Grind

By Roberto Santiago Rosado

In a time when honorable warriors found pride in protecting those in need, a new breed of powerful contractors were terrorizing peaceful people. Jirou thought he had lost it all, and so did Mika. When they met, it was just natural that they found shelter in each other's company. Now they have to work together and grind through the unthinkable in order to uncover Jirou's past and save his life. Grind is a story of loyalty, friendship, perseverance, courage and love.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Roberto Santiago Rosado
• Release date: Feb 25, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301080977

Roberto Santiago Rosado

I just love all things geek! Specially fantasy and science fiction. Huge fan of Anime/Manga and good books. I also love music, video games and a good red wine.

Book preview

Grind

By Roberto Santiago Rosado

Copyright 2013 Roberto Santiago Rosado

Smashwords Edition

Table of Contents

VOLUME I – GRIND

Chapter 1 - Grind

Chapter 2 – A New Beginning

Chapter 3 – Hinokami Heir Revealed

Chapter 4 – The Cold Blooded Warrior

Chapter 5 – A New Journey Begins… With a Brand New Friend

Chapter 6 – Unknown Enemy

Chapter 7 – The Shizuka Brothers Get Their Chance Chapter 8 – Death Awaits

Chapter 9 – A new Comrade

Chapter 10 – Sinister Plan

Chapter 11- A Ghost From the Past

Chapter 12 – Walking Into A Trap

Chapter 13 – Shizen No Megami Heir Pushed To Her Limit

Chapter 14 – A Warm Heart And The Cold Blooded Assassin

Chapter 15 – Destiny

Chapter 16 – The Power of the Hinokami

Chapter 17 – A Journey Back Home

Chapter 18 – Enemies Became Friends

VOLUME II – DARKER DAYS

Chapter 19 – Unfinished Business

Chapter 20 – Uninvited Guest

Chapter 21 – Masamori vs Tetsuya

Chapter 22 – Shizen No Megami

Chapter 23 – Reunion

VOLUME I – GRIND

GRIND

Our story takes place in the eighteen hundred’s, a time when both political and economical structures were growing and developing into the modern models that we still see nowadays. A time when only government enforcers and officers were allowed to carry weapons and when warriors called Samurais walked the land. Samurais were disciplined warriors; they were the strongest warriors in the land, feared even by the government. They had to devote their whole lives to their discipline and training in order to become powerful and respected. But in this world something was defying those rules. Suddenly there was an easy way to become powerful, and when that happens, dangerous things happen.

The year is 1843; Jirou Himura is a 19-year-old boy who never met his parents. His mother died giving birth to him and his father gave him to his uncle Yoshinori when his was just a new born. His uncle raised him, as his own son and so far his life have not been all bad. Yoshinori is an expert on martial arts and has trained Jirou on martial arts since very young age. Being raised on these disciplines has helped Jirou to grow to be a very good athlete with excellent motor skills and top of the notch physical condition. He is a skinny not too tall boy but with a very strong body, heart and soul. He has long brown hair and brown almost red eyes. His skin is not pale, as he works and exercises under the sun every day. He doesn’t talk too much; Yoshinori has taught him to always make his words count since he was just a little kid. So like his uncle he is a man of few words. He has a tattoo like mark on his left ankle. Yoshinori has explained him that it is a birthmark that runs in their family. Yoshinori himself have the same mark on the back of his left elbow. They live alone in a small house in the woods where they have to walk more than an hour to have any contact with other people. Jirou does this walk every day to go to the nearest village. He goes gladly to pick up the necessities for the house and because he can meet with his friends in the village and spend some time with them. Everybody in the village knows Jirou and Yoshinori and everybody likes them.

Jirou and Yoshinori also plant, hunt and fish so they have trade assets to go to the village and exchange for everything they may need. They live a simple life, but they have everything they need to survive. On their free time there is always training. Yoshinori doesn’t let Jirou skip his training in martial arts never, not even for one day.

So far life has been simple and easy for Jirou and Yoshinori, but Yoshinori has noted that lately something is not the same, these last days Jirou seems very anxious, and the reason is because he remembers very well that when he was 10 years old, Yoshinori told him that his father will come back to see him when he reaches the age of 20. This was the only time that Yoshinori has told Jirou about his father, Jirou had ask several times as a child and also as a teen, but Yoshinori has never told him anything about him, except for this day almost ten years ago.

