Omake: Another Sixty Promises
It was a beautiful day. The sun was setting above the clouds, a magnificent rolling white landscape gently rolling providing a floor for the breathtaking vista.
The crimson, blood red sunset over the deathly white turbulence.
Hazou breathed. He could not dwell on this, nor could he dwell on those
- sixty civilians bound and gagged -
- several blood red flashes -
- bloody smears on the deck -
In. Out.
Hazou knew this wasn't his fault - but it was -, and that the best thing he could do was focus. Lock his face in the Iron Nerve, and his hands and feet and shivering arms and legs into a smooth run because - Honami's child would never run - otherwise he'd stop and think and let the memories and the fire and the blood and the tears running off his face catch up and he couldn't handle that right now.
Left. Right. Fifty four. Fifty five.
He had lost count of how many hundreds, when Noburi, tears whipping behind him as he pushed himself forward, choked out to Hazou:
"How are you so calm?"
"Noburi!"
"Because otherwise I'll stop and ask why I'm still running. I'll stop and ask, what's worth it all? But when I'm running, when I'm moving, when I sear all the painful memories into my mind and body, I remember each and every promise.
The promise we made to Shikigami-sensei that we would grow strong.
The promise we made to the village in Iron after we left the Swamp, promising them not to oppress them because we could.
The promise we made to that team in Iron, when none of us, including them, got injured or shortchanged, because we would make negotiation work.
The promise we made to all the villagers in all the little hamlets, that we would stop and take time out of our day to help them.
The promises we made to that clan in Mountain, that we would make a world safe for Mountain to come out of its shell.
The promise that we made to ourselves in a cave, telling us that we would not stand for scorch squads, that no matter how difficult it got, we would grow strong, strong enough to end scorch squads.
The promise we made to Honami and her unborn child, that we would not be so careless with the lives of others in the future, that we would strive to make a world where they wouldn't be threatened by our mistakes.
The promise we made to Joutarou, that we'd find a way to make good faith negotiations easier than hostility and violence, make it easier to compromise rather than go to lethal force. That we'd think before jumping.
The promise that as a Kurosawa, I would stand against the darkness, to hold the line.
The sixty promises to those sixty civilians that we would make this world a better one.
To make this world a rival of the Pure World they're headed to."
Silence reigned. Hazou breathed, as the sky faded from a crimson red to a darkening blue, and the lights began to shine.
The lights were disparate as they ran onwards, in silence, gradually growing brighter and closer together, until they reached Konohagakure, the Village Hidden in the Leaves, a shining beacon against the night, bathed in a sea of lights.
"May you rest in peace, and your deaths spur me to push back the darkness itself."