It was the large tree by the stream, with its luscious green leaves and arched branches. That was where they chose to bury him.
For a burial, it was as modest as it could get. The grave barely had a proper headstone, only a block of wood with the kanji of his name written on it.
It didn't say where he was born or when, what his true driving ambition was, or anything else for that matter.
As she stared down at it pondering those questions, Miyuki came to realize just how little she actually knew about him, and it drenched her heart in grief even further.
It was silent there, with only the sound of running water to fill the void. They all stood behind her, each of them downcast.
"Just say something!" Izumi thought to himself. "Anything."
"But then again, what gives me the right to even speak in front of her?"
He looked to his side and saw that everyone held the same expression.
It felt so frustrating being so powerless when the people close to you were calling out in despair, yet you couldn't do anything to save them.
Even more so when you were the cause of that despair in one way or another.
The rhythmic rustling of the blades of grass suddenly stopped, overtaken by the sound of multiple footsteps.
They were quiet at first but quickly grew louder with their increased proximity.
Miyuki didn't want to look away, but her own body betrayed her, turning without thought. So did the others.
That was when they saw the same crowd that had stoned their master standing before them again.
Rage, anxiety, fear. These were all the emotions they felt, all separate from each other but rooted in the same source.
"Why the hell are you here?" Yuriko burst out, finally breaking the silence.
Malice peeked through her voice. Their actions were yet another thing that had happened to harm them while she was unconscious, and so she found herself venting her frustrations unconsciously.
The spite in her expression only grew when she saw them clutching stones in their hands.
"So it's come to this," Miyuki said with a strangely calm but low voice. "Stoning the grave of the man who died for you."
"It makes me wonder," she continued, "whether you were even worth saving at all."
"Shut up, you bitch!" a voice yelled. "Who do you think you are spouting that crap?"
"We don't give a damn whether it's your damn father's funeral!" another voice shot back. "We'll dig you holes right next to his if you miss him so much."
"Because of you, our kids are starving and too scared to even sleep!"
"You pieces of shit should just pack your bags and get the hell out of our home!"
They took it all silently, but something in them just snapped when they heard this:
"Dig up that so-called hero of yours and take him with you. The parasites that come after his body will ruin all our farmlands."
The insult came with a thrown rock aimed straight for the wooden headstone, but Izumi caught it before it could hit.
She clenched her fists so hard that her veins looked ready to burst, but before she could yell, Izumi walked past her and stood in front of the group.
Then, with the stone in his right hand, he pointed his index finger into the crowd, his gaze fixed.
"Hey you!"
The noise stopped and heads turned toward the teenage boy wearing a tattered black-striped red robe.
He acted ignorant and turned away too, but the crowd had already unconsciously given him away the moment they looked at him.
"Look at me when I talk to you, you damned piece of shit!" Izumi yelled with such force that even his own sisters shuddered.
Slowly, the people began taking steps back from him.
"Hey, why are you pointing at me for?" the boy yelled defensively.
Izumi took a step forward, sending a pulse through the air that shook him.
"You think that just because you're hiding in a crowd you can say whatever the hell you want?!"
"I was just—"
He didn't even finish his sentence before the stone shot straight into his forehead with such force that it knocked him unconscious, blood pouring from his forehead and nose.
The silence that followed was eerie, but short-lived.
"How dare you!" Izumi continued. "You sick bastards! You think you can bring us down as you are?!"
He removed his sword from his waist and held the hilt with his right hand and the sheath with his left.
"Where did all that talk go, huh?!"
He partially unsheathed it.
"Let's see if your sticks and stones can save you from me!"
His eyes burned with an intense rage that Takae and Yuriko had never seen before.
"Come on! Let's see you get put in the dirt!"
A hand rested on his shoulder and he immediately turned his head toward whoever it was, glare and all.
"Come on, Izumi, stop," Juro told him with a concerned look. "This isn't the place."
Izumi pushed him off.
"Screw that!" he yelled, unsheathing his sword fully and pointing it at the crowd. "They think they can just come here and disrespect him without any consequences!"
The eyes of the villagers shifted from the unconscious boy to Izumi and back again, and they slowly started stepping away.
But even then, they didn't stay quiet for long.
"Go to hell, you bastard!" a voice from the back yelled. "You think you can take us all on?! No fancy sword is going to save you from us!"
"Yeah!"
"Yeah!"
"Yeah!"
The voices echoed in agreement and they started stepping forward again.
At that point, Izumi lost himself completely and, in a feral rage, lunged at them with the intent to strike.
He was only a few feet away from the crowd when Yuriko and Takae forced him down onto the ground, pressing him down with all their strength just to restrain him.
"Stop it, Izumi!" Yuriko pleaded as they struggled to hold him down. "Have you lost your mind?!"
The look in his eyes was still feral, if not edging toward madness.
"What the—" the man at the front of the crowd said in shock. "How is he so fast?"
"He closed the gap between us in a second," another person behind him said.
"Just who the hell are these people?"
