Prologue
A man no older than twenty-five is dragged through the halls of his home, his eldest son being carried by two armoured men while he kicks and screams after him. He is only seven. His wife, a blonde-haired woman from a faraway land makes an attempt to follow, only to be shoved back by these darkly dressed men. Instinctively, she wraps her arms around her belly. Pregnant at 8 months. She begins to cry in a foreign tongue, receiving looks of disgust and annoyance.
"Speak the language of this land, foreigner! You obviously know it, you are married to this villain!" one man barks at her, she weeps and frantically reaches out for her husband and son.
"Just let me see them! Please!" she screams.
"What is it? What have I done?" he cries out, watching as his son is bound and forced into the palanquin. His screams of protest still heard. He then sees his wife being held down, her face covered with tears and her eyes reddened from it all.
The leader of these captors turns to the man, narrowing his eyes and briskly whipping out a parchment of paper. Unfolding, it is a warrant. An arrest warrant.
"Kuroda Kanbei," the official begins, "You are under arrest for the act of treason against Lord Hideyoshi, ruler of this land. You were found conspiring against him, and plotting to seize control while in his service as General. On top of this, though you said you had given up that odd religion of Christianity, it is clear to us that your wife Kushihashiteru, and your son Nagamasa are still devotees." He turns to look at her, she gasps for air from her sobbing. He makes a "tsk" sound and adds, "Your punishment is to be sent to the mines South of here. To Ishigakibaru for you, traitor!"
"She has nothing to do with this," The man named Kanbei says, his voice strained, "Please, she is pregnant. Leave her and my son be. Dami – I mean, Nagamasa is only seven, he is innocent."
The official huffs, handing over the warrant to his second-in-command and waves his freehand to the others, signalling them to take them away. The once-Lord Kuroda is forced into a separate palanquin, he too yells in protest. Guards hold back his wife while she sobs uncontrollably and frantically reaches to grab the movable cages that contain her family.
"Leave the ... Woman behind. Her punishment is solitude."
They push her back, point their weapons at her and threaten that if she so dares to follow, they will not hesitate in killing her. Blinded by shock and trauma, Kushihashiteru is left with no one but herself and her unborn child while it kicks furiously within her. With a dead stare she watches the men carry her husband and son away, to pay for their punishment. She silently prays that they will outlive their sentence, and return to her and the infant from within. She silently prays that all of this nightmarish reality will come to an abrupt end.
Her praying becomes a numbing comfort to her. It's one of the few things she now has left.
She turns to slowly walk back, but stops. Something is wrong. She clutches her swollen belly, gasping for air and choking in pain while she struggles to find help. Thankfully, the maids are there.
Months pass, and even though Kuroda Kanbei and his son have adjusted to the dank, dark tunnels of Ishigakibaru, they are still reminded of the evils that lurk everywhere. Supervised by the malicious Otani Yoshitsugu, they work long, relentless hours within the mines. It is at this time they are approached by a man in dark clothes, carrying a bundle in his arms.
Though bound by a hefty ball and chain, Kanbei approached the man with his son following close behind with apprehension.
"Kuroda Kanbei, I presume?" the man asks.
"I would prefer Josui, but I've no choice, do I?" Kanbei replied with much bitterness in his tone. The man pays no mind.
"I come bearing something for you. An infant. Your son." He says and pulls back the blanket to reveal a sleeping baby boy. No more than a few weeks old, his head is covered with a feathered mess of dark brown hair.
Looking between the babe and the man, he is at a loss for words. Awkwardly, he reaches his bound hands out to the child and with some skill he is able to hold the baby in his arms. He looks back at the man with widened, frightened eyes.
"What...What about my wife? Alice. Sorry, Kushihashiteru. Is she alright?" he asks, desperately wanting to know, and yet something inside says it's best not to ever find out.
"She died at childbirth. The process was too complicated for her, she grew ill from the lack of medicine. She succumbed to her illness, the fever was just too much for her." The man replies blankly.
Something within Kanbei shattered that day.
At his side, his son Nagamasa falls to the ground, his knees hitting the rock and dirt with force as his hands hold him up. A tear fall freely from his eyes and he begins to mourn the loss of his mother. His father stands in shock, still holding his second son in his arms. He slowly shakes his head in denial.
Couldn't have.
She's stronger than that.
But no, they claim she passed on.
Unable to contain himself, he looks over to his fellow miners, searching for an answer. They move towards him, one carefully takes the baby out of his arms and another quietly leads a weeping Nagamasa away to leave Kanbei with his thoughts. The man in dark solemnly bows his head and excuses himself.
