Hello, everyone! Another chapter, yay! And don't worry, this chapter is an original by me. The only thing you could trace back to the anime's plot is the very last sentence. ^^
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Also thank you to all the others out there reading this! Thank you for your continued interest! R&R ;)
Disclaimer: Don't own the animes, nor their plot. I do own this chapter, though.
Chapter 5: Memories 2
The next day, Bontenmaru had snuck away from his studies once again, but this time for a different reason than usual. Hiding in some bushes, he did a quick look-around to make sure nobody was following him, before he left his hiding place in favor for another bush a couple of feet away, where he repeated the scouting. He had to suppress a giggle since this made him feel like a ninja, rather than the samurai his parents wanted him to be.
He continued to hide and scout until he was sure he was out of the estate reach, so that he could dash forward and disappear into the forest. It took some time until he found the lake again, though, since he had found it by accident the first time. He eventually managed to track the way he had run off to when Kojuro was chasing him up until to the point where he had slipped. Though this time, he got to the bottom of the hill without injuries, just some dirt clanging to him. He sat down at the shore of the lake and scooped some water with his hands to get rid of the dirt in his face. When he looked up again, the dragon was towering over him.
"UAAH!" Bontenmaru cried out, falling on his butt from his crouching position. The dragon giggled.
"I see you kept your word, Bontenmaru-kun."
"Of course I did!" Bontenmaru yelled, making himself a bit more comfortable on the ground. "Are you going to stick to your promise of telling me about yourself?"
"But I don't think I'm as interesting as you seem to believe."
"Then how about this, I'm going to ask you questions about you and you answer those questions. That way, you can avoid telling me anything that would be boring to me." The dragon giggled amused.
"Alright, go ahead."
"First off, you never gave me your name. I only realized it on my way home."
"Well, that's because I don't think I have one." Bontenmaru frowned in thought.
"How is that even possible? Either you have a name or you don't."
"You see, I was not always a dragon. Until almost a century ago, I used to be a normal human woman. But unfortunately, I died fighting a great evil over a powerful object, a jewel to be exact. My soul was bound to the jewel and as the jewel stayed on this plane of existence, so did I." She smiled upon seeing Bontenmaru's shocked expression. "The villagers build a shrine to worship the jewel, hoping it would stay pure that way since it would be disastrous if it didn't. The shrine was built on an small island in the middle of a large lake. Not this one," she added as she saw him look over the lake's surface, trying to find the shrine. "Since the shrine was built there, later generations started to believe that the shrine was there in honor of a dragon living in the lake and that the jewel was a holy object under his protection. That belief made me to what you see, though I was much smaller back then. Since I'm an entirely new creature, I'm not sure if it would be befitting of me to use my old name. Even more so since my body was buried under that name."
"I see… May I know what your old name was?"
"Kagome. Like the game." Deep in thought, Bontenmaru lifted an hand to his chin.
"'Caged Bird'… That really is no name for a dragon… But I can't come up with a cool name so fast…" Her eyes grew wide.
"You want to give me a name?" Torn from his thoughts, the boy looked up.
"Of course I do! I need something to call you by, after all!" Bontenmaru stated like it was the most natural thing. Her wide eyes went back to their original form with a soft nuance in their depths. "But back to you, why did you even leave that place? Sounds like you had it pretty good."
"Yes, the people were kind to me and I feel awful for leaving them like that." She closed her eyes and her head lowered a bit in what Bontenmaru interpreted to be an ashamed gesture. "But I just couldn't stay. The land had been ingulfed in war. I hate war and since I could do nothing without being caught, I fled to the northern lands."
"Wow… And you have been alone all this time?"
"I did sometimes interact with humans. I healed them or helped them otherwise, though those were far in between since I can take on human form, but only for an extended amount of time. Back then, I couldn't even last a day," she admitted sheepishly.
"That's so cool! Can you show me your human form?" Bontenmaru asked excited. She chuckled.
"Maybe another time. I'm rather tired right now, you see?"
"Oh… Am I being a disturbance?"
