and the backstory unfolds we finally see what life was like for bushi before the monster was born. Also damn naizen scary
inspired by the events of Swords and Fangs by   -husky92-
world expansion allowed by   Shade-the-Wolf

whos there:
  WolfDave96 as Kane
  WoffP25 as Fuji
  Azinu as Azinu


Scars of Night: Chp 22
As the group continue reading azinu looks and sees yuki trying to control himself from crying as fuji and kane continue reading from kanna and makoto
Kane: okay lets finish up we gotta get to the ako territory as soon as possible.
Fuji: you guys are actually planning something hes a traitor.
Azinu: that’s enough don’t disparage someones father, got it!!
Fuji: yeah, adopted father.
Yuki: shut it and read…..
Fuji looking away stares at kane who tells him he deserves being talked back continues reading from the journals.
In the past (18 years prior), makoto is sitting on his throne looking at his subordinates and sees soichi coming forth happy and content.
Soichi: makoto its been far too long my friend, I haven’t seen you since how long?
Makoto: the great war with the minotaurs in the west of the country.
Soichi: yeah when they tried taking the Kouta Valley, what a mess.
Makoto: why are you here?
Soichi: well there is a new war starting as you know both the dragonians and the minotaurs have been after our land for some time and they are raging hard into our borders.
Makoto: right, so ive heard and I have heard you are in line for bushi, is that right?
Soichi: yuppies, cant wait, I want to be able to help as many as I can on the frontlines, hence why I came, I need the ako clan to help.
Makoto: as a bushi I wont be there for you.
Soichi (shocked): but……
Makoto (smiling): I am doing this as a former ally and new friend, I don’t want you being reckless again, remember way back when.
Soichi: not my fault the archers couldn’t use their bows properly.
Makoto: you were the one giving them that new potion that made them disoriented.
Soichi: cant let that die, can you…..?
Makoto: not as long as it makes me laugh at your misery.
Some time later on the frontlines both were ambushed and makoto was forced to retreat with his troops in the kouta valley many of the groups were massacred and is labeled a horrible defeat at the hands of primal species. Soichi looking at makoto as he forms his armada back.
Soichi: get out of here!!!!!
Makoto: not without you!!!!
Soichi: just go and get out, your leading a clan now, im just a canidate, I can risk my life, you cant.
Makoto: I wont let another friend die here…….
Soichi: come on makoto use that head of yours, if either of us die its me, now go.
Looking away makoto took his troops and fled on horseback seeing flames rising from the plains as he looks from the outpost, a little later he goes to collect the swords of his fallen brothers and sees soichi dismembered and his eyes gouged out.
Makoto: you idiot, I told you not to do this for me……
Soichi gasps for air coughing up blood, makoto shocked and disoriented finds his mind breaking apart.
Makoto(thinking): hes alive, but barely, no, no I wont let another innocent one die from my mistakes.
Taking his friend to the choso camp he collects the limbs of several wolves and races back to the outpost seeing the choso clan medics around a fire huddled mourning the losses. Seeing them makoto looks at them blank in the face and knowing what he truly desired.
Makoto: you’ve been doing research in modern medicine with limb transplants on animals, here, your going to use a live specimen this time.
Medic: uh sir, that’s no good hes going to die.
Makoto: not on my watch, now do as I fucking say or by the wrath of ookami himself I will make all of you suffer worse than what soichi did!!!
The rest of the night the medics rushed to heal their leader upon seeing him fixed jerking the limbs a bit soichi awakens seeing his arm now that of a shinda wolf loses his composure.
Soichi: WHAT IS THIS!!!, WHY AM I NOT DEAD…….
Makoto coming in hearing this looks at him straightfaced and forlorn.
Makoto: your alive, I chose for you too, now rest and get better.
Soichi: look at me I am an monster, made of different clans you sick fuck!!!!
Makoto: that just proves I am doing what I must to keep you safe, from now on you work for me, not with me, the weak die unless I choose their worth now sleep and rest.
Walking out makoto goes to the side of the tent and vomits seeing what he made soichi into.
Makoto: by the grace of the moon, I am an demon, I turned my best friend into a monster…….
After time passes and the choso bushi finally passes soichi is named the new head of the clan and looks at his coronation with makoto sitting beside him.
Soichi: I will never forgive you, but I am thankful I can resume my research.
Makoto: you have plenty of wolves to work with even from the other countries many of them die everyday.
Soichi: only the dead, I refuse to take the lives of soldiers for my own gain.
Makoto: honorable, how are you feeling since the surgery?
Soichi: I feel nothing but pain but the herbs I formulated help tons but the sideeffects diminished my fighting ability.
Makoto: then stick to research and potions, I don’t need you dying yet, oh great puppet bushi.
Soichi(annoyed): even now you coined that just to get to me didn’t you, and what of kanna and your child?
Makoto: that is something I have been dreading I can’t lose face to the clans with a hybrid child, and kanna has decided to end her life.
Soichi: do you love her?
Makoto (with a tear in his eye): with more of my heart than any, but she chose this not me, she wants to be with her child, considering after what happened with her and kenta.
Soichi: I am so sorry makoto, maybe we can help.
Makoto: I planned on it for the future of our clan im changing everything about our troops, I wont see the young die again.
Soichi: again…..?
Makoto: nothing, let us make the decree.
Holding his cup of sake makoto ushers all of the wolves in the complex to join in solidarity and makes his decrees.
