I stared after her momentarily but my thoughts quickly returned to Gisei. I was hoping to catch another glimpse of her that day at the forge but was sent to a different part of Kajiba for work. I mindlessly helped move completed swords and arrowheads into boxes for shipment down the river to other parts of Animetown.
At lunch that day, I found a small note with my food. It was written in very pretty handwriting and told me to meet at the riverside this evening. The letter was signed by Gisei. My heart began beating at a pace that was unmatched even during my most strenuous battles with Tsuyoi.
I quickly ate my lunch and was at the training grounds before my sensei arrived. She was impressed. “You’ve never arrived for training before me, Yoshi.”
“I learned my lesson from yesterday, sensei.” Truthfully, I just didn’t want to get knocked unconscious again and miss my meeting with Gisei that night. She took my attentiveness as a renewed focus and it was–just not for the reason she thought. I had one of my finest sessions with my sensei that afternoon and I wasn’t even paying attention most of the time. My thoughts were on Gisei.
# # #
She was beautiful in the moonlight by the river. I had no trouble sneaking out of my bedroom because I had not seen Suzaku since our fight that morning. Gisei sat by the river making swirls in the water with her feet. I could tell she was thinking hard about something by the way she bit her lower lip.
“I got your note,” I said quietly. She jumped up and straightened her dress unnecessarily.
“Yoshi.” She bowed her head.
“Yes?”
“I’m glad you came,” she mumbled. She looked up at me. Her eyes were calm and beautiful. Her hair, black and streaked with yellow, was as wild as I remembered from the first time I saw her.
“I wouldn’t miss it. I actually think I fought better today because I was trying not to let Tsuyoi knock me unconscious again!” I laughed.
She smiled at me and my stomach felt like it did a back flip. Then her smile faded.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“You’re cute,” she said.
I scratched my head. I wasn’t very experienced with girls, but I thought that being cute was a good thing. Maybe I was wrong. She laughed at me. That didn’t help.
“I have to tell you something,” she finally said. “Our meeting wasn’t an accident.”
I rolled my eyes. “I’ve heard so much about destiny and fate–sometimes it feels like I don’t have control over my own life.”
She looked down again and sat back at the river. She patted the ground beside her. I sat next to her, completely baffled by her actions. I’d heard men talk about how hard it was to understand their wives and was starting to suspect that they weren’t just complaining without reason.
“This isn’t about destiny or fate, Yoshi. I am supposed to tempt you. Tsuyoi instructed me to do so.”
“What?”
“Since you are training your body, she wanted to test not just your physical strength but your ability to control your body’s desires. She said that a true warrior must have control over all parts of the body.”
I caught her glancing down at my lap. I blushed and quickly covered myself with my hands. She laughed again. Her laughter once again did not help.
“But then I saw you. You are so handsome and strong. I didn’t want to lie to you. I–I’m sorry.”
She jumped to her feet before I could tell her that it wasn’t her fault. She started to run away but I caught up to her quickly. I grabbed her wrist and spun her to face me. I stood nearly a foot taller than her and had to look down into her eyes.
“It isn’t your fault. Other people have controlled my whole life, Gisei. The monks at the monastery, Bodhi, Tsuyoi, even Suzaku–they all tell me what to do or how to think or how to feel. All because I am destined to be Animetown’s great hero.”
I didn’t realize that I was still holding her wrist and squeezing it in my anger. I let go and saw that I left a mark. I think I was more scared about that than Gisei. She looked up at me.
“So now what?” she asked, rubbing her wrist.
“I’m sorry.”
She smiled and made my insides squirm again. “It’s okay. I know you didn’t mean to hurt me.” She stepped closer to me and tilted her head back to look into my face. “So now what?” She had a very faint smile curling at the edge of her mouth.
“Tsuyoi doesn’t need to know everything.” I ignored my body’s nervous protesting and put my arms around Gisei’s waist. “Just tell her I resisted you.”
She bit her lower lip again. “Did you?”
I bent my neck down and kissed her. I closed my eyes and pulled her close against me. I don’t know how long the embrace lasted, but it felt like an eternity. When I separated from Gisei, I looked into her eyes and smirked.
“Of course I did.”
# # #
“Today we complete your final test, the Great Physical Trial,” Tsuyoi said.
Another six months had passed in Kajiba. Suzaku and I were on speaking terms shortly after I told her that I was willing to ignore my hormones and focus on my training. Tsuyoi pushed me harder and never mentioned anything about Gisei, so I figured that we were hiding our relationship well.
My body became as well chiseled as any of the men in the village. Tsuyoi was the only one that was able to match me in one-on-one combat and even she became winded sooner than me. By the end of my training, she had me fighting two or three grown men at the same time just to keep me challenged.
I stood in front of her with Suzaku hovering proudly over my shoulder. Tsuyoi declared to the village that I was ready for my final challenge.
I eyed the assembled villagers and wondered what this Great Physical Trial would be. I thought maybe I would just have to fight the whole village at the same time. I couldn’t think of a more difficult physical trial than that.
“You’re going to forge a sword,” Tsuyoi announced.
I scoffed, “I’ve been making swords for months. What’s so hard about that?”
