Midway upon the journey of our life, the Spirit holds his sword steadily, waiting for the impending attack. He stares at his enemy who faces him with murderous intent. The two stare into each other both recognizing that this moment will be the end. Death meets the loser and the Kagi will grace the victor. Intent on living a long life, the Spirit begins his first steps toward what he sees, a new world.

In the land of Korai, young Lukas’s journey begins.

The moons of Hoshi cast a bright glow over the land of Korai. They shine bright over a cabin in a farmer’s wheat field. At the edge of the wheat field, a shadowy figure carries a babe into the moonlight. The air is calm and silent whereas the crunching of wheat and the sound of insects infected the night. The Shadowy figure wore a cloak to mask his appearance to strangers for he has become afraid of them. The man carries the babe in his arms and approaches the cabin. He walks around inspecting it. He peers through a window to spot a mother and her small child. Another babe approximately the same age as his own. The figure returns to the front of the cabin and lays his babe down. The babe coos as the figure lays its hand on the baby’s head. The figure then leaves back into the fields and into the forest.

14 years later.

At the break of morning, a sound could be heard over the cabin. The mother and her child have grown significantly in the past years and have started the day without Lukas. The mother fixes the two children a good breakfast which fills the cabin in an aroma that Lukas has not felt. Lukas rises from his bed and into the living room where the mother was working. “Making something new?” he yawns.

“Not exactly. I’m cooking Tamago with a new spice Yari picked from the market. She wanted to try something new.”

“And you’re going to have to deal with it,” Yari says, brushing Lukas with plates in her hands.

“That’s a bit rude,” Lukas mumbles.

“Get dressed and come sit,” Mother says.

Lukas yawns and lazily grabs the box underneath his bed. He opens it to find a new winter coat. “What is this?” he asks his mother.

“Winter is coming around and I thought you’d like a new coat. Your old one has quite the holes and is getting old. You like it?” she asks.

“I do,” Lukas responds.

He throws on the coat to find it warm and comfortable. Lukas had always been picky with clothing as everything he would wear felt scratchy against his skin.

“Thank you, it’s nice,” he tells his mother. Lukas joins his sister at the small table that she had made. "Thank you Yari," he tells his sister. Lukas dives into the breakfast his mother had made. “What needs to be done today mother?” Lukas asks. Yari and I have finished plucking the field and completed our studies for the week.” Yari looks at her brother with excitement knowing what their mother was going to say.

“Well, if you’ve completed your chores, you may go into town and play,” she said.

Lukas and Yari quickly finish their meals and leave the cabin. On these off days, Lukas and Yari would head into a town called Waichau. It was located mere miles away from the capital of the prefecture. In Waichau rests a market that the two would play in. They’d play with the other children and then return home to their distant cabin. However, the two siblings always felt like outsiders when they’d return home. The walk consists of a hike through the pastures of mother’s land and into the woods. The forest’s woods stretch for a good mile and are filled with wild animals such as deer, bears, and other wild creatures. The family had made a safe path guiding themselves through the forest by marking the trees with red yarn. This led them to avoid the more dangerous of the wildly animals. After the stroll through the woods, Lukas and Yari come to a plain separated by a long dirt road. This dirt road led into Waichau. Minato and Yari head into the town where they make a quick stop at a vendor.

“Good afternoon Hina,” Yari says to the old crone.

“Ah welcome my dear, how has your day been so far?” the old woman asked.

“It’s been going well,” Lukas interjects. “Say Hina, were you able to get that package I had asked you about?”

“Yes, the book, right?” the woman asked.

“Yes,” Lukas said.

“It had arrived two days ago,” the old vendor said, handing Lukas the small package.

It was wrapped in a red-velvet-like material.

“What is it,” Yari asks her brother.

“I’ll show you at our secret spot, Ok,” Lukas tells her. Yari quickly gets excited as she always does with the unknown and mysterious. “Thank you, Hina,” Lukas thanks the old woman.

She gently smiles and waves them goodbye. The two walk through the rest of the market greeting their distant neighbors and enter the town square. For being the town square, it was much more oval-like with a small pond of spring water that fills itself daily from the well underneath the town. Across from the pond was an old building. It was abandoned, but not entirely as a few religious people of the town would come and pray every now and then. The two siblings then arrive at their “secret spot”. In this “secret spot” the entire town could be seen. The roof they sat upon was an old religious building dedicated to the Kagi. It gave them an overarching view that lasted from the town square to the outskirts of the forests. Lukas unwraps the velvet material and hands the book to Yari. She reads the title.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“The Adventures of Sir Gorden. Who is Sir Gorden?”

“Hina has been delivering books to me about Sir Gorden. He used to be the Warden for the emperor,” Lukas tells her.

His sibling begins flipping through the pages.

“There’s no pictures,” she tells him.

“That is because this is a storybook. It is pure literature and not for teaching, but for entertainment,” he said. “Mother had thrown out my old copy of this book before I could finish it. I’d like you to read it yourself when I’m finished.”

“But why? Mother wouldn’t let you read it so why should I?”

“Because I want you to feel what this book makes me feel. Through these adventures with Sir Gorden, he shows me that there is a vast world out there that’s ripe and beautiful. It’s filled with people of different languages and religions to be explored and learned. I hope for some of that sometime in my life,” Minato explains.

