A group of women gathered in the Japanese style courtyard. The sound metal hitting flesh resonated and yet they smirked with anticipation.
"Stand up turd!" Said a woman as she swung a metal bat at someone. She was tall with long black hair going crimson at the end and dark eyes. Her body a voluptuous hourglass draped in a white pleated pants and red baseball vest.
The young boy stands. His knees buckled. He had crimson hair, matching eyes and pale white skin littered with black areas. "Mom, I'm sorry."
"Don't say sorry, do something turd!" She strikes him. The area turned black. "Do something! Anything!" She released an onslaught of strikes. Each is stronger than the last making leaves sway. His skin darker after each hit. "And stop calling me mom!" She rammed it in his stomach. The gust knocks down the women on the sidelines. He was suspended on her bat. Before he fell, she swung. The bat smashed into his face. He gyrates in the air. She swung once more, smashing into the other side of his face. His head dug into the bricks of the ground, the epicenter of a crater. "Did I say you could die?" Her eyes glowed crimson.
He sat on his legs and bowed. "I'm sorry."
She grits her teeth. "What are you apologizing for?!" Her bat shrouded in red aura, she swung. "Get out of my sight." He flew across the courtyard.
Another woman caught him with her cane. He ricocheted and hits the ground. "How are you feeling grandson?"
He looked up at the short woman with gray hair. Her dark eyes beamed with warmth and serenity. "Grandma." He smiled at the woman draped in a white robe. "I'm okay." He laid there. His skin pitch black.
A brick smashed into his back. "Did I say you could rest? Come clean this shit up." She walked away.
He was on his feet. "Yes ma'am, yes ma'am!" Everyone cringed. He ran off.
"Damn, she was really rough on him today." Said a bystander.
"She even used aura."
"He could have died."
"He should have died! She hits him as hard as she'd do us."
The women glanced at each other. "I don't think she's ever hit any of us that hard."
"He's pretty tough for a male. I don't think I've ever seen a male of our clan take any hits and walk, let alone blows like that."
"I don't think any man could withstand that."
"Yeah Future Clan Leader is pretty amazing huh?"
They nod their heads. "Yeah."
"If only he'd attack and wasn't cursed to be a pacifist like the rest of our clan's men." They sighed, all the while whispering.
He returned with concrete, bricks and a gardening shovel. He laid the bricks. His arms trembled.
Wow, he's such a diligent worker. Thought the women. He looked at them.
"He's pathetic isn't he?"
"Yeah look how he's shaking after a little combat practice."
"Clan Leader wasn't even using a tenth of her strength."
"A disgrace to our clan."
"Useless."
"Aren't all men like that." The women mumbled and walked by.
"He better finish the laundry."
"Has he made dinner yet?"
"The south wall broke again. I tell you, he never fixes anything right."
Heading down, he continued to work. Droplets land on his hand. He wiped his eyes. It's okay, I'm used to this.
"You got cement in your eyes again Kai." The old woman held a bucket and a wet cloth. She wiped his eyes. "Let grandma help while you tell me how the fourth great ninja war is ending." They continue to lay bricks.
Later that day, he pushed a cart around the mansion. "The stars seem brighter tonight. Maybe I'll eat out on the roof tonight."
"Just don't fall asleep out there again Future Clan Leader." Said a woman in a kemono. She had dark hair going crimson at the end and her eyes dark. She stood in the doorway of one of the side houses. "You don't need to give me so much, I can still cook you know."
"I know aunt Kiko, but you've been a Yamaguchi for five years now and it hasn't been that long since uncle died. I thought it'd be better if I made things easier anyway I can..." He rests a pot at her feet.
She glared at him. "And you thought taking over my womanly duties like how you've done for the rest of this family would help?" She slammed her fist. It made a crater in the wall. "I think about him everyday, every night. I long for him every time I breathe. I don't want to eat, sleep, or even live if he's not with me. But I can and it doesn't make sense. I feel all these overwhelming feelings, so much that I shouldn't be able to function as a person, yet I can. I can put all those feelings aside to do what needs to be done and it disgusts me. It's as if I'm not human anymore and the worst part is, I completely accept it, everything. My husband's death, how I feel, how I can still function, how I've lost interest in doing the house work. I don't truly have any regrets. I would have still forced him to propose to me, marry into this family and have my two wonderful daughters." She smiled and watched a little girl toss a baby high into the ceiling as the baby laughed.
He leaves her, headed to the main building in the centre of the property. "Future Clan Leader. Could you hurry up with the food? Your mother is overreacting again." Said a woman's voice. It came from inside.
"Oh no, if aunt Sayuri is searching for me, that means mom's really angry about being late with dinner." He looked at his arms. There were small patches of white on his blackened skin. "And just when my bruises were starting to fade." He sighed.
"Come on nephew, my sister's threatening to break your arms and legs again." Said the same voice.
He flinched rubbing his arms. "Coming-" A hand covered his mouth.
Moments later.
A woman steps out. She had her black hair in a long ponytail going crimson at the end. She wore jeans, a blue tank top and a necktie. She resembled Kai's mother with an hourglass shape but not as tall or voluptuous. "Where are you-" She stops and glanced around. "Huh? Wasn't he just here?" She glanced up. "... whatever, it's dinner time." She brought all the food inside. Everyone waits around a dinning table. There were three seats empty.
