Disclaimer: I don't own Dynasty Warriors. Simple!

A/N: While this was written with DW7 in mind, it'll probably work with future games too. I didn't use any dialogue specifically found in DW7 or anything. But yes. I don't like this fic much now (it's been too long since I wrote it), but I hope you enjoy it regardless!

Simple

It's your fault, you know. ..I mean, if we're playing the 'blame game' here. Which I'm not, but, still. Really – it'd be just a lie to say that if you hadn't acted differently, maybe I wouldn't have left.

I was perfectly happy where I was. I didn't want to leave, actually – or at least, it wouldn't even have crossed my mind. Wouldn't even have occurred to me before then to drop it all and go.

But hey.. What's past is past, right? Hah. What I'm trying to say is: it wasn't my choice. I had no choice – none whatsoever, because you lot conveniently took it all away. I'm a pretty 'easy-going' sort of guy, in truth.. Life's too short to get all bothered about this and that or whatever; so long as I have the simple things, I'm fine. Just a roof over my head and basic comfort and decent food (..okay, more than decent would be even better, but it's good, I could deal) and warm company and surroundings. I could care less if it was gilded in gold and the finest money could buy. Seriously! I'm just not the picky type.

So there I was, just living and doing my thing, trying not to screw up too much while I was at it. Happy days; or comfortable enough...- I couldn't ask for much else and I wasn't about to.

Yeah.

Great.

Then...-

Aw, come on. You know this part! Right..? ..Well, I guess I was gonna say it anyway.

Then you threatened to kill me.

Remember?

Doesn't matter if you don't. Not to you, I bet – I mean, how many of my extended family and friends did you actually have killed again? (I lost count.) How many more people of Wei died, and will die, through your self-serving machinations and plots? (If I hadn't before, I'd definitely lose count now.)

Sure. I get it. I really do. Fine – you're out to take all the power, and anyone too close to the old regime (or looks at you funny) has to go. Simple.

Simple...

Of course, that's when my 'simple' life stopped. Or – and I'm hoping to not be too dramatic here – when my 'simple' life started petering out, and fast. Death looming ever closer ever closer, till I could almost feel its breath chilling my face.

(…..Alright, so I could've used a better analogy. Moving on.)

Don't get me wrong; I'm no stranger to 'life-threatening' situations. I'm a soldier, after all! How could I not be! But tell me this...:

What decent soldier just stands there and doesn't even try to avoid a killing blow when it comes at him? ..I'll tell you. A useless one.. Or one who's already passed. Call it obligation; instinct, even, that I was going to defend myself.

Except.. Hah.What do you know? This wasn't a simple battlefield. Nothing was simple any more, so my surroundings were the familiar and ordinary. My decent-sized house with the pretty-ish landscape and a sprawling, mundane but cosy town. Same neighbourhood with the people milling about in their streets and the chatty acquaintances and the friend I've trained with for years. ..Everything in cheerful enough routine, except warped just a tiny little bit. Barely noticeable at first, but the signs grew day by day. Like the tension. The amount of absences (off to visits they'll never come back from). The thinning of the numbers. Disquiet and anxiety amongst familiar names. Murmurs and rumours replacing idle meaningless talk. ...'Friend' used to be 'friends'.

'Home' was a loss that didn't start to register until it was already gone.

...None of this is overstatement, either. I kinda wish it was. It was the last thing I wanted to have happen though, so why would I bother making it up?

I was going to die. A death worse than being skewered on some muddy plain (though I'm not keen on that idea either) by a nobody you're trying to defeat. That would be more honourable, than being slaughtered in a back room due to association... just because the new guy in power has to stomp all over a kingdom's fresh corpse before he sits his hide on that still-warm, just-vacated throne.

Sticking around in front of the firing line was plain stupid, however... I would've done that, you know. I would've taken my chances (likely, probably). But no.

While I wasn't slain, cold and buried (yet..), you had done something possibly even worse than that. You'd been well on your way to completely taking away everything else, hadn't you..?

Really.. I just figured, what with my imminent, pathetic death pretty much guaranteed and portions (and people around) my life being snatched cleverly away one by one... What was the point in staying?

Might as well just make a clean break of it – or at least lose the rest on my own terms.

You've got to admit, it makes sense.

I'd even been losing my purpose there. What had I been fighting for..? Hah, Wei? Wei's about as dead as my father- It is, as much as I hate to say it. I hate thinking it too, 'cause it's just not nice at all mourning such influential, great people – dead family included, that changed the world for the better and fought and slaved over and dedicated their lives to such a worthy cause... Only for the waves of loss to surge over me as I realise that Wei as they shaped it is gone. Still twitching, but gone nonetheless and it's just such a... shame, don't you agree?

Eh. Where does lamenting lead you? Nowhere, and fast. Getting bogged down and stuck was just going to ensure you'd never move again. Right? You Sima certainly didn't waste much time over it. And I.. I couldn't waste much more time. Like I'd mentioned before, I had no choice. No option but to drop everything, and high-tail it outta there.

...Doesn't mean it was easy to let go. My house had been cosy enough in a nice enough place – I've rambled on about that enough, too. And my family; some of them close family – I didn't enjoy abandoning those I loved... Who do you think I am?! I'm not that cruel, but yeah, I had to be cold. It was a cold decision to make, but no more frigid than the wind that you blew our way. Everything would be scattered, but at least I wasn't going to be snuffed out.

So I left. Nothing was left, and I headed for Shu. No pride but no regrets and sadly also no luck...- Or okay, maybe there was a bit after all, since I did make it to my destination. I knew what you all would say, of course (well, I'm not stupid) – I could hear the whisperings of 'traitor' already. That, and 'Have you no honour, joining the very kingdom stained with your father's blood?'. But it's no big deal... Say what you want. It's not like I could make you understand.

I took the most sensible option.. Though yeah, I had to sacrifice revenge to do it. It was just another thing among many painful to shed, but father would have understood. Or at least laughed. He had done that a lot, and probably did it a lot more now from wherever his spirit had gone off to.

...Shu, at least, understood. ..Yeah, unbelievable right? How could they possibly understand, being such huge and evil enemies, after all..? Heh. They're your worst enemies too (or at least one of them); a pretty big threat. Even though this is war (where people have done far worse than me 'turning traitor', you know), they still get exactly what's important in all this.

Life. More than basic survival and clawing your way to the top. More than scrabbling around in the dank and chill. It's about home – comfort and (preferably good, but I'd take 'enough') food and drink and even better company and purpose and pure warmth without unease. ..That's it. Just the simple stuff, really.. As ever, I don't actually ask for much.

There're more battles coming up, far too many more, I can feel it... but that can't be pinned entirely on you. We're all carrying on a war that would've raged on anyway, I've accepted that. Sad fact of this lifetime, wherever we are. But yeah.. I'm bound to meet you all again, where I'll earn my label properly, won't I? 'Filthy traitor,' one or dozens of you'll snarl as I probably cut down swathes of your ranks and a good few of my old acquaintances in your militia while I'm at it. More cold actions again, but you'll understand, won't you.. Even if you won't care for a second either way.

I'm a soldier, and that's nothing near inclination – it's duty.

..And if I cut through your ranks so much, slaughter and destroy your carefully considered formations and make it all the way to you yourself... Well..

That'll be obvious too, right? Yeah.. And it'd be equally understandable, what I'd say to you next – the last thing you'd ever hear, my breath against your face:

"You only have yourself to blame, you know."