Jiyu Kazehime's History

Each post is another year. Right now these are just basic one page shorts, I might add to them later, this is just a sense of her growing up.

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    It was midday in the sleepy little, underdeveloped, older fashion styled peace village, when a gorgeous woman who almost looked as she did not belong on this earth, finally held the one thing in the world most precious to her. The dull murderous lullaby of the bland structure to everyone’s day was shattered by the cries of a newborn baby girl held within her pale slender arms. Almost as if a war cry or something had been sounded? Everyone seemed to stop whatever they were doing in the town at the exact second they heard the news of an infant's birth. Once word was out, it did not take long for the village to be mostly gathered around the quaint little cottage that held the newborn child and her mother.  “Let Me Throught!”

    His heart was pounding as the tall male pushed aside numerous people, most of which he’d known since he was a child himself. While the hype and congratulations on his new child was very much loved? Right now he could barely breath as he pushed to see the woman he loved and the child they made together for the first time, throwing the door open without care once he reached it “Dear?!”

    There she was, light from the open door flooding over her pale ghostly white skin and illuminating the long perfect jet black hair which contrasted her flesh so sharply. His breathing hitched entirely as he took in the picture of her sweaty in a simple white night dress holding a small blanket wrapped bundle, the eyes he loved staring into so much, now staring at the only thing in the world that was both of them. “You’ll make her cry again honey.”

      Listening to the warning of his betrothed? The messy haired male bent down slowly beside her, one arm wrapping around her shoulders with love “So we had a girl?” with her nod, the built man finally got another look at the contrasting eyes of his beloved, brushing her cheek right beneath the brown optic of the two individually colored orbs, kissing her forehead above the blue eye. “Duh and now we have to name her.” even becoming a mother had not changed the woman he loved so much,

       “Mikka?” as he spoke the new father reached one finger to touch the infant's nose, eyes widening when she opened hers. For the love of everything holy? She had her mother’s blue eye, the other optic being replaced with one of his green ones. “Our beautiful little Mikka than.” hearing her chuckle he smiled in great agreement, their daughter was indeed quite the sight to behold, with those eyes her mother's pale skin and hair “I’m going to have to beat the boys off with a stick when she gets older.”

      Finally now that they had named the infant, with laughter thick in their voices, the delighted couple began letting their neighbors come see the newest addition to the village. As the day dragged on, everyone became happier seeing the girl, and none could be more ecstatic than her parents as the town truly tried to live up to the saying ‘it takes a village to raise a child’ this village would raise as close to an angel as they could, filled with more love than could be possible.

Having a precious and entirely reliant child, a precious thing that was part both of them? Had been much more work than either adult had expected! Certainly they’d heard of how infant's kept their parents up and of how much someone had to teach them. However they had been far too reoccupied with how in love they were, how much they wanted something that showed how unified they were, to even realize how much work that thing would be. Said thing? Was their darling daughter now laid on a pillow for a bed between them beneath the blanket shared by all three of them. “She’s asleep right?”

Of course it was likely not the wisest decision Father had ever made to speak just as he suspected his daughter was finally off in dream land! The past four hours? Had been spent listening to Jiyu bawl over something neither of them was quite sure about, she just started and then it had taken his beloved several hours to calm their year old daughter down. “Honestly? That has to be the stupidest question ever, don’t speak loud darling or she’ll wake back up.” the female scolded him in a hushed whisper, narrowing her eyes slightly as she stroked the messy black hair of their daughter, eyes filled with joy nonetheless as she stared at her future husband. As his arm extended to pull both her and their daughter closer? She forgot why she had been upset with him seconds before, laughing softly as she rested her hand on his side. Father moved forward to kiss mother.

Wrong Decision. The second right before the lovers would have touched lips? A tiny body twitched between them, fists clenching and the wailing started again. Jiyu was crying her lungs out once more, one hand hitting against her mother as the year old infant failed and sobbed about something her parents had no clue over. Sometimes? Infant's just cried. “Told you, go make dinner.”

The pale woman sat up, holding the blanket covered baby to her chest, smirking with mischief at her partner. While his lover appeared to be playful? The strong man knew by now, if he did not do as she said, there would be painful prices to pay, a chuckle escaping him as he swooped to kiss both girls on their forehead briefly before escaping out the door to do as he was told, before his health was in danger.

