Malice Hearts Yin Book 1 Part 1

Chapter 10

CHAPTER TEN

"Mei... Mei... are you hungry...? your stomach is growling..."

"No... I'm not that hungry."

"Mei... are you cold?"

"It's alright... You need the blanket more than I do."

"Hmm."

"Are you hungry? I can try to find something for you."

"No, just... stay with me."

"Ok."

".... Your cold, Mei...."

I woke up the next morning, the unfamiliar, cracked and dusty ceiling of the Jade pearl overhead, and the noise of the heavy breathing and snoring of my team replacing the phantom voices of my dream.

I only ever dreamed audibly, just black, endless voids of sounds. My dreams and chunks of my memory; the memory of the dearest thing to me—Mei — had been the price I had paid for my rare power, Eikyo-Tsuiho. It hadn't been a trade I had willingly chosen, rather; the power had awakened in me on the same night the village I lived in got attacked by the ayakashi.

Master Yamamoto came to my village after receiving reports of a small Fox-Burakumin community being ransacked by ayakashi. It was there that they found my older brother Korimizu and me, the sole survivors of the slaughter. Most would have ignored the call, not thinking it worth the time or effort to aid such people. Master wasn't one of them.

He came to help us, treating us as though we were the same as anybody else. I and Korimizu was alive thanks to him. He had even adopted me as his own son. I was grateful that he did not judge me for my vile background, but he was the only one who hadn't.

Even Yuriko had shunned me at first.

Korimizu had been the only one I had growing up, whom I felt I could turn to. He alone could never judge me for my background, for we had the same one. We weren't actually brothers, but we considered each other as such.

Korimizu, Mei and I had been the sole survivors of the attack on our home. My sister had disappeared, however, kidnapped by the ayakashi responsible.

I don't remember her being kidnapped, but her body had not been among the dead, and Master Yamamoto had found no trace of her to follow. The ayakashi that had attacked had only been interested in the eyes and tongue and had left the rest of the body alone, so she would have been identified if she had been among those who had been killed.

I had feared at first that they had lied to me in order to protect my feelings, as that was something Hibiki would do. He was a staunch believer that false hope was better than none, but it wasn't a policy shared by Master Yamamoto, and especially not by Lady Miyako.

Master Yamamoto truly hated the idea of shielding someone from pain with lies. He would try to soften the blow as much as he could. He never looked down on anyone for being weak. No, quite the opposite. When he saw someone weak, he'd be a crutch to them for as long as it took for them to stand on their own. 'Cry as much as want. Scream as loud as you can. Then when your tears are all dry and your throat is horse, get back up'. Those were the very first words Master Yamamoto has said to me when I woke up at the Blue Dragon, crying for my sister.

Lady Miyako took a different approach. She never tried to protect anyone's feelings. She would allow any blow to strike full force. It was her belief that pain and anger lead to inner strength and more often than not rebuked Master for being too compassionate. When I trained at the Azure Dragon, every time I would cry for my sister or show weakness, she'd give me a beating with her staff.