The lost innocence: Descent of samurai

" Why...?"

Livadia, 20th of April, 1912

Third Person POV

It was already evening and after saying goodnight to his children, Nicholas was about to head to the bed himself, when his wife came into the room, holding a piece of paper with serious, almost sad expression on her face. " Nicholas, there's a letter for you from Kyoto..." He smiled gently expecting yet another massage from his late friend's family...
" Probably from Asami. I'll read it tomorrow..."
" No, it's not." She cut him off. " It's from her cousin."
" Her cousin?" The tsar was confused and slightly concerned. " Will you read it...?" Alexandra nodded and opened the paper folded in two.

"It's a great pain for me to inform that on the at night 12-13 April, my sister and her children were murdered inside their very own house. There were not any witnesses of this horrifying event and no one knows who took those innocent lives.  We hope that whoever did this, shall be found and justly punished."

Alexandra read it all in trembling voice. Upon hearing the news, Nicholas slowly sat on the bed. His eyes filled with tears and his hands started to shake. " What...?" His wife came up and sat next to him, putting her hand on his. She did not say a word, just hugged her husband.
" Alix...How could someone...?" He uttered finally. " Why would someone do that...?!"
" I have no idea..."
" Those were children! The youngest was 6!" He openly sobbed.
" I know, Nicky..."
" I can't believe this..."
______________________________________

The emperor of Russia haven't gotten any sleep that night. He sat in his office, re- reading old letters he would exchange with his friend, a japanese soldier and physician, Kaito Kiyoshi.

28th of August, 1904

Hello, Nicky,

Please, forgive me the delay with congratulating on the birth of your son. I've been really busy lately, as you probably were,too.. I'm glad that you're prayers has been heard out and I believe it's a sign of a peace coming between our countries , at least I hope so..
I hope that Alix and little Alexei are both doing fine, as well as you and your beautiful daughters. Please send them greetings from me.
From the photograph you've sent I can already tell that he's going to grow into very handsome boy.
I just realized I've never sent you a picture of my Ichika since she was born, so now I'm fixing this mistake.
Congratulations once again and best wishes for all of you.

Yours faithfully,

Kaito

P.S.

Isn't that funny, that you have had a son after four daughters and I have had a daughter after four sons? What a coincidence... I wonder if our children would meet each other in  the future...

Nicholas hid the letter back to the drawer and reached for the next one... Earlier one.

2nd of February, 1904

My friend,

I know that you did not want this war to happen, I've known you for years now, and you have too good heart to want it and even though I fail to understand why it is happening, I want to ask you; Please, don't think wrong about me. Even if our countries are meant to fight each other, I will always consider you as my friend, no matter what may happen.
If my fellow soldiers read it right now, they'd think of me as traitor, but it's not about Russia for me. It's about you and your family, whom I consider as friends and that shall not change.

I strongly hope, that you think the same about us...

Your Always Friend,