"No, you're not. I just haven't had anyone to talk to in a long time, so I guess I'm not really used to it anymore. Especially with such energetic children," she smiled. Bontenmaru immediately brightened back up.
He visited her often from then on, almost everyday. He was happy to have found a friend, who saw eye-to-eye with him. After some time he even brought a bokken with him and showed her his progress with the sword. She even had surprisingly good advice how to improve his form even further.
During their first meetings she kept most of her body submerged, only her head and some neck being out of the water. Later, she revealed to him, that there were nasty creatures in the area which she fought off, but she needed just as long to heal as a regular human. Not wishing to scare him, she had hid her body from sight.
"That's not good, you should treat your wounds!" Bontenmaru argued.
"Well, being a dragon, I can't just go buy some bandages or gather some herbs, can I?"
"Then I'll do it for you!" And sure enough, the very next day, he brought tons of bandages with him and after she explained what the herbs she needed to look like and what he was to do with them, he did as she told him. When she inspected his work, she would sometimes point some plants out to him that were very similar to the ones she needed, but unfortunately poisonous. But each time she pointed out his wrongs, he grew more determined. In the end, she was very pleased with Bontenmaru's work and let him apply the paste to her wounds, before he bandaged them. Fortunately, she was still thin enough for him to be able to wrap both arms fully around her. After finding out that she barely ever ate, he grew angry again, followed by him bringing her food the next day. Lots of fish and rice, to be exact. He would then make a fire and roast the fish, while he found some larger rocks. With her help he was able to set them up so that two rocks of roughly the same size held up a big bowl of stone the dragon had carved out. In that bowl, they prepared rice. She thanked him for the food and complimented him for the good work.
The following months, Bontenmaru could be seen going through the books of the healers at the mansion or 'playing' around in the kitchen, as they put it. But, in truth, him playing in the kitchen was him learning more about cooking or watching the cooks work. As a result, the food he made for his new best friend grew to be more and more complicated dishes and did not consist of just rice and fish. And if he had to be honest, he rather liked taking care of his friend like this. Though he still had no name for her…
That thought crossed his mind as he was on is way back home, an empty sack, previously filled with lots of rice, hung from his shoulder.
Maybe I should ask around a bit. But the people might get suspicious… I could just say that my little brother has picked up a pet, but they would figure out the truth soon enough.
"Bontenmaru-sama…!" A dangerous, but unfortunately familiar growl resonated. Startled and somewhat scared, Bontenmaru looked up to his attendant, Katakura Kojuro, with a fierce scowl bearing down at him. "Would you mind explaining to me where you keep sneaking away to?"
"K-Kojuro…I…"
"Just what were you thinking?! What if something had happened to you?! You are the next leader of the Date!"
"I know that!" Bontenmaru yelled back. Kojuro found his words stuck in his throat. This was the first time the little heir had shown such determination. "I know that it is dangerous, but I can't tell you. I promised I wouldn't!"
"You've been meeting someone?"
"Yes! And she is a dear friend of mine now! I forbid you to hurt my friend!" And with that Bontenmaru brushed past the shocked man.
Their happy days continued like this for some years, in which the dragon grew at a surprising pace, something that was blamed on the good care she received from Bontenmaru, making him blush whenever she brought it up. The meadow had grown considerably more packed as Bontenmaru had basically built his own kitchen with the dragon's help, together with a roof consisting of giant leaves his friend had found. There were also a lot of books scattered around, filled with nothing but his own notes and drawings of plants and a few pressed samples of them, more specifically herbs.
But those notes proved futile when he was one day found in his bed with an heavy fever and occasionally vomit. The healers identified it as smallpox. The estate was in an uproar, though nobody came to visit him aside from the healer, making his occasional check up on him, and Kojuro, who never once left his side. It was contagious, after all, and nobody wanted to catch it.
Eventually, his skin around his right eye started growing blasters. Soon after, he lost sight in his eye.
"Kojuro…" Bontenmaru one day called out, laying on his futon and drilling a hole into the ceiling with his glare.
