Stain Of Musashi

About ten years ago, a rumor emerged that brought about endless turmoil. A certain royal family of Musashi had adopted a boy from the slums, with hopes to make him into their bloody blade. He was prodigy even among killers, but was ultimately cast aside.

Why? Because his spite was too great to handle. Something that even lord Musashi couldn't ignore. Ever since then, the child had gone on a rampage. A bloody killer who burned his own caretakers and ended up killing his own mother with those cursed hands.

The entire land was aflame like a circle of hell. The little boy held a blade as his mothers body crumpled and wisped in front of him, except the boy held a smile. A wavering and cryptic smile splattered with the blood of his own kin.

A boy with one eye, whose body burned in endless hell fire coupled with an insane unnerving smile on his face. That boy was known as the Stain of Musashi.

Dian stared at the building that Cairo fell through. His gaze still not flinching as the bricks of the wall slowly began melting away as a hand plunged through the molten sludge that it had become.

A mad dash of amber fury immediately sliced through the air, a glowing broken blade in his hand emitting a cinder arc slashed at the feathered cloak. However, it never reached him, instead a barrier of squealing eels erupted into flames as several more shot out like javelins aimed at Cairo's chest.

Through the disintegrating eels, Dian could make out the mad smile of the one-eyed shinobi before him as he tried dodging by pivoting back, but still catching some stray jaws to his arms and legs. One even going right at his abdomen.

Immediately, Cairo increased his body temperature to an extraordinary degree, the air around him growing dry and brittle as a crisp sound became apparent. The eels clinging onto him erupting into sparks and embers as they washed away with the wind.

Cairo threw his elbow at the eel shield before jumping back. Midair, he took in a deep breath. The organs inside his body erupting into flames, the air in his lungs heated up to scalding temperatures.

The air leaving his mouth was so hot, it burned everything in the air: dust, moisture, even the oxygen itself—all igniting into a sparks of inferno diving straight into the wall of eels, melting a hole directly into it, right into the man behind it.

A gaping hole churned through the center of man's feather cloak, going right through.

"Screw off."

Cairo landed on the balls of his feet, exhaling the last of his haggard breath. He rubbed his throat. He hated doing that, it left his insides feeling heated for a while.

The light of day all but vanished as night fell. Cairo using his flames as a light while he walked towards the wall of eel, staring at the hole that went right through, right at the man behind. Well it should've been a man.

Instead, a collections of eels filling up the shape of a man stood there with a feather cloak hung over them, slowly withering into the air.

Cairo whipped his head around, looking for where the feathered man had scattered off to. Just then, a wet slimy feeling wrapped around Cairo's legs pulling him into the ground. Above him, an entire batallion of eels came barelling down, dumping all over him.

Dian walked out from behind a wall of debris a couple feet away, his body slightly burned as he leaned against a barrel.

His short stature immediately apparent after the pink fur he had on. A pair of round shades covering his slant eyes were accompanied by a diamond earring in one ear and a hanafuda earring on his other.

"Why would I fight you, honey... My pets can take care of you silly...Well you were kind of underwhelming for the great Stain of Musashi."

At that moment, the mound of eels caught fire, each and every one burning up into a wisp of embers. Something resembling a huge bonfire took place in the midst of scattered debris, a single man climbing out of it. His abdomen slowly spilling out blood from a previous wound.

His voice stained with disdain.

"You really just gon hide?"

Dian's expression shook for a split second as Cairo's face held a devilish grin while he continued:

"How's that any fun?"

In the next second, Cairo threw a burning rock right at Dian, who summoned an eel to take a hit. When his eyes readjusted, Cairo was already in the air, lunging at him.

Dian created a wall of eels, blocking Cairo's attack, but instead of burning it, Cairo jumped off it's edge.

For a second, Cairo spiked his body temperature up. For just a second he let it simmer there before returning to normal. As a result, the water vapor in the air began to condense into a mist of haze, blocking his movements.

Dian flung his head around trying to conjecture where Cairo would appear from. But it was no use, there was no tell.

The one-eyed man emerged from behind Dian, a sharp piece of wood already swinging towards Dian's neck. But in the next second, an eel wrapped itself around Cairo's arm, dragging it to the left a bit.

Cairo immediately increased the temperature of his arm and the blade burning off the eel, but it was too late, he was already steered off course. The smoke blocked his view so he simply followed through, getting ready to repivot and attack.

As he did an uppercut flew through the smoke directly at his chin as several eels began sprouting out and pinning him from each direction.

However. What neither Cairo nor DIan expected was the burning blade drilling right into a barrel of oil.

A blinding flash of white was followed by a deep gutteral boom.

——————————————

The sounds of water dripping from the ceiling was emulsified by the dark silence of the cavernous dungeon. Pale white stone floors etched into the very heart of the mountain into cells held back by a scattering of iron bars.

Naren sat at a corner in a cell that contained nothing but two beds, now bound by iron shackles rather than rope. His golden eyes hindered by a dull red scarf as his thoughts run wild. His ears by now used to the silent muffle of the town plaza above and the beating of hearts from neighboring criminals.

Despite being stowed away in a pitch-black dungeon, he put up no fight in coming here. Instead he was focused on the words of the statue. But moreso on the words of the princess:"Cendrine is dead."

Something about those words struck Naren, but he didn't know why or how?

Cendrine.

Naren gritted his teeth. Just thinking of that named seemed to make his head start beating like crazy.

CLINK...CLANK...

The sounds of rattling chains grew closer to Naren, completely unaware of how the outside enviorment looked.

Through only his hearing, Naren heard two pairs of footsteps, one taking slow and methodical steps while the other bordered on immaturity.

The rattling of chains grew louder and more aggravated until the footsteps stopped in front of their specific cell.

A low childish voice growled:

"It wasn't me! Let me out and bring her back!"

The guard stayed silent at first, letting the child hurl insults at them without any rebuttal. Then they openedthe cell door, throwing the child in before simply walking away leaving no room for rebuttals. As if they were better than the child. Like a human to an ant.

The shackles rattled once more, as a loud thoud resounded — Bone on iron — followed by the ringing of the iron bars and the low hiccups of a sob.

Naren slunk down in his seat, his head already hurting. Yet he didn't let go. There was definitely something about Cendrine that he had to know.

"Yo please don't cry. My heads killing me as is."

The shackles shifted, followed my sniffles.

"I-I wasn't crying."

"Sure."

A strange silence lingered before the child spoke again.

"Did you hear what I said?"

"...I don't care for whatever you did to get put in time out kid. I have my own things to deal with."

"I didn't do it!"

"Sure sure. You didn't steal bread, or skip school or whatever it is you did."

"I really didn't!"

Naren grumbled as his ears stung from the sudden outburst.

"Ok ok. Just stay silent."

"It wasn't me...There's someone else...I was just there because of the fires...There's someone else killing people every night...that thing..."

——————————————

Cairo coughed, his dark clothes could withstand harsh temperatures, but the same wasn't true for his hair. Strands of it's white edges withering and squelching away into damaged fibers.

Through the smoke Cairo could make out a brooding figure reflected a metallic glare while DIan stood behind him.

Cairo stared in awe at what he saw. Theron's body, at least the the bottom parts he could make out were all made of iron.

The sides of Cairo's lips instinctively curled up.

"Two of ya...That's unfair ain't it..."

His broken blade glowed an amber glow as he continued:

"...For you."

Suddenly, Cairo's eyes widened as his mouth shut. Within the smoke a bestial figure rose in the dead of night. Two beading yellow eyes staring at him.

And in it's mouth was the top half of Theron's body.