As I said last time, this chapter doesn't have much to do with the main plot of the story, but rather to the OC I wrote inside, You might find this story intersting, you might not, it doesn't matter much.
Samurai blood, Samurai Heart.
Side story to Night Hounds.
Name: Kenhito Bossuke.
Gender: Male.
Race: Human, that's quite sure.
Age: he says he's 30, but he said it since he got command of cell 05, at least that's what I'm told, so the average guess is that soon he'll be stepping into his 50es.
Place of birth; Hokkaido, we assume, he's somewhere from up north, at least that's for certain.
Current rank: commanding officer of cell 02, 2nd lieutenant in the board of directors.
Location: Tokyo hospital.
Kenhito Bossuke, a man of few words, few injuries and a few family members.
The whole time, nobody came to visit him, not one of his co-workers thought to come and ask how he was doing. And thus, I, the great Jaken, had to watch over him all night.
After three hours, and about five douses of pain killers, which I requested for myself, but the nurse injected to him, I had to take back the 'man of few words' I made earlier. With the right treatment, the man was a machine gun of sentences. Though, he talked only about himself.
----
The Kenhito family, a samurai family from Hokkaido with a history of over 2000 years. And yet, surprisingly, not one male was known to die from old age, or later than the age of 52, Bossuke seemed like he'll be breaking a family tradition in a few years.
According to history recordings, most armies in Japan's history had a least one soldier who went by the name of Kenhito, the latter military documents, those from the time of Colonel Perry's arrival, indicate that in the past 200 years, more than 300 man from the Kenhito family died in service.
No wonder the family was shrinking.
It wasn't just soldiers, Bossuke's grandfather was one of admiral Tojo's direct subordinates, and he was also one of the 500 men who killed themselves in front of the emperor's palace back in 1945. Not only that, his great grandfather was one of the eleven conspirers back in 1936.
Ever since he came to Tokyo, Bossuke's mother reminded him that he better join the police force soon, at least then he could face his relatives at the other side of the Sanzo River.
Of course, he couldn't tell her what his line of work was, as far as she knew, he was merely a Kendo instructor. Not a complete lie, as that was what he wrote in his tax forms and he did teach lessons twice a week. For her it was enough, she threatened to come to Tokyo and take the family Katana back to Hokkaido, and then invite his brother, Managemaru to claim the symbol of the family.
Knowing his mother, he moved into a different part of Tokyo, and never made contact with her again, Managemaru said he did the right thing. Though she was the one who taught them the sword art, even while the ban on militate activities was still in progress. In her eyes, Bokens were good only for kids whose hands aren't strong enough to lift steel yet, the moment the brothers were able to lift the family Katana, she started their training.
He turned his eyes to the Katana once again; he tried to remember the last time it was used in combat, long before the Tokeguawa reign, even before the Heiyan era, perhaps sometime in the Yayoi times? It seemed logical, the sword was created when blacksmithing was still a new concept, it didn't share many similarities with later swords, only the general shape was somewhat the same, and while the sheath was replaced every few hundreds of years, the sword itself was rusty and resembled more an iron rod than a weapon.
But that was only in the eyes of strangers, for Bossuke, the sword symbolized the entire family history, every man who died in battle carried this sword, even though the battles themselves were done with spears, bows, and other swords. This Katana, which was created before the custom of naming swords began, contained the soul of every warrior of the Kenhito family.
"no, not the Yayoi times, 1945" he reminded himself, the last time the steel met human flesh, the blood stains still covered it, the Harakiri of his grandfather.
/\\\\
When he was still young, back in his school days, Bossuke was known as 'number two', he was second in math, second in English, second in Japanese. The name kept on up until graduation ceremony, when he was named the number one student of the year and invited to make a speech.
He forever cursed that day in his mind, years of hard work, years of purposely failing at the least important question and years of teaching other students how to ace the exams and this was how he was repaid? Did the universe have no sense of dignity? No respect for all his hard work?
