Warnings: Kyuzo and OCs are of minority sexual orientation/gender identity.
Notes:
- The events in this fic happen when Kyuuzou was 17. (That is, Mizu and Haru were no longer in his battalion, leaving only Ayame)
- For simplicity, I'm assuming the armies in Samurai 7 did not have separate messes for soldiers of different ranks (except that maybe senior officers have their own)
- Kyuzo's 'sisters' are not his biological sisters. They are his Sensei's older students. They are no male characters' love interests.
- Sadamitsu first appears in Chapter 7 of Wolf Warriors
Vocab:
heimin – commoner(s) (people who are not court nobles, samurai or religious functionaries)
akindo – (member of) merchant class
eta or hinin – (member of) outcast castes (known collectively as burakumin in the present day)
okama – slang for homosexual male
yuri – literally lily, slang for lesbianism
nanshoku-zuki – lover of men
joshoku-zuki – lover of women
taisho – general, sometimes captain
boku – I, typically used only by males to refer to self
Vocab note: Per the nonfiction work Male Colors: The Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa Japan, nanshoku-zuki (literally 'lover of male eroticism') was in the past used to refer to men with a taste for male youths. (The traditional form of Japanese homosexuality was age-set, as it is for many other cultures) But I'm using the term more loosely here, out of its original context, to refer to men who like men (without age limitations) in general.
"Watch out!! You're turning into someone else's lane!" Master Sergeant Ayame shouted at the trainee. Seated next to her in the cockpit of the Benigumo's flying sword, Kyuuzou complied instantly with the officer's command, swerving left on the 4 lane road leading back to the military base of their battalion.
"But really, senpai, there was no one in the other lane," The irritated voice inside Corporal Kyuuzou's head was addressing Master Sergeant Ayame, not that his commanding officer could necessarily hear his thoughts.
"Is learning to drive this really a necessary skill for an Light Infantry soldier?" Corporal Kyuuzou wondered while keeping the giant sword coasting above ground at the ideal elevation for a practice run – not too high as to waste fuel defying gravity, and not too low as to risk scraping the vessel's bottom against the asphalt.
The giant swords and cannons, wielded by giant mecha on both sides of the war, had interfaces that allowed them to be piloted by a human when detached from the robot. But young Kyuzou heard more seasoned samurai say that it was rare for the Feddies to use humans to pilot these giant weapons in actual battles.
Nevertheless, the higher ups were of the opinion that as many members of the ground forces as possible should learn to pilot at least one mecha weapon – an incapacitated robot who fell out of the sky could potentially have part of its offensive capabilities immediately transferred to human troops while the war robot was out of commission.
Regardless of the explanations behind policies set by those up the chain of command, the youthful samurai still hated driving these giant military pilotable swords and cannons, especially with Third Sister sitting next to him.
"If Ayame had not been the one to teach me to drive, then I might have stood a chance of actually enjoying driving," Kyuuzou exhaled silently, his eyes focused on the road ahead.
The youthful samurai was about to make the right turn back into the base when Master Sergeant Ayame barked, "Watch your turn!"
Kyuuzou felt his annoyance grow. There were no other vehicles around to watch out for. Besides, he was ALREADY looking out after his first mistake. Why did she think she needed to remind him a second time? He knew Third Sister was trying to be helpful, but why couldn't she realize after all these years that she only had to tell him of his mistake once, and he would remember it? But he chose to keep his silence before the golden-eyed woman, as he had always done.
Carefully steering the Benigumo blade into the hangar, the young soldier parked the sword without incident. If he had so much as bumped the blade against a wall or a curb, he would have been subjected to another nagging session. Kyuuzou, mildly proud of his minor achievement, disembarked with a little more haste than was his custom.
The master sergeant followed him, stepping out of the cockpit.
"I won't be joining you at mess today. I have a meeting," she said.
Kyuuzou bowed in acknowledgement. His cool expression hiding his sense of relief, he glanced briefly at her departing figure before he headed for the mess hall, hoping to share a meal with no companion except peace and solitude.
