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Co-writing credits go to Uzumaki Ricky, Monsterhuntergod, Sharad the hedgehog, and Traines, as well as Kima Whitehawk Jordan on Facebook.
Tiger King and Dragon Queen
Volume 1 Chapter 13: Darkness Upon the Heart
The mountainous peaks of the Sōtora's heartlands were some of the most serene lands one could find in all of Mistral. However, if there was a worse day to pick to bury a man, then the clan would really have to look hard. Practically from out of nowhere, as if the world cried out in injustice, gale force north winds and thunderous rain battered down onto the mountain. Yet, in the lower slopes, the Sōtora soldiered on. To the guests from Patch, the scale of what was happening was beyond whatever Azura and his extended tree of servants attempted to explain.
Men and women of every stripe, every profession and every character that lived on the mountain lined the cobbled winding road descending into the shade-choked valleys below. The Castle of Azure, one of the crown jewels of Mistral, stood as silent as the man they came to mourn. Only the howling wind, pouring rain, and the stoic march of steel toed boots could be heard. But a single line of police stood between the people and the procession route. It was simply a formality, for no one dared even step on the curb of the road.
Yang stood at Azura's side, holding an umbrella to keep some of the rain off them. It did not help much, but Azura gave her a brief nod of thanks for it. Yang, however, wondered just how long they were supposed to stand in this dreadful weather. Funerals were rarely quick affairs, she remembered that much from her mother's. She did not have to wait for as long as she thought.
"Here they come." Azura said bluntly, not even looking up the road. Instead, he was gazing off into the magnificent mountains beyond with a thousand-yard stare.
"Are you going to make it?" Yang asked in concern.
"It does not matter if I make it. I am going to see this through." Was all the cryptic answer she was going to get out of him.
Before Yang could probe him more for a proper answer, she felt a slight tremor in the ground. Faint at first. Yet slowly but surely it built with surety not possible by nature. Looking up as best she could into the fierce, cold storm surge, out came the largest procession she had ever seen.
At first the view was blocked by great, bulky masked men carrying standards the size of which you would see on flag poles. The mighty, silken banners, woven in with silk and strands of metal flowed as elegantly as streams against the gales. Some had great family symbols, other depictions of great battles or accomplishments. She swore she saw one of a great man in red armor slaying a dragon. Yet greatest of all in size and grandeur, held aloft by a towering man of shocking age, bore the clan's symbol. With silver edging and cast across black fabric, was a monstrous roaring tiger head of the most strident azure she had ever seen.
"Who's that…?" Yang asked before she was cut off.
"My grandfather. He was insistent on carrying the thing. My aunt did not want him to because of his age. Looks like he wore her down." Azura said, smiling a bit in spite of the clear pain that leaked through.
Behind the banners were phalanxes of shockingly modern security men, marching in lock step and bedecked with medals and honors. Behind them were relic bearers, carrying, sometimes in teams, items of wealth and glory that Yang could hardly keep track of. The ones that stood out were reliquaries, giant shrines held up by men somehow larger and bulkier than the bannermen. Yet central to all of that was the casket.
Yang and Ruby honestly thought it was going to be more splendid, striking. Yet, as if fittingly, it was true to the man. No gold, no silver, only the clan symbol on it was the extent of the ornamentation. It was but a coffin of deep colored wood, sanded and polished to be like a mirror.
It was only when the coffin passed did people seem to let everything out at once. Everyone from beggars to lords of the court broke at seeing it. Their tears and wails were masked by wind and rain. To the Xiao Long-Rose family however, all Azura got out of it was a flinch, and his hands began to tremble dreadfully.
"Azura. Your hands are…" Ruby tried to say but he cut her off.
"It's just the cold." Azura assuredly said.
He did not have time for another response. He felt his right hand be enveloped by a silken touch. Shocked, he looked to see it was Yang's hand. She gave him a small smile, causing his heart to miss a beat in the moment. However, it did not take him long to grip her hand in kind. As if like magic, his trembling stalled and finally stopped.
Hours dragged on as the procession trudged through winding and twisting mountain paths. As they walked behind in the great sorrowful heaving masses, it was clear to Yang that these roads were not designed for something like this. Yet, in almost blissful spite of such expectations, they made their way deeper into the crag filled valleys. The cliff faces rose and rose, peaks practically rising from the earth as they walked. Ruby even swore at one point they went in a circle. Azura could not confirm or deny that detail.
