An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind, the growth of power truly had known no bounds. The twin suns of the northern iron country ponder their position in life, the truth of their position. Only one will be the legacy of the clan, the other forgotten.
Posted: Thu Jan 23, 2020 9:02 pm
Jinrai Seinaru
He was alone after the news. Out in the gardens, he favored the koi ponds when he just wanted to be to himself under the tori gate outside the shrine. It had been a few hours since dinner and the sun was setting and Jinrai sat staring at the reflective pool.
Dinner itself was painfully quiet, such news was hard to comprehend. Mother, Katsu, was quiet as well and the silk black bandages around her eyes pained him more. It had been a year since the procedure and he still didn't understand why she was to go blind. And now. Jinrai shook his head. Only one of these pieces will become gold. He exhaled heavily as he looked out at the pond, comparing himself and his sister to pieces of shogi. Only one. He yelled out suddenly and heaved one of the decorative rocks into the pond, standing straight up from his sitting position and threw a tantrum of sorts.
His fist struck the red wood of the torii gate as he shouted in mixed frustration and pain. And again. And again. He punched the wood and then collapsed to the ground and heaved his back against it with face in his hands, blood trailing from the knuckles.
"What is this ******** game he's playing with us? What the hell does he mean!?" Jinrai shouted to himself and kicked another rock out of frustration as he got up again, venting out his frustrations more. He collapsed again, this was a weakness but he couldn't help himself, it had to be let out. Yoko was his sister, but the family was his pride. What had been meant by father's words?
Yoko's gaze had seemed bent on glaring a hole through the table all through dinner. She refused to look at her twin, Jinrai, sitting next to her. She refused to look at her father. And, while it pained her to do so, refused to look at her mother. Seeing the bandages covering her eyes made it all to real for Yoko. She had seen people loose their sight for various reasons. Either naturally or through battles. As much as it pained her to see her mother in such a state it wasn't the reason behind her current bad mood. Not at the moment anyways. Not to long before dinner their father had pulled them aside for one of his 'pep talks'.
Now, she sat alone outside the dojo. Not caring that she was sitting in the dirt getting her clothes dirty. A red and gold arm guard lay in her lap. She had been polishing the armor, trying to wipe away any grime that had managed to get on it. The setting sun glinted off the arm guard, making Yoko squint her mismatched eyes. Seeing the reflection of her eyes in the metal, Yoko immediately put the piece of armor down in the dirt, effectively nullifying any cleaning she had done. Her signature scowl gracing over her face. She didn't understand any of the reasoning behind what their father had done or said. Surely there had to be other options that didn't involve their mother losing her eyesight. As a medic she didn't nor wouldn't have condoned to such a thing, but as it had been her parents giving the order what could she have said to stop it from happening? Taking a deep breath Yoko yelled out in frustration, not caring who heard. Not even bothering to make a word out of it. Just a mindless yell to let out even a small bit of her frustration.
She picked up the arm guard, placing it back in her lap and saw that she had indeed ruined the cleaning she had done before. Now the metal refused to reflect the sunlight, the golden rope that held the piece together were stained with small patches of brown. Yoko quietly wiped the grime from the metal now, not caring if it only smeared the dirt as her own hands were just as dirty now. The sound of some thing large falling into water made it's way to her ears. She looked up towards the shrine only to see the gate itself was shaking slightly. As if something heavy was trying to get by it. Sighing heavily Yoko stood up, bare feet quietly carrying her over to the shrine. As she made her way to the source of the noise Yoko saw that her assumptions were correct. It had been Jinrai apparently pummeling the daylights out the gate. She was several feet behind him still as he was collapsed on the ground now.
She had heard him yell something out, but hadn't quite heard what he had said, but she heard the last few words. "It doesn't matter." She stated with a glare, clinching the guard in her hand. "I'll make him change his mind. One way or another." it was a declaration that Yoko had wished she had said hours ago. She had wished that she had done her shouting then and there. Even a year ago. There was no going back and changing it now though. The only thing she could do was try and make their father change his mind some how. She lifted her free hand and pointed to his foot. She had seen him take out his frustration against a rock. "Is your foot okay?"
Wicked hearts resided in those least expected and it was father who subverted this concept. Jinrai was in a spiral in the depths of his mind as he still struggled with the whole thing. Sometimes he wished only one of us was born... He looked at his knuckles, bruised and scraped from hitting the wood, the skin was cut but he just stared. With his left hand, he snapped the pinky with a loud 'crack' and popped the ring finger's knuckle, he grunted as he did so and collapsed back to the ground again, blinking. First this. Gift. Now this sake of... Lineage.
Jinrai heaved a heavy sigh and sat up more straight, looking out at the pond as the koi swam back after being scared off. Eyes closed, he propped up on knee and rested both arms and chin on it as he opened them back again. He wouldn't accept the outcome of things, and now he was at odds with his own blood, and not by choice. He wanted to let loose again, his composure and pride be damned. Katsu was blameless, and yet her sight taken. Now threat of her own exile from the capital was the carrot dangling from the stick of this warped pressure to grow.
