Notes:
- This is a companion fic to the Retribution series. This takes place in the context of Chapters 9 and 10. Please read Retribution to get the full context. Kyuzo is adopted, which explains why Shizuka could have a 10 year old child after 9 years.
- The Warring States period in Japanese history lasted generations. 7S was set at the close of that era, if I remember correctly. I am assuming a similar situation of decades of conflict for S7.
- Kanbei probably had a different childhood name as was the practice in the past, taking on his adult name after the coming of age ceremony (which happens in the late teens/early twenties), so Kisshoumaru here is really Kanbei. As for going to war, samurai boys as young as 12 have fought and died in battle, but for this fic, 16 is the enlistment age.
- Mizuho is not Kyuuzou's biological sister. She is his Sensei's older student.
- Samurai 7 opens 13 years after the year Genna 1. (Kikuchiyo's genealogy chart lists his birthdate as Genna 1). Historically, the Genna period was preceded by the Keicho period, which lasted 19 years.
- In the Retribution universe, the Great War was waged between the states allied with the shogun and the states loyal to the emperor. Each state was ruled by a military government (the samurai clan) which maintained its own forces for internal defense. But each clan had to contribute troops to the combined forces. The combined army for the states on the shogun's side is called the Forces of the Allied Provinces, or Allied Forces, for short. Kanbei is in the Allied Forces. The other side is the Confederated Prefectures. In companion fic Wolf Warriors, Mizuho, Ayame and Kyuuzou went straight into the Army of Confederated Prefectures. They were never affiliated with a clan. Their senpai Haruko entered the Confederated Army through her clan, and then brought her 3 kouhai in.
Vocab:
daimyo – prefect or provincial governor, literally "great name"
chonin – townsperson (part of merchant class)
ne – older sister
Warnings: some violence, semi-graphic death of OC
Keicho Era, Year 1
"Will you come back to play with me?" the dark boy asked as he stood in the doorway of his cousin's chamber. His father's brother's daughter did not answer as she strapped her twin swords across her back. Kisshoumaru fixed his gaze on the two dark red scabbards slung across the wide shoulders of the tall maiden. To a child, Shizuka's strong shoulders looked as if they could bear the weight of the world. He wondered if he would ever grow to be a warrior of her stature.
His cousin looked almost like a stranger in the uniform of the Forces of the Allied Provinces. Much as he tried, the eight year old could never remember exactly which states were on the same side of his daimyo, and which were not. Most of the Western states were, and some of the Northern and Southern ones, if he remembered correctly. But alliances shifted now and then. Kisshoumaru also did not quite understand the difference between 'prefectures' and 'provinces'. His father told him there was really not much of a difference, except the states that were allied with the shogun called themselves 'provinces' while those loyal to the emperor called themselves 'prefectures'.
"Promise you'll come back?" the dark-eyed child asked the woman once more. The samurai with wavy dark hair like his own turned and looked him in the eye. "I have never lied to you, Kisshoumaru. A soldier's fate is not her own to decide. By the time I return for good, you will probably be too old to play."
He followed the warrior maiden to the stable wordlessly. Kisshoumaru watched silently as the samurai woman mounted the fast turtle and galloped out of the wide gates of the Shimada estate. The dark woman was a masterful equestrian, with the training that befitted a member of a high-ranking samurai family. "Will she return?" He wondered as he gazed after the departing figure of a skillful rider. The war had been going on and off for decades. Perhaps Shizuka would not return. Perhaps Kisshoumaru would be the one to go to her, when it came time for him to take up arms and fight as a man.
---
Keicho Era, Year 8…
Kisshoumaru wondered why everything had to happen that way. His cousin was a legend. He heard great tales about her after she went to fight in the Great War. She was someone he wanted to grow up to be. Not anymore. How could a great samurai suddenly turn her back on clan and family and leave without a word, in the middle of a war, like a dishonorable deserter with no accountability? It was not the warrior way, to abandon a duty before it was done.
