Family Reunion

[Ryan - Loki]

You’ve heard of it, haven’t you? The legend of the Jiaoimasu samurai clan?

When I was younger my father would tell me stories about the great Jiaoimasu clan. He told me stories of great victories in battle and some of the values and beliefs that they carried. He also told me of their history as well as some of the most famous of the clan, all the way from the founders Seth and Alexandria to the once great leader Katsumoto. Even how they came to their end.

You see, Bedoe and Lavertia, the two countries that the samurai had protected and served all their known existence, had once again broken their oath of peace and were once again at war, but not with each other this time, with the Samurai. Quickly the Samurai had to prepare for a battle that they were unlikely to win, a battle were they had to fight against two countries, a battle were the ratio of men were three-hundred to one. The Samurai were known to be the most sophisticated and deadly warriors since in history, but they were no miracle workers.

The day of battle came, and leaving the women and young children behind the men of the clan went off to war. Although the Samurai fought with their hearts and gave all that their body, minds and souls were able to give they were slaughtered by their opponents one by one. Although the samurai had taken heavy losses they still fought on bravely and had nearly won the battle. There was a chance, a sliver of light shining through the heavy darkness but slowly that light began to fade and in time only a handful of samurai were left standing but still they continued to fight. It was a battle to go down in history.

It was said that not a single man alive could match Katsumoto; the leader of the samurai, with a sword, and maybe it was because of this that in the last dieing moments of battle several soldiers attacked him at once and severely wounded him, leaving him to die on the battlefield. They say that for a samurai honour is their life and to be left to die from blood loss was a dishonourable death. Story goes that Katsumoto’s only son took his own sword and thrust in deep within his father, causing Katsumoto to die a honourable death and to keep his honour as a great warrior.

Shortly after Katsumoto’s death his son fell to a similar attack that his father had gain his fatal wounds from, but died instantly. He had been the last remaining samurai left fighting and with his death came victory for the armies of Bedoe and Lavertia. They had won their war, had succeeded in their slaughter and had wiped out the most deadly threat, yet most peaceful and honourable people, which Dragonia had to offer. Yet the day became darker still.

After defeating all the resistance that the samurai could muster the armies of Bedoe and Lavertia moved onwards into the great valleys of the samurai. Onwards to their homes and families, not to inform them of what had happened or anything of the sort, but to finish the job that they had already begun, to destroy the Jiaoimasu all together.

With Katsumoto and his sons death the great Jiaoimasu bloodline had been completely destroyed, as his son had only been of seventeen years old and had not married or had children, but this wasn’t enough. The rest of the samurai still had their beliefs and traditions, the women could still raise their children and those children would become great warriors and have children of their own and so the great cycle of life would continue. This wouldn’t be allowed.

So that day that had already been tainted with the blood of thousands of samurai was about to get even worse. The armies of the two countries marched on the samurai village leaving none alive. The women were raped and then slaughtered and the children were killed on sight. Many of the women and children who had taken shelter inside many of the houses had been locked inside while the houses had been set alight, leaving them no means of escape. Apparently the screams could be heard echoing out through the valleys and mountains for miles and miles in all directions, as well as the smoke as it drifted up high into the skies.

After the slaughter of these great people had taken place the bodies were not buried or laid to rest with respect or honour but left to rot on the ground that they had fallen to as the armies turned and went back to their countries.

It had been exactly three days since the extinction of the samurai and it hadn’t stopped raining since. It’s said that black and grey clouds have forever since that day covered the skies over the valleys. But it was on that day, three days later, that a miracle took place on the battlefield that the samurai’s lifeless bodies still laid upon. The son of Katsumoto and the prince of the samurai suddenly had air rush back into his lungs and oxygen back through his blood. He had been brought back from the dead.

The wounds had healed and all that remained of them were scars, a constant reminder of how fortunate he was to be alive once more and of what happened to him and his people. He had even gathered as many of the bodies of his fellow samurai who had fallen in battle and carried them with him to his village. He was going to continue to make this journey until he had buried every last one of his people. So he returned back to his village to inform everyone of what had happened and to burry the bodies of the men he had brought back, only to be greeted with the death and destruction that had been left in the wake of the armies of Bedoe and Lavertia.

