(Extra Story) The Crimson Warrior Part I

After the revolution in Empire city, Alex Crowe rode to the distant lands to find himself at peace.

But what happened to Rena after she lost the battle to her brother?

This marks the story of the Crimson Warrior that takes place three months after the revolution.

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In a land distant east from Empire City, were the eastern continent of the world. It is called Endoa.

In its grassy mountainous regions are where the civilization of eastern culture resides. There are forests, mountains, rivers, and wildlife. And in terms of civilization, you get wooden structures, elevated slightly off the ground, with tilted or thatched roofs, temples too. Its people often wear traditional kimonos and other eastern clothing, though foreign garbs are allowed so that's a plus. Fishing, marketing, it is a thriving land.

Endoa is also known to be the home of shinobi, ninjas, samurais, and monks.

But now the introduction of the current place of this story is out of the way, let us now cast our gaze on the Crimson Warrior.

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In one of the valleys of Endoa, lies a temple of a ninja clan known as the Raven clan. Its architecture is wooden with sliding doors and tatami mats for indoor flooring like the rest, but the theme of the fabric is woven of black and red. A big temple stands out in the middle where the masters reside.

The garden consists of orange cherry blossom trees, small river streams, and outdoor paths filled with pebbles. The pebbles are meant to entice noise in footsteps but its residents learned to silence their steps even when walking on pebbles.

Speaking of residents, they roam around the gardens and the buildings, all dressed in red and black traditional garbs. There are also the training grounds where its warriors train and hone their skills, dressed in black Shinobi outfits with red sashes tied in their waist.

On the porch of one of the buildings, was a certain one armed girl scrubbing the floors with frustration, Rena.

She clads in a black kimono with a red sash tied on her waist. Her black hair tied in a bun. Her right sleeve was rolled and tied due to her missing right arm so she uses her left to scrub.

She can hear footsteps approaching in her direction but she didn't stop what she was doing.

Suddenly someone kicked her wrist off, causing her to fall flat on her face.

"Pardon me destroyer." A male voice mocked with contempt.

Although Rena's face is on the floor, she tilted her head to look at the two boys with shinobi outfits of their trademark colors. Both of them looked at her with animosity.

"Cleaning won't erase what you've done here." the other boy barked, then rudely kicked the bucket at her, with the water splashing all over her.

"Master Rai may have let you off that easy, but we never forgot the destruction you wrought in our lands."

Rena tightens her fist with anger building up. Her eyes glowed with golden fire. The two boys felt the tension building up so they put their hilts on their katanas, ready to kill her if she attacked.

"That's enough!!!"

The two boys turned to the new voice and saw a middle-aged man with white hair tied in a ponytail, fair skin, grey eyes and Fu Manchu moustache. He wore a red haori over his black kimono, white sash with black feathers and a black hakama.

"Master Rai! Forgive us!" the two boys bowed. Even Rena calmed down a bit and diminished her fire.

"Don't the two of you have training to attend to?" he asked humbly.

"Yes Master, we'll be on our way."

The two boys leave but not before they shoot a glare at Rena. She stared right back at them as the two disappeared from sight, leaving just her and the sensei.

"I'll have another take over cleaning. Why don't you take a bath and rest?" Rai said.

Rena gets up with a scowl and turns in the opposite direction but not before she stops in her steps.

"You should've just left me to die." she rebuked bitterly.

She walks away, leaving the master with a calm yet sympathetic expression.

She reaches the women's bathhouse and enters. She unties her sash and undid her hair, she removes her wet kimono and stripped herself naked, the stub in her right arm is covered in bandages so she didn't remove those. She slides the doors open and sees a hot spring with the marble floor surrounded by wooden walls.

She closed the door behind her and sat on a stool. She grabs a wooden bucket of water and pours it on herself along with her thoughts.

Yes. Everyone hates her here. Because she brought war on these lands, destroyed everything in her way in service of that tyrant, Caine Strahm, with everyone caught in the crossfire. The Raven Clan is one of those who got caught in that crossfire.

She finally finished rinsing and then proceeded to the bathwater. She dips in her toe first before getting the rest in. She sits down, leans on the rock and exhales.

While she settled in, she drowned her mind in reminiscence.

It's been three months since Empire city, recounting the events that she turned against her employer, took the power she desired, lost the battle to her twin brother, took her arm, and killed her.

She knew her actions are her own, but part of her knew that the demoness Tezrian slowly corrupted her, she saw her vulnerability and whispered to her to desire power, and worst of all, she fell for it and drove her to betray him.

But in the end, she got what she wanted. Power....and she lost.

How did she end up here? Rena closed her eyes as she remembers that night.

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(Flashback)

In Empire city, in the ruined streets where Alex and Rena fought, surrounded with broken cars and the buildings shattered of glass and concrete.

