Far From Neutral Notions - Philippine politics, culture and stuff

Let me tell you how this is going to end: I will walk away from here, and leave you curled up like a ball, desperately trying to keep your innards from spilling over.”

“Is that a fact, now?”

“A premonition, actually. It’s a gift, you know.”

One week ago

Kyuden Toketsu is by no means an inviting place - the Crab stronghold was designed for protection and intimidation, with very little else saved for aesthetics or comfort. The thick walls lined with Jade serve as a reminder as to exactly where you are: deep in Crab territory, the first - and most Crab believe the last - line of Rokugani defense against the horrors of the Shadowlands. And while being inside the walls means that you are probably in the safest place against the Shadowlands as you can possibly be in all of Rokugan, it also means that you will be in one of the very first places that the Oni will strike at.

A disturbing fact that Togashi Raizen - youngest son of a tainted Mirumoto and brother of a Topaz Magistrate - has never fully learned to live with. Even now, years after that fateful day when Miya Shohei, the erstwhile leader of the Topaz Magistrates, came to him with news of his brother’s fall, Raizen still feels the dread whenever alarms are raised. Even after apprenticing himself to the Kuni Witch Hunters and training his mind and body to resist the call of the Dark Lord, Raizen cannot help but know fear - for it is whispered among many that the warriors of the Topaz, to a one, were either claimed by the taint, or slain by their comrades who were. And Mirumoto Kitano, his brother, was among the accursed First Three to succumb to the taint. And while Shohei has long since expunged his shame for the ill fated band of Samurai he created, Raizen must live with his burden - until the day he can die to correct it.

Lost in his kata, Raizen pays no heed to the soft footfalls approaching. “An interesting stance, little brother,” a voice said, in a slight mocking tone. “Perhaps someday you’ll find the monsters beyond the wall willing to stand still for the three heartbeats it took you to complete your attack.”

Unmindful, Raizen makes a motion to parry. “I suppose…”
Step. “… you would not be a Crab…”
Slide. “… nor a Unicorn…”
Thrust. “… if you had a taste for subtlety.” Finishing with a single smooth motion, Raizen brings both blades to bear around Moto Gon’s neck.

Nudging the blades away, Gon gives a smirk. “I knew subtlety once. I bashed his head in with my tetsubo.”

Laughing, Raizen sheathes his daisho and wipes his slightly perspiring forehead. “I see Moto Sore hasn’t blunted your sense of humor one bit. What brings the prodigal Crab back to his old hunting grounds?”

Wryly, Gon smiles. “Would you believe, a social call?”

“Clad in full armor?”

“Yes, well, I’m not your typical diplomat.”

Raizen takes stock of his old friend. It has been years since he last saw the muscular Samurai. Since just after the wedding, in fact. Hida Gon - as he was then known - was married off to Moto Sore as a political act to soothe the Crab-Unicorn relations. Both participants were none too happy with the arrangement, but complied for the benefit of both clans. Since then, Moto Gon has been serving as the unlikeliest of magistrates: one that could actually take care of himself. As such, he is often assigned to missions where hostile force is not only possible, but expected. Whatever business he has back in Crab lands, it is bound to leave more than a few bones broken.

“In any case, I am glad you took the time to pass by. My current sensei, Kuni Nagayaki-sama, says I’m almost ready. I was planning to leave in a few days.”

Uncharacteristically, Gon fidgets, seemingly at a loss for words. “Ah yes. About that…”

Instantly curious, Raizen raises his eyebrows. “Yes?”

Grimacing, Gon moves closer and wraps his massive arms around his friend’s neck. “Later, Raizen! Do you know of the piss they pass off as sake at the Khol Wall? The Unicorns can be such barbarians sometimes. Come! Join me!”

An hour later

Pale, looking as though seeing his friend for the first time, Raizen stared at Gon, aghast. “You’re not serious?!”

taking a sip from his sake, Gon shrugs. “I’m afraid so. Togashi Satsu himself came to me and gave me the news when I was in Kyuden Togashi: the Phoenix made a mistake.”

Caught between outrage and incredulity, Raizen struggled to control himself. “All these years…? All this time I was preparing…”

Refilling his cup, Gon takes one more sip and looks Raizen in the eye. “All this time you were training for something that will never happen: your brother, Mirumoto Kitano, was never tainted. He fell fighting against the Topaz Magistrates. Ten years ago.”

