Don't ask me what I was thinking when I started this story. It simply happened when I thought about new Point of Views. So here it is: The story of Fu's sword. I think that anyone can guess that the mangaka wouldn't have come up with this nonsense.
Dedication: to anyone who reads this story.
The story of the Hero of Generations
I had a goal once.
Don't tell me that I am nothing but a sword and therefore unable to have goals. Believe me, I had a goal and you don't know anything. The kunai you just lost? Well, he is happier now, slowly falling apart until he won't be there anymore. He is happier now because this means that you won't wield him anymore to murder people who trusted you.
We have souls, we have spirits and when we meet, we can communicate. We aren't only swords. We are your companions. Everyone has forgotten about this … but we still remember better times. Our friends, the humans lost the ability to listen to us a long time ago. They kill with our blades, with our power. In a way, they corrupt us over and over again. They use us as if we were simple tools – worthless, replaceable. But we aren't. We suffer in a life we never chose … and yet, we keep fighting – with those who have the power to wield us.
Anyway, more than sixty years ago, when I had been just forged, I had an amazing goal. I wanted to be one of the strongest swords in whole Xing, a legendary weapon.
Therefore, I was pretty disappointed when I was given to a pretty generic and boring guy called Fu Wei who had just graduated from some ridiculous bodyguard academy and who also happened to be the heir of the Wei-clan. Technically, the Wei-clan was the clan any weapons between Xing and Nippon wanted to serve but Fu was nothing but an average bodyguard at the time and I prepared myself for a few years of boredom until he would die and I would be given to a new wielder, someone a little bit more deserving.
Fu had been placed on the so-called Team of the Great Four along with three really weird guys who were also the heirs of their respective clans. Chen Bo was far too kind and too soft, Tian Cho was a little bit dumb and Tao Fang was plain creepy.
And yet, together, as a team, they soared.
They were so different. Chen was calm and mature – always searching for ways to solve conflicts without a physical fight. Tian was impatient and reckless, he often needed the assistance of his best friend Tao who was mature and collected but never above a quick kill when it was for the sake of their village which was actually a big town. Fu was their leader even though this was never stated explicitly – if went without saying because after a few years, he grew and became deserving of me, the sword he wielded so mightily. I was no longer disappointed by his skill and the way he wielded me. He became more confident with every battle we – finally, there was a we – fought together and I was the happiest sword in the world. I also started to call him Fu-kun because he had become deserving of my acknowledgement.
And I began to understand that Chen's kindness and his compassion didn't make him weak. I saw the wisdom in Tian's reckless idealism and his burning determination. I finally learned that Tao was socially awkward because he had spent too much time with his herbs but I started to respect his prowess in poisoning and healing.
And as I respected the team, I respected their weapons because they believed in their wielders.
Chen-kun had bad luck with weapons because he was clumsy and often cut himself so he almost never used a bladed weapon. The only exception was a beautifully crafted Jian he had gotten from his grandfather. The blade adored its wielder and always rooted for him. It took me months to get to hear her name: Huiqing, Good Luck, and she lived up to this name. As long as she rested in her sheath on Chen-kun's back, he never lost a battle. Tian-kun used a wide array of weapons but he was particularly fond of his katana, a present from his older cousin. The katana was a pretty thing, very sharp and perfect for him. Its name Qiang, Red Rose, came from the pattern on hilt and sheath thus I considered it as fitting. Tao-san stayed a mystery for the longest time but I quickly realised that his weapon of choice was another katana – why is everyone favouring those technically imported weapons from Nippon of all places nowadays anyway? Well, unlike Qiang, Tao-san's katana was male. Yes, we weapons do have genders. Big surprise there, huh? Now shut up. Personally, I never liked him that much. I acknowledged his quality and his loyalty to his wielder and that his cruel elegance fitted Tao-san's fighting style perfectly. I never bothered to learn his name though because I didn't feel anything but mutual respect for him.