"I'm here."
"Of course you're there. You were always there…" He trailed off. Kojuro remained silent. "Cut it out." Now, the man blinked, not really knowing what he meant.
"Bontenmaru-sama-…"
"My right eye, cut it out," Bontenmaru demanded.
"But I couldn't possibly-…!" Kojuro wanted to argue, but Bontenmaru interrupted him.
"I can't even see with it anymore, so what's the point of keeping it?! Besides, if you do it now, there is a chance it won't be able to spread much further!"
"Still…"
"Kojuro, that is an order. Do as I say!" Keeping his gaze locked on the young master, who still had yet to look at him, he wavered for a moment, until…
"As you wish."
A few hours later, the healer left the room, his clothing bloodied, though by far not as much as the bedding or the clothes of both the young master and his attendant, who helped him to careful clean himself and get dressed, the water basket making one believe there was blood in it instead of water. The right eye of the young master was covered by a bloodied bandage, going around his head. He had only been 9 at the time.
From then on, he had to endure the haunting the people at the estate would put him through. Talking behind his back how he couldn't possibly become the next leader now and how much better his little brother, Kojiro, would do compared to him. He once caught one of his father's retainers saying that, challenged him to a battle and beat him to a pulp with his improved swordsmanship, in which he had started to train with two swords. But being humiliated like that only led to the loser complaining to Bontenmaru's father, Date Terumune, about how unruly the young heir was behaving, lacking the air and nature of a successful leader in any aspect. His father scolded him, but he didn't pay attention to it. His thoughts were with his dragon friend.
He hadn't seen her ever since he lost his eye. On one side, he just couldn't bring up the courage to face her like this, feeling weak for letting an illness get the better of him. But on the other hand were also his friend's injuries. He wasn't stupid. He knew they increased in number and size with each day he visited. The first few visits, there hadn't been any injury, he was sure of it. Her saying she didn't want him to see them was just an excuse. Something attacked her more and more ferociously and he could feel that it was because of him. He had wanted to become stronger to defend her, he wanted to be strong like her and then some.
When dismissed from his scolding, he headed to his rooms, planning to sit on the porch outside and to get lost in his thoughts for a bit.
"Bontenmaru-sama!" He hadn't even made it to his quarters before Kojuro came up to him. "Your honorable mother, Yoshihime-sama, has requested your presence in her quarters." He sighed. He liked his mother, but he would've really preferred to be alone right now.
"Alright. I'll be there immediately."
"Do you want me to accompany you? To be frank, it would soothe my worries to know you close to me. The mansion has grown untrustworthy." Looking over his shoulder with his good eye, he mustered him incredulously.
"Do what you want." Though in his head he thought Please do. And like that he found himself in his mother's quarters, his legs tucked under him as he sat there facing her. Kojuro was outside in the corridor.
"You've summoned me, Haha-ue?"
"My dear Bontenmaru, it's been so long since I've seen you!" She hadn't looked at him a single time since he entered, hiding herself behind a blind made of bamboo with small slits, only enabling him to see her silhouette. "You kept sneaking away and then you fell ill…"
"Is there any particular reason for you summoning me here?" He didn't like it here. As a child, he would always run to his mother when something happened since his father was always busy, but this time, he couldn't think of any place that could possibly make him less comfortable.
"Now, now, that is no way to treat your mother," she scolded him. "I simply thought it would be nice to have some dinner together, just the two of us." As if they had been waiting for her to say that, two servants came in, carrying trays with food. One was set down in front of him, the other in front of Yoshihime. It was nothing special, just a bowl of rice, some fish and a side dish. The servants left again.
His mother had already picked up her bowl, which held much richer food as far as he could see. There were more bowls. His nose, already improving to make up for the loss in sight, told him that there was not just rice and fish in the room.
