Rikunai: Genesis

“Is something troubling you, Akimicha?” A man wearing a black kimono said as he paced over to his brother, sitting next to him on the ground up against the trunk of an autumn-touched tree. A leaf fell from the tree and landed on the man’s head. He gently brushed it off and watched as the golden leaf drifted to the ground to join its friends next to Akimicha.

“I’m just tired,” Akimicha replied as he tapped his fingers ahead of him. White wisps of light came from his fingertips and gently flowed to a rock several meters away. His face softened and his posture loosened as he sighed, bringing the rock to him with his powers. “Why are you awake this early, Antachi?”

“I could say the same to you.” Antachi chuckled and ruffled his black hair. The blue streak of hair running through it reflected daybreak, forming a shine on his silky, messy hair.

“I couldn’t sleep.” Akimicha fiddled with the rock in his hands, subtly admiring the smoothness of the structure. He looked to his other hand as he instantly took a piece out of the ground with his mind and molded it to be a perfect visual replica of the stone he had pulled to him.

“I thought you said you were tired?” Antachi stretched his arms out and yawned, admiring the beauty of their island, Rikunai. The distant ocean reminded him of the barriers around the forever isolated island. Well, not forever, as there were minor cracks that could be exploited in the barrier, but to anyone outside, no matter what technology or tactics they used, no one could detect or enter the island of Rikunai, about the size of the future state of California, in the Pacific Ocean. People would pass through one side and appear out the other side, and no one inside could escape, either. Antachi knew that they only created this barrier to protect their people from the outside world, a world that would undoubtedly fear and eventually hunt Rikunians because of the brothers and their descendants who could be powerful enough to level nations. However, he still wondered if it was the right thing to do. He knew that the settlers from Japan who colonized this land centuries before would never have their descendants meet their brethren again, something that made Antachi feel incredibly guilty, despite the extreme safety the barrier provided to them from the outside world and vice versa.

Akimicha fell silent as the rocks in his hands instantly turned to water. Electricity crawled through the spherical mass of water in his hand before it collapsed back into his hand like magic and turned into a blazing flame that somehow didn’t burn his palish palm. The fire illuminated his green eyes as his white hair flowed in the wind. He ignored his brother as he quietly observed the flame.

“Akimicha?” Antachi leaned over and looked at his brother. Akimicha extinguished the flame and met his siblings’ worried gaze.

“Sometimes you can’t sleep even when you are tired.” Akimicha simply uttered as he stood up, adjusting his white kimono.

“I see.” Antachi warmly smiled and hopped to his feet. His smile softened as his gaze shifted to the ground. “That’s not all, is it?”

“I’m fine, brother. I just needed some fresh air. I’ve… I’ve had a lot on my mind recently.”

“Like Mokushiroku?”

“Yes.” Akimicha shifted his gaze to the horizon as the morning winds billowed his kimono. “We have no idea where he is, and what he’s doing with that monster he created. How could he even manage to accumulate that much Reiki into something like that?”

Antachi shook his head slowly and tried to put on a smile. Twenty years before this conversation, in 1348, the brothers discovered their ability to manipulate a substance inside of their bodies that they called Reiki. They sensed it in everything around them, from plants, other people, and inanimate objects, and even the air they breathed had traces of this strange substance that could exist in any state of matter. In people, it flowed almost like blood, providing life to cells in an unexplainable way. It could hold unfathomable amounts of energy within, enough to reshape molecules and create a myriad of different types of objects, energy, and general matter. The brothers were so far the only ones able to manipulate Reiki, well, besides him, but they realized this was likely because the Reiki inside of them was much different from a normal person’s extremely low amount of it. For one, the brothers possessed many millions of times more Reiki than a normal human. Reiki was hyper-concentrated inside of them, and their muscles were lined with reserves that held this incredible source of power. For two, the Reiki within them was divine in nature, connected to a higher power that they barely understood themselves.

“I find it unlikely that he would be able to hold that much into that form for a long enough period.” Antachi suddenly felt parched and summoned a stream of water, or Water-form, into his hand, drinking it from the invisible cup made of his manipulation of the substance. When the brothers discovered their powers, they dubbed the eight major types of Reiki manipulation ‘Seidous’, and each Seidou, usually surrounding an element, had the suffix ‘-form’ attached to it to distinguish it from regular matter.

“I’d have to disagree. He’s just as talented as you, I would not put it past his abilities to permanently have access to a monster like Mokushiroku.” The jealousy in Akimicha’s voice with the mention of Antachi’s talent was palpable.

