Bushido
by Kakita Kaori
Set sometime
Breath. Each tiny quiver in the air is mine. Each warm exhalation, from the first scream of an infant torn from his mother's womb to the last sigh of the aged monk on his deathbed...each is mine. Each sound, each whisper between lovers in the dark, I rule. Each battlecry is my domain, just as the birds of the air are my servants and the winds of heaven my ship to carry me across the vastness of this world. All of these are mine.
It was I who heard Doji Kanuto murmur into his lover's ear. "I will protect you, Izuko-chan. I am only a simple painter, painting pretties for the court, and no warrior like those found in your clan. But I will protect you with my life...on this battlefield, or against the hordes of the Shadowlands themselves, or I will give my life trying."
It was I who carried her merry laughter to the waiting ear of the Scorpion nearby. It was I who, with a fierce gale, muffled the sound of an assassin's footsteps. I tasted her last breath. I dried his tears.
And it was I who rang with taunts and jeers as he mounted the steps to the top of the Wall. He knew the ways of court enough to understand contempt. "Pony..." the word hovered around him as he presented himself for duty on the wall, though no soul knew the reason why. I knew. For I carried his last prayer strip to the ground below the wall, drenched red with his blood. I knew the name that was on his lips. Though I alone knew secrets whispered in the dark, a whisper for these mortals is enough.
***
Blood is mine. The surge of the tides echoes the beating of ten thousand hearts, and each drop that spills freely is mine. Quick to spring forth, quick to pour out, and slow, so slow, to dry on the hard ground, forgotten yet again. Mere droplets, blood, in my vast domain, for the seas, wider than the earth, and more terrifying, could swallow a thousand lives and be no greater for it. Great beasts of the sea are too small for my depths, and each day the rivers carry my domain across the world. The celestial heavens adds endlessly to my abundance, tiny drops of rain, and mortals, too, sacrifice to me. Sacrifices of blood, and tears.
I claim the blood of Yasuki Izuko. I was there when she was born, I washed her and surrounded her in blood and water upon the birthing bed, and I knew her weakness, and her gifts. I was the first clouds of dream that crept into her. I was the ripples on the sunlit pool, revealing to her young eyes images of what was to be. I was the tears she wept at night as she remembered a future of war and fire. A crumbled wall. An old samurai-ko cut in two. A thousand bushi in blue scattered across the battlefield as crows feasted on their eyes.
In my depths, I showed her the image of her own death, the day her blood would return to me. I know well the tears she spilled, the fear she felt as her sensei told her she was too weak for the wall, that she must go to Otosan Uchi and use her gift to help the Crab.
The people of the Crab know the city of Otosan Uchi only as a city of lies. The familiar Shadowlands held more comfort to her as she left. But only her tears tasted of her fear of the death that awaited her. Her voice, her face, her spirit did not waver in the face of death, even a death so far from her home and the life she had known. The waves of Earthquake Fish cove lapping on the shore were my departure gift as she traveled north.
My waters danced in silver fountains in fair gardens, gardens where she learned to love a man of another world. The poison that touched her lips remembers the soft, sad smile she made as she set down the cup. And the blood...
All blood...
Mine.
***
Racing, burning, tearing, flaming, fury....anger...I heat...I burn...I kill. Light is me, and I am light, and my fires consume what I touch. Anger, sweet hate, fury...these I live off of, and sweet tenderness. I am the lamp a mother lights to stave night-fears from a child's cradle. I am the harbinger of war, and leave ash in my wake. Passion, I know, and fury, and desire, and hate. None rule me, none control me. I am free!
But I have seen those who are not. I flickered and lit the masks of two mortals in the night. I shone, reflected, in the dark eyes of Shosuro Gozen as she was told what she must do. I could feel the sweet fury, sweet vengeance of Bayushi Doku as he declared Izuko must die. Hatred filled him, anger swelled in him, and my lamps burned brighter for it.
Doku was offering homage to me. Two clans, a great war. A war to burn the fields and villages of the Yasuki provinces, to tear two clans apart for my glory. The flames would race across the lands. The once-rich rice fields would be barren testimonies to me, and he would claim vengeance of generations of wrongs, the burdens of a thousand lifetimes he held in his debt.
I cared little. My fires would burn, and I was glad of it.
I felt the stirring of flame in Gozen's heart. I could feel her spite, her anger, her hatred towards Doku then. I leaped and licked the ceiling in flickers of light as she bowed deeply to him. I could sense the bitterness in her words. "Hai, Doku-sama. I shall kill the Yasuki. There will be no child for her and the Doji, no heir for the Yasuki lands." She knew. She knew that others, deeper south, in the land of shadows, were offering me further war, a great war that pledged to race across the Empire. She knew tbe Black Emperor's horde would burn those fields swiftly if the Crab and Crane went to war. She felt no delight in such fire.
