3 Ash to Ash

Ayami puts on her granny voice in an attempt to make her grandfather believe it is his mother. "Oh, don't worry about me, dear. I'm just passing by." "Well you sure have lost a couple pounds. Also, you're dead. Cut the crap Ayami. And Akira, get from behind her." Their grandfather says as Akira then pops up from behind Ayami. "What are you two doing up this late in the night? And those weapons! Where did you get the-" Their grandfather stops his sentence as he then realizes who's weapons those are. "Look grandpa, we can explain." Ayami then says with urgency "I don't want your half baked explanations. Tell me what you guys were doing with your parents' weapons-" Their grandfather says sternly before getting cut off by Ayami "But-" "Now." Their grandfather says. Akira then sighs as he puts his hands in his pocket saying "Fine. It honestly blows my mind how you haven't noticed this by now, gramps. We've been leaving the house at night to go train. We've been doing it for almost 3 years too, so it's kind of crazy how you really haven't noticed it till now." "Are you serious?" Their grandfather says "Yes, I'm serious." Akira then confirms. "And that's not even all. It's funny how we've taken our parents' weapons and you didn't notice that either. It's just funny how you hide these weapons from us but never even noticed when they went missing." "Watch your tongue when you're talking to me, kid." Their grandfather says sternly "I'd be more scared of that if you weren't old and if I didn't have experience, but guess what? Both of those things are checked off of the list." Akira says angrily.

"Akira…" Ayami says with a concerned voice. "You gotta relax" "Don't tell me to relax!" Akira yells. "I just find it hilarious how he goes through the trouble to stop us from being what we want to be because of something our parents did! They chose to risk their lives on the field! If they were smarter it wouldn���t have happened!" "Akira! You have no right to say something like that! You don't know the last thing about your parents!" Their grandfather retorts "What do you mean I don't know the last thing about my parents?! I Spent 9 years of my life with them!" Akira then yells back "Please…" Ayami mumbles under her breath, not loud enough to be heard over the yelling of Akira and her grandfather. "Just because you spent most of your life with them doesn't mean you know them. Your mother was MY daughter, remember that." Their grandfather said "Please... " Ayami mumbles under her breath again. "You're gonna tell me that mom told you everything? That's incredibly hard to believe." Akira says "Well you better believe it you temper tantrum clown."

"STOP!" Ayami then screams out, stopping both Akira and her grandfather in their tracks. "What do you all plan to accomplish by having this argument?! Huh?! Don't even give me an answer because it's nothing! Grandpa I understand that you don't want us fighting because of what happened to mom and dad but please! You have to understand that if we don't do this nobody else will. What happens when our village gets attacked? It's been a long time since anything like that has happened but if anything pops off Mom and Dad won't be there to save us this time! You have to understand that this is for the village's best interest, for the world's best interest."

"You want me to believe that? It's been 7 years since we've gotten raided. Your parents scared them bad enough for them to never mess with this place again!" Their grandfather says

"But how do you know that?! YOU DON'T! So stop trying to act like you know everything because you don't! Please, just try to understand that this is for the best."

"No! You kids want a deathwish! Your parents were trained heroes and they still died! You have to understand that you guys are all I have left. If I lose you, I have nothing left.

Akira opens his mouth but no words come out. Being flustered, he runs out of the door and into the woods.

"Akira!" Ayami yells.

"Grandpa, I'm sorry that that's your reality but you also have to understand where we're coming from. If anything, this can have everybody be safe, a place where people can live and know that they have protection from heroes. We have a passion and I promise you we will do whatever it takes to get there. And if that means leaving you behind, then so be it. You just have to understand that it isn't only about you. It's about the entire world."

When she finishes saying this she walks out of the door in an attempt to find Akira. Her grandfather stands there and watches as she walks out of the door, knowing that there was nothing he could do to stop her.

Ayami could be seen walking through the forest with her hands around her mouth calling Akira's name, trying her best to find him. Akira could hear these calls but made no effort to find her.