After the speech, he was forever called 'cough boy' back in Hokkaido, Managemaru still sent him the local newspapers whenever the mentioned that incident. When the local newspaper had made a cover story from the ceremony, Bossuke has proudly moved down to Tokyo, where no one had heard about 'cough boy'.
At least that's what he thought, apparently, the four lads dressed in black who came to his 70,000 Yen-a-month one room apartment, knew about the incident quite well.
"Who are you?" he asked them, back in Hokkaido, he was a pretty intimidating guy, he never imagined Tokyo's punks to be so different, mainly in the manner they dressed, and in the fact that the man who knocked on the door needed just the tip of his hand to push him out of the way.
"Our names aren't not be known by the likes of you" one of them said, that sort of formal speech, along with the unnatural strength and black suits, convinced Bossuke that they weren't just thugs. "However, we might be willing to share a bit of information if you'd answer a few questions" another one of them said.
He looked at their positions, one was standing next to the door, one next to the telephone, another has already found the swords, and the last one was standing right next to him. Even though they weren't in fighting position, he could tell quite well that he was at their mercy, except that…
"I won't stop you, go ahead, make a run for, jump out the window, from the 7th floor, I'm sure that you'll survive, especially with the heavy traffic down there".
Well, there goes that idea, right out the window.
"What do you want" Bossuke asked.
"First of all, how should I call you? Number 2 or cough boy? Which of them do you prefer?" the man standing in front of him asked, Bossuke classified him as the gang leader, which normally, would make him a good hostage. But, the man also seemed to be the strongest and most dangerous of the four.
"Why not just call me by name?"
"Very well, I agree, now, Mister Kenhito Bossuke, would you sit and answer a question of mine"
"I don't have a choice, do I?"
"Indeed, I never gave you one, first question, back in junior high, which one of your senpais was called 'demon of confessions' when she was younger?"
That was defiantly a weird question, how did he know about it? And why did he ask that? Bossuke expected a math or science question.
"It's Onnako from class 3-5, she has confessed 12 times in her last year of elementary school"
"I now assume that our reports were right, you truly are a rare one, I shall be back tomorrow" the four men left the apartment.
Later that day, so did Bosssuke, moving out on his first day in Tokyo wasn't one of his plans, but nor was getting messed up with those types of people.
The morning afterwards, Bossuke gave up on the idea to get the appliance forms to Todai (Tokyo University) , and decided to stay at home with the three items he brought back from the old apartment; the feeling of fear and inferiority from the previous day has yet to leave him.
At 12:00 exactly, he heard a knock on the door, he decided not to answer to it, he was quite sure that he didn't leave any hints about the new apartment location, as he didn't even have enough time in Tokyo to associate with anybody who might have ratted out on him.
Nevertheless, the door was opened at 12:01, and the same man walked through the door, this time he was alone, and wearing different clothes from those of yesterday.
Bossuke took the time actually examining the man before he rushed for the swords, the man was tall, almost a foot taller than the average Japanese, despite that, he was obviously a man of the island. The face of the man reminded Bossuke of the old samurai stories, of men with faces gentle as those of women but with strength and courage of the beast itself.
As for the new line of clothing, it seemed to be some old fashioned male Kimono, white colored with something furry hanging on from the back; Bossuke hadn't failed to notice the two un-matching swords the man held either.
"So, you've come back" he said, reaching for his two Kodachi swords.
"Indeed" the man said, "I would not be killed by those pieces of metal" he glanced at the Kodachis, the mere stare almost caused Bossuke to drop the swords, "if you intend to kill me, then it's the Katana that you ought to wield".
"How did you follow me here?" Bossuke asked, he made sure he wasn't followed by anyone yesterday, and the contract has been signed between him and the apartment owner, without involving any other party in the process.
"I'm quite sure that you should ask yourself how did I find you yesterday, then the answer would be clear".