Once her future husband was gone, Mother pulled Jiyu slightly closer, singing softly the lyrics to a song the girl would be too young to remember later on. However finally, after several more long hours, Jiyu slowly quieting down again and the family sat down to dinner, infant sucking a bottle given to her by Father,

     Mother was sitting outside of the cottage her lovely family resided in, legs tucked underneath her, letting her lap be utilized as a table for the book spread across it. Beside her? Jiyu sat in the same manner, hands on her mother’s upper leg, peering down at the book her mother was reading to her in order to try and teach her things, thought as a child she did not have too much interest in the picture book itself, but in what her mother was doing. “Cow.” she pointed at the picture, and Jiyu’s tiny hand copied the motion “Cow” her voice making the same sounds as her mothers did. “Can I play blocks?” but she still was not much interested in the book nor in what her mother was trying to teach her, playing games was something Jiyu was much more interested. Once she received a nod from the older woman? Kazehime ran forward , pushing into the house and digging through the pile of her blankets, toys and such, until she finally found her bag of blocks.

     It was about the time that Father came home that Jiyu had managed to build a block tower of three blocks, several of them actually, simple two bottom, one top. Once she saw her dad? The toddler shoot up, waving her tiny hands and running over to clutch his leg, fists sunk into the baggy fabric of his pants, green eye looking up at him since her mother had styled it to always cover one of their child's eyes. “How has my princess been doing today?” and he hoisted her up, causing an eruption of laughter as she reached forward and grabbed his hair. “I made block towers!” in the child's mind it was a huge accomplishment. “That’s great precious!” and he slowly lowered her, moving to help her stack the block towers together more.

     “TAG! MIKKA’S IT” As they played blocks? One of the other children in the village pushing her shoulder, announced that the black haired child was suddenly involved in one of the tow Games “You guys stay right in my vision.” her mother was protective, but the other children did not seem to have issue staying around the front of the little cottage. All of them, including Jiyu? raced around pushing each other lightly to declare each other it, before the sun began to set, and Father helped take the other children home to their parents.

       “Puppy Bed Time.” honestly the toddler really did not wish to go into the land of slumber, however at her mother’s sweet call? Jiyu scrambled to come over to the bed and pull herself up, clambering about until she finally laid on top of her mother, a laugh coming from the woman. While she did have her own bed? Jiyu much prefered sleeping with her parents.

In such a small village mostly left alone by the rest of the world? It was sometimes hard to provide a child with the best things or even sometimes simply the things she needed. Since everyone in the village was about in the same situation in terms of ability to provide, things like lack in material goods were never noticed too drastically, they were all provided what they needed development wise. However the entire story would change whenever someone became ill whether they were a child or not, the village currently had no practicing doctor! Thus someone falling ill, especially a child or someone elderly, was very difficult and also especially dangerous to their life.

“What are we going to do dear?” the young mother’s voice was strained as she stood in the middle of the first room for their cottage, wrapped in her fiance’s arms, his chin pressed to the top of her head. Over the past few days both of them had suspected Jiyu was falling ill, but they did not want that to be happening, did not want anything threatening to take their little princess away from them! “I’ll go to the other villages, the towns and cities until I find a doctor who will come to look at her; Until I return you just stay strong and take care of our little princess.” he was the man of this household after all, he had to be strong, even if his distress matched or exceeded that of the woman he was holding so tenderly. If no one tried to get a doctor? His daughter very well could be killed, so even if he did not want to leave them while Jiyu was in such poor condition, the man understood it was his best chance to help the girl, so kissing his lover on her forehead the messy haired boy set out the door to borrow someone’s horse and get to a location where he could hire a healer.

Once the pale woman had watched her spouse leave the house in such hurry, so rushed to try and save their precious little girl? She sighed long and drawn out, letting her feet carry her to the bedroom across the hall from theirs, were for once Jiyu was resting in her own bed, at least she had believed her fever ridden, sick child was in bed. “I’m sorry mommy.” the little girl was now sniffling, her mother realizing Jiyu had heard them talking about how helpless they were with her illness, and felt bad for being sick in the first place. Bent down to her knees Kazehimes mother touched her girls reddened cheeks, stroking them backwards with her thumbs “Oh sweetie, there’s no reason for you to be sorry, people get sick, now come on you have to rest dearest.” the mother gently picked up her toddler daughter, feeling how hot Jiyu’s body had become through the child's clothing, hearing how hard she was struggling to breath, the small coughs and sleepy look in the girl's eyes. All she could do? Was slowly lay Jiyu down in her bed, pulling the girls sheets up to her chest and stroke the child’s head softly, do simple things like placing a cold rag on her head, feeding her what she would eat and taking care of. Right now? The very life of their child was resting on her lover off somewhere in the country trying to find someone who for the meager payment they could give would come treat their child.

