YAY! Another Azureshipping fanfic. This idea was inspired by the fanfic,
"Of Love and Death" by Jenivi7. It is a very good fanfic and I truly believe it deserves more reviews so after reading my fic I hope you'll drop J.7 a review. It can be found on my favorites.
Time for the disclaimer. Ahem.
Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh or any of the characters from the show Yu-Gi-Oh. If I did, Anzu who not be friendship obsessed, there would be far more female characters, Jounouchi's deck would not be based off luck, Seto would beat Yugi by the end of the show, and I'd either hook Anzu with Yugi or Anzu with Seto, depending on what the fans want...oh yeah, Zigfried would not be a gay, pink haired freak.
Forced Upon the Path of Discontent
Chapter one
The Fall of One, the Potential Rise of Another
It was dead quiet. Nothing stirred in the air. Not a breeze, not even a leaf shifted. No animals moved in the forest. The world around was dead.
A farmer trudged thorough the woods tiredly, a bag of grain on his back. The next village was over a five mile walk from his humble little farm. He needed to make the journey every two weeks to barter for grain, seeds, and so on.
Today had been a particularly long one and he was anticipating getting back to his comfortable house where his wife and children were waiting for him.
He was nearing the end of the forest. Suddenly, a powerful smell of smoke hit his nose. His eyes widened.
There was a fire, a big one. And judging by the thick smell of the smoke, he guessed it was close to his home. The sack of grain fell to the ground with a weak thud and the farmer took off running.
His wife. His son. His baby girl.
They wouldn't.
There were bodies on the stone floor. He stood there, panting, blood staining his clothes, his hands, and his face. The leader of the Norther Clan of Assassins sat in his chair, a cold, stern look on his face.
"Now am I out?" he snapped to the leader. No answer.
"Fine. But don't forget this. Nobody leaves our clan without suffering a great cost."
"I'll take my chances."
It's been so long. He had left to marry the love of his life. How could he have been so foolish? Thinking he was safe.
And now, when life was going great, they came to collect. To make him pay the ultimate cost.
Damn it.
And sure enough, there it was. Red flames engulfed his farm and his home.
"Kazumi! Ichiro! Anzu!" he cried, running to the burning house. There were no screams, only the sound of the crackling flames. He tried to get inside, but a fast moving blur pushed him back. He collapsed onto the dirt and looked up.
A figure dressed in black and red wearing a clay mask that was panted white with the distinct markings of the Northern Clan stood there.
"What have you done?" he asked, voice trembling. Two more members appeared. "My wife...my children..."
"Your wife burned and so did your son."
"My baby...Anzu..."
"She was spared. We will take her as the final cost of your payment and leave you to live with your grief. Consider your punishment complete, Juro."
"Why...how could you?" he whispered. "Manabu, Takeo, Fumio...we were friends. How could you do this to me?"
"Wrong. On your terms we may have been friends, but we three are true to the clan and will not hesitate to follow orders of Yoshinori. You made that deadly mistake, and now you must live with it for the rest of your life."
"Your careless mistake made your loved ones pay. Your wife, your son, they died tonight because you chose to act disloyal."
"Yes. And now your baby girl will carry on the noble cause."
"You should be honored we are sparing her."
"Please," he begged. "Don't take her."
"Sorry, direct orders from Yoshinori." Manabu moved some cloth away and revealed a sleeping baby girl with a little tuft of brown hair and pale skin. "Gaze upon her for a final time, Juro. Oh, and here's a gift for you." He threw something and Juro caught it.
He stared. A knife in a sheathe of snake skin.
"We won't take your life, but feel free to take your own to make the pain end." And with that, the three men were gone.
His hands were shaking. Tears flowed down his face.
Juro threw his head back and shouted to the sky, "KAZUMI! ICHIRO! ANZU!" He unsheathed the knife and put it to his neck.
After a few groans of pain, the knife fell to the ground. Rain fell heavily, as though heaven was crying. The fire was soon only a few sparks.
Juro gave a small smile, a trail of blood falls from the right hand corner of his mouth to his chin.
"I'm sorry...I will not be joining you in heaven...I am going down..." He fell forward, eyes going blank. "Straight down to Hell...forgive me..."
He laid there in a pool of blood and water. The rain continued to fall, putting out the remaining sparks of the fire.
In a tree nearby, Manabu, Takeo, and Fumio were perched on some branches, Manabu shielding the sleeping baby from the rain.
"What a shame..." Fumio murmured. "He was the greatest assassin in the last ten years." Takeo nodded.
"It is quite a loss."
"Do you hear yourself you fools? He was a weak man. He was so easily misguided by love and happiness, two emotions that are so easy to kill, quite literally I may add."
"True..."
"Remember this and remember this well: emotions are what make us weak. They are nothing but distractions that cause pain either way in the end. So I suggest that you look down at his corpse and never forget that THIS is where his so-called happiness led him. Now let's get out of here. If we don't report soon, Yoshinori will be furious."
"Right." The three men jumped away and into the shadows. Little did they know, they carried in their arms the future's greatest female assassin in all of feudal Japan.
Well? Dramatic, is it not? I hope you all like this fic because I personally believe it will come out well. Drop me some reviews, please. I want to know if you all want this to continue.
ALSO! I have not had this problem yet, but I like to guard against it. PLEASE, please, please, please, do NOT send me a review saying you hate Anzu, Seto, or Azureshipping. And also do not insult me for writing about it. Honestly, I'm all for free speech but it is just annoying to have people flame because they hate a pairing. There is no point at all for that.
Constructive criticism because a story needs some work I can understand. But downright flaming just because you don't like the characters a story features or the pairing a story features is completely unnecessary and very insulting.
I repeat, no problems with me yet. All of my reviewers have been great and I want to keep it up. But I am not just speaking for myself, I am speaking for all of my fellow Azureshippers out there. I get pretty upset when I read a perfectly fine fanfic starring Azureshipping and there's a flamer due to dislike of the pairing, Seto, or Anzu. So if ya don't like it, don't read it, don't review it. We don't need to know you hate it.
You CAN say "I don't really like Anzu that much" or something like that, I don't mind too much, but don't say something like "OMFG, I hate that stupid bitch, and your fanfic SUCKS." Yeah, don't do that. It makes me not want to write and that makes people who actually like my fic sad/mad. Ok, I think that's it.