At the center was a crater and a blood trail leading to the nearby dark alleyway.

Rena struggles to walk as she was bleeding from her severed arm while carrying her sword with her left hand, she knew not of the distance she walked.

She pondered how she was still alive, that blow should have killed her. Then she realized that the Power of War doesn't extinguish easily, and it brought her back to life.

She eventually stops and leans to a wall while planting the tip of her sword to the ground. She held her bloody stump in attempts to stop the blood. Then she gains an idea.

She opens the palm of her left hand and conjures up the fire. She hesitates at first then gathers the courage and begins to cauterize the stump.

"RAAAAAGHHHH!!!!" she screams in agony.

Once she finished, she slumped down and allowed herself to rest with her left hand at her sword. She's so tired.

Just as she was about to close her eyes, she suddenly sensed bloodlust in the air, and she was right. She moved her head to the side to avoid the kunai to the face. She immediately got up on her feet and used her sword reverse gripped to block the incoming kunai, but she fell down due to the weakness of her missing limb.

She saw there were ninjas of black clothing, red sashes and black feathers, perching on the surrounding buildings.

She became surrounded, she could barely hold herself. But she's not about to go down without a fight. She picks herself and wields the sword with defiance. The markings began to glow with fire, meaning she still has the Power of War.

The ninjas unsheathed their katanas at the ready.

"You will die for what you did in our land." one of the ninjas threatened.

The first ninja makes the first move by striking at her, she manages to block the strike then swipes away the attack from another ninja.

Then suddenly a kunai struck her left shoulder, she yelped in pain then the next thing she knew, she kicked backwards, sent her crashing to the wall and fell to the ground.

Her vision became blurry but she was able to see who was responsible for that attack. Unlike the other ninjas, the one walking towards her was wearing red rather than black like the others. He has more armor, more black feathers for decorations, and a raven emblem scribed on his chest armor. She could hear them speak.

"This was way easier than I thought." One of the ninjas said.

"That's because she was already injured." the red ninja responded then continued to talk.

"Take her back to the temple."

"What?!!! But Master! The power she wields."

"She's already weak against us regardless, and besides, we would not bring peace by shedding blood. You will leave her to me."

Those are the last words she heard before she fades out of consciousness.

(Flashback end)

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Rena opens her eyes.

It's been three months since that day. She remembers how her master spared her that day. When she woke up, she was already on edge with the master, but she was too weak to fight any of them.

He claimed he would try to humble her, but most of the clan were not up for the idea. Occasionally some tried to kill her, out of sight like a ninja would. But those who were loyal to the Sensei protected her at his command. So nowadays she only gets hatred and death threats.

'Dammit, what was the point of sparing me? They could've had their revenge at any given moment. What was he thinking?' she thinks to herself.

"Hey there."

Her thoughts were interrupted by a feminine voice. She turns and looks at a young girl with dark blue short hair and golden eyes with a gentle expression, she also has cat ears. She seems to be around Rena's age but a bit younger.

"Mind if I join you?" the girl asked.

"Knock yourself out." Rena replied.

The girl obliged and soaked her in the waters next to the one armed girl. Awkward silence fills the air, no surprise since Rena doesn't talk much.

Until the girl was the first to break the silence.

"I'm Mayumi. You're Rena right?"

"And you're the girl who's been stalking me." Rena said stoically.

"Hehe! so you noticed me, huh?" Yumiko says, not meeting Rena's gaze.

"Yes, and yesterday, and three days ago, and a week before that, and you even stared at me on my first day here." Rena lists off, remaining unamused.

The girl's eyes widened at seeing that Rena had known she was watching her this whole time.

Mayumi laughs nervously, "Yeah, sorry about that. I didn't know how to approach you since you don't exactly seem to be the most social kind of person."

"That's explanatory given the entire dojo hates me so much." Rena rebuked.

"Not everyone hates you though. I don't hate you." Mayumi reassured.

"That still doesn't answer why you follow me. I doubt that me 'cleaning floors' and 'sweeping the pavements' would entertain you."

"I came to see how you were doing, with how they treated you. I'm sorry for that."

Rena grumbles and stands up. Mayumi got startled and blushed deeply at the ravenette's naked body.

"I don't need your sympathy. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to my room." Rena says stoically as she gets out of the water and walks away, opening the door and closing it behind her so she could put her clothes back on.

Leaving the cat-eared girl all by her lonesome.

"So much for being her friend. Maybe I shouldn't have said that." she sighed in disappointment as she sunk her head into the water with her cat ears sticking out.

Humans aren't the only ones that roam the earth. Magic has been around for the first generation of human time. Some humans were so influenced by magic that they developed some unnatural traits, such as animal appendages. These beings were called Anihumans.

