Chapter 2: Ashen Rain

Yurri takes on the multiple men in a 1 on 10 fight.

The houses continued to smolder even though Yurri has taken out all the fire.  Ashes are flying through the air fluttering in a shimmer of red hot light before becoming grey ash forever.  The remainder of the crops, once in a beautiful gold color, are nothing more than gray corpses of their former selves, wilting and dying.

Yurri points his sword out towards the leader of the group.  Strangely he has his handle facing towards his now opponents as he grabs the sheathed sword by the wrong end.  Seems like a common bad habit of his.  "Now..."  Yurri says shifting his eyes back and forth.  "It probably isn't likely that you are to surrender.... so.... who is first?"

"B.. Boss what should we do?"  The right hand man says to the leader cupping his hand over his mouth to whisper into his ear.  "This kid just got rid of all the fire in the whole village... and we barely even saw him move.  He was way too fast for the eye to see!  Tell us boss..... WHAT DO WE DO?"

The leader of the group whispers back at him.  "We can't use this young kid.  That girl will do good as a slave due to her super strength.  It should just take a couple of weeks for her to be broken in. But this kid..... THIS KID... is far too dangerous.  We have no use for him at all.  He will just ruin the whole operation."

The leader points his finger straight at Yurri guiding his men with full seriousness in his bloodshot eyes screaming at the top of his lungs.  "KILL HIM!  CUT THIS LITTLE S**T DOWN!"

The men with swords charge at Yurri full force launching themselves with their feet leaving only a dust cloud behind them.  "KILL HIM TILL HE'S DEAD!  THEN GRAB THE GIRL!"

Yurri puts his sword horizontally once more grasping his hands on the sheathe of the sword as the men charge closer and closer to him raising their own swords to the sky.  The leader puts his thumb from up into the rising ashy sky then flipping it straight down spitting to the side on the ground then sticking his tongue out with a twisted menacing face.  "Then cut off his head for good measure hahahaha.  Make it extra messy!"

Two of the men come on either side of Yurri, charging in a burst, putting him into the middle as they swing their swords.  Yurri leans back and narrowly dodges the scissor of swords, only allowing them to cut a few of his red hairs which flowed into the smoldering houses and burned.  Using the blunt ends of the sheathe he jabs the two in the stomach at blinding speeds appearing so fast that it appears as if he hit them both at the same time to the naked eye.

The two men get knocked into the smoldering ash of the remains of some barns, burning their clothing as well as their bodies as they scream out loud.  Another man sneaks up and approaches from behind.  Leaping into the air he swings downward from the sky.  Yurri calmly shifts his body letting the curved sword slip past him, getting stuck in the ground, and turns his body around to do a round house kick right to the guys face causing a flow of blood to come from his mouth.  One after another the swordsmen fell and fell to the hands of Yurri leaving only the gunman left.

The leader takes a gun from one of his grunts and kicks him aside knocking him to the ground.  "I'll do the damn thing myself!"  Bullet after bullet he shoots towards Yurri his aim shaking and being horribly inaccurate with the trembling of his hand.  Yurri just swings his sword once in a while deflecting the bullets occasionally to his left and right.  Eventually he gets right up the leader and looks up at him with fury in his eyes.

The man starts to laugh uncontrollably putting his hand on to his forehead.  "Hahaha." laughing at first softly.  "Ahahaha!"  Laughing even louder this time.  He pulls the pistol right to Yurri's head, the metal barrel pressing against his skull.  Yurri is unflinching pushing his head further against the metal barrel himself.  The leaders eyes widen menacingly.  "I win.  Any last words before I splatter your brains all over?"

Yurri closes his eyes.  "Me?  I have only one thing to say to the likes of you."  The guy pulls the trigger only to hear a clicking sound of an empty chamber.  He pulls the trigger many times more, just click after click of nothing.  Yurri smiles with his eyes closed towards the man.  "You're very bad at counting."

Shock comes to the mans face as he finally looks around to see what had happened while he wasn't paying attention.  All of his gunmen have been knocked out when he was distracted.  "When... when did this happen?  Haaa."  Without a struggle he is on the ground, Yurri crouched over him using his feet to hold down the guys hands.  The pressure forcing him to drop the gun from his hand from the sharp pain.

The man is panicking as Yurri reaches into the back of his pockets from his cloak.  "He.. He's probably going to kill me right now!"  The leader can only see something shiny in Yurri's hand,  glinting from the smoldering ash around him.  The man closes his eyes, tearing up like a large man child.

"P... PLEASE DON'T KILL ME."  The man spits a little as he yells in complete anguish.  "I am only following orders... please don't do it!"

Yurri just slaps him across the face with the metal scroll he pulled out from the back of his pocket.  Grasping with his finger and thumb he pulls down the spring loaded scroll from its metal container pushing the image towards the leaders face. 

"Would you happen to work for this man?"  The leader refuses to say anything trying to avoid eye contact with the scroll while grunting.  Yurri uses his other hand to grab the guys face, squeezing his cheeks together, forcing him to look at it.  Yurri with a menacing look in his eye makes the man scared once more.  All the man can see is cold dead hatred in his eyes.

Yurri finally gives a big grin almost laughing a bit at his own amusement.  "Hey gonna only ask you one more time."  Then makes a serious face glaring deep into the mans eyes.  " This man is Gaaron the slave baron and is wanted across the entire country.  I already know you guys are slave traders who are the under under underlings of him.  Been tracking you for about a week.  Sooo... tell me.... where should I find this man? Hmmm?"

The leader spits in Yurri's face as Yurri calmly wipes it off.  The man face continues to sweat, eyes themselves shaking as he speaks towards Yurri.  "I'm not going to tell you s**t kid.  D... Doesn't matter if I..."  His mouth gets covered by Yurri's hand as he slaps it over the mans mouth to shut him up.

