Chapter IV: Awakening

As snow gently fell and a soft wind blew through the trees a young boy could be seen swinging an axe as he cut up some fallen trees that were blown about during storm season. Zero looked weak if one looked at him briefly, however the strength carried by the axe could be seen as he cleanly cut the logs into small blocks. A young middle aged man stood to the side having already tired himself with his own work and loaded the small cart they had taken to help carry back the firewood. Zero swung the axe down again and again for a few hours before the cart was full, realising this he put the axe on top of all the wood before tying it all down.

"Zero, once again you've outworked me even though your just a child... let's head back and you can go check on that knuckle headed brother of yours" The middle aged man started pulling the cart once Zero was done, though older this man did not have the strength nor the stamina to compete against Zero, however he and Zero often competed and could be considered good friends.

"Come on Dan you know just as much as I do the amount of stuff that needs to be done... besides today's the day they come for more money and as strongest of the villages aspiring youth I need to be present."

"You don't have to worry about it this time, I hear their reducing the taxes so that the suffering villages can build up a bit... just go check on Tatsumi and the others"

"Fine Dan... but if you need me just yell and I'll come running back axe in hand!"

They both laughed as they reached the village and parted ways.

Zero walked towards the area where he, Tatsumi and the other kids trained to fight and survive. upon arrival Zero was pounced on from behind by another young boy who always wore a read and white bandana like a headband causing a slightly surprised Zero to quickly and calmly turn catching the poor boy with one hand.

"Hey Ieyasu, you seen my brother around?" Zero put Ieyasu down when two more figures pounced on him from above, seeing this Ieyasu quickly spun trying to kick Zero's legs out from under him.

"Hey Sayo, hey Bro" Zero quickly caught the two and put them down half throwing Tatsumi at Ieyasu while gently placing the young Sayo on the ground, the cute little girl pretended to pout after they failed to knock Zero down.

"Zero, glad you could joins us, we were just talking about you"

"Hey old man it's tax day you better head back"

Zero was respectful to this man who had taught him how to fight, however he always addressed this late middle aged man as old and causing quite a few headaches during training as Zero was the best fighter of this ragtag group of kids.

"alright I'll be...."

They all heard the sounds of yelling and could smell burning wood coming from the Villages direction, everyone looked at each other before rushing back. Zero raised his head and watched the village appear in the distance, the smoke of a large fire permeating the air.

When they got back to the village they noticed something horrifying that caused both pain and anger to rise in Zero's heart while Tatsumi fell to his knee's and watched in grief as their childhood home burned to the ground. The village chief ran over and tried to console Tatsumi while Zero ran off following some wagon tracks he had noticed.

"Zero!" seeing him run off all bar Tatsumi yelled to try and call him back, but their calls fell on deaf ears as Zero sped off into the distance.

Zero ran and ran, following the tracks with one thought in mind "Mother!". While he ran Zero failed to notice that his body started changing and his blood started to emanate a powerful heat and ferocious strength, the snow would soon turn red.