My sister and I were born in Kenya. Our homeland was so peaceful and beautiful….we loved our culture. Speaking the mother tongue brought even more joy to our lives, nobody could take that away from us. Our original names were Adimu Kamau and Elinah Kamau…we never stopped calling each other by our original names. But one day my parents had decided to leave Kenya along with us.We didn’t want to leave our beautiful homeland…but our papa said we had to…I wonder if something must have happened?
We experienced a fresh new start in Kyoto, Japan….it was very different from Kenya….and the language was very different too…it was beautiful but not like our language at all. Our papa told us that we had to change our names to Magaru and Nagaku….we were also told not to speak our mother tongue in front of the Japanese citizens. So not only did we live a new life…but we also lived a new identity too. My sister and I weren’t very happy about it…we missed our homeland…our food…everything about it.
Our papa became a samurai warrior that often fought in wars…he often killed people as well. Our mother also fought in wars too, back in Kenya she was one of the strongest warriors during battles. It wasn’t very common for women here in Japan to fight in wars….so she disguised herself. Sometimes late at night when our parents were asleep, Elinah and I would often secretly speak in our mother tongue. We continued doing this every day.
“ Adimu, I miss our homeland…I don’t like it here! “
“ I know Elinah…. But maybe one day when we’re older…we’ll return to our homeland! “ I hugged my baby sister
This war left many soldiers badly injured, it left both of our parents with severe injuries….we had to move again in order for them to fully recover. We had to move to Europe….we didn’t even want to go. But we needed our parents to be fully healed.
So in 798 A.D. we moved to Europe….we often would get weird stares from the people there, but we didn’t care. We just wanted our parents to heal. Their recovery from their wounds was taking very slow…it was probably due to their ages…especially papa. So the soldiers in this country trained us to be ready for the next war….I didn’t want my eight year old baby sister to become a child soldier….whenever I disagreed with them we were punished. The punishment was so harsh that it left an “ X” shaped scar on my left cheek. So when the training was over for us, we fought in the war….and we met another child soldier around the same age as me….her name was Tomoe. She was one of the strongest child soldiers…. I wanted to be strong like that. My sister and I became close friends with her….we would often go on missions to kill citizens….she showed us how to not get caught. We became a team.
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Tomoe left Europe in 805 A.D. and told us that she’ll let one of her traveling soldiers know when we can come to Kyoto. Our parents finally recovered and they decided to go back to Kenya….we so badly wanted to go back with them…but we wanted to stay here. We still miss our homeland….one day we reunite with them.
Eight years have passed, and we heard that Tomoe had become the Empress of Japan….and she wanted us to fight in the war with her. We traveled by sea to get to Kyoto…we were happy to see it was very much the same as it was back when my sister and I were kids. Once we reached the Yonaka Kingdom, we were very amazed at how big it was. We were greeted by Tomoe’s mother Mioa, the former Empress of Japan. She brought us to Tomoe’s room, she knocked gently on the door and Tomoe had a smile on her face when she saw us at the door. She ran towards us and greeted us with hugs. We were excited to see her. We all sat down and talked about the plans for the upcoming war….. we liked the plan and couldn’t wait for it to unfold.
Today was the day of the war, we were prepared and hoped that the plan would work. The Kagayaki girl and her warriors were waiting for our arrival, once we got there….we got off our horses and so did Kagayaki….from what Tomoe told me about her, she didn’t look very strong. They both exchanged words and let us know that we can begin the battle. Many of Kagayaki’s soldiers were very weak….my sister and I were unimpressed…. But we had to plan the attack….We just have to see her let her guard down. Most of her warriors and our warriors were injured and killed. We were the only warriors on our side to keep up, Kagayaki’s sisters were so weak…..this honestly felt like a joke to us. As we stood by and watched Tomoe fight Kagayaki…..but someone else got in between the both of them…..she was different from Kagayaki’s other warriors….she seemed much stronger….and for her to defeat Tomoe so easily was surprising. We continued to watch from a distance until Tomoe gave us a nod to get ready to attack Kagayaki. I got the bow and three arrows…. I aimed it towards her. Our plan was finally going to unfold….that is until Kagayaki’s stupid friend pushed her out of the way and took the attack for her….such a foolish creature! Our plan didn’t work…but we got rid of the trash. Kagayaki went on an angry rampage and struck us in the stomach, she kicked us in the face…her speed was faster than before…we didn’t even see her! She really got Tomoe badly injured….her mother stopped Kagayaki from killing her….they also had a back and forth words of conflict…then Tomoe’s Aunt Meiyo helped us into the kingdom and Mioa carried Tomoe and followed us. We remained bedridden for a couple of days until our wounds healed.