“How can this be? Why just now? What did they find out?”

Gon stoops to pick up something in his travelling pack, and brings up a wrapped bundle, around 3 feet in length, and places it on the table in front of Raizen. “This is his wakizashi - some peasants found it while hunting near the woods of Morikage Toshi. The Isawa, Tamori and Kitsuki have been all over it, and they confirm: Kitano’s spirit lives within, at peace and pure.”

Mouth slightly gaping, Raizen nervously fumbles to open the knots wrapping the blade. He gingerly runs his fingers over the rusted blade - time and moisture have done their damage, it will never be a weapon again. But if what Gon said was true, then perhaps…?

“He is here. I can feel it. It’s… strange.”

Gon leans forward and whispers. “None of us were sure how you’d take it, my friend. I for one am glad that your brother is at peace. But do not think that the last ten years have been a waste…”

Before Gon could finish, Raizen starts to shake and convulse, a primal, guttural laughter coming from his throat. “Not a waste?!”

Abruptly standing, Raizen makes a sweeping motion with the wakizashi. “NOT A WASTE?!?”

Mindful of the hostile stares coming from the other patrons of the inn, Gon moves to placate his friend. “Raizen, you must get a hold of yourself - Lord Satsu himself has reinstated your family name! You can go back! You can…”

Slamming his fists against the table with uncharacteristic fury, Raizen screams. “I was cast out, Gon! My sisters were sent off to some minor clan daimyo’s kitchen as slaves! My heritage was denied! All because of some stupid! Phoenix! Mistake!”

“Raizen, you have to understand! Morikage Toshi was in ruins and your brother was last seen in the company of the traitorous magistrates! It was a reasonable assum–”

“You! Of all people! Call upon reason!? The Hida Gon I knew would kill first and not even bother to ask questions! Have your balls shrunk so much beneath the tender cares of Moto Sore?!”

The inn grows deathly quiet at the last outburst by Togashi Raizen; everybody can see the deathly expression in Gon’s face, the dark cloud of barely contained fury that is the hallmark of the Berserkers. And the Damned Bushi. “And the Togashi Raizen I know would not allow himself these fits of childish rage. Have a care, my friend. I may be Moto Gon now, but ramming my tetsubo down your throat is a skill I have not forgotten.”

Crumpling to a heap in his stool, Raizen stares fiercely at his friend. In a coarse whisper, he says: “I. Will. NOT! Have a care.”

Silence.

“I will have sake.”

6 Hours Ago

Togashi Raizen gazes up, along the length of Kyuden Toketsu’s massive walls. With a start, he realizes he will miss this place. Having said goodbye to his Kuni teachers the day before, Raizen thought he would actually be happy to leave. The Kuni Witch Hunters are easily the most brutal of taskmasters he has ever trained under, but their grudging acceptance meant more to him than he realized. Having had minimal social contacts and even fewer personal belongings, he was ready to go days ago, but Gon could not be persuaded to hurry. The Moto diplomat would always be a Crab at heart, it seems.

The burly Crab walks up to Raizen, still in high spirits after the feasting the night before. “Are you ready to leave, my friend?”

Taking a last wistful look, Raizen shakes his head. “No. But I will never be, i suppose. Much has happened, and I am no longer the man I once was.”

Mounting his enormous Utaku steed, Gon gives a grunt of encouragement. “Well, you have a whole new life ahead of you. Lord Satsu even restored your holdings, and you have no binding duties. Perhaps you might find your way back here again.”

Adjusting his riding knots, Raizen gets up on his own horse - a smaller Rokugani one - and whispers. “Perhaps.”

1 Hour Ago

Riding along the Imperial roads, the two oddly-paired companions trudge along in silence, both lost in thought. Then, as if to break the monotony, Raizen speaks. “I wanted to be a farmer, once.”

Grunting, Gon gives Raizen a look of disbelief. “You? Ha. That’ll be the day. Planting rice is never fun, you know.”

Defensively, Raizen shrugs his shoulders. “Or a courtier. You know, away from all the fighting.”

Gon smuggly leans back on his saddle. “You’d make a pretty bad courtier, I’d think. Battle calls to you my friend, same as it does to me. As I recall, you were kicked out of Kitsuki school for punching out one of your fellow students.”

Scoffing, Raizen raises his hand in mock annoyance. “Lies, lies, lies. Never happened. I was just more vocal…”

Cutting his friend off, Moto Gon abruptly jerks at the reins, bringing his horse to a sudden halt. Leaping towards Raizen, he tackles his friend and they crash down behind their horses, landing on soft grass.

