The Day of Thunder

Yukara was furious. Still.

Pacing out from the village, she had wandered the farmland in a rage, burning inside at the betrayal, and still it did not ease. No matter that they were not sure of the danger, they did not think to warn her. It was convenient to simply watch.

Convenient to pull her around like a puppet on a string. Same as the damn rock-toting monk who brought her here.

In time, she found herself where others had stood before, at the gate leading to the shrine - the way guarded by walls and stone, sealed by an uncaring malice.

She faced it with righteous indignation, yelling out at the night. "Come out Shinsei! You are the one who brought me here! You are to blame for everything that has happened! Come out and answer for yourself you charlatan! I am not your toy, to dance for your amusement! Not you! Not Shiba Kumori! Not Jiyo Sora! Not Bayushi Norikage! Not Chouri! Not the burning hells, or the nightmares, or any of you!"

When the shouts echoed empty into the silence, she took a series of slow, heavy breaths to regain her composure, before letting slip a weary sigh, wiping at the corners of her eyes. It would be so convenient if she could simply blame someone else for all her problems.

If every bad choice she made was justified by the failings of others.

Too bad she knew better... but that knowledge didn't make her feel any better.

She would here the sound of someone approaching. Nao wasn't silent. She wasn't very fast, either.

"You forgot me." She said as she drew closer. "It's okay. I'm used to it."

Yukara snorted, and did not turn, right hand gripping her bisento with white knuckles.

"Ran out of breath."

Her gaze remained fixed on the dark hill.

"This entire damn village sets me on edge. I feel the madness at the edges. It would be so simple to turn to the best cure I know - yet I do not have any reason to believe that would cure anything. Not even my anger."

That was what made her angriest of all.

"We all feel that. I think that's part of the problem." She stared at the shrine. "We're waiting for the darkness to descend upon us and assume that anything good is suspicious. Worse, we assume we're all of the same mind."

"I considered sitting with Chouri myself."

"You?"

Yukara glanced back, incredulous. "What is the matter with you? You are healthy, gifted in magic, and child of a God."

Expression clouded, she added, "You are the sort of person who might be warned - might be told what his happening in this accursed place. What need have you of miracles?"

"Do you remember the fireworks?" she asked. "I may have a seizure any time I see flashes. But, it can also happen when I feel stressed or overwhelmed. It's not the same as losing an arm, I know. But, it worries me."

"I see... I am sorry."

Yukara sighed. Then groaned. "I cannot even be angry without reality intervening to remind me I am not the only one who struggles."

Shaking her head, she turned to face Nao. "You could have done it - clearly it did not afflict me with the warping madness - the jade does not burn me, even now. I cannot begin to explain how it works, however."

Taking a slow breath, she looked at the girl, adding, softly, "I am less angry with you than with those who claimed to be so concerned... who had the nerve to watch like vultures, to see if I keeled over dead for their amusement."

Steadying herself, she added, "Perhaps it was the only use I had to them - a one-armed warrior monk from the hill country - what else could I offer? It does not make it sting any less."

"I was afraid that it might be temporary." She said after a quiet moment. "Given the nature of where we are, the impossible being real isn't that hard to believe. But, dreams usually only last for so long."

"There was a part of the ceremony Chouri left out." she added. "If there was a corruptive element, that was likely it."

That gave her pause, and she bit her lip. If it were to change... but it was there. She was here.

"But we are awake."

Yukara furrowed her brow. "Are we not?"

"I believe so." she nodded. "But, I think this area was created using parts of Yume Do. So, some of what's around us is a dream. That doesn't mean anything will happen to your arm. You lost it here. There's a balance to you getting it back. I've been afflicted my entire life. Curing that would be a different kind of change."

Yukara gazed at her fist, muttering, "Yet what I fought was from outside here... none of this makes sense to me."

A soft sigh, and she let out a little bit of the tension, feeling suddenly quite tired. "Nao-sama, I apologize for my earlier outburst. You of all people did not deserve it. You have been nothing but kind to me."

"Your outburst was justified." she shook her head. "But, I'll accept the possibility to be friends."

"Justified, perhaps." Yukara steadied herself and turned her gaze back toward the shrine. "But not equally. You have the decency to admit that much - did any of them? Did any of the high and the mighty care about my wellbeing?"

With a dark, dry chuckle, she shook her head. "Of course not. Why should they care about a broken blade? They have more important matters to consider."

Kicking at the dirt with one foot, idly, she realized she was holding her bisento with her left hand again... how quickly habits formed and broke.

"Yet no matter how justified my anger, I am reminded that I am not alone in experiencing pain and betrayal. In struggle. There is no gain in comparing wounds, competing over how greatly we have been wronged. So, Nao-sama, yes, if you would be my friend, I would not discard that so easily."

"Good." she smiled. "I don't know who it was that brought you into the Bat, but I am grateful that they did."

"His name is Ryoshun Keito."

Yukara gazed into the middle distance. "A magistrate. He encountered me while I was on the hunt for the demon wolf. We shared a target, and he opted to... deputize me. After we finished having a confrontation about the village I had cleansed, where he found me laying the fallen to rest."

Her expression was clouded, but she shrugged. "I retain the hope that whatever happens here will put such things to an end. I am tired of having no mercy to offer save that which is delivered at the end of a blade."

She nodded. "We'd much rather assist people and spirits in need, than fight anything."

"I can understand that - I suppose for me fighting has been much of my life."

She sighed and cast her gaze away to the side, looking somewhat awkward. "I do not even remember... how many people I have killed. There is no joy in it, but... I have had no other answer. No other solution to the madness that has turned them into beasts."

Her eyes flicked back toward Nao, as if expecting the woman to pull away, to abandon her now.

"We have a tendency to forget the dead." She did not pull away or show any signs of disapproval. She just seemed sad. "So many of their stories will never be known to the living."

"Yes... and so many I did not even know. I lost track of which were dead when I arrived, and which I had to stop before they became something beyond salvation. Turning them to the wheel was the only grace I could offer."

Her voice was even, devoid of emotion beyond a lingering sadness.

"Little comfort that it is, to those that remain."

"You're wrong." she smiled. "That's what our enemies don't understand. The chance to enter the wheel and live a new life is what helps us evolve. It gives us hope that we may become something greater. The powers they offer, even greater health and longer life, removes that. Those who become corrupted will never be able to experience another life."

"Brining them peace, especially if you could do so while they might still enter the wheel, is a good thing. Not everyone understands that. But, those of us who do appreciate it."