Tsuruchi

Written by John Wick

“It is as if you do not aim,” I told Tsuruchi. He smiled, “The arrow knows the way.”

“History is what comes before. All things after are fate.”
-Yogo Oshio

This is not a handsome story, nor is it an honorable one. But it is a
true story, and if you listen well, you will learn the lessons of those
who helped make it.

It takes place fifteen years ago in the lands just south of the Scorpion
border, at the great castle of Ashinagabachi, a castle that once held
the family of noble Bayushi Uchinore, a cousin of the scorpion daimyo
(Clan Lord) and a lover of beautiful things. One of those things was the lovely Akodo Tameko, daughter of Akodo Ranabe.

Their love was one to rival the gossip that surrounded it, and their
nights of heated passion produced a son at least, that’s what Tameko
told her lover and her father. Uchinore cared little for the proof of
the boy’s blood, and accepted him as his son, even though he was
scheduled to marry another later that year. The boy grew quick and strong, but much to the Scorpions’ dismay, he was not sent to Bayushi castle to be trained in the arts of his ancestors. Uchinore and Tameko tutored the boy themselves, despite their family’s objections. He showed great talent for bugei especially in the art of kyujutsu. He mother nicknamed him “Tsuruchi,” which means “Little Wasp.”

The Scorpion grew quite concerned about the heir apparent of their
southern gateway, but Uchinore disregarded their disquiet. Likewise,
Crane courtiers whispered about the “shame of the Akodo” who had taken
residence in the arms of a Scorpion, daring even to bear him a bastard.
Quieter whispers were passed between the Scorpion and Lion, whispers of
betrayal and murder.

On New Year’s Day, a Scorpion assassin entered the halls of Uchinore’s
home disguised as a servant. As the day progressed, the assassin inched
his way toward the boy. Uchinore spotted the impostor just as a small
glass bottle of poison slipped from the assassin’s fingers. That fumble
gave the daimyo time to move, pull the assassin away from his son, and
find an envenomed blade in his own throat. Tameko found a companion
blade in her side as she turned to see her smiling maid twist the knife,
then run into the castle. The assassins escaped as Tsuruchi stood
stunned, his parent’s spirits fleeing their dying bodies. Within an
hour, the south wall scouts spotted a Lion army moving through Crane
territory. Still a year away from his gempukku ceremony, Tsuruchi organized the castle’s army into defensive positions. Their commanders, however, had different orders. They turned on the boy, commanding their sergeants to kill the bastard. Tsuruchi saw doubt in the soldier’s eyes and knew exactly what was about to happen.

“The Lions are at our doors!” he shouted. “Do you think they will spare any of us? Do you think they care which Scorpion is the master of the castle? We are nothing to them. We have been betrayed, my friends! Stand with me now, and I promise you that we will turn back the Lions and gain revenge on those who have turned against us!”

His words were not enough. Swords were drawn and a long and bloody
skirmish began. After it was done, Tsuruchi was alive, but only a third
of his father’s army was left standing. Half of them were o sorely
wounded that they would not be able to fight the advancing Lion army.
The young warrior went to the wall to see whose banner led the army and
found it was the army of his mother’s brother. Tsuruchi cursed the
fortunes and prepared for defeat. When his uncle arrived, Tsuruchi went out with five guards to meet him. His uncle saw the wounds on the Scorpions and nodded with understanding.

“Your cousins have done as they promised,” he said. “But I am no Scorpion. I am here to offer you a way out.”

“I am listening,” Tsuruchi answered.

“You have two choices. You can surrender or fight. If you surrender, I
will spare the lives of all honorable men who surrender with you. If
you choose to fight, I will kill every man, woman, and child in the
place.”

Tsuruchi nodded. “Very well. Give me until sunset to consider.”

“I give you one hour,” his uncle said. Then, he rode back to his army.

Tsuruchi watched as the Lions prepared for battle. Their ranks reached
so far back, it seemed as if they stretched to the horizon. He rode
back to the castle and considered his position.

His shugenja (priest) had already communicated their position to Bayushi
castle, but they were offered no solace. “Our armies are too far away,”
they responded. “You stand alone.” Tsuruchi knew better. He knew a Scorpion army lay hidden somewhere, waiting for the Lion to engage, then attack while they recovered from their siege. His Clan had already written his death into their history books.

As he thought of his uncle’s offer, to voices pounded in his head. The
first was his mother, urging him to fight, no matter what the price.
The second was his father, telling him to be practical. He could not
win. The Lions were too many. They had crossed bad land to reach the
southern border, thereby knowing that the south was the most difficult
to defend. “They must have the castle plans,” he thought. “My kin do
not miss a detail.”

