Light & Darkness

CHAPTER 1: Shattered Glass

Under a small tree that was one of the few features that was a decoration of the massive garden, a man, tea in hand and sword resting on his shoulder, he seemed bother by something that he was unable to find with his eyes.

The man lied on the tree to look at the beautiful moon that was reflecting on his tea.

"- You seem troubled master. Is anything wrong?"

A young woman that had just entered her adulthood appeared near the man, she looked troubled by something herself but, she always prioritized her master before herself.

"- We are going to be in a peaceful time soon, yet, I feel uneasy about it." The man turned only his eyes to look at his underling, his rough beard floated with the wind and his long hair followed as well.

The wind grew stronger than what it already was, it was as if mother nature was giving them an answer that they both couldn't understand. Eyes fixed onto the horizon ahead, the duo stayed under the moonlights and the tree that served the man as a bed, the woman stayed on her feets.

"- I still remember you as a young swordswoman in my dojo, Azumi."

The man finally stood up, in his hand, a long sword that he hanged on his waist and he finally turned to face the young woman that seemed somehow uneasy. Maybe was it the sight of the weapon.

Maybe.

"- I am grateful the way that you treated me and showed me the way of the blade, Yamada-dono."

Respectfully, the young swordwoman bowed to her master in which she felt that was like a father to her. Azumi remembered how her master took her in when, her late parents were assassinated and falsely accused of plotting treason against the landlord.

She swore to avenge her parents, even if killing the landlord was almost an impossible task.

"- Indeed..."

Yamada, the man that a moment ago seemed troubled, now seemed saddened by something.

"- Do you know why did I accept you in my dojo?"

"- Why did you sensei?"

The man waited for a few seconds to pass before he sipped at the tea that he seemed to have forgotten about or that appeared to be the case for Azumi. The young woman looked across the garden, the one place that she had so many good memories about, often did after the hardships of training that she would come here and play with the then childrens of the village. Everything changed.

Everything changed.

"- I could see the potential in you to guide the people of Shiranui. Although, you may not be from this village, you have grown here, this is where your roots are. The kindness that I was able to sense from your heart and yet, the coldness from which it was being consumed. If you were able to merge those feeling together than, you would be suited to take my place when the time would come."

The man smiled kindly to Azumi, his words made her lose her balance and stumbled a little.

"- Master..."

Shiranui was an hidden village of Japan, specialized in the training of Assassins. For a peaceful place to live, they had to pay the landlord with quality assassins to work under the governement and yet, around sixteen years ago, they were said to be plotting assassination against the landlord and thus were attacked mercilessly, hundreds of people died in this senseless war and was simply brushed away by the Shogun himself. Azumi's parents were killed during that war.

A war that never had a reason to begin.

"- We have been entrusted with an assassination operation. I believe that you would want to carry it out yourself, here."

Master Yamada took a scroll out of his beard and handed it to the young woman. Azumi would never get used to see her master hiding things in his beard, she wonder whether there were always things that he would need hidden in it.

Azumi opened the scroll but was forced to wait a little for the wind to settle down, it grew stronger bringing heavy clouds but, eventually turn them into a soft autunmal breeze.

When the young assassin was finally able to read the scroll, her eyes stopped at the name of the man that was ordered to be assassinated, with a confused look in her eyes, she looked at her master.

"- I would like you to carry this operation after my son returns from Kyoto. That would be in a matter of hours. I would like to inform him of this as well."

Rain -

Rain started to fall and the wind grew stronger again.

The heavy wind took the scroll out of Azumi's hand sending it flying, lost in her thoughts, she did not realized it as her master simply walked to her and stabbed her with his sword. Piercing through her.

.

.

.

Chapter 1: Shattered Glass

To be continued...