Trial Of Yoshimune

Chapter 26 Decisions

"Why do you fight, human? Why do you get up over and over again?" Yoshimune questioned the woman in front of him. Woman whose Japanese features were accompanied by a platinum blonde hair, and who was slowly raising to her feet whilst using a long stick to help her. Her grey eyes were locked with his, those fiery eyes that had been filled with fire of hatred and anger, eyes that demanded from him. "Return my daughter", she hissed like an angry snake, dirt and mud colouring her clothes as she'd fallen over and over again. The yokai stared at her, but wouldn't comply, he had no qualms to.

"You failed. I gave you my trial and you failed to meet up with the standards. You won't get her back, you won't see her", with this the redhead turned around and walked away, the cold wind howling and carrying the screams of the woman along with it. He passed the priest, who only looked at the wall of the shrine, looking for a fresh paint, acting as if he couldn't see what was happening. The woman would rage for a while before she'd be calm again and once she calmed, she would need the priest to wrap her in a blanket and help her to grieve.

"Your trial for her wasn't fair Yoshimune-dono", elder Hibari, Toshiro, muttered under his breath, only heard by the yokai with the ears of a canine. The yokai hummed to himself, accepted the sacrifice left on his smooth rock throne by a mother in wait of her son to be born. "The infant would've died had I not interfered, young Toshiro", he remarked and the mortal remained silent. Fully knowing what he meant. It was true blasphemy, the treatment of the infant that was inflicted upon her by her mother. The infant would remember it due to her now being subjected to the ki of the spirits. Too young, too young. Her mother hadn't understood, hadn't realised, a healthy baby is one that's on the rounder side and thus shouldn't be starved. Nowadays, the Asian culture put too much weight on one's weight and even more looks, but they couldn't be blamed. They'd seen how the other countries became obscene by their weight, had learned it to be bad. Took precaution. But went over board. A human mistake. Yoshimune glanced at the infant, baby Yui, whose serious eyes gkew blue and instantly saw what was to come.

Yui wouldn't return to the mortal realm, she'd stay in the Isekai.

"Father", the voice of a young woman sounded like snow music to the ear of its listener. Yoshimune glanced to her direction, seeing his eldest daughter, Yui, carrying a child on her arms. A baby girl. Her eyes were serious as the wind blew through her short blonde hair, hair that had recently started to turn platinum light. When standing next to Ieyasu, one could easily mistake her to be his blood, so similar were they by their facial structure. The yokai sensed that there was something that his child wanted from him, so his attention was transferred fully to her. "Daughter."
It wasn't a question, not really, but a statement permitting her to continue to speak, to voice her thoughts. She hesitated, only a little, and then, she spoke.

"I'd like to raise this child, my niece, together with Muzaka", her voice carried over to the ears of the man, whose glowing darted towards the clearing, where the oni stood unsure of himself and whether the ruler of the land would allow him closer. The royalty of the yokai kin was known for their protectiveness over their children, especially Ookami and Inugami, Yoshimune being the previous by the powers bestowed upon him by Tsukuyomi.

As Muzaka kept staring, he saw how the Lord raised his hand, beckoning him to come closer. But was it a sign of his good will or his deathly unforgiving nature? Sure, the older yokai had calmed down a lot from his previous day's of slaughtering any mortal who dared to hurt any child that lived on his lands, but he was still a fearsome opponent and no man, alive nor dead, dared to race against him unless they were placed in the face of a trial.

The trials, Yoshimune's Trials, they were hard to win, and many of them had been rigged by the spirits to ensure the mortal loosing the right to be in the presence of their child. They were cruel, they were unnoticeable, they were mostly unbeatable, but then again... Usually the real monsters, the mortals who'd abuse their own kin, didn't deserve such thing as mercy, didn't deserve to be in the presence of any spirit nor another human. According to the cruelty of the human about to be tested, and the weight of their crime against the child, the game turned crueler and crueler.

But how would this game turn out to be? How would the glowing entities respond to the bloodiest mafia taking them on for the right to meet Tsunayoshi again? The main contestants were a delusional mother and an absentee mafioso of a father and the formerly cursed man who had assumed the role of a parent despite of not knowing how he was to be like.

Another one to be tested was the old Don, who had sealed away Tsunayoshi's potential at a young age, the leader of the vultures dressed in the loin of a lion. Raizel was currently testing him and from what Muzaka's friend had told, he was so far clearing things up pretty nicely, if not with an unexpected manner.

The boy's friends had taken up to themselves to climb up to the shrine everyday to tell him how things were going and what he'd missed, Ryoma was usually there to take the notes from the girl with an eyepatch, Chrome as they called her, and to relay messages in his own odd way. The cat was truly a mischievous one, but he liked his lover's son's pack. He'd spend a lot of time following each of them, mainly the Sasagawa siblings who gave off a familiar aura.

Muzaka was snapped back to the reality by his mate, the beautiful Yui, hugging him happily as the infant on her arms drooled onto his shirt. So... He was allowed to be with Yui and raise the baby? Seriously?

Lord Yoshimune gave the Japanese demon a pointed look, of course there'd be some rules for him to obey. The Lord was well known for his strict rules to those who wished to marry someone who had been claimed as his. Didn't matter if it was a daughter or a son, the rules were always laid out.

First rule was simple, one must protect the one they'd tie a knot with.

Second was harder, it was to respect the mate and not raise hand against them.

Usually the second rule was very hard to obey by the spirits, as they kept forgetting that despite of them living amongst the spirits for the longest time, humans were still fragile like glass and broke easily.

Muzaka notised the different glint in the eye of the deity of the land. His brows furrowed in confusion before shooting up in surprise. Yoshimune spoke.

"I've been thinking of the trial I am to place for the Sawada", his soft voice rung on the courtyard, bouncing from every stone and wall, eventually coming back to them. Yui looked at her father, her light blue dress flowing in the wind as the flowers of the late spring took a flight.

"What do you have in mind father?"

The infant on Yui's arms cooed, her tiny hands reaching out to touch the long red hair of her unofficial grandfather as the male himself kept staring towards Tsunayoshi, who was now being introduced to the closest friends of his older brother. The boy reeked of confusion and every now and then made a tiny "Hiee" - sound to express the emotions he was under. Golden eyes narrowed ever so slightly at the happenings as their holder wondered how that verbal tick came to be.

"It depends on Tsunayoshi whether or not I will go through with my idea or not, he was the one wronged Yui, not me."

Yui sighed to his answer, of course the old man would dodge the question with something like consent. Wasn't even sure if he had registered the question.

"If you say so father".