Sora just stared on from behind his sister as the woman continued to spout absolutely ludicrous punishment choices, his sister's anger only getting more and more potent.
But before her anger could get out of control, he noticed another mass of blue energy get closer.
The mother immediately stopped talking and bowed in respect toward the newcomer, her husband, son following as well as the other teenagers and their parents.
Fuko did the same, pulling Sora down to follow.
"We greet The Voice of the Lord." They spoke in unison.
A short elderly man with long grey hair and a wrinkled face walked through the gathered villagers and waved his hand, a gesture that signaled everyone to relax.
Everyone returned to their original postures and stared questioningly at the new arrival.
The Voice of the Lord, also referred to as the Village chief, was the oldest person in the village and the closest person to Shuen.
Being The Voice of the Lord had the same implications, he was not only the one who managed all internal affairs of the village but also delivered any messages that Shuen had.
The Village Chief studied the surroundings with his brown eyes and sighed. "Again?" He asked rhetorically, his voice was very hoarse and commanded respect from those around him.
Not Sora though. He didn't particularly respect anyone other than himself and maybe his big sister, he only respected the strong.
"Voice of the Lord, please grant me permission to punish this… heretic for doing this to my son…" The chatterbox mother continued.
Sora almost started laughing on the spot, this woman REALLY wanted to punish him.
To Sora's utter delight and to everyone else's dismay, the old man simply shook his head.
He looked past Fuko and stared into Sora's eyes. "Our Lord has demanded your presence." The Village Chief spoke that one singular sentence before turning and walking away, not directly telling Sora to follow, but the implications were there.
Sora didn't think much of it, unlike everyone else.
Everyone other than Sora looked as if they had seen a ghost.
One of the teenager's fathers stammered in disbelief. "T-the Lord will meet with the heretic face to face? Surely that won't end we—!"
He suddenly stopped speaking, he felt as if there was a sword placed at his throat. He looked around suddenly, sweat slowly forming from every pore as he pinpointed the source. He saw Fuko staring at him. Her gaze was sharp, far different from her usual kind gaze.
'This asshole…' Fuko thought to herself before averting her gaze. She had seriously had enough of all this. Yes, she treated everyone in the village with kindness but they continue to treat her little brother horribly despite her efforts to keep their reputation high.
The boy whose finger was missing pulled at his mother's blouse and asked. "Will he be punished?"
To which she replied. "I sure hope so."
Fuko couldn't remain here, she grit her teeth and walked away from the crowd. No one noticed her leaving, thanks to her family's special trait.
As she walked off, a sharp pain hit her mind as the strange voice rang out. "Why not let out that anger of yours? Why not go and kill those people that disrespect your flesh and blood?"
Since about a week ago, she began hearing the voice of someone who claimed to be her ancestor. She never listened to it and always tried to blank it out, the voice gave her bad vibes. She was almost certain it was just trying to get her to do it's dirty work.
…
…
Sora followed closely behind the old man, glancing curiously at his face and occasionally checking for any fluctuations in his energy that would indicate any ill intentions, but nope, the old man was as calm and serene as a lake.
Sora could see the amount of blue energy he had, it was definitely more than the other villagers but leagues behind that of his sister.
The old man suddenly stopped and glanced sideways towards Sora. "You are looking at my chakra, child?" He asked, despite knowing the answer.
Sora also stopped walking, tilting his head to express his confusion. "Chakra?" He asked.
The old man just chuckled and continued to walk, not bothering to explain whatever chakra was to the young boy. Sora just kind of looked around awkwardly before continuing to follow the old man, still confused but not enough to ask any more.
'Weird…' Sora mused, a little shaken at the fact the old man knew that he was being observed without even looking at Sora. 'That's old people for you, I suppose…' he said internally.
They continued walking for another few minutes before reaching the center of the village, where they were faced with a large temple made of sandstone with flags depicting a golden peacock, with an emphasis on its eyes.
The old man was greeted by 2 middle aged men, seemingly twins, both with brown hair and the signature brown eyes of the village. They looked to be the guards of this temple, both giving Sora a short glance, lingering on his eyes for a moment, before they turned back to the village chief.
"I have brought the child." The chief said with his coarse voice, followed by the two guards sighing before opening the gate and allowing the two inside.
Sora glanced up to see the old man staring expectantly at him, waiting for him to enter. Sora took the hint and made his way inside, the old man following from behind.
The inside of the temple was open and lit by a line of golden flames on each wall, though they didn't seem to emit any heat. Sora actually felt as if all of his fatigue had vanished while being in the presence of the fire.
Further into the temple, the walls showcased various artworks, each depicting the same golden peacock with the same eyes as Sora. Clearly they were all of Shuen.
At the end of the long hallway was a large door and two more guards, these two didn't look like
twins, there was a tall woman with black hair and brown eyes and another elderly man with a sword at his hip, he had long gray hair down to his shoulders and his eyes were closed.
Sora quickly focused on the two, checking to see how much of the blue energy each of them had. He wasn't sure if it meant anything or if it was an accurate scale of strength considering how little he had despite his apparent strength.
But sure enough, the elderly man had roughly the same as the village chief and the woman had slightly less. Seriously, was his sister some kind of monster? She had a significantly larger amount of this blue energy than anyone else he had seen so far.