Finally, as if a small mercy were finally granted to them all for perseverance, they seemingly arrived at their destination. They first noticed it from towering bonfires that rose defiantly through the storm, reaching the heights of buildings in the city of Vale. Between these pillars of fire stood plain, silent monks and priests in the colors of the clan, hoods up. Ascending stairs cut masterfully into the side of the mountain; they heard a grinding noise awaiting them. As if stone was being ground into fine, atomic dust.
Said baneful sound came from two doors of black volcanic stone meters thick, pushed open by practically a whole order of those same hooded figures. Only inlays of gold foretold it was made by men. The sight inside, however, took the girls' breaths away. Carved into the mountain by countless generations of masons, carvers, and workers was a great tomb.
The necropolis held inside it a choking, oppressive, and ill aura to it. Its hard and stocky stone features, adding to the feeling of crushing weakness they all now found. A place such as this was no place for the living, even for an occasion such as this. More lay dead here than any city of the living now.
Led into somewhat lowered areas by the monks, they found great stone pews, not unlike a church, but far more of them, and far grander in scale. Cutting this massive seating arrangement in half was a causeway that could easily be mistaken for a superhighway. Even as the coffin and its escorts crossed it, unlike before, not even the vibration of lock stepped marching could be felt. Even sound came here to die, it seemed.
Only lit by torches and smaller bonfires, the procession finally ended, resting the coffin upon the mechanism to lower it into its final place. They had set it inside a clearly freshly cut tomb. What stunned the guests most of all was that it looked less like a tomb and more like a shrine. As if Azolum was not a man to be buried, but a god to be worshiped. The fact his was surrounded by other shrines of similar magnitude made the point quite clear.
"It is funny. I have been here only a few times… yet each time it fills me with awe." Azura whispered, as if fearful to speak too loudly.
"How do you guys have the money to make this place?" Yang whispered in disbelief.
"Those who work here do not work for money. It is volunteer work. It is out of a sense of duty to those who have served their clan to their fullest. That being to their death." Azura answered, almost poetically.
"Isn't that illegal?" Yang whispered.
"It's classified under religious practices in the Mistral Imperial Constitution." Verdant answered from behind her.
"You guys seem to throw bigger funerals than parties…" Ruby nervously said.
"It's the Akazaru's job to throw big parties." Kenshi simply answered.
"And don't you forget it." Red answered with pride from two rows down.
All so lost the will to speak as the first true sound created inside this cavern was heard. A sharp, piercing echo of a wooden cane on stone. Several hooded priests walked before and behind a truly ancient specimen of the priestly orders. The top of his head had not a single bit of evidence it had ever held hair, yet his sides held practically ax blades of gray hair. Soon arriving at a shockingly simple podium of polished wood, a great tome was set down for him by one of the priests, and a necklace of gold emblazoned with a man's face, fierce in expression, wearing a judge's cap and a mace.
"Who are they?" Ruby asked Azura.
"They are the priesthood of Enma-Ō, the judge of the dead." Azura grimly answered.
The old man pulled from his robes a pair of equally ancient-styled spectacles and put them on the bridge of his sharp nose. One of his fellow priests put a judge's cap on his head, and the other gave him an onyx black mace. Looking up at the crowd, he opened the book without even looking at it to the exact page he needed.
"Fear not, children of wind and metal, for the lord Enma-Ō judges all equally and fairly. Do not avail him with prayers. He is too busy to answer them." The priest said, his voice so sure and soft, yet completely commanding.
"We gather now to judge the man of whom you brave the cries of heaven to see laid to rest. Sōtora Azolum, a man known to all by two vastly different faces. To many, he was a titan of justice, security, and order. A man beloved for both his equal strength and kindness." The old man boomed.
"What's the deal with this guy?" Yang asked, confused at the strange, almost irreverent manner the priest gave his sermon.
"He is a follower of the judge of the dead. He holds no allegiance. Nothing can sway the god except your actions in life. His order performs a demonstration of what father's soul is going through likely as we speak." Azura whispered in response.