Tsuyoi looked to Suzaku, who I noticed was holding the bag I had carried with me from her temple in Animetown. It contained the ashes I had collected from her egg room in the temple. She dropped the bag at my feet.
“You’re going to make a sword with these.”
I felt my eyebrows meet at the middle of my forehead. “With your ashes?”
Suzaku landed and looked up at me. “Yes. You can make a sword with them that is virtually indestructible. No one else can work with the material so you have to do it.”
Tsuyoi placed her hand on my shoulder, “You are an amazing fighter, Yoshi. You deserve an amazing weapon. A blade made with the ashes of Suzaku will be unlike any sword to ever exist.” She pointed to the nearest forge in the village. “Get to work.”
Still confused, I picked up the bag and went to the forge with Suzaku. The villagers had prepared the fires and the forge was ready to go. I placed the bag on an anvil and looked to Suzaku.
“Is this another one of those things you can’t tell me how to do and I have to figure it out on my own?”
“Pretty much,” Suzaku answered with a smile.
“I’m betting you don’t even know,” I ventured.
Suzaku scoffed. “Yeah, like I’m an idiot that will fall for that one, Yoshi. I have all the knowledge that my line has gained over the years. It passed down to me when I was reborn.”
“So how long has your ‘line’ lived then?”
“Forever.”
“Really? How does that even work?”
“Shouldn’t you be focused on the task at hand, Yoshi?” she asked.
I turned back to the bag of ashes sitting on the anvil. I knew she was right but hated to admit it to her. She already knew she was right anyway so it didn’t do any good to acknowledge it. I figured I should just try something so I perused the sword molds and picked out what I wanted.
“Compensating for something?” asked Suzaku, staring at the
large mold I selected. The long blade was nearly as tall as me. The mold never was used as far as I could tell. The metals we had in Kajiba were not strong enough to obtain the durability needed to survive a battle in tact with such a long blade.
“A Masamune,” I said to no one in particular. “If your ashes are so amazing as a material, I should be able to make one with them.”
“As long as you don’t hurt yourself with it,” the phoenix mocked.
I ignored her and set up the mold. I was used to pouring molten metals into the molds and letting them dry. I wasn’t sure how to make the ashes into a workable material. I placed them into a clay pot and tried heating them in the forge.
“Are you seriously trying to melt them? The ashes of a phoenix?” Suzaku laughed. “Maybe you need to go back to Bodhi for more mental training.”
I knew it was a long shot but if there was something I did remember from my mind training was that I should at least try the obvious first. I poured water into the container, the way I would mix water into the clay we used to make pots and weapon molds. The water immediately boiled and turned to steam.
“Ooh, thought you had it there,” Suzaku offered.
“Do you ever say anything useful?” I replied.
“To you? Not really.”
I groaned and looked into the pot. The ashes were unchanged from when I started working with them. The steam was still pouring from the pot and blasted my face. Beads of sweat fell from my forehead into the pot. I was amazed at what happened next.
The ashes responded to my sweat. They actually absorbed the salty water from my pores and became wet. My sweat didn’t boil like the water. I shot a glance at Suzaku, who beamed at me.
“It needs my sweat?”
“Among other things.”
I groaned as I thought about a common saying that the artisans and weaponsmiths would use in regards to their work. I couldn’t count how many times I heard them talk about putting their “blood, sweat, and tears” into their work. I mentioned this to Suzaku.
“Even clichés start from an element of reality at some point in time,” she said.
I used a cloth to drain as much sweat from my head as I could. The ashes began to thicken as I wrung the sweat into the jar. A small blade slice to my arm made providing blood for the jar a simple task.
“What about tears?” I asked Suzaku.
“What about them?”
“How do I get them out? I haven’t cried since I was a kid.”
“One might argue that you still are a kid,” she began, “but I know what you mean.” She looked thoughtful for a moment. “What if you think about your family and all the bad stuff that happened to you as a child?”
I shook my head. “All that does is make me angry. Don’t you think I already think about that all the time?” It was a very truthful statement.
“Close your eyes,” Suzaku commanded.
I listened to her and squeezed my eyes shut. I heard the flapping of wings and a small amount of struggle from the great phoenix. Then I felt an immense pain in my foot.
“YEEOOW!” I screamed.
I opened my eyes and looked down at a large metal anvil on my foot. I knew that it took four or five of the strongest men in Kajiba to move one of these anvils. Suzaku had picked one up and dropped it on my foot. The pain was worse than anything I had ever felt. I felt a few tears stream down my cheeks. Suzaku picked up the jar and added my tears to the mixture of ashes, sweat, and blood.
When she removed the anvil, I tried to punch her but she flew into the air. “You should be thanking me,” she said.
“For dropping . . . an anvil . . . on my foot?” I sputtered.
“We got the tears!” she cried in defense of her actions.
I limped to the pot and jostled it. Somehow, the mixture looked very much like the molten metals I had worked at the forge in my training. I struggled to move with the pot, as I was pretty sure my foot was full of shattered bones. Suzaku actually helped me position the mold so I could pour the mixture into it.
I set the mold aside and sat down. I didn’t want to look at my foot and see what damage was done.