I know exactly how it must feel to suddenly realise you’re completely alone in this world, I know the feeling all too well, but not to this extent I must admit. I’m not sure if I would have been strong enough to have gotten through something as extreme as that had been, but he did. Filled with emotions of pure hatred and evil for the people who had done this to his clan as well of happiness and good due to the gifts the God’s had granted on him, Ryan began to make that journey back and forth from what remained of his village to the battlefield, burying his people.

It had taken a total of seven days and six nights for him to complete the task at hand, burying every last man, woman and child whose body had been left to rot. There was nothing left for him there now, everything had been destroyed. So he left, the last son of the samurai left what was left of his home to travel the planet and serve the God’s who had given him this gift of life.

What exactly happened to him after that I’m not too sure but what I do know is that Katsumoto’s wife had died during childbirth and had only bore him one son, his name Ryan, but there was another. Another who looked completely identical to him except a few different futures such as hair and eye colour, Ryan’s completed polar opposite. Where Ryan had lost all emotions and feelings of evil the other had gained them in much greater proportions. His twin, his brother; his name is Loki. The last son’s of the samurai.

I discovered that this so called ‘legend’ wasn’t a myth at all. The Jiaoimasu samurai clan existed! How do I know this? I’ve met the last son’s of the samurai, both of them. Though the same blood of their mother and father ran through their veins, the two battled each other as if they were archenemies out to kill each other. It seemed they derived some sort of sick and twisted pleasure from this ‘brotherly fighting’.

But in the end…only one was left standing.

[Ryan - Loki]

The velvet night’s sky had slowly consumed the land leaving the appearance that everything had slipped into another world, a world of complete opposites. Its strange how close to the literal truth this actually is. The rain fell fast and hard now from what seemed to be a cloudless sky. The moon seeming larger than it had ever been as its light reflected down upon the ruins of ancient times and times of past memories that stood battered, eroded and destroyed atop the mountains on the border of Lavertia.

A lone figure stood on the edge of a raised area upon one of the many ruins. It was a large circular area with statures, or at least what was left of them, completely surrounding it. With nothing but the moonlight to light up the area it was as if this was a scene from a horror film, but this was not the case, as far from the truth as could possibly be told. The figures silhouette seemed to be emphasised by the sheer light that the moon had to offer him upon this extremely high ground. It was as if he had travelled up so high that he had come so close to the moon and the heavens that he could nearly touch them.

The figure was Ryan.

Being that he had only the noise of the rain filtering through his ears meant that when Ryan suddenly heard the echoing sound of footsteps upon the stairway up towards this circular area, he knew that he had finally arrived. Slowly the echo from the footsteps grew louder and louder as Ryan merely waited for whoever was coming to finally arrive in the circular area and where he was waiting. He knew that no one would dare travel out into such places for no reason, but if that person had powers beyond anything ever thought imaginable as well as a good enough reason he didn’t see why they wouldn’t, and if that one person had received word of his message then it would surely be him.

“You showed up” Ryan said sternly as the footsteps finally had reached the top of the stairs and were now moving over towards the centre of the circle, his back still towards the stairs and the stranger.

The footsteps finally reached the centre before stopping completely. A husky voice was the next noise to break the silence that was accompanied by the rain. It was Loki. “You sure know how to throw a party. No Drinks, no food, no music…and not a single babe within a hundred miles of the place.”

“My sincerest apologise my brother…” Ryan said as he slowed turned around to face Loki for the first time. “I was so egger to see you again that I couldn’t concentrate on the preparations for the bash.”

“Whatever…At least you accept we’re brothers now.” Loki muttered along with laughing slightly. There was a certain amount of sharpness in his voice. “It’s been a whole year since we last met. How about a kiss for your little brother?” Loki taunted, leaning forward slightly and patting his cheek before speaking again. “Or how about a kiss from this!?” he screamed as he reached his left hand over his shoulder, grabbed a hold of Bane and brought it forward in front of his body as he pointed its tip off towards Ryan.

