How to Kill a Sakura Tree

How to Kill a Sakura Tree (Edited and Revised)

Authors Note: This is the first fan-fic I ever wrote, and possibly my pride and joy. ^_^ Reviews are very much appreciated. :)


The sakura leaves have fallen and the sky has turned the dark color of dirt...

The Marshall of the Eastern Army strode through the halls of the Western Palace, even though he had no real business being there. He was tall and muscular, and he was determined to take care of something, you could call it business or you could call it foul play....The Marshall of the Eastern army was six foot two, with large muscles, black hair, black eyes, and had a good looking face.

A couple of months back, the General of the first Squadron in the Eastern Army had gotten into a fight with him. One that involved fists and the dog of the General sleeping with his wife. The fight had gotten the General thrown out of the army and transferred into the Western Army thrilling the Marshall of the Eastern army to no end. However his adulterous wife had not been off the hook.

He had planned to revoke his wife’s immortality for the sins of lust. But his wife, being the opportunist that she was, threw herself onto him and insisted that she had been taken against her will. That she had said no, but the General had not listened, he had taken her to get revenge on her husband. The Marshall loved his wife and knew he would always trust her; she had never once lied to him, or so he thought…

In truth, his wife had lain with practically every solider in the Eastern Army first squadron. After spending many lonely nights by herself she had freely prostituted herself to all the men. Unable to control the lust that resided within her…

Once the Marshall of the Eastern army had heard about the so-called “rape” of his wife, he became furious that the General had been let off with as little as a transfer. He had wanted to get revenge, but it was hard to get revenge on the General. There wasn’t anything close enough to him to inflict pain on.

At least that was what the Marshall had thought. The rumors saying that the general had gotten himself a lover had even reached the Eastern Army. The rumor saying it was Marshall Tenpou was even better. The Eastern army Marshall had never seen Tenpou, but he had been given a description of what he looked like. Tenpou: the young and elegant male who had a face prettier than any woman, who had been deemed the weirdo for not acknowledging it, and who had become General Kenren's bitch.

That fact had just been too good to pass up.

The Marshal had brought four other men that he had hand picked to help with what he was about to do. Marshall Tenpou may be a pretty boy, but he was no weakling.

When the Marshall's group got to the door they slowly opened it and looked inside. Due to Tenpou's casual living habits, they weren't surprised it had been left open. Tenpou was sitting with his back turned, in his usual lab coat and slippers, looking at some documents. They knew that they weren't going to be able to take down Tenpou without weakening him first. The man had a reputation for taking down thirty demons at a time, and being one of the fiercest soldiers in the army.

The Marshall took out a small little pouch that contained a special drought he used on demons to control the masses when the battles became too hectic. The drought was a simple powder that was sprinkled into the air and entered the body through the mouth and nose. The powder was odorless, and would enter the nervous system causing disorientation and weakness in the muscles. Usually after that it would involve capture or restrain for the victim of the substance, but this time he had something bigger than capture planned.

The Marshall opened the bag and took out a small handful of the powder and blew it into the room. The powder would spread quickly and they would make their move. The Marshall told the other soldiers to wait until he gave the word, and slowly opened the door more and knocked.

Tenpou, upon hearing the knocking, turned around. “Yes, who are you?”

The Marshall smiled, “I’m the Marshal from the Eastern army. I had to deliver some documents.”

Marshal Tenpou was indeed a beauty.

“Oh, okay. Just leave them there on that chair.” said Tenpou indicated with his head towards a chair in the corner. He then went back to what he was reading; unaware of the danger he was in.

The Marshal casually walked to the chair and placed the documents on the chair, taking his sweet time to allow the drug to take its effect. He wasn’t worried about the drug affecting him, he had grown immune to it years ago.

After the Marshall placed the documents on the chair he slowly turned around to face Tenpou.

“So you were the one who took in general Kenren?”

Tenpou turned and looked at the Marshall once again. “I didn’t take him in, he was transferred here.”

The Marshall smirked, “I’m surprised he hasn’t been transferred again.”

Tenpou frowned; the man was beginning to get on his nerves. “Maybe it is because there is no reason to be transferred.”

The Marshall smiled and began to slowly approach Tenpou.

”Do you know the reason why General Kenren was transferred in the first place?”

Tenpou got defensive; he didn’t know why the Marshall was asking him all of these questions. All he knew was that it couldn’t be good.

“Your wife couldn’t keep her legs closed.” Tenpou answered, with a sense of defiance in his voice.

The Marshall stopped.

“Ha, Ha. Is that what he told you? Boy, you are so naive.” Said the Marshall, all the while laughing.

Tenpou started to get angry, “Did you come here to talk about my General, or to deliver documents?”

The Marshall stopped laughing and looked at Tenpou. “Did you know that bastard violated my wife, right after knocking me out?”