They said she disappeared from the military. The news came like a bolt out of the blue. At first Kisshoumaru did not believe it. It was impossible. Her career was rising. Everything was going well. But as the weeks dragged into months, the truth sank in. The warrior who had once made the Shimada name proud was now its shame. Kisshoumaru heard rumors that she was a traitor, that she fled with a samurai from the other side, a woman from the Army of the Confederated Prefectures. It was said that they were friends from long ago and did not want to kill each other. Then that other samurai was a traitor too, to her clan. Kisshoumaru had never met that enemy soldier. They said that soldier's family used to live here, in his hometown. They were sojourners from a northern province. Then they moved back to where they came from. But that was many years ago, probably before he had even learnt to hold a sword.
The young samurai could not understand why this had to happen. The next year, he entered the armed services as a soldier, to do the duties of a man. He imagined that he would replace Shizuka, and he would undo the dishonor she had done.
---
Keicho Era, Year 18…
Kisshoumaru had come of age and taken the name of Kanbei. There were still hurtful whispers about his family, though not as often as before. Now that the news came that the missing Shimada woman had been seen in a remote village in the northwestern sector of the southern province of Yoshin, the gossip had flared up again. By now, the old rumors no longer mattered to Kanbei. All that mattered was his lord's order. The young samurai had a duty to do. Honor to restore. Still, the young soldier wondered why he had to be the chosen one. Was it a test for him? To see if he would turn away from his duty because of human attachments, like Shizuka did? But his father said he was chosen because Kanbei was the only samurai in the clan who had the potential to defeat the peerless Shizuka.
At the age of 25, the stellar young officer had surpassed his cousin's physical stature. Standing at a height of six feet and two inches, Kanbei was two inches taller than Shizuka. And perhaps he had surpassed her in skill too. He would know soon enough.
--
When the brown-skinned eight year old watched the tall maiden leave for the war 17 years ago, he would never have guessed that their reunion would be like this. Heaven and earth spun around him in the remote farm house where four of his own soldiers and the two former samurai who called themselves 'conscientious objectors' lay dead at his feet.
"Conscientious objector?" Shimada Kanbei felt like hitting whoever invented that term. Probably some idle chonin from some corrupt big city like Kougakyo who spent too much time in university and had nothing better to do after eating his/her fill of rice. How in the world did a samurai let such garbage get into her head?
The young soldier felt sick to the core but it was not because of the blood dripping copiously from his gaping wound. A thousand nameless emotions ran through the young man's soul, but no, a samurai who did his duty should not entertain such worthless feelings. The proud young commander chided himself for his 'immaturity' and 'false guilt'. Yet even then, he could feel the burning, accusing gaze of an unseen being fixed on him. Were gods and demons watching? What judgment would they pass on the affairs of humans?
Just for one moment, Kanbei wished he was the one who died. Then he pushed the thought away.
---
The news spread about town that Shimada Kanbei had returned to the clan, his mission successfully accomplished. Rather impassively, the young man set before the daimyo a dark lacquer box containing the head of a woman and a severed brown hand with a 6-petal flower tattoo like his own. Then the kneeling samurai offered up a sword with both hands. This katana had a round cross guard and a dark red scabbard.
"Where is the second sword?" the provincial governor asked.
"Forgive me, my lord," The dark samurai touched his head to the floor deferentially, "She did not have it with her."
The lord was not pleased that four samurai had to die over one traitor, but he did expect that two former samurai would not give up their lives without resistance. They may have chosen to live as peasants, but in their hearts, they were still warriors.
Still, the goal had been achieved. An example had to be made of a samurai who fled her duties or more samurai would do the same.
"You have done your duty faithfully." The military governor said. "Rest assured your kinswoman's crime will not be held against your family."
"Thank you, my lord," the young samurai bowed his head to the ground once more. The daimyo was expecting the officer to retreat respectfully out of the room now that his audience was over, but Kanbei remained prostrate before him.
"Do you have anything further to add to your report?" the governor gave him a questioning look.
The young officer spoke without raising his eyes to the lord, "If my lord would allow it, could the sword be returned to the keeping of my uncle and aunt?"
The governor paused for a moment, then he said, "Take it, and go."
"Thank you, my lord." Kanbei touched his head to the ground once more. He silently picked up the red scabbard and retreated deferentially out of the daimyo's office.