Ryan hadn’t moved, blinked or even flinched as Loki had pulled Bane out in an aggressive manor, nothing except slowly move his hands down to rest around the handle/hilts of his Reavers. A silence fell on the two brothers as they had a stare off, the rain being the only noise in the entire area as it continued to pour down upon them, not letting up in the slightest.

It would be Loki who next broke the silence with his voice. “So…this is what they call a ‘heart warming’ family reunion?”

Letting out a slight laugh Ryan replied. “You got that right.” as he suddenly flicked up both of his swords, releasing them from within their cases upon his waist.

[Ryan - Loki]

The art of swordsmanship has been in vogue for as far back as the papyrus scrolls can tell, and throughout the world the art had evolved in different forms; none, however, can match the grandeur and the myths associated with the supreme sword – the Sword of the Samurai.

One who has attained this freedom cannot be interfered with by anybody on earth. He stands absolutely by himself. The Samurai treasured their swords as they treasured their code of conduct – the sword was less of a weapon and more of an extension of the soul itself. It was not uncommon for a warrior to lay down his life to save the honour of his sword. Having perfected the art of drawing, cutting and replacing the sword in a single motion, the average Samurai finally completes the process from being just an ordinary man to becoming a dangerous weapon within himself.

The art of sword drawing remains one of the less popular martial arts but its philosophy lies at the heart of the samurai ethic. Two samurai face each other, inches apart. Their eyes study each other. Tense, yet oddly calm. Time passes. Then, in a second, the flash of silver blades, and a gush of scarlet. One collapses, dead. This was the way of the Samurai warrior.

And with the moon in all its elegance shining brightly down upon the land, and even more so upon the mountainsides of Lavertia, each droplet giving off an individual sound as it slammed down against the surface below. Soon enough the silence of the barren night that had, up until now, only been broken from the rain, was soon drowned out by the fierce clashing of metal and followed by the odd grunt or manic laughter.

This was to be the fate already decided for either Ryan or Loki…


Almost instantaneously they both dived at each other; Loki with Bane still tip pointed directly forwards and Ryan spun both Reavers while inside his palms with their tips pointed down towards the floor slightly behind him. The small gap between them was covered in a matter of seconds as the two last warriors of the Samurai clashed in a battle of brother and brother, good and evil; The purist of all battles.

At the last possible second Ryan flipped his wrists forward, causing his Reavers to spin forward and block Bane just as it seemed it was about to force its way though Ryan’s chest, in-between his ribs and most certainly piercing his heart or lung. This hadn’t fazed either of them it seemed, as even before the blink of an eye a second reaction from both of them suddenly erupted from within each of them like a fire that wouldn’t, no couldn’t, be dwindled by the gushing waters of inevitability.

Ryan had quickly acted and spinning the Reavers in his palm, using the momentum from the sword collision, both blades came angling down to slice through Loki’s shoulders. Loki had already reversed his momentum and quickly placed his right hand lightly upon the hilt of Bane, mainly to strengthen his attack, as he quickly sliced it through the air diagonally. The impact of swords was swift and agile yet sparks flew, the noise of a loud explosion echoed out through the barren wasteland that surrounded them and the sheer force of the collision forced them both to stagger back.

And with that the game had officially begun.

[Ryan - Loki]

“Arrrggghh!” Loki had screamed out in frustration when having to regain himself after he had been forced backwards into a stagger from the clashing of Bane and the Reavers.

Ryan on the other hand had merely grunted slightly while quickly stamping his right foot down behind him, forcing his body weight all onto the leg and causing him to instantly balance out. Where Loki had fumbled slightly Ryan had managed to already balance himself out giving him the advantage on time. And it would be one he would utilise. Taking the advantage as soon as he could muster, Ryan lent back even more on his right foot before launching his left arm forward with an attack aiming to pierce precisely through Loki’s stomach.

Although Loki had stumbled backwards slightly less elegantly than Ryan had he wasn’t about to lie down and allow Ryan to destroy him with such little ease, he was a Lord of Hell and would be defeated by his unworthy brother!

