The ancient dojo of the Phoenix Bushi School was filled with the smell of sweat;
both the older scent of ages past and also the fresh pungent odor of the two
young men standing in a dueling position. Both of the men stood with their feet
in proper place, shoulders at just the right angle, and hands positioned
correctly for a defensive posture. However, one of the students facing was
slightly off; his eyes were covered with a sweat soaked piece of tattered red
cloth.
Kenshi's conscious thoughts floated through his mind, I have to wait for him to
drop his guard at the right moment. Kenshi realized his mistake too late. Having
a conscious thought, he was unable to hold onto his connection to all that was
around him. His world dropped into the familiar darkness of his useless eyes. Oh
no, not now. How could I leave myself this way? Must stop thinking. Too late to
gather myself. Must listen to… Juno's bokken strikes to Kenshi's arm ended the
practice duel as well as Kenshi's flurry of thoughts.
"That is all for the day students," the elderly sensei told his students. The
sensei surveyed his students, moving around the dojo with more grace and agility
that would seem possible for his age.
With temerity born of frustration, Kenshi spoke out of turn. "Sensei-sama, I
would like to try again. If you do not mind." Kenshi tried to keep his voice
even and paced.
The sensei rubbed his chin and his slightly balding hair, contemplating the
request. It seems to Kenshi that the request hung the air for quite some time.
Finally, the sensei nodded, "Very well. One more pass. Juno-san, resume your
position again." Juno, the sensei's prize student, was the best to have come
through the dojo in the past ten years. He bowed politely to the sensei and then
to Kenshi. Then he raised his bokken to a defensive posture. The sensei knew the
outcome of this fight already. Kenshi was not bad at the sword. However, the
combined effect of facing the best of students plus being blind meant that
Kenshi had little chance of success. However, it was his duty to teach all those
that his clan sent to his dojo.
Kenshi bowed appropriately to the sensei and Juno. Raising his bokken, he
cleared his mind. Without thinking of why, how, or anything, he positioned
himself to block a first form flurry movement. The students watching felt that
this was a bad posture for Kenshi. They knew that an advanced student like Juno
would never use a remedial flurry attack to open. Kenshi registered
unconsciously the air rippling between them, the sweat beading on Juno's palms,
and the tension pulsing between them. Quickly crossing his feet and shifting his
hands, Kenshi blocked Juno's strike. Everyone, including the sensei, was
surprised. Kenshi had switched forms to prevent Juno from ending the duel in a
single hit. The block would have been difficult for a sighted student standing
in proper form let alone the blind so obviously out of position. Kenshi was
elated. With the successful block he had created an opening for a strike. Yes, I
must strike quickly before Juno recov… It was too late. In the fractions of
seconds of conscious thought, Juno had hit the back of Kenshi's knee sending him
to the matt.
"Mati. Stop." The sensei's voice was firm there would not be a third pass of
this duel. Shiba Taka motioned for the students to leave him alone with Kenshi.
Kenshi rose and bowed to the sensei. "I apologize, sensei. I am trying."
"No need to apologize to me, Kenshi-san. You made a big step today. You still
have much to learn but now you have found the road. We will continue tomorrow."
Dear Kenshi-san,
My studies go well here. I am making much progress and looking forward to seeing you again. I spoke to the monks here at the castle and told them your… our story. They have agreed to train you in a form of a kiho. They say that, after a fashion, it will let you see again. Leave as soon possible, and I will here to receive you.
Your brother,
Yuki
Kenshi's fingers caressed the parchment. He couldn't read the words, but he knew
them well. When his little sister had read them once, he had memorized them. Our
story, Yuki had written. Our story.
It felt like yesterday to Kenshi. They had been climbing the freshly snow
covered mountains. Kenshi would have loved to see those mountains again. More
truly he would have loved to see them while standing next to his mother and
brother.
"Come now, Kenshi," his mother had said to him trying to break him from his
reverie with a voice that rang down from heavens.
"Yeah, if you don't hurry up we will never reach home by sundown," his brother
said in a tone that in no way resembled his mother's lyrical nature.
"Hai, hai. I'm coming, I'm coming," Kenshi had only half heartedly replied.
The climb had been one that they had done many times. The two brothers
frequently asked their mother if they could go this route. There was a large
wooded area where they played, pretending that it was enchanted. On that day,
though, the forest seemed cold as if Lord Sun didn't feel like fighting with the
snow.
