by Ryan Kirk
The decision was too big for him to make by himself and wasn’t really his to make at all. Instead he would follow the path of the Blades. The boy would be given his own choice to make. Shigeru would explain everything as clearly as possible and Ryuu would have to decide. It was a lot to ask of one who had only seen five cycles, but it was the only clear path forward. The decision made, Shigeru didn’t hesitate, but brought it up at that evening’s meal.
At supper that night, Shigeru found he was more nervous than he had been in many cycles. Despite the thought put into his decision, he wasn’t sure it was correct. Giving the boy a choice was uncertain, and Shigeru found that in the course of the past moon he had developed a certain level of affection for the child. He tried to hide his indecision, but apparently wasn’t succeeding. His young companion was able to pick up on it. Although, Shigeru argued in his own defense, Ryuu wasn’t a typical child.
“Shigeru, what’s wrong?”
Shigeru hesitated. He had rehearsed this moment over and over through the day, but the words no longer seemed right. He struggled to articulate what he wanted to say. Struggled to find the tone he wanted to say it with.
Ryuu looked up from his bowl of noodles. He waited patiently for Shigeru. Shigeru respected that about the boy.
“Ryuu, what do you know about me?” Mentally, Shigeru shook his head. He had wanted to start assertively, to come from a place of power and responsibility. Instead, he had come forward with a question that only indirectly led to what he really wanted to ask. When his own master had given him this choice, it had seemed much more formal.
The boy looked up. He paused before answering, considering what he had put together. “You’re a nightblade, even if they are supposed to be gone from the Three Kingdoms.”
Shigeru was surprised to feel an unknown weight lift off his shoulders. The boy spoke without a hint of judgment in his voice. It had been almost ten cycles since anyone had known the truth about him. In this land his kind were hunted without end, the public convinced they were the monsters responsible for the collapse of the Kingdom. Over time, stories which had held the truth became legends and propaganda with little regard for historical events. But Ryuu knew and didn’t care. He was the child of farmers, though, so perhaps he had never been exposed to the prevailing attitudes. Shigeru hadn’t expected such relief at the revelation of his secret. It solidified his resolve.
“Ryuu, you have the skills to become like me. There is a path forward which I can offer. It is one choice out of many. I will offer them to you today, and if you choose to stay with me, I will offer the same choices twice more. It was the same for me when I was growing up. Everyone has three choices, three chances to walk away.”
Ryuu answered with conviction, “I would like to stay here with you.”
Although Shigeru had expected this, hearing it out loud sent a surge of emotion through him. He checked himself. He had been away from people for far too long. Too much attachment to the boy would cause problems for both of them.
“I understand that, but I want you to understand the choice you will be making. You are young, but the decision must be yours.”
Shigeru took a few heartbeats to pause, collecting his thoughts. “Your first choice is to leave this place,” Ryuu started, but Shigeru held up his hand for silence. “I know you don’t want to leave now, but hear me out. I know people, good families who would love to have a child, or another child. You would be treated as one of theirs and you could live a normal life in relative peace, comfort and prosperity. You could choose your future as you see fit. You would have a last name and status in this world as you grow older.”
“And my other choice?”
“You can stay here and I will take you on as my apprentice.” Once again Shigeru had to hold up his hand before Ryuu could commit. “You must understand what that means. I myself am masterless, hunted and an outcast both from the people of this land and my own people. I have no last name, nor would you. Life would not proceed as it has this past moon. Training will be difficult. You will wake up early and train mentally and physically all day. There are no breaks and no second chances. You will be cut and you will bleed. I will not abuse you, but neither will I take it easy on you. You succeed or fail on your own terms, and you may die. If you do succeed in the training, you will be hunted and hated for the rest of your life.”
“You also need to know this. The nightblades are hated within the Southern Kingdom and throughout all three kingdoms. Perhaps someday that will change, but it will not happen for many cycles, if at all. If you follow me, you will never have a normal life, a life with friends and family who care for you.”
