Broken Wings - Volume 1
Being entrusted with a gift that allows you to perform special arts such as the five elements; earth, fire, water, lightning and ice, can be a difficult job for anyone to handle, especially two families that has been doing it for generations. These two families that had been protecting the earth are given something that also allows them to be unique and separate from other families with that ability. They were born with tsubusa or also known as wings. They were the Wings of Honneamise. However when an heir is born into that family, that child is also given wings but also only had certain elements that are given to it. The Michiyo family had black wings and the Izumi family had white wings, this is how people can recognize the two families apart when together. However, when a terrible war broke out, many people were slaughtered and it turned into one of the most horrific massacres of time.
Each family had an heir the Michiyo family had a daughter called Kuroda and the Izumi family had a daughter called Matsuo. Unfortunately because of the war Matsuo had died protecting her younger sister Sakamoto, so she became the heir to the Izumi family. Kuroda also had one younger brother, Sayuri and one younger sister, Asuka. Due to the massacre happening, the Michiyo family had died protecting their home and kingdom, fortunately both Kuroda heir to the Michiyo family survived the war. But even though she survived she lost something else, the invaders knew about the families wings, because that’s what gave them more strength in their elements. So the leader of the army ordered them to remove the wings so that Kuroda couldn’t carry on the tradition, which in result left the child with immense scars from where they used to be.
The war had carried on for nearly 4 years, it started with the Michiyo family and it carried on until the other family of wings had also died, but because both families lived so far away from each other, the army had burnt down all the villages on the way there. When the army arrived at the Nishiki castle they without hesitation stormed through their land and destroyed everything in their path. After being notified about what had happened, the Izumi family stood their ground and fought against the army. Even though they knew they might not survive, they quickly gathered up everything they could to have the children flee from the grounds as soon as possible. Unfortunately whilst escaping they were spotted by the enemies soldiers and the eldest daughter was slain immediately, the youngest daughter who was the only one left, was spared however the king of the invading army personally removed the child’s wings and then left it with confidence knowing that it could never harm him in the future.
After the war had ended that army had fled to an unknown area, whilst the rest of Japan slowly recovered from the disasters that it had witnessed and endured through. When Japan had finally recovered from it terrible past, Kuroda Michiyo age 12 and Sakamoto age 11 joined a school that help build up your self-esteem and protect yourself in oncoming fights. This is how both children had met. Each day with determination they trained harder and harder until they had fully learned everything they needed to know, but until that day came they practiced.
….After seven long years of training in the school, Kuroda and Sakamoto were finally able to leave the school and start their journey to find someone. Kuroda and Sakamoto were close friends and always watched out for each other. Sakamoto is 18 and was an orphan from the age of 7. She was then brought up in a little house by an elderly couple. She is a kind-hearted person who looked after everyone in need, she has the ability to use the element fire, however when she is distracted she can become very dangerous with her fire due to past experiences with Kuroda, she also has a samurai sword called the katana.
Kuroda is 19 and became an orphan at the age of 4. She had the bring herself up because she never knew anyone, she grew up trusting no-one. She is a also a kind-hearted person, and can understand the feelings of others very well when they are alone. She can use the elements water and fire and has a bow and arrow and a samurai sword for her chosen weapons. Both Kuroda and Sakamoto have scars on their back from when there used to be something there, but they don’t remember what it was due to the effect of the pain and everything that had also happened in their past. They start their journey hoping to find out what used to be there. And also avenge fallen comrades and family members from a terrible war that broke out. Kuroda is the owner of a pack of wolves, but only keeps one with her at all times.
She whistles in order for the others to come and help her if needed. The wolves will then bring along a young man called Kouuga, who has feeling for Kuroda but she doesn’t know how much. Kuroda thinks all men just want one thing, that’s why she doesn’t like being flirted with or messed about. However in the time of need Kuroda will go to Kouuga for comfort and he will always willingly care for her when not asked to. Sakamoto is the owner to a black Labrador called Kaashi; she has had him since her little from her original family. Sakamoto doesn’t have a lover because Kuroda always chases them away because she hates it when guys are hitting on her, however she always ends up hitting Kuroda because of it but she never learns. She hopes Kuroda will learn her lesson some time soon.
They first start their journey in a small village called Gaii, this little village is well-known for its products such as weapons etc, that’s how this place earns lots of money and the people are able to live comfortable lives. Even though it got destroyed many years ago they have successfully brought it back to its natural standard. Kuroda and Sakamoto got their weapons built here to, at a hefty price though, but I guess good things don’t come cheap. All the villagers knew them because they always helped out when having to deliver goods to another village. As they are about to leave the village they overhear someone talking about a village to far from there that had recently been attacked by some bandits. Wondering what could have happened to all the people living there, Kuroda and Sakamoto leave as quickly as possible.
