Note:I posted this fan fic previously, but I did not like the way it was set up.
So, I decided to take it off and rewrite it. Now it's longer and more detailed!
Please Read&Review!
The Soul of The Samurai (Revised)
Chapter one
Everything was changing. Autumn had claimed the landscape, and the first leaf had
fallen. Now, it was just a matter of time before the cold winter winds came howling.
Raven stood atop Titan's Tower, wondering what kind of changes the cold would bring. Yet, unknown to her change was already walking into the city...
The cold wind whipping through the city seemed to mark the arrival of a stranger.
He seemed just as cold as the autumn winds that were chilling the city, if not, colder. It was not a cruel cold though, but more of a sad, lonely cold. He was careful to avoid the crowded streets, and not draw attention to himself, afterall dressed the way he was he would, at the very least draw a few stares. He was
dressed in a dark gray kimono that was tattered and worn, a dark blue obi was
wrapped around his waist and a dark gray samurai sword was thrust through the sash, holding it tightly against his hip. To finish it all off, a rice-straw hat known as a
Ronin Gasa rested atop his head, hiding his face from view. Such a costume made
a lot of people very nervous, so he mainly traveled by night or, when possible on roof tops. He grimly trudged onward, his destination unclear, even to him. To him
this was nothing new. He had, afterall been wandering his whole life with no real
place to go to. His seemingly endless wandering had brought him to a small cliff
overlooking the bay, a large suspension bridge stretched across the water to the other
side of the city. That, however was not what was drawing the wanderer's attention,
it was the large T-shaped tower on the island in the middle of the bay. The setting
sun painted the sky shades of pink, purple and orange, making the tower look like
a shining jewel. For just a moment he stopped to admire the beauty of it all, a rare thing for him indeed. As the last light of the sun gave way to twilight he once again
was on his way, he could only wonder who would live in such a magnificent place
All was calm inside Titan's Tower, everyone had turned in for the night and was sleeping peacefully. All was quiet, the only sound was the wind blowing outside.
The tower remained that way for many hours until, just before midnight the tower's
computer received an emergency dispatch. The tower alarms began to blare wildly,
waking the sleeping teens. In a few minutes the five teens were gathered in the living
room as Robin typed at the computer keyboard. "Titans, trouble!" Robin shouted.
Said "trouble" was down at the docks. The Titans were there in record time, and no sooner had they left the T-Car, the warehouse door lifted up to reveal a group of men,
most them no older than the Titans. They were holding boxes of various goods and a
few were loading the goods onto a truck. "Hold it!" Robin yelled at them. All heads
turned to the teens, one man stepped forward with a smirk. "Well, well if it ain't the
Jump City brats!" He said in a commanding tone. Robin glared at him, as the man smirked even more. "Why don't you little kiddies run along home? It's past your bed time!" With that every crook in the warehouse broke out in hysterical laughter.
The Titans were not amused. "Titans GO!" Robin growled, with that the fight of the
night started. The thugs were mostly armed with nothing more than pistols and knives, not a great arsenal but deadly nonetheless. Cyborg blasted three of the
crooks with his sonic cannon, and turned to knock down two more with his fist.
Suddenly one jumped on Cyborg's back, wrapping his arms around his neck. Cyborg's eyes went wide as he saw a knife appear in front of his face, ready to
slash hit throat. "End of the line, Tin Man!" Just as the blade began to move a green
flash lit up the warehouse quickly followed by a pained yelp. The thug dropped to
the floor as Cyborg turned, to see Starfire floating with two star-bolts ready. "Thanks,
Star!" Said the grateful Titan. Robin and Beast Boy had their hands full trying to fight fifteen of the thugs at once, if they were not being shot at they were being slashed at. Yet, Robin and Beast boy were putting up a good fight and were wearing
down their foes; Robin continued to K.O foe-after-foe with his staff and Kung-Fu.
Beast Boy, on the other hand was having a much harder time of it, he had knocked
a few senseless as a bull, and was currently throwing crates at them as a bigfoot,
with little success. Just as one of them took aim with a hunting rifle, a sonic blast
knocked them all to the floor. "Thanks, dude!" Beast Boy called out at Cyborg, who
was on the other side of the warehouse. Starfire had it easy, she could fly faster than the thugs could aim and this kept her well away from their knives. One could
easily call it the "Great Jump City Turkey Shoot." The thugs were not particularly
well trained, or even very brave, by the time the fight had begun a good number of
them had run off. At last there were only ten left, including the leader and Raven
had them with their backs to the wall. Yet, there was something different about this
group, they seemed more dangerous than the rest and, for some reason the other thugs kept their distance from these guys. As Raven stared her foes down a scream
from outside caught her attention, One of the thugs saw his chance and lunged at
Raven. She just barely dodged to the right as her attacker drew a sword in mid-lunge, thrusting it forward. Had Raven not moved as fast as she did he would have
stabbed her right through the heart, but she was not out of the woods yet. The thug
turned the sword and slashed into Raven's shoulder, not deep, but enough to be very
painful. It felt like she had been slashed with a surgeon's scalpel, the pain distracted
Raven long enough for her assassin-to-be to sweep-kick her legs out from under her.