“Finally, there is one other truth that I believe in. Nightblades have always lived by the sword, and throughout history, we have died by the sword. It is very likely that you will die young, cut down by one stronger than you. Or perhaps by thirty, scared of what you may become. Regardless, very few of us die peacefully in our sleep.”
Shigeru gave the boy credit. He didn’t jump to one decision or another. He sat in silence and thought. Although the boy didn’t know what he was doing, Shigeru could sense the battle of emotions running though his mind. For a moment, Shigeru thought that he might have overdone it and he might have lost the best chance at a pupil he’d ever had.
His fears proved ungrounded.
“I will stay here and train with you.”
Shigeru did not reply, but instead offered a bow that went halfway to the ground. The boy bowed all the way to the ground, forehead against the wooden floor of the hut.
The rest of the meal was eaten in uncharacteristic silence. Shigeru had half-expected a fresh barrage of questions regarding training and what was to come next, but none came. Ryuu sat pondering his future, and Shigeru could see on his face that the journey was one that was part over-hopeful imagination, part sadness, and part anger. Shigeru was pleased. He didn’t want to train a boy who believed that swordsmanship was only fun and games. It was a hard way of life and an easy way to die.
It was the way of the sword. It was the way of death.
When the meal was finished Shigeru urged the boy to go to bed, even though Ryuu couldn’t contain his excitement. His fears had been overwhelmed by his dreams of training. Shigeru only got the boy to sleep by repeating, “It will be the hardest thing you have ever done in your life. You will need your sleep.”
When Ryuu woke in the morning he found that Shigeru had not exaggerated. As the child of a farmer he was used to waking up with the sun, but the sun wasn’t even up yet. He was still bleary-eyed from sleep when Shigeru pushed him out of the hut. Ryuu watched as Shigeru lashed two wooden swords to his back in addition to the steel swords which were his constant companions. Together they took off at a trot. For Ryuu, who was only five and much shorter than Shigeru, the trot felt a lot more like a sprint.
Shigeru made it into a game, teasing and prodding Ryuu to try to catch him. As Ryuu’s body started to wake up he fell in love with the game. Even though he was quickly exhausted, he found that he was always willing to sprint just one more time with the belief that this would be the time it worked, this would be the time he caught Shigeru. When the game was over Ryuu found they had left behind any terrain he recognized as familiar. His legs agreed. He could feel them wobbling with the effort it had taken him to come this far.
They were still in the old woods in a clearing that was only twenty paces wide at any point. Given the chance to observe his surroundings, Ryuu imagined the clearing as a fort in the woods. The forest they had traveled through was dense, even thicker than the considerable growth around Shigeru’s hut. For a boy of the plains to be enclosed by the majestic trees of the old woods was novel. It excited his imagination.
Forgetting how exhausted he was, Ryuu ran around the clearing, trying to find the best vantage point for spying on the outside world. No matter where he looked, he couldn’t see more than a couple of paces in any direction. Even the hint of a footpath they had followed into th
e clearing twisted in such a manner that it didn’t provide a view out of the clearing.
“How did you find this spot?” Ryuu asked, admiration in his voice.
Shigeru did not reply, and Ryuu saw he had taken the wooden swords off his back. A surge of energy and excitement ran through him. Today he would learn how to be a swordsman like Shigeru.
The excitement lasted only as long as it took Shigeru to give Ryuu his first instructions. To Ryuu’s great disappointment, he learned that his sword lessons were not to begin right away. Shigeru stood in front of him performing a series of moves that Ryuu was supposed to follow. Almost a cycle ago Ryuu had seen dancers who visited his village. To him these moves seemed equivalent. What was the purpose of moving without a sword when you were learning how to fight with a sword?
After what felt like a hundred repetitions Shigeru stood back and had Ryuu perform the actions on his own. After several more repetitions Shigeru attacked in the middle of a repetition. Ryuu was caught completely off guard, but his body had become so focused on repetition it was stuck in a rut. His reaction was to finish the movement Shigeru had taught him. He blocked all of Shigeru’s light punches.
