Hayate stood a stone’s throw away from the visage of his father and the personification of the demon that lived within him. They stood resolute and unwavering, eyeing each other’s stance and looking for weaknesses. He was enraged with Yamato for daring to invoke some kind of reaction from him by using that form. Yet strangely enough at his core the shinobi was happy to see his dad once again, even if like this.

“So you’re pulling at my heart strings now?” Hayate said as he shifted his weight readying for an attack. His voice cracked slightly. “This will be the only time you will ever get away with pulling something like this. I swear it Yamato.”

“Then show me your resolve!” Yamato screamed through Hayate’s father as the elderly swordsman drew his katana and broke straight for the shinobi. He was quick, otherworldly in motion, and precise with his steps as he closed the distance between them faster than Hayate could blink. His long katana left behind a trail of red vorpal energy as he swung it in a crescent slash trying to cut Hayate down the center. Luckily for the Shinobi the edge of his blade caught the black titanium of his prosthetic arm and was casually defected away.

In a single fluid motion Hatae recovered and twisted his body so quickly that the wakazashi attached to his elbow impaled itself deep into the shoulder of Yamato’s apparition. Then he brought his knee up to his chest before kicking off his enemy and staggering back a few paces. In the process he flicked a handful of shuriken into the palm of his hand before letting loose a volley of razor sharp death onto Yamato.

“Not good enough!” he yelled once more as the second the shuriken struck his Yamato released a red pulse of energy deflecting them all away. “You have always been weak, relying on my power to do what you could not.”

“That’s not true,” Hayate stuttered. “We have always been a team.”

“I have only ever been your tool.”

“That’s not true!”

“Then why do I remain sealed?”

Hayate hadn’t a good answer. Yamato has always been a force that has been passed down within the Amatsukami for generations. He was the power that ensured their position as an imperial family. For lack of a better term, Yamato has and will forever be a slave to the Amatsukami and their ambition.

“I thought when you were born that your father would be the one to end this cycle. But on that day he decided to trust you with my power instead. Why? Why you? What did he see in you that I can’t.”

“I was five!” Hayate cried out as the two locked blades in a shining clash of black and red. “My father died when I was five! I tried every day to live up to the task set before me, all the blood ive shed for my family and for my friends. I don’t know everything there is about you Yamato, but ive never thought of you as a tool or slave.”