Turning Swallow

Summary:

OR, One morning, four-year-old Sasaki Kojiro remembers a life not yet lived, and decides to do something about it. History changes. SI!Sasaki Kojiro. Expect general lightheartedness, but dark topics when the time comes.

A/N: I noticed some comments about the spacing and I have noticed that. I'm just not sure how to really split the paragraphs up, since fanfiction deletes all of my spacing, even when I try to edit on-website. If anyone has advice on how ot fix that, I'm all for.

CH. 5 START

Startlingly, Seigen's words about the Toda family had not indicated that Kojiro was about to get himself beaten black and blue. He'd told Seigen as much and the old man had the audacity to tell him that 'bullying a child was no fun' and to 'come back when he was better trained.' Those were perfectly fair points, but the tone in which the man had spoken them made Kojiro certain they'd been tongue-in-cheek mockery. The old man finished his cup of tea swiftly, gulping it down like it was alcohol instead of leaf juice. Once he had set his cup aside, he waited patiently for Kojiro to finish his own; the moment the last sip of tea had flowed down Kojiro's throat, the old man had sprung up from his seat and with a wave, called for Kojiro to join him.

Kojiro followed suit, jumping up from his seat after setting aside his own cup, and making his way towards his new adopted grandfather, who was waiting by the exit of the room. He scurried down the stairs, slipping on his sandals before exiting, and turned to Seigen, a questioning expression on his face.

The old man chuckled at Kojiro's confusion before explaining, "You can't very well learn to swing a sword without seeing a warrior in action first, now can you? It gives you something to strive for."

The statement made enough sense, given the era he found himself in, and as Seigen began to walk away, Kojiro followed. They made their way down the paved stone of the path until they found themselves at the gates to the Toda Dojo Compound. Seigen approached the gates and called out as he did so.

"Oi," Seigen hollered, "you four!"

The four students, all of them roughly looking eighteen years old, turned, perhaps confused at who would speak to them so rudely, before catching sight of the elder walking towards them. As one, they snapped to attention, bowing deeply the next moment.

With a single voice they spoke, "Toda-dono!"

Seigen waited for each of them to raise themselves from their bows before speaking.

He commented, "Good discipline! Now, I've seen it fit to put on a demonstration for the students of the Dojo. In lieu of this, I will require you four to gather your comrades and meet me at the outdoor sparring arena. One of you will have to run into town to fetch my brother and his son. Tell him that I wish to address his newly gained prowess. Worry not, he will come. Go!"

The moment Seigen finished speaking, the group of four split apart, scattering as if chased by demons, so eager to fulfill Seigen's orders.

The moment Seigen finished speaking, the group of Toda students seemed to freeze, as if unable to process their instructions. Seigen waved a hand, barked the word 'Go!,' before they scattered, rushing to do their assigned tasks. One of them, who by some unspoken decision was to be the one who would fetch Toda Kagemasa and his son, left dust flying in his wake. Kojiro and Seigen watched them go, before Seigen turned a hundred and eighty degrees, straight towards the back of the Toda Dojo compound. The outdoor arena lay directly behind the main dojo, and was a dense area, populated by a variety of false biomes. It was rarely used, with the exceptions being when some sort of trial was being commenced or some enterprising swordsman came to challenge the Dojo's prowess. Challenging a school of swordsmanship meant that one was declaring that they were better than the entire Dojo, something usually done only by other rival schools. With Toda Seigen being such a well-known warrior, few dared to challenge the place so recklessly, even in the man's old age. The few who did come explicitly chose to frame their challenges as challenges against specific people within the Dojo. Doing so was much less of an insult. The usual pick was the old man's younger brother, Kagemasa. Despite this caveat though, to this day, none had even succeeded in a challenge.

As far as Kojiro was aware, the last person who'd challenged Kagemasa had been a ronin named Kanemake Jisai. The man had challenged roughly forty years ago, and had been the same age as Kagemasa. The two had fought for the better part of an hour, metal blades clashing , until finally, Kagemasa managed to make Jisai yield. Upon being defeated, he immediately requested to become a student of the Toda Dojo. As it turned out, he'd done all of that not only to prove that he was good enough to be accepted, but also to secure some backing for himself. A wandering samurai relied on fortune to feed them, unless they somehow made a name for themselves in the heat of battle, and apparently Jisai hadn't been content with that, so he'd chosen to align himself with the Toda Dojo to gain a place to live comfortably. Nowadays, Jisai was a fairly well respected man of the generation before Kojiro's own.