She had been wondering for the longest time after running away to this village, if it had been the right decision. As days passed and she realized how different the blood of Inuki made her? The woman had considered returning home, finally behaving like the good girl in which her family had desperately wanted to marry off to someone else who held the same lineage. Even if it was distant? That sounded like incest, and she did not want any of it, but eventually it had become so hard to ignore how people treated her differently due to the most notable feature caused by her dog demon heritage, the heterocromia of her eyes. Now, thought, as she sat on the edge of her bed listening for a few seconds to the snoring of the man beside her before a tiny figure zipped into their room and jumped onto the bed between them; She knew staying had been the right choice.

“There’s my little Mikka. Already racing around this early?” the mother smiled as her daughter gave a slightly fanged grin, tiny hands making grabbing motions towards her as they moved to a hug. Mom moved her sharpened nails to brush through her daughter’s bangs which she styled to fall over one eye. Considering how she’d been treated differently growing up for her eyes? She did not want her daughter to be required early on to face the same thing, all the woman wanted was for Jiyu to have a normal childhood. Thought her fiance had put up some fight at the idea of hiding how gorgeous his darling daughter’s eyes were. Honestly the petite female was terrified of what sort of future her daughter would have! When she first conceived with her darling? The woman never considered her Inuki genes would be passed on. Looking at her daughter thought, concern grew at the fact Jiyu shared many more traits with herself, than the girl did with her father! As she had grown into a wonderful toddler, the child had remained just as pale as when she was born. While her hair had become messy and impossible to tame like her father's? The locks of her daughter had also grown incredibly long very swiftly, holding a color identical to her mother’s. Lastly, those eyes and the occasional dog like behavior she swiftly corrected every chance she could.

“Mommy I’m Hungry!” the toddler chirped out as she sat held at her mother’s hips while the woman stood up and started out of the bed room with her daughter. Disappointingly mother made a simple sound in the back of her throat instead of verbally responding, putting her daughter down in the hallway, the tiny tots hand quickly attaching to her’s. “How Do Eggs Sound?” the bright eyed girl squealed as her mother lead the way down to the kitchen and dining area, lifting her small body once more to help the toddler onto one of the chairs there. “Yes Momma!”

Once she finished cooking, Mother brought two plates over to the table, picking up both forks, putting a mouthful in her own mouth first, before she stabbed the eggs on her daughter’s plate and offered it to the girl. For the whole morning? Even as her darling, the father of her child came out, Mommy would keep sitting there feeding both herself and Jiyu at the same time, both girls laughing occasionally.

Waking up to a cold bed was normally one of the worst feelings any human being could experience. At least? That was what people often said, but waking up with the left side of his bed cold was anything but a negative experience for the green eyed male, in fact it was one of the sorts of mornings he loved best! Looking over, he chuckled at the empty spot his fiance would normally occupy, a smaller ident likely made by his beloved five year old daughter when she came in to make her mother fed her so early once again. Most morning’s? His girls awoke far before he did, and just as this morning he enjoyed walking down the hall leading away from their room, looking at all the things telling their story; All around you could see signs of Jiyu, some dress she’d ripped again, some doll she was not currently using, drawings on the walls. Even with how happy they had been when the girl was born, each year he spent watching her grow up well, only increased that feeling.

“Honey, Mikka?” once he had carved a piece of bread for himself and slathered it in more jam than was healthy, he called out for his family. While Jiyu was an active girl, his fiance seemed reluctant to let the growing girl explore very far, so they were almost always in earshot. Honestly he felt somewhat bad for his beautiful baby, seemingly kept like a bird in cage by her overprotective mother! “We’re out here darling.”

Following the voice of the only woman he’d ever wish to marry, have such a delightful family with? The slightly aged window shutters were pushed open by his tanned hands, opening a view to the garden where he had guessed they were. “Is our precious girl going to need another bath?” he laughed slightly, leaning on the window sill, grinning like such an idiot at the sight which greeted him, the woman he loved holding the tiny hands of their daughter, a packet of seeds, a shovel, watering can. A mother teaching a daughter how to tend a garden. “Mommy is giving me my own patch of the garden!”

