[Anadwen]

As they were, although much later by then, nearing the Sakura gardens that surrounded the residence, a dark shape flashed between the trees, just to reveal Haru's red-garbed figure moments later. She was moving as fast as a warrior despite the kimono she wore, and her reflexes proved to be flawless as she stopped before Sozen would run into her.

She felt their spiritual presences near, but by how weakened they were she figured out that something bad must have happened. She went to seek them on her own...

And it was even worse than her expectations. Some of the Adachi warriors defied the laws of nature by their sheer will to live.

She immediately hurried to them. "Sozen, Seiki... Sozen, put him down... Just give him to me. We can get back to the house in no time..." she assured him, gesturing towards him to put Seiki's battered body down. She was, except for Shinobu and Takuya, the only person able to teleport using Kido, though only for short distances.

[Wicked Basket]

Sozen did as he was told and put Seiki down with a bit of struggling. It was hard to maneuver Seiki with only one arm.

"Take him. I can walk."

[Anadwen]

Haru took Seiki to her arms as she squatted down, but at Sozen's inquiry, she shook her head. "I can take us all." she replied. In the meantime, she drew a square around them with her hands. The tips of her fingers left dark lines on the ground, and those grew thicker, till there was a whole black square around.

They all sank through, and after a moment of darkness, appeared on the same shape, but gleaming white, in the middle of the entrance hall of the Adachi residence.

[Wicked Basket]

Sozen had never witnessed a teleport Kido before, so it was a new experience for him. As he looked around, he saw that they were back at the house and safe. Now that they were safe, he allowed himself to collapse to the floor. He was so weak and exhausted from fighting that spirit and then having to carry Seiki that he could no longer stand. Seiki was safe. He had not failed.

[Anadwen]

Right before he would hit the floor, Haru caught Sozen into her arms, and put him down softly. A few others appeared in the hall - among them Shinobu and Isako. Isako almost panicked at the sight, but Shinobu retained her calm, at least partly. That was, till she rushed to Seiki's side to pick him up and bring him to a room as Haru told her.

Her dark eyes grew wide, and she clutched him tightly, though it was visible that she was shaking. His own eyes were still open, but his glance was somehow empty. Though she could see that he was breathing, whether he was conscious she wasn't sure about. Since it was him, she'd most likely have to ask to get a distinct answer.

Both of them were carried into one of the rooms near Haru's, where she could easily take care of them at all times. While Shinobu was asked to treat Sozen, she herself disappeared behind the doors of her own room, much larger than the rest, with Seiki.

Shinobu laid Sozen down onto a mat, similar to those that most family members used instead of beds, and quickly ripped the tattered remains of his hakama off his chest. What could have even happened there? Would he tell her?

[Wicked Basket]

The first thing Sozen noticed when he came to was that we was lying on a mat. Then he remembered everything that had happened up until that point. Then second thing he noticed was Shinobu kneeling over him. Seiki was probably being treated by Haru, so Shinobu was treating him. Considering that Seiki was been wounded much more seriously than he had, it made sense. Sozen wasn't entirely with it, so he didn't notice that his scarred chest was exposed.

"Shinobu," he croaked. "How's Seiki?"

[Anadwen]

She shook her head. "I... I don't know. I know he's alive... Even now I feel it. But his spiritual presence is weak, even though he's just a few doors away." she explained silently while she worked. Her hands moved up to Sozen's head to clean and treat the wound, but she seemed distant and silent.

Yes, she could feel him, but how he was doing she didn't know.

[Wicked Basket]

Sozen felt Seiki's weak presence as well, but he just wanted a second opinion from someone that wasn't suffering from exhaustion. The fact that Seiki was still alive was somewhat reassuring, but the man really needed to learn to stop catching swords with his torso. It was nice to know that someone would risk their life for you, but was it because he cared? or was it more out of an obligation? Regardless of what is was, what had happened, happened. Sozen then remembered that his mask was gone. He then further noticed that his chest was exposed as well. His shame was completely exposed to any who looked upon him. The only saving grace was that only one person was seeing it. Sozen moved his right arm and rested it on his chest to partially cover the scars. The scars on his face he could not hide because Shinobu was treating his head injury. Hopefully she wouldn't pry too much. 

[Anadwen]

Shinobu wouldn't ask any questions about what she saw. Not only did she already know all - even though she was young when the incident happened, she did remember. And so, she wouldn't ask.

All of them had secrets. Their little or big personal secrets, their little or big issues... The Adachi house was darker and more rotten than what would seem. But in a family where your own brother wears a stone mask he refuses to take away even for you, in a family where all that mattered was your prowess in battle, loyalty, and pride - or so it seemed - they all had secrets.

At least Sozen wasn't such an uptight freak. Sure, they both had their issues, but she considered her brother's obsession with law and pride sick. She KNEW that he wouldn't hesitate to kill her if she committed an offense against the laws of their clan... Would Sozen, though? That she didn't know.

And in the end, why was she thinking about this, even? It was her job to treat him, not wonder about his code of honor and personality traits.

[Wicked Basket]

Sozen laid in silence as he was treated, staying focused on Seiki's presence. As long as it persisted, than Sozen had not failed. Shinobu didn't seem interested in questioning his scars, but she was probably just a good actress. Everyone had that curious child within them. Sozen did not fear for his life, for he knew that his wounds were not fatal, so he appeared eerily calm.

"How long have I been here," he asked.

[Anadwen]

"Not long." she informed him, moving on from his head to treat his shoulder. "Since you arrived, it could have been little more than an hour." It didn't seem so, in this desensitized calm an eternity could have just gone by in just a minute.

"What happened there, Sozen? Nobody even said that you two were leaving..." she asked eventually. It appeared that he had enough strength to talk already, and she couldn't help but wonder what could have hurt two expert warriors that badly.

[Wicked Basket]

"We were sent to hunt down an evil spirit," Sozen explained. "It was very powerful, but managed to take it down just the same. I brought its sword back as proof. Where did that go?"