Synopsis: Kyuuzou's departure only brings more questions to Kanbei.
Notes:
- See Chapter 2 of companion fic Happy Endings for whom the strange lock of hair belongs to and how it came to be in Kyuuzou's possession. (NO love interest, despite appearances.)
- As to the origin of the package, see Chapter 15.
In the northern city of Hokuhei…
Ayame awoke with a start. Sweat was pouring down her forehead. In her dream she was young again, standing under the maple tree looking down at little Kyuuzou. He was lying on the ground motionless, blood staining his clothes. It was like what happened when she was 13 and he was 10, and yet different. This time there was more blood, much more blood. And the blood was spreading in ever widening circles. Young Ayame screamed and screamed. "It's not my fault! I didn't do it! I found him like this!" Then she had the strange thought that perhaps this time, it had nothing to do with her.
It was not that long ago when she received Kyuuzou's letter from Kanna. He was well, and sounded happier than he had been in a long time. He asked for more soy protein tablets. She had just sent him a whole stack of them. Everything was all right. But then why did she feel so sick? It was just a nightmare. Or was it?
Third Sister tried desperately to sense Fourth Sister's energy, even though she knew it would be futile. Their mental link worked only within a certain distance. Kanna or Kougakyo, or wherever else Kyuuzou might be, were all too far away.
---
In Kanna…Shichiroji had given the dead samurai's garments to Kirara to wash and mend before the two human samurai were to be dressed for burial. With a heavy heart, the priestess washed Heihachi's blood-soaked clothes and hung them out to dry. Then she fetched a fresh bucket of water and poured it into the washing trough. The peasant woman dunked Kyuuzou's scarlet robe into the trough and watched the crimson blood diffuse through the clear water. She scrubbed the dress vigorously to get all the blood out of it. That was when something fell out of a hidden pocket on the inner side of the red robe.
It was a piece of human hair, dreaded in a slender lock. The color was dark brown – nearly black. It was obviously not Kyuuzou's hair. There were two beads – one white, one blue - attached to one end of the lock. Kirara stared at it in surprise. She never before thought of Kyuuzou as someone with human attachments. To whom did this hair belong? Did the silent samurai have a lover?
---
"Kanbei-sama…" Kirara said when the commander and Shichiroji came by to pick up the dead samurai's cleaned and mended garments. "Look what I found inside Kyuuzou's pocket."
She showed them the lock of dark hair she had carefully placed in a small piece of clean blue cloth. Kanbei's expression was unreadable. Judging by the beads decorating the lock, it was a woman's hair. The same question that Kirara asked herself came immediately to Kanbei's mind. Did Kyuuzou have a lover? A deceased beloved? Or a living woman waiting for him to return? That someone must obviously be of much import to the scarlet samurai if he were to carry a memento of her on his person. The thought stabbed at Kanbei's already pained soul. He had never thought it possible to feel such deep jealousy on account of a dead man.
Kirara waited for Kanbei's response, and receiving none, asked. "What shall we do with it?"
The dark samurai answered in a neutral tone. "Just put it back where you found it. We'll bury it with him." Then he turned and left abruptly. Shichiroji looked at his friend, confused. The blond quietly received the clean garments from the hand of Kirara and followed after his leader.
---
Kanbei watched without any show of emotion as they buried their three comrades beside Gorobei. His eyes rested on the twin swords over Kyuuzou's grave. What would he have given to hear all the quiet young man's secrets? But now all those secrets had gone to the silent grave with the pale warrior. Kanbei felt grief, regret and a deep dissatisfaction. But there was nothing he could do to bring Kyuuzou back.
Yet that was not the end of the mystery generated by the crimson swordfighter. Two days after the funeral, a package arrived in Kanna by turtle courier. It was addressed to Kyuuzou. The peasants brought the brown paper box to Kanbei. Everyone was curious and wanted to open it. Kanbei examined the package. There was no return address, but the writing on the box looked like a woman's handwriting. The dark ronin's thoughts wandered to the strange lock of dark hair Kirara found in Kyuuzou's red jacket. But as heavily tempted as Kanbei was to find answers about Kyuuzou's past, he decided to do the honorable thing and let the box keep its secrets. "We will not open the package without its owner's leave," he said. "We'll just leave it as an offering before Kyuuzou's grave."
The winter snows fell on the lonely box in front of Kyuuzou's crude grave. By the time spring came and the snow thawed, the paper box had started to come apart. When Kanbei came to visit the grave, he caught glimpses of small plastic packages through the holes in the brown paper box. But still, he resisted the temptation to rip the box open and examine its contents. He tried to console himself with the thought that Kyuuzou had someone who cared enough for him to send him a gift. But somehow, the thought brought the old ronin no joy. He once allowed himself the foolish wish that he could have that place in Kyuuzou's life. But that was not his fate. And now it seemed it could never be even if Kyuuzou had lived. The idea pained him.
The spring rains came and went. Rice planting season began. Now the paper box in front of Kyuuzou's grave had really fallen to pieces. Everyone could see its contents - the plastic packages labeled "soy protein tablets". There was a letter accompanying the packages, but even if Kanbei wanted to read the letter, the rains had already compacted it into an unreadable wad of stained paper.