"Yet to others he was a tyrant hiding behind a throne of peace. A man whose such strength could crack mountains, level forest, tames seas. He had the greatest honors in the palm of his hands, yet he threw them away on a whim. A man who brought security with an iron gauntlet, crushing all those who oppose law and order with the wrath of heaven." The priest continued, as the crowd lay silent in the face of it.
The Xiao Long-Rose family all frowned at the way Azolum was being spoken of. "I don't like this…" Ruby muttered.
"How can that old bastard-" Yang quietly growled out in anger, only to feel something rough and calloused, but surprisingly gentle grip her hand.
Looking over, Yang saw that it was Azura who had taken her hand. His face was as stern and unmoving as a mask of stone, yet his eyes held anger and pain. So deeply so that Yang swore she could see the turmoil inside him deep within the depths of his soul.
"Just bear with it…" Azura whispered to them as the family of four guests nodded and tried to tough it out.
"You all sit here now surrounded by those who have been judged by the King of the Ten Hells. Those in life who were spouses, children, lovers, rivals, and friends. Though Azolum has left this mortal plane to be reunited with his ancestors, for all his strengths, his failings, his glories and black marks, he is now equal to them all. We are all equal in death and equally judged by what we did in this life." The priest said, looking across the crowd.
"Now is the time to remember him, to contemplate his actions, his choices. Like the great judge below us, his legacy is laid before you, and each of yours to judge. One of you has been chosen to speak up in his defense. The elder of his twin middle children, Sōtora Azura." The Judge said.
Releasing Yang's hand, Azura stood up and walked out into the aisle. Walking up the rows of benches, all eyes were on him with every step. Stopping in front and to the left of the podium, Azura turned to look at everyone else present.
"As the judge has said, the man we judge before us today had more than one side to him. Many of you called him a protector, a defender of justice and peace. Some outside of these halls called him a tyrant who stamped out any and all who dared to oppose the law and order of the land. I… called him father. The man who raised me… trained me… and made me into who I am today." Azura began, stopping for a moment to compose himself.
"Regardless of the judgment passed upon him as he makes his way into the next life… I will never forget everything he taught me. The love and care he showed me. Regardless of what others may think of him… in my eyes… Sōtora Azolum was a great man. One of the best you could ever hope to meet. And the world is that much darker with him gone…" Azura finished sadly, falling silent.
"Thank you, lad, for your brave defense in the face of sorrow." The priest answered surprisingly softly.
"Rise for the lowering of the casket!" One of the priests boomed through the halls, and everyone upon that command rose in unison.
Each of the priests then moved from their stations on the podium to equal points on each side of the casket. From their simple black robes, they each pulled out a mace, and then in a rhythm raised them, and then lowered them onto spokes in the mechanism. Each full set of swings lowered the casket more and more until, finally, everyone heard it slam into the bottom of the tomb. Then the procession members all slowly lifted a massive slab of stone by a handrail on each side. With slow, measured steps in unison they carried it over to the opening as the rigging was moved.
Once they reached the top, each person let go of the rail. The massive stone dropped into place, slamming into the stone below with a thunderclap. The sheer rudeness of the sound nearly frightened Ruby to death, and Yang swore it would have awoken the dead. However, once the fright died down, a deafening silence filled the town. No word was spoken, no hammer fell. Only the darkness inside the hallowed halls.
As the doors opened again to let everyone out for the long trek home, mercifully the weather had died down. The rain drained to mist, and the wind merely nipped at one's clothes and skin. However, what set in was a deathly cold. Such chills were not uncommon in the high peaks of the world, but even for the Sōtora, used to such things as they were, they even felt it. Azura even visibly shivered when he finally left with his group. He practically had to be dragged away from the tomb he had stayed there so long.
As the group made their way out of the necropolis back towards the mountain trail, carefully avoiding puddles of mud and rainwater, they soon noticed one of their number not among them. Azura was missing. Turning to look, they saw him looking back at the ancient mountain tomb, staring at it as if committing the sight to memory. As though he did not want to leave quite yet.
Yang came running towards him and stopped just behind him, putting her hand on his shoulder. Though Yang could not see it, she could tell that Azura was breathing heavily and holding back tears. His chest was heaving with pain. He felt like his chest was going to burst into flames. Then he could not anymore. He let it all out with wails.