As they made the wide turn around the main dojo, Seigen asked him a question.

The man asked, "Do you know what blade style we practice, Kojiro?"

Taken at face value, the answer seemed obvious enough, but that obviously wasn't what Seigen wanted.

Kojiro spoke carefully, "We practice the Toda Style, based on heavy vertical slashes to break the guards of our foes. I don't think that's what you want to hear though."

Seigen nodded approvingly, "It's not, but it's good that you know the basics of our style. I'll tell you what I meant. The Toda Sword Style, the Toda-ryu, is a descendant school of the Chujo-ryu Sword Style that I learned from my own master when I was young. In and of itself, the Chujo-ryu is also a descendant school, stemming from what we consider the oldest recognizable sword style, called Nen-ryu. That school sought to draw techniques, skill, and inspiration from all facets of the world to guide their blades. That original school has since been broken apart, its many aspects distilled into the sword schools of today."

Kojiro nodded at the information, then questioned, "Distilled?"

Seigen laughed, "Distilled indeed! We are mortal men, we samurai, yet the founders of the Nen-ryu Style were ambitious; they sought to master all aspects of nature with their swords. They died, long before they could get anywhere significant, even after spending all their lives on the style. We humans cannot take in all of nature at once, that's why the founders of Nen-ryu failed. Their students, realizing the failures of their mentors, chose to focus themselves upon a single aspect of the vast Nen-ryu style. Our ancestor school, the Chujo-ryu, named itself the Middle Article Style, for they deemed the creatures of the world, in between land and sky, the most important things of all. They claimed the gentle grace of the resting crane, the furious strength of the hunting tiger, the swift savagery of the wolf as their own. All were techniques that were under the purview of Chujo-ryu swordsmen."

Kojiro looked at the man, speaking in soft realization, "And yet, you do not teach the Chujo-ryu, do you?"

The old man laughed, "I do not. Even as I learned to puncture with the bite of the wolf's jaw, and learned to step with the flapping of a crane's wings, I realized that I was stretching myself too thin. How was I to reconcile the grace of a bird to the speed of a wolf? They did not flow together, incongruous as they are in nature. I knew then that the Chujo-ryu Style had fallen into the same pit that its predecessor had fallen into. How was one to master the wolf, all while training the crane, carp, and eagle? Eventually, I settled on one beast, the tiger, for I found myself defaulting to those teachings whenever I was in danger. In battle, I found it most natural to batter my prey like the tiger did, before breaking through them with carefully placed strength. Thus, the Toda Style was born."

Kojiro nodded seriously, before grinning slyly, saying, "It probably helped that Tora sounded similar enough to Toda, didn't it?"

Seigen's answering smirk was all the answer Kojiro needed.

As they turned around the building and caught sight of the faraway arena, the old man became serious again, asking, "Tell me, Kojiro, did you see anything out of the ordinary when my brother was dueling his son?"

Instantly, Kojiro's thoughts jumped to the last few seconds of the duel, Kagemasa's final swing, and Kojiro answered, "Yes, I did. I feared that I had imagined it, so strange it was. At first, all I saw was normal swordplay. At least until your brother struck out with that final strike. I almost yelled out, for in those moments, your brother seemed less of a man and more of an animal. It was as though it was not a blade descending towards Kagekatsu's skull, but instead a pair of fangs descending cruelty upon his nape, intent on severing his head. The feeling left so quickly when your brother sheathed his blade that I felt I must've imagined it."