“They are counting on me being a Lion to spite them. But I shall show
them different.”

An hour after he made the offer, Tsuruchi’s uncle saw his nephew ride
forth, waving a banner of surrender. The Lion armies cheered a sad hurrah, eager to see Scorpion blood spill. Tsuruchi’s uncle shifted in his saddle. This was not in the plan. Sitting beside him, a man dressed in Lion armor leaned close and whispered to him. The Lion recoiled from the whisper as if the man had spit into his ear.

“No,” he said. “I will not.”

The man dressed in Lion armor smiled. I am certain your lady, Matsu
Kajitoko why you chose to ignore her orders.” And with those words, he
passed a scroll bearing the Matsu family seal into the Lion’s hands.

Tsuruchi’s uncle opened the scroll and read the words, then, crumpled
the letter and threw it to the earth with tears in his eyes.

As Tsuruchi approached with his guards, he saw his uncle throw something
to the ground and shut his eyes tight. Then, he saw him draw his katana
(samurai sword) high into the air. The last sound he heard was his
uncle giving the command to charge.

Tsuruchi did not know why the fortunes saw fit to spare him on that day,
as well as seventy of his father’s soldiers. They watched the Lions
occupy the castle and hang those who were not lucky enough to escape on
the castle walls.

In the shadow of those woods, Tsuruchi drew his bloodstained sword from
its sheath and laid it on a rock. The samurai blade broke under the
strength of his foot.

“I will never again carry the samurai’s weapon,” he said to the men who
surrounded him. “For I am samurai no longer.”

Years pass by quickly if you don’t keep your eye on them. Before he
knew it, Tsuruchi’s uncle had been master of castle for two of them.
One night, as he lay sleeping in his bed, he felt a painful pressure on
his arms and the drip of cold water on his face. When he opened his
eyes, he saw his nephew, crouching over him, a foot on each arm, a bow
in his hands, and an arrow resting on his throat.

“If you surrender,” Tsuruchi said, “do you think I’ll spare you?”

He stammered, a bit. Before he could finish his words, Tsuruchi stood and fired the arrow shot through his throat. It took him a fair time to die, and Tsuruchi watched every second. Moments later, the garrison house caught fire. The doors and windows were barred, so none of the bushi could escape. It took them quite a while longer to die than their master.
Tsuruchi didn’t bother to watch them die.

By morning, the Lions who did not surrender were dead. Those who did
were freed with Tsuruchi’s warning. “Let the Lion know,” he told them,
” that this land is now mine. It is not Lion land and it is not Scorpion land. It is my land, and may the Fortunes take pity on any man, Lion or Scorpion, who thinks I have any mercy in my heart for those who conspire to take it from me&.”

Despite his bold words, Tsuruchi knew he had a problem. A Scorpion army
could march on him from Bayushi castle within days. The Lion could
likewise move against him. With an army of only forty-seven, Tsuruchi
needed an ally.

Tsuruchi visited upon the Emerald Champion and then upon the Daimyo of
the Crane Clan. The young man told them his story; told them his
conviction. Doji Utori, the Crane daimyo, was disappointed in Tsuruchi’s
renouncement of bushido, but his friend Doji Tsukihi, the Emerald
Champion, saw conviction in the boy’s eyes.

“Let him speak,” asked Tsukihi.

Utori considered it, and at once said “speak, samurai.” When Utori referred to the young man as “samurai,” Tsuruchi shook his head.

“I am samurai no longer.”

Utori’s gaze tightened. “Then, what are you?”

“A man,”

Doji Utori, sitting next to the Emerald Champion, suddenly burst out in
laughter. “This boy has not lost his way,” Utori told Tsukihi. “He
knows his way.”

Tsukihi looked at his cousin carefully, then addressed Tsuruchi. “The
Doji house will support your claim to your father’s castle, despite what
our brothers may choose to do.”

Charmed by the boy’s resolve, Tsukihi declared Tsuruchi a magistrate of
the Emerald Champion. “Any and all& men& who choose to follow you will
also be under my protection.” Finally, he declared Ashinagabachi a
permanent garrison for magistrates, and under his protection. They were
allowed to wear any mon of their choosing, as long as they also wore the
mon of the Emerald Champion. Tsuruchi returned to his castle with the
seal of the Emperor on his chest.

He told the forty-nine men who followed him of his pact with Tsukihi and
they cheered. Tsuruchi’s yojimbo and life-long friend
Mukami then revealed that the men were already wearing their new mon:
the Wasp.