Songs of the Fallen

Pain. Her life had been pain, to succeed one had to endure after all. Pain was nothing new to her, agony was her life but she was stronger than that, she had been forged, she didn't bow to it. Her right arm was gone entirely, nothing but a seared stump where it had once been. It was clean though, she had made sure of that. Why was she focusing so hard on it? Did she not want to face what was around her. Everything shifted in slow motion and she could take everything in, her body pushed to the perfect limit. Her foot hammered into the ground, cracking the already ruined stone, pushing her forwards.

Everything was flame, the world burned around her, it burned like the core within her chest. Her throat was raw from screaming in rage and she forced herself forwards faster, blood pouring from her eye as she leaped forwards. She knew she was too late, she knew that Tikatchi was gone, burned away to nothingness but in his final breath he had given her what she wanted, what she needed; a chance. She couldn't think about the events that had occurred, she couldn't think about how her grandfather was dead, the grief would cloud her mind and alter her strike. She couldn't think about the pain where her arm should be or she wouldn't be able to aim properly. Her core hitched and stuttered as her body fought off the shock that tried to rip through her. She had torn herself apart for this but she had it now.

Eyes too like her own spun as Angel turned to face Asura but it was too late at this point. Asura's hand had already leaped forwards. When had she engulfed it with flame? She couldn't remember it, was that what the hitch from her core was? The last vestiges of her chakra running to her arm. She howled one last time, the sound raw and visceral as her hand slammed into Angel's throat. Flesh and gristle was pushed aside, seared to charcoal by the heat of the flames. As Asura's fingers closed, aiming to sear through her opponent's spinal column she realised that she couldn't end this just yet, there was too much to ask. She called upon her reactor, she pulled every ounce of power out of it that she could and forced it to her eyes, staring into Angel's own.

Then it all faded.

Flames and death died away. Stone fell to nothing and the broken, ruined ceiling melted to blue sky. A field spread out around them, grass of sweetest green fading into view. Flowers fluttered and swayed in a breeze that didn't really exist and a sun shone on a fake, pure world. Purity could only exist in a lie anyway and Asura knew that. Her hand moved from Angel's throat and touched her chin before the girl dropped to her knees, head slumping and tears springing to her eyes. She put her hands to the ground and clenched her jaw to hold back a sob.

She had made sure to put Angel as she was before this fight had started, tall, imposing, proud. Asura herself was still burned and broken, she had her missing arm back but the clothing had been burned away and scars covered the skin. Her fingers clawed into ethereal dirt and she looked up to stare at Angel. "How? How was I allowed this victory? When did I deserve it?" She choked out, her voice rasping and raw, lips cracked and parched. Burned ends of hair fluttered around her head and she just couldn't summon any anger anymore, it was all gone, like she had drained the tank dry.

Angel had finally gotten rid of that lingering shred of her nemesis's doctrine Tikatchi, she had been so furious when she had initially met him seeing as she gave him the option of standing by while she dealt with the upstart who dared call himself Tetakage and yet he spat in the face of her gift and tried to face her. She had thought she had ended him and to see him in front of her once more with the splitting image of her beloved sister accompanying him only enraged her further. It took everything that she had to not annihilate him from the jump but she had to center herself and give them a fair challenge as Mishura traditions entailed and trial after trial while Asura did not disappoint her. Clearly she was strong even at a young age while Tikatchi was what she expected a normal member of her clan who had been fortunate to meet and be taught by the right people at the right time. No she was not surprised that they were able to reach the final trial nor was she surprised that in her absence her clan had made additional strides building off of what she had not left them but merely the very basics.

No what she had been surprised about was Tikatchi sacrificing himself not for some village but rather his own family in order to give the young Asura the opportunity to finish her. Thus when Tsukiyomi activated rather than her being welcomed into the embrace of Susanoo where she was sure her beloved Raijin was waiting she was unsettled. But she saw the broken woman before her and realized that her teaching days were not over, she could be kept here for quite some time and there was much to leave to her successor things that she would need for the coming future. "Allowed? I think not, you and your grandfather defeated me and knowing he was not worthy to lead our clan he ensured that it would be you to do so. Probably the only good thing he ever did in his lifespan, rise Asura the Clan Head of our great clan does not kneel on the ground nor present herself in anything but a form devoid of weakness." she said waiting for Asura to get up and stand before her, but in case she wasn't able to do it on her own Angel would hold a hand out so that her successor could grasp it and pull herself upward.