Ayami makes her way through the forest and then comes across a lake. The same lake they always went to.

"There you are." Ayami said with concern, seeing Akira balled up near the lake."You had me worried."

"You shouldn't be. What's happening right now is irrelevant." Akira quickly replies with an unenthused voice.

"I shouldn't be? I haven't seen you that upset since you dropped your bowl of cereal on the floor last year." Ayami says trying to lighten the mood but failing.

"Yeah, yeah." Akira says in the same unenthused voice

"Look, Akira I understand that you're upset about Mom and Dad's death but you shouldn't pin their deaths on them."

"Am I wrong though?" Akira asks

"I don't know if you're right or wrong but one thing I do know is that you don't know. You heard grandpa, apparently there's a lot of stuff that Mom and Dad didn't tell us. Anything could've happened to them. If they risked their lives I can almost guarantee that it wasn't for no reason."

"You're right but still… Did they have to die?" Akira says as his voice starts to shake "Couldn't there have been another way? Why did it have to happen like this?"

"I don't know, Akira but it had to have happened for a reason. I definitely miss Mom and Dad and I really do wish that they could still be here with us but this was their destiny, their fate."

"Who gives a damn about fate! Akira yells with his shaky voice, tucking his face into his legs and covering his face. "In some timeline there is an outcome where they live! Why couldn't it be ours…" a teardrop could be seen fall on the grass

Ayami starts to get sad seeing her brother like this but doesn't show it. "Well think about it like this. If mom and dad didn't die the way they did. They would've died in some way the way I see it. I believe in fate, if they didn't die then, then their enemies would find them later. It'd just repeat the cycle. If Mom and Dad were still alive, we wouldn't be the way we are now. We'd still be mom and dad's little kids and sure that sounds nice but I believe it's our destiny to do what we're doing now."

Akira says nothing to this

"Believe me" Ayami says as her voice starts to shake "I miss the heck out of mom and dad but this is the way it is now and we just have to live with it." She hugs Akira tightly while her eyes glisten with the water forming from their conversation.

Akira gets up and wipes his tears "Thank you, Ayami, a lot. It's kind of funny because usually I'm the one helping you, heh" he says with a smile.

"Yeah, anytime bro" Ayami says as she lightly punches Akira's shoulder.

A familiar voice could be heard from behind Akira and Ayami. "Quite the story you two have."

"Huh??" Ayami says as she turns around. She looks to find Kasumi.

"What are you doing here?! I thought you had to go home! And why are you listening in on our sentimental conversations!" she yells as she hits kasumi on the head.

"Owwwww" Kasumi said

"You don't get to 'Ow'! You were eavesdropping! Ayami yells

"I'm sorry." Kasumi cried

"May I ask what happened to your parents, exactly?"

"Uhhh…" Ayami says in indecisiveness as she looks towards Akira

"It's fine." Akira says "As a matter of fact, I'll say it for you. We don't know exactly what happened to our parents and that's exactly what I want to figure out. All we know is that they went on a mission one day and didn't come back for weeks."

"I'm sorry to hear that…" Kasumi says with sympathy.

"It's all good." Akira says as he then mumbles underneath it's breath "No it's not."

"Well i'll be going now i simply came here because I forgot my weapon on the grass." Kasumi says tucking his nunchucks into a pocket on his right side and walking away.

Kasumi stops walking and turns around in confusion "Do you guys smell that?"

"No?" Ayami says in confusion, wondering what Kasumi could be smelling "What exactly are you smelling?"

"It smells like something's burning." Kasumi says

"Then maybe it's some person camping in the woods-" Ayami says before getting cut off by Kasumi.

"No. I don't think it's just a campfire." Kasumi runs behind the tree as he vanishes, a cat taking his place climbing around the tree facing both Akira and Ayami.

He reaches the top of the tree and sees a burning village in the distance, smoke pilling up in the sky.

