Ambiguity
Chapter 8: Defiance
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Author: Jun-I
Pairings: Kanbei x female Kyuzo

Notes:

- Kyuzo is a woman disguised as a man. At this point, all the samurai assume that Kyuzo is male, with the exception of Kanbei, who is not sure of Kyuzo's gender.

-Since Kanbei at this point isn't sure if Kyuuzou is male or female, I'm using s/he and his/her to refer to Kyuuzou when taking Kanbei's point of view. When taking Kyuuzou's point of view, I use 'she' since she knows she is female.

-This chapter was inspired by the scene in which Shino and three other female peasants (including a pants-wearing tomboy) were among the archers covering Katsushiro when he faced Ukyo's men in Kanna; and the earlier scene in which a hefty woman was standing among the peasant men in Hei's defense team, all with their mallets raised. So the presence of female fighters fits into the canon universe.

Warnings: See Chapter 1
Disclaimers: See Chapter 1

The next morning, Kyuuzou went about his/her duties as usual. But during lunch break, Kanbei saw the peasant men sitting around Kyuuzou in a circle as they ate. The tomboy Shino was also there with them. The scarlet samurai was speaking to the peasants earnestly. Some of the men nodded in assent. Others looked doubtful. Kanbei was too far away to hear what they were talking about. Then Manzou's daughter stood up. She addressed the men. Kanbei still could not hear what they were saying. But from the young peasant woman's animated gestures and fiery expressions, he could guess she was probably using much more colorful language than Kyuuzou did.

The day after that, Kanbei saw Shino with her own bow, standing among the peasant men in Kyuuzou's archery class. A few more days passed. Shichiroji mentioned to Kanbei that he saw some of the peasant men leaving Kyuuzou's archery sessions after lunch to go back to their fields. The scarlet samurai apparently did not have a problem with that. The odder thing, said Kanbei's aide, was that the men who left archery training were replaced by their sisters, mothers, wives or daughters.

"Kyuuzou just let the peasants switch roles as they pleased." Shichiroji shook his head in puzzlement as he spoke to Kanbei. "Are you not going to talk to him about maintaining some discipline?"

"It is fine," Kanbei replied. "Kyuuzou has my permission to do this. It was his idea to allow the men under his command the option of rotating between farm work and defense training. But at the same time, he wanted to maintain the maximum number of archers within each training session. Thus, when the men go home to work in the afternoon, their womenfolk were obligated to take their places."

"Kyuuzou-dono is certainly a strange one," Shichiroji mused. He missed the House of the Fireflies, where men were men and women were women. Shichiroji's idea of an enlightened male did not extend far beyond a guy who took the trash out.

So, Kyuuzou's controversial venture had turned out to be a moderate success, Kanbei noted. Certainly there were not as many peasant women as peasant men among the archers, but the dark commander was surprised that so many of the men had supported Kyuuzou and Shino's ideas.

Kanbei still wondered about Kyuuzou's physical gender. He was beginning to think Kyuuzou was more likely to be a 'she', observing the scarlet samurai's almost sisterly comradeship with firebrand Shino. Or the androgynous warrior could be one of those sensitive homosexual men who seem to understand and befriend women so well. And then again, s/he could be neither.

Perhaps Kyuuzou would no longer be angry with him now that s/he had gotten what s/he wanted, Kanbei thought. The scarlet samurai was still cold whenever they greeted each other, but at least s/he had stopped looking daggers at him.

Yet Kyuuzou was apparently still not content. The following week, Kanbei saw Kyuuzou with Heihachi during lunch break. Heihachi was laughing as he passed Kyuuzou a rice ball. The two were apparently sharing some private joke which Kanbei did not hear. How strange! Kyuuzou was being sociable? Kanbei stopped in his tracks and observed the two young samurai from some distance away.

"Why didn't I think of that?" Kanbei heard the mechanic say rather loudly to Kyuuzou. The scarlet warrior simply smiled quietly at Heihachi in response. Then s/he looked over and caught Kanbei's eye. Kyuuzou abruptly turned away from him back to Heihachi. S/he began speaking to the red-headed samurai again. The conversation was now too soft for Kanbei to hear. He went on his way.

Over the next few days, women started appearing in Heihachi's team of builders. Shichiroji was the one who brought this to Kanbei's attention. Kanbei asked Heihachi about the new development. Heihachi said that Kyuuzou had come up with a clever idea to solve the labor shortage in the weapons construction team – recruit the village women. Shimada frowned. He asked Heihachi if any of the village men had complained.

