All normal disclaimers apply. Ronin Warriors does not belong to me, but to Sunrise, Inc. and Bandai.
This story is the result of a challenge posted by EagleBlaze on the Samurai Fanservice message board. http:// s13.invisionfree. com/ SamuraiFanservice/ index. php (Don't forget to take out the spaces.)
This was the original challenge: "During practice Rowen accidentally ends up shooting Cye with one of his arrows."
Notes can be found at the bottom.
A Cheap Shot
It was stupid. It was just a stupid, cheap archery set, something that was supposed to be for the times we rough and tumbled. It was something that was supposed to protect my tournament bow and arrows from everyday use. It wasn't supposed to pierce flesh and blood.
I had turned 21 just three days prior. Today was a Friday.
I should have known better.
We were at the Date's family kendo school, using one small portion of their garden. Ryo had promised to help me sharpen my other senses for archery by having me wear a blindfold as he produced and tossed various targets. The goal wasn't to hit the targets per se, but to at least come close.
Ryo is extremely ambidextrous, a fact that many don't even consider about him. Years of practicing with twin katanas can do that to a person. He makes a great thrower when you're looking for randomness.
One rustle of sound came closer than I remembered Ryo being, but I shot off an arrow anyway.
Friday the 13th….
I should have known better.
Someone gasped and I ripped away the blindfold. Kento stood just to my right. On his head he sported a stupid headband with black cat ears. Cye stood beside him, somewhat hunched over, and I could see a long black tail hanging from his waist. His face was pointed downward and he held one red hand just beneath his left shoulder.
Ketchup, it must be ketchup.
I should have known better.
Like lead he dropped to the ground. The feathers at the end of my arrow broke off, they were that cheap, but Cye never stirred.
It was stupid. It was just a stupid, cheap archery set, something that was supposed to be for the times we rough and tumbled. It was something that was supposed to protect my tournament bow and arrows from everyday use. It wasn't supposed to pierce flesh and blood.
It wasn't supposed be fatal in any way.
I had turned 21 just three days prior. Today was a Friday.
Though it may have been too farfetched for many to believe, I could be highly superstitious at times. Nothing happened without a reason.
Life, death, happiness, grief, dreams, nightmares, pranks, hangovers….
I should have known better.
When things began to blur that Tuesday night and I puked up every deliciously sweet piece of Cye's and Kento's homemade cake I'd eaten….
And Ryo and Mia got along without arguing over the tiger fur still on the couch….
And Yuli actually appeared non-obnoxious….
And Kayura styled her hair into Talpa twists.…
And the Warlords sang a decent group karaoke….
I should have known…that Sage had spiked my birthday punch.
And that I had imagined the whole thing.
Stupid Sage. I guess he really didn't like the four strippers that I arranged for his 21st birthday. His grandpa sure seemed to like them when he bust in on us, though. He is the one who took the girls away after all. I didn't know Date-san could groove like that...
End
Well, that's it! Crappy, huh? I challenged myself with this fic by one: having it NOT focus on Ryo; and two: keeping it to 500 words or less. I accomplished my first goal and came close to the second (it came out to be 515 words or so). All in all this was probably written in two hours time when you factor in the re-reading. It's definitely not my best quality work, but it was a good challenge for me to work on and a decent excuse to step out of the original story box that I've been in these past two years.
For a while I was torn with whether to make it a tragedy or leaving the ending open. Then I thought, "what the heck?" And added a twist to the end. Someone commented on Samurai Fanservice (the message board) a while back that the majority of Ronin stories were all serious nowadays, so I'm glad I gave it a different ending than death. Hopefully I had some of you going for a bit there, too.
One more quick thing--the title is meant to be a play on words. "A Cheap Shot" can refer to two completely different things. Points if you can figure out what. :0)
I hope ya'll at least got a little chuckle out of this. It's been quite a while since I've written a RW story. :-S