The realization sunk down quite easily on Bossuke, the man who gave out information was the cab driver, a man from the island of Hokkaido as well, he supposedly came back to Hokkaido to watch his son's graduation ceremony, and Bossuke has picked a ride with him to get to Tokyo and later used to drive to the 2nd apartment.
"I take it that you've come to an understanding about that?" he asked, Bossuke nodded in response, "and I take it that you have yet to settle in?" Bossuke nodded again.
"Wonderful, come with me, my driver is waiting downstairs" it wasn't as much of a request as it was an order. Against all his good senses, Bossuke followed, now holding tightly the Katana.
Bossuke looked at the driver; he was a short, slightly green, almost mutated man, and he paid attention only to the other man, "my liege, I see that you have taken control of another one, indeed, there's not one who can resist you", he said in the most annoying voice possible, Bossuke was about to act completely based on instincts, which all told him to choke the man. But before Bossuke could do a thing, the other man has already pushed into the car.
"Pay no mind to him, mister Kenhito, you'll learn to cope with Jaken with time".
The little man, apparently known has Jaken, has been himself thrown into quite a feat, "Lord, is it truly wise to tell my name to such a being? You surly remember that he has yet to even pass a single test".
"My actions aren't to be questioned by the likes of you, Jaken. The choice of revealing myself, Sesshomaru, to anyone, is mine and mine alone". The other man, now known as Sesshomaru hissed at him, "Now drive to HQ, I have business to attend to tomorrow, so I would wish to finish with Bossuke registration before I leave to the conference."
"Registration? Do you want to hire me for something? Why should I even accept the offer? In fact, what makes you think that the moment I'll get out of this car, I won't be running to the police station and press charges against you two for kidnapping?" he looked at the two.
"phhe, I think you'd have a hard time convincing anyone that you have been kidnapped, considering that you've put the safety belt on your own, sonny" Bossuke turned to Jaken, he didn't imagine that the small man could talk that way, which meant that Sesshomaru was defiantly someone very important to him.
"What matter of job is it? I've got a family to support, you know" he turned to Sesshomaru, looking at his situation, even if he would have went to the police station, they wouldn't be able to prove anything, as he actually locked the apartments door on his own and entered the car by his own free will, no lawyer in the world could do anything.
"I don't think you have any reason to worry, the job will fit you perfectly, and as for your brother, I'm sure that we could find a spot for Managemaru as well, if he turns out to be half of what you are" Sesshomaru said in something which almost resembled a smile, Bossuke felt a shiver going down his spine.
"Should I ask about my wages?" Bossuke tried to interrogate.
"I must admit it'll be much less than you could make as a lawyer or a doctor, but money isn't entirely what you're after, is it? If it was, then you wouldn't have carried this sword with you, would you?"
-----------0--------
The phone rung at the office, it was the red phone, which indicated an emergency call from the board of directors, so when the phone rung in his office, Bossuke rushed to answer it. "Agent Kenhito here, Cell 08 is ready to duty".
"cut the crap, we've got problems, you need to immobilize cells 08, 09 and 11 right away, the cleaners need your help in a mission" a female voice shouted the orders at him, at any other time, he would have tried to ask who she was, but he knew that if she was able to contact him with the red phone, it meant she had access to the inner facilities of the NH HQ. and besides, from the board, he only knew Sesshomaru, so he wasn't too surprised to find that a woman was on the board as well.
"Immediately, miss, but aren't the cleaners out on a mission now?" he asked.
"I told you to shut up, haven't I?" the voice shouted at him loudly, "the real cleaners are out on a mission, which is why your help is needed, we've received information that a gang of rat youkais are about to distribute over 30 tons of sulfuric acid into the streets, naturally, this falls into are jurisdiction. You are ordered to go into their hideout, the cleaners might be fairly green, but they can still create a barrier and stop the enemy from using anything too big. Your part is easy, get in, do the work, get out, we have authorization to use anything we want to, I don't care if you rush in there with semi automatics and shoot everyone, as long as you secure the acid, it's fine".