“I’m gunna kill you brother!” - “We will see about that!”

Now being that he was now slowly falling backwards towards the floor, which although would mean the attack from Ryan would go right over him he would end up in a worse off position, Loki moved his right arm behind him and charged a large amount of Ki before firing it off.

The ball of Ki rocketed off between the extremely small space between his body and the ground before it exploded upon impact. The force of the explosion wasn’t too huge but just enough to force his body back up through the air into a standing position once again. Now he had to worry about the attack from Ryan, which was soon going to hurt. With the Reaver moving ever closer to Loki’s stomach it was now or never to stop it.

Using the momentum of the explosion, which hand thrown him slightly more forward than he first had expected, he quickly brought his left arm up and over to his right hand side, slamming it down and back round to his left side and successfully parrying Ryan’s stabbing attack to his left and Ryan’s right. Being that he was still moving forward from the explosion, Loki, who’s sword was still parrying Ryan’s own, took a step forward and unleashed a mighty uppercut with his right hand, aiming it right at Ryan’s chin.

But of course with Loki suddenly parrying the stab attack and forcing Ryan’s left arm across his body to his right side, Ryan noticed what predicament he was suddenly in. With his left arm across his body, brought up just under his chin now, as Loki went in for the uppercut Ryan had very little he could actually do, considering that his right arm was blocked by his left and before he could think of an alternative way to avoid the punch an extremely strong force suddenly slammed into him just underneath his chin.

The exact moment the force connected a bright white light blinded his vision for a brief second before a sharp painful sensation ran up his face and down his neck, it was then that he realised what exactly had caused all of this; Loki’s uppercut had hit. As the white flash suddenly vanished from his eyes and the darkness of the rain filled night swept across his vision once more, Ryan finally noticed just exactly where he was.

Yes! The punch had connected with full force and had quite literally sent Ryan spinning through the air, off of his feet, and onto the floor a few feet away. Pieces of rubble, from when Loki had partially exploded part of the floor, where still flying up through the air and as a few pieces fell in front of Loki he threw Bane up into the air, pulled both of his hands close to his chest and threw them forward causing a suddenly bust of Ki through the air and forcing the sharp and tiny pieces of rubble to go flying directly towards the floored Ryan.

By this point Ryan had flipped his body up from the floor and was now, it seemed, staring directly at about seven to eight pieces of solid, bullet looking, rock. There was only one thing for it. With extreme skill and precision Ryan instantly began spinning his blades in succession, them spinning within millimetres of each other, roughly half a feet in front of Ryan’s body.

The pieces of Rubble came flying in at extremely high speeds towards Ryan and his spinning blades. The rubble slammed into the constantly spinning blades and each piece was instantly sliced in half and carried alone on the still spinning blades. Within a second of the connection Ryan quickly brought his blades to a stop as he brought their tips sliding along the floor in front of him. As he did so the half pieces of the rubble slowly slide off from the edge of his blades and lined up in front of him. A simple smile/smirk upon his face while he stepped back slightly, and with an almighty swing, of the Reaver in his right hand, against the half pieces of rubble upon the floor they all shoot off into the air directly at Loki, even faster than they had moved towards Ryan.

So…he’ll use my own trick against me will he? Now the tables had turned against Loki it seemed and not those eight pieces of rubble had now doubled into sixteen pieces and were on their way back towards him with even greater speed. With Bane gripped tightly in his left palm, its tip resting against the floor at his left side, Loki waited for the pieces of rubble to reach him, which in truth was hardly even a second but then again in a battle a second to last a lifetime.

The time was here. Instantly, as the makeshift bullets seemed to be upon Loki, he raised his left arm, and Bane, up into the air and quickly grabbing its hilt with both hands slammed it down, slicing through everything single piece of rubble in one go, as they had all been moving in a vertical straight line towards him. Slicing through the already sliced in half pieces of rubble split them all in half again, bringing the total to twenty-four, but that didn’t matter as Loki had been standing near the edge of the ruins that they were on, so the pieces of rubble flew either side of him and suddenly exploded into dust.