But I was in the coals that heated the tea. I felt Gozen's hate towards Doku as she slipped the poison into Izuko's cup.
I danced with joy on the woman's corpse as I consumed her utterly.
Much more will burn with her. Much more.
***
Silent and unchanging as the mountains, I am here. I am always here. There is no past in me, no future, only the endless cycles of the seasons. Rains caress me in spring, the fires of summer rage. The winds of autumn come and go in the space of a single heartbeat, and a white blanket of snow covers me at night. All of these gone in an instant, and I remain. I have seen four hundred generations of these mortals dance upon my surface like the flickering of fireflies. And always, always, I am there.
I was the Wall that crumpled. My bones broke and shattered that day. I felt the oozing taint come from the twisted darkness, seeping through my stones. But I remain.
I was with Shosuro Gozen as she knelt in the dust of the empty road. I held the crumpled missive she let fall from her fingertips. "The Wall has fallen" it read. I was the steel of her wakizashi as she drew the blade. I could feel her trembling fingertips. But I remain.
I bore the hoofbeats of the pony that drew close, and the heavy footsteps of Matsu Kenuchio as he settled heavily on the ground. "What are you doing here? Why...stop!" Quick steps as he hurried closer.
Red blood splashed in the dust as I cradled her. I was the steel of the blade that touched her belly. One word, then...too short for me. "Mercy."
I was the one, the blade he drew from his saya, the blade he brought down upon her slender neck. "It is dishonorable to commit seppuku without permission of one's lord," he said. "I will bear this shame for you, though I do not know your name." She was dead, and I carried his burden for many hours as he waited for her body to be consigned to the flame. But I remain.
I will always remain.
***
I am the shadow between the stars.
I am the darkness.
I know all.
See all.
Feel all.
The world of man has many mysteries, but perhaps there is no greater one than this: The way of life for man is to follow the path of death. The greatest glory of his days is his greatest sorrow.
I know why.
But first you must ask me.
And by the time you find me, you will already know.
I do not need to die with glory.
My children's children need not be proud.
Honor hidden remains untarnished,
It is enough that I lived, and lived well.
Set sometime
Breath. Each tiny quiver in the air is mine. Each warm exhalation, from the first scream of an infant torn from his mother's womb to the last sigh of the aged monk on his deathbed...each is mine. Each sound, each whisper between lovers in the dark, I rule. Each battlecry is my domain, just as the birds of the air are my servants and the winds of heaven my ship to carry me across the vastness of this world. All of these are mine.
It was I who heard Doji Kanuto murmur into his lover's ear. "I will protect you, Izuko-chan. I am only a simple painter, painting pretties for the court, and no warrior like those found in your clan. But I will protect you with my life...on this battlefield, or against the hordes of the Shadowlands themselves, or I will give my life trying."
It was I who carried her merry laughter to the waiting ear of the Scorpion nearby. It was I who, with a fierce gale, muffled the sound of an assassin's footsteps. I tasted her last breath. I dried his tears.
And it was I who rang with taunts and jeers as he mounted the steps to the top of the Wall. He knew the ways of court enough to understand contempt. "Pony..." the word hovered around him as he presented himself for duty on the wall, though no soul knew the reason why. I knew. For I carried his last prayer strip to the ground below the wall, drenched red with his blood. I knew the name that was on his lips. Though I alone knew secrets whispered in the dark, a whisper for these mortals is enough.
***
Blood is mine. The surge of the tides echoes the beating of ten thousand hearts, and each drop that spills freely is mine. Quick to spring forth, quick to pour out, and slow, so slow, to dry on the hard ground, forgotten yet again. Mere droplets, blood, in my vast domain, for the seas, wider than the earth, and more terrifying, could swallow a thousand lives and be no greater for it. Great beasts of the sea are too small for my depths, and each day the rivers carry my domain across the world. The celestial heavens adds endlessly to my abundance, tiny drops of rain, and mortals, too, sacrifice to me. Sacrifices of blood, and tears.
I claim the blood of Yasuki Izuko. I was there when she was born, I washed her and surrounded her in blood and water upon the birthing bed, and I knew her weakness, and her gifts. I was the first clouds of dream that crept into her. I was the ripples on the sunlit pool, revealing to her young eyes images of what was to be. I was the tears she wept at night as she remembered a future of war and fire. A crumbled wall. An old samurai-ko cut in two. A thousand bushi in blue scattered across the battlefield as crows feasted on their eyes.
