Akira had woken up to feeling her body hanging.  Her shoulders, arms, hands and torso has ropes tied around them and hung her up from a tall tree.  Each of her legs were split and tie to trees on opposite sides of the forest.  Her eyes focused as the first person she saw was Takeshi.  

"Takeshi!  Help me!"  Akira shouted as tears fell down her face.  "Your crazy wife has captured me and tortured me.  She even ruined my face!  My face of all things!  She's crazy!  She wants to hurt me and mutilate my beauty!  She's just jealous that you have always love me.  That you will always love me.  That my beauty far surpasses hers!  Help me down please!"  

Takeshi stood still as he watched Akira struggle and plead for her life.  

"Help me down!  Please Takeshi!  Have you forgotten how well we use to treat each other?  How well you always took care of me?  How you always adored me?  How you always gave me gifts and treated me like a lady?  How could I forget your kindness.  Your loving and giving heart?  Your gentlemen behavior to cherish me?"  

Still Takeshi and everyone else stood still listening to her plead for her life.  

"You're wife is just jealous!  She jealous that I'm the first woman that you loved, the first woman that you held hands with and the first woman you held in your arms.  She's a jealous and vindictive woman.  You have to believe me!  Please, Takeshi help me down!"  

The burning sensation within her burned brighter and hotter as she kept speaking, making her more desperate for Takeshi to let her down.  

"She's jealous of my beauty!  She heard that I am named the most beautiful within the royal city and she can't stand the fact that the woman you love is the most beautiful woman.  You have to believe me Takeshi!  You have to help me and save me from your crazy wife."  Akira pleaded.  

"You're right!"  Takeshi said cutting her off from her pleading.  "I am in love with the most beautiful woman!"  

Akira's eyes lit up with hope.  She would crush that whore of a wife of Takeshi's and make him love her again.  She knew that no matter how much time has passed for them, he would always love her.  

"Help me down."  Akira shouted in desperation as she felt herself burning up faster.  

Lihua stepped out from behind Takeshi letting Akira see her.  Akira's eyes enlarged in surprise as she saw a young beautiful woman stand beside Takeshi.  

"Lihua, what do we do to those that betray us?"  Takeshi said as he looked at Akira's ever changing face as she realized the beautiful woman next to him is his wife.  

"We pay them back ten fold."  Lihua said as she smiled evilly at Akira.  

"And what did Lady Akira do to deserve this punishment?"  Takeshi asks Lihua as everyone listened on.  It would be the first time their Master would be talking about what happened between him and Lady Akira.  

"She betrayed you of course.  Lied to you to lead you into a cave, have someone attack you from the back while your defenses were down.  Chained you up with enchanted golden chains while her parents degraded and insulted you,  then they left you in the cave to die."  Lihua said out loud.  

"Until you came along and saved me."  Takeshi said as he took her into his arms and brushed the side of her cheek with the back of his hand.  "You're the blessing from above that the Gods sent down to me for all my sufferings for the past eleven years."  

Lihua didn't know what to say to that.  Her eye started to water as she swallowed back her tears and hoped to stop her beating heart. Hoping Takeshi couldn't hear how loud it was beating for him.  

"You are my saving grace, Lihua."  Takeshi told her.  "Always."  

"Always."  Lihua whispered.  

"Takeshi!"  Akira shouted.  "You must believe me when I tell you that I didn't mean to betray you!  They forced me!  They made me do it!  If I didn't do it, they would have killed me! Takeshi!" 

Takeshi's eyes held on to Lihua's eyes as they fell into their own world.  As if nothing around them existed.  

"They would have killed me, Takeshi!  They made me do it!  THEY MADE ME!" Akira shouted louder.  

Her burning insides lit hotter and hotter as she felt her organs burst.  She felt the most excruciating pain she ever felt in her life as she screamed out Takeshi's name.  The poison reached it's apex as her organs burned from within.  Her cries were the only thing everyone heard as her body lit itself and burned her wiggling body. Her last cry for help was Takeshi's name on her lips as her whole body was lit on fire.  

"Do you regret it?" Takeshi asks Lihua.  

"Regret what?"  

"Freeing me from the chains?"  Takeshi said as he rubbed her jaw with his thumb as his hands cupped her face.  

"Not even for a moment." Lihua admitted.  "I regret nothing." 

Takeshi's head descended down on to hers as their lips meet.   He kissed her for the first time in front of his men and in front of her family.  His heart soared with happiness it had never known except when he was with her.  She was the reason he was alive and living such an exciting life.  She was the reason why he woke up every day and the reason why he went to bed every night.  She changed his life the moment she unchained him and freed him from his nightmare.  He would live and die by her side, from the moment they met inside the cave, he knew his destiny lied with her.  

"I love you, Lihua."  Takeshi told her when he pulled away from the kiss.  

"I love you, too Takeshi."  Lihua said back as her eye fluttered open.