Fu-kun and I, we were great partners. He was originally more of a hand-to-hand combatant and yet, I somehow fitted this style.
For decades, we fought together and shed our enemies' blood and drew blood from those who were brave or foolish enough to face us in a spar. We left many scars along the years, even on people he cared for, people we were technically protecting – like his friends, his sons and his grandchildren. I will never forget the day my blade cut cleanly through Chao-san's cheek and I still wonder whether Fu-kun's grandson understood the message we sent out this day. Fu-kun hadn't cut him to prove his superiority. This wasn't necessary. Chao-san knew just too well that his grandfather was one of the strongest fighters in Xing. Fu-kun's and my message that day was that Chao-san was enough of a fighter now that we would never hold back in a spar again. Jun Li-chan had understood when we had cut her shoulder and in my opinion, Chao-san had always been smarter than his younger cousin. Lan Fan had understood as well – her proud smile behind the high collar of her uniform had given her away.
Fu-kun had grown wiser and less impulsive along the years but like me, he was still proud – and this was important. A bodyguard without pride was worthless because he would never be completely dedicated to the single goal a bodyguard had to have: to protect someone at any price. Fu-kun's pride was something I always admired him for – because he was so strong.
At this point of my long life, I had already accepted my destiny. I had accepted that Fu-kun was too loyal and too content with serving the bratty prince to seek greater power. With him as my partner, I would never become a legendary weapon. But for the time being it was alright and to me, Fu-kun's own goals were important than mine because as a human, his time was limited. Yes, bitter as it was, I knew that I would … outlive Fu-kun and with a little luck, my next partner would be more ambitious and I would reach my goal then.
We faced losses like the deaths of his younger son Cai, his wife Lan Li and various friends and the destruction of many weapons which had been friends of mine to a degree and we always kept going somehow – because this was all we could do. I mourned with him when Jun Li-chan fell from honour and grace by being pregnant and unmarried, when she stained the family name – and I missed her just as much as Fu-kun missed her when she disappeared to Amestris in order to get over the death of the man she had protected for many, many years. I rejoiced alongside my wielder when Lan Fan-sama became a strong and dependable bodyguard, maybe not as strong as Jun Li-chan but also free of her sister's greatest flaws – the desire for something or someone far above her rank. I also worried when Chao-san, his beloved grandson, fell ill once more just when we – along with Lan Fan-sama and that stupid Prince Ling – left Xing.
I didn't like Amestris at all. It was too … fast and nothing like my beautiful homeland Xing. And the brats we met there! That talking and walking armour guy truly dared to attack Fu-kun! And that red-coated fool of an older but smaller brother really tied up Lan Fan-sama! Such … such an offense! But the stupid prince we were protecting befriended them and so I had to get used to them – even though I never forgave them for hurting my wielder and his granddaughter.
Maria-kun who we met later on was nicer, maybe even too nice. She spoke to Fu-kun with honest interest and nothing but utter politeness, saving the image I had from her country. I felt a little bit sorry for her because her own king had turned the sword against her and he had played a cruel trick on her, no, he had completely and utterly betrayed her and everyone else who wasn't involved in the evil things going on in Amestris as I learned later on. We left Maria-kun in the care of Chao-san and Jun Li-chan's daughter who looked more and more like her foolish mother with every passing day and who was rumoured to be quite skilled for her young age.
Travelling back, I mused about them.
Jun Li-chan and I had been partners once and so I was familiar with her way to act which hadn't been beneficial to my disappointment about her pregnancy. She usually preferred a set of kunai which she could throw over a weapon like me and after fifty years, I was wise enough to accept this choice. (But I still never understood why she always carried a katana around with her.)
Chao-san on the other hand had never wielded me for he was the katana expert of the family and yet, I respected him greatly. He was an extremely skilled tactician and therefore, I admired him. We had a distanced relationship – if you want to call it this – and I was happy with the way it was. He was a decent man who was deserving of the honour to be the next leader of the clan. I would have gladly been his sword but his katana Ya Xue, Pure Snow, was a better match for him.
