Death in the Family (OPEN)

Death in the family, was always a trying time. It tests the best of us... and also, the worst of us. If there was nothing left for us to bond to, death would still remain as a constant between all people of all creeds and loyalties.

Death is not so often a personal matter, as we often believe. Rather, it is a matter of community among kin. The sadness you feel for their loss, if you are distant, can feel detached, separate for the one passing on into the spirit world, and more as empathy to those closest to them. Sorrow, is a kind of comfort.

Misery, is a kind of hell.

When death happens next to your heart, it skips. You think to yourself, "No...". You bid the world to stop its constant revolutions, and yell, "No...". That's when you realize how that detached sorrow of the world feels when it is turned against you... making what should be empathy... into misery.

Riniri knew misery personally. He was often the cause of it. Today however, was different. Today he looked misery in the face, and told it to go to hell.

A family here, in this town "Kiyosu', recently suffered from a random murder of one of their most respected elders. A kind man, who lived a long and fulfilled life working for the community, giving back all that had been given to him as a boy. The luck to survive the wars of the past and to start his own family.

Their personal misery drew him to them... and working off of their rage and outcry, offered to help alleviate their misery by bringing the killer to justice.

"This is where he died?" Riniri spoke as he observed the room with a meticulous but monotone stare. The woman did not enter the room when she opened the door, and assuming she would not enter it for the grief it cause her, he stepped in unperturbed. He would go where they could never tread.

"Yes." She said simply. The bed was soaked crimson, sheets pushed to the side so as to allow inspectors like himself to see. His eyes moved toward the window.

"Do you know how the killer got in."

"Yes... through the window we believe. My boy... his Grandson was, first to find him as it was happening. He saw nothing of the killer so far as we know." She paused a moment, "He hasn't talked much since."

"Is he here?" Riniri asked as he walked with a deliberate slowness to the window, looking down into the streets. They were at least three stories up. It was a bender. Had to be, only way they could escape so fast, especially considering it was highly unlikely some actual assassin came in here for some old man. Assassins don't kill helpless nobodies, so had to have been a bender.

"No, he's at school. He couldn't stand to be in this house right now..." The Mercenary nodded, and then turned away from the window towards the woman.

"That's all the questions I have for you." Brushing past the grieving daughter, like a cold unfeeling shade, Riniri found his way through the household, and exited onto the mostly empty streets.

The moon is a thing of wonder. It feeds the water benders power, it controls the tides, and it comforts the tribal members who believe that the moon spirit watches over them. The full moon has to be by far the best phase. It's so clear and bright, but it isn't blinding like the sun. You can feel its radiance. And its power.

For Yami, that wasn't a good thing.

Last night had been a full moon, so naturally, Kokuo had decided it was her turn for control of the adolescent's body. Yami didn't even know the full moon was coming. One minute she's sitting in a chapel, an elder telling her a story, and the next thing she knew, she was lying in a heap of leaves, blood covering her body. She could only guess that it meant she had killed somebody and, with the elder being the only other person in the room, it would have been him. The rumors she heard in the town the next day confirmed her suspicions.

Luckily, Kiyosu was a large town, more of a city. The murder of one elder might draw the attention of those who were close to him, but in a place like this, there were plenty of others. Yami tried to blend in with the crowd at the market, tried to not appear as though she were guilty of murder. Her hands, tinted a slight red, would be a dead giveaway, and she vowed to keep them in her pockets as long as she could. All she needed was food, and then she could leave this city and never return.

Riniri leaned against a shop building, looking away from the crowd but watching it all the same. Smoke rose from his lips as he removed a self-lit cigarette from his mouth.

He had been standing here all morning since leaving the murdered elders residence, waiting for the boy to the time the boy would be home to talk. In the meantime, he observed the flow of the city-like town, searching for unusual activities or behaviors. He didn't expect anything out of it, he rarely expected much of anything from simple observation.

Every once in awhile though, he spots one person or another who just doesn't mesh with general flow of the people who lived here. Those who were out of their place, and thus followed the path of others, trying to mesh into something they weren't apart of. A community like this was a living breathing organism... it had patterns you could notice if you simply dedicated yourself to watching long enough. Sometimes there were outliers diverging from their paths, but more often than not those outliers eventually fall back in line with a natural predilection.

Then there were the outliers, who changed with an artificial inclination. The disease's in town that needed to be purged. At the corner of his eye now, he could spot one. It wasn't often a stranger was in so remote a town (though it was large), unless on extreme circumstance, like his own.

They were wandering over to a food shop, and that's when Riniri decided to investigate. An outlier only buys food for three reasons:

1. They recently traveled here and need to restock
2. They are planning on staying here longer than a few days, and must resupply.
3. They are preparing to leave with what they can stock with.