Makoto: as of this day there are going to be changes to our troops formation. No more will we subject the young to an early grave, the immunity potion will be administered at the age of 18 upon graduation to ensure there isn’t anything taking their lives. Our troops will study academics and martial arts until 13 and judged by their performance, if then, they choose their professions and training in a curriculum focusing on their strengths not weakness, and as such the survival training will be held within our boundaries under strict eyes. Those who do not progress in training will be sent home to trade unions to learn from merchants, farmers, traders, and artisans to learn skills to benefit our land, that is the order of the bushi of clan Ako.
Soichi: I second the notion, what about you matsu and shinda?
Shou looking at makoto cheers and agrees as well as the matsu bushi scoffs and agrees. The years following would lead to both prosperity and speculation as the events transpiring helped the clans unify together integrating others into each troop to let them train in more professions and the economy boomed as a result of trades, but soon before that kanna loomed over their home staring at her old home in the mountains nine months pregnant. Makoto sends a hawk out to send an message to his brother, going to her knowing the time had come.
Kanna(weeping): I know your there, makoto, why do you keep stalling on this?
Makoto: you don’t deserve this, and neither does the child.
Kanna: we both know that but the people would rage knowing a shinda and ako had a child together, you know this, we might be getting better, but the backlash will never end, so please my love, let me rest with our child, at least he wont be suffering from any animosity of this world.
Makoto: maybe we can let kenta raise him, its better this way.
Kanna: no, makoto, I wont leave another child of mine not knowing who they are, or the love I want to give them.
Going to makoto taking his sword and placing it in his hand, smiles as she crys.
Kanna: please know I loved both of you, but my heart has been separated four ways, once for kenta, then Shinzo, then you, and now my second child, so please don’t make me look into his eyes knowing he wont have a life to live in happiness, let him rest before he comes into this world.
Makoto tearing up takes his sword impaling her heart, she falls back into the grass the sun setting as makoto weeps dropping his sword into the ground the hilt facing up. Kanna with her bleeding tells kenta her last words to him.
Kanna: take my blade as rememberance, and leave yours as a sanctum of the future you hold, don’t waver my sweet wolf, I will cherish our child in the next world.
Makoto sobs as he runs with her sword and leaves running away from the home. As he rushes away kenta runs to the home upon seeing the note and races to help.
The note: kenta, minotaurs are coming to set an example, I cant hold them off, please do what you can for her, I am so sorry for my weakness, don’t let her die on me if I must leave.
As kanna dies she feels her water breaking and holds her stomach.
Kanna: no, no, no please child not here, not now, you weren’t supposed to come to this world…….i see, ookami did want this, my baby, I want to hold you so much, shower you with love, show your older brother to you, let you see the world filled with love and dreams, but its cold now, im so sorry my child, please don’t cry, you have a strong wolfs blood in you, and the heart of a shinda beating, I know you will keep going, even if the world seems dark.
Kenta arrives seeing the body of his first love impaled and bled out and sees the newborn pup soaked in blood crying with his eyes closed. Crying over her body he takes his sword cutting the umbilical cord and cradling the child in his shirt turned into a swaddle.
Kenta (weeping): do not worry kanna, I will protect him with my life, no matter what becomes of me or the man you chose.
As kenta awakens in a cell dressed in wrags he looks out of a window to the moon, judging himself for what has become of him.
Kenta( thinking): one more day and I will be with you soon, my dear kanna, I did what I could for him, but he has others watching over him, and I know in my mind, you were too, him and our son.
Makoto enters the cells and sits in lotus position in front of kenta who is looking away from him.
Makoto: why, why didn’t you choose exile?
Kenta(still turned from makoto): why did you kill my son?
Makoto: why didn’t you come for her?
Kenta: why didn’t you let soichi die?
Makoto: why did you give up?
Kenta: why did you let your son live?!!!!!
Finally turning around he looks with anger in his eyes his hair messed and ragged grabbing the bars of his cell and screaming at makoto.
Kenta: you took kanna life because it was your last sin, and you failed taking yuki, at every turn you tried killing him……WHY?!!!!
Makoto: I sent the message knowing you would come, I was scared when he fought kane believing it be an easy kill, I held back the last strike from my blade at his graduation exam, needing to know his worth, I sent Shinzo knowing he was yukis brother so they would meet, and I made yasashi his superior so hed find the shinda clan and train.
Kenta(shocked): you…..planned this……?
Makoto: I was turned into a demon with no hope of returning, but there is one who was born without remorse of killing or breaking down anyone in his way, and I know yuki will have no hope if I am around, so I will do what any leader does, let myself die thinking I can be a hero despite my sins, I regret every life I took deeply, they haunt me at night, seeing her eyes, hearing a baby crying for its father.
Kenta: you mean Naizen, don’t you.
Makoto: you see it the tainted blood, he was on our team we saw what he did to those people, the kouta massacre, don’t try and forget it now.
Kenta: I cant ever unsee what that monster did, 200 civilians slaughtered by “minotraurs”.
Makoto: yeah you knew what he meant, the weak die before they prove it to the strong, that way we don’t catch their failures on our shoulders, I took the innocent and shake, I know what I am, what I became, I am strong, but Naizen is stronger.
Kenta: and you need someone to fight him but not you?
makoto removing his gi shows kenta a large cross shaped scar on his chest.
Kenta: he….did that to you?
Makoto: remember how I said he helped me survive in the woods when we entered, what I meant was, he let me live……..