"What is wrong? Do eat. You must be famished from all the time you spent recovering." He did as she 'asked' him to do. Picking up the chopsticks, he lifted some rice to smell it first. All his training in cooking had resulted in him being slightly more critical where his food was concerned. Even more so, when someone else had something clearly more lavish to eat. But he found the smell of the rice to be quite delectable, so he put it into his mouth. Even many years later, he wouldn't be sure if doing so was a good or bad decision. For as soon as he swallowed his food, pain was coursing through his entire body. The rice bowl cluttered to the floor as he collapsed, gasping for air. Twisting to face his mother, he found her still hiding behind the blinds, not moving an inch.
"Do me a favor and die a painless death, Bontenmaru. Don't worry, your brother, Kojiro, will take good care of this land." He couldn't believe it. His own mother…had poisoned him!
"Kojuro!" He called, his voice already hoarse with strain. Not a second later did Kojuro burst in, causing Yoshihime to gasp, obviously she hadn't expected Kojuro to be there. He took in the scene in a matter of seconds. The dishes strewn across the floor and…
"Bontenmaru-sama!" He was there in a heartbeat, scooped the heavily breathing Bontenmaru up and exited the scene of crime, but not without casting a fierce glare at the silhouette behind the blinds. Then, he made a run, trying to find a healer. "I'll get you to the healers, just hold on!"
"No… Not…the healers…" Kojuro halted immediately.
"But you might die if we don't do something!" Where else could they get medicinal help? His eyes widened.
"Bontenmaru-sama, where have you been all this time?!"
"Sorry, Kojuro. I lost my footing and fell down a hill. Then I kinda got lost, I guess."
"As long as you're not injured, it's fine."
"You've been meeting someone?"
"Yes! And she is a dear friend of mine now! I forbid you to hurt my friend!"
That was it! He had always wondered why the young master had been without a single scratch back then. That friend of his must have medicinal knowledge!
He took off again, ran out of the house and into the woods. But he had no idea where to start looking. The forest was huge and his time left to save Bontenmaru was not in any way long enough to allow him to comb it all through.
"I KNOW YOU'RE THERE! IF YOU'RE BONTENMARU-SAMA'S FRIEND; THEN COME OUT AND HELP HIM OR HE'LL DIE!" His words echoed in the depths of the forest a couple of times as Kojuro stood panting.
"I'm here. Follow my voice." Without even questioning what he was hearing, he did as the voice told him. The voice gave him pointers where to go or told him when he was heading in the wrong direction. Eventually, he broke through the thicket and was faced with a dragon, its body half out of the water with its claws gripping the earth underneath for support and its head craned to look down at him.
"Are you the one Bontenmaru-sama sneaked off to meet for?" The dragon nodded, before her eyes focused on his burden in his arms.
"What is wrong?"
"He was poisoned and he forbid me to bring him to the healers. Please tell me you can save him!" She lowered her head. His first instinctual thought was to run, but he kept his ground. He could clearly see the dragon's nostrils go wide as she took in their scent, before she retracted her head.
"This poison is not one to be healed by any plants I know. And my healing powers only speed up the natural process of the body's own healing capabilities." Kojuro watched as the child in his arms groaned in pain.
"So there is nothing we can do…?"
"There is one way to heal him. And if we can give him the antidote depends on you."
"W-What do you mean?" He asked, looking up startled.
"Since long ago, the eyes of a dragon are said to grant immortality. What they truly do, is fighting off any issues the body, which swallowed the eye, has. In case of an otherwise healthy person, that includes old age. In other words, it is an cure-all." Kojuro couldn't help the nostalgic feeling as he remembered how Bontenmaru had ordered him to cut out his eye. "I will need you to cut out one of my eyes. I will take care of the rest. For that I will take on my human form." Kojuro nodded in understanding as he shrugged his jacket off to lay his young master on it. While he did so, he could make out an bright light from his peripheral version.
When he got up again, there stood a young woman with pale skin and hair so black as the scales and the mane she had previously donned. Her eyes had kept their blue brightness with their slitted pupils. She wore a simple white yukata, most like in preparation of what was to come. She was of average height for a woman, about a head shorter than him. She lifted her arm and pointed with her index finger to a little sort of kitchen he hadn't noticed before.