He was about to find out which one of those this person fell under, and then decide whether or not they are worth the remainder of his attention until he further questioned the family about what they saw. Removing the cigarette from his lips once more and tossing it to the ground, he approached from directly behind the figure. He tapped their shoulder.

"You new here." His unaffected voice questioned them, in such a way that would make it likely that a liar would agree with him in order to get him out of their hair. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. If they weren't who they said they were, and say, they agreed to his remark, and they started to leave... it would raise questions. He found that those under stress often lied by accepting a convenient assumption. There were smart liars however, people who could keep their cool when given a forceful suggestion probing their honesty. They were harder to pick out, but sometimes he had to trust his gut on his first impression of someone.

Yami couldn't help feeling like there was somebody watching her. But this marketplace was so dang crowded, she couldn't see if that were true or not. Heck, she barely managed to stay on her feet as she was shoved right and left. She looked around at the faces in the crowd. She made eye contact with a man who appeared to be in his early thirties. He winked at her. She shook her head. Not him. She spied an old woman by the side of the road who kept getting kicked and scoffed at. She had an old hat in front of her and a sign next to her that read, in barely readable writing: "It's a beautiful day today, and I can't see it." Yami looked at her with alarm. Upon closer inspection, the woman's eyes were a faded gray color rather than the brighter colors usually seen. She was blind.

Yami couldn't help it. She had always had a soft spot for those in need, and this woman was worse off than she was. And she had it pretty rough. She walked over to the woman, shoving her way through the crowds, and knelt next to her. Yami checked her wallet. Three gold pieces. She almost cursed. I need to find a way to get some extra cash, she thought. Smiling, she dumped the contents into the hat. The woman, hearing the sound of coins, reached for the hat and inside. Then she reached up and touched Yami's face. "Your face...it's soft and young...such a kind youth. Thank you, and may the spirits bless you."

Yami smiled in return. "Anything I can do to help those in need." She stood and walked back into the crowd. Great. Now she didn't have money for food. She mentally kicked herself. Me and my big heart... she thought. Her grim expression changed to one of curiosity. Again, she felt as though she were being watched. It couldn't be the woman; she couldn't see a thing. So who was watching her?

Suddenly, a cold hand gripped her shoulder. Her heart froze in her chest. Oh gosh, please don't let it be the cops... Whoever had placed their hand on her spoke, asking if she was new to the village. She was scared to turn around. The voice was deep and guttural, almost commanding. Finally, she turned around, hoping her hesitation wouldn't raise suspicion.

She found herself face to face with a man who looked to be in his twenties. He had a few scars on his face, though one long, deep one stood out among the others. His hair was unkempt, like he didn't care enough to keep it nice. The rest of his body was covered in black clothing, a cape trailing behind him, blowing slightly in the breeze. One of his eyes resembled those of the old woman, while the other was a deep black, brought out by the dark clothing. Everything about him seemed dark. His gloved hand was still on Yami's shoulder. She had to think of a response, and fast.

"Oh, i'm just a traveler. I needed to stop by this town to restock on food." It was the truth. That was the whole reason she had come to this Kiyosu in the first place. Also the fact that she was extremely directionally challenged. She wanted to smile, to seem innocent of any kind of crime, but the man's eyes bore deeply into hers. She felt as though he was reading her like an open book. His cold stare kept her still. She knew she couldn't run. Running would only arouse suspicion. All she could do was pray that he believed her.

Praying seemed to work.

It was just a girl, donating what he deduced all she had to an old blind woman. Fair skinned, penetrating blue eyes, and very young to be a traveler. Beautiful by any standard... but beauty had long been ripped from his heart. His brows furrowed slightly. There was something she was hiding.

"Awfully young, aren't you." He said with a  soft and quiet grunt, before his eyes glanced to the old woman far off in the crowd. "I couldn't help but notice your charity to that old woman. Are your parents around by any chance? Surely you aren't travelling alone. I would like to congratulate them on a fine job raising such a well standing citizen of the community."

His mind said that there was nothing wrong with this girl, that he had no business spending all morning gazing at a child. All the worse, physically cornering her. Obviously there was no true malevolent intention, only curiosity in something he perceived as out of place. Though he wasn't the friendliest of appearances to witness grasping your shoulder, there was nothing wrong with meeting a new comer.

His gut told him otherwise.

The girls story however, might sway the tide of his impression of her.

Yami relaxed a little. The man was just impressed with her show of generosity toward the old woman. It didn't seem like a big deal to her, but she realized that seeing a youth give everything to a homeless person might seem, well, good. She smiled at his response, but her smile soon faded. He started talking about her parents, asking to meet them. It was a bit of a touchy subject, even after ten years of loneliness. Still, she had to answer his question.

