Materia Knight: Yes, I know. Don't worry, you won't be disappointed… Samu comes next.
2sidez: I do too. It was hard to keep typing like that… I'm sure I slid his accent out a couple times on accident.
MidKnight: I thought that might catch someone's attention… I'm glad you're still liking it!
Lets hear it for inspiration. And no, I don't pretend to be an expert on Japanese culture. Flame me if you want to, I had fun writing it. So there.
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Chapter 8: Samurai
"Die kunst des Blattes"
"Naganuma-san… I thought… I thought we were allies… friends…"
"It promised me more than my alliance with you could ever give me, Kakori-sama."
Warjilis was always one of the stranger trade cities. People from all over the world happened there at least once, even if it was for a ship to restock it's supplies. It wasn't out of the ordinary to spot someone quite legendary there… Warjilis was an important place. It was also the most dangerous… if you attempted once to avoid someone in your life, you would find them there, if anywhere.
"So… it ends here then… you're going to kill me, aren't you."
"You'll only slow me down… it says that if I kill you now, I'll be able to carry out the plans unfettered… without anything holding me back."
This particular scene was on one of the city's flat roofs… it hadn't begun there, though. The flashing of swords in the night had begun in the streets, gradually making its way clear across the expanse of the city. Over boxes, through the empty night-time streets, through some poor woman's broken house… and finally, here.
"…do you care nothing about your honor? I valued you… I valued your very presence."
"You didn't have the skill to impress me… and honor is sought through power, not power through honor."
"You are… a fool for thinking so."
Two figures on the roof stared at one another, one disarmed and kneeling, the other standing with two short, bloody wakizashis… a black-clothed ninja, and a red-clothed samurai in broken armor. The ninja was obviously male from the hard tone of his voice, though most of the face had been wrapped in cloth and the lightest armor covred the chest, under the ebony fabric. The Samurai was female, though the fact couldn't be made readily apparent by her voice alone. Words were interspersed with choking and coughing up blood, most likely from the wounds Naganuma had inflicted. Her katana, Kikuichimoji, had fallen off the roof somewhere, and she lacked the strength now to retrieve it. What an end…
"A fool to believe the truth?"
"A fool… to rely on evil for your strength…"
"You are long-winded, Kakori-sama."
And she was a fool, she knew, for believing Naganuma would fight with the honor he said no longer existed within him… even now, his eyes blazed with the green of Serpentarius's light, the exact shade of color that hung from his neck on a small silver chain. Hidaeki, her teacher, had instructed her to never assume fairness in an opponent… in a question, of course. Kakori had a habit of answering his questions wrong, during that instruction…
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"Your teaching, as always, begins with a question. This is not your normal dojo, Kakori."
"You show me disrespect, Hidaeki-sensai? I have done nothing."
"My preference is my own. Your first question is why I use your name only. Answer it."
"I… I do not know, Hidaeki-sensai."
"You will learn."
She burst out laughing, blood spraying from her cut lip, eyes closed at the memory… and even after she graduated, she felt as if she had learned nothing… Hidaeki-sama had ordered her to find her own answers in the world… it was really too bad this would be the end of her choice in the matter.
"Why do you laugh? You are about to die, Kakori-sama… if you value honor so much, you should do it silently."
"Because I am a fool, Naganuma… I thought spoken respect mattered, but I couldn't be more wrong. I thought appearance and being a symbol was important… but the deeds are the only thing that matter."
"Kakori, how many arts of the katana exist?"
"Thirteen, for the zodiac? No, it must be ten, for the number of blades…"
"You know nothing of the answer, Kakori…"
"I am a fool, Naganuma, because there is only one art of the katana… the blade is only your brush, and the katana does not refer only to the edge…"
"What the hell do you speak of?"
"Kakori, which is more important: knowledge of yourself, knowledge of your foe, or knowledge of your blade?"
"Er… knowledge of the blade and the foe, sensei… one for what it can do, two for how to use it…"
"You are wrong, Kakori-baka."
"I am a fool for there is always another foe, and you can never know everything about them… but you can always know yourself, if you try…"
"Have you gone insane, Kakori-sama? What a fitting end to you."
