A Samurai's Honor

Chapter 2 Influence

Sophie's dreams were not as they usually were, she was tossing and turning throughout the night. In her head voices kept screaming at her, you're just dead weight, you are just a waste of time, you are a burden for being a little kid, you aren't ready for a mission like this, you are weak, you can't keep up with the rest of them. Echoed throughout her skull causing tears to well up in her eyes as she slept. The voices were of her friends the people she travels with, but worst of all was what her dream shifted to later into the night. Her eyes snapped open, but she wasn't in the tent anymore, she was in her old room except something was off. Everything was dusty and falling apart. Slowly she moved her way out of bed and towards the door but she couldn't shake the feeling that something was off. 

She walked through the halls of her home, though the shadows seemed to be alive and the walls and ceilings only seemed to get bigger as she walked. Knocking on the door to her parent's room the door slowly creaked open. As the crack in the door opened Sophie seemed to shrink further down. Suddenly her parents spilled out of the door falling atop her motionless. Sophie shuddered as she moved her hand revealing blood running down her fingers and arm. Words made of flames sprung to life in front of Sophie's vision as a hissing voice spoke them to her ear. "YOU KILLED THEM," Sophie scrambled away from the flaming words that only seemed to get bigger taking up more and more space and burning everything they touched including the corpses of her parents. 

Tears rolled down her face as liberally as rain in a hurricane. As she ran, she ran like the wind knocking through doors as she tried to wipe away her tears. "No- No I didn't," she cried as she ran. Soon enough she made it out of the house only to trip and fall out the front door falling into a pool of blood. As she turned to get one last look at the house she saw it burst up in flames. And with a loud snap, the front of the house began to creep forward over her. Like an animal about to swallow a small prey whole, with a loud thwop, the front piece of the house fell atop her. When Sophie woke up in her cot she was breathing heavy and sweat was pouring down her face she was shaking like a leaf. She glanced to her left and saw the folded-up ouija board she cherished so much and took in a deep breath.

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Hikari's eyes metaphorically snap open as he regains consciousness in the middle of the night. He shouldn't have fallen asleep at night something was very off. He moved his focus around the camp his 360-degree blindsight allowing him to observe a large area at once. "No," he said to himself as he rushed into Sophie's tent. She was gone, without a trace, Hikari tore apart her things looking for any trace of any hints something had been taken or disturbed but everything was accounted for except for Sophie, what was the most disturbing was that her ouija board was where she had left it. Percival might know something about this Hikari decided. 

He pressed a gauntleted hand to the ouija board and tried to focus on his idea of Percival. "Hey bud, whatcha doing there," Percival's voice echoed in Hikari's head. "Percival do you know what happened to Sophie," Hikari asked trying to keep his calm. "I do-" he stated before getting cut off by Hikari. "Great where is she so I can go bring her back, quickly," he said his voice going towards panic slightly. 

"Hikari you can't do this alone, you need help."

"Watch me I have to I can't bring the others into this."

"I don't mean from them, I mean from me," Perceval said shocking Hikari slightly.

"What?"

"Sophie's connection with me had been completely severed meaning someone with godly might is interfering here, you are going to need more than unparalleled swordsmanship to get her back, you are going to need me."

"If I agree will I get Sophie back?"

"I cannot assure that but your chances will be much higher, no for the terms-"

"I agree," Hikari interrupts as he starts sprinting from camp in a direct line from Sophie's tent as purple flames infuse his entire being momentary.

"You- what that easy?" Percival complained as Hikari sprinted off in the only direction that made sense away from camp and away from the river behind them.

"Yes, we don't have time so location information now," Hikari demanded as he made his way into the tree line easily dodging branches and brush as if it was as easy as breathing. One thing that Hikari did notice was the purple blip in the distance out of his range of sight, most likely the last known location of Sophie, and his range of sight was gradually expanding as power suffused his body from the 60ft radius circle centered on himself to 300ft radius circle he was aware of perfectly.

That fact altered him to the two other figures that were tailing him. They seemed to be in tight-fitting clothes and insulated shoes making them almost entirely invisible to any normal person, however, Hikari was not normal. It seemed they had been overlooking the camp and had started following Hikari as soon as he broke the tree line, "I must be going in the right direction then," he thought. He made sure to keep tabs on them as he came closer and closer to the blip. Finally, it entered his range of sight and he could for lack of a better term, sense the scorch marks on the ground as evidence of some sort of magical struggle, the area itself seemed to have large divots in the earth and trees. When Hikari finally arrived at the scene a weird sense of deja vu struck him. The way the wind howled through the trees, the way they seemed to dance, and the intricate dance with the shadows in the moonlight.

It was that same moonlight that reflected the light from the blades the two men were slowly unsheathing silently. However, those two unlucky people weren't aware Hikari knew their every move as his vision wasn't one of sight but a view into the transparent world, a place in which one could see through that normal people couldn't. It was also that same moonlight that drew Hikari to the small metal object left by his foot amount the other pieces of cloth strewn about indicating some sort of struggle. Though Hikari knew none was that of Sophie's clothing thankfully. Regardless the object he picked up was a metal circle with a cursive V inside. As Hikari stuffed it into a pocket he heard the soft poofs of the two people behind him landing on the ground.

"Listen bud, you are going to put that back, and walk away and pretend like none of this ever happen okay, you don't know what you are dealing with," the man spoke very calmly and if it had been anyone other than Hikari at this moment it may have worked. That man was not so lucky. "I do not believe you understand who you are dealing with," Hikari said coldly before cold steal found its way inside the man who spoke throat. Gargling blood as it spilled out of the wound and his mouth he dropped the knife he was holding as he tried to grab at Hikari's arm. Before he could Hikari pulled the blade cleanly from the man's neck and kicked him away not letting an ounce of bloodstain his clothes. The other man just felt the eyes of a demon rest upon him as Hikari shifted his attention to the other man.