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Takumi's arm burned as he drew back the bowstring for the thousandth time, feeling the hum of energy from the arrow of light as it formed in place before he released and let the arrow fly.
The streak of blue light pierced the shadow, shredding it into a plume of black and purple smoke.
"More," Takumi demanded as his chest heaved and sweat dripped off his eyebrows and past his eyes.
"Why do you persist with this pointless exercise?" Eir asked. Her soft and quiet voice always chilled him, like a specter touching his soul with an icy dead finger.
Takumi didn't answer, slowing his breathing as he tried to recover himself, keeping his hand gripped tightly around the Fujin Yumi and eyes peered down the empty landscape ahead of him.
After a long moment, with Takumi providing now answer, Eir sighed and waved her hand, summoning another mob of shadowy figures, this time in a ring all around him, hundreds, piled several ranks deep. Takumi clenched his jaw and bent his brows down, annoyed at her insolence. Was this her idea of a joke?
He watched the shadows twist and shift in the air. He could feel the weight of the dark enclosing around him, suffocating.
"You won't succeed," Eir informed him, perhaps sensing the anger building in his chest.
"Don't patronize me," Takumi growled.
"Very well," Eir said as she waved her hand, setting the shadows into motion.
Takumi sprang into action as soon as the first shadow lurched, his fingers sweeping the air inside the arc of the Fujin Yumi, reaching for the bowstring that didn't exist until it manifested at his command, feeling the familiar tension of the band of light as he stretched it back to his shoulder and let loose the first arrow, shredding the shadow as it charged toward him.
His arm moved in a flash, forward and back in identical strokes from thousands of hours of training imprinted into his muscles, loosing arrow after arrow, the light shredding the shadows as they closed in around him. He spun as he felt them growing close at his back, spraying arrows in quick succession to fend off the attackers. Takumi wheeled on his heels, never falling out of motion, his eyes darting around identifying the next target even before his arm came back with an arrow drawn and pupils seeking out the next kill even before he released the arrow at the previous one.
Even as he fired arrow after arrow in blinding succession, the shadows were too thick, closing in on him from every direction. He felt the first brush his shoulder before an arrow destroyed it and before he could turn to get the next at his back, he could already feel another ephemeral form crashing into his body. Takumi grunted at the impact, reaching for the bowstring of the Fujin Yumi and as he pulled his hand back, he grabbed nothing but air.
The next shadow crashed against him, then the next and the next, the darkness cutting him from every direction until the shadows piled on top him, swallowing him, drowning him as he fell to the ground. He roared as the darkness enveloped him, until he vanished underneath a hill of black figures growing ever bigger. Takumi could barely breathe as the weight of the darkness grew, until all at once it disappeared, leaving nothing but the sunless sky of Hel above him.
Takumi heaved, still feeling the grip of the Fujin Yumi in his left hand and the weight of the armor of Hel suddenly feeling so heavy upon his exhausted frame.
"Are you finished now?" Eir asked as she appeared over his head, glancing down at him.
"No," Takumi answered between his labored breaths.
"What are you trying to prove?" Eir asked.
"Nothing," he growled back at her.
"You're lying," she challenged.
Eir never smiled. She felt like the personification of melancholy and grief. And yet, she had helped the Order of Heroes defeat her mother and stop the circle of death that swirled around her like at tempest.
"I've heard that your bow can only be used by those it finds worthy, those with the concentration and focus to channel and control its power," Eir said.
"That's true," Takumi said.
"And yet, you struggle daily to maintain that control," she said. "Why?"
Takumi scowled. He didn't like anyone peering into him, thinking they could puzzle out his mind. His tongue was sharp and his face severe. The people of Hoshido didn't respect him like they did Ryoma, didn't follow him like Hinoka, didn't cherish him like Sakura. He didn't seek their approval. All he needed was power. His allies would follow power and his enemies would fall before it. That was all that mattered.
And yet, the Fujin Yumi battled him, denied him that power he sought. It was only through his intense training that he maintained his control over the legendary weapon. Even one day of rest could set him back a week as he reached for the string that refused him.
"My mother died when I was just a child," Takumi said. "In less than a month, she changed from my loving, vibrant mother, to a wasting shadow of herself. My father was killed under a flag of truce, ambushed by those traitorous bastards from Nohr and killed in the streets of Cheve.
"And what was I able to do to stop it? Nothing."
If his siblings, his retainers, his people, his homeland were to survive, it would require a strength beyond that of common mortals, of everyday soldiers. No, in order to gain the power to protect what he held dear, it would require great sacrifices. He did not have the luxury to rest, to relax, to become complacent, even in these times of peace. The next threat was out there, it would come and he would have to be prepared to face it.
He had come to Hel to face death itself, to face his fears head on and destroy them.
The world was cruel. He had wanted to believe it wasn't so, wanted to deny it, to ignore it. But it could not be denied. Cruelness could only be matched by cruelness. He had taken that cruelness inside himself, honed it, and returned it against the world that sought to destroy him and everything he loved. He could not bend.
The Fujin Yumi, however, seemed to disagree. The bow was a perfect match for him, because it, too, refused to bend, to compromise its morals.
"You can't change the past," Eir advised him.
Takumi pushed himself up from the dirt, dusted himself off, closed his eyes and took a breath. He calmed his mind, centered himself, and reached down to the bow, pulling his fingers back until he felt the tension of the bowstring again. The bow knew his resolve, even if it disagreed with his heart.
"No," Takumi agreed, "but I can protect my future. And I will, with whatever it takes."
He lifted the bow again as he looked out onto the empty plains of Hel. Takumi narrowed his eyes and bent the fingers of his right hand.
"More."