The Day of Thunder

[Hiruma Naraku]

Naraku stared blankly at the ceiling as the events of the day passed through his mind. He rubbed the thigh that the wolf had bitten as he slowly drifted into sleep.

He woke up in the farmlands. Had there been so much fire and smoke? Weren't there wolves? His mind couldn't comprehend what he was watching as he paced aimlessly. He looked around and frowned as he saw the dead oxen and battered supply train, the crab mon proudly emblazoned on their sides.

He looked around as the land shifted and merged, a mix of mountainous overpass and farmland. A scream and the familiar sound of ripped flesh and broken bones snapped him out of his confusion as he turned towards the source.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no

A towering monster, his shape quicksilver as it easily changed and shifted between a a skull headed wolf and a gaunt humanoid figure with the a beaked skull for head. Beneath it, grasped by his ever changing claws, hands and talons was a woman.

Fear filled Naraku's heart as he rushed towards the woman, his sword unsheathed, but he couldn't move from the same place no matter how hard he ran. He watched powerlessly as the monster sunk his beak and fangs into the flesh of the woman beneath, before she pushed forward and slashed the entity away, victoriously. She turned towards him, her armor as mimetic as the beast, changing from Bat to Crab, before collapsing into the ground.

Finally he reaches her, her features blurry, roiling like water after being struck by a pebble. Naraku knelt and grabbed her, his hands slick with her blood and the beasts ichor.

"Why were you late again? Why are you always late..." Her voice stung him like a thousand needles. "Perhaps the omens were right. Perhaps this is what you wanted..."

Naraku's eyes welled with tears, his words struggling to come. Why was he always late? What good was his skills if he was unable to save anyone? He looked at the woman and saw her again, his twin, once again ragged and bloodied in his arms.

"You are not a hero Naraku. This is not a play, you know your fate, everyone knows what you are," his twin continued, her voice chastising him. Naraku mumbled, unsure on what to say. The smoke that surrounded them crept closer as the lights around were snuffed.

A beam of light broke the smoke before it could consume Naraku, snapping him out of his self pity. An Otomo? Yes... Akuto was his name, no? Naraku thought as he saw the figure in the distance; it knocked another arrow and shot the shadows, once again parting them. A loud neigh broke the silence as a giant horse galloped near him, a top it a woman. "Lady Otaku... yes, was she there? She was saving something?". Finally a mountain of a woman struck the shadow, her spear of light goring it and casting it away. "The Bat. She did not die. Yukara. She killed the beast"

Naraku remembered the effigy he had struck. He was not alone. Mistrust would not belong in his heart anymore. They had saved the villagers and they had all fought together and overcome the monsters. He looked around and saw all, there was more light than shadow, from little Cranes to large grim Crabs. He turned to the woman he had held, her visage gone and now become a piece of shadow, the last remnant of the nightmare.

"No more mistrust"

He brought his sword down, casting the nightmare out

"I am not alone."

He collapsed to his knees and laughed as tears rolled off his cheeks.

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D2 SLEEP | WP | Void +1k1 | 4k4 ⇒ 23 (TN: 20)