Shura Gaiden: A short story

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Hmmm, I was suddenly struck by the urge to write this. Anyway, this is merely a short-story that ties in with the Shura stories, although this takes place many, many years later after the events of Forged in Hell, Tempered in Blood.

Here you go!


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Shura Gaiden: Of Chains and Sorrow

Inspiration from: Mr. Youn In-Wan and Mr. Yang Kyung-Il

This occurred during the time when the Dark Swordsman roamed the world, seeking his vengeance and wreaking unspeakable carnage everywhere he went…
-Chronicle of the Dark Swordsman

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Vylene reclined on her luxurious bed languorously, her eyes fixed on the man seated across the room from her. His dark, cloaked form was made even more indistinct in the gloom of her chambers when viewed through the translucent silk veils that hung around her bed. Her full, luscious lips quirked into a grin of slight amusement as she leaned forward and adopted a seductive, inviting pose.

“ Well, good sir. Have you paid all that money simply to sit there and stare?” She asked in a sultry tone. Her long, dark hair fell in elegant coils around her lovely face, a sight that she knew was devastating on any hot-blooded man.

“ Yes, I have.” The man’s answer took her by surprise. His voice was low and rough, as if it pained him to speak. Vylene frowned in puzzlement. As the most popular courtesan in the Rose Bouquet, only nobles could afford an hour or two of her time. The stranger had paid enough that he might have her to himself for an entire night: a grand sum of two thousand gold pieces. And yet, he only sat there on a plush chair, his hands clasped before him and an unreadable expression on his face.

Vylene shrugged helplessly and shook her head in mock resignation. “ It’s your choice and your money, sir.”

The stranger did not reply and she took the opportunity to study her curious client closely. His gaunt, lean features bore numerous battle scars though he looked young enough to be of a like age with her. Despite his apparent youth, though, his mass of unkempt hair was utterly white, contrasting against the black clothes that he wore. The color of his skin and the slant of his eyes announced his eastern heritage, though he spoke the western tongue flawlessly. A pair of curved swords hung from his belt and she spotted daggers strapped in every conceivable place about his person.

“ We can always talk, can we?” Vylene said, rising from her bed and walking over to where the man sat. His eyes followed her every movement. The courtesan pulled another chair over and placed her slender frame in it. “ What is your name?”

“ I am called Shura.” The man replied; fixing her with a gaze that made her flinch inwardly. There was something unnatural in the youthful cast of his features and it caused her flesh to crawl. As if he noticed her uneasiness, a sardonic grin spread across his face.

“ Be at ease. You will come to no harm at my hands.” Shura reassured her. Vylene smiled brightly.

“ And my name is Vylene, mister Shura, although I’m sure you already know that.” She leaned back in her chair, her legs crossed. “ You are a warrior by trade?”

Shura considered the question for a few moments before chuckling uncharacteristically. He sighed and folded his arms as his amusement faded. “ Yes, I suppose you could say I am.”

Vylene’s poise was languid but there was sudden flare of anger in her large, long-lashed brown eyes. “ I despise warriors.”

A thrill of fear came over her as she realized what she had just said to a man armed to the teeth in her private chambers but Shura did not seem to take offense. He simply shrugged and asked, “ Why?”

“ Warriors live by violence, taking anything they want from other people just because they have a sword or axe in their hands. They cannot be reasoned with, save through force.” Vylene said bitterly, a look of pain coming over her lovely features. “ They are little more than savage brutes and mindless beasts!”

“ What caused you to feel this way?” Shura questioned in that quiet and serious voice of his. Vylene frowned at the white-haired young man but a small, hopeless laugh emerged from between her lips and she shook her head in a gesture of mock resignation. There was little harm in speaking of her past to such a high-paying and pleasantly polite customer.

She waved her hand in a sweeping motion, indicating her powdered and perfumed form clad in the silken, diaphanous gown of her profession. “ I was a free woman once, in love with a man who chose the path of a warrior. He is an ambitious man named Crassus in the employ of the city’s ruler, Lord Keirnstrus…are you sure you want to listen to this?”

Shura leaned back in his seat and nodded, an unreadable expression on his scarred face. “ Go ahead, lady Vylene. I am keen to hear you story.”

Vylene smiled, though torment shone in her eyes at the rekindling of painful memories. Yet, when she spoke, her tone was grateful as if she had long wished to unburden herself with words to someone, anyone at all who would hear her. “ Thank you, mister Shura.”