It was some form of responsibility for the hyper child, that was for sure but he also suspected it was her mother’s way of getting the girl to momentarily give up on going to play with the other children so much. “That’s great Mikka!” one of these days his daughter was going to realize how small her world was being made, and he dreaded that, the anger she might come to have towards her mother for being so protective. However he did not blame his to-be wife, prior to having their child she had always had good reasons for all she did, and he did not think simply being a mother would change her that much, he knew looking at her holding Jiyu, his love was the same as always

Even if he did not know why she was so frightened of letting Jiyu too far from them? He would respect her wish of it, and be there for the pale woman when their daughter eventually outgrew obeying her mother and finally rebelled and pushed away from where she wanted Jiyu to be. “I’ll leave your little section of the garden to you than.” he chuckled one last time, reaching out to grab a few strands of his fiancee’s jet black hair, playing with it between his rough fingers.

They were the ideal of what every perfect family should be, a gorgeous wife with more personality than could be natural, hard working father who held her safe at night and lasty the product of their union, a single darling child. Somehow, the trio was always seemingly happy and never to far from one another! If the father was working his shop or such? His utterly devoted wife and growing child would be merrily making a lunch for him, laughing with each other at the smallest thing, before the mother would let the daughter run ahead for a brief five minutes to give her the illusion that she had the freedom and responsibility to deliver her father’s lunch.

“Daddy!” Her screaming was not the most annoying that a child’s could be, but the happiness of a child which was very contagious? Made the whole village annoyingly lively, smiles and good will everywhere, villagers laughing as the black haired girl ran forward on still somewhat unsteady legs, encouraging her pale form to finish its dead set task. “Yes Sweet?” and the young girl leapt into his arms not even knowing her mother was only a corner away, laughing as her father swung her around, set her down taking the lunch and ruffling her messy hair. “Mommy and me made you lunch!” they did it every single day, and yet each day his smile seemed even happier than the one given the prior day. “Oh than I wonder where your mother could be?”

At this point it would never take too long for the mother to catch up to them and as he held the child on his hip with one arm, he’d wrap the other around her, butterfly kiss to the forehead for both of his girls. “Right here darling.” one of her arms slipping to help support the girl who would soon grow to be far too grown up to be carried by them, so happy in their little mundane moments somehow made more exciting by the girl held between them.

However there was a flaw in the family lying with that mother, the village did not seem to see it, they didn’t seem to mind. Any outsider thought? Could easily see from the stunningly odd colored eyes of the woman, that she did not belong there! She looked like the rest of the family she’d ran away from, odd eyes, pale skin with dark colored hair. Somehow even though the woman had done everything wrong? She had received the perfect family! The woman even had the whole village endeared to her, complimenting how expect for their eyes mother and daughter looked just alike! The good nature in the air about it, was sickening to someone who knew the truth that this family should never have come to be. Well at the very least, that woman should have wed and conceived with someone who would have ensured her daughter shared more than simply her hair and skin tone, but the gift of her mother’s blood itself.

That family only looked perfect, but the child would always be robbed of something. Weather it be her deserved lineage or a mother not connected to such blood? Was not a known, only that she would be forever missing one thanks to her mother's choice.

   Jiyu woke up happily snuggled against her extremely beautiful mother, the woman who was her everything. While the village had lots of women? None of them, in the child's eyes, were more beautiful, more kind, more skilled, or in any way better than her Mother! “Mommy! Wake Up!” Watching her mother open her brown and blue eyes? Jiyu remember how much she adored her mother’s eyes, and how happy she had been recently when, while they got ready in the morning, she’d gazed into the only mirror they owned, realizing, she also had to differently colored eyes. However her mother had not been pleased when she asked her hair to be styled differently to show it off, and had even told Jiyu to try and never let anyone else see that her eyes happened to be two different colors. To kazehime? It made no sense, she admired her mother so much! Everyday when someone mentioned she looked just like the older woman her bright eyes stared at, it made Jiyu so giddy she felt like she would lit aflame any second, delighted to be just like her role model. So sharing her eyes? Had to be a good thing! In the end thought, Jiyu loved her mother far too much to question the older woman on the choice to hide her green eye. However she promised when she got older that she’d gladly display the fact she was her mother’s little doppelganger.