After hesitating, she carefully responded "They...they aren't here...not anymore. They've been gone for years. It's just been me since I was a kid." Deeming her response sufficient, she stopped there. Yet the look in his eyes still caught her off guard. He wanted more, her story. And unless he took his hand off of her shoulder, there was no way she was going to get out of telling it. She braced herself for the wave of emotion that would follow.

"I was six. I lived in a small village someone in the Vermilion Empire called the Village of Peace. Things...well, things weren't happy for us. My father was a drunk. I feared him from a very young age. He would beat me. So I hid. But me disappearing wasn't sufficient. He started taking out his anger on my mother. So I started choosing to be beaten, anything to stop from seeing the look of my mother's heart shattering each time he hit her. What he was angry about, I wouldn't learn for years after he was killed. Needless to say, when he was drunk, he was angry, and he was almost always drunk.

"This, of course, led to him losing his job. With no money, he couldn't drink. He was at least sensible enough to accept this fact. But rather than look for a new job, he just...walked into the forest. But too many legends surround the forest that bordered our village. Most of them surround the fact that many who enter the forest don't leave, with a few exceptions. They say that the strongest of men have returned, but they were forever changed. I would soon see what that meant.

"He came back. I was happy to see him walk through the door, but that happiness soon turned to terror. He drew his sword, and..." Yami paused, taking a deep breath to keep herself from breaking down. "He cut her down. My mother, I mean. One moment she was full of joy, ready to see her husband, whom she had loved even after all he had done to her, and the next, her face was masked with terror.

"I ran. I ran to my bedroom and locked the door." This was where Yami knew she had to change the story, stretch it a little. The fact that in fact she had been responsible for her father's death would raise too many questions. After all, someone with a spirit sealed in their body tends to need to keep their secrets. "He broke the door down. Then..." she hesitated, trying to find the right filler. "A rabid platypus bear, who had followed him out of the forest, crashed through my wall and killed him on the spot. I didn't stick around to see if it would do the same to me. I took to the streets, leaving that village behind to spend the next ten years of my life as a wanderer, alone. I vowed that day never to let anyone feel the same pain and hurt I did if I could prevent it. Nobody raised me to be the way I am. I made that choice a long time ago."

Yami felt tears threatening behind her eyes, but she couldn't let them fall. Not in front of someone who looked like he could kill her at any given moment.

Over four hundred words poured out into the air when Riniri expected no more than twenty. His brows softened when she mentioned that her parents were gone, his eyes locked with hers, and he froze for a moment. His hand still clutched her shoulder, and clutched just so slightly tighter in his own pain. He was about to release her, to bow in apology.

Yet the girl without second thought, told him the truth, as much as she could handle. More than he ever could. He stood there captivated, his features changing from inquisitive monotone, to that of confused empathy. A kindling of emotion flittered in his body... but by the end of her story, he was no longer holding on to her, and the spark shuttered. He could not tell a lie from truth when there was so much to convince him... but the platypus bear caught him only slightly off guard. That hadn't been the ending he was expecting... and decided to be glad the girl remained untouched by patricide, like...

Riniri stepped away from the girl, a circle formed around them within the crowd, as some passerby's became curious about the man and the girl. Slowly, Riniri brought his fists together, and dropped his head deeply towards the girl.

"Forgive me, child. I meant no disrespect towards you, I... I made an assumption of you. You have far more bravery than I. I do not share your courage to dispel, so much so soon to a stranger, my own... story." He rose from his bow with a softened face, one that showed true regret.

"Why are you bothering that girl?" A woman - the blind one - stepped through the crowd. She had heard the conversation. She seemed angry... or merely upset. The other faces the paused in the street were fixed upon him. "Are you alright dear?" The woman searched for Yami, to feel her once again.

"Please, come with me, I must heal the wounds I opened for you. Let me help you in some way." He outstretched his hand, to accept hers. His face pleaded for her to accept it with one of her own...

Yami held a hand up, looking around at the crowd. She didn't know why, but somehow, she felt like she should trust this man, or at least get him out of this awkward situation. "Don't worry, folks. He's...an old family friend. I've known him for years. We were just reuniting." The old woman looked skeptical. She trusted Yami, and didn't want the kind girl to get hurt. Yami grabbed the woman's hand. "I'm fine. I trust him, so you can too, alright?" Finally, the woman nodded and trudged back to her spot.

Yami smiled and took them man's hand. He wanted to help? She was hungry. But she couldn't just ask for money in public, not with everyone watching them. She stood on her toes and whispered in his ear "meet me at the Red Monkey Inn. We can talk there." She smiled to appear as though she knew him. "It was good to see you again!" She called before running off. As soon as she was away from the marketplace, the smile faded. "I hate acting, I really do. Lying, fine. I can do it. But trying to be believable and bring a random stranger into it? Nope." You really should stop talking to yourself. It's...rather strange, if you ask me. Yami gave an exasperated sigh.