Lan Fan-sama, however, was the one I respected the most. She was brave and loyal to a fault, pretty but never conceited. Her favourite weapon was a single kunai and she wielded it with great skill and confidence. I had never spoken with her kunai, though, so I only assumed that it was as kind as its wielder.
Back in Amestris, I got to know that in spite of the heroic sacrifice of her own arm, Lan Fan-sama hadn't been able to protect the moronic prince. Fu-kun's rage was short-lived because even though she had failed her duty, she had still tried her best and he saw her efforts. I was probably the only one who knew – even at that time – that he blamed himself for her lost arm and her defeat since he was extremely proud of his granddaughter who would recover one day.
Neither he nor I had ever doubted Lan Fan-sama's will to return to the battlefield.
The following weeks, I hardly got to leave my sheath until Lan Fan got her arm made of steel and took up training once again. We went back once she was able to fight again and so we returned to the very core of all evil to reclaim the stupid prince who was – at least in my eyes – not worth the trouble we had because of him.
I still wish that we wouldn't have done this. Upon entering the battle on Fu-kun's side, I soon fell into the clutches of an evil, evil man called King Bradley or better yet, Wrath, and was turned against Fu-kun. I was and will never be anything but a blade, a sword, a simple tool but I still feel like I betrayed my wielder, my … yes, my friend when my blade cut through his skin and his flesh. If I had been able to burst the very moment his hands grabbed me, I would have gladly sacrificed my entire existence for my friend … but I could only watch and scream in silence. I watched how the huge ma with the strange hair turned your pointless attempt to sacrifice yourself into something successful.
I broke when Ling, the prince, attacked Bradley to avenge you, Fu-kun, and I wished that I had been completely shattered then because even though my blade had been cut in two, my conscience was still whole. My only friend for so many years wasn't anymore and I would have gladly followed him – into hell because Fu-kun had decided on this destination.
But it wasn't meant for me to vanish then … well, as a weapon, it wasn't even death what I feared, abandonment was far more painful and being useless was sheer agony. Lan Fan-sama picked me up, then, and took my sheath before she dashed away, taken the broken me with her as she left to avenge her grandfather's death. I prayed that she would use me – even though I was broken – to cut the evil man's throat but I knew that she would use the blade that had replaced her lost arm – as some kind of justice.
In the end, I was dead wrong. She did not kill him because he died without her help. Maybe this outcome was better for her because revenge was a terrible, terrible thing and to lose Lan Fan-sama to this madness right after Fu-kun's death would have been a catastrophe in my eyes.
I stayed in my sheath, hidden under her armour as some kind of talisman or keepsake for a while – until the crazy Chang-princess picked up Lan Fan-sama's dirty clothes to wash them as Fu-kun's precious granddaughter slept under orders of her moronic prince who had a major crush on her, just saying. The little girl who had a terrible choice in weaponry stroked my destroyed sheath as her stupid mini-panda sat on her shoulder. I wasn't too sure about her expression; there was sadness and understanding, combined with an unheard sigh.
Mei Chang carried me for the rest of the journey and I chatted with her knives which were surprisingly smart along the way.
Upon our more or less glorious return, I was fixed and ended up in the weapons arsenal of the Wei-clan, next to a katana – hell, were they stalking me?! – and waited for my next wielder as I slowly learned to accept that Fu-kun was dead. But no matter how much time passed in between the moment he had been killed and now, I never stopped feeling the pain. Sometimes, unimportant members of the clan used me on missions of for training but I never bothered to learn their names. None of them was worthy to be my new wielder anyway – not that I could influence this.
For four long years, the katana next to me was my most frequent companion. She was silent and I quickly figured out that she was mourning someone as well. When she finally spoke, sometime in the second year, she revealed that she had been Jun Li-chan's last katana before the woman had left Xing. Her name was Yōushèngzhě, victor, and for a katana, she was really nice.
