In
the morning, the fishermen from Wakayama found a charming haired, dressed in
ninja and crying young girl on the lonely seashore.
She
was staring as if hypnotized the blue immensity of the ocean, with sparkling
pearls drawing thin rivers on her ivory cheeks, with her unreal, blue eyes lost
somewhere, in the very depth of the sea, where a brave samurai was resting after
numberless days of continuous fights. The wind’s transparent veils were waving
her silk-like hair and a third sapphire was glowing in the middle of her
forehead.
“Ah,
but isn’t that ninja Setsuna?” a sticky voice rose behind her.
She
turned her glacial eyes towards him. She looked at him as if he didn’t exist.
Suddenly, a fire burst into her soul, violent and revengeful, warming her. Her
eyes caught color, sending blinding flashes towards the intruder. She felt
governed by a foreign strength, which was using her to take a sacred duty to the
end. A duty that she felt rising more and more tempestuously in her veins.
A duty that she knew she had to accomplish even with the price of her
life.
“You!
You are the one that caused all these! It’s because of you that I and
Gyuishiro met, because of you we were forced to face the army of the Shogun of
Darkness, because of you he is no longer here!” she heard herself saying,
while getting to her feet and walking with firm steps towards him.
“Yes,
I admit: it is me who did all these! Battles, sacrifices, duties…” he
confessed.
“But
why? Why did he have to die? Why all these?” she asked, with a desperate yell.
“So
that the good wins, so that the evil is finally defeated!” said Shikongan.
“Must
the price be so high? And for what? For some abstract words: good and evil… Oh
no, it doesn’t worth dieing for them!.. But the way once begun has to be
ended! Gyuishiro did not die in vain… There are only two more things to be
done!” Setsuna said.
“It
doesn’t worth dieing for. And nevertheless you accepted being poisoned,
dieing, instead of giving them those information. Then, you decided you have to
die for the good!” he reminded her.
“Yes,
but down then I was a naive. Anyway, the end shall come, and I would rather defy
it than wait it with resignation…” the woman said.
“Yes.
Go, go where faith meant you to be!” the old man encouraged her.
“I
will go, but before this, I still have a duty to fulfill! A duty that, if not
carried to the end, will haunt me even in my tomb!” she said, with a
thrill-giving voice. “You killed Gyuishiro, didn’t you?” the fighter
continued.
“Where
from did you find this?..” the old man uttered, before feeling his end closer
to him. “Now I understand… You are tied up to him even in the afterworld. I
am prepared to pay for what I did, because now I know that good shall triumph.
This is all I want! Good luck and courage, Setsuna. And never forget that
Gyuishiro will be with you!” the little man cried with his last breath, before
lying his twisted body on the frozen sand of the beach.
Neither
the hibernal wind, nor the snowstorm, nor even the huge hills of silvery powder
could impede a courageous ninja to run towards facing her destiny.
Her
soul was on the seashore, still waiting her lover to show up, receiving her with
open arms. But her warrior spirit was rushing with the rage of a typhoon over
the plains covered with ice castles, telling itself that it will meet its other
half after encountering and defeating its cruel faith.