As she hit the floor Raven rolled to the side as the sword came down at her face, she
got into a crouching position just as the thug turned and lunged at her once again. This close there was no chance to raise a shield in time, or get away, all she could do was hope for a quick death. Suddenly the glass of the skylight above shattered, and a shadow dropped down fast as lightning, the sound of flesh being cut was heard, and the next thing Raven knew someone was standing in front of her. A blood-chilling scream filled the warehouse, catching the attention of the other Titans. Raven stared at her attacker, who was now on the floor holding where his right arm used to be, screaming in agony. His arm was now on the floor, the sword still in it's hand. It had been severed just above the elbow with surgical precision. As well, there was another cut across his chest that had just barely gone through the bone, neither cut had been meant to kill. The leader was sweating bullets as he stood there staring at an enemy that haunted his nightmares like the dark shadow of the devil himself. The shadow stepped forward into the pale moonlight pouring through the broken skylight, and even though his eyes were hidden from view the thugs and their leader could see murder in them. It was at this time the other Titans arrived. "Raven, what ha-" Robin stopped as did the other Titans to stare in shock at the event unfolding before them. One of the thugs was on the floor, holding the upper half of his arm, screaming in pain. The other half was laying on the floor not far from him, a Japanese sword still in the hand. A dark figure stood over the wounded man, he too held a Japanese-type sword and it was smeared with blood. Robin then noticed Raven on the floor behind the swordsman. "Raven!" The boy wonder yelled, running
to his friend's side, the other Titans following close behind. As the teens knelt down
to help their fallen friend the swordsman spoke. "Get your friend out of here." He said in a low voice. The Titans did as they were asked, Cyborg picked Raven up and
carried her to the T-Car while the others stayed to fight, and get some answers.
The thugs were shaking in their boots, but not from the Titans it was from the walking
nightmare staring at them like a wolf about to strike. With every step forward he took
they took a step back, petrified. The leader spoke up. "WHAT ARE YOU FOOLS DOING? KILL HIM!" With that three of the thugs leapt at the swordsman, yet before they could draw their swords their foe was already on the move. The backside of the sword blade smashed into one man's skull, knocking him out in midair.
The next blow came in the form of a fierce left-hook to the next man's throat, another
K.O! The last was knocked senseless by the hard iron handle-cap, three men out cold in one second, amazing by any standards, and Robin could tell he was only warming up! The warrior landed gently on one foot, while his enemies dropped to the
floor with a thud. The Titans were stunned, this swordsman had just taken down three armed men in one leap and he was far from being finished with them. the swordsman raised his sword and pointed it at the thug's leader. "Come and get it"
The swordsman growled, and this time all six of the thugs attacked! As the Titans watched, the same thought was running through their heads; who is he? And how do
these crooks know him? As the thugs closed in, their foe ducked down and rolled out of the way, letting them bash into each other. As the crooks tried to get up the swordsman pounced on them, bashing them silly with various kicks and punches.
As he got to his feet the swordsman heard laughter, and turned to the only crook left;
the leader. "What's so funny?" The swordsman asked. The leader laughed again, and smirked. "You didn't kill any of my men, THAT'S what's so funny!" He started to
laugh even more. "What's the matter? Gone soft!" As he continued to laugh, he noticed the swordsman was staring dead into his eyes...from three feet away!
"W-w-what the-" He did not have time to finish, as the swordsman punched him in the face with the kind of force that shatters bone like glass. the man landed spread eagle, and knocked for a loop! With this the Titans stepped forward to get some answers, as they neared their savior he spoke. "Your friend will be fine." He spoke in a slow, calm tone. "She has a small cut on her left shoulder, but it's not deep"
He turned to look at them. "It will, however likely need stitches. Just make sure she
gets lots of rest." With that he turned and walked under the skylight, and looked down at the first crook, who was now unconscious on the floor. He knelt down to get a better look at his arm. It had been cauterized. The swordsman stood up and looked over his shoulder at Robin, Beast Boy and Starfire, giving them a glimpse of
haunting gray eyes. "Good job on the cautery, if not for you this man would likely be
dead. You may make a fine doctor someday, young lady." Starfire blinked, how did he know she had done that? His back had been turned to them the whole time! With this he crouched down and leapt up and out of the ware house. "Titans follow him"
Robin shouted. Starfire was the first on the roof, followed by Beast Boy and Robin.
"Star, did you see where he went?" Robin asked. "I did not." She replied. Indeed,
the only thing on that roof, other than the three teens was the howling of the wind.
So as not to confuse the readers, I will include a glossary of Japanese terms to make things easy to understand:)
Bushi:
Literally means "Warrior" it is this word that the word "Bushido" or "The way of the warrior" derives.
Do:
literally means "Way" for example the word "Kendo" means "The way of the sword"
Gasa:
A type of hat commonly made from rice-straw or rushes, there are many different types; the type in this story, the Ronin Gasa is volcano-shaped.
Jutsu:
Literally means "Art" for example the word "Jujutsu" means "The gentle art"
Kana:
True Japanese letters, there are two groups of Kana, each with 48 letters.
Kanji:
Chinese letters used by the Japanese, and have more than one "Reading" or one letter may have more than one meaning. There are 1945 Kanji letters in common use in Japan today
Kimono:
Today it means a traditional Japanese robe worn by both men and women. In feudal
Japan, however it means just "Clothes"
Ken:
The word "Ken" means "To see" but the Kanji letter "Ken" means sword, the latter is the way it is more commonly thought of today.
Obi:
Sash worn around the waist as a belt, swords were worn thrust though the folds the
sash; through the outer folds for a long sword, through the inner folds for a short sword or dagger.
Ronin:
Literally means "Wave man" in feudal Japan it was used describe samurai without a master. Today it is applied to students between schools or a man without work.
Samurai:
Literally means "One who serves" when most people hear this word, they think of sword-wielding men in armor or the like. Not all samurai were warriors, and most people do not know there were women samurai too!
I hope you like the revised story. It's much better than the first version.
Please leave a review on your way out, and have a nice day!