Blood & Incense [Reituki]

What Happened To Me

~Note, this story will all be in Taka's P.O.V.~

Blood.

There is blood everywhere, and the screams of men and the wailing of women fill my ears. Flickering flames and dark smoke reflected in my eyes as I inhaled the lethal gas. I am hiding under my now torn and burning home staring at the two dead bodies of my parents laying right in front of me. Their once happy and bright eyes are now dull and lifeless and left open for me to see.

~Flashback~

"Taka! You have to hide! Get out of here and hide! Don't let them see you!" My mommy called as she shoved me out of the house with tears in her eyes.

Behind her, I could see daddy trying to fight off the invading swordsmen with our broom stick. It didn't seem to help at all because the scary man dragged his sword across his chest letting blood spurt out in all directions without any difficulty.

It was so horrible. I've never seen mommy cry like this or see daddy so weak against another man. I fell out of the house off down the steps of our back entrance with a thud. It hurt. But it hurt even worse when I saw my mother's beautiful body fall over, blood staining every inch of her once pink kimono. Thankfully the big scary man didn't see me so I scrambled as fast as I could under the house where I hoped I wouldn't be found.

I watched as their murderer dragged their dead bodies out to the front of our house and layed them next to each other and spat on them before leaving to his next set of victims.

~Back to present~

I don't know why this is happening, why everyone I know is dying, and why such evil men are killing us all and burning our small village down to ashes. I watched as the armed horsemen slashed their swords and shot their arrows about, watching the innocent townspeople drop by the dozens in a mere few seconds, saw how they dragged all of the young and beautiful women out of their homes by their hair. It hurt. I was hurting so much!

But I couldn't cry. No matter how horrible and sad that mommy and daddy are now dead and that all of my other family and friends are dead, getting murdered mercilessly, and having their bodies burned and mangled up in ways I could never imagine till now, I couldn't cry.

I want to get out of here. I want to scream and cry for my parents to wake up and tell me that it's all going to be ok. That this is all just a very bad dream and hold me close to them, but it isn't. It's all real and it's happpening right in front of me and there's nothing I can do about it.

Closing my eyes, I began to pray and try to block out all of the horrible noises that surround me.

Kami-sama, please make this stop. Nobody here deserves this, not even the boy Tarou who would always pick on me for being so little and for looking like a girl and take my rice cakes that mommy would always make for me. Please make it all stop, and give me the strength to get out of here!

I gasped right in the middle of my prayer. Suddenly feeling my tiny body being dragged out of under the building, I was lifted up quite easily by the collar of my shirt because I practically weighed nothing, and found myself face to face with the very man that killed my family. I wanted to scream but fear shoved it back down my throat.

"There you are, you little bitch! You see how I killed you parents? It was so much fun, I want to kill you now and have more fun!" he laughed so sickeningly that it made me want to vomit.

Giving him a look of absolute hatred, I finally started crying. When he lifted his sword and held the blade at my neck I gasped again but I wouldn't let him know I was afraid. Daddy always said, "If you're going to die, die without fear and with honor."

He began retracting his arm so he could get a full swing at me. I screamed loudly, louder than I ever have in my life! I was going to die, this was it, the end of Takanori Matsumoto.

Then suddednly, his eyes widened to the size of tea cups and his arm fell to his feet completely detached from his body. He dropped me and I fell to the ground hard enough to knock the breath out of me. His wretched screams of pain and surprise filled the air as he also fell to the ground clutching his bleeding shoulder. Nothing was there below it anymore and it looked so unnatural that I turned my body away from the gruesome sight and vomitted.

I kneeled there on all fours panting and listening to the man's ceaseless cries. I wanted it to stop. His cries and the meaningless bloodshed!

After I had caught my breath after a few seconds, I wanted to turn back around to see who had saved me but as I did, I heard a woman's voice say, "Don't look kid."

I froze and turned back shielding my eyes the best I could before hearing a loud thud on the ground and the cries of the man silence themselves. Finally!

But, that means...

I shreiked upon realizing that he had been decapitated. Oh god, this is just too much. I began to feel light headed when I felt myself being held gently on my shoulders and turned to face my savior who was thankfully blocking the messy view.

She, she was the most beautiful women I have ever seen in my life! I felt myself blushing slightly and when she smiled at me, I felt my heart flutter and I completely forgot about the scene unraveling all around us. Her dirty blonde hair was tied back into a messy ponytail, her eyes were a deep shade of green like a jade, her skin was the color of freshly fallen snow even though it was half covered by a black cloth and was tainted by the crimson color of blood.

"Pretty." I whispered subconciously. Crud did I just say that? Too late to take it back now, she already heard it and let out a giggle. I blushed in embarrasment causing her to giggle more.

"Thanks kid. What's your name?" she asked sweetly. "T-Takanori M-Matsumoto miss."

Her laughter ceased and she went completely serious but her kind eyes never left my face. "How old are you Taka-chan?"

"I'm 8 years old miss." she still had a flat expression on her face and I began to feel a little afraid but somehow I knew that, she would never hurt me.

"Would you like to avenge your village? Your parents?" my eyes widened at the offer. Shaking my head 'yes' furiously I gave her my most convincing and toughest look that I could muster.

Even though my parent's murderer was dead, I wanted to avenge the rest of my village. They didn't deserve this. Nobody should ever deserve this, ever. I heard her give one last giggle and say, "No need to be so polite little one."

And with that, she scooped me up holding my rear in her forearm as I clutched my tiny hands onto the front of her tattered top leaving me to witness the new scene that is taking place.

Black silhouettes were flashing in blurs all over the place and all of the other evil men were dropping quicker than the townspeople. I wondered if they were like the lady holding me now.

She held me tighter to her chest and with her other free hand, she tilted my face towards her body and told me to go to sleep and no matter what, don't look no matter what I hear.

I obeyed but I can't tell you how difficult it was to do so. There were loud screeches of big men and the clash of swords against swords and weapons against flesh and cracking through bone. I heard her apologize and quicken her pace to a sprint.

Soon, all of the noise was fading away and I found exhaustion take over me.

~~TBC~~

Tell me what you think so far ^^ Would you like me to continue or naw XD?