Yang gave him a gentle hug, turning him around to face her and bringing him closer to her chest as she stroked his beautiful blue hair, grown longer from when he got the news, feeling his tears on her shirt shoulder. She held back her own tears. She wanted to tell him so badly how deeply she cared about him right then and there, surprising herself at the thought of the potential feelings that she may have for her friend, but she knew it was not time and place.
Ruby came running up behind her, her dark red hair all went from the rain and her silver eyes more diamond-like due to her also on the brink of tears. "Yang…"
"Ruby!" Yang said in a sharp tone she always gave when she was acting like a mama bear.
"Just." She took a deep breath. "Just go with Dad, uncle Qrow, and Guren. It's ... It's just… I think Azura needs to process. You understand. Right?"
The indication on the word right gave a clear motive for Ruby to understand to just back off a bit. Even though Ruby hated being alone when Summer died when they were kids, she knew Yang needed space to grieve sometimes. Memories of Qrow taking her to the zoo because she was sad and confused as to why one day Yang could not cuddle with her in bed or play outside.
Stepping back into the present, Ruby just said "Yeah… right…" She then ran towards the others and said "C'mon. They'll catch up."
Everyone nodded and started walking back to the castle town. All except for Guren. She couldn't help but linger back. She stared at the pretty blond who was stroking the strong blue-haired warrior who was her best friend. She briefly thought of at least coming by to pat him on the head but was just about to when she heard Qrow say "C'mon, kid. Don't want to catch a cold."
She nodded and walked with the others, wiping away her tears. Slowly, back with Azura and Yang, the blonde pugilist continued to stroke the azure samurai's hair as he wept into her shoulder. Gently rubbing his back and head as she tried to comfort him. Soon, Azura's tears subsided enough for him to begin to take a deep breath and regain his composure.
Pulling his head out of her shoulder, Azura looked down at Yang with a sad smile, his eyes giving the blonde dragon a glimpse into the depths of his pain. Gently cupping her cheek, the blue shōgun gently stroked her cheek. This drew a light blush from the blonde as he gently pulled back a bit.
"Thank you, Yang. I… I needed that…" He told her, looking back at the mountainous mausoleum again.
"Yeah, no problem. I'm just glad to help and be here is all." Yang stated as her fingers brushed away her long, wet hair.
Azura laughed a little. "You look cute with wet hair, by the way." He told her, trying to lighten the mood.
Yang did a burst gut laughter. She began to snort and slightly dry heave. Azura looked at her in shock for a moment and started laughing at her crazy cackle. "Daaamn, Yang. You sound cute when you…. sound like a pig being strangled while-you–you laugh!" Azura said as he was holding his stomach trying hard to not laugh too hard.
"What!?" Yang turned red like a tomato.
Azura got a bit nervous at her response. "I-I am sorry if I…"
"I'm–I'm sorry! I just found it funny the way you said I looked cute. God, I hate my laugh. It's ugly." Yang replied.
"Hey! I do not think so. It really is cute. I was not trying to bring up any insecurities. Sorry." Azura then looked guilty.
Yang then gave him a weak smile and stared at him for a bit, she saw the look in his eyes again. That look he gave her on the day of their second accidental date. He looked at her lips. Yang felt herself get hot in the face and closed her eyes just to hear Azura say "We should get back to the others before we catch a cold."
Yang snapped her eyes open and said "Yeah, sure." She then took a deep breath and walked slightly faster than him.
As they headed back, Azura looked back at the ancestral tomb of his clan. As they left, Yang swore she heard drops of water hitting one of the puddles of water as they were walking. Looking up, she did not see any signs of the rain starting up again. Turning back to look at the azure shōgun, she saw him with his head down, tears running down his cheeks. He was crying again.
"Azura… are you sure you're…?" She began only for Azura to gently cut her off again.
"I am fine, Yang. It is… It is just the rain starting up again…" He told her sadly.
"Azura… you don't have to…" Yang started to say.
"It is the rain. Samurai do not cry, Yang…" Azura firmly but sadly told her, not wanting to acknowledge his second and third losses of composure that day.
