#if only because dang Kuu-Ro I remember this NPC exists and I get sad and Yi gets mad pf

[yi-dashi]

💛 :)

Peer into my muse’s memories 💛- A memory that makes them feel angry

“I can’t believe this!”

“Forbiddance is forbiddance, Young Master. You can’t expect me to stand aside for you.”

There were so few ways to exit Wuju without braving cliff faces. The terrain was well suited for seclusion of a martial art, just as it was for control over movement. Yi stood with a sheathed blade in hand, his posture broad and ready for action. The road northward was a craggy trail, accented only by a simple covered watch point, mountainous terrain, and the black plumes of smoke from distance provinces. Such suffering, and he only had the vaguest notions why. It’d be something so easy to investigate, so easy to aid in, and yet here he was.

Between him and his call to action stood one man, his lithe frame bulked up only by the expanse of his robes. He had a flat expression, much like his affect, and his unkempt hair lay about his face from his suggestion of a bun. He looked bored with the younger man, and for whatever reason that struck Yi as if it were malcontent. Yi had known Master Kuu-Ro since before he was a student, so it all shouldn’t have fussed him. Yet here he was, same as ever. And here Yi was, feeling as differently as he ever had.

“What does your mother think about all this?” Kuu-Ro asked as he rolled his head about his shoulders, cricking his neck, “Or your father? Does it matter to you?”

“I am a grown man,” Yi growled, taking a step, “And I will not be denied exit from this place.”

“Can’t do it.” Kuu-Ro shrugged, “Is your blade blunt?”

“No.” The Master laughed softly, of all things,

“At least you’re honest. Well then, are you going to kill people, Yi Wuwei?”

“Wh… What?” Yi’s brow furrowed, his stance faltering for just a moment. He snapped himself back when he expected mercy strike to punish his faults, yet only more words drenched in monotony came,

“Am I the first, and then what?”

“What are you talking about? I’m not going to fight you fatally, Master.”

“You’ll be doing a lot of that, though. Don’t you understand? Say something bad’s really happening down there.” Once more, full of surprises, the man turned his back to Yi and spoke to the mountains beyond. His own strikes could have followed, but he offered a Wuju Master the same courtesy as he’d just given him, “And it’s not demons, its not malevolent spirits of any kind. Maybe it’s just a forest fire, but you and I both know better. You have a feeling in your gut that you want to help people, but where does that lead you? To one murder, more?”

“I don’t want to sit here, righteous and unknown,” Yi took a few more careful steps, to which the only reaction he seemed to note from the Master was a soft sigh, “when there are people down there who are suffering.”

“Funny thing is... Well, it’s not so funny, is it? How much blood does it take to end suffering?” Kuu-Ro’s voice finally shifted to something of a mumble as he dipped his head, “Do you cut down an innocent man, upholding scriptures, just to leave this place? Just to fight more, bleed more, kill more? Is it worth it? Is it... right? It feels right, doesn’t it?”

“I’ll only fight you if you force my—”

A stuttered gasp escaped Yi without conscious thought as the man turned back to face him. Without Yi even noticing, perhaps he had it hidden in his robes all along, Kuu-Ro faced Yi with a brown expanse of nothingness behind his eyes, and an ornate dagger leveled to his own throat. Yet he spoke on with that same even cadence, the same chiselled features that lied about his age, and the same as Yi had always known him,

“I don’t even know if this is the best way to go about this, but I wouldn’t test me on my attempt.”

“Master! What are you..?”

“I don’t feel good about this. About what I see down there every day when I walk this road. I remember walking roads far away, looking for a Demon that may have never existed. I don’t like being complicit in suffering, so don’t think I wouldn’t just let you walk by me if I could. But can I? As a Wuju Practitioner?” The pressure of the blade tightened against the man’s skin, such that Yi made hastened attempts to back off and drop his weapon. What else could he do? What should anyone do?

“Master Kuu-Ro, please.”

“I couldn’t do it. I want to do it, but I just can’t. And I don’t even know why I feel like this. Why should I feel so bad, sad, when I know what we’re doing is spirit honored? I know that we can’t jump into every squabble that befalls these lands, because blood is blood no matter whether it comes from our people, their people, young, old… me, or you. Do you even understand what you’re suggesting you do, down there? You talk as if every life saved isn’t another you might end. Do I need to show you?”

Raising his hands in alarmed surrender, Yi only offered a soft,

“Are you alright, Master Kuu-Ro?”

“Do I need to show you?”

“No! No... You do not, Master Kuu-Ro.”

“Good.” Finally, the pressure released about his chin, and his hands slipped back inside his robes. The Master seemed to consider Yi for a moment, his eyes scanning him top to bottom. Yi made no attempts to move, not even breathe, so much had his conviction bled from his mind. Seemingly satisfied, the man began to amble back to his post, “I’m not okay, thank you. Finish your trials. Get your Master’s Mark. Travel by your right. I don’t care what you do, just do it the right way and don’t remind me of what I have to look at every day.”

Lost, dazed even, by the flurry of it all, Yi stood in solemn silence as he watched the immovable blackness of the skies northward.

Why did this have to feel so complicated?