Seigen seemed surprised for a moment, before nodding his head, saying, "Good! So you really did see it. I noticed that you had flinched, but wanted to confirm it. You know why I commended him, then. My brother has advanced his understanding of the Toda Style to the point of partial 'Embodiment.' For a brief moment, limited to that final strike, he became one with his blade and his bladework, entering a state of absolute focus. That is a state of such single-mindedness that you forget even your name, know nothing but your body and your blade. The majority call it the 'Enlightenment of the Blade.' This state is what the stories are written about, the tales of undying samurai and of warriors who face armies alone. When you are deep enough, you don't feel pain or exhaustion, and hear nothing but the beat of battle."

Seigen spoke the words like they were fact, and not just fact, but experiences that he had personal knowledge of.

The words slipped from him, unbidden, and in a quiet, curious tone, he muttered, "That rival clan?"

This time, Kojiro received an actual name from Seigen, "They were called the Azai. I cut them down to the last child. It turns out that they were vassals of the Asakura Clan, and I was to be taken to be punished. I gave them an ultimatum. Either I would fight them until I was dead or they were, or they accepted the Toda as a vassal clan, in place of the Azai in exchange for my blade. They took the deal, but I've since cut ties. Their wars have killed not only my son, but his son too, and the Asakura had the audacity to demand yet another."

Kojiro stilled and, not having expected the confession, asked softly, "Do you have them?"

Seigen snorted in derision, asking, "Who? Do you mean the Asakura? Or, perhaps you meant Oda Nobunage, whose armies killed my descendants? I hated them as much as I suppose the Azai hated me, or any of my enemies despise that I still live and that they can do nothing. Now, I cannot say. I have taken life, and life has been taken from me. It is what I deserve, I think."

In a show of surprising tenderness, he paused, hesitantly wrapping an arm around Kojiro in half an embrace before speaking, "Ah, don't worry, brat, you're not a replacement for who I've lost, if that's what you're wondering. You're Kojiro, simple as that, alright?"

Despite the assurances though, there was a tinge of barely noticeable weakness in the man's voice. It convinced him that the old man wasn't really telling the truth, but he couldn't really hold that against Seigen. He'd benefitted from the man and if Seigen took comfort in his presence, that was all Kojiro needed to know.

He smiled at the old man and spoke reassuringly, "I understand, grandfather."

Then he grinned and changed the topic like only a child could, saying, "Come on, old man. You wanted to show the Dojo your skill, right? We can't be the last there."

Seigen smiled, looking grateful for Kojiro's distraction and nodded. All the same, in spite of their renewed pace, their conversation had slowed their walk, and when they reached the outdoor arena, all the other students of the Dojo, as well as the old man's younger brother, had already arrived.

Toda Kagemasa was standing in the middle of the arena, waiting for his older brother to arrive and when Seigen stepped into the arena, the other man straightened.

Before he stepped away entirely though, he whispered to Kojiro with an odd gleam of pride in his eyes.

"Watch this battle carefully, Kojiro," the old man murmured, "I will show you how far we men can reach."

To the audience, he thanked them for gathering, before announcing, "Watch carefully and bear witness to the fullness of the Toda-ryu!"

A/N:

And so, the first of the AUness begins. Not actually with Kojiro actually, but with Toda Seigen. Had a bit of trouble placing him and his history, but given that Ichijodani Castle was supposed to be fucked up in 1573 and Kojiro's living there right now, had to edit some things. So now, history goes like this: the Azai and Toda clans are rivals for control over Echizen Province, nominally ruled over by the Asakura by their vassals the Azai. The Azai clan wipes out most of the Toda in roughly 1540, and the Toda replace the Azai as a vassal clan in exchange for Seigen's service after Seigen exterminates the entire Azai clan for revenge. Oda Nobunaga does as Oda Nobunaga does come the 1560s and tries to unify Japan, as part of the vassalship, Seigen's son and grandson serve as samurai under the Asakura, the Asakura army that the two are in gets blasted by Nobunaga's and they die. Seigen cuts off relations with Asakura roughly in 1565-1570, by now, famous enough to do so, Asakura want to forcibly take back Ichijodani and Echizen but can't cause Nobunaga is fucking shit up, Nobunaga "legitimizes" Seigen with the authority of a big army and leaves Ichijodani the hell alone so Kojiro can not get murderized as a child. Got it? Good, cause I don't. I did this in 4 hours, my brain is a mess.