Yang looked mad at him. "Dude, what the hell are you doing?!" She gave him an evil look, "You just bawled your eyes out in my arms, then you proceeded to laugh aloud at my stupid laugh! What the fuck are you doing with this flip-flop, back and forth. A girl can only take so much."
Azura sighed and dried his tears. "You are right. I am sorry, Yang. I am just… not used to being able to drop my guard this much around someone outside of my family. It is… going to take some getting used to…" He explained, feeling guilty for upsetting her.
Yang put her head back with her arms flaying down on her sides and gave a loud groan. "DUDE! This whole thing of 'a samurai doesn't do this,' 'a samurai doesn't do that' is giving me a god damn headache. I get it, you're embracing your culture, cool freaking beans. And I get it you're grieving but warn me next time when you're gonna shut down. Gonna give me whiplash." She then brushed past him and purposely pushed her shoulder into his heading to the doors of the castle.
One Week Later
Yang slowly prowled around the castle grounds, starting with the lowest and widest floor of the castle. Its narrow hallways, sharp corners, branching paths, it all just made her head spin. How anyone could grow up here and learn each and every part of this castle, so they can prepare for its hypothetical defense, was frankly alien to her. Yet, through all those confused thoughts, she had a singular beacon of clarity. She needed to find Azura.
She did not entirely know why she felt she needed to find him so urgently. They slowly patched things up after what happened after the funeral, had some nice pots of tea, and some nice time in the variety of gardens the palace had. Yet something was amiss. Was it with her? Was it with him? Was it the weird slight strangling feeling in her throat every time she got worried about him? She did not know. But she knew if she found him, she might have a chance of an answer.
After what felt like literal days circling around the place like an awkward buzzard, she heard loud sounds of clashing flesh and loud grunts of pain and exertion. Using the sound to find her way more clearly, she reached a smaller, more remote dojo. Peering inside, she found Azura sparring hand to hand and shirtless with another fellow. A bit shorter than Azura, with a toned body built less for fighting and more running, she got the glimpses of emerald eyes, green hair, and a network of scars only on his front above forest green pants. Most shocking of all, it was an even bout.
With a look of determination on his face, Azura threw a kick at the scarred, forest green boy. The kick was blocked as the boy threw a kick of his own that Azura caught. The boy leapt up and lashed out with a second kick to Azura's face that Azura caught again. Planting his feet on the ground in a handspring, the young man pushed himself forward in a jump to force Azura off balance. Releasing the other boy, the azure samurai stumbled back and quickly regained his balance.
Soon, the boy was covered in a green aura that slightly resembled wind as Azura activated his Semblance. The two boys charged in and attacked each other with barrages of hits that Yang could barely track. They then practically became blurs of motion as they rushed around the dojo, leaping off the walls, roof, and ceiling and rebounding off each other as they clashed in midair. They only came into view when they collided blows or one of them hit the other. Yang could hardly believe the speeds at which they were moving.
Soon, the two boys stopped to catch their breath for a moment, both panting a bit. The emerald boy grinned a bit as he addressed the azure shōgun. "Is his royal blueness getting tired?"
Azura panted a bit with a small smirk of his own. "Look who is talking, Mido. You look like you are ready to collapse on the spot. Have you gotten soft while I have been away, cousin?" He replied to the boy, now identified as Mido.
"Cute. Perhaps I should speed things along then." Mido replied with some sass, cracking his back and neck.
Azura nodded as he cracked his own neck and back. "Agreed. Enough with the warmups. Onto the main event." He replied as the two dropped into their stances again.
Their two Auras flared, Azura's turning violet while Mido's green wind Aura grew more violent as they gained more serious expressions. Then, faster than Yang could track, the two took off at speeds that cracked the ground beneath their feet. The ground cracked and broke from their blindingly fast steps as they appeared in front of each other. Their arms, hands, and feet became blurs as they exchanged blows with such speeds and thunderous impacts that it was as if a hurricane was at war with a thunderstorm. Flashes of green wind and violet electricity launched back and forth between them as they exchanged blows, Yang unable to track the movements of their fists.
'That speed… pull it together, Yang. You can't get surprised at everything they do.' Yang thought, before clearing her throat to get their attention.