But while Kyuuzou could spin a cocoon of solitude even in a crowd, peace proved a little more elusive.
The moment the crimson-eyed boy entered the mess hall, he heard the samurai men at the table in the left corner say, "Isn't that the okama younger brother of the Taisho of the Yuri Company?"
Their conversation continued even as the willowy samurai walked towards the food counter.
"Shhh… he can hear you."
"Nah, he's too far away."
"That Ayame can hear people whisper from thirty meters away. Maybe Kyuuzou has that ability too. Those people from Captain Haruko's dojo are weird."
Kyuuzou felt his blood pressure rise slightly. He did not know why people just assumed he was an okama. He was no joshoku-zuki, for sure, but he was no nanshoku-zuki either. The androgynous warrior was simply asexual, or so he believed.
"These ignorant people have no concept of asexuality as a valid sexual orientation!" He thought. Similarly, those gossips that Kyuuzou considered "samurai who had nothing better to do" came to erroneous conclusions about his senpai Ayame. In addition to having Haruko for senpai, Ayame seemed to have many lesbian samurai friends. That earned her the nickname of 'Taisho of the Yuri Company", not that Ayame was anywhere close to becoming a taisho. Even by the end of the war, she had only just achieved the rank of Captain. But of course, no one in their right mind would call the bad tempered soldier "Taisho of the Yuri Company" to her face.
Kyuuzou rounded the serving counter, casting a casual glance at the menu items available. Instead of picking up his mess tray, he strolled towards the end of the hall, taking a roundabout route towards the gossips' table.
Big Sister Haruko always told her kouhai to ignore idle talk. "Don't sink to their level. Rise above the opinions of humans." was Tashiro senpai's advice. But occasionally, proud young Kyuuzou felt the temptation to slap those idle talkers who cast aspersions on the personal honor of himself or his senpai. He was chaste as dictated by the Southern rural standard for an ideal young man; his reputation, in his opinion, should reflect the purity of ice and the loftiness of jade. The androgynous samurai believed Third Sister, like himself, was oriented towards neither men nor women. Like him, she showed no interest in that sort of thing. There were always other things to do, for crying out loud. Kyuuzou could see a much more mundane explanation for his senpai's strange status as yuri-lovers' magnet. There were not at all many female samurai across the battalion, and minorities tend to spend their off-duty time together for social support. Ayame happened to have the leadership qualities and personal charisma that made her the center of a social network. The gossips' labels had no basis.
Even so, Kyuuzou theoretically agreed with Tashiro senpai's admonition against letting mean men provoke him to anger. It was perhaps only childish curiosity that led him to approach the table of gossiping samurai. Meaning only to eavesdrop, the boy had no definite intention of confronting them, at least not until he heard the officer named Tadatsuna say, "They shouldn't have promoted that akindo woman so quickly. Now she acts so uppity. Thinks she can order real samurai around. Heimin shouldn't be learning bujutsu, in my opinion. It makes them forget their place."
Another man responded, "What's that Kyuuzou person anyway? He was definitely not born a samurai…"
Tadatsuna continued. "Who knows what he is? Perhaps even an eta for all we know … the military is getting overrun with heimin recruits who think they understand bushido. What's her name – that woman of peasant birth - had the archery and riding skills of a samurai from a high-ranking family! What's the world coming to? Whoever trained her ought to be shot."
"Good thing she mechanized and transferred to another regiment. We no longer have to watch her insufferable show-offishness in the archery range."
Mizuho had never been a show off. Kyuuzou's ire rose considerably at these comments, but the samurai chattered on, oblivious to the eavesdropper.
"It's all that Captain Tashiro Haruko's fault – bringing in one commoner after another. She doesn't seem to understand most samurai don't share her taste for low company. Good thing they transferred her to Special Operations."
"Special Ops? So that's where she went? Unusual career trajectory for a samurai, isn't it? Most special ops soldiers are from the ninja clans. Which samurai would lower himself/herself to do that dirty work?"
So, now they were insulting Big Sister too? Kyuuzou's blood pressure rose even further.