"There should be a dagger somewhere. Also, bring me a mortar, water and some honey." He was fast to find them. Who knew how much time they had left… When he came back, he found her knelling next to the still trashing Bontenmaru, one of her hands stroking his cheek, lightly brushing against the bandage. She faced him again and nodded when she saw the items in his hands. She turned her body to him and raised her head to him. His gaze turned to a piece of cloth balled in her hand that had not been occupied with stroking his master. He recognized it to be a piece she had ripped from her yukata. She closed her right eye, keeping the left one open. He understood.
"AAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" She screamed as he began gouging her eye out, though her screams became muffled, when she shoved the piece of cloth into her mouth. He admired the woman's administration of control and her tolerance for the pain she must be experiencing. Her nails were digging into the ground, likely to keep her hands from lashing out at him. He could see scales form on her arms and her hands twisting into claws-
"GAAAHH!" Fast as lightning, one of her claws had moved past her control and lashed out at him, leaving a deep wound going from the left side of his jaw upwards to dangerously point at his left eye. Blood painted the earth around them even more scarlet than before. Not to mention their clothes.
Soon, it was over and the eyeball rolled into the mortar he had filled with the water. Where it used to be now streamed a river of blood down her face despite her closing the eye. Her white yukata was already soaked with it.
She took the mortar from his hand and used the pestle to smash the eye and to mix it with the water. She then poured some honey into the sickly looking mix and then bent down to pick up Bontenmaru with her free arm. Kojuro had knelt down on Bontenmaru's other side to watch her every move when she opened the boy's mouth and lifted the concoction to his lips. His head now leaned on her shoulder as her now free hand went around his neck, massaging it to activate his swallowing reflexes.
A she drank his trashing grew considerably weaker and his strained face lost its tenseness, making it appear as though he was simply sleeping, his chest steadily rising and falling at a calm pace. When he finished it she laid him back down. Looking up, she found Kojuro now kneeling a bit further away than just a few minutes ago, bowing to her so far his forehead pressed down on the back of his hands.
"I cannot even start to express my gratitude for what you have done for us."
"If you want to thank me, then do it in my face," she demanded. Immediately, he obeyed and sat up. "That's better. I can't trust people who don't have the guts to look me in the face." Her now single eye trailed down to the boy only to shot back up again to stare at his face, or more accurately the wound she had caused. "What happened?"
"He fell ill with small pox a several days earlier. As a result, he lost sight in his right eye. He ordered me to cut it out to keep it from spreading any further," he explained, closing his eyes as if ashamed.
"Although I didn't ask for that information, it must have been horrible. What I meant was, did I accidently hit you?" She lifted a hand to trace the wound.
"Do not concern yourself with this. It is a price I paid gladly." She fell silent for a while.
"And the poison?"
"His mother. Most likely to make his younger brother the next head of the family."
"By his own family…" She closed her eye, her face giving away the pain she felt as dark clouds gathered over her head. She got to her feet, a bit unsteady at first, but quickly regaining her balance. But Kojuro had already stood up in an attempt to help her.
"You should let me treat your wound. You have lost a lot of blood." She smiled at him.
"No, don't worry over me. If I could die of something as simple as bloodloss, then I wouldn't even be here anymore. You should take Bontenmaru-kun back home and not ever leave his side. There will be a thunderstorm coming about us soon and I'd prefer knowing you two somewhere safe."
"But I owe you for saving Bontenmaru-sama's life…!" Kojuro tried to protest.
"I told you, I can't die over something like this. Immortality isn't so easy to trick, after all," she grinned sadly.
"…Alright. But may I at least know your name?"
"Hehe… You'll have to ask Bontenmaru-kun when he wakes up, I'm afraid. He wanted to give me one since I don't have one."
In the end, Kojuro followed her advice and carried his master back home, still wrapped up in his jacket. The clouds over his head were growing darker by the second. Kojuro wondered if it was the she-dragon causing it. Dragons were considered as gods of the weather after all.