Tenpou gave the other Marshall a confused look; he knew Kenren would never take anyone by force. He wasn’t the type; even if you did piss him off, he would rather kill himself then take someone against their will.

“Why are you telling me this, this has nothing to do with me?”

The Marshall looked around. “By the way, where is General Kenren? I was hoping he would be here.”

“None of your business. Now please, either answer the question or leave. I have a lot of work to do.”

“What a shame. I really wanted the General to be here so that he could see his debt being paid.”

At the word 'debt', the four subordinates came in. Tenpou saw this and immediately stepped backwards.

“What is the meaning of this?”

“Didn’t you know?” Asked one of the subordinates, “You are the closest thing to General Kenren. What better way to get revenge than by attacking what’s closest to the heart.”

Tenpou didn’t stop to think twice as he tackled the other Marshall and brought him to the floor. The Marshall intended to harm him to get back at Kenren, but there was no way in hell he was going to let that happen.

The other subordinates attempted to subdue him but Tenpou thrashed like a wild animal. His body began to feel strange, the room was spinning and his limbs where getting heavy.

The Marshall, noticing that the drug was now in full effect, threw Tenpou off, causing the smaller man fall onto his back. . He was then grabbed by the four subordinates. The Marshall stood up and dusted himself off.

"You're quite the animal, you live up to your reputation."

The Marshall ran his hand over his lips, feeling the sticky presence of blood. He smiled, "I bet you feel pretty strange, don’t you?"

Tenpou glared at the other Marshall.

But the Marshall just continued, “I came prepared and slipped an airborne drug into your office right before I came in. Your limbs will be semi-paralyzed for the next two hours. You’ll be able to move, but you won’t be able to cause any damage.”

He then turned to the men that were holding Tenpou. "Put him over the desk and hold him there until I can get a good grip on him. Make sure he is on his back as well, I want him to be looking at me."

Tenpou was dragged over to his own desk, laid across on his back so that he would be facing his assailant.

The Marshall came up to Tenpou and wrapped one his enormous hands around Tenpou’s neck. Tenpou struggled a little to try and remove the Marshall’s hand from his neck, but every time he tried the Marshall would just squeeze harder. Tenpou watched the subordinates leave one by one to wait outside through the corner of his eye.

So the Marshall didn’t want any witnesses. Tenpou looked back up at the Marshall with an unknown expression. He knew what was about to happen to him; he only hoped it would be quick. The Marshall looked eager, as his pants were already down.

***

Out on the battlefield, Kenren had been ordered to go and help the Eastern army, since the demons had gotten out of control. He was covered in sweat, blood, and dirt, but the battle was almost over. He was about to go and help some soldiers that were having trouble with a demon when he felt a shiver move up his spine.

Kenren saw a vision before his eyes:

A sakura tree being blown to bits by a storm.
Then he heard a scream…
“Kenren!”

“General? General are you alright?”

Kenren snapped out of it and noticed that his subordinates were looking at him funny.

“Oh, sorry, I just spaced out.”

“Awaiting orders sir.”

“Right. Move out.”

"What was that?" Kenren asked himself. He shook it off when he heard one of the soldiers call his name, but there was something wrong back in heaven and he knew it wasn't good.

***


"Not bad for your first time,” said the Marshall as he cleaned himself. Tenpou lay on his bed naked and in silence, his back turned. The traumatizing event had lasted over an hour; Tenpou had been dragged from his desk to the bedroom, until the bastard had emptied himself in satisfaction.

The sick Marshall smiled, "I have to say I am quite surprised, I guess those rumors weren’t valid. I am honored to have been your first.”

Tenpou remained motionless, but quietly answered, "If you are quite done, get the fuck out of here."

The Marshall still smiling, left the room to the front door of the office, where his subordinates were waiting.

“We’re leaving.”

One of the subordinates caught a glimpse of Tenpou as the Marshall was closing the door. He couldn’t see all of him, but he saw Tenpou trying to sit up and fall every time he tried. Upon seeing that, something pulled on his conscience; he had helped in the assault of an individual who had had nothing to do whatsoever with the matter at hand.

Timidly, he went up to his commander. “Sir, was it really necessary to use such drastic measures?”

The Marshall glared at his subordinate. Just the Marshall’s height was intimidating enough, without the glare.

“Are you questioning my motives?”

The subordinate looked down.

”No sir.”

“Alright then, move out.”

***
Tenpou finally managed to sit up in bed after five tries. Everything hurt him, his head, his neck. He looked down and saw that the bed was covered in blood, which meant that his desk and floor were probably covered in the red filth as well. He needed to shower, and clean everything before Kenren came back.

Tenpou sighed. His first time indeed.

With great difficulty, he managed to get off the bed and stand up. Looking around for his clothing, he found his shirt by his bed and his pants in his office. He dressed in silence, wincing as he put on his pants.