He told her anyways. He couldn't hold such things back and now things were awkward. Hayato knew, Katsu knew. Yet the truth of why her eyes were in each of her children was still never explained. She often repeated to Jinrai that she could not say, and the smile pained him each time. Strong she was, Yoko took a lot from her and Jinrai was jealous of her for that. Like a weathered stone against the ocean, he often wished he was more like his sister, to be able to hide his fears and shut out such weaknesses.
But that was not his way, his temper often gotten the better of him, no amount of study and knowledge could quell such things. There was some sick truth to him in that he agreed in some ways to what father was pushing to, he hated losing to others but what was the price of such things? Jinrai listened as he heard someone approach while he wallowed in his self pity. Angry, at himself and his father.
It was Yoko, asking if his foot was alright and he glanced up at her, turning slightly so his good eye had her in view. Even if it had been a year, it would be awhile before he'd be used to being partially blind. "I am fine." was all Jinrai said as he rested his head back on his propped knee and stared at the pond. Jinrai bit his lip slightly and he knew she seen him freak out a little, it wasn't like him to be so... extra temperamental.
He shifted where he sat for a moment and leaned back so now his hands were behind him, looking up at Yoko now. "Does it ever bother you? Just. Stuff in general, sis?" he began and he tossed a small pebble as he spoke, the smooth stone splashing off in the pond. The koi scattered again, swimming away "What am I to you? To him, you know. Dad." He sat up and heaved a sigh.
"I didn't ask for any of this, you know?" Jinrai stood up now, dusting off his pants and looked at her again. Conflicted emotion still went through him, he wanted to succeed and not worry about his position in life. But he also wanted to protect his sister no matter what.
"Remember when you put the toad in dad's soup? He yelled and screamed, and I took the blame." Jin smiled for a moment with a chuckle. "Old b*****d's face turned red as hell when you also took blame, then we argued. You were upset your prank got credit taken away, I was upset because I didn't want you being punished." He laughed a little now. "It was so stupid. Never seen dad so confused in my life though."
Yoko stepped closer to Jinrai, until she was standing next to him. He said he was fine, but Yoko could tell that was a straight up lie. She let it slide for now. It had been a long time since Jinrai had lost his temper like that. Maybe a year or so, Yoko couldn't think of an exact date. Jinrai was always the calm one out of the two in her eyes and it made her feel envious. There were very few times that he ever had an outburst like she did. She always felt like volcano about to explode. A few years ago she would've had without a doubt exploded on Hayato for even suggesting to take Mother's eyes for any reason. But even her temper had been restrained and it bothered her to no end. Looking down Jinrai she almost thought he was joking. "Of course it bothers me!" she said with a huff. "How can it not? He thinks to far to much about a single heir when he has two right in front of face! Nothing gets solved by yelling about it though. I figured that hard way." Yoko gave a defeated sigh as she sat down on his right in a very unladylike position, crossing her legs and just looking into koi pond.
Remembering the last time she had shot her mouth off at Hayato had ended with her and a spartan training regiment for over a week. "I wasn't allowed at the Clinic for so long after the last time." she had dearly missed her patients. The Clinic was about the only place she could really shine and be herself she felt. She watched the stone skip across the water, scattering the koi fish in every direction. "I think...he looks at us like we're the stone and water." She said, taking her dirty arm guard and dipping into the water gently. She swirled it around until most of the dirt was washed off. "He likes to throw us at each other and see which one makes the most ripples." She gave an equally heavy sigh. "I don't know, I don't really want to think about that. All I want too do is prove him wrong." She shook off the excess water from the arm guard. Trying to explain how Hayato even began to think sent chills down her spine.
Turning her good eye to Jinrai she almost let out a laugh, but managed to cover it up. "Neither of asked for it." she watched him stand up. "At least we're in position to knock him down a peg or two. Eventually...soon I hope." She stood back up now, not dusting her dirt from her own clothes. She blinked as she remembered the toad fiasco and grimaced. "Why he thought that was you I'll never understand!" She almost whined. "That was some of my best work too! Next time it'll be four toads." crossing her arms with a pout. The pout didn't last long as she remembered Hayato's face though, it was replaced by a loud laugh. "Oh please I'm tougher than any thing he can throw at me." she proudly stated, waving her dripping wet arm guard around. "I'm not the one was nearly crying though. You were on the verge of tears when I took the blame." she jokingly poked at Jinrai. A thought slowly formed in her head after remembering the toad indecent and she turned her gaze to the koi pond. "Hey, how many kois do you think I can get in his bath before he gets in?" It was an almost serious question. Almost, as she was seriously debating catching a fish or two and chucking into the bath.
After a brief second she stowed the idea away for another time. There probably wasn't enough light in the day left to pull such a prank. "Never-mind, I'll do that later." she said almost a little sad she hadn't thought of that earlier. She didn't want to cause any more trouble for the day. Dinner had been disaster and she didn't want to stress Mother out anymore. Plus she didn't want to placed under house arrest again. "I wish I was more like you sometimes." She admitted. "If I was I wouldn't make Mother stress anymore." she always felt like Mother stressed over her because Yoko refused to let anything slide. If she got punished for doing poorly in training, she'd retaliate with a prank, which only ended in punishments. Jinrai seemed to take everything in stride, though he did have breaking points as his tantrum earlier showed.
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