     “Mm, What are we going to have for breakfast this morning baby girl?” Jiyu grinned as her mother stroked her messy ebony hair, one hand gripping a fist full of her mother’s smooth flawless locks, nose resting against the calming scent of it, her nose taking in the sweet, yet animal like smell. “I want to learn how to make toast!” a frown quickly and only momentarily covered her mother’s face “Than we’re going to have to go and buy some bread, alright?” with an eager nod, Jiyu shot up to run to her own room and change from her night gown into an outfit to wear for the day, knowing her mother was doing the exact same. Once she had mostly gotten dressed down to her bare feet? She noticed that her shoe’s had a significant hole in them, so the child held them to her chest, and rushed out of her room to meet up with her beloved mother and inform her of the gapping well gap, in her footwear.

    Racing into the area they used for living, like cooking, eating and anything else they needed? Jiyu was stunned with the beauty of her mother once more, and wished again she’d grown up to look just like that stunning woman in the knee long sun dress. The girl was actually so captivated by her mother, it took a few seconds to remember what she was going to do “Mommy, my shoes aren’t good anymore.” her own dress bounced as she lifted the worn sneakers up, and the older woman grimaced with a smile, patting her head. “Than I’ll buy you a new pair next week.” the promise made in that lovely voice her mother had made the young child grin like she was dumb, dropping the sneakers and racing forward to latch both of her tiny hands around her mother’s dainty appendage when it was offered to her. Honestly, she did not believe that with the amount of love her mother gave, the shoes were seriously needed. As of yet? Kazehime had not stepped on anything or gotten her feet hurt! So it wasn’t dangerous, shoes were just a thing.

    “One loaf of bread please.” she had not released her mother’s hand the whole way down to the merchant and she would not do so even now that they had arrived. Across Jiyu’s face? The happiest little grin ever, as the other adult handed over the item her mother had requested and her mother payed the fee, the latter of which was something Jiyu was still learning about. “So have you started teaching her magic yet? You were a very good mage before you decided to settle down and since your fiancee had mage parent’s, it’s possible Jiyu could become a mage too right?” that was one of the things that had been brought up by many people in the village, however her mother always seemed to give some sort of run around response to it. Was being a mage something bad, or good? She got two different impressions, one from looking at her community and the other from looking at the woman she admired most in the world. “She’s not old enough to decide yet and you know it.” Only Jiyu knew she was old enough to as her mother said decide, all the other children her age with the ability to be mages were already training in magic, even if it was minor training! So why was she not old enough, when everyone else was?

    Before there was even a chance for the subject of Magic to seriously be questioned by the young girl? Her mother lead her by the hand back home, not making her let go as she set the bread down. “My puppy wants to learn how to make bread too!” laughing at Jiyu’s antic, the female let her daughter’s hand go, hand gently on the top of the girls back ushering her forward to go get the doll from her room. “Be quick dear.” and she smiled happily watching Jiyu run off down the hallway and fly into the small room.

“I think it’s time we had a innocent little discussion dear.”

    Mother looked forward towards the door, eyes widening greatly as she saw the man standing there, pale as she herself was, same shade of hair one eye brown the other yellow. He had been the one she would have been promised too if she did not run away so long ago, and now he was standing at her door, and she could not help but worry about her daughter so close to them. Did this male know yet that Jiyu had inherited Inuki blood, or had hiding the girls green eye worked? “I think you best send the tyke away, her father and her are not involved in this afterall.” she withheld a relieved sigh, the male had no idea that Jiyu carried the same lineage they did! Thus she went down the hallway, leaving the visitor in the living entry.

     “Mikka sweetie, I think your father could use some company at his shop, why don’t you take your books and study while you keep him company.” As she helped Jiyu gather the pile of books the girl read to learn new things? Mother slipped a simple leather bound book into them, one that seemed out of place, kissing her daughter’s forehead. Jiyu would be safe, she now had her books to learn from, the doll she liked and even though the child did not yet know, the leather bound book would be anything her mother could teach her about magic. “Of you go.” Jiyu grinned, laughing as she ran out the door, waving bye to her mother, racing off to join her lonely father in his slow shop.


    Sunlight flooded the shop as Jiyu laid in one corner of it, one of her books opened to a random page about new words, reading slowly and trying to remember them. “It’s time to go home princess.” the young girl grinned like mad when announced they were going home, and thus going back to her amazing mother, racing forward to grip her father’s hand, leaving her books for the next day.

