Where am I?

She wondered as her blue eyes flickered open to darkness.

What....

MY CHILDREN!

Cold sweat ran down her face as she looked around, something had happened. 

Something terrible had happened.

She was sure of it.

But she couldn't remember.  She couldn't remember.

Her hands gripped her head as flashes of the recent past plagued her, but none were enough to tell her what had happened.

Then it came to her.

Little flashes of fire, of smoke, of the burning pain which plagued her.

Her hands shook as she stared at them, wondering where the burns had gone.

They had been unbearable, until she hadn't been able to feel anything.  

She remembered charging through a burning door, clutching her daughter.

No, it can't be.

She squeezed her eyes shut.

She couldn't be dead.

Could she?

Why was fate written this way?

She couldn't hold her tears in as they dripped down her cheeks.

She had promised them she would protect them, that she would be there for them.

But now, they were alone.

From now on, they would only have each other.

She was dead to the world.

She was a dead woman.

Airi Hāsu, was dead.

_

"No." 

She had been watching for a long time, although she wasn't sure if time was a concept which should be intertwined with death.

"NO, STOP IT!" 

There was nothing she could do, she couldn't intervene nor protect her little girl as she watched her fall toward the fire.

She closed her eyes, her heart ripping in her chest as she was forced to listen to the screams of her daughter, until they went silent, and only a pained moaning was left.

Then, there were footsteps.

Through her blurred vision, she made out her son heading toward town.

And the samurai who laid in wait for him.

Her nails dug into her palm as she could only witness the scene.

She wanted to scream, to cry out for him to be wary, and she wondered if it would be better if she simply moved on.

She couldn't help them.  She couldn't save them.

She was helpless, she was powerless.

It nearly broke her when she heard her son scream out in pain when he saw his sister.

And she turned her eyes away when there was the sickening slash, inflicted upon him by the samurai.

Her husband, the one who she had once called her husband had led a group of them once.

They were supposed to be honorable, noble warriors, not murders, not people who took advantage of children.

She couldn't deny her grim, guilty satisfaction when the samurai was killed, but her children, both were near death.

She didn't want them to die, not when they might still have a chance.

But.

A part of her.

She hated it, wondered.

Would it be better, if they simply started again?

Wouldn't it be better if they were born in a world of love and care?

But shadows creeped in the edges of her vision as she watched a man, with rainbow colored eyes appear.

"Upper Moon 6."

His teeth were sharp and he held the body of a woman.

He was a monster, that was the only word she could use to define him.

Her heart dropped when Kazutaka agreed to offer and she covered her ears to block out the sounds of her children's screams as they transformed, no longer humans, but a of a race of demons.

"Why, why is fate like this."

She felt empty, defeated, hopeless as she fell to the ground.

"What did they do to deserve this?  They were children.  THEY WERE INNOCENT!"

She felt numb as the seasons passed, as she was forced to watch children took so many lives.

"Why am I powerless?  Why am I powerless to help my children?"