When magic disappeared long ago, so did the numbers of Anihumans. But if there were snippets of magic that still exist in the present day, then they too still exist. But even they had to be secret from the masses.

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Meanwhile Rena slides the door open of her quarters and storms inside. The interior of her room is designed to match Endoa's architecture with tatami mats and a futon in the middle.

She flopped onto her futon and sighed.

She tires of the frustrating days. Another one of the luckiest days of them not killing her. But today someone other than Master Rai talks to her without hostility. And that someone is Mayumi Nanahara the master's ward, the resident cat girl.

She huffs in annoyance and drifts off to sleep.

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(Timeskip)

It is around dinnertime and everyone is at the mess hall eating their native food, from rice balls to yakisoba. It's been lively in the hall, except for Rena, who's been sitting at the lone table all by herself.

Justified, given the.... animosity with people. Occasionally she gets the glares but more often people just ignore her, and she actually enjoyed it. She took a bite out of her riceball then the resident cat girl put her tray of food on her table across from her.

"Hello there! I hope you don't mind. Everywhere else is full." Mayumi chimed sheepishly.

"Don't you usually sit next to the master?" Rena asked.

"Whatever, I sit and eat wherever I want." Mayumi looked away pouting.

She sat across the ravenette and began to dig in her yakisoba as Rena took another bite of her rice ball.

"So what's the endgame here? Got an assassination schemed?" She asked in suspicion.

"Hehe! Still not over that huh? I'm not plotting anything. Not all of us are bad."

"And what's your ulterior motive? What is it about me you are after?"

"Nothing! I....I just wanted to be your friend, that's all."

Rena scoffed.

"Then you've wasted your time. I'm not looking to make friends."

Mayumi's cat ears went down and she looked down on disappointment.

"...Oh."

The girls continued to eat though it wasn't a very good atmosphere. But then Mayumi decides to ask.

"If you don't mind me asking. What is it you really want right now?"

Then Rena stopped eating, pondering at that question, for she doesn't have the answer right now. So she picked up the chopsticks and started eating the yakisoba quietly.

Master Rai was watching them the whole time. Mayumi is the friendliest girl in the temple and there's no one who would want to be friends with her. When she decides to befriend someone, she'll see it through the end.

Rena however, is a piece of work. Some time ago, he too asked her the same question of what she really wants right now. If she doesn't accept what was, how could he ever hope to make peace and in turn give her peace?

Master Rai sighed as he took a bite out of his food.

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(Timeskip)

Dinner has already ended and everyone relaxes at their quarters or anywhere in the garden. After Rena was tasked with washing the dishes and finished, she made her way back to her quarters.

However she has much in her mind, mainly about Mayumi's question.

What does she really want right now?

Mayumi wasn't the first to ask that. Master Rai approached her with that question from day one, though he does give her a lot of time. But that question had been haunting her since. In her time working with Strahm, she fought his wars to gain ultimate power and she achieved it, at the cost of everything. What is she supposed to do now? What will she fight for?

Her thoughts were interrupted by sudden noise. She followed it at her curiosity until she caught sight of the source. She saw Mayumi being ganged by two boys who harassed her earlier.

"Why were you talking to that no-good one-armed freak." one of the boys snarled?

"I was just having a friendly talk with her, that's all."

"She's a destroyer! She doesn't deserve any kindness!"

"She's not evil! She's just misunderstood!"

This causes the boy to smack Mayumi in the face and she falls down to the floor.

Bad idea...

"Filthy Anihuman! Perhaps we ought to teach an animal like you a lesson." the boy spat as he slowly walks to a defenseless girl while cracking his knuckles.

He rears back his fist ready to hit her but someone grabs hold of his wrist. He sharply turns to look but quickly stops when he sees Rena starring daggers at him, the look sends shivers to the two boys.

"Say what you want about me....But I will not have you drag others into this!" she snarls as she threw the boy back at the other.

Mayumi was surprised at Rena while she stood between her and the two boys.

Two boys weren't gonna have this. The first boy tries to spin kick in the air but Rena ducks, moves to the left then sidekicks the boy. Then the second boy tries to high kick her only to be blocked by her left hand, she knees him to the stomach and punches him in the face. The first boy recovered and did a jumping kick, but Rena sidestepped but got hit when the boy smacked her with his right arm. However Rena managed to grab him by the scarf and threw him to the other boy.

She watches them fall with a scowl in her face. The second guy pulls out a kunai. Her eyes narrowed then her sights fell on the broom that happened to be next to her. The boy jumps and spins but Rena kicks him by the chest to push him back. She grabs the broom and walks towards him, he tries to strike her with the kunai but she swipes it away with the broom and unleashes a flurry of hits in his face before sweeping his leg, causing him to fall to the ground and kicks him off.

