Twin Blades: Prologue

A cool summer breeze swept across the plains, causing the grass to ripple like waves rolling over a bright green sea. The single tree in the midst of the plain swayed, and it’s leaves rustled. There was a man sitting at the base of the tree, dressed in simple grey clothes with leather padding added to it around his arms, legs, and chest as rudimentary armor. Two swords were strapped to his belt; one was in a black sheath, one in a white sheath. The man lifted his face skywards to feel the breeze, his long hair floating along with the wind as it flowed around him. He closed his eyes and smiled for a second, content to be there, with no distractions, no orders, nobody to distract him. He could simply sit back and observe the flow of the world around him. Then he heard the rustling of footsteps. He lowered his head, donned a slight frown, and prayed that whoever it was didn’t bother him.
The footsteps stopped. “You!”
Damn it. The man sighed, opened his eyes, and stood up to face the newcomer.
In front of him stood a large, imposing man with short white hair and tanned skin. He was dressed in a regal red cloak, with a single sword at his side. Both the sheath and the cloak had a matching golden dragon pattern on them. The man was clearly noble born at the least, royalty at the most. Although that was unlikely.
The newcomer glared at him, his hands on his sword. “You are Kazuki the Shamed, are you not?”
Kazuki nodded. “I am.”
The newcomer snarled at Kazuki. “You were the one that killed my brother, correct?”
Kazuki sighed in exasperation. “I am.”
“Good.” the newcomer drew his sword, and fell back into a fighting stance. “I am Fukushu Shika, and I have been searching for you. One as dangerous as you cannot be allowed to live!” The man lunged at Kazuki, aiming to drive his sword into Kazuki’s heart. Kazuki swiftly sidestepped the attack.
“Sloppy.” Kazuki drew the two swords from their sheaths, one having an ebony blade and the other having a silver one. “Now your balance is off.” He brought the silver blade upwards, and it knocked the stranger’s blade upwards and out of his hands. “And balance is everything. You should know better than to try that, if you really do know who I am. I am not some amateur.”
Fukushu stared at Kazuki in terror. He backed away towards where his own sword had landed. “But…you were but a recruit when you slew those soldiers, and they were taken by surprise! My brother was a master swordsman! There was no way a recruit such as you could have overpowered him by a novice!”
Kazuki stared at him with a blank, emotionless expression. “Your overconfidence betrays you, as theirs did. Their recklessness also got them killed.” He lowered his blades, their tips skimming the grass. Fukushu watched as the black blade left a swath of sliced grass where it passed, slicing a small gouge out of the surface of the grass. The silver blade seemed to pass through the grass like nothing was there, but the grass remained the same. He slowly looked back at Kazuki in absolute horror.
“The Black Blade! You didn’t! How could you––“
“Because I had no other choice!”
Fukushu froze, keeping his eyes locked on Kazuki. Kazuki’s features were contorted in rage, his mouth twisted into a snarl. Even his fists were quivering with anger.
“If I had not risked it, we all would have died anyway. Your brother was too weak to strike me down when I gave him the chance to do so. If he had, then maybe the rest of them might have survived.”
The man shuffled backwards, stumbling eventually and landing next to his fallen sword. “It’s the Black Blade! Even in that situation, you’d have to be mad to even think of using it!”
Kazuki took a single step forward, snarling, swords flying forward, before he halted himself and a visibly forced expression of concentration clouded his features. He closed his eyes, stood there for a moment, his expression becoming calm and neutral. He sheathed his swords. He turned away from Fukusho. “Madness is but a facet of the human mind. Everyone taps into it at one time or another. The key to sanity is balancing madness with reality, and that day my balance was off.” He fell silent for a moment, and lowered his head to stare at the ground. “Your brother was a good man. Of the lot of us, he deserved to survive the most. It was a tragedy that I ended up being forced to take his life.” Kazuki began walking away from the man.
The newcomer shakily grabbed his sword, and got to his feet. He hesitated for a moment, then lunged forward, screaming. Kazuki ducked low and drew both of his swords, tripping Fukusho as he went by. As Fukusho picked himself up off of the ground, Kazuki held the sliver blade to his throat. Fukusho froze in fear, staring at the blade in utter terror. Kazuki drew the blade across the man’s throat, and Fukusho screamed and grabbed his throat. Then he stopped, and stared at his hands. “There’s no blood…”
Kazuki examined the blade of the silver sword. “Hmm. Apparently you have been judged worthy to live.” He sheathed both of his swords, then held out his hand to Fukusho. Fukusho hesitated, then took it. Kazuki lifted him to his feet, then reached down and picked up Fukusho’s sword and balanced the flat of the blade on his fingers near its hilt. It tilted to one side, and fell. He caught it with his other hand, and spun the hilt towards Fukusho. Fukusho hesitantly accepted the sword. “Your sword is off balance. I suggest obtaining a new blade. Some balance training might help you as well. You need work, but if Masamune see the good in you, then clearly you must have potential.”
Fukusho stared at him, agape. “You can’t possibly mean–“
“I do. I wield both the Black Blade, Muramasa, and the the Silver Sword, Masamune. Muramasa’s control is balanced out by Masamune’s own influence. I am both slave and master to both blades, as they are to me. It is a delicate balance, but a stable one.” Kazuki turned and stepped away from Fukusho, then stopped. “You are an honorable man, like your brother was. I wish you well. May we cross paths again someday.”
As Kazuki walked of into the sunset, he flipped a single coin backwards, and it landed somewhere in the grass. Fukusho quickly ran forward to pick it up and return it to him, and found it lying up on its edge, perfectly balanced. Fukusho stared at it, then snatched it up and looked towards Kazuki, who was staring back, smirking. Fukusho looked at the coin once more. On it was inscribed the character for “scale” and a small pictograph of a market’s balancing scales. “‘Scale?’ Like one used at a market to balance prices? What does this mean?” When he had looked up, Kazuki had vanished, as if he had ridden the wind to some far-off land.