The momentary distraction was all it took. Azura was the first to look in Yang's direction upon hearing her, his eyes widening in surprise. That proved to be his mistake as he found himself with a hurricane strength fist punching him in the face. The blue shōgun was sent flying back, tumbling against the floor and cracking it with every impact before he crashed hard into the wall, cracking it on impact as he slid down it. Groaning, Azura slowly got up and gave a smile at his cousin as Mido stretched out after landing his successful blow.
"Sloppy, sloppy, your majesty. Very sloppy. What would the old man say?" Mido chided his cousin playfully.
"That was a lucky hit, and you know it, Mido. Still, lucky or not, it was a good shot. Keep that up and you will reach the level of a Sage before you know it." Azura grumbled playfully, rubbing his sore cheek as he cracked his back.
"Lucky for me or skill in you being distracted, shorty?" The green whirlwind playfully said as he grabbed his towel, water, and shirt, leaving to hit the showers.
"I'm taller than you now, you know!" Azura called out back as he grabbed his own towel and water and drank from the flask bottle before drying off his sweat.
"You okay after that hit?" Yang asked him, walking up to him.
"I will be fine. Mido has hit me much harder than that in far more serious bouts." Azura reassured her, dousing some cold water over his head and down his body to cool himself down before toweling off.
"Forgive me… So… he's…" Yang asked, confused at who this Mido was while trying to not be openly affected by the drenched Azura.
"My cousin, yes. Midori Calico. He is also one of my retainers." Azura explained as he toweled off before getting his shirt back on.
"You keep your cousin as a servant?" Yang asked, raising an eyebrow.
"His mother died, and he is not a Sōtora. So, I took his sister Oniyuri and him into my court as two of my retainers." Azura told her, trying to help her understand.
"I guess that makes sense. So, have you got anything planned for today?" Yang asked, subtly looking him over.
Azura shook his head. "Not really. I was going to head into the main garden to do some meditation under the largest Sakura tree there. For some reason, that always relaxes me." He told the blonde dragon.
"Alright. Lead the way." Yang said with a smile.
Azura was surprised at that. "You want to come with me to meditate? You want to meditate?" he asked incredulously.
"If you'll let me." Yang answered with a smile.
Azura blushed slightly but smiled and nodded. "As you wish. Follow me and stick close. It is easy to get lost in these halls if you do not know the way." Azura told her as he got ready to go, gathering his things.
"I've learned that already today." Yang admitted as she waited for him.
As soon as Azura finished gathering his things, he looked at Yang with a smile. "Let's go." He told her as they headed out of the dojo and into the labyrinthian, hallowed halls of Daikojō.
Yang silently cursed the fact she did not have Azura as a guide earlier. Despite the fact everything looked the same to her, he knew everything so well she swore he could do it blindfolded. Accidentally saying that aloud, he stated that was one of the tests he would have to do for his next level in his dojo's curriculum. Whether or not he was joking occupied her mind for the shockingly brief time it took to reach their destination. Well short compared to the aimless, confused wanderings from earlier.
Walking through a Torii gate emblazoned with a great roaring white tiger, the cold nip of mountain air hit her first. Then came the hit of the scenery inside. Covering an area that she swore was the size of their entire combat school was a garden; unlike any she had ever seen. Wild bushes, sedges, wildflowers in a mosaic of alpine beauty. As if to replace the land they had destroyed to build the castle, and to remember it. Twisted, gnarled spruce curled and warped in odd designs in the cool air, allowing birds and small mammals to perch there. Straight cedars punctuated the place with height and the dull blue of their growing berries, behind guarding thorns.
But what hit her the most was the cherry trees. She had seen the pictures of the so-called Sakura Blossoms of Mistral, yet to see their soft, flighty pink petals, the slight red buds ready to burst into next year's leaves, and the obvious signs of growing cherries underneath. They did not grow tall, but grew broad, defying the frigid air and harsh soil. Between them were koi lagoons connected to a much larger moat. At its center was an island, housing a truly ancient cherry blossom, easily as tall as a building in Vale. Nestled underneath it was a small shrine tea house, connected upon a red lacquered bridge.
"What's on the island?" Yang asked.
"Are you asking about the Zen Garden or the tree?" Azura asked with a strangely relaxed smile.
