FORBIDDEN ARTS

Zaku Hatana

Location : Hatana clan village, Coellin state, Earth Kingdom.

Zaku could not hold his excitement of having to see his family once more, to be in the house that holds his childhood memories. Zaku knocked on the roof of the carriage, signaling the coachman to stop the horses. Zaku knew by now that he had made it home, he quickly took his belongings and made his way out of the carriage. As Zaku was about to open the yard gate the coachman shouted at him angrily,"Hey! You forgot to pay me!"

Zaku turned, with a big smile curved on his face, he approached the coachman and took out a silver shell and gave it to the coachman. Shells with specific color have money value in this world :

Brown shell : 0.5 shells
Silver shell : 5 shells
Green shell : 10 shells
Red shell : 50 shells
Blue shell : 100 shells
Platinum shell : 250 shells
Gold shell : 1000 shells

"Oh sorry, I just forgot", Zaku exclaimed.

The coachman did not even wait for his explanation as he was gone. Zaku turned and before him was a wooden house, the house had flowers planted along the yard's walkway and was painted in bright blue color.

Zaku opened the gate and he felt a bit worried on how he was going to explain to his family about what made him run away from home. Zaku felt his heart knocking hard against his rib cage, Zaku started to walk slowly as he was having second thoughts, but he had an urge to see his family once more. Zaku was near the door,Zaku sighed and he started to knock, as he was knocking he was becoming nervous. A boy with dark brown hair, wide brown eyes and short in height opened the door. The boy became to be curious about what was a young man, with a scar that started at the middle left side of his forehead, went through his closed eye section and ended at his chick, and had brown hair was doing knocking on their door.

"Who are you?" The boy asked curiously. Zaku did not answer as he was taken aback by the boy's appearance, the last time Zaku last have seen him was when he was very young.

"Riikaku who are talking too..." A middle age women said, but mediately when he saw who Riikaku was talking too she froze, it was Zaku's mother, Taku and his youngest brother. Just then the women hugged Zaku, with her eyes full of tears.

"M-y son, after all these years you have finally come home," She said as she wiped her eyes.

Zaku took one step inside the house, he started to experience a nostalgia of all the fun memories of his childhood. Riikaku's eyes widen in shock as he realised who Zaku was, he was told about a brother that went missing years ago and was said to have perished.

****

It was about evening time now, Zaku was having dinner with his family, her mother had invited his sister, Yakiku who was named after her Grandmother, she had a light brown complexion and was a skinny 26 years old women.

Zaku's mother had also invited his oldest brother, Kiikaku who was chosen as the Chief of the Hatana clan, he was a bit chubby and had wide brown eyes. Yakiku's husband and Zaku's brother-in-law, Gaku, also came. He was a black haired man in his thirties.

Zaku was eating quite fast, which was a sign that it has been a while since he had a home cooked meal. His mother looked at him with a big smile, Kiikaku could see her mother smiling which was something he had not seen since the death of her husband.

"So... Kiikaku what have you been up to?" Zaku asked, Kiikaku looked at him,"Well I became the chief of the village. How about you?"

"Well that is just a funny story... I became a bounty hunter", Zaku replied.

"Didn't you serve in the Earth Kingdom Army?" Riikaku asked Zaku.

"Oh my time in the army at a young age, well I lived for the army, but after my father's death, I realised that I lived to serve beside my father and after he died in my arms, I lost interest in the army because I discovered that I was doing it for all the wrong reasons, which is doing it to impress my father and not doing it for myself... well that's all in the past." Zaku replied sadly.

Zaku sighed and looked at Kiikaku, the last time he saw Kiikaku he was skinny and very irresponsible, but now he was all chubby and kind of serious.

"Kiikaku once in school we were suppose to clean the toilets, because we played a prank on our teacher, but I did not do it, well the next day the Headmaster confronted me, pointing a ruler at me and said, "You are the most idiotic, irresponsible and not to mention stupid person ever", I just smiled and said, "Which end"", Zaku said laughing, everyone at the dining table started to burst out laughing, well except Zaku's sister.

"Zaku, may I have a talk with you in the living room?"Yakiku asked pleasantly.

"Sure, why not", Zaku replied as he got up his chair.

Zaku and Yakiku excused themselves and made their way to the living room, Zaku knew what Yakiku was going to say, since she was a Rank C Guardian. Zaku sited at the couch, as he was busy admiring the comfortness of the couch, Yakiku smacked him in the head.

"You idiot, do you know that you got 20 000 shells bounty on your head, and trust me some bounty hunter is following you, and if his here then we are in great danger." Yakiku said as he took out a folded paper and unfolded it, Zaku was shocked to see his face on this paper and was a reward of 20 000 shells for a person who brought him dead or alive.

"Oh man! Who ever drew this thing got my nose wrong." Zaku complained.

"What!!? That is what you think is wrong about this situation!" Yakiku shouted angrily. Zaku took the paper and looked at it for a second, he looked like he was lost in his thoughts.

"Zaku! Zaku!!" Yakiku kept calling Zaku's name as he was still lost in his thoughts.

"Yakiku, I covered my tracks, I'm sure no one knows my where about and if they did they would be here by now... look I know I messed up by leaving all these years but I promise you that I will never put you guys in danger." Zaku said in a sane tone.

Yakiku looked at Zaku trying hard to believe him, but she still had a bad feeling. She sat at the couch beside Zaku and with a straight face.

"So what really happened for you to be wanted this much. Did you kill someone, steal something or killed someone and stolen something?" Yakiku asked.

"Um... Well that is a long story that I don't want to tell ever..." Zaku said chuckling, he got up and went back to the dining room.