Part 1/2

Hidden in the mountains, amongst rocks and dust, in the heat of the summer sun, a tiny white flower is sprout. You wouldn't believe there's anything here besides dried grass, stones and the debris from the battle happened here a decade ago, but, this little flower, already dry on the base, still shines brighter and more pure than the sun! A boy standing beside it, gazing down in wonder, pounding to himself, ‘Can I become like this flower?’

~~~~~~

The silence after a battle is absolute. It was still silent when an old man walked amongst the corpses, some wearing weapons and armory, some just women and children, clutching on to their belongings even in death. “Can you even call this a battle? Or more like a massacre?” He looked around for something useful while talking to himself. One of the belongings in the arms of a woman caught his eye. “Is there already a rat in it? The fighting took place just yesterday…” He crouched down and carefully move the arm of the woman aside, ready for being attacked at any moment. “Even a mouse is an enemy!“ But, what he found there wasn't a mouse or any other animal. It was the only thing he couldn't declare an enemy. It was a child, not even a year old.

An old man, who lives alone in the mountains, isn't the best suited person for taking care of a child. So it's no wonder that this little guy learned fast how to take care of himself. Also the patience of the old man wasn't big. Everytime the boy didn't learn something fast enough, the old man hit him. And instead of playing with other children or learning things children normally learn in the first few years of their life this boy had to run through the wilderness, throwing little knifes and learn which plants can kill or heal someone. Only much later the boy learned that normal children don't do such things. But for now it was the only way of living he knew. So the boy grew up, got stronger and taller. He learned how to fight and how to kill in many different ways. There wasn't any regrets in his doing. That was something he didn't learn. What needed to be killed, he killed. The deer for the dinner or the nobleman in a castle to which the old man brought him in.

When the boy was maybe about ten years old, the old man didn't come back from one of his getaways. At first the boy didn't noticed it. Only a few days or a few weeks, the time he was alone by himself was so precious to him, he normally got catched up in it till a hit of the old man wake him up again. But now a different man arrived. He was from the village the old had taken him to a few times before and the boy remembered him as Sota. So, Sota told the boy to come with him to this village and live there because the old man wouldn't ever come back. He took the boy to the abandoned battlefield where he were found by the old man and told him what he knew. It wasn't much. The battle took place about a decade ago. A feud between neighbors. The victorious one was killed by the boy himself, three years ago.

“You need a name.” Sota told him on their way to the village. “A name?” The boy looked up. “Yeah, a name, i can't call you ‘boy’ all the time. In the village every child has their own name.” The boy thought about it for a few minutes. “So it's a name. What will you call me?” “Mh, how about ‘Shin’? It means trueness of all… maybe it'll help you to find your own truth.” The boy, now called Shin, nodded, not really knowing what the man was talking about.

And so the boy lived in a village full of assassins and murder. Because, nothing other had the old man been and nothing other had become of the boy. Shins everyday life didn't change much. He trained, sometimes even with the other children. But Shin already knew so much more and his skills were a way better. Shin shared the house with Sota. It was only a shack with one room for both of them, but this wasn't new for the boy. The village elder sometimes came to him. “Go, kill this guy, we got an order to do so. You have to do your share of work for living here!”

So a few years went on. Due to the missions Shin had to take on and because of nothing else to do than train or sleep he soon was better as most of the adults in the village. At least in killing people.

~~~~~~~

“Shin?” The boy, no, by now the young man, stopped throwing his little knifes in a target. Without turning around he asked “What is it Sato?” “The elder has a mission for you.” “Again? I just came back this morning…” Almost passive he followed Sato to the only real house in the village. In a large room he found almost every adult gathered. “Shin,” The elder starts speaking, “We got an order only you can take on.” He paused for a more dramatic atmosphere. “The brother of the shogun has to die tonight!” “Which one of them?” Was the only thing Shin asked.

~~~~

The moon was finally full tonight and the weather had gotten better over the day, there was not a single cloud cover the light of the moon. The person Shin would kill was giving a celebration and so there were not only lots of other nobles but also a large number of guards around him.

Hidden under the expensive clothes of a careless guest he found on his way to the mansion Shin passed the guards on the entrance without trouble. Getting in was always the easiest part of the job. It wasn't hard to find his target either. The young man was to much into showing off in front of some ladies, he didn't register Shin until the assassin was by his side. A hidden knife at the back of the shoguns brother was enough to get him to escorted Shin to a more lifeless area of the mansion. "What do you want? I can give you everything in exchange for my life, I'm a brother of the shogun!" The poor guy whispered as they reached an empty corridor. "I don't want anything, i only do as I'm told, that's my only meaning." Shin answered in a somehow sad whisper. Then, with the speed of the light, he stepped completely behind his victim and pushed his wakizashi vertical between the young man's shoulder and collarbone.

The second or also most important part of a mission, killing the target, was done easily too. Now Shin only had to leave. He wanted to go out of the building to reach a rooftop as it would offer the fastest way out. But, as soon as he let the corpse down to the floor a bunch of guards came running from both sides of the corridor. He let his wakizashi in the body and looked around. A paper wall was the exit he chose. Shin just run through it. Outside was the garden, cute little shrubs and flowers around a large pond. And all of it destroyed by the large number of armed men awaiting Shin. An ambush? He pulled out his shurikens and threw the weapons randomly at the nearest guards. Two of them broke down, one was hit in the throat. But it gave enough time for Shin to pull out his twin blades and turn around to the guards entering the garden through the torn paper wall. He killed a few of them with hard strikes of both blades but soon the men from behind him got too close. So Shin took a last wide strike to create a bit of free space and turned around. Now facing the pond again he started running toward it. With his twin blades he chopped left and right to slow down his enemies. There were no possibility to kill them all, the only thing he could do was to get out of this mess. So Shin jumped across the decorative stones in the pond to the other side of the garden and, without slowing down, on the roof of the next building. On his way to the ridge it happened. Gunshots! Shin got hit more than once. While the first enemies reached the rooftop he was barely able to slide over the highest part of the roof and down toward the surrounding woods. Of course the assassin wasn't able to hold on the edge of the roof or to break his fall. But the quarrel of the guards running over the roof pulled out his hidden energy and so Shin run into the forest without caring the underwood or branches or even his numerous wounds.