It was a long day for Yoshinori; Jirou was depressed because all other boys and girls on the village have parents or at least one parent, but not him, he had to live alone with his uncle. Jirou was so depressed and cried so hard that day that Yoshinori told him that his father didn’t forget about him and that he will come back to the village when he reached the age of 20. That gave Jirou a ray of light in his loneliness and depression. Eventually he felt better enough or maybe forgot about it, or maybe it didn’t mattered to him anymore, Yoshinori was just happy because the theme was never brought back to attention ever since.

Now, almost ten years have passed and Jirou haven’t forgot that day for a minute. But he is very anxious because he doesn’t know how he will feel or react when he meets his father. There are so many questions, why he hasn’t show in 20 years? He doesn’t care about him at all? Should he care about his father? Should he just treat his father like any other stranger? Suddenly he’s decided, that’s what he’ll do, he’ll just treat him like any other stranger, just like another ordinary person he just met. Yeah, that’s the price he’ll pay for no caring about him. That’s it, Yoshinori is his mother and father, the other guy, is just another guy. So he is anxious to meet him and pay him with the same indifference his father has shown towards him through the years.

He was very anxious, but he just continued living his every day routine, just pretending he doesn’t care at all. He focused on training, learning, working with his shores and hanging with friends just like every other day. Of course he haven’t told Yoshinori that he remembers what he said ten years before and will not tell him. He doesn’t want him to know that he cares. But he does, he cares a lot, it matters like no other thing has mattered before in his life. His father needs to know that he means nothing to him.

Yoshinori noted something different about him but haven’t asked any questions about it because he knows that Jirou’s father may show up any moment and doesn’t want him to be charged with rage or apathy before he comes back.

But destiny would not let that meeting happen that easily. By fact destiny had entirely different plans for Jirou and also for Yoshinori. The end of life as they knew it began one rainy Tuesday. Jirou didn’t want to get up that day, like something was telling him don’t get up, everything is going to end today. But he got up and went through the day like any other day. He went hunting in the afternoon like he does twice a week or so. But he would never imagine what he would see when he came back.

He returned home late in the afternoon with a couple of good catches, as it is common since he is a very good hunter. In the distance he saw his uncle engaging in combat a person he has never seen before. Both men seemed pretty banged up, like it had been a fierce battle. The person seemed to be using a samurai sword and was dressed as a samurai. He immediately deducted he has to be a strong opponent since his uncle seemed pretty bruised, but why? They never messed with anybody, they had no enemies, and they lived a peaceful life, so who is this guy? But that’s the least important thing right now, so he threw the catches away and rushed in to help his uncle, he was kind of anxious, even happy, because for the first time in his life he was getting to test his abilities against a real opponent.

He was running towards his uncle when two other guys also armed with samurai swords intercepted him, also complete strangers. One of them told him to stop or die, so replied quickly and without any regret; You move out of my way or die! The other one noticed the mark that Jirou had in his left ankle and yelled to the man that was facing Yoshinori; Masamori, we found another one, and he’s also fire mark bearer. At that point Yoshinori realized that the thing he was most afraid of had happened, Jirou was back! He was trying hard to finish off these guys before Jirou returned, but now that he is back his main priority was to assure his safety, so he rushed and yelled; Jirou, run, turn your back and run!!! Forget about me, just run! Jirou quickly replied No way, we’ll beat this clowns! and he received the same reply from Yoshinori; just run! I’m not asking you, I’m telling you to run! I can handle these guys, just run! As Jirou was turning his back to run away he saw Masamori striking Yoshinori with the fastest attack he’s ever seen, and Yoshinori stopped the sword with his bare hands, but something impressed him more than Masamori’s attack; he could swear that he saw Yoshinori’s hands on fire! But he kept running. While he was running away he heard Yoshinori’s voice once again; Just grind! Get out of here and remember to grind through life! Those were your father’s words for you!

Jirou just kept running without looking back, he knew he had the other two guys chasing him, and he also knew that there was no way they could catch him, but he was hating it, hating the idea of leaving his uncle fighting alone, hating the idea of running away from the fight and hating those guys more than everything. Why did they say that he also had a fire mark? That was a birthmark that ran in their family. Are he and his uncle been hunted because of their heritage? He hated, he hated those guys like he never hated anything before, and just when he decided to stop and face these two guys, get rid of them and go back to help his uncle, he heard a great roar, followed by horrific screams of pain, he also felt an extreme heat, but the heat wasn’t physical heat like the one you get from working