Though I do not want
To live on in this floating world,
If I remain here,
Let me remember only
This midnight and this moonrise.
- Emperor Sanjo
Tokugawa no Haiku: Chapter 1 - The Caged Bird's Wish
Characters:
- Emperor Komei
- Tokugawa Iemochi
- Princess Kazunomiya (Komei's sister; Iemochi's wife)
- Kashiwazaki Nenji (Okina)
- Sadojima Nien (Related to Sadojima Houji?)
- Makimachi Marou (Misao's father)
Deep in the palace evening, two servants stood beside the closed doors awaiting for any sudden orders from their busy master. Emperor Komei, a deep looking man of 36 sat by a candle reading a letter from his little brother-in-law, the shogun troubled by the news of the Choshu and Satsuma clans gaining power day by day. He remembered the 16 year old boy visited him out of the blue one fine day and discussed about the influence of western powers, and of course about his right hand man murdered. The second most powerful man in Japan, aside from the shogun. He was troubled, not by trivial things a man of his age should have but by matters of the state, and decided to share with the Emperor Komei! He was so pleased that he gave his sister to that boy. He quickly finished the letter and laid it aside.. How he wished those two rebel clans would just vanished once and for all, and leave him, and his heir alone.
Kagoshima isles, not more than a week later, a small group of assassins gathered secretly to murder the chief financial advisor of the Satsuma clan under the leadership of Kashiwazaki Nenji under the promise of more authority and faith for their organization, the Oniwabanshuu. It is dark, the murky waters around the port provided perfect cover for the dark clothed assassins. The Satsuma bred the best warriors in Japan, the assassins must be careful not be spotted. A Shanghai pirate ship arrived from the western waters bringing goods and gold for trade, one of the sources of wealth for the powerful Satsuma Clan. The assassins move within the cover of the small vessel, crawling around the port and sneak into the main office. Their training paid off, its time to bring glory for their gang. A guard walks in suddenly, unsuspecting the dagger reaching out from behind, breathe his last without making a sound. Nenji sighs, before creeping into the bedroom where the victim is likely to be; sleeping. One of the assassins hops over beside the bed and gave the sleeping man a deadly stab.. "Its fake!" The assassin grasp and they quickly exited from the window, only to find themselves surrounded.
"You are not going anywhere, you idiots. Haha!" An aging man in western suit seems to be the leader, "I, Sadojima Nien, will never.. never be killed by brainless fools such as you! Get them!" The warriors charges at the group. Nenji orders the men to disperse, before throwing himself at Nien. A blade cuts through his back. One of the assassins rolled under him and carried the badly injured Nenji away. They ran, as waves of Satsuma warriors tore through the forest, gunshots wizzing past their ears. An assassin fell to a flying bullet, the rest continue, quickly hiding their trails, they hid silently on the trees. The cold icy air cuts through their wounds, they might close conciousness anytime. The Satsuma warriors with their torches prowl the scrubs below, the assassins hugged the trees like.. err.. tree huggers? Hours seem to pass, the Satsuma warriors doesn't seem to be giving up, suddenly it starts to snow and the men below went back. 9 assassins went in, only 4 survived. It is already daylight.
Around the same time, a small roadside stall just outside of Kyoto, a man sat on the bench with a jug of sakae, drinking, enjoying the sunrise. "Thank you." The young boss, bowed as his customer leaves down the dusty road. The thin snow only serves to strengthen the deep taste of the wine, the man takes another sip. He notices a small trail of smoke to the east, and a road leading to it. He stops and screw his jug tight. A caravan was surrounded by bandits, a common occurance during those times, when the people lost trust in their government. Some girls, around three of them, and a boy huggled in one corner as the bandits move menacing towards them, taking pleasure on their victims' fear. Their swords drawn, and slashes their victims all at once. It is customery not to leave any survivals, as a sign of luck for those robbers. Light flashes around, as the bandits were cut up by something they themselves couldn't see. The man stops beside the boy, the unlucky survival that the bandits missed."There is a town, not far west from here. I'll see if anyone wants to take you in. Stay here." The man said, before making his way west. The boy kneeled down, looking at the girls that sacrificed their lives for him. He stood up, took a spade and started digging.. One by one, he burried the bodies. He took some brunches, and carefully marks every grave till he ran out of brunches so he took some boulders and place them on the bodies of the girls.