The display left the crowd in stunned silence.
Then, out of nowhere, a stone hit Takae right in the head as she struggled to keep Izumi pinned down.
"What are you doing?!" the person who threw the stone yelled. "They're right in front of us, so let's finish them off before they can do anything!"
Some voices murmured in agreement, others in refusal.
"Ahhhh! Let me go!" Izumi yelled as he struggled to break free. "I'll tear off that dirty mouth, you pest!"
"Let me go!!!"
The man at the front took one look at him and started pulling away.
"Why are you running away?!" a voice yelled. "Are you that scared of a group of kids?"
The man turned away completely.
"There's no way I'm going back there," he said as he walked away. "Just look at those eyes."
Some turned their heads in curiosity, and they saw Izumi growling and shaking his head so violently that Yuriko had to press it onto the ground or he might have bitten his own tongue.
"He's an animal."
The people withdrawing grew until the group, once thirty or so strong, now stood divided equally.
"Get out of the way, I'll do it myself, you cowards," a man said as he pushed through the crowd with a rake in hand.
They couldn't hold him anymore. He broke free and lunged at him.
He had dropped his sword when they pinned him down, so he clenched his fist and threw it straight at him.
It broke through the rake and drove straight into his face, the splinters of wood stinging both Izumi's fist and the man's face.
He wobbled for a moment, then fell down completely unable to get up.
Even with hands stained red from the man's blood, Izumi still pointed at the crowd, yelling, "Come on out, you brave men! Or should I come in there and pluck you out!"
Takae and Yuriko grabbed him again, this time by his hands, and tried dragging him back.
Nothing they said got through to him, and he only pushed back.
It was only when he heard her voice that he calmed down.
"Please stop, Izumi," she called out from the distance.
He turned slowly, easing up his tense muscles and loosening his expression.
"What do you mean, Miyuki?" he asked with a confused look. "Are you just going to stand there and let them run their mouths however they want?"
"It doesn't matter," she said with a blank look. "Who cares what a mob of idiots says anyway? Leave them alone and they'll self-destruct by themselves."
She turned away, saying, "Just stop, please."
He stood silent, finally letting himself be dragged back by Yuriko. Takae picked up his sword from the ground and sheathed it back into the sheath he had dropped earlier.
The yelling in the crowd behind them dulled into murmurs. Whenever Izumi's neck shifted as if to turn back toward them, they shuddered.
Then from the crowd an old man forced his way through and walked toward them.
"What are you doing, chief?"
"Get away from them."
"Shut up, you ungrateful brats!" he said in a sharp voice. "I look away for one second and you go and harass a family at their own father's funeral."
He stopped and turned back to them.
"Just look at what you've become," he continued. "So secluded that you blame any problems that come your way on outsiders."
"Is this what our children will grow up to be? Where is the humanity?" he said, clutching his walking stick tightly. "Shame on you all!"
Takae recognized the man. He was the one who convinced the crowd to evacuate on the day the fight happened.
"He's the chief?" she said out loud.
"What's wrong, Takae?" Yuriko asked. "Do you know him?"
"I guess I do, but not too well," she replied. "He was the man who silently convinced the villagers to evacuate. He did it without saying anything."
He turned back and took a step toward them. Once he was close enough, he knelt down and put his walking stick aside before bowing.
"What are you doing?!" a villager yelled, but he ignored him completely.
"I offer my sincerest apologies to you for their behaviour," he said with his head down. "This is all a result of the failure of our older generation to instill respect and kindness into them."
With his head still lowered, he said, "I also offer my sincerest condolences for your loss. The death of a loved one is not easy, and we just made it worse. For that, I'm truly sorry."
"You can raise your head," Miyuki said as she walked toward him. "It's disrespectful to you for us to be above you like this, so please stand up."
Once he heard that, he picked up his wooden walking stick and forced himself to his feet. Though he stumbled, Yuriko caught him before he could fall.
Once he straightened himself, he looked up at her from his shorter height and said, "I can still remember the day he came here with you as an infant. The people were murmuring like he was committing a crime, but he kept to himself."
He raised his wrinkled hand and placed it over her shoulder.
"Your father," he said softly, "he was a good man, and so are all of you."
"I know I'm becoming repetitive, but I am sorry. For everything. From the way they treated you as a child to the way they acted today. It's my fault as their leader for not stepping in for you, so please forgive me."
"It's okay, I promise," she said, faking a smile. "I'm not holding any grudge against you at all."
He took his hand off her shoulder and turned around, saying, "Let me chase them off so that you can grieve in peace. Then I'll come and pay my respects as well."
He walked off into the crowd and said something they couldn't hear, and the group started dispersing.
Among the last to leave was the boy, Yuto. He stared at the grave marker from afar until his mother called out his name and he turned away.
Once they were all gone, Miyuki just stood there quietly.
Tears dripped down her cheeks and stained her robe.
Takae embraced her, and she broke down sobbing as she tugged at the back of her robe.
No one said anything.
They just watched.