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Vylene’s hand cracked across Crassus’s face. The young warrior winced in pain from the blow but he caught her wrist in a vice-like grasp.
“ Please, Vylene! Be reasonable!” He pleaded, trying to keep his temper in rein. The young woman struggled furiously but she could not break free from her captor.

“ How can you ask me to do such a thing?” She cried; her voice filled with disbelief. Tears burned in the corner of her eyes as she flailed about in vain.

“ Think of the favors the lord will shower upon us, my love!” He caught her by the shoulders with his other hand and shook her furiously. “ All you have to do is please him for a single night!”

“ No!” The rest of Vylene’s words were cut off in a yelp of pain as Crassus shook her even harder until her teeth rattled.

“ Listen to me, you selfish *****! This is my chance for a promotion! This is my chance to make it big!” He snarled. “ You will not ruin this for me! You will not!”

Crassus tossed her onto her bed where she lay there, sobbing silently. The warrior breathed harshly for a few moments before he calmed down and began rummaging through their room. Eventually, he found a gown that he had purchased for as a wedding gift for her and flung it onto her bed. “ Put it on. We are going to see the lord tonight!”

Vylene swept the gown off the bed angrily. “ No!”

Crassus struck her with a backhand, sending her reeling with a cry of pain. Just then, the door to their room burst open and an elderly man hurried in. He took in the entire scene and he growled in anger.

“ What is the meaning of this?” He demanded, poking Crassus in the chest. The warrior snarled and lashed out with his fist, his knuckles crunching into the old man’s nose. Blood spurted from the sheer impact of the blow and he collapsed. Crassus lost his temper and kicked repeatedly at his squirming victim with his heavy boots.

“ Must everyone stand in my way?” He raved, his anger rising with every cracking impact his boot made with the old man’s ribs.

“ Father! No!” Vylene tried to pull Crassus away but he turned around and punched her in the midriff. The young woman fell to her knees, retching as waves of nausea threatened to overwhelm her. Crassus reached down and pulled her to her feet by her hair. He leaned in close and spat in her face.

“ You will do as you are told, whore!” The warrior dragged her kicking and screaming out of the room, leaving her father drowning in his own blood behind.

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Lord Keirnstrus smirked at the sight of the warrior abased before him, a look of sycophantic adoration upon his face. He had abused and defiled the man’s young wife repeatedly the night before, only to be greeted with such respect and an enquiry as to whether he had enjoyed himself.

“ You killed her father.” He said. Crassus froze at the lord’s words. Murder was a crime punishable by death in Keirnstrus’s city.

“ My lord…” The warrior began only to have Keirnstrus dismiss his words with a nonchalant wave.

“ I can be persuaded to turn a blind eye to certain affairs, my good man.” He yawned and a servant put a grape into his mouth. “ I can always use enterprising and intelligent men like you, Crassus. You should know what to do.”

“ Yes, my lord!” Crassus cried, his forehead pressed to the floor before the lord’s chair. Keirnstrus chuckled into his hand.

“ Then rise, my newly appointed captain of the guard and do what you must.”

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“ He sold me to the Rose Bouquet and offered the money for my purchase as a bribe to free himself from the consequences of his actions.” Vylene said. Tears rolled down the side of her face as she struggled to maintain her composure.

“ You are an intelligent woman, lady Vylene.” Shura’s expression had not changed throughout the telling of her story. “ What made you marry one such as Crassus?”

Vylene broke down into sobs then, muffling the sounds of her grief with a silken kerchief. The black-cloaked man did not press her for an answer. Instead, he simply looked on silently until she felt composed enough to answer.

“ He was not always the brute he is now…” She stammered. “ He used to be such a kind-hearted…”

“ Thoughts of advancing in his career erased whatever concept of decency he might have had.” Shura finished for her. “ I have seen such things many a time in all my years.”

Vylene stared at her client curiously. Shura seemed to be a man in his mid-twenties, perhaps even a year or two younger than her. “ And you, mister Shura? What atrocities have you committed during your career as a warrior?”

“ I have done the most foulest and depraved of deeds that would put a demon to shame during my life, lady Vylene.” Shura answered, a slight tremor in his voice belying his stoic front. “ A thousand counts of murder, torture and mutilation are the least of my crimes.”

Vylene sniffed and wiped away her tears and chuckled in disbelief. “ I find it rather difficult to believe that a young man like you can be so accomplished.”

A rare ghost of a smile flickered on Shura’s scarred features. “ I am older than I look, lady Vylene.

Vylene laughed shaking her head, now mostly recovered from the pain her memories had caused her. “ If you say so, mister Shura.”

Shura noted the doubt on her face and he could only shake his head and join in her laughter.