It wasn't the first time Bossuke had to go on a mission with the cleaners, but it felt different than the rest of them, usually, only one or two of them would go with the cleaners, and that would be only so that they could see what things were about, this time, over 15 men would be deployed, armed to the underwear.
"It seemed that casualties should be expected" he told himself, not a reassuring thought. He quickly dialed the numbers and contacted the agents, 'one hour', he said.
The operation went bad from the beginning. The 'veteran' of the cleaners unit was merely part of the NH for less than a year, completely green. And even worse, he believed himself to be some sort of hotshot, claiming that the blood of Chinese yin-yang masters ancestors he had made him into a better leader than Bossuke. Which meant that over twenty minutes had to wasted on explaining the term 'chain of command' to that boy, and still, the trouble have yet to end.
'The information was wrong', was the first thought that crossed Bossuke's mind, he quickly dismissed it, 'the information was precise, the one who made a mistake was me'. He looked at the situation again; two men were already dead, another heavily injured, and a few were reporting that they've lost their weapons. He had to give out the order.
"Retreat!"
He knew very well that the responsibility would lie on his shoulders, when the board of directors indicated specific troops; it meant that those troops were sufficient for the mission. If anything, then his own command wasn't. In the old days, such a filature would require a seppuku to atone for. 'but no time for that' he said to himself, giving off the command revealed to the rat youkais that he was leading the operation, and caused them all to focus their attention on him.
Bossuke heard a shout, it came from the commander of cell 11, he shouted that they were all set to leave, a similar shout came from the leader of cell 09, but he added that the people of cell 08 were with him, it meant that he was the only one still there.
"Move out, and secure the perimeter, no one comes in and no one comes out!" was the last thing Bossuke had time to shout back, before a cold knife went through his chest.
Later, a time which seemed to him like ages, he woke up, stripped away from everything he had on him but the family Katana, "probably thought you're too rusty to do them any harm" he said silently, something ringed very wrong in his head. At first, he assumed someone was just playing the drums, but a moment later, he figured that no one in their right mind would play music here, and he remembered the hands of the rat youkais, they weren't fit to handle the sticks, so it had to be something else.
He tried moving around, he couldn't stand up; he dismissed the possibility of being tied down or held by any other type of binding, as he felt no pressure of that sort on him.
But there was something else pressuring him, and it gave him quite a loud feeling, Bossuke tried to focus his attention to whatever was on his feet, he felt it beating, over and over like a war march. He opened his eyes, there was nothing on his feet, and no one else was in the room.
'I can't walk, but perhaps I can crawl' he thought to himself, he tried pushing himself around, he breathed in relief once he found that his movement wasn't completely restricted. He tried to reach for his legs, to feel what was holding him; apparently, doing so was impossible without standing up, so instead, he reached out for the sword.
He almost laughed at himself, the sword was now used as a stick, he could almost see his ancestors sharpening their claws, anxiously waiting for him to die, so they could punish him for desecrating the sword in such a manner. "you can hit me as much as you want once I cross that river, father, until then, I've got a few more years of getting old and dying in my bed" he murmured quietly, 'that's right, I'm going to die from old age' he said to himself.
He grabbed the sword, but in the process, the sheath fell down, reveling the naked rusted blade, 'heh, as if there's a difference anyway', he swung the blade next to his feet, the drum march has suddenly become a different melody, as if there were numerous sets of drums, which all moved in space.
He suddenly realized that his feet were free now, so he stood up, taking time to examine the room, dark, gloomy, small and stinking, there was no doubt in his mind, this was still the rat cave. And seeing as he wasn't rescued yet, it meant that not enough time has passed to allow Sesshomaru to organize a 2nd attack force.
Something was still bothering him, though, the drums, they seemed to be moving around, he could now tell the difference between each 'set', some were louder, the pace was different as well, but surprisingly, the sound concentrated in a different part of his head, he could still perfectly hear the sound of moving objects and the sound of his footsteps, the drums haven't shadowed the rest of his hearing sense.