"It's a village!" Kasumi yells as he then hops behind the tree and comes back as a human.

"A village? In that Direction?!" Ayami says in fear

"Yes! We gotta go, now! You guys wanna be heroes like me, right? Time to put your skills to the test." Kasumi says as he looks towards Akira and Ayami.

"No no no no no. We say that we're gonna be there when something pops off and look at us now! Letting our village burn.." Akira says in disappointment

""We don't have time to be thinking about what we didn't do, Akira! If anything if we get running now we can make it in time! Hop on!" Ayami says as Akira then proceeds to hop on her back.

"Alright! I'll go check if there are any survivors." Kasumi says as he then bolts in the direction of the village leaving blue sparks where he once was.

Ayami then pushes ice out of her feet and hands causing her and Akira to propel forward. She does this as the thought rushes through Akira's head.

"Please let Grandpa be okay…"

Kasumi reaches the village very quickly and finds 3 people. He sees a small pink haired girl with pink eyes and a smile on her face, wearing a black top with cut sleeves, black pants, and white gloves. She was seen standing with two others. A tall white haired male with silver eyes, who wore a black jacket with black pants and black gloves and a Black haired male with yellow eyes but one of eyes seemed to be impared, as if he was blind. He also wore a black jacket with black pants and white gloves.

Kasumi looked at these people and tried his best to avoid them using his speed. Trying his best to find survivors.

Ayami and Akira make it out of the forest to find the village burning in blue flames seeing blood splattered on the floor.

Akira hops off of Ayami's back and runs towards their grandfather's house.

"Wait, Akira!" Ayami yells but Akira doesn't listen to her.

Akira runs into his grandpa's house as Ayami quickly follows. They find they're grandfather on the floor, wounded.

"Grandpa!" Both Akira and Ayami say in unison.

Their grandfather starts to cough as Akira turns him over so that he could face the roof of the house.

"Grandpa what happened here?!" Akira asks urgently

"3 people *cough* *cough* in all black *cough* they came and started destroying *cough* the village. I tried to stop them but- *cough* they weren't passive villagers like us."

Tears start to flow down Ayami's face. "We can't lose you too grandpa! We were supposed to be there to protect you and now, look! We're terrible grandchildren!"

"*cough* It's okay, It's okay. You two are the best grandchildren I could- *cough* ask for." Akira's eyes start to water but he doesn't let the teardrop fall out of his eyes as the grandfather continues on

"I know I might be tough *cough* on you sometimes but I still love you guys *cough* *cough*. I know that you two will do great in life *cough*. No matter what someone does *cough* it'll never stop you from achieving your goal. That's what I love about you two hehe *cough* *cough*"

Their grandfather starts to cough up blood

"Grandpa!" Ayami screams as the tears roll down her cheeks, her eyes glistening in the blue flame that spreads across the streets of their village.

"I've been hard on you guys. *cough* *cough* *cough* I think you guys deserve to know now. *cough* Their grandfather says this as he struggles to lift up his hand.

"Hold on *cough* please…"

Akira and Ayami hold on to their grandfather's hand. Their faces of sadness turned into faces of determination as they both let go of their grandfather's hand.

"I love you grandpa." Ayami says

"I love you too, kitty hehe." Their grandfather says before dying

Akira and Ayami slowly walk out of the back door of their house before being greeted with Kasumi.

"I couldn't find any survivors. We gotta get out of here, now! There were 3 people in black and they didn't look very nice!" Kasumi says immediately after realizing who it is.

Akira and Ayami nod as they follow Kasumi into the woods.

"You saw them too, right?"

"Yeah, yeah they're the least of our worries right now. We did what we were told. It doesn't matter if a couple of kids got away."

"You're right. Let's just get out of here.

The trio that were involved in the destruction of this village could be seen walking in the opposite direction of which Kasumi, Akira and Ayami went. As they walk the village buildings could be seen crumbling down before them. A piece of rubble falls in front of the camera ending the chapter