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Tomoe was the only one that wasn’t fully healed, she was severely injured and was being treated by the doctors. We were all worried, but we had two new warriors to join the war. So we waited till she was fully healed so she could meet Rakkan and Panku. When she was feeling better, she greeted them and they bowed to her. She poured wine in our glasses for us and we made a toast to the new warriors. Tomoe’s mother gave a mission, it was for us to kill Kagayaki and her family in the countryside. So we got onto our horses out to the countryside waiting for a time to attack. We then found out that Kagayaki and her husband went to the store and will be back soon…now was a perfect time to attack.
“ Rakkan you will be the one to kill her daughter…can you handle it alone? “ I said to her
“ I’ve killed children before, I won’t show any mercy! “
We approached the house and Elinah knocked loudly on the door to startle them. A young woman slowly opened the door with a sword in her hand….it was hilarious, was she planning on killing us? She aimed it at us…she told Kagayaki’s daughter to go to her room….but Rakkan swiftly ran past the young woman. The child looked up at Rakkan trembling in fear….in my heart I could never kill a child….in our country we’ve seen many children slaughtered by evil warriors….but this was a mission that we had to follow. Elinah got out her sword and struck the young woman in the chest. Rakkan struck the little girl in the stomach….I turned my face away….I couldn’t watch. We left the house and headed back to Yonaka Kingdom to tell Tomoe we completed the mission. When we reported back that Rakkan killed Kagayaki’s daughter and Nagaku killed the family friend. She was very pleased…. I didn’t want to do this warrior stuff anymore….my sister was growing tired of pretending that we were these super strong scary warriors.
“ Adimu….I’m growing tired of this fighting and wars…we should go back home with mother and papa! “ she whispered in our mother tongue
“ I’m tired too…hopefully we can go back home after this….Tomoe is getting very dangerous….she might not be around much longer…” I whispered back
“ Let’s not do much in the next war….”
“ Yeah…we should just watch instead. “
We both went to bed and dreamed of our homeland.
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Seven years have passed….no more wars….we can finally try to go back to our homeland…..that is until Tomoe let us know that Kagayaki was coming here with revenge and to kill us all! We needed to think fast….maybe we can try to distract her. And we did just that…but she was much stronger this time and we let our guards down…but on purpose. After she defeated us, she said to us
“ You both should leave this place and live a peaceful life. There’s no use in serving Tomoe! She most likely will be dead and you’ll be lost without her! “ We stared at her with a blank expression.
We knew that she was right, we also knew that Tomoe won’t be here much longer…her greed for power will be her downfall. Elinah and I both started crying. It was our time to leave and go back to our homeland. Although we were injured, we could get up and walk towards the hills. We saw Tomoe’s mother and Aunt Meiyo there. They told us what happened and we actually knew that would happen…. Tomoe herself didn’t even want to be here. The four of us all looked at the Yonaka Kingdom from the hills.
“ I’m going to kinda miss this place….Kyoto was our second home…”
“ Me too Elinah…but we must go back home..”
We all glanced at the kingdom and walked into the woods…we never once looked back.
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My sister and I healed from our injuries from a nearby hospital and got ready to go back to our homeland. We said our goodbyes to Tomoe’s mother and her Aunt Meiyo. We traveled on a large sized boat to Kenya. It was such a long boat ride but it was worth it. When we reached our homeland, we started to cry…..still beautiful as it always was! The air was filled with fresh fruit from a distance. Once we reached Kenya….we looked at our people… they stared at us to see who we were….then one of them cried out our parents names in our mother tongue. We started crying uncontrollably….our parents have grown older and looked so fragile…they could barely walk…but when they saw us…they too cried tears of joy and slowly walked towards us hugging us so tightly. Everyone in the village cheered for us.
“ Adimu….Elinah….welcome home! We missed you so much! “ Our mother cried and kept hugging us again.
“ We’re so happy to be home….” Elinah and I cried with our mother
We finally returned to our homeland.
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