Without even a second between Bane slicing through the pieces of rubble and the sound of the dust explosions Both Loki and Ryan were off again, out to attack each other with the utmost extremity. The gap in-between them, which was roughly about ten to fifteen metres, was closed in a matter of milliseconds with both of them diving towards each other. A good few inches of water had fallen and covered the floor where they now ere and because of their speed, and the fact that they speed off a few inches off from the floor themselves when they darted towards each other, using flight for extra speed, a huge tail of water splashed up into the air at the same time.

With arms and weapons pulled back both Ryan and Loki swung their blades forward as they collided with each other, causing a sudden explosion of air outward from them, sending water flying everywhere. The both went at each other like their life depended upon it, well it actually did, but the thought of death wasn’t a luxury that either of them had the time to think about, any thought could equal their death.

The constant slashing and clanging of their weapons could be heard echoing out into the night, with the white slashes of air flying outward in all directions. This continued onwards for a while, their speed and sword slashes creating a bubble of air around them while they fought, that was until they both attacked with an overhead slash and clashed with all their might. The force of the clash sent both of them sliding backwards through the water covered ground for a few feet. The bubble they had created suddenly fell down upon them and everything returned back to normal.

Ryan’s single plat of hair had undone itself in all the commotion and now his dark, blue tinted hair fell down to about the bottom of his back, the exact same length of Loki’s. The both of them continued to look on at each other, now both panting slightly due to being out of breath. This was one battle that neither of them had expected to be this hard. Was it nearly over? How knew. If things continued on like this they could both be fighting atop these ancient ruins until the end of time, but neither of them planned on doing such a thing. One of them would end this soon.

[Ryan - Loki]

Once again the two brothers of the samurai stared onwards at each other. There had never been more of a moment were they looked like each other in appearance, the only way to distinguish the two at this precise moment, apart from the different clothes obviously, was their differences in hair colour and the fact that Ryan was covered in scars and Loki, of course, was not. Hell, they were even breathing out of breath in sync. It was as if they were complete mirror images.

The constant staring and silence had been filling the void between them for at least half a minute now, both of them ready and waiting for the other to make the first move while taking this precious time to regain some energy that they had lost so far in this confrontation. The silence had passed all normalities now and had moved on into being eerie, but the constantly sound of the pouring rain was but little comfort in this dire situation. Death was in the air; one of them just didn’t know it yet.

But it seemed that Loki couldn’t stand the silence any longer.


“…Why do you refuse to gain power?!” Loki suddenly shouted, almost as if he had finally snapped and lost his cool, before continuing to shout. “The Power of Evil!”

Ryan, who was holding his Twin Reavers down by his sides, just simple looked on at Loki, a slight grin upon his face. “The power of Evil?…” He said, giving a small laugh after speaking. “Hah, then I should ask you why you refuse to gain power…the power of Good! The power of our father Katsumoto!” Ryan said, shouting slightly towards the end of his sentence.

Loki, after a few seconds of looking on at Ryan blanked faced and in complete silence, burst out into laughter. Head tilted back and everything. “Hahahahaha! The power of Good?! The power of our father Katsumoto?!” he half shouted half laughed through. The laughter continued on for another few seconds before he just suddenly, and quite freakishly, stopped, falling dead silent. “Anyway…father? I don’t have a father. I just don’t like you brother…that’s all.”

Silence fell once more for a few seconds, both still looking as if they were waiting for the other to pounce. The rain hadn’t let up in the slightest since it had begun to fall and now both Ryan and Loki were drenched. “Foolishness Ryan…foolishness.” Loki then quietly said, his voice just slightly louder than the rain. “Might controls EVERYTHING…and without strength you cannot protect anything or yourself…especially from me.”

Not even a few seconds after Loki had finished speaking both him and Ryan dived through the air at each other once more, Ryan obviously finally having enough of Loki’s taunting and Loki obviously reading Ryan like a book for the most part. The clash was without a doubt the single most violent one of the battle. The raindrops seemed to be stationary in midair to the both of them due to the speed that they were both moving, not that they took the time to notice this though, but when they actually clashed weapons an eerie noise rung out through the night empty sky, but it didn’t stop there.

