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 Post subject: The Purpose
PostPosted: Fri Oct 13, 2017 5:36 pm 
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Joined: Fri Sep 22, 2017 9:19 pm
Posts: 398
"Who wouldn't want to be a clan samurai?" Kae cast a flabberghasted glance at him, as the walked alongside a creaking wagon. "They're so glamorous... they have such class." Giving him a sideways look, she asked "You didn't get thrown out of one, did you?"

Nobuhide laughed. "No, of course not. I just think it isn't so bad on the open road, ne? You get to see new places and meet new people."

She snorted. "Yeah, and sleep in the rain, and starve from time to time, and have to figure it all out in fits and starts... you know... I wish I could've been born a Crane. I picked up the naginata because I saw this one Crane Bushi... she was so talented, graceful and elegant."

Drawing her faded gray fan, with it's single red rising sun, she fluttered it in front of her face. "Couldn't you see me in powder blue?" Her eyes betrayed her mirth, and Nobuhide shook his head.

"You're incorrigible. I'd sooner imagine you in a Crab draw lot play."

"Rude!" With a dramatic huff, she put her fan away, and strode ahead a few paces with wide strides, pausing just long enough to add, "I could see you as a Crane. You might even be related to one you know..."

If only you knew... Nobuhide shook his head.

****

“What? Do you think it's some sort of game?”

The question didn't mean much to the Seppun functionary looking at Suzume Rokuro from across the dockyard desk, but it was a question that meant a great deal more than the courtier might ever know.

“No, Seppun-san. I believe my papers are in order.”

With a scowl, the Seppun pushed the offending articles back over the desk, adding, “I only ask what a Sparrow, one not too far removed from succession, thinks he's doing on an expedition like this.”

“I was invited, Seppun-san. My clan wanted to do our part for the throne.”

“Find new wares to sell, more like-”

Rokuro's hands landed on the desk with an audible thud, and he retrieved his papers in a single smooth motion, expression still bland. “Seppun-san has no legitimate issue then.”

The meeting adjourned in silent animosity, and Rokuro left with only the slightest of courtesies. Walking outside, he could only shake his head, pondering the winds which swept along the pier, bringing the scent of a coming rain.

Do you think this is some sort of game?

****

“What?”

“Well, do you?”

Nobuhide looked taken aback. The rest of the camp was still cheerfully singing by the fire, the sound of Asagi's shamisen carrying over the singing of the ronin band. Kae leaned closer, fixing him with an intense stare. “Do you think that this is some sort of game?”

“No! I mean... why would you say that!?”

Her light brown hair framed blue eyes which met his, uncomfortably direct. She didn't have that playful smile she normally did, her faded blue kimono hanging just that slightest bit from her thin frame, it was hard for Nobuhide to know where to cast his gaze to avoid her eyes. “Because you chose to come out here, and you can always just go running home. You think this is... some sort of adventure!”

“What? No... I mean... How?” Nobuhide couldn't hide his surprise.

Rolling her eyes, Kae rested on one palm, her other hand gesturing idly, “I checked your saya while you slept. Did you really think wrapping it would really fool anyone?”
“I...” That shut him up.

“You did.” Shaking her head, she added, “You don't get it, do you?”

****

Nobuhide dodged away from the blade which had been hissing toward his face, his own blade batting away the blow. The caravan was already beginning to burn, wagons which were too heavy to move being put to the torch as the defense fell apart. The fighting was already breaking into a melee, bandits grabbing what they could, killing who they could. Lunging forward without warning, Nobuhide slipped his blade past the man's guard, carving a vicious gauge from hip to shoulder, and sending him tumbling to the ground with a gasp of agony. Flicking his blade clean, he looked about, searching for any signs of his fellows.

Without warning, a pair of figures surged from the smoke and flame to his left, one tumbling to his feet, clutching a gaping slash in her side. Kae's naginata fell from her hands as she fell, and Nobuhide stepped to the side, reversing his grip on his blade. The bandit's forward charge carried him to his death, Nobuhide stepping away, twisting and bringing up the blade in a sudden strike at the neck. Head and body parted ways, and there was a growing silence. Somewhere nearby, there was fighting, but Nobuhide didn't pay it any mind.

Kneeling, he cradled the woman who lay before him. Weakly, she grasped his hand, looking up at him in silence. “You... know... you look... like a Crane...”

With a dry chuckle, he shook his head. “I am a son of Doji, it's true, but not a Crane.”

Furrowing her brow, she inquired, “Then... who... did I fall... for?”

That question stung. Bending closer, he whispered, “Nobuhide.”

“No. No!” She tried to swat at him, but hadn't the strength, blood welling from her lips. “Don't... lie... to me...”

With a soft breath, he muttered, softly, “Suzume... Rokuro.”

She started to laugh, but it only left her short of breath, watery coughs silencing her mirth. “Go... go home... Rokuro-kun. Go where they... will bury you. Will cry for you. Will remember you... stop... playing... I would do anything... I would be...” Words faltered, and she just fixed him with that intense, soulful stare. “Don't... die... alone...”

Rokuro clasped her hand, and answered, “I won't. Don't you have family, someone to give your blades to? Who can I tell?”

A sad smile. “No... one... I won't be... remembered... Doesn't... matter... does it? Maybe... in our next... lives... we... ....”

He tried to comfort her, but no words came. So he just held her hand in silence, as each breathe shortened, and then there were none.

In the distance, cheers rang out as the defenders routed the last of the bandits, but Rokuro just knelt with a dead woman in his arms, a woman he didn't know if he had loved, if he had even known...

Rising, he carried her lifeless body from the carnage, and into the past.

****

“I picked up the naginata after I saw a Crane Samurai-Ko using one... she was so pretty and graceful. I wanted to be like her. Some day, my dream is to be someone like that. To be someone to admire.”

As he strode the streets of the port, Rokuro shook his head. Kae never would know... she had been, standing in the darkness, fighting alone, courageous, dutiful... She'd never know how she'd been, in that moment, the most admirable samurai he'd ever met, doing a samurai's duty with no promise of glory, of fame, of wealth, or even of remembrance.

He'd asked himself many times why he went on that pilgrimage. Why he joined with the Ronin band guarding that caravan, and wandered the length of the empire with them. Perhaps he'd needed to find out what a samurai could be, and what a samurai could fall to.

His hand brushed the fan at his hip, faded, gray, with a pale red rising sun, and a sparrow in flight passing it by, with the signs of careful repair where it had frayed over time. Kae's fan. Even now, he didn't know if he had loved her, or simply admired her. They'd never been together, and now never would. He remembered her hatred of the Opium dens, of their friends who had grown dull, and faded away in those short months... so quickly.

Casting his gaze out to the sea, he sighed.

“No. It isn't a game. It never was... and it certainly isn't now.”



_________________
Sparrow Clan :: Kuge :: Disinherited :: Bushi :: Armchair-Daimyo :: Magistrate :: 'Agent of Justice' :: Captain of the Space Battleship Yamato
Status: 4.0 Glory: 2.6 Honor: Exceptional
Carries: Daisho, Fan, faded Haori, sake cup

Description :: Theme :: Strife
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