Getting back home, he made sure to scare off anyone and everyone from around Bontenmaru's room where he laid him down in his futon and sat down in front of it.
Some time passed as Kojuro waited for Bontenmaru to wake up, when he noticed the increasing thunder outside. They were starting to shake the entire house! He stood up and opened the shoji screen facing the garden. The clouds covering the sky were almost black and the rain fell almost horizontal to the ground due to the strong winds. Lightning shot through the sky, bright, clear and dangerously close.
It was most likely due to the thunder that Kojuro did not notice Bontenmaru awakening and coming up behind him to see the cause of the noise, until the young boy pulled at his sleeve. Looking over his shoulder, he felt all his restrictions on his emotions loosen as his relief was clearly distinguishable.
"Bontenmaru-sama! I'm so glad you're alri-…" He interrupted himself, now with a shocked expression as he stared into his master's eye. Its formerly brown color was now a steel grey, bordering to a light blue.
"Is something wrong, Kojuro?" Bringing himself out of his thought, he shook his head.
"Nothing that can't wait a bit."
"Alright then. What's with this thunderstorm?" He stepped out of his room, despite Kojuro's warning words and attempts to pull him back in and gazed up at the sky. Coming up to the boy's left, Kojuro could only find fascination there as the lightning lit up his face. It was then that he saw Bontenmaru's eyes widen.
"What is that?" He asked pointing up into the sky. Following his gaze, Kojuro needed a bit time (and another bolt of lightning) to find what Bontenmaru meant. Something seemed to reflect the light of the lightning bolts and it moved through the storm like it was nothing. His eyes now widened as well as the realization came accompanied with another 'thunder' which he could now identify as an enraged cry of a beast.
Looking back down, he was shocked to see a trail of tears run down Bontenmaru's cheek as the boy smiled up at the heavens.
"Aoi…Kaminari," he whispered, barely understandable in the storm.
The next day held several surprises for the Date household. Yoshihime had been found dead in her chambers and no one knew who it might have been or what she even died of.
And in all that panic, Bontenmaru had gone to the tailor to demand some new clothes, which where quickly done. When he stepped in front of Kojuro like that, he was slightly proud of himself. Kojuro was completely caught off guard with the change of style.
Bontenmaru had kept to his blue hakama and white kimono, but his kimono now had a yellow neckline and had a slit starting at the crook of the elbow and going all the way to the hem of the sleeve, revealing arm protectors underneath, blue and yellow in color. His hakama had a yellow lightning pattern leading to the front and going over his knees. Around his neck was a deep sea blue scarf with an very similar, eccentric pattern, also in yellow. His eye was covered by a clean, white bandage, tied together at the back of his head.
"What do you think, Kojuro? Am I looking cool or what?" Bontenmaru grinned. Kojuro had shown him the change of his eye color in a mirror during the thunderstorm. When he had asked how that was even possible, Kojuro admitted that he had brought him to the she-dragon, though he refused to tell what it was she used to heal him. Since his eye was so similar to his friends' eyes, he thought he might as well undergo a complete change.
"It is something different, that is for sure," Kojuro stated hesitantly. Bontenmaru grinned confidently.
"Kojuro, I've decided that I'll become a dragon myself. One that protects what he claims with every fiber of his being." His grin softened to a smile. "Will you stay by my side till then?" Kojuro returned the smile and bowed deeply.
"You need not even ask." The corners of Bontenmaru's lips lifted even further.
"Halt! Who goes there?! Identify yourself!" Startled, both looked up, trying to locate the noise and what was causing.
"Sounds like the guards at the gate are having some issues." Bontenmaru didn't respond. Instead, he stormed off into the direction the noise was coming from, Kojuro once again hot on his heels. When they got to the gate, they found a group of soldiers ganged together around what a appeared to be just one person and they were yelling at them like their life depended on being the loudest out of them all.