"If it is about the arm, I'll leave you my notes, if you study them enough you will not need two hands to utilize hand seals. Besides Susanoo provides all, if you need another arm you can fashion it for youself. You alone have the power to take our clan into the future and with my death you are my successor with everything that it entails. My summoning contract, my techniques, my legacy you inherit it and I know while it seems like you are living up to a lot, it is your birthright. I will not apologize for killing your grandfather, his death was mine hundreds of years before your birth nor should you do anything but take whatever ideals he had and internalize them in order better our clan. We have numerous flaws and now with the knowledge I had without the council of elders restrictions, you have the chance to change everything." Angel said losing the hard look in her eyes and looking at Asura with fondness as she was indeed proud of what the girl had accomplish and would accomplish she merely needed to break free of the chains her life had bound her with.

Asura spent a few moment staring at Angel's hand and she wanted to reach for it, she truly did but something told her no. She had taken herself from nothing to where she was now by her own strength and though she was currently broken and exhausted, she wouldn't let anyone be the one to take her from nothing. With a heave, Asura pushed herself to her feet, taking a step back to steady herself and reaching up to wipe her eyes. She took a deep breath through her nose and centered herself. It was difficult, she could feel the need for tears, for despair still welling up. She wanted so badly to not have to be strong anymore but if Susano'o willed for her to be weaker, she would not be Clan Head now. Swallowing a lump in her throat she looked into Angel's eyes, her own a simple, plain purple now.

"It's none of that. Tikatchi wronged me many times in his life and what he done was the only noble way for him to die, to leave his burdens and to allow the Mishura Clan to flourish. Old traditions caused us to stagnate, they caused us to violate children, break oaths and speak lies. I won't let that happen any longer. It's not about my arm, I'll always find a way, I didn't get to where I am now by letting something stop me. My body needed blood, I found a way to live without it, sleep I can eschew. I refuse to let any part of my body stop my goals." She paused for a moment and shook her head. "But when I look at you I see those thoughts personified. You radiate strength and conviction, you hold this air of justification, as though no action you take can be wrong! I don't have that. I walk with my burdens, I fight as though I have a grudge against the world itself and in a way... I do! I'm so focused on refusing to give in, on forging my will to survive that I can't drop it. All of these memories, all of this pain, it's at once a burden and a comfort. How do you walk without the weight?" She asked Angel, a note of pleading nearly falling into her voice.

She turned and ran her fingers through her hair, dragging it away from her face. "I'm a burned, scarred little girl next to you Angel-sama. I know that with everything I have and with the new truths and understandings I have now... I can change the Clan, I can make it better than it ever was. What if ends up weighed down with my troubles however? What if the entire Clan is subject to my vengeance, to my anger? We cannot step forwards if we are clouded by such irrational emotions."

"Eventually, you have to either let go and move past your burdens or become an empty shell of yourself. I myself held on to my grudges and it was the years trapped in this place that eventually allowed my anger at the world to simmer to what it is now, even still I did not receive closure until this very moment when my death was assured. But you are not me and I will tell you sometimes grudges only weigh you down, you have reached where you desperately clawed to get to, you can not let your enemies still have hold over you even when you are supposed to be at peace or have already slain them. The way you are now, you are letting everyone who has ever hurt you still have power over you, focus on the good and the future and remember the past so that you never fall for the same traps as you did before. I was not always like this, once I was merely a big sister having to be strong so that Fae didn't have to, then as things took from me I became harder, harsher and responsibility reforged me into who I am now. If you can not live for yourself, as I couldn't live for the Clan it'll at least distract you from the memories that plague you." Angel said knowing fully well that she had to say something to get to her so that she didn't end up like herself all alone with only her summons and misery to keep her company.

"Still if you need guidance I am here, for however long you've willed it in this instant. Say your tangible problems and I will give you advice as how to fix it, but those which dwell in your mind only you have the power to overcome them. It is as simple as that, and beyond anything I have faith, after all we are of the same blood distant as it may be." she was willing to offer her help and as it were she had already made up her mind to leave a piece of herself with Asura just in case a situation eventually arose to require it. Still something did interest her as she remembered when Tikatchi decided to hold nothing back that he was in possession of the Kami Raidengan, yet she did not know if that meant he claimed it from a Denkou or something else was at work. Still it was up to Asura to share the current affairs of the clan with her or not whether it was revisions to the clan structure or even deciphering her scrolls and applying it's knowledge to the clan library and training regiments. Or even how to intergrate her contract with the clan itself rather than keep it contained within their line.