Hours later, the man returned. He found the boy beside the graves of the girls, more specifically their marking are stone so he guessed they must be special to him. "Did you buried them?" "Yes." "Are they your family?" "No, they are a human traders, those girls are slaves." "Why did you buried the bandits too?" "They are all the same, after they die." "What is your name?" "Shintai." "It's too soft for a samuria, lets call you Kenshin from now on." "Huh?" "You are going learn kenjutsu from me, Kenshin. I am Hiko Seijuro." The pair walks into the sunset, just like what happened in the show, go imagine.
Shogun Iemochi walks around restlessly, his aides kneeled down in front of him. "You mean those assassins failed to kill him!?" He angrily pounded his desk. "Increase the rewards!" "Yes, but.." "Go! Get out!" He swing his arm, his aides rushes out of the room in fear. "Don't be so angry, my lord." His wife, Princess Kazunomiya calms the man down, "I'm sure they will do their job." Things didn't fare well at the Oniwabanshuu bases at Tokyo either, the chief Makimachi Marou was upset about their failure to accomplish the job, and the injury of his friend. "If this goes on, the rebels will crush both the Tokugawa and the Emperor in no time, we have to act fast!" From his bed, Nenji spoke softly. "There must be a spy beside the shogun, otherwise they couldn't have known.. We had exclusive rights for this job from the shogun." "You're right.." Marou pouts by the window."Who could it be?"
Secretly that year, the Choshu started gathering weapons and guns from Shanghai's illegal armsmerchants, Satsuma and other rebel clans in exchange for large amount of rice and gold..
To live on in this floating world,
If I remain here,
Let me remember only
This midnight and this moonrise.
- Emperor Sanjo
Tokugawa no Haiku: Chapter 1 - The Caged Bird's Wish
Characters:
- Emperor Komei
- Tokugawa Iemochi
- Princess Kazunomiya (Komei's sister; Iemochi's wife)
- Kashiwazaki Nenji (Okina)
- Sadojima Nien (Related to Sadojima Houji?)
- Makimachi Marou (Misao's father)
Deep in the palace evening, two servants stood beside the closed doors awaiting for any sudden orders from their busy master. Emperor Komei, a deep looking man of 36 sat by a candle reading a letter from his little brother-in-law, the shogun troubled by the news of the Choshu and Satsuma clans gaining power day by day. He remembered the 16 year old boy visited him out of the blue one fine day and discussed about the influence of western powers, and of course about his right hand man murdered. The second most powerful man in Japan, aside from the shogun. He was troubled, not by trivial things a man of his age should have but by matters of the state, and decided to share with the Emperor Komei! He was so pleased that he gave his sister to that boy. He quickly finished the letter and laid it aside.. How he wished those two rebel clans would just vanished once and for all, and leave him, and his heir alone.
Kagoshima isles, not more than a week later, a small group of assassins gathered secretly to murder the chief financial advisor of the Satsuma clan under the leadership of Kashiwazaki Nenji under the promise of more authority and faith for their organization, the Oniwabanshuu. It is dark, the murky waters around the port provided perfect cover for the dark clothed assassins. The Satsuma bred the best warriors in Japan, the assassins must be careful not be spotted. A Shanghai pirate ship arrived from the western waters bringing goods and gold for trade, one of the sources of wealth for the powerful Satsuma Clan. The assassins move within the cover of the small vessel, crawling around the port and sneak into the main office. Their training paid off, its time to bring glory for their gang. A guard walks in suddenly, unsuspecting the dagger reaching out from behind, breathe his last without making a sound. Nenji sighs, before creeping into the bedroom where the victim is likely to be; sleeping. One of the assassins hops over beside the bed and gave the sleeping man a deadly stab.. "Its fake!" The assassin grasp and they quickly exited from the window, only to find themselves surrounded.