When he was finally dressed, he got a wet rag and began to wipe his desk clean. His desk had the worst of it, and it took him a good deal of time to get it clean.

Next came the floor by the wall and the wall itself. The wall was covered with his blood and was turning into a brownish color; it made him sick to see it. He had to hurry to the bathroom to barf, but stumbled and fell twice on his way there.

Then came the bed, he threw the sheets off of it. They were covered in the mingled essence of the crime, and smelled of the bastards sweat. He would burn them later, but at the moment he had no energy. He placed the sheets in an empty drawer and put new ones on the bed.

By the time everything was clean, he was already running a high fever and had fallen down more than eight times; creating more bruises on his already torn and abused skin. Still there was one more bit of evidence he needed to erase.

Tenpou made his way to the bathroom to shower.

***
When Kenren got back to heaven, he quickly made his way to Tenpou’s room. Little did he know, he was an hour too late. When he got to the front of Tenpou’s office, he already knew something was wrong.

The door was locked.

“Tenpou? Are you in there?” yelled Kenren as he banged on the door.

Tenpou, who was still in the shower, turned his head towards the bathroom door and turned off the water. He got out of the shower and put on his robe.

“I’m coming Kenren.”

Tenpou limped over to his office door and opened it, only to see Kenren’s worried face.

Tenpou forced himself to smile. “Kenren, what’s with the face?”

“Well for one thing, you locked the door. That isn’t something you usually do, and you were showering. Another thing you don’t usually do.”

“Oh, Kenren you worry too much.”

Tenpou limped over to the couch and slowly sat down, but the pain shot upward, forcing Tenpou to bite his lip to suppress a whimper.

Kenren noticed Tenpou’s limp and raised an eyebrow.

“Tenpou, why are you limping?”

“Oh, klutzy me, I tripped over one of my books and twisted my ankle.”

Kenren continued to look at Tenpou with concerned eyes. There was something wrong with his friend. Not only was the story about him twisting his ankle complete bull shit, that dorky innocence that seemed to always be around Tenpou seemed to have vanished.

But why? What had happened, that left a horrible feeling in his gut?

“Kenren, don’t you have a report to do for Goujun?”

Kenren snapped back to reality.

“Oh. Oh yeah. Are you sure you are alright?”

Tenpou looked at Kenren, and once again forced a smile.

“Yeah, I’m alright, just go do your report so I can stamp it.”
Kenren still wasn’t convinced, but left to go do his report. Something had happened; he could feel it in his heart…but what exactly?

***
The next day Kenren knew for sure that something was wrong.

He had come to Tenpou’s office to get his report stamped, when he saw Tenpou lying on the floor.

At first he had thought that Tenpou had once again forgotten to sleep and had passed out. But when he went to wake him up, he noticed that Tenpou had a terrible fever.

Panicking, he had picked Tenpou up and carried him to his room. He had laid him down, and had figured that undressing him a little might make the fever go down.

This is where Kenren's suspicions started being confirmed

Tenpou had bruises all over his chest and neck. He hadn’t noticed the bruises on his neck until now because Tenpou had had his shirt buttoned all the way to the top. Kenren also noticed that one of the bigger bruises on Tenpou’s neck resembled a hand.

Kenren frowned and began running his hands across the bruises and took off the rest of his shirt. Kenren’s eyes widened when he saw that the bruises didn’t stop at the chest. No, the bruises went all the way to the wrists where the same hand print as on the neck resided.

Tenpou moaned a little and started to stir. He opened his eyes and noticed that he was lying on his bed shirtless, with Kenren right in front of him. Tenpou jumped up and moved back a little.

“Kenren! What are you doing?!”

Kenren frowned at Tenpou, “Well, I came in to get your stamp on my report when I found you passed out on the floor. I was going to wake you, but you had a fever. So I carried you to your room and decided to try and make you more comfortable, but then I see all of those bruises.”

Tenpou looked down at his body.

“Oh, these, pay no mind to them. I just hurt myself sparring with one of the subordinates.”

Kenren looked at Tenpou. “Tenpou I don’t think you get bruises like these from sparring.”

Tenpou smiled at Kenren. “We just got a little rough is all.”

“Nobody in our squadron has hands that big.” Retaliated Kenren, pointing at the bruises on Tenpou’s neck and wrists.

“Kenren, please, just pay no mind to them.” Said Tenpou, not looking directly at Kenren.

“Now would you please leave, I’m really tired.”
Kenren knew it was fruitless to get something out of Tenpou right now, so he helped Tenpou get into bed and left the room.

When Kenren got to the office outside of Tenpou's quarters and had shut the door behind him, he punched the wall.

He had a very horrible suspicion of what happened to Tenpou, but the question was who had done this to him. He wouldn’t pry it out of Tenpou now, but whoever did such a thing would pay.

And what made him feel worse was the fact that he had known something bad was happening and he made no effort to go and stop it.