As they arrive there, they had noticed that half of the villagers had been killed; all of the buildings were burnt down. Sakamoto had heard a voice even though it was faint. She told Kuroda and they went searching through the burnt and destroyed houses. There in the end house Sakamoto found a young child weeping. She asked if she was alright, but suddenly the child ran off thinking she was one of the bandits that had ruined their village. But due to the child’s injury on her leg she couldn’t get very far. Sakamoto called for Kuroda whilst bandaging up the child’s leg. The child was confused about what she was doing. After the leg was bandaged the child immediately got up and started demanding answers from the both of them.
Kuroda and Sakamoto didn’t really understand what the child was going on about, but they had told the child who they were and why they were in the village. Kuroda had asked the child what their name was, and the child told them she was called Ishamaru Miku. She was 15 and was an understudy to the doctor in the village, because she wanted to be able to help people in the future. Unfortunately the doctor had been killed along with the rest of the villagers. As they were about to leave the house, and little group of thieves hurled in at them and started threatening them, wanting their money, and if they didn’t co-operate they would kill them. However Kuroda and Sakamoto weren’t the type of people to so easy be pushed around. As Sakamoto was about to loosen the hinge on her Katana to fight, Ishamaru grabbed her hand and told her to do as they said.
Ishamaru didn’t fully understand who Sakamoto and Kuroda were, and their experience with people like that, Sakamoto told Ishamaru that she would just talk with them instead so that she wouldn’t bring a bad influence on Ishamaru. However, Kuroda immediately grabbed her sword and started arguing with them, telling them to go somewhere else. The thieves obviously didn’t believe that Kuroda could do them any harm, but that had just made things worse, in a furious rage she launched at them without hesitation with the intention to kill. Sakamoto told her to stop it but she wouldn’t listen. One of the thieves then told Kuroda that she should listen to her worthless friend, but that only got Sakamoto angry and then she went after them too. With both Sakamoto and Kuroda in full rage and after the thieves, there was no hope for them. Within a matter of seconds they were beaten to death nearly and tired up to a tree. Now Ishamaru understood why they wouldn’t back down to people like them.
After sorting out the thieves Sakamoto suggested that Ishamaru should go back to their village and be looked after by their teacher, but she didn’t want to, she wanted to stay with them. Kuroda and Sakamoto both looked confused because she told them she didn’t want to. Kuroda told her to just go back because it wouldn’t be safe if she stayed with them, however she still wouldn’t listen. Kuroda started to get angry, so Sakamoto picked up Ishamaru and took her back by force over her shoulder. She told their teacher to look after her for a while until she found an actual place to live, and her teacher accepted. As Sakamoto was about to leave Ishamaru told her that she wanted to become like Kuroda and herself, then she started to cry because she was parting from people that she liked. Sakamoto felt sorry for Ishamaru and decided to bring her along and teach her how to become like Kuroda and her.
As Sakamoto had arrived back at Ishamaru’s village Kuroda was fast asleep in the tree, because she got tired of waiting. So the only way Sakamoto could think of to wake her up was kick the tree, after kicking the tree 3 times it started to tumble down towards the right. When Kuroda woke up it was too late, the tree hit the floor with Kuroda underneath it. This is how Sakamoto had their little arguments, with one of them teasing another. Ishamaru couldn’t understand them both; she thought they were both just idiots. Kuroda saw that Sakamoto still had Ishamaru with her and starting ranting about why she didn’t take her back. Sakamoto had explained to Kuroda that Ishamaru wanted to become like them, and to save another argument Kuroda just accepted.
The next village was about a three to four day journey, but Sakamoto and Kuroda could think of ways to make the journey more fun, with the countryside and forests to walk through they could easily train themselves and teach Ishamaru at the same time. They left the village and started heading towards the fields, after about every hour Ishamaru wanted to stop to rest due to not being used to going on long journeys. To save time Kuroda just told Ishamaru to get on her back and she’d walk holding her. Within five minutes she fell asleep, most likely because she was worn out. They continued walking until they entered a forest so they could find a place to stay for the night. Whilst walking through Sakamoto spotted a little side cave that had been built going into the hill along the back end of the forest.
Kuroda told Sakamoto that she was going out to find something to eat, because she a little river at the bottom. Sakamoto told her that she would then go search for some large stick to make a fire with, however neither of them would then be able to look after Ishamaru. As they were arguing over who would look after her, she woke up and they asked her who would like to go with. She decided to go with Kuroda seeing as she was skilled at catching fish in the river. They then split up and went on the search. Ishamaru wouldn’t stop talking about how she wanted to be just like Kuroda and Sakamoto, unfortunately Kuroda had to put up with it all the way there and back. They also had a few problem getting there seeing as Kuroda kept falling down the side of hills and Ishamaru tripping over everything that was sticking out of the ground.