“You’re sounding weird again,” his snarky sister said.

“I know, I get in the spur of the moment when talking about this.”

“I know,” Yari said, closing the book and handing it back to Lukas. “Let me know when you’re finished,” she said.

“I will,″ Lukas replied.

The two sat there on that old roof and watched as the sun’s peak slowly died down.

“Do you want to be a writer,” Yari asked Lukas.

“Not really, I gave a chance at writing some poems, but they didn’t turn out how I like them,” he tells her.

“I think you’d be good at it, especially from all the reading you do.”

“It could work… but I’d rather be more like Sir Gorden,” he says with some enthusiasm in his voice.

“A Warden?”

“No, a traveler. I want to be someone that sees the entire world. I want to learn about the different cultures of the east. I want to gain some experience and live my life, not as a farmer,” he tells his sister.

“Mother wouldn’t like you thinking like that. She’d want you to marry rich and save her from the farmer’s life.”

“I thought that was your job?”

“It is, but I don’t want it.” Lukas looks at his younger sibling and puts his arm around her.

“Let’s travel together just like you said,” she continued.

“I’ll make it happen. I promise,” Lukas tells her.

The world looked more beautiful every time they sat upon that roof. The sun reaches its peak in the sky, disappearing all shadows from sight. The oldness of the blue sky is shown clearly as there were no clouds. Days like these could last a lifetime for these two children. The world was theirs. Lukas read his book and watched his sister jump around on the roof and play with the shingles making sounds and noise.

“Careful, if one of those shingles breaks you or someone below will get hurt,” Lukas tells his rowdy sibling.

“It’ll be fine,” she said, romping around.

Lukas closes his book and taps the shingles with his hands to the rhythm of her stomping and playing. The two begin to laugh as they break out into a very unpleasant song that tried to find its grounding but could not. A rock skids past them as a few more pebbles accompany it. The duo stop playing and look over the direction they came to find a man only a few feet away.

“What are you two doing up here,” he asks them.

“Sorry for the trouble, we’ll be leaving,” Lukas tells him.

The two children quickly backed away as the man approached them. “You two are trouble,” the man shouts. Lukas grabs his sister as they break into a full-on sprint toward the exit of the building.

“I’ve called the Satsu,” the man shouted as Lukas and Yari escaped the roof.

The two siblings ran off into the crowd of the street laughing as they brushed past strangers.

“Did you see his face?” Lukas shouts.

“Priceless,” Yari yells back.

Minato kept up his pace, guiding Yari along with the people and finding a window to sneak by the bodies of adults. Yari however struggled with her pace as she didn’t have the speed or agility as Lukas does. But the two are not Kagi. They eventually return to the market and give themselves their breaths back.

“Was that Mr. Kabuto,” Yari asks her brother.

“I don’t know. I didn’t see his face, just his reaction,” he laughs.

“Do you think he actually called the Satsu?”

“No. We’d be caught by now if he did.”

As soon as Lukas spoke, five white-clothed men began pushing through the crowd darting toward the two. Lukas again grabs his sister to disappear into the crowd, but the five Setsu run past them and enter the main part of the town square.

“What’s going on,” Yari says aloud.

When the five Setsu rushed past them, everybody else curiously filled. The vendors, the bystanders, even the homeless followed the Setsu. “Let’s get out of here,” Yari complains.

“Just a second."

His body, as curious as it had told him to follow the pack. He walks with the crowd unknowingly dragging his sister along with him. They reach the edge of the crowd and find the five Satsu themselves surrounding four dead bodies. The Satsu did their best to hide them from the public view, but one of the bodies was still there. Lukas held his sister away from the view. “Nothing to see here. Let’s go home,” he tells her.

Yari agrees and follows her brother's lead out of the crowd and out of the town. The sight was shocking to him as he had never seen a dead body before. Sure, there have been animals who have died, and he even had slaughtered some for a meal, but another life, a human was dead and was there for him to see. He thought and replayed the body in his mind. The blood on the dirt ground, covered in blood. The faces the townsmen made as they saw what he saw. The eyes of the victims that bore into his soul distracted him as he strayed off the path in the woods.

“You alright,” Yari asked him.

Lukas snaps to himself.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Don’t worry about it.”

Lukas shuns these thoughts and focuses on the book in his hand. He can’t wait to get home and finish it, hoping to keep his mind at ease from today. They conclude their day and return home just as sunset came.

“How was your day,” their mother greets them home.

“Fun,” Yari exclaims.

Lukas looked at her not knowing if she saw what he did. Her face was filled with joy as it usually is. Yari lures her mother’s vision away so he could hide the book underneath his bed.

“I made supper,” their mother said, pointing to the two bowls of soup on the table with a loaf of bread separating them.

Lukas nods.

“Thank you," the two siblings reply.

The mother sips on tea and watches her children until they finish their meals. The day’s restlessness begins to creep up on the cabin forcing the family to their beds. Young Lukas reaches for his book and flips through the pages until he finds his missing place. He reads in the dark until slumber closes his eyes and tries to forget about the body now ingrained in his mind.