    The walk was different from normal thought, Jiyu looked around the village prancing with her normal smile and waves; However no one grinned back at her, they all wore these small expressions, covering their mouths, half heartedly waving at her, ushering their own children inside with solemn looks. Had she missed something that happened, or was everyone just deciding to be weird? She only started thinking it might be the former, when her dad slowed down, slipping his hand to clutch around her shoulders, uttering a meek and trembling “No.” forgetting to let go of his daughter before he raced forward, the girl struggling to keep up as they raced back towards home, and oddly towards a dissipating black plume of smoke and the horrid char smell of something burnt.

    “No, No.” the man hit his knees, clutching his daughter to his chest as his eyes started trembling and releasing tears. Once Jiyu caught up with everything? The girl saw their house, or where it should have been, reduced to ashes and charred frames, several people standing around with buckets, shaking their heads sadly. “How did this happen!” Her father sounded furious and Jiyu flinched stumbling back, tripping over the rubble and landing in the ashes. Where was her mother?! “We don’t know, but we found her body.” whose body? Her father started crying harder, shoving his face into his hands. The only person missing from the village was her mother! They had someone die a few months before, so she understood, slowly, that her mother was gone, part of the ashes.

    “Mother had company before I went to father’s shop.” while she was not old enough to think of anything like arson or murder? Jiyu did consider the possibility mother’s guest had messed up while they were burning the toast from the loaf of bread they brought earlier. “Don’t make things up brat, we would have found another body.” one of the older villagers scolded her harshly, and she went to speak again but one of them covered her mouth. Why didn’t they believe her? She’d never lied to anyone in the village, mother had a guest! “Come on, your father needs some time alone.” and she was dragged off by one of the other mother’s, reluctantly and reaching for her father, not quite yet fully understanding everything or processing it.

A Mother’s Legacy

    Hardly any time seemed to have passed, and any moment she did have any grip of the movement of time? It felt numb, as if it was going by in slow motion, as life went on and their house was rebuild she wanted to badly to hit the pause button. Jiyu stared at her bare feet in the corner of her father’s shop as he worked outside wagering with someone, her finger tracing her toe. How could life just go on like this without her mother here? Sure the child understood her beloved mother was now gone, but she did not quite want to grasp yet the fact that wonderful woman would never be returning, never hold her again, no speaking, just nothing. Kazehime had even missed the funeral in her struggle to come to terms with what had happened almost a month before. Sometimes she honestly considered dropping a match on their rebuilt house, as if it could bring her mother back, but she did know better, eyes trailing the stack of books which she had already finished reading, just like her mother told her to.

    “This isn’t mine.” it was then, mopping around with nothing else to do, she noticed a slim book, bound in faded brown leather. Actually if she recalled correctly? That had been one of mother’s books, which would make it the only one not destroyed in the fire, her tiny hands reaching forward to grip the smooth material of it’s cover, curling to her knees, carefully opening it as if the book was the most fragile thing on this earth.

Dear Jiyu,

When I gave up being a Mage before you were born, I never once considered a way to teach you magic, without using it once more myself. The thing I want most to be to you is an example of how you can be strong without magic, however this does not mean you have no right to learn Magic. Thus I have written this book for you, within these pages are all the ways I trained when I myself was a mage. Please take your time, go slow and be careful, I know one day you’ll be an even better Mage than I was; And whatever you choose to do, open the folded envelope in the back only once you’ve become proficient with magic or decided to never partake in it.

     The girls two differently colored eyes trembled and became moist with unshed tears as her finger traced some of the letters. While some of this did not yet make sense to the child? Jiyu did understand this was something her mother had left her with so she could learn magic, Mother had sent it with when she sent her off to father’s on purpose. Now, with the words written by Mother it would be up to Jiyu to train herself in magic, become a mage if that was what she really wanted to do! “Dad.” her strangled voice choked out as she called for her father, watching his tired form come into the shop once more, and she held the book open on its front page for him to read briefly, before closing it and hugging the book to her chest, curling up. While she would teach herself magic, Jiyu did not yet think she could get up and do the training or anything related quite yet. All she wanted to do right now? Was hold close one of the only pieces of mother she had left.