Perplexed and somewhat angry, Raizen pushes against Gon. “Alright so I beat up one! No need to get viol…”

Pushing him back down, Gon whispers in Raizen’s ear and points north. “Shut up, and look.”

Clearing his wits, Raizen focuses his senses and scans the area Gon indicated. Slowly he sees several man-shapes in the underbrush. On one he could clearly make out the outline of a bow.

Scrambling for cover, the two Samurai begin to take stock of their foes. “Emma-O take me for a fool. I count six with swords and two with bows. There’s one I’m not certain of. It’s a good thing you spotted them, Gon.”

Gon grins as he takes out his tetsubo. “Ever tried to negotiate a trade with the Scorpion? These bandits are no match for those masked devils at hiding things. I count about the same. What do you want to do?”

Raizen does a quick calculation and takes out his short bow, notching a fleshcutter arrow. “Around twelve paces. If you haven’t slown down by much in your old age, I figure I can give you enough cover against those archers until you can reach those bushi.”

Grunting as a reply, Moto Gon moves into position behind a nearby tree. Almost simultaneously, Raizen stands up and lets an arrow loose, hitting the most exposed bowman square in the chest. Not bothering to duck for cover, Raizen notches another arrow and lets it fly, though this time it strikes nothing. The ruse, however, worked: as Raizen was raining arrows on the ambushers, Gon charged at them, holding his tetsubo low.

Reaching the first bandit, Gon swings his massive studded club, almost separating the villain’s head from his neck as he did so. At that instant, Raizen scores another hit against the remaining bowman, hitting him in the arm. Judging the enemy incapacitated, Raizen drops his bow and runs toward Gon, bringing to bear his Twin Sister Blades, the sacred weapon of the Mirumoto Bushi School. By this time another bandit has fallen to Gon’s merciless attack, his head caved in by the massive tetsubo. The other four began to circle Gon when Raizen, face impassive and cold, arrives to break the standoff.

Fidgeting, the bandits amateurishly take a formation surrounding the two friends. Merely nodding, Raizen signals the attack. The time for words is past, and witty banter is not the domain of true warriors. What they will do in the next few seconds is neither glorious nor beautiful, certainly not a laughing matter. Both friends know that the bandits will die, and in the most gruesome manner possible - if there ever was a truism that the bushi of the Dragon and Crab held in common, it was that: strike to kill, not for show.

In a rage that even oni fear to behold, Moto Gon lunges at his attacker. His tetsubo, now slick and wet with blood, leaves behind a trail of crimson in the air as it completes its arc towards the bandit, who desperately tries to parry. The attack smashes through the bandit’s cheap sword and pushes straight through with such a force that separates the bandit’s face from his jaw, leaving behind a horrid crater of blood and pink flesh where the head should be.

In that same instant, Raizen’s flurry of blows is a direct contrast to Gon’s attack. The short, sharp strikes come seemingly from everywhere and nowhere, leaving no room to realistically guard against them. The attack penetrates the first bandit’s defenses to slice the villain’s throat, leaving him to drown in his own blood. In the same fluid motion, Raizen brings his wakizashi to bear on the next opponent, stabbing the opportunistic bandit between the eyes. In the span of that same heartbeat, Raizen twists at the last possible instant as the final bandit comes barrelling through in a wild, frenzied attack. With a flick of his wrist, Raizen cuts the bandit’s legs from under him, slicing the man’s calves and ankles.

Standing over their fallen enemies, the two friends share a congratulatory smile for the briefest of seconds when, abruptly, a searing fire strikes Moto Gon and brings him low. Fighting to put out the flames, Raizen has only a second to scan for their latest attacker: in the distance, where the bowmen were, stood a man now clad in fire, laughing softly.

“It’s a curious custom among you ‘Samurai’,” the figure spat out the word, “that you always leave the unarmed man for last. Shouldn’t I command the most respect? After all, I am unarmed in the company of armed men… surely I must be special! Don’t you think?”

Still smouldering, Moto Gon answers back, his face scarred with third-degree burns. “Keep laughing, fool! We won’t make that same mistake, and soon, you will be a dead man!”

The figure laughs harder, and with a motion of his hands, rips the ground asunder, the crack heading towards the pair. With a start, Raizen slams his palms down on the ground, halting the crater just a few inches from them.