--
Keicho Era, Year 19
In the women's dojo on Mount Keian, two young maidens lay asleep in a small room. Ayame was dreaming of eating powdered peanut cakes with her parents in their city apartment when her pleasant dream was interrupted by the shrill screams of a child. Instantly, the sleeper's golden eyes flew open and she seized the swords she kept next to her pillow. As the dark girl sat up in bed, she saw Mizuho already lighting the oil lamp. "Go back to sleep," the green-eyed woman said to the younger girl. "I think it is just Kyuu-chan having a nightmare. I'll go see that all is well."
Ayame laid her swords down as Mizuho rose quietly and walked over to the opposite room. Still, the dark-haired girl kept her eyes open for a little longer, wondering what kind of dream would bring a sound of such stark terror to the lips of the boy who usually bore all pain with silent fortitude.
---
In that vivid vision, Kyuuzou wondered if his mother's heart was really in the duel, if she truly was trying to kill that samurai. Or did she let him kill her? He thought she had won when she slashed the young commander across the chest but the next moment, there was a quick flash of the samurai's blade, and the sound of Mother's blood splattering the wall.
Many months ago, Kyuuzou was utterly silent when he watched the brown-skinned woman's fresh blood run down the wall of his aunt's room, joining the pool of redness in which another dark woman lay. But in his dream, a cry of horror escaped his lips. That was how the dark samurai discovered his presence. The slayer threw open the closet door. Kyuuzou screamed again and again as the dark-haired man seized him...
"Wake up! Kyuu-chan! It's me!" a firm, calm voice cut through the madness of his dreamscape. The eleven year old opened his scarlet eyes and found a dark oval face looking down at him. For a moment he thought it was Mother's face, then as his eyes came into focus, he saw it was Mizuho. Of course it could not have been Mother. What was he thinking? She was gone.
"Are you well?" Second Sister asked as Kyuuzou sat up in bed. It was then the boy realized that he must have cried aloud in his sleep and woken the rest of the dojo. He hung his head, ashamed. "I'm sorry, ne-san" he mumbled. "It was just a dream. I am fine." Why was it that in his dreams, he could never will away the things he did not want to feel?
"It's all right." Mizuho said kindly to him. "Have no fear, you're safe here. Go back to sleep." The fair-headed child nodded obediently as he lay back down on the sleeping mat. But the maiden saw that the child's grimly set jaw was still trembling. She took one of Kyuuzou's small hands. It was cold and sweaty. "Would you like me to stay until you've fallen asleep?" The green-haired woman asked.
The pale boy nodded. Mizuho rubbed his cold hands and sang a slow soft song in the dialect of her western province. The child's breathing calmed slightly as he closed his eyes once more, but he could not think of happy things. He could only think of the curses he would like to place on that dark man who haunted his dreams. And the vengeance he would wreak if he should one day find him. But first, he had to learn to be a stronger fighter than that samurai.
--
Kanbei had defeated a legend. That made the young officer something of a legend himself. But the excited talk and admiring glances from his comrades did not seem to bring joy to him. Soon after, the young officer pierced his ears, started keeping a beard and grew his hair long, much longer than he had ever kept it in his youth. It was almost as if he wanted to change himself into another man.
Author's comments:
- Kanbei had to retreat out of the daimyo's presence because it was impolite to show one's back to a superior. One should walk backwards for an appropriate distance before turning to leave.
- Universities are probably not out of place on whatever planet S7 is happening on. On Earth, universities already existed in the old days. Of course, departments of study tend to differ somewhat from modern universities. Medieval Europe and medieval Africa had their universities; three campuses in Timbuktu, Mali alone. And there were even older universities in Asia. The oldest university in the world is Takshashila University in India. (around 700 BCE) Nalanda University, also in India, was a famous 5th century Buddhist university which attracted foreign students such as the famous Tang Sanzang from China, the historical personality on which Sanzou (Japanese pronunciation of 'Sanzang') of Saiyuki is loosely based. (The real life Sanzang, in all likelihood, is NOT a gun-totin' blond. ;-)
- As for the idea of Kanbei changing his appearance to break with the past, I got from a radio program on the famous author (can't remember the name, I'm ashamed to say. I think he was the reporter who covered the My Lai tragedy) who wrote a book on the Iraq War. He mentioned that one of the soldiers involved in the Abu Ghraib scandal came back home and started changing her associations (dissolved her marriage) and her appearance (covered her whole body with tattoos). It was as if "she wanted to change her skin," the author said.