The two guards bowed slightly. "We greet the Voice of the Lord." They both said, "Is this the child that Lord Shuen had requested a visit from?" The woman asked, her brow raised slightly.
She then noticed his eyes and both of her eyebrows suddenly shot up. She had heard of a child that was born with those eyes permanently activated, but she hadn't thought much of it… however, the fact that Lord Shuen had told them to bring this child here clearly shows that she was ignorant to ignore it.
Sora was starting to get a little nervous. One of the very rare times he'd experienced this emotion but still, in his mind he was about to be punished for his 'crime' even though everyone around him was calm and composed, he was still a little nervous.
*Slap!*
All three of the adults quickly turned their attention to the source of the sound. All of their gazes landed on Sora, who had a red handprint on his cheek.
'Me? Nervous?' He thought to himself. It was very rare for him to be nervous, like… the last time he was nervous was after he had accidentally broken one of Fuko's earrings when he was 4 years old. The idea that he was nervous about this meeting was absurd. It was as if that nervousness didn't come from him, but from something else. Something deep inside of him.
The two guards looked at each other and the village chief chuckled. "Are you nervous, boy?"
Sora just sighed and looked at the door. "You gonna let me in, or what?" He said, a bit of venom leaking into his voice. He was starting to lose his patience.
The village chief coughed awkwardly and walked over to the door. With the help of the two guards he pushed down a lever on the wall, causing the large door to open.
Peeking past the trio, Sora looked into the large sanctuary and saw mural upon mural on the wall all depicting the large golden peacock. And in the center of the room, he saw it.
A deep, primal feeling of hatred and fear welled up inside of his mind. Those feelings were once again not his, it was like an outside force was shoving those artificial emotions into his brain. But he did not let it suede him as he continued into the room, the large door closing shut behind him.
"As I thought… your aroma is exactly the same as his. Maybe you are one of his descendants? Or has he gotten into your head? Perhaps both." A loud, prideful voice echoed throughout the room.
Sora felt his heartbeat beating faster as he slowly walked closer, his breathing becoming heavy.
"Do not be afraid. Child." The voice of what Sora suspected to be Shuen, once again rang out. This time less prideful and actually rather soothing, his mind immediately being put at ease.
Without the negative emotions impeding Sora's mind, he shook his head and spoke. "You… you are Shuen, right?" He asked, but deep down he already knew what the answer was.
"Yes." The large bird said before opening its eyes to perceive Sora, to which Sora and Shuen locked eyes. Both sharing the exact same golden eyes, with the exact same white sun symbol in the middle.
Shuen suddenly ruffled his quills and stood up, towering over Sora. "Oh? Now this is unexpected. Perhaps that is why you share his stench. You have his eyes activated and yet I do not sense even a fraction of enough chakra needed to do so." The large bird slowly inched closer to Sora, causing the child to tilt his head more and more upward.
As he got closer, Sora could actually see what he looked like. The big bird was nearly completely white, with the ends of his feathers a slight shade of gold and his eyes the exact same as Sora's.
Sora looked up at the imposing figure, curious about many things. "Who is this… stinky person you keep mentioning? What is chakra? What is my punishment? What kind of god are you? Where did you come from? What exactly are you? What kind of things can you do? Wha—"
Sora was cut off by Shuen's feathers suddenly ruffling. "You need not ask about that person." He started, making Sora even more curious. "Did your school not teach you about chakra?" Shuen asked, a little surprised.
Sora just tilted his head. "I never really went to school anyways, it was a huge waste of time and they never taught me much." He said
Shuen hummed in thought before replying. "Chakra is a supernatural energy created by the combination of both physical and spiritual energies, if someone has no chakra, then they are as good as dead. Chakra can be shaped and forged to create various different jutsu or techniques." He explained, though this wasn't a good explanation when talking to a 13 year old.
Sora just nodded along, pretending to understand. All he really got from that was, the more chakra you have the more techniques you can use before you run out and die. But he was confused at one thing, how come this had anything to do with his eyes and their activation?
"And how does this affect my eyes?" Sora asked.
"The amount of chakra required to activate these eyes is nothing short of ridiculous, they are more of a burden than a boon because no one capable of utilising them has enough chakra to activate them, let alone use them." Shuen answered, still looking directly into Sora's eyes.
Sora hummed in thought. "Is that why I get headaches when using them?" He asked.
Shuen nodded. "Most likely. Now I must ask, how are you able to activate and maintain those eyes? I had called you here due to hearing multiple reports of a child using the eyes across the years, but I hadn't thought much of it. But something has been happening recently and I had thought maybe you had something to do with it… though I'm not sure that is the case." He continued.
Sora was honestly surprised at just how much this big bird spoke, it was like he was making his sentences way longer than they needed to be. But nonetheless, he answered. "I was born with them permanently activated, that's why I can use them without activating them, because I can't turn them off."
If Shuen had all the right facial muscles for the job, Sora could have imagined the big bird raising its eyebrow at this. "And I hadn't been informed of this? How ridiculous…"
Sora was taken aback, with how everyone reacted to him and his eyes, he had imagined the big bird itself having a problem with it… but he didn't even know! How stupid was that?