After those four years, the door was opened and Yōushèngzhě was taken once more by Jun Li-chan who had returned to Xing top reclaim what she had left behind. There weren't tears because neither Yōushèngzhě nor Jun Li-chan were women who cried. There was only a short flicker of relief in Yōushèngzhě's eyes and then, she was gone. I found myself happy for her because she deserved to be reunited with her old wielder once more.
I was slightly jealous because my old master would never return from wherever he was now to reclaim me.
Another year passed in boredom and annoyance and one day, Chao-san took me from my place. I was too old to be overly exited but the possibility that I would face battles again was nice. The clan leader – after Fu-kun's death and Lan Fan-sama's marriage, he had been the only option – personally cleaned, sharpened and polished me before he put me into a new sheath.
Exactly five years, two months and eight days after Fu-kun's death, I was given a new wielder.
At first, I was disappointed once again. Jun Li-chan's daughter was soft and lacked strength. Chao-san saw a great leader in her bit I simply couldn't understand this. But then again, I never had his eyes … the eyes that saw the end of a path just as clear as any start.
Min Li – I denied her any honorific because she was weaker than Fu-kun's shadow – mainly used a katana called Sakura, Cherry Blossom, who had a blade made of pale rosé steel and a hilt and a sheath covered with little pink flowers. Unlike me, Sakura adored Min Li-hime and was eternally grateful to serve her. I never understood the airheaded katana who seemed to see so much more in the little brat than there actually was.
Well, maybe I was being unfair. Min Li wasn't as bad as I probably made her sound like. For a girl of her age and her fragility, she was really strong. But she wasn't Fu-kun. She hadn't seen the terrors of countless fights yet. To me, she was still immature and stupid like a little baby and yet, I found myself growing attached to her. She was a tolerable female. She didn't chase after Jing Bo out of her age group and she dedicated a ridiculous big part of her daily free time to training. She was no second Jun Li-chan but I preferred things this way.
Min Li was dependable in a way and I still needed someone to bring me to the top – even though she hadn't unsheathed me since she had gotten me. I wondered whether she feared to disrespect her late great-grandfather or whether she simply didn't use weapons like me. Sakura chuckled as I voiced my worries and told me that Min Li-hime was a careful and patient woman. How the airhead had the nerve to call the girl a woman was behind me but I never had claimed that katana were especially intelligent.
Being Min Li's sword, I met old friends again – Qiang who was now the katana of a boy called Meimei Cho who happened to be Min Li's sensei while Huiqing was now the jian of Jing Bo, Min Li's best friend and first crush even though it ended with heartbreak on both sides. Even Tao-san's katana was still there, resting in the strong and skilled hands of Ping Fang. I finally learned his name – Dan Hu, scarlet tiger. It was nice to meet them again but Dan Hu mocked me because Min Li never drew me – even when Sakura had been knocked out of her hand, she never chose me to keep fighting and rather surrendered to whoever had managed to take Sakura.
It was painful for me. Back in the days as Fu-kun's weapon, I had been the leader among the weapons just like my partner had been the leader among the humans. Now, Qiang was the leader because her partner was the most skilled and most experienced among the fighters. Sakura was able to deal with the position as second best but I couldn't tolerate this. I wanted Min Li to soar. I wanted her to prove that she was truly one of Fu-kun's blood. But above all, I wanted her to use me. I was her sword – just like Sakura. I deserved to be used in battle because it was my duty to fight alongside my wielder. Min Li wasn't as small and weak as she believed herself to be but she wasn't able to rip away whatever was obscuring her view.
Before I could really decide how I wanted her to soar, the 13th Civil War between the Yao-people and the Fei-tribe started and Min Li was chosen for the frontlines with her team. She didn't protest, she didn't use the royal blood – her father had been Prince Lei Yao after all – as an excuse to be spared. She took the uniform, bound her hair to a tight braid and cleaned both me and Sakura one last time before she and her team left for the battles.