Kenshi was the first to see the group of men coming toward them. It was Yuki
that realized that the men were not coming toward them but rather were going
past them. Yuki turned to look deep into the forest to see where the Phoenix
bushi and ashigaru were headed.
In the forest were several bandits. The bandits were already rushing toward the
bushi and ashigaru, ignoring the calls for surrender. The bandits were easily
handling the ashigaru. However, the samurai fought like Lord Sun had given him
strength. One of the cowardly bandits chose to run rather than face the bushi.
As he ran, he caught sight of Kenshi's family. Changing his mind, the bandit
chased the trio, grabbing Kenshi's mother by the kimono.
Fresh tears formed at the edges of Kenshi's useless eyes as he remembered that
day. He saw his mother clawing at the man's face. Kenshi and Yuki leapt at the
man, beating him with their small fists in impotent rage. The man pushed both of
them aside easily. Reestablishing his grasp on Kenshi's mother, he turned to
leave. It was then that Yuki's body began to tremble and float off the ground.
His eyes not only rolled back in his head but turned obsidian black. Though
looking like insubstantial wisps, night black tendrils flowed from Yuki's hands
passing through his mother to seize the man in a steel embrace. The bandit's
body raised into the air twisting like a rag doll caught in the jaws of a puppy.
Soundlessly the man screamed. Oily black tears flowed from Yuki's eyes. The
man's skin erupted with pustules that poured an unctuous fluid all over his skin
encasing him entirely. Then the man's form indistinct and vague in the black
shell began dissipating. It seemed to dissolve into the very air around them
until finally no trace of the man existed.
Yuki's body slumped to ground; all the uncontrolled and unbridled power within
him spent. His mother rushed to his side. Kenshi turned to see how the Shiba was
doing against the remaining bandits.
He was doing better than holding his own. He flowed through the combat with the
grace of water dodging around the trees. His sword would raise and fall. In each
motion a different bandit fell. One man cut to the bone. Another beheaded. A
third stabbed in his midsection, and then cut nearly in half.
The leader of the bandits was not a stupid man. He realized that he was over
matched by the bushi. Not having seen the fate of his companion, the leader
reached to grab a hostage. Kenshi cursed himself for not moving. Not kicking.
Not screaming. Instead, he paused. Doing nothing, as the bandit picked him up
about the waste placing a tanto to his face.
The bandit glared at Kenshi's mother. "I will kill your folly unless you tell
the Shiba I died in the fight." His words meaningless since the Shiba had just
turned toward him. Realizing that he had not enough time to deceive the Shiba,
the bandit turned to face him. In that instant of distraction, Kenshi's mother
made a desperate lunge for her child to pull him from harms way.
Kenshi remembered how her hair shimmered, bathed in a silver light reflecting
the brilliance of Lord Sun. He recalled how her kimono flowed as she flew toward
him. However graceful and poetic her motions were, they were too slow. The
bandit seeing her coming, screamed at her with a guttural cry calling on dark
powers. His blade sliced across Kenshi's eyes, the falling blood powering his
infernal spell. Kenshi's last sight was the steel of the tanto and his mother's
anguish.
The Shiba trying to save the woman tackled the bandit. As the bandits footing
gave way, both of them plummeted over the cliff. Kenshi never knew the samurai's
name. He and his brother picked up the Shiba's fallen daishio. With great
reverence, they carried it down the mountain. It took them almost a week to get
down the mountain. Many times Yuki had to stop Kenshi from almost walking off
the cliffs. There had been many times since then that Kenshi had wished Yuki had
let him walk off the cliffs then.
Once they had reached Pale Oak Castle, the shugenja tended to their wounds. It
wasn't until a day afterward that Kenshi understood what they had meant that his
eyes had healed incorrectly and too much time had passed. He would never be able
to see again.
That fear was almost as great as the day Yuki said that he was leaving to go
train with the Void shugenja in Kyuden Isawa. Kenshi had had to rely on him for
almost everything until he was able to remember where everything was or how to
tell various sounds apart. Kenshi had felt that darkness would encase him again
when Yuki set out.
Now, halfway through spring, Kenshi placed his own feet on the path. Idly he
wondered if his feet where on the same road or even same spot as his brother. He
was going to Kyuden Isawa to learn a kiho. From there, if he was able, he would
learn the way of the sword. He would never hesitate again.