"I worry about tainting those that I live for however. Can I really just... Give up on those dark thoughts? I can feel them clawing at the back of my mind, they haunt my every move, I've learned to live with them but I've never thought that I could just push them away. My focus has always been too split." Asura took a few steps away before laughing, slightly hysterically, and turning around to Angel again. "I have children you know, two of them. Deva and Shiva. They were beautiful children, twins. What if they inherit my sins? They'll be warriors, they're descendants of the Mishura, of course they will be and they'll be terrifying. I want them to be pure in their arts, I want them to be Lords among the chaff." She told Angel, a gleam in her eyes. Once more she turned away and looked to the skies, false though they were... They were beautiful.

"Tikatchi has a daughter as well... Or had as he is no longer with us. A Mishura and a Denkou. He wanted to unite the clans, at least partially. I had always assumed we were enemies, I hated him for what he done. It felt like a betrayal. To my personal ideals at that moment, it absolutely was but I wish I had known the truth. Perhaps the clans must be united." The archer crouched and picked a flower and closed it within her hand before throwing it out, the flower turning to petals of lightning and flame that streaked away. "Do you believe that I could live for that goal if nothing else? Do you have faith that I could push away my troubles, my darkness, so that I can bring the true power of the Kaleidoscope back to the world? You are right, I am of your blood, the blood of the true Mishura. I am no traitor, no usurper, no coward." She started filled with vitriol as she named what she was not but the last word was softer. To hide from her problems, to refuse to fight them, was that not cowardice?

"I won't let another be like me. There won't be more outcasts due to the circumstances of their birth. I will not allow that. Tikatchi refused to stop the atrocities performed against me but I cannot grudge the dead, nor will I. I slew those that tortured and abused me, I did not break. I won't let others be treated the same." Asura paused for a moment and then scratched her cheek. "There's a new nation on the rise, the Pandora Empire. Beings of darkness all of them, lead by a supposed Goddess. I've heard tale that there are Denkou at least within their ranks, there might yet be Mishura. I'll need to rescue them. The world has changed a lot since you left, Angel-sama. I wish you could see everything."

Angel seemed how Asura need something anything to hold her above the darkness which had completely shrouded her life and she felt that she did have thing which would keep her tethered to the light, she had a family she had a goal albeit inherited from her now deceased grandfather and most importantly she had a duty to the clan to maintain her sanity and not become consumed by her past. "You have various things which you can focus on, cherish your children I know if I had been fortunate enough to have mine I would not have let anything ruin my relationship with him. No matter how dark the world is you have to strive to make it a better place for the future of the clan, Tikatchi was a fool in may ways but his goal to unite the clan was an intelligent decision. You and use his death to jumpstart is agenda, mend fences with his widow as I am sure you have held her in disdain till now, but to be with someone like him the woman must be strong in her own right at the very least mentally strong." Angel said with a chuckle at the end, it had been a while since she truly laughed and didn't feel emptiness inside of her, perhaps that was what death brought resolution in some sense she no longer had to wait endlessly as the world continued on around her. "As for your children, they would not grow in the same situation as you did so long as you do not neglect them or treat them like distant strangers, love them for it is okay to do so and often times they'll grow stronger because of it. After all you can still train them to be prepared for the outside world just as hard as you would be able to without showing too much emotion, the only difference is the former will give you skilled Shinobi while the latter would give you razor sharp Tools. she said and it went without saying that Asura wouldn't want her children to become tools like she had, merely an instrument for the clan rather than their own individual.

Angel would smile almost wistfully as Asura mentioned the world outside of this prison as sure she was curious but at the same time she wasn't. People changed but war never did, so long as Susano'o existed conflict would remain a constant in their world, it was why of all the deities in the world she revered that particular one the most. Sure she wasn't a very religious person but in her life the most defining moments of her existence had come from battle not emotion, not from nature, nor the mysteries of life and death and most definitely not the mindless drivel that those zealots of Kami preached. "Indeed but relics like myself have no place in your current society, my time has long passed I am merely a remnant of an old world. Will you not see things in my stead and allow me to return to my beloved knowing that I have left my clan in someone who will take it to heights I could not in my entire lifespan. Besides perhaps there is a way for a piece of me to linger within you, though it will only show itself when you truly require it." Angel said crying a tear of blood which she would wipe with a single finger, the drop of blood would proceed to create a seal though symbolic as it was in Tsukiyomi she had already intended on gifting the victor of their clash this boon in reality.
"I won't tell you what it is. But..I believe you should find my gift very useful when the situation calls for it." she said beckoning Asura closer so that she could poke her in the forehead.

