A Glimpse in the Past

12 Years ago

It all begins In a little village, isolated in mountains where a women quietly enjoys some meat in her house, It was a toast to a person who wasn't with her anymore. Another women was with her

She then poured herself a cup of tea, She took a long sniff as she noticed that she can really smell the fragrance of tea as he absent mindley asked "Is the tea always that fragrant"

"It all depend on what you put in it, though you might wanna mix some honey in it let me get it for you" Said the other women as she went to get honey

Meanwhile little Thomas (3 year old) who was still sitting on the table looked at his cup and asked "can I also have some?"

"of course you can dear"

That was when the farmhouse door open as Hanna walk in (the girl from before)

At first Shasha was happy that the honey was her, but then she notice Hanna's worried expression

****

Someone was coming and it did not seems to be someone they know

Shasha gaze her eyes in to distance beyond the fields of wheat, and true enough She could see a Distant man though that man was moving slowly but there was no doubt he was moving towards them

She steeled her nerves and walk outside

"Greeting Friend" She called out "I hope your journey through out he mountain was not difficult "

However the man did not respond nor hold his approach "Sir I can offer you something to eat if you want, but a man is not welcome in my house that i once shared with my beloved, You will find nothing of interest here"

Still the man did not respond as he continue his approach he was now barely dozens of yards away from Shasha. That's when she send hanna to get her husband's sword

As the man got nearer Shasha noticed a sword being drag behind the man in dirt. she did not know why the man came and what his purpose was but if he try to hurt someone she was ready to fight him to death

Seconds later Hanna return clutching a long sword to her chest

The man was now infront of farmhouse as he stumbled and shasha noticed that the man was covered in blood

Her heart beat thundered in her ears

".....Kurosakhi?"

The man stopped at the sound of his own name as the sword slips from his grasp as he started to fall

Though neither of them intended but Shasha and Hanna both launched forward in a vain attempt to catch him, but ofcouse they could not

Isshin Kurosaki who was once known as the "Reaper of war" The worst nightmare for his Enemies collapsed face first on the flat ground

****

3 days later

Smell of burning reaches the nostril of Shasha as there was smoke in the passage way, she turned a corner and stopped abstractly

Isshin was sitting near the fireplace fanning the fire, his hand were filled with ashes as he choked on the smoke looking over his shoulder he saw shasha coming in

"Ah... forgive i did not know how it work"

shasha let loose a sigh of exasperation and grab some water from the table

"Get out of the way you dummy" steam started to generate from the fire place as he fire was extinguished by the water as she glare at the man standing dumbly in the center of room "what are you waiting for get the damm door open"

Isshin open the door thinking for a moment he started to wave the door in order to let he fresh breeze in

"The girl" He murmur "she asked me to mind the breads before she left "

"haha, I told the last time you was here. you will never be a baker and it seemed to be true isn't it?" Shasha chuckled "So you spoke to Hanna ?"

Isshin nodded,

Shasha soon noticed that Isshin has not looked in her eyes even once, instead he kept his gaze on the floor between them, and she could not shake off the feeling that he some how-looked not... himself anymore, he did not radiate his stubbornness and the way his looked down on all over the world as if nothing really matters to him, ....is no longer there

"I have come here to give you something to repay your years of kindness to me" Isshin stated his purpose

"Fine..... how about I let you pow the fields, hopefully you wouldn't set the whole field on fire, Though i wouldn't be surprise if you actually did"

A glimmer of smile appear on isshin face, but it was only a glimmer of smile, he than gaze at the passageway

A 3 year old boy could be seen peeking at them, as Shasha told him

"Come in and say Hello to our guest, he mustn't look like it but he is a old friend of mine"

THE BOY did not move for a while and ran towards the kitchen

"Kahummm... i think he is a little afraid of you, as you are first warrior he has seen since he was little and i found in the mountains"

Isshin looked towards the boy and then Shasha

"HE is.... not yours?"

Shasha laughed

"Are you being serious, I really can't tell from your face "

Isshin eyes then again fell to the floor

"NO Isshin. I can tell that this very youngboy is not my son, and before you ask neither is Hanna. I am 50 years old, and i know i look it, so don't try to flatter me into forgiving you for a burned bread. "

She then looked directly at Isshin and saw something she would never forget, his eyes were brimming with tears, he was trembling , she take a step towards him "You have been gone for too long" reaching out to place a reassuring hand on his shoulder "I was beggining to wonder...."

Isshin reacted to her touch as he was struck by lightning "Get away from me "

he bellowed recoiling with such force, he crashed over the low wooden bench and split his forehead on the corner of bench

Isshin covered his head with one hand and try to regain his footing

Seeing the state of him Shasha knew that the wounds he has recently suffered ran far deeper than his flesh and THAT hurt her more than anything else she could imagine. she folded her arms infront of her chest and sank down to sat opposite to him on the floor.

Silence regain in the room as they sat there for some time. Eventually she asked

"What happen to you"

"I.... don't...really .... remember" isshin replied

hearing this she know that its a lame excuse to doge her question, and did not push further into it

"4 years Isshin, I have not seen you for 4 bloody years" her words seems to hang in the air longer than she intended to

"I went to the underworld" he murmured

Shasha eyes widened "but.."

