Err…(expects to be hit by rotten vegetables) I really don't know what possessed me to write this. No, wait—I do. My obsession with Ukyo. (dodges rotten vegetables and large pieces of furniture)

Disclaimer: If I owned Samurai 7, Ukyo would have grown a spine.

Dr. Kanzaki surveyed his surroundings. A hospital room. Clean white sheets. A window, with a view of a small backyard garden. The smell of antiseptic and blood and despair.

And a patient—a young man with long hair. Both legs and his left arm were in casts, and his head and face were bandaged. He had been flown in last week by a Yakan unit. Taking off his cap, the pilot had begged for help.

"Doctor, he's dying. Please save him."

And so that was how a small clinic in Kougakyo had accepted into their care an unknown man with multiple fractures and a serious stomach wound. The doctor had done what he could, but the man refused to wake from his deep coma.

Taking the only chair, Kanzaki stared into space. Who are you? How did you get these wounds? And…do you have family waiting for you?

In the village of Kanna, the graves of the four samurai that died to protect it were arranged on a cliff overlooking the rice fields. But they were not the only monuments.

In a field of flowers, a girl was making a memorial. She choked back a sob as she placed a piece of wood, carefully carved with three simple characters, on the small mound of earth, then turned with a start at the sound of approaching footsteps.

"Akemi-san? Are...are you alright?" Kirara stood there, looking concerned. The black-haired gunslinger from Kougakyo had barely eaten since the battle for Kanna.

Her companion put a brave, false smile on her face. "I'm fine, Kirara-chan. You just startled me, is all—thought you were Shimada coming to kill off the rest of the family. I'll be down for lunch soon." Kirara left, feeling relieved that her friend was acting a bit more like her old self.

Akemi turned back to the memorial, and the tears she had been holding back began to flow in earnest. "Oniichan…I'm sorry." I know you're not dead. You can't be dead. Even though I couldn't protect you. Stupid durian-induced stomachache—and Shimada left me behind! She thought back to that day, remembering her shock and tears at the realization that the samurai had left her and her dual handguns with the peasants—and that her brother would almost certainly be killed without her intervention.

Kirara-chan is safe, though. That's what you sent me to do, after all. I may not have protected you, but I will guard Kirara until you return.

"Can you hear me?"

Slowly, Ukyo blinked awake. "Aaagh…" What happened? The last thing I remember was… He gasped in shock. Kirara-kun! The capital…

The man continued, either oblivious to Ukyo's realization or choosing to ignore it. "You're in Kougakyo. My name is Hajime Kanzaki. I am the doctor at this clinic. Don't try to move," he added, as Ukyo attempted to do just that. "You've been unconscious for several weeks, Amanushi-sama."

"Wha…?" He coughed, a dry, hacking rasp; the doctor motioned to a nurse, who filled a glass with water and slowly poured it down Ukyo's throat, as he could not move his arms.

Kanzaki sighed. "You were carried in by a Yakan pilot a month ago. You had multiple fractured ribs, a broken arm, compound fractures in both legs, and a concussion. Oh, yes, and we had to stitch your intestines back together as well. The estimated recovery time for your injuries is…3 more months."

A long pause.

"Amanushi-sama, do you—"

Ukyo shook his head slowly. "Ukyo. Please, just call me Ukyo. And please, please, leave me alone for a while."

Once they left, he turned to gaze out the window. Kirara-kun…Over and over, a scene played in his memory.

He was on the deck of a transport vehicle, gazing through bleary eyes at a terrified Kirara and…what was her name? Kirara's sister? Komachi, that was it. His dear sister Akemi made a move toward him, but before she could reach him, he was struck by that damned living scrap heap calling itself "samurai". The look of terror on his darling Kirara-kun's face was even more painful than the blows raining down on him.

Kirara…Akemi…no matter what, I swear that I'll find a way to see you again. Even if I have to give up everything I worked so hard to achieve.

"Well, you seem to be mending well. You'll be able to remove that cast soon, Ukyo-sama."

Ukyo smiled, wincing as the action pulled the bandages on his face. "That's great. Doctor, I've been wondering…who else did you rescue?"

Dr. Kanzaki blinked. "Excuse me?"

"From the capital…there must have been other survivors. Who are they?"

The doctor could not meet his patient's eyes, staring instead out the window. "I'm so sorry to have to tell you this."

Ukyo's eyes widened in shock. His voice was hollow as he replied "There were no survivors, were there?" The doctor shook his head. "None were found."

"…I see. Can you leave me alone for a while?"

