Previous Page
Tsuda was the larger of the two boys, at least three years older than Shima. This did not appear to matter as the two faced one another in the monastery’s courtyard, as the the younger and faster Shima proceeded to soundly beat the older boy until he was just a mass of bruises and blood in the dirt. Shima turned to the others watching him and raised his hands above his head, this bloodied lips splitting in a victorious grin. Several of the other children cheered, although many chose not to. Shima walked in a circle around his defeated foe, ignoring the instant soreness and weariness of his limbs, exalting in the admiration of the others. When the slap to the back of his head came, it was so quick and so unexpected that he was thrown to the dirt next to Tsuda.
“What is the meaning of this?” a stern voice demanded. “There are to be no unauthorized duels in this dojo!”
Shima picked himself up from the dirt, scowling. The scowl disappeared instantly when he saw who had cuffed him. “Grandmaster Tetsuo!” he said, his tone awed and slightly fearful. “I… I am sorry, grandmaster!”
Tetsuo grabbed the boy’s rough kimono by the shoulder and hauled him up to his feet. He gestured to the two of the larger boys in the audience and then pointed to Tsuda. “Take that one to the herbalist at once!” he said. “The rest of you, back to your chores!” The children scattered like leaves in the wind while the two youths hefted Tsuda up and took him toward the temple. Tetsuo glared at Shima. “What is the meaning of this? If you tell me that this was over matters of lineage again, wretched boy, there will be a reckoning.”
“He insulted my form!” Shima blurted out. “He said my cobra stance was pathetic! I had to show him he was wrong!” He frowned and looked down. “I am sorry, master, but I could not let him say those things about me!”
Tetsuo grunted. It was almost a chuckle, but not quite. “Pathetic, eh?” He shook his head, “That boy has no room to talk. You are one of the most promising students in your class. If someone says something that proves them a fool, they are best ignored. Although I suppose he will no longer bother to insult you now. His friends might, though.”
“Let them!” Shima said, “I will show all of them!” He realized what he was saying and looked down again, “I am sorry grandmaster.”
“It is understandable in this instance, I suppose, “Tetsuo said. “There will be punishment for failing to maintain discipline, but Tsuda’s will be far worse. Not only did he instigate the matter, be he did so in a foolish and selfish manner.”
Shima grinned, “If I must suffer, let my enemies suffer even more at my hand.”
Tetsuo raised an eyebrow, “The writings of Master Michio? Impressive. I was of the impression that you were a lackluster student.”
“I am not a strong reader,” the boy admitted. “I try to read a little of his work every night after chores, if I can.”
“He was a great man,” Tetsuo said. “All that I knew at the time of his death, I learned from him.”
“Is it true what they say about his death?” Shima asked, his breath short. “The stories are amazing!”
Tetsuo frowned and said nothing for a moment, “There is wisdom in the tale,” he admitted. “Michio-sama would have been disgusted with your display at the end of your fight, for instance.”
Shima’s face fell completely. “He would?” he said meekly.
Tetsuo nodded. “Michio cared absolutely not at all for the adulation of others. The cheers of your schoolmates were intoxicating to you, was it not?”
“Yes,” he admitted.
“Michio found the adulation of others sickening. They cheered for others to forget their own weaknesses, he said.” Tetsuo seemed to consider for a moment, then slowly nodded. “I will tell you the tale,” he said, “only because I think you can learn from it, and in you I see great potential. To see your potential tainted with weakness and sentimentality would be a terrible shame.”
Shima bowed deeply, “Thank you, grandmaster!”
Tetsuo turned and looked to the mountains beyond the monastery’s gate, considering his words. “In the days after the Spider’s exodus, those of us who served in the order were busy building our place in the Empire, even as the Empire itself was rebuilt. It was a great time, but a dangerous time. There were many terrible things that escaped the Destroyer’s ranks, and others that fled from the taming of the Spider. Michio wandered the land even as we obeyed his orders to construct our temples. He wandered the Empire in search of enemies to kill.
“It was not a simple matter. There were many who found the presence of the Spider an offense, and sought reasons to express themselves despite the Empress’ decree that the order was to be accepted. Michio-sama once told me that for the entire first year of his travels, he was attacked almost every day, sometimes more than once. He did not mind. He believed that killing such fools was a service he performed for the Empress, purging her Empire of the weak and stupid.”
Shima grinned broadly but said nothing.
“There were others who did not feel the same way as the attackers,” Tetsuo continued. “There were many, a great many in fact, who saw his war against the demons and gaijin as a holy crusade, and they celebrated him for it. They called him a hero despite that he did not ask them to. They threw celebrations in his name despite that he would not attend. He wanted nothing of their weakness, but they insisted on thrusting it upon him.
“So it was that one day, while Michio-sama traveled the regions east of the Shinomen Mori, he was approached by a group from a large village in the area. ‘Are you Michio, the great hero?’ one of them asked him.
“‘I am Michio the warrior,’ he replied. ‘Only fools have heroes.’
“If the others understood his words, they gave no indication. ‘We have prepared a feast and celebration in your honor, great Michio,’ the peasants said. ‘Come and celebrate with us, please!’
“‘I told you, only fools believe in heroes,’ Michio tole them. ‘There is no such thing.’”
Here Tetsuo paused. “I wish that I could have been there when it happened,” he said. “I wish that I could have seen it. Sadly, I was not there at that moment, only during the aftermath. There were four from the village. Only one survived what followed, and he never went home. He joined the order instead, and became our witness fro Michio’s final battle. According to his account, there was a tremendous clap of lightning, and the Heavens themselves parted. A lone figure emerged and stood before them. ‘I am Goemon, Fortune of Heroes,’ the entity said, ‘and your words offend me.’
“Michio did not falter. ‘Your existence offends me,’ he is said to have replied, and the battle was joined.”
“It’s true,” Shima said breathlessly. “Michio-sama fought a Fortune!”
“Indeed,” Tetsuo said. “Both fought only with their hands. The force of their confrontation is said to have killed the other three witnesses, and the survivor, after more than two hours of tireless combat, was said to have been blinded by the sheer force of the killing blow that Michio-sama delivered to the Fortune.”
“Amazing!” Shima said.
“It was my great honor to be among those who arrived only a few moments after Michio-sama struck the killing blow,” Tetsuo said. His ever-severe tone had taken on a reverent, awed quality that Shima had never heard. “The wounds that Michio-sama had suffered… I have never seen their like. No mortal could possibly have survived them, and yet Michio-sama did. His will, his unbreakable will, kept him alive when his body should have collapsed. ‘I have tasted a true challenge today, Tetsuo,’ he told me. ‘Nothing in this world can ever compare to it.’” Tetsuo lowered his head. “It was not that Michio-sama was defeated. He simply could no longer find challenge in this life, and so he surrendered his flesh so that his spirit could seek greater foes elsewhere.”
“One day I will be like him!” Shima erupted. “I will be as strong and powerful as he was, and no one will ever dare speak to me like Tsuda did again!”
Tetsuo raised an eyebrow. “We shall see about that, boy. Report at dawn for your punishment. In the meantime, practice your forms. Your cobra stance is excellent despite what your fool cousin said, but your monkey stance is inadequate.”