I wondered why she had taken me with her. She never used me. I didn't think that she might use me in the war. Technically, I was only additional weight and additional weight might be fatal for her. No matter how much I wanted her to unsheathe me finally I wanted her to be safe more than anything else in this world. I had lost Fu-kun and I didn't want to lose Min Li as well. No, it wasn't what Sakura believed it to be – I hadn't accepted Min Li as replacement for my old partner. I had accepted her as my new partner, as someone who might allow me to reach my goal.
Three weeks into the damned war, Meimei Cho, Qiang's wielder, ended up with a broken leg and went home, making Min Li the new leader of her merry band of children. Hell, they weren't older then fifteen! How could Lord Yao send them onto the battlefield? Was the old man crazy?
On the other hand, this might mean that Min Li would finally show the world what she was made of. I trusted her intelligence more than I trusted my own because she had the same style as Chao-san. I had heard from Sakura that they trained together a lot and Min Li had probably copied his style without meaning to. I didn't care whether she had stolen his moves or not. I wanted her to survive too desperately to complain about the how.
Min Li was just sixteen when she killed the man who had broken her sensei's leg. I watched her fight, wondering whether she would abandon Sakura for my sake but she stuck to her katana. I was not jealous, no matter what Sakura said. I only wondered why the girl kept me when she never used me. Min Li deserved the honorific the day she defeated the man who had brought so much unhappiness about Meimei, Qiang and the Cho-clan. From that day, she was Min Li-kun to me. She was still no replacement for Fu-kun to me. She was her own person and I grew to like her for who she was rather than to hate her for who she wasn't.
Three nights later, I was suddenly pulled out of my sheath and for the first time, I saw, I really saw Min Li-kun. Through my sheath, I hadn't seen anything clearly for years and now, I was suddenly confronted with the reality. Min Li-kun wasn't crying but she looked like she needed it. Some might wonder how a sword or a weapon in general sees. Well, first of all, we do have a physical and a spiritual form. The physical form is what the blacksmith who created us formed consciously and the spiritual form depends on how our souls develop upon being entrusted to a wielder. I look, for example, a lot like Fu-kun because he was my ideal person while Sakura and Qiang are probably the most beautiful out there. (Well, Qiang changed under Meimei's care. She is no longer the incredibly beautiful geisha-diva-kind of woman. She looks like a real warrior now – and that's really fitting for her.)
Anyway, Min Li-kun stared at me for a long time with those deep eyes of her. Did I ever mention that her eyes scare me? Well, they do. Even at the age of sixteen, she had the eyes of a three-hundred year old weapon that had seen far too much of this world. There is raw wisdom enveloped in her sadness and her depression and I never completely understood why she chose to draw me that night as she was all alone in her tent. It was cold, yes, I could never forget that and so she wore gloves. I never felt the real touch of her hands until a long time later on. That night, her gloved fingers danced across the place where I had been broken a long time ago and I wondered what she was thinking when she looked at me with her empty eyes.
The war went on, even after the first important battles which were won by the Yao-people. To be fair: the Yao-people consisted mainly of extremely strong warriors and out of hundred more or less legendary warriors at least eighty had Yao-roots.
It was strange anyway that Min Li-kun fought like this. She lacked Fu-kun's expertise and his physical strength but whenever she unsheathed Sakura, she sliced her way through the enemies' rows – never caring about her own injuries. She was strong in her own way, emotionally strong. I quickly understood why Meimei had chosen her as second-in-command: the boys were everything but emotionally stable and they needed someone to keep them in line … and Min Li-kun was the person who was stable enough to be a real leader.
I was proved right a few days later when her squad was ambushed by the very man who had shattered Meimei's leg. Lee who was wielding Qiang now couldn't control his rage, attacked and was cut down. Ping who had seemed to be the most mature among them so far and Jing who was pretty much obsessed with the idea of revenge anyway moved in to avenge their comrade and met the same fate – those idiots.
