Authors note sorry if this stinks of poo i suck at writing mr cronin told me so . the end is pretty rushed cuz it's late and the grammar sucks i need to study sat english so yeah enjoy!
How do i start this lmfao
Aoi always needed something he lacked.
He lacked a lot of things.
He thought that if he got physically larger and stronger he could ward off the evils in his mind, the ones that made him burn down villages and hurt the people he loved. Pftt yeah right, he chuckled to himself.
When he realized he could never fully control his mind, his body, his anger ever again. He sought out that control in various other forms, he tried controlling the narrative of his battles,
always being front and center so if they had won he knew he played a role and if they lost he knew whom to blame.
It's why he became a folk hero in the first place, he controlled every little part of his persona, the outfit, the heroic deeds, their image of him, was whatever he wanted it to be.
It was the one thing not tainted by the evil bitch that ruined every part of his damned life.
Until it was. He let out a puff of breath
Speaking of, he missed those times, missed going to school by day and putting on the wolf mask by night.
He grinned to himself at these memories, which faded as soon as it came remembering how those times had abruptly ended. In fiery, red, hot rage like they so often did, the expressions of parents who feared their own son.
They probably always did. He grumbled, foot slipping on the rocky trail they were taking to Datewara, his party members looked up eying him in confusion before refocusing on the trail again.
His parents were always going to give him a second chance of course even after seeing the destruction he'd caused and maybe a third and fourth and so on and so forth. But as the chances grew their fear grew alongside it.
Even months had passed after the fire stopped. Their prayers grew longer and more desperate begging for any god to hear of their accursed son. The irony never lost him, did they even know who did this, he had laughed to himself trying to find humor in the situation. Who would they turn to then, their whole world would be wrecked!
He took pride in the absurdity of the situation. Everything was funny to him until his parents spent more time at the village temple then in their own home. Seriously! How did a person even spend 14 hours in the temple, I bet they don't even feed them there. I hope they're hungry I hope they're so hungry they come back home. And maybe mom would even make roasted duck and we'd all sit around the dinner table again, and they'd have to look me in the eyes that way it'd be awkward if they didn't, they'd also have to ask me about my day, i mean sitting in pure silence at a dinner table would be awfully odd even for them.
This is how most of his thoughts would go nowadays,
it'd start with a funny remark which always turned to something about food. He was more often hungry than not, especially when his parents never came home to bring food from the market anymore. He had to fend for himself, not that Aoi was an awful cook or anything but he missed his moms cooking. The physical hunger would subside quickly replaced by the emotional hunger, that raw aching feeling his parents had left. He could never really put a finger on what it was,
but it hurt,
It hurt more than that of running into a tree at full speed; he could attest to how painful that was. Maybe it's internal bleeding or something, bet Uri's up to it, Uri's always finds a new way to torture me.
Fortunately for him there was an escape, one day on his nights with the wolf mask, he hadn't been going quite far recently. He often lacked energy and fatigue grew quite strong when he didn't have enough food in his system, which was quite often lately.
However on one of his trips to the nearby village, he'd observed 3 men in uniforms and a line of young men behind them, all his age and in moderately good shape. As he drew closer, trying to be as undetectable as possible, he heard whispers from the men to their friends of the glory they'd bring to their country, how they'd defeat the filthy qi'seongis and be the savior Shinju needed.
Of course the military! they must be enlisting new members. My lucky day isn't it, bet they feed em like mountain cats over there.
He signed up the same day, after finding a suitable hiding place to dump his belongings in, he shed his cloak and mask. The recruiters looked particularly happy when they saw him, their smiles reached their eyes like they knew they'd scored.
When he reached his home, he'd managed to catch his parents right after there temple trip. It was quite rare to see them around so he might as well rip the bandaid and just tell them he's heading off. "Caught a couple recruiters today, looks like they were looking for some fresh meat" He'd tried to open with a more humorous tone but why bother, his parents couldn't even look him in the eye as he spoke they just nodded. "I'm heading off to the military, I probobly will be gone for a while" Not like they'd miss me or anything. Two nods, and a ok is all he managed to wrangle from them. "Carriage picking me up tomorrow 'round noon" He'd added a bit quickly to finish off his statement. Another nod and a good night, was all before he went to bed that night.
The weather was quite gloomy the day he left, however Aoi felt completely different then that. Maybe excited, maybe nervous, it was all very bittersweet. As the carriage had come to bring him into his new life, his parents nervously walked out the door themselves. I'm suprised they even wanted to bid their goodbyes, wonder how long this takes away from there temple heh.
Just then he heard a CRACK as the weather went from alright to terrible and a heavy downpour seemed to appear out of nowhere. I'd better get doing before the roads get flooded. It's like his parents read his mind as they started speeding up to meet him before he left.
"well i'm off-" Aoi began before he was enveloped in... in a hug. It wasn't the most comforting or the longest hug he'd ever been given but before then they treated him like he had plague. So it was certainly something. "Be safe, protect yourself, you don't have to always be the hero" His mother said holding his shoulder firmly as if to ingrain that message into him. "Don't let the evil inside you dictate your life, your stronger then that and your stronger then it..." His father added, looking him sharply in the eye and is that a tear or a rain droplet aoi really couldn't tell, "...son." Aoi nearly laughed, guess it only takes a impending death with.
"before you head off, we'd like to give you something, while you have this the gods will protect you" His father handed him something from the temple, he could tell by the build the religious symbol and even the smell. Just when i'd thought huh, Aoi begrudgingly grabbed the item so tightly, his knuckles began growing pale from his fury. " I have to go now before the rain floods the roads" His parents nodded, "don't kill yourself out there son" "'course". Those were the final things he heard from his parents before he left his village. He'd tried so hard to throw out the religious garbage his parents gave him that morning, dangling it off the end of the carriage, but alas he couldn't bring himself too it.