Taken aback, the figure stops advancing. “An interesting trick, Dragon. Perhaps I’ll take the time to study it later.”

Struggling to get up, Gon looks at his friend in disbelief. “How did you do that? I didn’t know you were a shugenja!”

Taking a moment to grin at the Crab, Raizen answers. “Not all of the kata I’ve learned are with the blade. In this case, it’s an interesting Kuni trick that I combined with one of the Mirumoto techniques. But I’m afraid that a trick is all that it is. I won’t be able to stop him again.”

Motioning to Raizen, the figure speaks. “I have no quarrel with you Dragon. You can walk away alive and unharmed from this, and no one will know your shame. My business is with Gon.”

Using up most of his strength, Gon rises up and shouts: “He’s not going anywhere until we’ve destroyed you, mad one! Do you hear?! Your ash is mine!”

Turning to his companion exasperately, Raizen barks: “Will you shut up and let me make up my own mind!?”

“Wha… you’re actually going to leave me here?!”

“Well, even if I stay, you could barely stand. From the looks of you, i’d say one more shot and you’re, well, toast.”

“I can’t believe I’m hearing this!”

The figure laughs heartily, enjoying the argument. “Believe it Gon! It seems you have crossed one path too many!”

Without looking at the fiery figure, Gon makes a gesture in his direction. “You stay out of this!” Turning to his erstwhile friend, Gon looks on, searchingly. “Raizen…!”

Slowly, Raizen speaks. “Let me tell you how this is going to end: I will walk away from here, and leave you curled up like a ball, desperately trying to keep your innards from spilling over.”

“Is that a fact, now?”

“A premonition, actually. It’s a gift, you know.”

Dumbfounded, Gon could only lower his head. Raizen leans close, his hand clutching what remains of Gon’s still-smouldering hair. “There is one more kata that I have developed. It’s very subtle, you’ll like it very much I would think. I made it especially for Kitano, and it involves the darkness.”

With a start, Gon looks up at Raizen, wide-eyed. “No…”

Turning away from his friend, but moving towards the fiery figure, Raizen continues. “You see Gon, there are two ways to fight the darkness.”

In a fit of panic, the fires surrounding the figure start to flicker and fade. Sensing the kami leaving him, the shugenja shrieks. “No! What are you doing? Stay away!”

Too weak to stand, Gon slumps down into a heap, clutching his sides as the pain starts to overtake him. He stares as Raizen slowly moves towards the shugenja. “One is to shine a light. You’ve done that all your life, and, it seems, so has my brother.”

Seeming to weaken, the shugenja also falls down kneeling, with Raizen towering over him. “The other way… sometimes the only way…”

In all his years guarding the wall, and as a former Topaz Magistrate, Gon had seen horrors that few men would even have nightmares about. But upon seeing his friend standing over the now weeping shugenja suddenly burst into flames, for the briefest moment, Gon knew despair, and can only utter one word. “Maho…”

Now awash with flames, Raizen turns to look at Gon and smiles. “No, not maho. Blood magic, yes. But not maho. Combined with the Kuni’s knowledge and the Dragon’s techniques, I have learned much. And the results are… interesting.”

The shugenja at Raizen’s feet starts to shiver as parts of his skin flake away, droplets of blood floating in some impossible wind. “Listen to me, Gon. I said one way to dispell the darkness was to shine a light. But I found another way.”

“And that’s to draw the darkness in.”

With those words, and a blinding flash, Raizen and the dying shugenja disappeared, leaving behind a charred patch of grass where they were. Coughing, and with tears streaming down his badly burnt face, Gon leans against his tetsubo, pushing his massive body up.

Looking around, Gon takes in everything that happened in the last hour or so. It would be a while before he’d feel the emptiness, he knew. A friend died for him - needlessly, he thinks: surely with that much power he could have found another way? “Dammit Raizen, you damn fool,” Gon curses under his breath. “You scared away the horses.”

End

technorati tags:Fiction, L5R

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I remember first reading this poem at Humanities class. Which is the only place where I actually read any poetry, actually. Still, this one just absolutely touches me on several levels, and the last line was purposefully (I think) left hanging, the unspoken thought being that “they are wrong”. I know the garden is there, even thought I’ve only had brief glimpses of it. I can’t enter - yet - but I believe.

I hope.

Damn I’m feeling incredibly sappy today

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