“ You know, you would be quite handsome if you would only smile.” Vylene told him. Shura quirked an eyebrow incredulously before adopting a grotesque parody of a smile that had the courtesan holding her sides as she laughed.

“ I take that back!” Vylene said, as she paused for breath. She leaned forward, bringing her face closer to that of the black-cloaked man. “ You don’t need to smile or be any more handsome, as far as I’m concerned.”

Their gazes locked for a few moments but Vylene could spot none of the lust customary in any man in such close contact with her. Eventually, she spoke in a tremulous voice.

“ Why did you pay for my time?” She asked. A sad look came over the man’s face and a sigh escaped his lips.

“ You resembled someone I knew.” He answered truthfully. Vylene was obviously a descendant of the angel Deis, with a face nearly identical to Jo-annia’s.

The spirits of his victims tormented him perpetually in his nightmares. The Path of Slaughter called out to him with a siren’s song, threatening to overwhelm his considerable mental defenses and turn him into a ravening monster of destruction. Paladins and divine agents of the Celestial Church hunted him endlessly. His quest for vengeance burned like a flame within the core of his being, fueling his every action with hatred and blanking out every facet of his personality.

Through this all, only thoughts of Jo-annia could clear his mind and drive away the demons that haunted his very existence. He had sought to cast his sole hold on his humanity away many times in his despair, hoping to lose the capacity to feel pain in the all-consuming rage and hate that drove him to no avail. His mind’s eye would never fail to envision her face, hear her musical voice and laughter and feel the touch of her hand on his even in the darkest moments of his despair.

“ You love her.” Vylene said, the statement as much of a question as a fact.

“ She is gone now, taken away by the passing of time.” Shura told her, a faraway look coming into his eyes. “ And beyond my grasp forever.”

“ You have not answered my question.” Vylene demanded. “ Did you love her?”

“ Love is a concept that is beyond me, lady Vylene.” The courtesan could see the self-doubt in Shura’s eyes and it saddened her, for some reason.

“ Well, am I doing a passable imitation, then?” Vylene asked, attempting to put a humorous tone into her voice and failing miserably. Shura smiled for the first time in years.

“ Alas, no.” He raised a hand and brushed away a tear that had begun to roll down her cheek. “ Your eyes are too sad, lady Vylene.”

The courtesan’s lip quivered but she turned her back and stood away. A commotion began outside and Shura looked out between the blinds that covered the chamber’s windows. A noble accompanied by an entourage of retainers had arrived and they were raising a boisterous racket at the brothel’s entrance.

“ Vylene!” A man’s drunken voice sounded over the commotion. “ I want to bed that whore again! Bring her out!”

“ It is Lord Keirnstrus, drunk as usual.” Vylene said in a flat tone. She walked over to where she kept a box of jewelry and opened it. “ I’m sorry, mister Shura. It looks as if you will not be getting your money’s worth after all. Speak to the mistress and I’m sure she’ll grant you a refund.”

“ I can always acquire more gold.” Shura replied unconcernedly. He watched as the courtesan put on a pair of elaborately carved bracelets upon her left wrist. A small chain connected the bracelets.

“ An exquisite accessory.” He commented. An expression of resolution came over Vylene’s face.

“ It is the key to my freedom.” She said. “ For two years, I have awaited this moment.”

“ May you be blessed with good fortune, lady Vylene.” Shura offered. The courtesan walked up to him and brushed her lips against his briefly.

“ My thanks, mister Shura.” She smiled sadly. “ We shall not meet again.”

“ I know.”

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Vylene danced before the lord at his pavilion beside the lake, her graceful movements and her lithe figure stirring the blood of Keirnstrus and his men. Crassus was among the audience at the beginning but he excused himself after she had allowed her gaze to fall upon him a few times.

Eventually, the lord could wait no longer and he dismissed his men. His guards stumbled back to the brothel drunkenly in pursuit of more pleasure. Keirnstrus staggered up to Vylene and threw his arms about her, groping her mindlessly and giggling all the while.

“ I’ll show you what a true man is capable of, whore!” He exhaled his wine-soaked breath into Vylene’s face. The courtesan offered him her brightest smile and returned his embrace, locking her arms around his waist. Caught up in the tangle of limbs, the lord did not notice that he had wandered perilously close to edge of the lake.

“ Come with me, my lord.” Vylene removed a bracelet from her left wrist and put it on her right, binding her wrists around Keirnstrus’s waist. The lord laughed indulgently and pressed his body against hers harder. “ Come join me in the frigid depths of hell!”