Jiyu was sitting on the open stone window ledge of her room, the wooden shutters pushed harshly against the side of the greyed house she lived in. The actual door into her small room? Was now long slammed shut and stuck in place for eternity, considering her father was never going to have the time on his hands to fit it for her. Of course there was also the fact her parent had figured better than to disturb and bother her today, considering it was the anniversary of her mother’s death, heck he still didn’t know what to do, curled in their bed with a hard drink! In some ways the young girl figured she was actually luckier than her father in this loss, her blue optic looking down at the book in her small hands, her green eye straining through her thick black hair to take in the image of the volume. While she had this, her eye color and such, all that her father had left of the woman they both loved so dearly, was her, and she was not exactly easy to deal with anymore. In fact? Most of the time the village thought she was being difficult for everyone on purpose, but she really wasn’t, Jiyu wanted to be normal like they wanted, she wanted to forget that idea of another living being in the house with her mother before she left, but the young girl could not shake it. Somehow? She knew that that man had something to do with her mother no longer being beside her, and she couldn’t just forgive him for it!

“But is that what magic is used for mom?”

While she had the book, the note and letter for a full year now, the young girl had never read a single thing on magic. Honestly? Kazehime did not know if she deserved to use it, what was contained after all, was her mother's magic, the magic of a gentle albeit fiery woman! The child did not want to corrupt the spells if one day she decided to one day take revenge for her mother’s death, sure she wasn’t willing to call it murder yet, but she knew one day she might and one day she might use her mother’s magic for evil. Did she have the right to learn what was inside this book considering the risk presented?

“There is a reason your mother stopped using Magic Mikka.”

Her rugged father was so drunk that she doubted he knew what was coming out of his mouth, and how he’d gotten to the side of the house however these days that was often the case. So by now? The scent of liquor was a familiar one to the child, thought she kept quiet about her sense of smell, he seemed to get mad when she mentioned it. “Why?” she looked over at him, as he stared at her with an indescribable emotion playing in his eyes, her own optic willing him to tell her anything, something to help. However the metal worker left, rounding the house to head back to his own room, just he always did, providing his daughter nothing to work with, expect the few tears slipping down her face, not understanding why he never really said anything to her anymore, she needed him and he was never there.

The wind blew against her cheek, and she looked down, finally opening the book to the first lesson.

She had to try the hardest possible to keep this a secret from her father, and that was what hurt the most these days. When he had found out she was in depth reading the book left to her by Mother, the male had made her promise never to try magic. However, even if she told him that she wouldn’t, Jiyu could never keep that promise, because it was a lie from the second she made it! Even than she had been studying for months, and attempting spells, he had just been too wrapped up in himself to notice that his daughter was using magic often, but now he was almost always over her shoulder, as if he believed she’d die if she started to practice her mother’s magic. Couldn’t he see that she was trying to keep the woman they had both loved so much alive, somehow! The only thing her father seemed to wish to do, was push the memories of the dual eyed woman, the mother of his child, so far away from them, so that one day when she was older she’d be unable to remember to lovely face that gave her life. Jiyu? Was so mad every second speaking to him, each glance he made and every time he made her promise never to use magic, she just became so enraged, it wasn’t right. Why did he want to forget her mother so badly, but she couldn’t afford to think about it or she would come to hate her own father. Even if he was in a hard place right now, the young girl knew he was still her father.

“Mikka are you ready for practice today” she looked up at him with a small smile, her magic book safely hidden within her dress, away from his view and knowledge. “Yes father.” she reached for his hand and finally found it, relief flooding her body at the simple contact, eyes growing moist. Anymore? This was the only time he touched her, hands locked together as he started leading her through the village, her now knee long black hair swishing from side to side behind them as if it was a tail. “I’ll do well today too.” she promised it, smiling brightly as they came upon the small archery practice range that he’d enrolled her in. Apparently? The rugged man thought learning how to use a bow and arrow would prevent her from wanting to learn any form of magic, keep her in a state that to him was safe. “Be a good girl.”

She only nodded, Kazehime knew she couldn’t do that for him, so she lied silently.

“Can I be excused miss?” it was about an hour later exactly when the young mage looked up at the archery mentor, holding her bow endearingly against her legs. The best part about archery practice? Was that she had been naturally good at it, and thus if she asked very nicely, the tutors would send her ‘home’ early and so long as she met her dad on the road before he could encounter them, or get home before him, he was none the wiser! Thus he would not find out about her sorrowful deception, the older woman nodding, causing Jiyu to run off so she could find a quiet place to practice her magic.