'Sense'
He heard some cleaners use that word; they referred to it as their ability to feel youkais and humans, they never mentioned drums, but nor did they mention it's manifestation of it. Was this a case of explaining the blue color to a blind man?
'No', he said to himself, he went through some cleaners files, while it seemed that a good percentage of them came from shrines and churches, the rest were completely normal, which meant that for at least some of them, whatever sense they had was awakened, so perhaps the case was the same with him?
He tried to remember the exact content of the files, he recalled a few specific dates that some files had, "sleeping, leakage, awakening", he then remembered that the date of the sleeping state was written only in the cases of agents who came from a religious background, it lasted from the date of birth until their status changed from 'sleeping' to leakage, apparently.
"Keep on with this thought' he said to himself, trying to ignore the fact that the drums have suddenly began to increase their volume.
'After the leakage state, there were much more reports on them, the recruiting agents kept a closer eye on the would-be-cleaners, why would they do that? Unless they were waiting for something to happen, next stage perhaps? Then after leakage came the awakening stage, and then what?'
Then they were recruited. That was it; recruiting agents for the cleaners were always past cleaners, so their presence was required in order to awaken the new ones. Cleaners had that spirit power, which was somewhat close you youkai power, maybe that was what caused the awakening of the force?
"yes, that would make sense, and the reason why sometimes agents are sent to go with cleaners on missions is so that they would awaken as well", he summarized the latest string of thought to himself, coming to a conclusion that the drums he heard were that spirit sense of the cleaners…
And once he got that part right, there was no problem for him to use that sense to tell his situation, information was the most crucial thing in battle, and he was a master of information manipulation, and now Bossuke had all the information he needed.
'eight of them are here, the leader is quite far away, along with the three strongest, so they're probably working on the cave's defense, so all that was left for him was to slip through the four weaker rats guard, and then he would be free.
"Working on the defense" he thought again, realizing how wrong was he, the place were the leader was standing at was most likely the only entrance to the cave, hence the need for defense. And without anything to use as a weapon, there was no chance for him to actually get there without encountering any of them, it left him one choice.
Bossuke took out the katana once more, "in the past, Samurais would go to hell and back for their lords, so surly I can escape a place like this' he told himself, and firmly holding the katana, he began the charge.
Three hours later, he stole a purse from a woman, it didn't have phone tokens, but the woman had enough money for what he had in mind. He took a look at himself, if he could only hold on for a few more hours; he would be back in HQ at Tokyo, the bullet trains' last station.
'move body, the spirit commands you!' he tried to tell his bleeding body, the fact that he was alive was a big enough surprise already, he could have sworn that some of the bullets hit him in vital spots.
But that wasn't the only thing he had to think about, there was no signs of any NH agents conducting a 2nd strike, was it because he himself was the highest officer in the chain of command at that time?
"no time to think about it, just focus on regaining your power' he told himself, and with that, he fell into a deep sleep.
"wake up, mister, it's the final stop' the attendant said to him, he wondered how come no one tried doing so earlier, was it because of his yankee look of torn down clothes he had?
No time to think of that, he reminded himself, he was in Tokyo already, so a few more minutes and it'll be done.
It was already late, almost midnight, so the HQ would be almost void of people now, he took the inner city train and tried to force himself to stay up by standing, nobody even tried to question him about the sword, it wasn't an unusual occurrence in Tokyo, in the same train he took, there were other three boys with wooden swords and metal bats, obviously punks looking for trouble.
Bossuke noticed it the moment he entered the building, drums, it meant a youkai was there, was it a spy? He tried to think it through, even if it was, he knew that he probably had no stamina left to fight it, the only solution was to report it to someone, preferably Sesshomaru.
Nobody questioned him on the way up to his office; he didn't even encounter anyone, the drumming only got louder and louder, it has long since passed the one he heard while running next to the rat youkai leader, he could practically feel his ear drums blowing apart.