As the doctor left, Ukyo stared at his hands, wanting desperately to curl up into a ball and disappear, but knowing that his bandages would not permit even that simple act. Tessai…Tessai is dead. He's dead! And…and it's all my fault. If I hadn't attacked Kanna-mura… Shudders coursed through his body as he started to sob brokenly.

It was the middle of autumn, and once again, Akemi knelt in front of her brother's monument. "Hey, oniichan. You wouldn't believe what's been happening since the last time I spoke. Kirara-chan's been teaching me to cook! I'm pretty good at it too—except for the whole setting-half-the-kitchen-on-fire thing, which wouldn't have happened if Shimada hadn't come in and scared the living daylights outta me. Can you believe it? He and that Katsushiro-kun will not leave. I refuse to speak to either of them.

She stood up shakily and did a little pirouette. "Look, see? I have new clothes! Shino-chan—you'd like her, she's cool—she gave me some of her old clothes that didn't fit anymore. They're a little worn, but they'll do."

Her eyes started to fill with tears again. "I miss you, oniichan. Please…wherever you are, come back soon."

"Akemi-san?"

"What? Oh, Kirara-chan. Stop sneaking up on me like that!"

"Sorry. I just wanted to give you some lunch." With that, Kirara handed her a steaming bowl of rice and chopsticks. Akemi took it gratefully and dug in, while Kirara looked at the memorial. It was simple; a mound of earth, with Ukyo's name carved into a piece of wood that had been stuck into it. There were also, strangely enough, spent bullet casings pressed into the dirt.

"Akemi-san, what's this for?"

Akemi grinned and tapped the handguns that were, even now, strapped to both thighs. "You see these? When I was 4, Tessai was teaching my brother how to shoot. I begged him to teach me too, but he said 'Wait till you're older'. So, four years after that, I myself started to learn how to shoot. And I was naturally gifted, if I do say so myself. These handguns were prizes I won in a national tournament."

Kirara had to admit she was impressed. She never thought Ukyo would be the type to lift a finger if he didn't have to, never mind take up shooting. "Was he any good?"

"'Was he any good?' He won tournaments—been going national since he was fifteen—and he collects guns the way that famous samurai Benkei did with swords. He's good with handguns, excellent with rifles, and not all that great with machine guns. If he'd been better…" She trailed off, clearly thinking of the destruction of the capital.

At that, Akemi finished her rice bowl and walked down the hill, leaving Kirara standing there alone. She looked at the memorial, and a thought occurred to her.

I wonder if, underneath all that powder and perfume, you would smell of battle.

In that unnamed clinic in Kougakyo, Ukyo was finally taking off his bandages—made difficult by the fact that his arm had only been out of its cast for about a week. He winced as the cloth stuck to the beard stubble, a few shades darker than his hair. I really need to shave. And then he shakily left the bed and faced the mirror on the wall, slowly peeling his hospital-issued shirt off.

The bandages on his ribs were gone, replaced by a thick, straight line of scar tissue which ran from just under the left side of his ribcage to the opposite hip, blending into a large, shiny scar where his ribs had evidently been broken. There were scars on his face as well, following his cheekbone under his right eye. His hair had grown even longer, and now was almost long enough for him to sit on. Damn, Akemi was right—my hair really is long. Even his eyebrows had grown out, and he decided he liked the look. The muscles and calluses he had earned from years of shooting were starting to fade, and he made a mental note to start exercising as soon as possible.

Ouch. I look like a war refugee. I can't be Amanushi like—He sat back down heavily on the bed as a thought occurred to him. Do I really still want to be Amanushi? It nearly got me killed. And then he thought of his sister, probably crying for him. Or plotting inventive, painful ways to kill Kambei Shimada. That's more her style. She doesn't even know I'm still alive. Now he regretted not going with her when she met him in the capital.

Flashback

"Oniichan! Oniichan, you're alright!" Akemi ran towards her brother, hugging him fiercely.

"A-Akemi? What the hell are you doing here?" She replied, still clinging to him like a lifeline, "Rescuing Kambei-sama, but I guess he took care of that himself. Kirara-chan and that big mecha-samurai used Father as a human shield to get in and free the women—turns out their friend Sanae is the former Amanushi's concubine."

She finally let go of him, looking up at his face. "So, what've you been up to, yonjukyu? (1.) Besidesthe whole committing-regicide-and-taking-over-the-throne bit, I mean." He stared at her. "How--?"

"Father told me. Now," --she grabbed his sleeve--, "come on, you have to see Kirara-chan before she leaves!"