The other guy was gonna attack but Rena already pointed the broom at him. Seeing the situation, the boy picked up his friend.

"We won't forget this." he growled before the two of them retreated.

Rena lets out a sigh before dropping the broom. She walks back to Mayumi who's still sitting and offers her a hand.

"You okay?" she asked.

"Oh I'm fine, don't worry about me." Mayumi answered, taking her hand and standing up.

Silence fills the air for a moment until Rena breaks the silence.

"Sorry...about before." She hesitantly apologizes. Although her face remained a scowl, her cheeks were a little tinged pink.

"It's okay! I get it." Mayumi replied.

"....Still friends?" Rena offered her left hand, well being the only hand.

"Yeah....friends." the cat-eared girl smiled with joy as she took her hand and shook it.

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After escorting Mayumi to her room, Rena heads back to hers. However, she's not surprised to see Master Rai standing at the door to her room, with a small smile.

"I take it you saw everything?" she asked.

"I saw you do something other than for yourself." the master replied.

"What you saw is NOTHING!" she growled back as she opened her door and walked inside. But she stopped in front of her futon and let out a sigh.

"Why would you do this?" she asked.

"Do what?" the master asked, though it's as if he was playing her.

"You defended me from discrimination, you sent her to be my friend. This was never for me was it?"

Master Rai sighs. "Well you certainly wrought destruction and wronged our people, I thought by making peace with you, I could bring peace to us. That was one reason. For the other, our temple is not just a home of warriors of the shadows, it is also a haven to those in need. Even to the children of Sebastian Corvus."

Her eyes widened from surprise hearing that name.

"How did you know my father?!!!" she interrogates.

Master Rai's hand reaches down to his pocket and pulls out a picture frame and hands to Rena. She takes it and looks at the picture. She saw her dad when he was younger, along with the younger version of Master Rai.

"Your father and I were the best of friends...or rather brothers. We trained together, we became assassins. But years after that he decided to leave, I did not understand why but I did when I saw your mother, your brother, and you. He was at peace, a sense of family."

Rena listened carefully as Master Rai turned around to gaze on the moon.

"When I was appointed to be the leader of the Raven Clan, I thought I could bring the same peace your father once had, to treat them like family. I was distraught when I learned of your mother and father's death. But the winds tell me that his children lives yet damaged. To honor your father's memory, I sought to fix what was broken. I started with your brother when he came to us, and now I wish to do the same with you."

Master Rai turned to look at Rena, whose eyes emit the truth of his intentions.

She had to admit she was astonished with the history. But then she scoffed.

"You can't absolve me! I've done terrible things to turn back from that point!" she raised her voice in agitation.

"Yes, betraying your brother, bringing ruin upon not just our lands but many. Why do you do it?"

"BECAUSE I WANTED POWER!!!" She yelled.

He got her at her breaking point so kept silent.

"...surprised?...I know what I've done, I may have won my first battle against Alex because he refused to use his power, but that's not the victory I wanted. I knew he was stronger than he looks, I wanted to prove that I am as strong as he is, feared as he is, to be his equal. To do that, STRENGTH must be taken!!!"

"But now you have it, you lost when you pushed him to finally use his power." Master Rai interrupted her.

Rena looked away in shame then he continued. "If I didn't know any better. I'd say you're just tired of living under his shadow...or you just never wanted to be seen or see yourself weak ever again."

Rena's eyes widened at the realization. She wanted to find the words to rebuke him, but deep down he was right, she just never saw it that way. But then she felt herself being pulled to an embrace by her master's arms.

"You may have done terrible things because of that, but it doesn't mean you're far too gone. I believe you can still choose the right path. I know I'm not your father..."

Rena then shoves him off.

"Stop pretending! Because you're not. Everything I touch turns to ruin and suffering. I'm not worth saving" she cuts him off then trails off at the last part, thinking on her past mistakes.

Master Rai did not change his calming expression but it still stings.

"I'm aware...this temple is a haven to all those in need. All you have to do is ask." he says as he turns to the door.

"And if you think you have no hope. Just remember, you saved her tonight."

He left, leaving her surprised. He was right. She knew things wouldn't change if she stayed like this, but not only did she save Mayumi but she also became her friend. Can she really do it?

Master Rai was walking slowly, thinking if he said the right words.

"Wait master!" Rena called out.

Master Rai halted his steps and looked at her and she looked like she was about to cry but refuse to.

"I...I want to set things right...but...I don't know how to....I...I need your help."

He could see that it took all her effort to swallow her pride that can't help but smile.

"Your training starts tomorrow." He obliged.

Rena looked at him with a small smile.

"Have a good night's rest." He waved off before leaving.

Rena walks back to her room and closes the door.

She doesn't really know if she can walk a path to redemption.

But a little courage is all she needs.