Chapter 6: Symptoms
There had been crows circling after a while, he remembered that. After he'd been lying still so long over what was left of her, they had gotten braver. Started picking...
His eyes suddenly snapped open wide, and for a while he laid there, in cold sweat, with pulse like a drum. He hadn't remembered that part before.
Shaking his head, Magatsu sat up in the grass. He looked around to make sure no one saw him, then hugged himself with a shiver. It took a while of sitting by himself in the cold wind before he was ready to head back to the dojo.
On his way, he saw houses in the distance and briefly wondered what the people living there were doing now. The sound of a kid made him turn his eyes towards the road further away.
"But how far LEFT? I'm TIRED!"
"We'll stop and rest in 10 minutes, honey. I just...want to go a little further first." The girl's father had spotted Magatsu, and apparently didn't like what he saw. "Now come on. I'll buy you something sweet when we get to Edo." The girl's whining turned to a slightly less sulky muttering and they walked on, her father throwing occasional glances back at Magatsu, who responded with a grin. The man turned his head away quickly. Soon, they were out of hearing range and out of his life. He stared after them for a long while Samurai. Definitely.
Anotsu was busy doing...something important, as always these days. And Higa and the others were scattered with the wind, this being the only day off in a long time. So, Magatsu went behind a building to practice.
It was funny – when he had first gotten the sword, he had thought he'd never get used to its weight by his belt. But these days he hardly noticed it was there, anymore than he noticed his arms and legs.
The blade stroked through the air, and suddenly he remembered another blade stroking through the air, at another time, 4 years ago, making warm wetness splatter onto his clothes...
Magatsu froze and slowly lowered the blade. He realized he was trembling, and couldn't stop. Damn! What was the matter with him lately?
Sleep, probably. He needed sleep. Too many nights spent practicing or talking with the guys. He sighed irritably, resisting the urge to throw the damn sword to the ground. It went back into his scabbard and he went back inside.
He woke up on his futon some time later and wondered what the hour was. Everything was quiet, so he assumed it was either very late or very early. None of the other guys were back. He was all alone in the room. Of course he couldn't sleep another wink.
So what to do? Staying in bed was out of the question. Practice? What had happened earlier didn't exactly feel encouraging. Ahh, so what SHOULD he do? Anotsu was probably asleep, and in any case, it wasn't like before, when they could just head off fishing.
Her eyes had looked surprised.
He wondered if there was any food left. He was starving. He thought of all the guys that had died lately. Especially the guy that had stumbled in the woods and pierced himself on his own sword. Clumsy ass. He almost chuckled.
There had only been one bloodstain on her face, strangely enough. Only one, a very small one. On her left cheek.
With a grunt, he got to his feet and headed off towards the kitchen. Maybe SOMEONE was awake. He was starving to death.