When the surprise of being attacked had worn off, Ryuu realized that Shigeru was teaching him defensive combinations. What at first seemed to be a dance without purpose was instead a new way of showing his body how to move, how to be effective. Once Ryuu put the pieces together he threw himself into mirroring and learning Shigeru’s movements.
They broke for a quick lunch of berries, dried meat, and rice and then returned to their training. This time Shigeru picked up the wooden swords which had rested so peacefully throughout the morning. The same practice was employed. Shigeru demonstrated a technique. Ryuu copied the technique under Shigeru’s critical eye. The sword tip always had to be in a specific spot. His foot placement was just a little off. Ryuu soon realized that Shigeru’s only expectation was perfection.
Ryuu learned that there was an exact spot where the sword should be at any given time. If the sword was at the correct point everything fell into place. If the sword was positioned well he could block and cut faster, and all swordsmanship seemed to be about speed and accuracy. Over the course of the afternoon his body responded in less and less time. Ryuu mentioned this once after a practice cut.
“There is a movement to all things in this world. Nothing stands still. Even this planet we are on moves, which is why the sun rises and sets every day. What you are feeling is called centering. Memorize the feeling, make it your home. It applies not just to swordsmanship but to life. A centered opponent is a fearsome enemy. Stay centered and stay alive.” Shigeru paused, noticing the puzzled expression on Ryuu’s face. “Don’t worry, after a couple of cycles of hard training, you will understand what I am talking about. But it is good to recognize that some things feel right.”
Ryuu simply nodded, lost right after Shigeru began speaking. The planet was moving? That was silly.
Shigeru’s eyes sparkled, and if Ryuu had thought to guess, he would have guessed that Shigeru was laughing at him. But Shigeru’s face betrayed no other emotion and Ryuu was too young to understand his new-found master.
The training went through the day. When they finished, Shigeru again took Ryuu trotting through the woods in a friendly game. When they got back to the hut it was almost dark, and they had just enough time to get a quick meal started before the sun set. Ryuu asked if he could miss the evening meal. He wanted nothing more than to get to bed. His arms and back were sore from swinging the wooden sword, his legs were sore from running, and everything else hurt from the light blows he had taken throughout training.
Shigeru made him eat. Training would be hard every day, and he had to keep his body well conditioned. Ryuu knew Shigeru was right, so he forced food down his throat as well as the tea Shigeru had prepared. As he ate, he realized that the food tasted better than anything he had ever eaten, and he said as much.
“It’s because food has become more important to your body, so your body treats it with more respect now.”
Ryuu shook his head a little. He wondered if Shigeru realized he was speaking to a child who had no idea what he was ever talking about.
The next morning was brutal. Ryuu woke up at dawn as usual, but his body seemed to be several heartbeats behind his mind’s commands. He was sluggish and could almost hear the screams of his limbs as he willed them to motion. There had been hard days helping his father in the field, but never anything like this.
His pain disappeared when he stumbled outside to catch Shigeru in his morning practice. The early morning sunlight glinted off Shigeru’s blade, glinting like a crazed firefly in the daylight. Ryuu couldn’t track the quick motions of the blade, only see the flashes of lightning as the sunlight reflected off the shining sword. Shigeru’s movement was otherworldly, his feet and arms moving in a graceful, deadly, beautiful dance. Ryuu imagined he heard Shigeru’s sword sing.
Ryuu could see that Shigeru had noticed him right away. He thought he saw Shigeru’s eyes glance his way for the briefest of moments, but his awareness was formed more by the knowledge that it was impossible to sneak up on Shigeru. He was always aware of everything. Ryuu accepted it. It was just the way of being a nightblade.
Despite his awareness, Shigeru did not halt his morning routine. He completed the movements with a simple, effective sheathing of his blade. One moment the cold steel was flashing in the sunlight, the next it was resting in the warm embrace of its sheath. Ryuu hadn’t even noticed the movement.