He stepped into his office, his head was already bursting with pain, but that was nothing compared to the surprise he experienced, in the middle of the room, emitting all those drums, was standing Sesshomaru.
"Ville Youkai!"
At least now some things made sense, to him the mission was impossible from the beginning, they were sent there so that the rat youkais could kill them, which is exactly why a 2nd strike wasn't initiated.
Bossuke pulled out his sword, during the unsheathing he realized something, he couldn't beat the rat youkais, whose 'drumming' was less than 1/100th of what he heard now, so beating Sesshomaru would be impossible to him.
"Oh, Is my life going to be taken by that sword? I'm glad that you remembered what I've told you when we first met" Sesshomaru smiled, still not getting into his battle position.
"I'm not so stupid to fight a battle I can't win, but I can still retain the Kenhito's family honor!" he shouted, pointing the Katana at his belly, just as his grandfather has done years ago.
'just like grandfather' he told himself, and then the realization hit him, committing hara-kiri at this point would mean that the blood stains of his grandfather will be over shadowed by his own, which would say that the crumbling of the belief he had in the Night hounds was more meaningful than the loss of Japan's independence?
No, that wasn't right, doing so would shame the family even more.
Something hit him, hard and fast, he couldn't tell what it was, where it hit and even who had done so.
"fool, that sword of yours is only good for protecting Japan, if you can't point it at me, then you should point it where I tell you so" Sesshomaru shouted at him, it was the first time he has seen the youkai lose his temper.
Bossuke fell to his knees, dropping the sword next to Sesshomaru's legs, "indeed" he thought, "I've been a fool. Our life can only be lost when the master orders it".
"stand up" Sesshomaru said, lifting the katana, "from now on, you may not unsheathe your sword without me saying so, for you are nothing but my tool." He handed Bossuke the Katana back.
The end.
Well, that was the side story of Bossuke, the first original character in the story, raging with stories of Japanese samurais, and other past events that happened, in other words, a story of a lost pet, who has found it's master. Pretty much like a masochist slave finding a sadistic master, if you've read ichi the killer then you know what I'm talking about.
Anyway, for some explanations:
The name Bossuke comes from combining the English word boss with the 'suke' part, which is a common name ending for males in Japanese, so basically, it's like calling a policeman 'Copson' (cop + 'son' from Jason, Hanson, and whatever).
The name Managemaru is the same, Manage from management, and maru from the Japanese language.
Kenhito basically means sword-person, if you remember, the emperor of Japan during WWII was naruhito, so I though it could be used.
Onnako comes from the words Onna (woman, girl) and Ko, which is an ending for females, making the names something like Girly in direct translation.
Boken is a wooden kendo sword, if you know Ranma 1/2, then that's what Kuno keeps on carrying with him.
Harakiri is the ritual of cutting to guts, you must be crazy to do so.
Tokegawa was the last shogun family of Japan, they took over after the battle of sekighara, it might be noticeable in quite a few animes.
Admiral Tojo was Japan's military commander during WWII.
Heyian era and was before the civil war era (Edo period, the time where the original IY story takes place), the Yayoi era is even before that.
Kodachi is the smallest sword in the Samurai set, it's almost a dagger, I believe it was used for shaving in ancient times (kidding, of course), if you've watched Rurouni Kenshin, then you might remember Aoki using 'Shiki Kodachi nittou Ryu ougie! Kaiten ken buro ko ren!' as his strongest attack, it's a sword style of using two kodachi swords.
The Sanzo river is a part of alot of Asia's belief about death, it's basically a river which is the border between the living world and the afterlife, you can find quite a few myths concerning it (like having to pay the skeleton something so that he could take you across it, it even came up in one the 'Justice leagues' episodes).
now, I'd like to give a special mention to SlummyRedDragon, as he is resposible to two thirds of the story's reviews.
other than that, next update will probably be the last, and after that, I'll be in the army.