"Everything…" Yang said, the sight of it all taking her breath away.
"The shrine tea house underneath the tree is a Zen Garden that is typically used for meditation and training. The tree was planted about thirty to forty years after the founding of my clan by my ancestor Azure in honor of his late mother and father, Sakura and Yao Hu, after their deaths. So that, in a way, their wills would live on in the clan and their spirits could watch over us as ancestral gods." Azura explained.
"Okay… mind if we go… see all that up close?" Yang asked, trying to hide her getting overloaded by info.
Azura smiled and nodded. "Not at all. I am more than happy to share this with you, Yang." He told her, walking ahead and leading her into the garden.
The two walked over the bridge, Yang getting teasing glimpses at the incredibly fat golden koi in the dark, murky waters below. Eventually, they reached over to the other side. To her surprise, aside from what she saw, the only thing she did not was a truly giant rock garden. Rock garden being merely a term to describe it, as it was not rock, but pieces of jade that encompassed the garden in question. Moving past the literal fortune that must have cost, she noticed Azura sitting to meditate on a polished, flat stone. Following suit, she sat next to him and tried to settle in.
Watching Azura, Yang saw him close his eyes and begin trying to take deep breaths. "Alright, Yang… breathe. Try to relax. Center yourself and allow your consciousness to become one with your surroundings…" He told her, taking deep, cleansing breaths to relax.
She nodded and slowly began to follow his lead. It was short lived however, as she could tell something was up with her compatriot. Hearing water drops hitting the jade stones, she opened one eye and was shocked by what she saw. Despite his attempts to meditate… Azura was crying. Tears coming down from his eyes and dropping down onto the stone seat beneath him, chilling his face.
"Azura? Are you okay?" Yang asked, concern leaking from her voice.
Azura spoke in a whimpering voice, one that sounded weaker than she thought him capable of making. "I… I am fine…" He croaked out, letting out a light hiccup as he tried to take deep breaths to calm himself.
"Are you sure?" Yang asked, cocking her head a bit.
Whimpering, Azura tried to continue meditating. Finally, unable to take it anymore, Azura broke down crying, trying not to make any loud noises. Not wanting to look weak. Not in front of anyone.
"Let's get you out of the cold." Yang said, standing up and beginning to force him up.
Much to her surprise, Azura did not resist. He simply let her pull him to his feet and pull him into a hug, gently rubbing his back. Azura buried his face in her shoulder, letting the tears fall. Finally, after several minutes, Azura had recovered enough to leave.
Pulling away from the hug and taking Azura's hand, Yang began to lead him out of the garden. She then began pulling him back to the living quarters for his family, letting him tell her what turns to take to get to them as she led the way and tried to keep them out of sight.
To Azura's surprise, Yang led him back to his room with surprising accuracy. It masked his own mind's question of why. As she moved him inside his room, he heard the click of the front door lock. It made his heart skip a beat. Turning around, Azura was not met with stern words, confrontation, or anything of the sort. Yang pulled him into a deeper, fuller hug than before.
"Wh-what are you…" Azura said but froze up when Yang rubbed his back.
"You've held a lot in since the funeral. You don't need to say it; you don't need to tell me. But you still need to work it through your system. You're safe here, Azura. You can let off steam, release the pressure. Let it out for once. I'm here for as long as you need it. The strong still need a shoulder to lean on once in a while." Yang explained, rubbing his back and holding him close to comfort him.
With that, Azura nestled himself into the crook of Yang's neck, hugged her as tightly and closely as he could without hurting her… and wept. He cried… and cried… and cried. No matter how hard he tried, the tears would not stop. They continued to fall, like the cold mountain rain that had started up outside.
Yang simply continued to rub Azura's back and began to stroke his hair. Trying to soothe him. "Shhhh… it's okay, Azura. You said samurai don't cry, right? Well, right now, you're not a samurai… and I'm not a commoner. You're just a man in pain… and I'm just a woman trying to help you through it…" She told him gently, allowing Azura to let it all out while doing her best to try to make him feel safe.
"M-My only regret… is that I can't enjoy this longer…" Was all Azura could muster as he rested a weary head on her shoulder and sunk into the blonde's grasp. Finally, the weight of the past several weeks could begin to be lifted.
To Be Continued…