Challenge Creator: Chisis

Challenge Title: Ghost

Challenge Summary: What kind of ghost would haunt a member of the TRC gang for a while? Write about it from the point of view of the ghost.

Rating: Up to you to decide

Genre: Up to you to decide. Ghosts are a tricky thing, as they can go really sad or really happy

Characters: One of the TRC gang. No secondary characters in this one.

Length: For once, I'll leave that up to you to decide also. I want to see just how far you can take this challenge.

The Soul in the Sword

Red eyes and black hair.

If this man had been female, he would have been her. Souhi smiled. If she hadn't known any better, she would have thought that this man was her brother. But, whether or not he was her brother wouldn't have been relevant at that point, she decided as she silently drew her swords, he was defending an enemy princess and she was her lord's best stealth assassin. She had to kill him to kill her target and bring her master to power. She had to accomplish the impossible in order to change the world she had come to know into something better. He had a reputation for being the strongest in Japan and if she got killed tonight, she would just be another assassin he had dispatched in defense of his lovely princess and if she succeeded, her master's name would be the one printed in the books, not hers.

Either way, she would be forgotten.

"I know you are Kurogane," she poised herself to defend. "Let me tell you my name."

Kurogane drew his sword and readied himself for attack. "I don't need to know the name of a person unfit to be called a warrior."

They stared each other down for a very short moment. They could see each other's face clearly. Masks were not needed in their profession, there was no need to hide your face when you know you'd either kill the person you are fighting or be killed by them.

In that short time, Souhi managed to assess her situation. She was at a disadvantage. She had a shorter reach, with equally ranged weapons. She was lighter, which probably meant she was faster, but that was her only advantage. She was weaker than him and she was intimidated by him. She knew just by standing in front of him that she was, for the most part, doomed.

But, this is for my lord. He will bring about a better world. I will not fail him and live to tell about it. Souhi resolved. The fight didn't last long. She defended herself masterfully and managed to wound Kurogane quite gravely. In one deciding strike, they charged at each other. And for a few seconds after, their bodies, still caught up in the momentum of their attacks stood frozen in a fighting stance. In the end, the greater warrior won. And perhaps, Souhi thought as the light from her flaming eyes faded and her legs began to feel numb. That speaks not only of us shinobi, but also of our masters.

"Your name," Kurogane grunted. He didn't even wince as a large X-mark wound opened on the skin on his chest. He stood his ground not bothering to face his opponent again. He knew the fight was over even before Souhi literally fell.

"It is..." the female ninja gathered her strength for that one last breath. "...Souhi." And then her knees buckled and her eyes closed.

-

Souhi floated over the crimson-stained quarters of the palace she had once called her home. Like the loyal servant that she was, she stayed by her master's side until the day he died. She hovered over the bodies in different stages of dying and various states of dead. It had been a massacre.

The problem with being a ghost was that there was nothing she could do even if she wanted to. She could only appear to people who could see her. If she really wanted to, sometimes, she could move things or touch people. But not when it really matters, she thought bitterly as she looked at her lord's bleeding corpse. She cursed her weakness the night she died, but wondered if she would have made a difference had she been alive. A spirit that felt familiar hovered about her. She felt it pull at her being. It was warm and insistent. She resisted and it passed on to the place of souls.

She didn't quite understand why she had stayed behind and abandoned her lord's side. She just suddenly felt drawn to her killer.

At first, she had been depressed, believing that she was simply unworthy of moving on because she was not able to protect her master. She admired Kurogane for his strength and service to the princess. She became an unseen presence observing the warrior as he became stronger. But, while she remained bound to him, the admiration she had for his prowess slowly turned to hatred and disgust towards his bloodlust. He began to kill without remorse. Her sadness began to fade only to be replaced with anger.

When he killed her, it had been about defending his princess, but recently, it was about his strength. She glared at the red-eyed ninja after he had butchered a number of men unnecessarily. "I died in battle by your hand and you honored me, but you killed so many so heartlessly." She watched as Kurogane cleaned his sword with a strange pleasured gleam in his eyes. "You've dishonored us that you have fought with and defeated. Your sword is great, but you are no longer worthy of wielding it."

She cursed him with the worst possible curse that she could think of. "Your sword that you killed me and so many others with...it will betray you."

-

If she had thought that her prayer that Kurogane's sword betray him had been the worst possible, she was changing her mind now. Tomoyo's decision to send Kurogane to another world to learn about true strength was a far more difficult punishment to bear. To be so far away from one's lady unable to protect her had to be the worst possible curse that could be bestowed on a warrior. A smile graced Souhi's soul for the first time in many years.

And then she found herself being sucked into the same vortex Kurogane was disappearing into.

-

Souhi found herself in a place she did not recognize. She briefly wondered if she had unintentionally invaded Kurogane's dreams, but soon realized that this was not any world that the other ninja's mind would come up with. And, since she had traveled all over Japan, she doubted that she was still there. She remembered Princess Tomoyo sending Kurogane to a different world, perhaps her bond to him had taken her there, too. She felt drawn to someone again.

When she followed the path the feeling led her down, she expected to soon see a tall dark man with burning crimson eyes and night-painted hair like hers. This was probably why she was more than a bit surprised when she saw that she was being drawn to shop apparently belonging to a pale young man with very gentle features. He was strong despite his lean built, and his soft brown eyes betrayed an innate kindness that she found strange. She found it a bit unnerving when he seemed to smile at her.

He scared her a bit, but she was bound to him, so she opted to look around instead. It didn't take a genius to judge by the looks of his shop, his clothing, and the instruments he was holding that he was a blacksmith. He was hard at work on something she couldn't quite see from where she was.

She moved closer and saw a long unformed mass of metal. It gave out a beautiful glow as it was fired.

Suddenly, the blacksmith spoke. "I am called the forger of spirits. My name is Shidou Ryuuji. Who are you?"

The ninja was a bit surprised by the question. Was he talking to her? He didn't stop from what he was doing, but he did seem to be waiting for a reply. Did he really see her? She decided to answer anyway. "Souhi," she replied.

"You were drawn to this sword, Souhi," the blacksmith spoke calmly. His voice was incredibly soothing and it floated above the clang of his hammer against steel. "It will be a beautiful sword. Slender and graceful, but powerful and unforgiving..."

It would take Ryuuji days to finish the sword, but judging by the metal and the man's apparent skill, he wasn't lying.

"...Would you let me, Souhi?" Shidou Ryuuji asked, pausing for a moment as he fixed her with a sincere gaze. "Would you let me forge your soul into this sword?"

Souhi stared long and hard at what would later become an excellent blade. She turned back to the blacksmith and nodded. "As long as you create a sword that only a strong fighter could possibly carry."

"Of course," Ryuuji promised. The specter could see that he comprehended her wish. "Just as a great warrior cannot be commanded by a man less great, a magnificent spirit such as yours should not be made to serve a master that is weak or be forged into a blade that is brittle."

It had taken Shidou Ryuuji over a week to perfect the blade. It was long and heavy and difficult to control, but it was a powerful weapon that would not easily break in battle and promised to serve its master for a long time. When the moment arrived for Ryuuji to forge Souhi's name and spirit into the sword, the ninja was more than ready.

"You will be drawn to your new master as you were drawn to me," that was the last thing Shidou Ryuuji said to Souhi the sword before he wrapped her up and sent her to a woman Ryuuji called Yuuko.

-

Author's Notes: Not very good with the introspective type of stories. I'm just testing the waters. If people think it's good, I'll continue, but if it isn't, I suppose I'll end it here. It's supposed to be a response to Chisis' Challenge, so I hope it fit.

Hope someone liked it.

- Paris