Shigeru took a deep breath and Ryuu could sense that he was being examined. Shigeru’s conclusions drawn, he spoke, “You are young, and training to handle a sword is difficult work. Later, we will train every day. But today we rest.”
Ryuu felt relief wash over his tired body. Everything hurt to move, he couldn’t discover a single exception. His feet were sore from running and standing all day. His legs were sore from holding positions. His core and arms and chest and back hurt from handling the sword and the hand-to-hand combat. A day of rest meant the opportunity to go back to bed and sleep the rest of the day away.
But as he turned to go back to bed he heard Shigeru’s voice behind him, a hint of laughter in his words. “Not that way, Ryuu. We’re going for a hike through the woods.”
Ryuu wanted to groan, or scream, or cry, but even at his young age he knew that none of those responses would make any difference to Shigeru. They would go on a hike and it would end when Shigeru said. Ryuu wondered for a moment if it was worth even trying to resist, to put up a token argument. A moment’s reflection confirmed that it wouldn’t, and he dutifully followed Shigeru away from the hut with one last, longing glance at the corner where he knew his bed to be, still warm from his deep slumber.
They did not walk very far, only to the stream and small waterfall that Ryuu had discovered on his first adventures around the hut. Once there, Shigeru lay down his swords and began to stretch, bouncing on some occasions and holding still on others. To Ryuu’s young eyes, Shigeru looked silly, and he tried to contain his laughter. With a flick of his head, Shigeru made it clear that Ryuu was to join him in imitating the movements.
Ryuu had no energy left to protest even though a small part of his mind argued that it was silly. He mimicked Shigeru’s moves as well as he could and noticed the effects right away. Every move stretched specific muscle groups. When he bent over to touch his toes he could feel the back of his legs complain and fight back against him. But he persisted, and soon he felt them relax and stretch out.
As he learned the purpose of the movements he became more enthusiastic. They hurt at first, but as his body stretched and relaxed he could feel the pain from the previous day’s training slipping away. It was fascinating that by just moving his body he could find relief.
A memory came unbidden to his mind. His father in the house at night, unable to move from the agony of a day in the fields. He sometimes moved like an older man, but he had only seen twenty-four
cycles. He had been discreet, moving little once he sat in the house at night, but Ryuu was observant enough to know he was hurting every time he moved. What if he had known what Shigeru knew? Would he have suffered the pain he did?
The thoughts distracted him from his practice for a moment, but if Shigeru noticed it he did not let on. They continued to move through the exercises for a while before Shigeru stood up straight.
“What still hurts?”
Ryuu thought about it before mentioning a few places on his body. His shoulders, arms, and back were still painful, a throbbing ache that refused to go away. Shigeru nodded. “Lie down.”
Ryuu hesitated. He knew that Shigeru was going to do something to his body, but the thought of another person close to him bothered him. He remembered his mother’s embrace on cold nights and the rough hands of his father. The warm memories clashed violently with the reality of his present moment and tears came to his eyes.
Shigeru watched every emotion cross the boy’s face. Not for the first time, Ryuu felt like Shigeru knew everything in his mind. He said nothing, allowing Ryuu to process the conflict by himself, offering only quiet support. In a while the feelings passed, and Ryuu nodded his assent. He laid down on the soft grass near the waterfall. The sun was falling on the spot he chose, and sleepiness overwhelmed him.
“This may hurt.”
Ryuu nodded and gritted his teeth. He still wasn’t above trying to get Shigeru to show some sympathy. He felt Shigeru’s hands running over his back, quick and sure. Despite the coolness of the late spring breeze, Shigeru’s hands were warm. They were also as firm as steel. His father’s hands had been rough, weathered with creases and valleys. Shigeru’s were smoother but his hands had more focused callouses. They were as hard and unbending as the sword sitting in the grass next to them.