Min Li-kun stayed completely relaxed and yet, I felt how she grabbed me instead of Sakura who was as surprised as I was. I am a heavy weapon and Sakura is far lighter than me. Usually, Min Li-kun preferred light weapons for such fights, when she was standing alone against ten others but this time, she had chosen me and I prayed that she wouldn't regret this decision. Her gloved hands were strangely warm and I realised how much I had really missed the feeling to be needed by someone – even when this someone had hardly enough physical strength to use me. She wielded me the same way Fu-kun had used me so many years ago – with the firm belief that I could truly cut through everything and that I was the most amazing sword in the world.
The first man fell as soon as she slashed him across the chest with my blade. For someone who had never even wielded me even in training, she adjusted to my weight in mere seconds and the next men fell before they even realised that she had engaged them into a fight. This was her way to deal with anger, Sakura whispered into my direction.
The last man who was responsible for the current inability of her complete team to move without help was tougher to fight but both I and Sakura rooted for our wielder and suddenly, I noticed how Min Li-kun used my sheath to defend herself against minor blows to avoid complicated manoeuvres to prevent herself from being injured.
This was a style Chao-san had been famous for in his youth and as Min Li-kun's most dedicated training partner, he had left traces on her personal style – the sheath as shield thing was probably not the only thing they had in common.
I wasn't surprised when I felt how more blood than before stained my blade because this meant that Min Li-kun had won and this was all I really wanted. I was put back in my sheath again and cleaned in the evening when we had finally reached the main camp again. At the camp, we got to know that Chao-san's squad had been ambushed a day ago and that no one had heard anything from them. Many people who knew Chao-san like the Ling, the emperor, Lan Fan-sama and various members of the Wei-clan cried or showed at least some compassion about the possibility that Chao-san might be no longer but Min Li-kun stepped away from them, showing no worry or shock over the fate of the man who had been her closest companion for many years, of the man who had taught her more than half of the moves she used everyday in the stupid fights.
I was terribly disappointed and angry about this behaviour before I understood her. She didn't allow herself to show emotions over this because she was the foundation of her team and she was the pillar of Chao-san's strength and influence in his own clan. When she would show fear that he might have died, everyone would lose hope because she knew him best.
In the end, she was right. Chao-san returned three days later with his complete squad and Sakura just wouldn't shut up about the love and the determination the clan leader had showed by returning to the woman he loved. I didn't get her then and simply thought that she was being on her usual everything-is-so-cute-and-adorable-trip which had annoyed me for years.
Three years later, I got what she had meant. Chao-san and Min Li-kun got married and Sakura didn't stop yelling 'I called it, I totally called it!' for weeks until Qiang managed to shut her up. Violence was involved but I don't know how exactly two weapons fought when no wielder was involved. I am not even sure if I want to know how they did this.
I served Min Li-kun until she was thirty years old and decided that it was time to pass me down to a new wielder. I was happy about that because she hadn't seen an actual fight in years – Chao-san was one overprotective husband and the Yao-people had smashed the Feis so badly in their last war that it would take years until a new war would break out – not that I minded as much.
My new partner was a girl, again. Her first name was Feng, Phoenix, because her grandfather Lei was a Yao-prince and the symbol of the Yao-house was a Phoenix. I had never thought that Min Li-kun would show so much interest in naming her children but she did. She had sons, too, but Fuhian had inherited Ya Xue and the other boy had chosen the old sword of Fu-kun's second son while the second daughter preferred tessen – at least not another katana-lover. I had seen too many of them along the years and originally, the Wei-clan had been renowned for their prowess with every kind of weapon and not only katana, just saying.
I accepted Feng-hime far earlier into our partnership than Fu-kun or Min Li-kun because I had accepted that no matter what would happen – I would always root for my wielder as long as he or she would be of Fu-kun's blood.
And my name? Shi Jie – Hero of Generations, sword of Feng Wei, daughter of Min Li Wei. Legendary Sword and Legendary Warrior. It's an honour to meet you.