"You are not going anywhere, you idiots. Haha!" An aging man in western suit seems to be the leader, "I, Sadojima Nien, will never.. never be killed by brainless fools such as you! Get them!" The warriors charges at the group. Nenji orders the men to disperse, before throwing himself at Nien. A blade cuts through his back. One of the assassins rolled under him and carried the badly injured Nenji away. They ran, as waves of Satsuma warriors tore through the forest, gunshots wizzing past their ears. An assassin fell to a flying bullet, the rest continue, quickly hiding their trails, they hid silently on the trees. The cold icy air cuts through their wounds, they might close conciousness anytime. The Satsuma warriors with their torches prowl the scrubs below, the assassins hugged the trees like.. err.. tree huggers? Hours seem to pass, the Satsuma warriors doesn't seem to be giving up, suddenly it starts to snow and the men below went back. 9 assassins went in, only 4 survived. It is already daylight.
Around the same time, a small roadside stall just outside of Kyoto, a man sat on the bench with a jug of sakae, drinking, enjoying the sunrise. "Thank you." The young boss, bowed as his customer leaves down the dusty road. The thin snow only serves to strengthen the deep taste of the wine, the man takes another sip. He notices a small trail of smoke to the east, and a road leading to it. He stops and screw his jug tight. A caravan was surrounded by bandits, a common occurance during those times, when the people lost trust in their government. Some girls, around three of them, and a boy huggled in one corner as the bandits move menacing towards them, taking pleasure on their victims' fear. Their swords drawn, and slashes their victims all at once. It is customery not to leave any survivals, as a sign of luck for those robbers. Light flashes around, as the bandits were cut up by something they themselves couldn't see. The man stops beside the boy, the unlucky survival that the bandits missed."There is a town, not far west from here. I'll see if anyone wants to take you in. Stay here." The man said, before making his way west. The boy kneeled down, looking at the girls that sacrificed their lives for him. He stood up, took a spade and started digging.. One by one, he burried the bodies. He took some brunches, and carefully marks every grave till he ran out of brunches so he took some boulders and place them on the bodies of the girls.
Hours later, the man returned. He found the boy beside the graves of the girls, more specifically their marking are stone so he guessed they must be special to him. "Did you buried them?" "Yes." "Are they your family?" "No, they are a human traders, those girls are slaves." "Why did you buried the bandits too?" "They are all the same, after they die." "What is your name?" "Shintai." "It's too soft for a samuria, lets call you Kenshin from now on." "Huh?" "You are going learn kenjutsu from me, Kenshin. I am Hiko Seijuro." The pair walks into the sunset, just like what happened in the show, go imagine.
Shogun Iemochi walks around restlessly, his aides kneeled down in front of him. "You mean those assassins failed to kill him!?" He angrily pounded his desk. "Increase the rewards!" "Yes, but.." "Go! Get out!" He swing his arm, his aides rushes out of the room in fear. "Don't be so angry, my lord." His wife, Princess Kazunomiya calms the man down, "I'm sure they will do their job." Things didn't fare well at the Oniwabanshuu bases at Tokyo either, the chief Makimachi Marou was upset about their failure to accomplish the job, and the injury of his friend. "If this goes on, the rebels will crush both the Tokugawa and the Emperor in no time, we have to act fast!" From his bed, Nenji spoke softly. "There must be a spy beside the shogun, otherwise they couldn't have known.. We had exclusive rights for this job from the shogun." "You're right.." Marou pouts by the window."Who could it be?"
Secretly that year, the Choshu started gathering weapons and guns from Shanghai's illegal armsmerchants, Satsuma and other rebel clans in exchange for large amount of rice and gold..