"Lieutenant Sayuri, where's the turd?" Glared Kai's mother.
She served dinner. "Why you asking me? And would it kill ya to call me sis at the table?"
She snapped a pair of chopsticks. "Didn't I tell you to go get him?"
"No my dear sister Ren, you said get dinner, and he ain't dinner, this is."
"That's not the point Sayuri." She grits her teeth.
"It actually is-"
"Goddamnit Sayuri, where's my son?!"
"Why don't you ask your other kid?"
"Huh?"
"Your daughter?" She pointed at an empty seat.
She shrugged. "Oh, she must not have felt like eating with us."
"Neglect much?"
"You don't see me telling you how to raise your kids." She points. A girl sits and watched as one of a pair of twin girls bashed the others head into the dinning table.
Sayuri looked back at her sister. "Touché. Hey! I told you two to save that for sparring matches. And you, how could you just sit and watch this happen?" She said to the eldest girl. "At least help the one that's winning to beat the crap out the other so that she learns not to take this laying down." She slammed all three's heads together. "Anyway, aren't you going to call them?"
"No. Let them be." She sighed. Sayuri and Kai's grandmother glanced up.
On the roof, Kai breathed a sigh of relief when the hand was removed. "Nagisa, at least warn me when you're going to do that."
"What? Grab you and jump three storeys in a single leap? That shouldn't have even phased you." Said a girl with her hair covering one eye. It was dark going crimson at the end. She wore a white hoodie and tights.
Kai look down. "You know I'm not like you and the other women in our clan... Because of our cursed blood, the women of our clan are all superhumanly strong and the men are all weak pacifists."
"Yeah I know. All men are useless. If only you could fight."
The trees below swayed along with her hair. Kai shivered. Her hoodie hits him in the face. She glanced at him now in bra and tights. "Thank you." He wore it and hugged his legs. "...it's warm...Why did you bring me up here?"
She forced him against the tiles. "To make use of you. It's the least you could do." She laid on his lap.
His head down, he gulped. "...I know I'm useless and a burden...that I'm weak, a coward and I'll never be as strong as you or mom or grandma or aunt Sayuri and the others, or even an average man. That everyone wished that I would get married and have a girl so the curse would kill me in five years or that you'd take my place as Future Clan Leader. Even so, I don't resent any of you, I still love you all like family-"
"Shut. Up."
"Nagisa, please calm down-"
"Shut up." Her left hand clenched into the tiles.
"Whatever I said to upset you, I'm so-" She clenched his throat with her right. He whizzed.
She tossed. "Shut up!"
"Sorry!"
She leaped and palmed his face. He was dragged out of the sky and over the wall. His head dug into the ground as she ran. A moat in their wake. She tossed him. He crashed through tree trunk after tree trunk and tumbled. She gave pursuit. He crashed into a rock. She lands in his chest. The rock shattered and the earth quaked. "Look at you! I just dragged you through the ground, threw you through six trees and smashed a bolder with your body and your still alive! No broken bones, no internal bleeding, no brain damage, none of that damage even made it past your epidermis!"
She towered over him. His face was covered in black areas. He laid against the rubble. "Do you think that that's nothing?! No other human male can withstand that, especially not one from our clan. You're the toughest man I know if only you'd realized that you're just as powerful as us women and stop being such a weakling!" She stared at him. "Tch. Everytime it's like this. Everytime. You pass out then forget everything tomorrow. Why does this have to happen every time I try to Enlighten you brother?! Why?!" She shrieked. "I don't want to be alone." Droplets streamed down her cheeks.
She wiped her face. "No. Not this again." She stared at her hands going black then grabbed her hair. It was jet black. "Come on, calm down Nagisa, don't blackout, don't blackout. " Wind swirled around her." She floats. "No no no no! Big brother, wake up! Run! Get away from mee EEeEeOoOOOOoOOoO!" She wailed and touched a tree. It withered. She approached Kai. No, stay away! Stay away from my big brother! She stood over him coldly, staring. Her hands reached for him. Get away from him!
___Chapter End___
__Chapter Extra__
She kneeled to him. Kai pats her head. "Hello Dakunagisa. It's been a while since you've come to visit me." The dark skinned Nagisa held her head down for him. "I hope you haven't been giving my little sister too much trouble." He pats her head. "Right Nagisa, I know you're still conscious in there." He stared into her eyes as his hair turned black.
Kai? This doesn't make any sense, you're my gentle big brother, why do you seem like a completely different person? What did you do to the brother I know?
"You're probably surprised as you are confused. It's nothing too complicated, just as you have a dark side that you can't remember, so does your big brother. The only difference between him and you is that your dark side is just an out of control transformation because you suppress your true self and doubt yourself. That transformation will be yours to wield once you fix those. For now I've dubbed this transformation as Dakunagi or Dark Calm. You're like a shounen protagonist now! So cool!" He chuckled.
Your brother's transformation on the other hand, is a case self imposed disassociate identity disorders. Thats a bit of an exaggeration but the facade is so real it feels like I'm watching another person.
My name is Kaizen, the true face of your big brother. Not that you'll remember." His hand shrouded in black aura. He cupped her face.