Kakori stood gently, her every joint protesting at this… one hand gently untied the knots binding her red-painted genji mail, the pieces falling to the stone of the rooftop as the small, broken smile on her green-eyed face never ceased.
"I think I am saner than I ever was, Serpentarius…"
The right-hand wakizashi came in a downwards stab, merciless in it's unerring speed towards Kakori's head… and the flat of the blade was caught between the palms of Kakori's hands, the smile still on her face. Firm hands pulled the weapon away from the stunned man, shifting her grip and taking the handle in both hands. It was shorter than she was used to… but that was fine. Think of it as a broken blade…
"What the… how did you… no!"
"I think we should… try this again…"
"But this isn't a fair fight. You're wounded!"
"That didn't stop you before Serpentarius… suddenly had a change of heart about this 'honor' thing you so despise?"
"Why are you CALLING me that?"
"Because I'm not fighting Naganuma… I'm fighting that rock."
The rush was fast, his remaining blade coming at chest height as tabi'd feet barely made any noise on the rooftop… and it was stopped by a firm hilt to the head and a sandal to the stomach. Pushed away, he coughed and sputtered for air…
"Stop using Naganuma's moves and let me fight you."
"You're not giving me a lot of choice, I see…"
"Honor is useless… the deed is the thing."
"Then we shall battle on those terms."
Was it just the imagination, or did the rooftop get darker? It seemed almost solid, somehow… one couldn't see the street anymore, from where they were. It felt sealed off… caged. Still, Kakori wasn't caught terribly off-guard when several demons materialized out of the stuff… weird, misshapen things of seemingly random origin, grotesque and disgusting by anyone's standards. Serpentarius… Naganuma… whatever his name, he seemed to have recovered himself. Stray black hairs of long length were pushed out of Kakori's face, her feet grinding into the rooftop as she steeled her broken body…
"Round two, then. Let this be the last one, Kakori-sama."
But he made no action… the demons screamed, howled, echoed through the night as they rushed and leapt for Kakori Sato's now-unprotected throat. It was a hellish noise, something from the nightmares of madmen. None, however, were as loud as Kakori's silence. It rained monsters, then limbs… black ichor speckled and painted the roof, her makeshift brush decorating the ground upon which they stood. Finally the swarm ended, leaving a tired Kakori painted black herself…
Gently she turned her head, spitting more black onto the platform. It had a rancid taste… not that she'd meant to find out. One hand wiped the grimy liquid away from her eyes, refocusing on the ebony figure in front of her, silken in the enclosed darkness… and growing in her vision as her sandaled feet thunked the rooftop, Wakizashi held by her side for speed. Serpentarius's glowing emerald eyes widened visibly behind the black fabric, readying himself…
…and the blades met between them, grinding against one another as Kakori slashed upwards and he moved the edge to block it horizontally. The noise… like nails on a blackboard. Even unbendable as the weapons were, the snapback was immense. Sato twirled to redirect the momentum, spinning to the left as Serpentarius's hasty thrust cut at her grime-drenched robe, where she'd been but a second ago. Her second slash at head-height was spotted, his head ducking underneath it. As he came up again, the blade did too, point first…
…only Kakori wasn't nearly as close as he'd thought she was. Fast movement had taken her several steps back, Wakizashi replaced at her side with the handle pointing towards her target. He'd been left wide open from his upwards stab, the edge nowhere near close enough to his chest to defend as her second rush brought her close in, the edge spinning to face forwards with the point plunged deeply into his chest… twin blade dropped from Serpentarius's hands as he stared incredulously.
"You… I… no… imposs…"
"Sorry, Naganuma… you will be given proper ceremony, I swear it…"
In her teachings, there had been one question that she'd correctly answered the first time…
"Kakori-baka, I have taught you that respect is useless… and yet you still call me sensei. I will ignore this if you can possibly give me an example of respect that must be given."
"You must show respect to your friends, sensei… it is important, for your friends are the only ones who will always be on your side."
"But what if that friend were to turn on you, of his own volition?"
"Then you should find out why… but your friend that person remains."
"Under what circumstances would a person cease to be your friend?"
"When the person ceases to be that person, sensei."