"Oh no," Heihachi replied, "The peasant men respect us samurai so much they will do anything we ask as long as we give them a solid reason. I did not compel any women to join my project or to defy their families to do so. The women on my team all came from families who want their womenfolk to help. After being forced to hand over Rikichi's wife to the Nobuseri, volunteering their womenfolk for defense construction was a small thing for these peasants. With any luck, we won't have to hand over village women to the Nobuseri again. For most of the villagers, male or female, winning this battle is more important than adhering to abstract traditional roles."

"It is good that you have gained more workers for your team," Shimada Kanbei said, "But next time, before you do anything unusual of this sort, please clear it with me first."

"Yes sir," Heihachi replied as he bowed. "Forgive me for my presumptuousness."

Kanbei's thoughts turned to Kyuuzou. The commander realized he had underestimated the quiet loner's social skills and persuasive abilities. He felt a new kind of respect for the scarlet samurai. Previously, he had respected the other warrior for his/her deadly battle skills. But Kanbei never saw her/him as much of a thinker or influencer. Until now. Even so, the stern leader was very annoyed that Kyuuzou had gone behind his back to push changes on Heihachi's team. War was not the time for an avowed individualist to promote his/her own ideological agenda.

It was late evening when Kyuuzou approached the giant redwood where she rested each night since she arrived in Kanna. Kanbei was waiting there, arms crossed, leaning against the tree. She was not surprised to see him. But she was annoyed. He had entered her wall-less bedchamber without permission, and was leaning against her favorite tree!

Kanbei went right to the point. "Kyuuzou-dono, I have no complaints about how you manage your archers, but you overstepped your limits when you went over me to tell Heihachi-dono how to run his team."

The deadly swordswoman felt a fresh irritation build within her. "I understand that it is your exclusive prerogative to order people around." She addressed her leader coldly and clearly, "But I did not tell Heihachi-dono to do anything. I simply threw a few ideas about during a casual conversation. It was purely of his own volition that he decided to take them up."

"Casual conversation, you say. You never seemed interested in socializing with the other samurai until you realized they could be useful for furthering your agenda" Shimada said coldly. Kyuuzou's eyes narrowed.

The dark commander continued in his reproach, "Can you honestly claim you never planned to influence Heihachi-dono? You knew exactly what you were doing when you talked Heihachi-dono into something he would not have thought of doing on his own. Your idea may be useful, but before you take them to the other samurai, clear it with me first."

By now, Kyuuzou's irritation had turned into smouldering anger. She had worked hard to acquire the goodwill and support of the village men for including the peasant women in the war effort. She even took the additional precaution of going through the men to recruit their womenfolk instead of approaching the women directly herself. But Kanbei did not seem to appreciate the fact that the scarlet samurai more-than-adhered to his original injunction not to recruit peasant women against the will of their men folk. Her unreasonable leader was now picking for bones in an egg.

"If a casual conversation could be considered 'influence', then you should prohibit all your samurai from speaking to each other!" Kyuuzou retorted sharply, "And do we have to report everything we talk about to you?"

Now it was the commander's turn to be angry. He could not allow such open insubordination among his warriors if he was to run an effective campaign. Kanbei would have struck the haughty creature in the face, but somehow he could not bring himself to do it. Instead, he closed the distance between them in one stride, drawing himself up to loom over the shorter samurai. "So, this time it is Kanbei's turn to try to physically intimidate me into backing down," Kyuuzou thought. She could smell the man's scent, hear his breath. Now that she was not the one to initiate the standoff, she did not feel all that comfortable. So Kyuuzou said to Kanbei without a trace of emotion in her voice, "Go ahead, discipline me. We were both once soldiers. I understand what a commander has to do, even if I can never agree with him."

Kanbei stepped back, as Kyuuzou had hoped he would. The male samurai drew his katana. Then he brought the non-cutting edge of the sword down sharply on the sensitive point where neck met shoulder. The scarlet warrior stifled a gasp of pain as she crumpled to the ground.

The tall man turned and walked away. The pressure point technique was nearly impossible to resist as it triggered a reflexive reaction, but the sharp pain it caused was only temporary. It was more useful for control than for damage. There would be no bruise on Kyuuzou's fair skin come morning. Even so, Kanbei felt his heart seize as he struck the defiant samurai. He had an impulse to turn back, pick Kyuuzou up and cradle him/her in his arms. But these were not actions that would serve his interests as a commander. He strode on.