First one tear, and then another. He begins to mourn, asking why. He glares down at his weighted burden, the ball and chain. His eyes turn to the wooden shackles that hold his hands. He smashes it against the ball, releasing frustration, anger and sorrow. Tears continue to fall as he smashes the shackles in an attempt to break them into pieces. His body loses the will to hold him up as he falls to the ground, his arms draping over the ball with his forehead pressed against it.
A single memory of her drifts into his mind, he breathes heavily between sobs.
"Alice...Why..." he whispers.
His fellow inmates watch with sympathetic looks, one gently pats Nagamasa on the head as he continues to cry. His infant brother begins to cry out for his father, and for his dead mother. This catches Kanbei's attention, causing him to turn to face them.
Have to carry on.
Slowly, he walks towards them with the ball dragging behind him. He holds his arms to hold his son and sits on the ground, motioning Nagamasa to come over. A miner places the infant on his lap and his eldest born sits beside him, clinging onto his arms.
"His name is Kumanosuke. He is your little brother. Take care of him." He says quietly to him, the boy nods obediently.
This is all they have now within the dark tunnels of Ishigakibaru.
Family is all they have left.
Not too far from where they were kept stood another section of the mines, roughly about 20 feet above where they were. There, men worked endlessly to gain whatever desired item that was hidden beneath the stone. There, men who once served the Kuroda also stayed and took care of a frail creature, far from her home and completely blind to her surroundings.
There, was Kushihashiteru. Alive and well, though understandably frightened.
"My lady, you should eat something." a miner said calmly to her, resting a hand on her small shoulder and offered her some watered down soup. She shook her head and gave a weak smile.
"No thank you." she said and hugged her legs closer to herself for warmth. The man sighed and nodded.
"We'll find them. You'll see." he said reassuringly, hoping to give the foreign woman some comfort.
"I know," she replied, "Otani is a father of lies. I know this well. You cannot trust a letter." she added and stared over at the parchment of paper.
It read:
"We regret to inform you that Kuroda Kanbei and Kuroda Nagamasa died in prison."
She shook her head and looked on, her eyes stinging from crying earlier. She forced herself to look down at the crucifix that hung around her neck, a mere memory of what kept her going through most of her life while living in a world much different from what she was used to. It was by a strange stroke of luck and fate itself that allowed her to meet Kuroda Kanbei (Don Simeon when she had first met him and she was known as Alice), and from there they wed. Not a lavish wedding, but enough to symbolize their unity. And she couldn't have been happier.
It was only years after their time of bliss did things go wrong. When Hideyoshi Toyotomi came into power, when men were driven mad with the need to kill another for the sake of their rulers. Instead of the ground being filled with flowers, it ran with red. The rivers too, ran with blood and the souls of the dead. The entirety of it all sent an ominous chill through her, she never wanted to see the dead and the dying.
It was at this time when she lost her family, and gave birth to her second child soon after. A boy, with hair much like his father's and the same sleepiness as him. All she could do was weep with a mixture of love and sorrow, knowing in her heart that she may never see her husband and eldest son again. Things took an even darker turn when the very same men who took away Kanbei and Nagamasa took away her newborn son. Not even waiting for her to recover from giving birth, they took her away from her home.
Brought to Ishigakibaru not long ago, forced to work in the mines against her will, she lost everything; her husband, her children, her dignity and her name. But she didn't lose her will to carry on. She knew that they would escape when opportunity presented itself. She knew that very well, indeed.
Author's Note: I'm going to start by saying how nervous I am about posting this, it's ridiculous, not a lot of people really care about Kanbei but ahhhh well. I've had this floating about in my head long before I started writing the other two Basara ficlets I have on here. A lot of research went into finding out who Kanbei's wife was, and her name was Kushihashiteru from what I found. Alice is just a name I gave her to match his two names Don Simeon and Josui, both of which are linked to his faith in Christianity. She's pretty much 85% fictional aside from the name, who she's married to and who she had kids with.
But yes, hope someone likes my fanfic of Kanbei and his wife, despite it being so damn depressing. I ended up loving the guy after playing SB3, to the point of making an OC for him (how typical of me lol). Very short prologue, but I'm still writing. :)
I do not own Kuroda Kanbei's concept or the entire concept of Sengoku BASARA itself, that belongs to Sengoku BASARA, Capcom.
I do however own the concept of Kushihashiteru, Nagamasa Kuroda (not Azai) and Kumanosuke.