"What is going on?" Bontenmaru demanded to know, Kojuro proudly smiling behind him as he started to take over the rule of the head of the household. The soldiers finally shut down their annoying little mouths and turned to him, successfully parting to make way for him, thusly revealing the person they were probably either scaring shitless or annoying the crap out of.
It was a woman with pitch-black hair, gleaming blue in the sunlight. She was dressed in a simple, azure blue kimono with a pale green obi. She had equally azure eyes, or rather, one equally azure eye as her left eye was hidden under a white bandage not unlike Bontenmaru's. She was smiling at him and bowed to him to show the proper respect.
"This woman just went up to the gate and demanded entrance! She refuses to give us a name or her purpose here-…"
"Her name is Aoi Kaminari. She is an acquaintance of mine. That's all you need to know," Bontenmaru stated, glaring at the soldiers who immediately scampered away from her. Letting his gaze wander over to her, he recognized her shocked expression and smiled, making her return it with understanding. She finally had a name again.
No one ever told him of the miraculous medicine that was used to heal him, but Bontenmaru was able to put two and two together. Kaminari's missing eye paired with a legend saying that the eye of a dragon would grant eternal life made him confront her about it later. She closed her eye in defeat and nodded. When he asked why she would go to such lengths, letting someone whom she did not know in the least cut out her eye.
"But I couldn't let you die. You were the first person in what felt like forever that talked to me. You weren't even afraid of me." She smiled in a reassuring manner. "And besides, it will grow back over time."
And just like that, days went by as normality started to return to the mansion. Well, at least as much as it could with a dragon in its confines. Bontenmaru grew engrossed with his training, either sparring with Kojuro or swinging his bokken around by himself.
"Bontenmaru-kun, don't you think you've trained enough?" Bontenmaru turned to Kaminari, standing on the porch that went around the estate, watching him worriedly. He focused on his sword strikes again.
"If I slack off, they'll think I can't take my position seriously. They'll believe me to be a weak, undeserving son of their lord. I'm merely the second option to choose, now. If at all." His face adopted a deep scowl. "I'll prove to them all that I'm the only one who can unite Oushu and all of Japan."
"You don't need to prove yourself. There are already many soldiers and civilians who admire your devotion to your people. If the advisors of your father don't trust you, you can't trust them in turn, so when you become the next head you can simply replace them with people you can entrust your back to." The swings paused, though his face stayed turned away from her.
"Do you trust me?" The woman's eye widened in surprise.
"Hu?"
"Do you trust me? Would you leave the future of this domain to me?"
"Of course! I have seen that you're not just the reckless, weak boy the council likes to portray you as. You are caring and thoughtful to a fault and you always take the well-being of you subordinates into consideration!" That was true. Whenever the soldiers returned from a battle, he would help them recovering, especially the stubborn ones as he had learned to do whenever he had taken care of Kaminari's wounds.
"Then can I make a request? I know I have already received more favors from you than I would ever be able to pay back…but I need to ask this of you." Now he faced her fully, looking straight into her eye, as if he was trying to find something there. "Please stay by my side. Tomorrow and the day after that, next year and the ones after that… I want to show you the world I will create thanks to all your efforts. I want to prove to you that I am grateful for you saving me," he grinned at her. The woman smiled kindly, touched by his words.
"I will stay by your side. Now and ever." She copied his grin before continuing. "I mean what would happen to this beautiful mansion without the touch of a woman? I won't have the Date mansion be a laughing stock for other generals."
They both laughed at that. Bontenmaru because of the lifted burden on his shoulder and the woman out of relief that her little lord had regained his happy self.
Improving in his training, he would more often than not try his hand at wielding several swords at once. He had already learned how to wield one sword in each hand, but he grew increasingly interested in wielding two swords in one hand, holding the hilt between his fingers. Once he had mastered that, he took one more sword since there was still room for one in each hand, making it six swords.
"The way he fights looks like a beast lashing out at its prey with its claws!" The soldiers would often say from there on out, making Bontenmaru grin whenever he overheard them say that. He would only see his younger brother when he was training and his brother happened to be outside playing or training himself. He also rarely talked to him, much preferring the company of Kojuro and Kaminari, who by this point had taken over the entire healer compartment. She also worked in the kitchen, which made it much easier for him to sneak in and cook every now and then to thank Kaminari.