When they had finally reached the river, there was no-one in sight so they had the advantage of catching lots of fish for themselves. It was still light out so they were able to try and catch fish without any problems. Ishamaru went running into the river like there was no tomorrow, Kuroda went chasing after her because she knew she would draw attention with her screaming and loud laughing. Whilst Ishamaru was in the river looking for fish Kuroda went to sleep on the boulder on the side of the river. After ten minutes of falling asleep, Ishamaru threw a load of water at Kuroda seeing as she thought it would be funny; however Kuroda wasn’t the right person to piss of especially when she wants to sleep. Kuroda jumped into the river and grabbed hold of Ishamaru and starting shouting at her wanting to know why she did it. Ishamaru just started laughing and told her that she did it for fun because she bored.
Kuroda without any intention of consequences hit her over the head and told her that she was another idiot in her life, but for some reason Kuroda starting retaliating and threw water all over Ishamaru. It turned into a water fight; however they both were able to use the element water which made things a lot worse. Even though Kuroda had more experience in using the element, Ishamaru was fairly good at using it herself, unfortunately being fairly good at it wasn’t good enough. Kuroda sneakily used a water technique that had Ishamaru running for her life to save herself from being drowned. After this little stunt Kuroda had pulled, all there was hardly any water left in the river so she told Ishamaru to just collect all the ones she could find.
Whilst Ishamaru was gathering the fish, Kuroda sensed that someone was coming and told Ishamaru to hide behind her, seeing as she didn’t know who might be. Kuroda started to feel concerned about what might happen seeing as she also had Ishamaru with her, which meant she might end up having to fight whilst protecting her. Then from out of nowhere someone jumped in front of Kuroda and waved. It was Kouuga, a few seconds later the pack of wolves had arrived after him. Kuroda didn’t need to worry anymore, seeing as she knows Kouuga; Ishamaru was still hiding behind Kuroda because she didn’t know him. Kouuga asked Kuroda who she was, and Kuroda told him. He laughed because he never thought that Kuroda would do such a thing. As Kuroda was about to yell at Kouuga, Ishamaru came out from being Kuroda and told Kouuga to shut up, they were both surprised. Ishamaru told Kouuga that he is some stupid stranger and shouldn’t be talking to Kuroda.
Kuroda was totally confused, seeing as Ishamaru was telling someone that knows Kuroda very well to leave her alone, Kuroda explained to Ishamaru how they knew each other. After knowing that, Ishamaru still told him not to speak to her, and dragged Kuroda away, because she wanted to go back to the cave to see Sakamoto because she couldn’t go back on her own. Kuroda didn’t want to go back to the cave because it had been a long time since she had seen Kouuga, but Ishamaru told Kuroda that she would tell Sakamoto that she hit her if she didn’t go back with her. Without any hesitation Kuroda went with Ishamaru, but also told Kouuga to come along, and to bring the wolves with him to, seeing as they had a good sense of smell and would be able to detect if anyone was around them during the night.
When they arrived back at the cave, they saw Sakamoto leaning against the wall outside of it. She told them she had been stood there waiting for Kuroda and Ishamaru to come back, so she wasn’t in a good mood. So they went inside, due to it starting to rain, when they got inside the whole cave was filled with firewood, more than they ever would need. Sakamoto told them she kept going to get more and more wood seeing as they were taking a long time. They all just hoped that it wouldn’t cave in on them. As things were going smoothly, Ishamaru wanted to tell Sakamoto something, which obviously caught Kuroda’s attention. Kuroda shouted to Ishamaru wanting to also know what she was going to say, so she out loud told Sakamoto that Kuroda had hit her over the head whilst they were getting food and had used her water technique on her.
Kuroda got up and started screaming at Ishamaru because she promised that she wouldn’t say anything. Sakamoto then stood up and asked if that was true, Kuroda told her that it was but before she could say anything else, Sakamoto grabbed her and started strangling her shouting at her wanting to know why she would do such a thing. Ishamaru was then laughing at them both because they were fighting over something that had been said. Kouuga asked her why she was laughing at them, and she told him that she likes it when they fight because it makes her feel happy and that they entertain her when she feels unhappy, like when they were back in her village and Sakamoto and kicked down the tree that Kuroda was in after having her family and friends killed. It made Kuroda and Sakamoto think that their stupidity would be able to help someone feel happiness. After all the commotion going on in the cave, they decided to go to sleep seeing as they had an even longer journey ahead of them tomorrow, so they fell asleep with smiles on their faces, and waited for the sun to rise once again.