The silent samurai, with a deliberate calmness, crept up to Tadatsuna's table.
"So, three heimin in the battalion means that the place is 'overrun' by commoners?" The gossiping samurai were startled by a cold voice behind them. They turned to face a skinny red-eyed boy.
Kyuuzou smirked. This heimin was going to kick their samurai bottoms.
--
The young samurai found himself in military court for 'assault' and assault of a higher ranking officer, at that.
"It is utterly dishonorable for samurai to be involved in a mess hall brawl."
"Specialist Kyuuzou started it first. He poured a bowl of steaming ramen over my head!"
"And what do you have to say for yourself, Specialist Kyuuzou?"
"The bowl of ramen was NOT steaming. It was lukewarm," came the red-eyed samurai's sullen reply. "And if you are talking about honor, I had no choice. Lieutenant Tadatsuna made disparaging remarks about Captain Haruko of Special Ops and Master Sergeant Mizuho of the 51st Squadron. He also called my commanding officer Master Sergeant Ayame a 'crazy castrating bitch!'"
"But I was merely stating an observable fact!"
Fortunately for the young samurai, the case was dismissed after both parties were 'censured'. The army did not want to discharge a 'super-soldier' like Kyuuzou. During the mess hall brawl, he single-handedly defeated 10 samurai in empty hand combat. Besides, it really could have been worse. The commanders knew when verbal insults against a samurai's 'kin' were involved, the whole matter could have easily degenerated into a death duel. It would only be a matter of time before someone makes another snide comment about either of the commoners-turned-samurai and sets off another brawl. It would probably be a good idea to transfer Ayame or Kyuuzou to another battalion eventually. The question was which of the two should go.
History Notes:
Non-samurai as outstanding practitioners of bujutsu, and the crossing of class lines
- As for the possibility of people of non-samurai birth (e.g. Kyuzo, Ayame and Mizuho) being better fighters than many samurai, the nonfiction book Secrets of the Samurai: The Martial Arts of Feudal Japan listed a number of examples of legendary fighters who were not samurai:
"During the decline of the Tokugawa, for example, "The Tokaido's Number-One Boss," Jirosho of Shimizu (1820-93)… belonged to the merchant class…. Going back even further in time to the more rigidly controlled period of the early Tokugawa era, the famous Chobei of Banzuin, chief of the Otokodate in Edo, was a chonin (townsman, part of merchant class), not a military retainer."
- As for the possibility of people of non-samurai origin, e.g. Kyuzo, Ayame and Mizuho, becoming samurai, "the leaders who shaped the military history of Japan for centuries to come (Nobunaga, Hideyoshi, Kato Kiyomasa) were originally of peasant stock." (Ratti/Westbrook, Secrets of the Samurai) Hideyoshi was in fact born a peasant. He rose through the samurai ranks but could not become shogun because of his non-samurai birth. So the emperor made him regent. (an even higher office than shogun)
- The resentment of soldiers of samurai birth against first generation samurai (those not born in samurai families) is inspired by the resentment of the aristocratic class against the newly rising samurai class (comprised mostly of non-nobles of peasant stock) in the 10th century. The non-fiction book Secrets of the Samurai mentions "the resentment felt by the crown toward those 'people of all ranks' who were making their power felt, often in direct opposition to the administration and its provincial tax collectors," "although there are indications … that many a leader of the new, emerging class of warriors in the tenth century was of aristocratic lineage, it appears equally true that the great majority of them were not."
- The Tokugawa class structure placed farmers in theory as the highest heimin class (in fact, I've read in Secrets of the Samurai the top-ranking peasants chieftains had higher social status than the lowest ranking samurai), followed by artisans, then merchants, then outcasts. In reality, money speaks louder than class status, so poorer peasants often found themselves close to the bottom of the heap.
The role of ninja in relation to samurai
Samurai clans used ninjas to do the 'dirty work' since ninjas were not bound by the same codes of 'honorable combat' which governed samurai. (Secrets of the Samurai, Ratti/Westbrook)