The realisation of what she had done came slowly, and although it wasn't painless, it helped her realise just how wrong she had been. She had been treating her children like tools, she wanted them to be harsh like her, able to weather whatever the world threw at them but that wasn't the right way. Wasn't it better to have emotion and know that you are the master of it than never having it at all? Even though they could break through her visage and she could push them down, Asura had never truly been the mater of her own emotions, she was too broken for that. The pain was a gentle void in her stomach but things could still be changed, she could live her children like her own parents wanted to love her. "No one deserves to be a weapon anymore, to become one is to lack responsibility, to lack control over one's self. Those are what make us people, those are what truly make us alive. I'm scared to love, or I was, I'm not sure anymore. A partner always seemed like the most terrifying thing to have. My children came about due to a night of passion with a man I found strong on the eve of a war. What better way for Mishura to be conceived, eh?" She laughed quietly and wiped a tear from the corner of her eye.

After a moment she stepped forward and put one knee to the ground, keeping her head up so that Angel could give her the gift. "I'll make our Clan amazing, I'll follow your teachings. No more internal conflicts, no more wars with the Denkou. Against the darkness, against the world itself, we'll be united and we'll be powerful. I'm too far gone to be the one to bring us truly together but my children and their children... They can ensure it, I know they can." Once the gift had been given, Asura stood once more and crossed her arms over her chest. "You've given me a lot to think about, I won't change instantly but if I can defeat you... My own emotions and fears aren't a challenge. On that subject, what is your evaluation on our fights? I made a few errors, as did Tikatchi but I'd like to know your thoughts on what occurred."

Angel was glad that Asura could see where she was going wrong with raising her children, it would seem that she was indeed regretful of treating them like the tools she was unconsciously trying to mold them to be. It was not in her nature to be such away, Angel could see that her successor like her burned with a fiery soul surrounded by cold merely due to the circumstances which surrounded her life but the cold could easily be melted away given time. "Oh, trust me I know a thing about nights of passion during wartime." Angel said with a chuckle as it would seem they had something in common before nodding as Asura seemed to have made her mind and decided to do what she had, namely entrust the future to those who will be the future. "Good, as long as you set up the foundation they will build something not only beautiful but likewise long lasting. As for your fight, I can see you education was focused in ways that would not have been incomplete in my day." she said only because she knew and most like Asura did as well that if not for the two of them taking her on that Angel could of defeated either of them one on one.

"Your taijutsu is lacking, it makes sense after all you are a long distance fighter and if I'm not mistaken you are also specialized in stealth but that still is no excuse to neglect close combat fighting. You however had a better gauge on your reserves than he did, it felt at times that he focused too much on the destructive side of ninjutsu than the practical. However I am impressed at your restraint with your eyes, I will admit the power of the advanced stage is intoxicating I felt myself falling prey to the draw of it. Genjutsu wise you have potential, however remember even with our dojutsu there are always individuals who can still beat us with experience, if you wish to truly develop your illusions you must devote yourself to the accumulation of techniques just like a ninjutsu specialist. As you do know being an archer you have to be wary of techniques which might knock your techniques off course, a lot of people think Wind is the only thing which can do such a thing but any element with wind as a component can be an effective ranged deterrent. Especially when you get into things like Gravity, Langley Juryoku was a pain in both my sister and my ass whenever we came across him in battle for such a reason. However I feel like the scrolls I'll leave for you will supplement your abilities greatly, if anything I will say they'll round you out so that your specialties shine more. As for Tikatchi's mistakes, it was recklessness that got him killed, not you besides you saved his life during the D-rank Battle, as far as I'm concerned him saving you makes you two square. As for overcoming that disability, there is a saying that when you lose one sense your others grow more powerful to compensate for it. It isn't the case with limbs, but it is fortunate that our eyes grant us the ability to form a being which can fight for us on a greater scale, but perhaps that isn't all that such a creation can do for you." she said making comments where she could as she did respect Asura's style, it was different from hers but reminded her of her sisters and thus she felt that she needed to give her the advice that would have saved her sisters life. "For the most part I was proud of you, less so him but he did make improvements from the last time we fought. Most impressively your combination of Susano'o indeed that is a technique which you might consider honing in the future you never know when you might need such power again."