Well, you're talking to me, and i'm you, so technically you are also talking to yourself, she thought, communicating with Kokuo, the 5-tailed spirit within her body. The spirit went silent again as Yami made her way to the inn. It took about ten minutes for her to realize that she was lost. Again. She wanted to bang her head on something, but, maintaining face, asked for directions instead. Of course, she was on the wrong side of the city. It took another half an hour to get to the inn. She walked in and looked around for the man and, not seeing him, sat down at an empty table and took out a book.

She failed to conceal her hands.

Grasping his own, her hand caused his eye to quaver ever so slightly in apprehension, for reasons he could not yet explain. She let loose her lie, and now he was shocked with her audacity to lie so easily. As her hand unclasped from his own, and she let loose into the crowd. Only moments ago she seemed on the verge of tears... and now she left him so soon behind. The voice of his gut returned, and it beckoned him to look to his own hand: a red residue was left behind, and a deep set frown crawled across his face.

"Liar." He growled quietly under his breathe when she was gone, before he whipped around and walked to the school. He had a suspicion he needed ample evidence for, to confirm.


"Excuse me Ms.." He quietly lumbered to the edge of a classroom door, after receiving admittance from the Headmaster. Obviously he was going to meet the girl at Red Monkey Inn, but she could wait a short time.

Once he got the teacher's attention, he summoned the boy. "I apologize for this interruption Ms., but it is of utmost importance to the two of us, and his family. I will return him in but a moment." He kneeled down to the child's eye level. "Continue with your class."

There was a silence between them for some time, each one looking into the other's eyes... the boy looking to his deformed and scarred eye. There was no fear between them, but the apprehension was palpable.

"I understand your pain." He paused, "You may grieve in anyway that you wish, including the silence that you have imposed upon yourself." The boy continued to maintain that silence. "You know who I'm looking for... and if what your mother says is true, you were the only one to catch a glimpse of what actually happened." At this moment he pressed forward towards the boy, prompting him to take a step back.

"I need you to tell me everything you know..." Another pause filled with silence, "... or you will be the reason more of your elders die. If you love them... tell me what you saw."


Smoke rising from his lips, Riniri stepped in front of the Inn. His visit to the school took about as long as he expected it to, and now he was back to meet with the red handed girl.

Entering the Inn, his eyes scanned either side of the room, and those cruel looking eyes eventually settled upon the book wormed stranger. With a deliberate slowness, he paced his way to her empty table, and scrapped the chair back against the floor, to sit down. He didn't say anything for a moment, but quickly spoke before she could.

"Why did you lie?"

Yami smiled as the man came in, hoping for their reunion to be a happy one between two friends. After all, she didn't have many friends, and she rather enjoyed being able to make new ones. But the look on his face instantly made her smile fade away. He was angry, and that anger was clearly directed at her. He walked over slowly, the tension in the room rising. Patrons turned to look at what was going on, their conversations all falling silent as they watched the man clad in black approached an innocent-looking girl. He finally reached the table, sitting down. Yami was about to ask what the matter was, but he spoke first.

"Why did you lie?" He voice held none of the same softness he had heard in the marketplace. Every word he said dripped with his deep anger towards her. A quick look at his hands told Yami why he was accusing her. There, on his right hand, was a faint red mark, the red of blood, a red resembling the stains on both of her hands. She blanched. He knew. He knew what she had done, and there was no way to get out of it now.

Yami tried to find the right words to say, anything to ease the tension in the air. But nothing came to her. She could only stare into his eyes, fighting back tears. Would he kill her? Would he do...something else? She wasn't one to be scared easily, but this man clearly had the ability to do whatever he wanted to her. She felt Kokuo's power rising, an annoying effect that occurred whenever her emotions got too far out of balance. Nothing was too visible yet, aside from a change in her eyes. She could feel it, her eyes beginning to be spotted with flecks of white among the blue, and the pupil narrowed slightly. She was genuinely afraid.

Say something, you idiot! Don't force me to do what I know you don't want me to do! Kokuo's voice was filled with panic. Finally, Yami opened her mouth, her chin quivering. "I d-d-didn't lie. E-every word I said was true..." She fought against the claws that threatened to protrude from her fingertips. Her panic wasn't just related to the man sitting in front of her, looking deep into her soul. She suddenly realized that if this conversation were to continue, innocent people might get hurt, again. She had to maintain control.

"The blood...I...I can' explain...just please, not here...c-can we go somewhere private?" The innkeeper, who had been watching intently, threw a key onto their table. "Free of charge. Now get out of my lobby, you're both scaring people." Yami couldn't move to pick up the key. She felt frozen in place, locked into her seat by the man's stare. She desperately hoped that he would be willing to listen.