"Fine.  Be that way."  Yurri reels back and punches the guy in the face so hard that it almost breaks his hand.  Several teeth go flying and blood sprays from the guys mouth as he is knocked completely out.

Yurri gets up and laughs putting his hand behind his head.  "Haha back to square one I guess."  He rolls up the scroll and puts it back into his pocket.  Feeling something pulling on his lower coat tugging away at it he turns to see Ashia barely conscious.  

Ashia asks while still being out of it.  "Where.... where are they?"  Yurri catches her before she hits the ground again and lifts her on his back carrying her.  She is now letting out sighs as she sleeps.  Yurri thinks to himself.  "She is much easier to manage when she is not talking."

Yurri sighs once as well.  "What the hell am I going to do with you now?"  Yurri takes a look at his surroundings into the distance.  He nods a certain direction while speaking to himself.  "Guess I'll make camp on that hill."  Yurri takes step by step heading towards his destination.  His face starts to sweat almost immediately.  "Your way frickin heavier than I thought."

Later Ashia slowly comes too after being out for many hours.  She opens her eyes a little bit and starts to blink.  The sun so bright all she can see is white for the first few minutes.  Finally she sits upright and rubs her eyes.  She looks over to a nearby tree were Yurri is leaning up against it looking away from her into the distance.

The sun is hot and the cicada's are buzzing very loudly.  Yurri speaks first, still not look at her, in a very calm reassuring voice.  "They're not dead you know.  Everyone from your village is still alive and well for now."

Ashia fully awakes and charges towards Yurri grabbing him and turning him around.  She lifts him up and slams him against the tree making the tree rattle as his back hits the bark.  "Ow ow ow."  Yurri cries in pain not from the slam but previous wounds from the fit earlier.

Ashia with a serious face yells as it echoes through the valleys.  Tears fly out as she yells.  "THEN WHERE THE HELL ARE THEY?"  Silence fills the valleys.  Even the cicadas have stopped making their buzzing sound.

Yurri looks to avoid eye contact.  "Well they were taken by..."  Then he whispers under his breathe.  "Slave traders."  Ashia's eyes goes wide and start to water up.  She looks into the distance and lets go of Yurri drop him on his butt.  Yurri rubs his sore a*s.

She crouches down covering her head letting occasional tears hit the ground between here legs, soaking into the ground before being sucked up and dry again.  Yurri rests his sword at her feet.  "Listen..... I'm sorry for your village but your village is not gone."

Ashia pops her head up angrily and sad.  "What the hell do you know.  YOU DON'T KNOW AT ALL WHAT I FEEL!"  She gets up and starts to weakly punch at his chest.  "YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING.  WHO THE HELL ARE YOU ANYWAY?  WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?!"

Yurri grabs her arms one after another to stop her from hitting him.  He then pulls her arms to her sides and pats her on the head despite that she is slightly taller than him.  Leaning down he picks up his sword.  

Yurri looks down throwing his sword over his shoulder and pulling his hood over his eyes.  "I have to go.  There is a weeks worth of food behind this tree.  If you head north from here you will reach another small village in about 3 days time."

Yurri starts taking his walk away from her.  "Wait..."  She Whispers.  Yurri doesn't stop walking.  "Please.... Wait..."  She whispers some more.  Yurri ignores her even more.  Ashia fills her lungs with air.  "MY NAME IS ASHIA PLEASE... TAKE ME WITH YOU!"

Yurri stops and uses one foot to pivot and turn around with a huge grin on his face.  "About time.... Nice to meet you Ashia."  Several hours later and after Ashia ate massive amounts of food and has finally calmed down from the shock she starts to ask questions.

"So Yurri..."

"Hmmm?  Yesssss?"

"What were you even doing in that forest anyway.  Well I know you were sleeping but that can't be the only reason you were there."

Yurri from a sitting position kicks off his legs to a standing one.  He grabs the scroll from his back pocket and tosses it towards Ashia.  She fumbles a bit while catching it almost dropping it before settling in her hands.  She opens the scroll to see a bounty poster.  "What's this?"

Yurri sits back down against the tree and rubs the back of his head laughing.  "Well It's a bounty poster stupid."

Ashia gets all huffy.  "Well I know that.  Ugggh guess I should of asked who is this then... jerk."

"Oooooh.  Well that's Gaaron.  Let me explain.  There is a large slave trade happening in this country right now... so this guy..."  He grabs the scroll out of her hand and holds it against the tree.  Pulling a knife out of his pocket he stabs it into the scroll pinning it into the tree for full view for her.  "He has a large bounty on his head and Is the complete mastermind of this slave trade.  He is Gaaron the slave baron."

Yurri pulls the knife back out and catches the scroll in his hand as the scroll retracts automatically back into its metal case.  "I plan to collect on his 5 million shell bounty."

He looks back over at Ashia as she is giving him a glare.  "So this is all just for money is it.......?"

Yurri starts to sweat.  "we... well that is not completely the reason.  Just one of them hehe."

Ashia crosses her arms and closes her eye giving a prissy stance.  "Fine then I shall invite myself along.  It's much better if I use you to find my family then to do it on my own."

Yurri wave his hand up and down.  "Ya ya whatever angry girl just don't slow me down or I'll just leave you behind."  He starts to walk off heading east putting one hand into his pocket and the other with his sword over his shoulder.  

Ashia still standing there finally realizing that Yurri Is already far away into the distance.  "Hey...."  She out reaches her hand starting to panic.  She stomps her foot.  "Wait for me you ginger perv!  I'm not done talking to you!  HEY!"