"I know it shouldn't be possible and yet, there it is"

It was beyond everything she has considered there were recordes to people going in to the underworld .....but no one and when i say no one it means literary no one has ever come out of that place, but the notion of some one coming back from that place TWICE was never heard of

She laugh claping her hand "My friend if someone was ever going to rewrite the rules of the world, It would be you"

Isshin shook his head "No,..... It won't be me"

"Then who" shasha asked

"DRACULA"

Even though she has never heard of this name before, The name send a shiver down her spine, she did not have the power to think that how can a word have a power over the livings or maybe it was simply the way Isshin has spoken it, his gaze haunted

DRACULA one of the five Generals of Demon king, RANKED 1ST

"I cannot imagine what has happen to you my friend but " She reached out to him again but this time he did not flinch "Oh, Isshin" as she took him in her arms rooking gently back and forth with him on the kitchen floor, closed to tears herself Shasha closed her eyes "Tell me what you need, old friend. Whatever i can do for you, You know i will"

Isshin took a deep breath to steady himself "I need you to tell me ..... That its okay to give up,"

Shasha felt suddenly cold "What"

"There is too much evil in this cursed world, You and i both have seen it. I have fought it for too long. I can't remember what came before... but, I'm tired, I'm so dammed tired Shasha.

Fighting against the demons, Fighting against the Human and other races.... Even fighting against Scums of this world, But now I am being turned in to a enemy by my own family In which i have grown up ever since i was adopted, Then simply being endure is no longer enough" Isshiin greeted his teeth and looked her directly in the eyes "And worst of it all I've lost my powers, I once held. So I needed you to tell me that its okay for me to leave all of this behind. You're the only person I---"

Shasha pushed him away and climb shakingly to her feet, anderleane sugre in her body, she saw this wasn't just the absence of his 'comforting the storms' which has been a good quality of his that is missing, but that........ bastard has actually given up

"HOW dare you," She murmur

Isshin rose to his feet totally confused, he wipe his face with the back of his hand

"I don't understa....."

"HOW DARE YOU" Shasha shrieked "HOW, can you even think to ask that"

Isshin fist clenched involuntarily "I can't do this anymore, please"

A sour taste rises to her mouth, her anger was so fierce that she couldn't feel the floor beneath her feet anymore

"DAMM you ... You coward how dare you to say that to me."

"Shasha please listen to me i..."

PAK

She slapped him hard on his face, and again he did not try to defend himself but only stare down at her dumbfounded, his cheeks reddening quickly

"He Loved you Isshin!, My husband SAKUMO loved you more than any brother. He was my husband but he went with you to that Damm underworld, even though i begged him not to, He was mine and you lost him down there" she let out a wordless cry of pain and dug her nails into her forearms "You got to hold him Isshin, you got to hold him as he dies, and what did i get?" She pointed to the sword hunged on the wall "I GOT A SWORD. Nothing more."

"Don't you dare Isshin to tell me what you have lost, and how you can't go on anymore, You don't get to retire, You don't have that option. This isn't about you, Its never been.

I helped you, Because that's what SAKUMO would have wanted. I followed you to the battleground, and become soldier after he was gone. He died for you, so that you can become something greater than any hero out there, Greater than any mortal"

Isshin shook his head "But I'm not"

Exasperate she stumped to the fire place to get the blade, drawing it from it sheath and pressing it to Isshin heart in one clean motion "Then we don't need you anymore, we might just let the Demons do as the want and let them have their way in the war, Then let it be the end of evrything"

The tip of the sword pierce into his skin a little as it dew a tickle of blood from his chest, isshin looked saw the speck of red slowly scattering on the ground then looked at Shasha

"What War?" he asked as his voice appeared somehow weak

She tightened her grip to the sword, realizing that she did not know how she expected this to end

"The hunters..... Isshin, They are everywhere killing not only the one who made a contact with you but even being the one suspicious of having to come in contact with you. The whole fifth Regiment was butchered by Ra'Hanzo back then, your former brethren has been driven to darkness by him"

Some light of recognition flickered accrossed Isshin face as he was trying to recall a fading past

"You swore that you would stand against them Isshin, That you would not let our fate be decided by those inhuman monsters, even when they choose to do nothing against it , I am sorry for what happen to you, I truly am, But i can't let you break your oath, Not now."

Isshin clenched his hand around his sword "Killing Ra'Hanzo will not end the conflict, just as death of war did not leads to Eternal peace

"Shut up, Stop trying to justifying yourself and do what you should do. That little boy was absolutly terrified of you when you arrived and yet he wants to pick up your sword and wear your cloak from the moment he saw them. If you does not act now that will be the only future he would have. Growing up to fight and die like everyone else " she force as much conviction in to her voice as she can

"You need to get back up Isshin. I didn't want to be a widow farmer,I didn't want to inherit all of this. I had to give up my life for my loved ones..... So now you need to prove that you are worthy of the faith my husband has put in you. You need to honor the sacrifice we all had made. You need to stop the Demons from destroying our peoples"

Isshin grip Shasha's hand holding on to the sword handle gently urging her to drive it further in to the heart, his expression resolute

"I can't " he whispered his voice crackled "I'm not strong enough"

That was it, Shasha had it enough, she threw down the blade heading out of the house saying

"Well, if are going to lay down and die, Please pass on my love to my husband when you see him"

*******

When she return Isshin was gone, only his sword, the clock and a hand written note with a space ring was left there, She scan the whole house, even looked in the fields but saw no sign of him. she took a long breath letting it down slowly as she calmed down

"I genually hope this would be not be the last time we saw each-others, that you could find your ways out of the Darkness, for all their sake's by whatever path he has chosen, but until then I will take-care of your sword"

*******

Present day

Shasha could been seen sitting on a rocking chair outside of her farm as she gazes in the distance

Soon a blurry figure could be seen walking towards her from the other side, due to the sun being behind of that figure she could not see his face clearly, as the man features were reviled shasha was stunned

"Yo .... I'm here for my sword hope you have taken care of it for me"

"Hahahahahahahassssss"

Looking at the familiar face of Isshin shasha laugh as tears of joy flashes in her eyes

.

.

The end