Ryan with both of his Twin Reavers and Loki with Bane both slammed their weapons against each other’s with all of their physical might. The force of the clash sent all the water within a ten-metre circle radius completely around them. Also, a blinding flash of white light, caused by the sudden clash of weapons and the sheer force behind them, exploded outward from them, breaking through the darkness of the night and clearly visible for miles around to anyone who was taking notice.

But it didn’t end with one clash, oh no, both Ryan and Loki continued to pummel each other weapons, as if hoping that the others will clean break or that the other would submit under the pressure, but that wasn’t to be. They continued to slam their weapons into the others, again and again and again, but to no change. The white light flashed outward each time, light a lighthouse warning others not to come towards these ancient rocks, then, and with one final and almighty smash, both Ryan and Loki left their weapons pressing against each other. A test of brute strength.

The white flashes had now stopped and darkness had returned to the land but dead centre of the ancient circle the last two of the samurai clan were stood in the heat of battle, a deadlock between weapons. Ryan with his two blades, the Twin Reavers, pressing hard against Loki’s sword, Bane, and Loki returning the favour so to speak; sparks flying from the rubbing of the metals and the point of pressure between the weapons beginning to glow read through the heat being created. This was without a doubt a standoff that only one would survive.

With a grin constantly upon his face, as well as a clear amount of struggle too, Loki muttered out a sentence. “Heh…I see a devil has awakened within you as well…brother.”

It was then that Ryan’s expression, which up until this point had shown nothing but determination, suddenly turned into a smile. This was his chance. Keeping a firm amount of pressure behind the Reaver in his right hand he quickly slipped the one in his left down and along the edge of Bane until it reached the hilt where he suddenly forced an extra amount of force behind that arm and pushed forward. The result of this sudden movement was that Bane, Loki’s sword, had suddenly been forced out from within his grasp and up into the air.

Loki hadn’t expected this in the slightest, and that fact was more than easily read from his face. Quickly looking up at Bane, which was now flying up through the air, Loki realised the hard fact of things. There was nothing he could do. Unlike the Twin Reavers, which were two samurai blades, Bane was a strong broadsword, which meant that there was only one and now that it was gone he was left unarmed. Looking back down towards Ryan he had enough time to look into his eyes before it happened.

Bane flew through the air, spinning around and around as it did so, before gravity took hold and suddenly it came crashing down to the earth. Ryan had done nothing except for keep his sight dead on Loki and as Bane finally hit the ground and dug deep within it, Ryan made his move. With both Reavers he pulled back his arms and stabbed them forward, thrusting them both deep within, and completely through, Loki’s stomach. They stayed there for a few moments merely absorbing his power away from him before Ryan yanked them out with little remorse. Before turning around and beginning to walk away even before Loki’s body had fallen to the ground.

Loki’s body yanked backwards as the blades were pulled from within his stomach and slowly but surely he fell backwards, landing before the floor. Within a second or two of lying there a crimson colour began to seep out from underneath him, mixing with the few inches of water and running along with it. It seems blood was truly thicker than water. He’s body laid there motionless until suddenly Loki’s fingers began to move, not much but slightly at least. He wasn’t dead just yet it seemed.

Now walking away from Loki’s body Ryan could sense that all life had not been completely taken from Loki, he could still sense him. Walking past Bane Ryan grabbed a hold of it by the hilt and threw it up into the air before pouncing up after it. The sword spun in the air continuously and as Ryan reached the same height as the sword he spun his body around and booted the very end of the handle with great force, sending it flying down towards Loki and piercing the centre of his chest before bursting through him and digging deep into the ground below his body.

Now Loki was gone.

With great elegance Ryan landed down upon the floor once more. He gave a small sigh of relief before looking up towards the velvet coloured sky. “Father…it’s over…” he muttered softly to himself. And with that he left this place of ancient times long since passed and Loki’s body, an ancient evil now merely a relic just like everything else in this area.

Dead.