"No, wait!" He pulled free, glaring at her. "I can't see her now. I have a meeting to attend, and I'm already late." I'm not ready to face her again. "Goodbye, Akemi-chan."

She backed away and murmured, "I wasn't supposed to tell you this, but the samurai want to kill you. I'm going to try to stop them. Goodbye, oniichan—and for Benzaiten's sake, stay away from Kanna Village!" (2.)

"Wait—"

She turned back to him, eyes bright with the promise of tears. "I'll miss you, oniichan, but until you grow a spine, I don't want to see you again."

End Flashback

I should have listened to her. But I didn't, so what am I going to do now?

A knock on the door snapped him out of his reverie, and he pulled his shirt back on as a young woman in a nurse's uniform entered the room. With her short, light blue-gray hair, strong build, and brown eyes, she looked familiar, though Ukyo couldn't place her.

"Ukyo? Are you feeling well?"

"Nurse, I need a favor. Umm…could you cut my hair, please?"

As she settled herself so that she was kneeling behind him on the bed, he missed her sly smile—rather like his own, in fact--as she pulled out a pair of scissors. "Wow, it really grew fast. How short do you want it?"

As she cut his hair, he found himself telling her about himself; how he knew he had been the son of a peasant, but had no memories of his life before being adopted at the age of four by Ayamaro, how he had seen his adopted mother killed by a mechanical samurai assassin two years later, and how that had left him with a deep hatred of mechanical samurai. "Sometimes, I think I remember something about my early life—seeing a village destroyed by Nobuseri. But it's so vague, I'm not sure if it's real or not."

As she brushed hair clippings off his back, he thought he heard her murmur, "Oh, it was real, alright," but dismissed it as his hearing playing tricks on him.

"You know, Ukyo, if you want to know about your birth mother, this may help." With that, she handed him a thick folder, clearly labeled Results of the Imperial Cloning Project. He stared at it in shock. "This is—"

"There. All done." She held up a mirror. Ukyo gasped, less at his newly shoulder-length hair then at the realization that, according to the mirror, he was all alone. He spun around, but the only sign of the mysterious "nurse" was the folder she had put into his hand. He paged through it rapidly. "One, two…thirty-three…forty-five…" When he reached 49, he gaped at the picture. It's her! The nurse... Underneath the picture was the following:

Name: Sayuri

Age: 18

Home village: Uken (3.)

So she was… "It's nice to see you…mother."

"Hey, oniichan. Just wanted to tell you—Shimada and Katsu-kun finally left. We're planting rice now, can you believe it? They let me help! I'm not that great, but I'll get better quickly. It's just tiring in a whole different way from shooting. It's strange—lately, Kirara-chan's been asking me about you. At least, she hasn't minded when I blabber on and on about you. I think maybe she hates you a little less now. When you come back here—and if you don't I'll hunt you down and smack you—you'd better come see us."

Meanwhile, down in the village, Kirara was reading a book on famous historical samurai when she came across a name that made her drop the text in shock.

"Tachibana…Ukyo?" (4.)

It's not him, of course not! Still, why do I see his face in my mind…?

Author's Notes

1. Yonjukyu is how you say 49 in Japanese, and Ukyo was the former Amanushi's 49th clone.

2. Benzaiten, often called Benten, is the Japanese goddess of love, luck, and the arts.

3. Uken is a real village in Japan, and some of the readings for "ken" are "sword", "emperor", and "authority". As an approximation from /anime.manga/dictionary/ , the "u" character used in the town's name means "space", as in outer space, the cosmos, and the "ken" character carries the meaning of "inspection" or "checking".

In kanji, Ukyo's name would be written with the characters for "right" (opposite of left) and "capital". Good name for the emperor's clone, don't you think?

4. Tachibana Ukyo is a character in the Samurai Shodown series of fighting games. He actually looks a bit like Ukyo, with his long blue hair.

As a side note, Akemi's handguns are a matched pair. "Taiyokousen", which means "sunlight", has intricate gold-inlaid engravings; "Tsukikage", or "moonlight", has the same engravings in silver, as well as mother-of-pearl inlay on the grip. Both guns are modified to attach knives to the trigger guard (the metal ring surrounding the trigger, with space for the finger) and spikes to the slide (the top part of the gun). Expect to hear more about them later.

Next Chapter

Ukyo makes up his mind to leave Kougakyo and go to Kanna to make amends—but first he has to travel to the remote mountain village of Yubari to pay his respects at Tessai's family grave. Meanwhile, someone from Akemi's past comes to Kanna bent on revenge.