Snippet #2125960

Shadow continued to think quietly to himself as he watched the sun begin to set behind the horizon line that was the rooftops on the edge of the city. As he watched the colors in the sky slowly shift from one to the next he began to reminisce about the times he spent with the others during the early stages of his initial rebellion.

The first person to ever trust him and treat him as a human being was a young woman named Iris Di' Nelma. She was intelligent, kind hearted and sweet tempered and she lived to bring happiness to others. It was one of the reasons she worked as a maid for an important family in Cre' Est's Capitol City. She was the one who first managed to force Shadow to think about his life up until that point when he was seventeen and begin to question his "purpose" in life. As they grew closer Shadow began to lose sight of his paranoia and because of that Grandmaster Takai was able to have Iris poisoned while Shadow was away on another mission. When he went to visit her next she was alive, but only just. She told him of her dreams to live a simple and peaceful life with a family all her own, and that she wished her children could have eyes as "beautiful" as his. Her words caused tears to fall from Shadows eyes for the first time in his life and he was forced to end her misery after she fell asleep by cleaving her heart in two.

After he resolved to make Grandmaster Takai pay for what he had done, Shadow met a young woman who had joined Te'i Sai with dreams of being able to grow strong enough to bring peace and security to her homeland. A naive dream to be sure, but a dream none the less which was brought about by a pure heart and mind. Her name was Taira, and she was a vivacious young woman with a strong heart and an even stronger drive to accomplish her goals. Shadow initially had trouble identifying with her and because of that her training under him was slow to progress and because of that she had suffered wounds similar to those of Mayumi when she was seventeen... However, they were caused by Shadow himself.

Roda I'l Lousta, translated as "Lust for Death" in the ancient language of the Assassins, was the ultimate cause of her near death experience and Shadow had never forgiven himself for inflicting such grievous wounds. During the final battle against the Cre' Est branch of Te'i Sai when Shadow managed to trick the Cre' Itian army into attacking the fortress, Shadow was wounded and blacked out after falling down near a corpse which was lying in a pool of its own blood. When he awoke, Taira was nearly dead at his feet but he had just barely managed to save her. She recovered fully and today worked for him as his most trusted Assassin and scout, gathering information and taking out targets which he could not chase because of other, more important targets or because of time issues.

Shadow turned around and decided to stop thinking about the issue, burying it in his mind as he walked back into the room with Sereinia and Mayumi. He did a quick inspection of Mayumi's wounds and smiled at Sereinia for her work as he sat down next to the table and looked over at Sora. He then remembered something as his eyes widened slightly, and he closed his eyes with a look of pain on his face. He stood up slowly, turning around to face Sereinia with a look of frustration and sorrow in his eyes.

"... I'm sorry for making you see this again..." He said.

He looked down slowly, having only just remembered he wasn't wearing his shirt again. His expression was sour and filled with disgust as he looked at his own body, littered with scars, as it was once again revealed to the world. Shadow was kicking himself mentally for making her see them again. From the base of his neck to the top of his pants with some of them extending below, scars abound. Long, short, wide, thin, new and fading all adorned his body as he slowly started walking away to return to the other room and out of sight of Sereinia.