In my depths, I showed her the image of her own death, the day her blood would return to me. I know well the tears she spilled, the fear she felt as her sensei told her she was too weak for the wall, that she must go to Otosan Uchi and use her gift to help the Crab.
The people of the Crab know the city of Otosan Uchi only as a city of lies. The familiar Shadowlands held more comfort to her as she left. But only her tears tasted of her fear of the death that awaited her. Her voice, her face, her spirit did not waver in the face of death, even a death so far from her home and the life she had known. The waves of Earthquake Fish cove lapping on the shore were my departure gift as she traveled north.
My waters danced in silver fountains in fair gardens, gardens where she learned to love a man of another world. The poison that touched her lips remembers the soft, sad smile she made as she set down the cup. And the blood...
All blood...
Mine.
***
Racing, burning, tearing, flaming, fury....anger...I heat...I burn...I kill. Light is me, and I am light, and my fires consume what I touch. Anger, sweet hate, fury...these I live off of, and sweet tenderness. I am the lamp a mother lights to stave night-fears from a child's cradle. I am the harbinger of war, and leave ash in my wake. Passion, I know, and fury, and desire, and hate. None rule me, none control me. I am free!
But I have seen those who are not. I flickered and lit the masks of two mortals in the night. I shone, reflected, in the dark eyes of Shosuro Gozen as she was told what she must do. I could feel the sweet fury, sweet vengeance of Bayushi Doku as he declared Izuko must die. Hatred filled him, anger swelled in him, and my lamps burned brighter for it.
Doku was offering homage to me. Two clans, a great war. A war to burn the fields and villages of the Yasuki provinces, to tear two clans apart for my glory. The flames would race across the lands. The once-rich rice fields would be barren testimonies to me, and he would claim vengeance of generations of wrongs, the burdens of a thousand lifetimes he held in his debt.
I cared little. My fires would burn, and I was glad of it.
I felt the stirring of flame in Gozen's heart. I could feel her spite, her anger, her hatred towards Doku then. I leaped and licked the ceiling in flickers of light as she bowed deeply to him. I could sense the bitterness in her words. "Hai, Doku-sama. I shall kill the Yasuki. There will be no child for her and the Doji, no heir for the Yasuki lands." She knew. She knew that others, deeper south, in the land of shadows, were offering me further war, a great war that pledged to race across the Empire. She knew tbe Black Emperor's horde would burn those fields swiftly if the Crab and Crane went to war. She felt no delight in such fire.
But I was in the coals that heated the tea. I felt Gozen's hate towards Doku as she slipped the poison into Izuko's cup.
I danced with joy on the woman's corpse as I consumed her utterly.
Much more will burn with her. Much more.
***
Silent and unchanging as the mountains, I am here. I am always here. There is no past in me, no future, only the endless cycles of the seasons. Rains caress me in spring, the fires of summer rage. The winds of autumn come and go in the space of a single heartbeat, and a white blanket of snow covers me at night. All of these gone in an instant, and I remain. I have seen four hundred generations of these mortals dance upon my surface like the flickering of fireflies. And always, always, I am there.
I was the Wall that crumpled. My bones broke and shattered that day. I felt the oozing taint come from the twisted darkness, seeping through my stones. But I remain.
I was with Shosuro Gozen as she knelt in the dust of the empty road. I held the crumpled missive she let fall from her fingertips. "The Wall has fallen" it read. I was the steel of her wakizashi as she drew the blade. I could feel her trembling fingertips. But I remain.
I bore the hoofbeats of the pony that drew close, and the heavy footsteps of Matsu Kenuchio as he settled heavily on the ground. "What are you doing here? Why...stop!" Quick steps as he hurried closer.
Red blood splashed in the dust as I cradled her. I was the steel of the blade that touched her belly. One word, then...too short for me. "Mercy."
I was the one, the blade he drew from his saya, the blade he brought down upon her slender neck. "It is dishonorable to commit seppuku without permission of one's lord," he said. "I will bear this shame for you, though I do not know your name." She was dead, and I carried his burden for many hours as he waited for her body to be consigned to the flame. But I remain.
I will always remain.
***
I am the shadow between the stars.
I am the darkness.
I know all.
See all.
Feel all.
The world of man has many mysteries, but perhaps there is no greater one than this: The way of life for man is to follow the path of death. The greatest glory of his days is his greatest sorrow.
I know why.
But first you must ask me.
And by the time you find me, you will already know.
I do not need to die with glory.
My children's children need not be proud.
Honor hidden remains untarnished,
It is enough that I lived, and lived well.