The people at the estate still held some lingering suspicion against her due to the unknown circumstance of her missing eye, but since the rightful heir of the estate favored her, there wasn't much they could do. Which, unfortunately, did not mean they did nothing. There were times she would be unable to find certain ingredients or books, or times where someone would trip her in the hallway. Neither Bontenmaru nor Kojuro liked it, but since they did not know who was behind it, they couldn't do anything. Until one day, when Kaminari collapsed, wheezing and vomiting nonstop, throwing the estate into chaos once again.
Not trusting any of the healers still left in the mansion, Bontenmaru stayed with Kaminari, tending to her to the best of his abilities, using the notes he had written as a kid, brought from the meadow after Kaminari had settled into her new home. Knowing that it could only be poison that made her sick, he made sure to make her drink as much as possible to dilute the poison in her system. He knew she would not die, but still... Kaminari had once told him that, already having died once and turning into a sacred beast, she had grown immune to sickness and disease. And since she had been unable to smell it, it must have been the same poison that had nearly taken him.
The first likely culprit would have been his mother, having shown no qualms to even kill her own son, but that option was off the table. She had been dead for quite some time now, after all.
He gritted his teeth as he wrung out the soaked cloth to wash her face from the sweat. When he caught whoever was responsible for this, he would make them pay dearly!
Hearing some noise just outside the door, he walked over with his bokken in his hand and ripped it open, making it slam against the frame. Outside there stood four young soldiers with some more standing behind them in the garden or to the sides on the porch, now all with a startled expression on their face.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Bontenmaru asked confused. The soldiers now all looked really embarrassed.
"Well," one of them with a dark tan started. "We kinda wanted to offer our help in whatever way possible. We're all new here and we feel like we owe it to you and Kaminari-sama for taking such good care of us while we were injured." The rest of them nodded. Bontenmaru's stance relaxed.
"What is your name?" Surprised the man looked up.
"It's Oniniwa Yoshinao."
"'Oni', hu?" He grinned. "I like that. Alright then. I want you guys to keep watch for any suspicious people around the estate while you're performing your duties. Don't act out of the norm in any case, immediately report to me if you find something."
"HAI!" And off they went. Bontenmaru watched them go as Kojuro rounded the corner from the other side.
"You are going to be a great commander in the future, Bontenmaru-sama."
"You think so?" he asked absentmindedly.
It was thanks to everyone's efforts that, one day, Kojuro raced to Kojiro's room and threw the shoji screen open and just gaped. There, in the middle of the room stood Bontenmaru with his back to him, his clothing smeared with blood and a real sword in his hand just as bloody. To his feet lie his brother, Kojiro, completely motionless.
"I'd been hoping we would be able to live peacefully, maybe next time," Bontenmaru mumbled.
"Bontenmaru-sama…" Startled, Bontenmaru turned to look at him.
"Oh, you're there, Kojuro." He turned to stare down at his brother. "I didn't have a choice. He was behind the poisoning of Kaminari. I'll have to see to it that the cooks and healers get fired eventually." He now completely turned to his long time friend and held his gaze confidently. "I will inherit this Clan without fail and make something new of it." And that was how he came to be branded as a cruel and ruthless Daimyo later on. After getting his revenge, he dedicated his time to nursing Kaminari back to health, getting Yoshinao or one of the others for help every once in a while.
On his 13th birthday, he was given the name 'Masamune' to symbolize his status as a grown man. He cooked a feast up to celebrate it with his most trusted people, Kojuro, Yoshinao, the other three men who had been with Yoshinao back then -Samenosuke, Magobei and Bunshichi- and especially Kaminari. He actually couldn't remember the last time he'd had so much fun, when everything was just fine. The very next day, however, Kaminari was gone without a trace.
Masamune awoke with a start, drenched in his sweat.