Clay
by the mighty mighty m
disclaimer: all of the the characters herein belong to Hiroaki Samura. I am not Hiroaki Samura, thus they do not belong to me.
In Edo there is an alley, and in this alley there is a man, and in this man there is a knife. This knife is in a hand, and this hand belongs to a girl, and this girl is-
Asano Rin daintily licked the blood from her slender fingers, rolling the red across her tongue. Hot and metallic, it's like a knife in her mouth and just as sharp. She's not used to the taste, not yet, but it's only been a few times. It took a lot longer to get used to the taste of men, and now it sometimes feels as though that's the only flavor in her mouth.
The first time was an accident, or as accidental as murder gets. Rin had known he was Ittō-Ryū when she met him, but not that she was going to kill him. She had given up on revenge after the second time the bugyōjō had rejected her request for ada-uchi, the same time she stopped visiting her father's grave and gave up on her training.
She had given up her training, but she hadn't sold all her wasps. She was young and stupid, but not so stupid to walk the streets with no weapon, which was why she had a knife close to hand when the man collapsed onto her chest, panting with effort. It was just so easy to slide it out of her robe, slide it to her hand, slide it into his neck. Then he really did collapse, his blood spurting in a bright arc across her face, in her eyes, her mouth.
It mixed with the taste of him, and Rin wanted to be sick but he was still on top of her and he was too heavy and she couldn't get him off, she can't get him off. She struggled under the dead weight, his head bouncing grotesquely against her bare chest, painting her breast red with his blood. He slumped to the side and she was free, she slumped to the side and was quietly, thoroughly sick.
She waits for someone to catch her, to hunt her down and tell her she's going to die for killing him, but no one ever does. Rin supposes it shouldn't surprise her, after all the Ittō-Ryū killed her father and no one did anything, and he was far more important than some psycho who liked to brag about torturing Christians. So the next man who tells her he's one of Anotsu's swordsmen and asks her down a dark alleyway gets a sting from her Ogunchu as well, as does the one after him, and so on until all her meals taste of copper.
Rin manages to take down seven before they catch her, but she never was very careful so the main surprise is that it took them so long. Her execution is private, just judge and executioner, so the man and woman who show up as they read her sentence are unexpected. Even more unexpected is the paper the man brings, freeing her from death if not from service.
When the woman tells Rin what they want her to do, she starts to laugh. And cry.
"Oh Father, for so long I've brought only shame to our name, but I promise, I promise from this day forward I'm going to make you so proud."
The End
Any questions, such as "Where is Manji?", "Why doesn't Rin have any money?", "Given Rin's level of skill in the manga, how is Rin able to kill anyone in the Ittō-Ryū?", "Why the title?", or even "WTF?" I would be glad to answer if you drop me a review.