Keirnstrus had time for one astonished yelp before they fell into the lake, the courtesan’s weight dragging the lord to the bottom as he flailed and gurgled helplessly.

Sitting in the same chair, Shura awaited the coming of the next day in Vylene’s room.

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“ You imbeciles!” Keirnstrus raged at his astonished retainers. The lord was utterly drenched and his fine clothes hung off him awkwardly. He held his short sword in one hand and a pair of arms severed at the elbow in the other. He left a trail of blood behind him as he walked.

“ My lord!” Crassus rushed up, aghast at the state of his employer. “ What has happened?”

“ The whore tried to murder me by dragging me to the bottom of the lake!” He screamed. “ Where were you fools when it happened?”

Crassus and the rest of his underlings shuffled from foot to foot uneasily, not wanting to point out the fact that Keirnstrus had dismissed them in the first place.

“ Where is the whore, my lord?” Crassus drew his sword grandly. “ I shall avenge you!”

“ She is dead, you pompous buffoon!” Keirnstrus flung the severed arms, bound at the wrists by the courtesan’s bracelets at the brothel’s entrance. The other courtesans shrieked and fled away from the grisly object.

“ I will burn this establishment down! I will tear off the head of every whore…” The lord’s ranting broke off as a black-cloaked man emerged from the brothel. The stranger walked to Vylene’s severed arms and bent down to undo the clasps of the exquisitely carved bracelets.

“ Hey! What do you think you’re doing?” Crassus demanded. The rest of Keirnstrus’s retainers drew their swords. Shura ignored them. He retrieved the piece of jewelry and tucked it into a pocket in his cloak.

“ I’m talking to you, vagabond!” Crassus stalked up to Shura. “ What do you think you’re doing?”

When he saw that he would receive no answer, the warrior growled in anger and swung his sword, angling it to smack into Shura’s face. His weapon never hit its mark. Blood spurted from Crassus’s mouth and he shrieked in agony. Keirnstrus’s underlings cried out in shocked surprise for Shura suddenly held a black, curved sword in his fist. No one had seen him draw his weapon, so fast he was.

Crassus toppled into two bloody halves and blood began to fountain into the air, drenching all those present in its sanguine shower. Shura raised his gaze to the heavens, squinting against the sting of the blood that now drenched his face.

“ Murderer!” Keirnstrus screamed. He gestured with his short sword. “ Arrest him! Arrest him now!”

As the rest of the lord’s henchmen rushed forwards, Shura drew his wakizashi and gave himself over to the Path of Slaughter.

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Sometime later, Shura stood at the edge of the lake that held Vylene’s corpse. He produced her bracelets from his pocket and held it out before him.

“ Have you found peace, lady Vylene?” He asked softly, his words lost in the gale that tossed his tattered cloak wildly. “ Rest well in any case.”

The bracelets caught the glint of the sun once before they hit the surface of the water and sank into its depths to rejoin their owner.

 

Shura is a GOD! ALL HAIL SHURA!

 

That was VERY good. I hope you find cause to write more (not in this story, perhaps, but another?)

 

“ Warriors live by violence, taking anything they want from other people just because they have a sword or axe in their hands. They cannot be reasoned with, save through force.”

Interesting how Shura proves her words right.

Anyways, I would feel that this story would be good, but I cannot help but be uneasy about the main character. Maybe it's because he has the same name as the author. Maybe it's because of his endless killing that these stories seem to revolve around. Maybe it's because, in my eyes, he simply becomes a little bit more predictable at the end of each these stories I'm reading.

 

Brilliant, again .

 

Well, Oaz, I would be very interested in hearing you elaborate more about your points. Your criticsm would be much appreciated, even more so if you can help me improve on my writing.

As for the name thing...well, the character 'Shura the swordsman' had been conceived many years ago, before I first started posting on SP. I just thought it would be a cool name to register on a public forum with. Hence, there are two personas with the same name on SP now: Shura the poster, a normal guy who can't wield a sword for nuts, and Shura the swordsman, a fictional fantasy character.

Lastly, violence plays a big part in every Shura story. His very name implies 'Violence' in the first place! Shura the swordsman is a killer, and hardly an apologetic one. If you would like to read some of my less violent stuff, there's Flight of the Black Crane, a story where there will be a LOT less violence.

But seriously Oaz, you could really help me out here by explaining further. If you feel that it might clog up this topic, do PM me. If you can be bothered, of course.

 

Which reminds me...
What is on with Magatsu? Or do you intend to leave them with that Destroyer.

 

Very überly brilliant. And for once your female character wasn't weak, pathetic, or otherwise useless.