Antachi raised his finger as he went to say something to try and boost his brother’s self-esteem over his ability to use Reiki, but he stopped himself and simply nodded. Nothing he could say was going to convince his brother. Antachi was born with similar powers to Akimicha, and they were conversely powerful, with Akimicha being a master of Light-form and Antachi a master of Dark-form. These two Seidous were the roots for all other Seidous, with Fire, Lightning, and Wind-form descending from Dark-form, and Water, Life, and Earth-form descending from Light-form. Still, Antachi was born with a natural talent for applying this that Akimicha simply didn’t possess. No matter how hard he tried, Antachi was always one step ahead without trying. Neither of them knew how their powers developed, or why they had them, but their father did tell them of a prophecy. The prophecy detailed that whenever an evil borne of hatred was to be created, children imbued with the power of gods would be born that would banish this evil and spread their gifts through their descendants. It was obvious now that the prophecy was true.

“I understand your fear.” Antachi said as he patted his brother on the back.

“I don’t think you do.” Akimicha sighed. “I don’t think I’m strong enough to beat him.”

“Don’t sell yourself short, you just need to train more! I know you can do it-”

“Shut up.” Akimicha snapped as his face twisted, his eyes narrowing. Antachi felt a slight sliver of fear pass through him. “I don’t need your pity.”

“Good, because I wasn’t giving you any. Who taught me how to manipulate the life in plants through Life-form, Water-form, Fire-form, Wind-form, Lighting-form, Earth-form, and all the other subtypes of those?”

“Me.” Akimicha shook his head. “Just because I discovered the versatility of it doesn’t make me special. You mastered every one of those, especially Wind, Fire, and Lightning. I’m done with this pointless argument.”

“You’re beating yourself down. Why wouldn’t I try to argue otherwise? For example, as for the latent potential in us both, you discovered that, too. I barely even have a remote grasp on the Nahu, but your Aku is simply stellar!”

“Quit patronizing me!” Akimicha snapped as his eyes flashed white. The trees surrounded them for miles bent and bowed as the force of his built-up resentment escaped for a moment.

Antachi nodded as his tone lowered. “I understand.” Antachi dusted off his kimono as the ground shook. Gusts of wind barreled past the brothers as the smell of death emanated from the air.

Akimicha snapped out of his anger and shot his eyes to the sky. A mountain-sized monster in the form of an oni erupted into the atmosphere. He was purple and black, barely translucent as he was constructed out of pure hatred-borne Reiki. The natural state of Reiki was never opaque unless hyper-condensed, at which point it became unstable.

“Mokushiroku…” Akimicha whispered.

Antachi’s eyes filled with pure black as his irises burned with a bright white light. His hair changed as the usually black with a blue streak through it grew white out from the roots, glowing with the same intensity as the sun. A black aura of Reiki with wisps of white flew around Antachi. The aura around the brothers and their descendants who had Reiki Seidou consisted of spent Reiki flying out of the pores of their skin and holes such as their eyes and mouths, almost like an exhaust system on a machine. He called this transformation that allowed him to tap into divine power the Kamikansei, the pinnacle, or Kiwame, of the Tenshin Seidou Antachi had invented known as the Aokansei. Tenshin Seidous were divine-originating Reiki Seidous that were transferred through genetics and only to those with a blood connection to their specific future clans, the Akimicha and Antachi, which were named after their progenitors. The two Tenshin Seidous were the Psychic-form and the Aokansei. The Psychic-form was developed by Akimicha as a slightly inferior attempt to use Light-form to construct a Tenshin Seidou, however, it allowed the user to telekinetically manipulate anything around them and tap into the emotional subtleties of people around them, hence the name. Only the first-borns of Akimicha and Antachi carried their Tenshin Seidou, however, as Antachi only had a single child, Akimicha’s numerous children carried specialized versions of the various Seidous such as Fire-form or Water-form. These specialized Seidous were called Ryoku Seidou. These were like Tenshin Seidous, but without the divinity, and therefore less powerful. For example, the future Maruko clan, who were naturally gifted with the Fire-form, inherited the Inferno-form, a Ryoku Seidou that enhanced their gifts while providing new ones.

“I have no idea if the Nahu will respond to my needs, but for now this should do.” Antachi relayed as Akimicha’s eyes filled with pure white. Wisps of gray light flew around him as he sprouted angelic wings constructed out of pure Reiki.

“Of course they will.” Akimicha sneered as he scoffed at the idea of his brother somehow managing to fall short in something for once.

Antachi teleported and returned with his weapons, tossing Akimicha’s to him. Antachi cracked a smile before instantly blitzing Mokushiroku at half the speed of light, with Akimicha hot on his tail using the heavenly speed of the Aku’s powers. The Aku and Nahu were the closest to divinity the brothers could get, the absolute rawest and strongest forms they could take.

The two flew through the air and connected their swords surrounded by a massive blade of Reiki with the amalgamation of hate and power hellbent on erasing the world, zeroing in on the man inside controlling the monster as the most legendary fight in Rikunian folklore began.