“Oh, it’ll heal, you big baby,” Suzaku said as she rested on the mold.
“Let me drop an anvil on your claw and see how you feel.”
Suzaku scoffed. “Did you miss the part where I can pick the anvil up by myself?”
“I didn’t know you were that strong.”
“There’s a lot you don’t know about me, Yoshi.” She smiled and tapped a talon on the sword mold. “Ding! Your sword is done.”
I cracked open the mold and saw the finest looking blade I had ever witnessed. Lifting it from the mold, I took it to the village square, where Tsuyoi and some of the villagers waited to see what I had made.
“A Masamune?” Tsuyoi said with admiration. “That’s the most beautiful blade I’ve ever seen, Yoshi.” She observed my limp and looked at my injured foot. “What’s with the foot?”
“Suzaku dropped an anvil on it.”
“Ah,” she said without judgment. “Yoshi, the village of Kajiba would be honored if you would allow us to craft the hilt and sheath for this blade.”
“As would I, Tsuyoi.”
The villagers took great care with the Masamune blade that I had forged with Suzaku’s ashes and my own blood, sweat, and tears. In about a week, I was prepared to journey to the last of the great senseis for my final warrior training. My foot wasn’t nearly as hurt as I had thought and had healed quickly.
I made a point to pass along the location of the spirit trainer, Anatta, to Gisei before we left Kajiba. She promised that she would meet me there. I wish I had known at the time how bad of an idea that was.
Part Five: The Spirit Sensei
When Tsuyoi first told me that the third and final sensei lived alone at the top of Kajiba Mountain, I was annoyed. Even with my stronger body and increased endurance, there did not seem to be any way to climb the mountain’s sheer face. She said the only path up was on the opposite side and would take several weeks to reach by river and then by land.
The pain in my foot that Suzaku caused by dropping the heavy anvil on it made me think of an alternate form of travel. I knew that Gisei would need to travel the long way to be with me but she said it was worth it.
“Carry me!” I cried to Suzaku as we stood at the base of the mountain.
“Excuse me?” she asked.
I grinned. “I’m sorry. Great Suzaku, most beautiful of birds and smartest creature in Animetown, can you please carry me to the top of the mountain.” The compliments tasted sour in my mouth but I knew she wanted to hear me ask her nicely, even if it was sarcastic.
“Well, in that case, sure.”
One benefit to this method of travel was that I couldn’t hear Suzaku during the trip as she flew us to the top of the mountain. In our last two travel sessions, she talked the whole time about how much things had changed in one hundred years. This used to be an orange grove. This village wasn’t here before. It was like listening to an old woman ramble.
One detriment to traveling this way was that she had to carry me in her large talons by my arms. It didn’t hurt but it was not exactly the most regal means of travel. Getting carried like a child in the talons of a giant bird was more comical than honorable.
We landed on a flat surface that jutted out from the main mountain. There was a cave entrance in the face of the rock and a narrow walkway that crept up the side of the mountain to the platform on which Suzaku and I were standing. I knew that this was the path Gisei would take when she came to visit me.
“Suzaku,” I said while rubbing the feeling back into my arms. “Can I ask you a question so I don’t sound like an idiot to Anatta?”
“I’m not sure if any question you ask me can prevent that from happening, but sure.”
“What’s the difference between the mind and the spirit? I get why body is different but the two of them seem to be the same.”
“Actual
ly, mind and body are closer in relation than mind and spirit.” Suzaku landed and tucked her wings into her side.
I noted how she was still growing and she had to have a ten-foot wingspan by now. I couldn’t even think of a bird to compare her to anymore. She was larger than any bird I had ever heard of, let alone seen.
“You there?”
I guessed that she had grown a lot during our long time in Kajiba but I was too focused on my training and Gisei to notice. “Yeah, sorry. I just realized how big you are. Are you done growing yet?”
Suzaku held out her wings and looked herself over. “Almost. So did you want me to answer your question or no?”
“Yes, I’m sorry. How are mind and body closer together?”
“Because the two of them are still physical. You train them by working them. The mind is just a muscle, no different than your arms or legs. You push it to its limits and it strengthens to keep up.”
“And the spirit? What is it?”
“Something less tangible. Some call it a soul. Some call it consciousness. Some call it self. Either way, you can’t just give it a puzzle or make it fight to train it.”
“So how do you train it?”
Suzaku opened her beak to answer and paused. I saw a look on her face that I had never seen in my phoenix companion before. I knew before she even said it what her answer was. “I don’t know.”
I stared in shock. Suzaku reached out with one of her giant wings and pushed my mouth closed. I hadn’t realized it was open.
“Can we go inside and find out now?” she asked in annoyance.
I smiled and nodded. Just like I never needed to tell her that she was right, I knew I didn’t need to point out that she had no answers for once. I pocketed the memory in the back of my mind.
We entered the cave and followed a faint light to the back. We were only a few hundred feet inside when we came to a man sitting next to a fire. He sat quietly staring into the flames. He was bald but didn’t seem that old. He wore the same orange robes as the monks from Suzaku temple.
Anchihiiroo - Origin of an Antihero Page 4