"Just like everything between us," Kanbei thought. "Everything between Kyuuzou and me has turned out to be an unreadable, unsolvable muddle."
---
Kanbei left Kanna with Shichiroji during rice planting season. Sanae and Rikichi had finally reconciled and found peace together. Shimada Kanbei's work was done. He no longer had any reason to stay, so he left the graves of his comrades behind and continued on the road of life.
Still, sometimes in his dreams, the stern commander thought he could hear Kyuuzou calling his name. Those were painful dreams that left him feeling uneasy and unsatisfied when he awoke.
---
Three months had passed since Ayame sent the package to Kanna. There was no reply from Kyuuzou. Third Sister was concerned, but not overly so. After all, Kyuuzou had sometimes gone for months without writing while he was living in Kougakyo. Still, the dark woman felt a vague sense of unease whenever she remembered the strange nightmare. Three more months passed. There was still no word from 'Fourth Sister'.
By now Ayame could no longer ignore her instincts. She had the nagging feeling that something was wrong for a long time. Sometimes she could almost hear Kyuuzou calling to her, somewhere on the strange plane between mind and spirit. The war veteran left the running of "From Swords to Sewing Machines" to her assistant temporarily while she set out on a long trip.
-------
Three weeks later…In the city of Kougakyo, a dark woman with dreadlocks stood before a tan woman in a spotless office.
"A pointless exercise," the researcher with golden brown skin said to her companion.
"Name your price, Sayoko-dono" the stubborn reply came from the dark-skinned woman with topaz eyes. "I can pay you in installments."
"What do you take me for, friend?" the scientist with the dark purple hair said as she raised her eyebrows. "We've been through a war together. You think that money is the issue?"
"Then WHAT is the problem?" the unsmiling woman with near-black hair asked as she crossed her arms with a hint of impatience. "It's just taking things one step further than what you usually do!"
"I already told you WHY it would not work!" Sayoko exclaimed with more than a hint of exasperation.
---
Kyuuzou found himself stuck in a never-ending nightmare. The scene would play itself over and over. He was drowning in a sea of blood. Each time he managed to break through the surface for air, the spirits of those he had slain would drag him back down into the crimson depths. Tessai was grabbing his left ankle, and Hyogo his right. He could have kicked free of both of them if not for the fact that Tessai and Hyogo were in turn weighed down by other dead samurai clinging on to them. And those other people were in turn being dragged down by yet more lost souls.
Kyuuzou sank into the crimson sea. He had nothing to hang on to. No way to save himself. As the sticky redness flooded his lungs, the once haughty warrior felt a real terror he had rarely known in life. Never before he had felt helpless enough to call for aid from another. "Mother!" he wordlessly screamed. "Aunt!!!"
The silent killer flailed about uselessly in the red sea as other tormented spirits pressed in around him. There was no escape. "Ayame!!!" Kyuuzou cried out in his mind. "Sister!!!" He never thought he would ever lose his pride enough to beg for help from the person whose 'help' he had always resented.
When the sickening red ooze closed in around him for what he thought would be the last time, the red samurai screamed once more. The unwanted, unsought-for words left his mouth before he could call them back. "Kanbei!!!"
Then he would drown again. And the dream would repeat itself.
But after a long time, he did not know how long, there was a break in the dream's predictable and horrific pattern. Kyuuzou was struggling helplessly in the red sea when he saw a brown hand reach down to him. A woman's hand with a 6-petal flower tattoo. It was Mother! He seized that hand and clung on .
The red warrior held onto the brown hand tightly as it pulled him out of the crimson sea. When he reached the surface, he took a big gasp of air, and looked up at the owner of the hand. It was Shizuka. Mother and Aunt stood before him on the shining shore of the blood red sea. Their faces were just as Kyuuzou remembered them, proud and noble. Yet there was a difference. They appeared ageless. Aunt no longer looked sick. As for Mother, the stern former soldier seemed gentler and kinder in death than in life. Kyuuzou felt as if he was a child again.
"I am so sorry, okaa-sama and oba-sama." Kyuuzou prostrated himself as he cringed with shame, "I wanted to send you a gift before I came here, or at least bring it to you. But…"
"We never expected you to bring us anything, dear child." Shizuka looked down on him kindly, with a hint of sadness in her eyes. "We just wanted you to live a good life."
"And have I lived a good life?" the pale samurai looked up at them, suddenly afraid.
"Only Heaven has the last word on a human life," Rumi said quietly.
Then the two figures started fading away before his eyes.
"Wait! Wait!" Kyuuzou cried out. He reached for Mother's hand…
There was a flash of light. Kyuuzou opened his eyes and found himself holding onto a brown hand. But its color was a shade darker than Mother's and there was no 6-petal flower tattoo on it. It was not Mother's hand.
Author's Comments:
OK, so Retribution has started up again. No ETA as to when I'm releasing the next chapter though. There are still some issues I'm thinking through with Kanbei's character and Kyuuzou's relationship with him. See my profile page for the questions I'm trying to answer and weigh in if you like.
- The Ayame section was inspired by a local news story of a man whose brother was killed while serving in Iraq. Before he received any notification of his brother's death, the man knew his sibling had died when he suddenly and inexplicably felt sick.