by Mark Swaine
“Swordswoman,” corrects Zui.
“Forgive me, swordswoman... swordswoman,” says the sweating customer.
“ToMǎkè and Xan Li, may they live and love for the rest of their lives,” says Zui, smiling quaintly whilst knocking back his last cup of Baiju.
Two banner-carrying Jade soldiers enter the tavern and approach the drunkard with proud smiles. One of the soldiers removes a large scroll and presents it with an outstretched hand.
“Are you the barkeeper? I did not know you had a twin. Why do you offer me waste paper, ‘tis not my job to restock the waste chamber... very well, increase my tab and I will not only restock the waste chamber, but empty the buckets also,” says Zui looking between the two men.
“Civilian, do you go by the name of Zui?” asks a Jade soldier.
“Sometimes, sometimes I loan myself out to undesirable women who wish to call me a variety of different names... once I even went by the name of Yu-Huang...I needed the money,” replies Zui uncaringly.
The two soldiers frown and look at each other before addressing the drunkard more firmly.
“You have been invited to attend a special ceremony in reward for your efforts of combat during the attack of the undead,” says a scroll-holding soldier quite firmly.
Zui stares at the two soldiers in contempt before disregarding them to face the bar.
“Return to your Emperor, and inform him from me... my words boy! My exact words...” growls Zui, “...to put that scroll where the sun refuses to shine its kind warm rays,”
With the two soldiers unsure how to react to Zui’s unexpected reaction, they stare at him whilst wondering how to deal with his ill manner and disloyalty. Zui looks back at the two cadets and feels slightly at fault for taking his anger out on them, furthermore, he is out of cowrie shells and they would surely have plenty.
“Forgive me, come sit and drink,” says Zui.
The two soldiers, being no closer to a resolve step forward and crowd his space.
“Zui, you have respectfully been invited to a special ceremony by the Emperor himself, take heed of your next words, choose respect, or we will shall act accordingly to your insolent words,” says the banner-holding soldier.
“Either buy a round, or leave me in peace,” replies Zui, no closer to his next drink.
Zui sobers instantly as he hears the familiar clunking and chinking of footsteps approaching the tavern door.
“Stand down soldiers, wait outside,” says a gruff familiar voice.
Zui stares at the bar shelf with a look of disdain, and he doesn't even need to look at the well built figure standing in the doorway to know that his disapproving eyes are already upon him. General Arachie looks around at his surroundings with distaste until reaching Zui's side.
“It has been a long time Zui,” says the General.
Zui doesn't wait to hear what the General has to say next and as he stands from his stool and smiles whilst urinating over the General's boots. In a great streaming golden arch Zui moves his hips from side to side sure to cover both boots. The General hardly appears surprised as he looks down at the yellow tinted pool, but he does appear angry. As Zui starts to laugh, the General Arachie grabs him by his shoulders and drags him through the tavern to an outside enclosure.
“‘Tis time you and I finally had a talk,” says the General throwing the tripping man into the brewing garden,
In the lush green garden filled with large kegs and crates, Arachie and Zui finally face one another after eighteen years. Arachie, preparing for Zui's probable retribution, removes his hook swords and lays them on the grass.
“It seems age and excessive drinking have not treated you kindly, why am I not surprised to find you living as vermin in a rundown dirty tavern like this. All you needed but do was to seek me out upon your release from Liumang prison,” says the General,
“You have come here to gloat?!” says Zui despisingly.
“Gloat? Zui, you killed a soldier of the Jade army...”
“...protecting Meili, your sister!” shouts Zui.
“Had you claimed you killed him by mistake I might have been able to reduce your sentence but you admitted to killing him without a second’s thought,” says Arachie.
“A fact I embrace proudly, and given the opportunity to re-enact these events, I would do nothing differently. She was your sister, it was your job to protect her,” says Zui.
“Her free spirited ways brought shame upon her lineage,” says Arachie.
“He was beating her! She was with child and he was beating her, Jade Captain, General, Emperor, I care not, he deserved to die!” says Zui spitting on the floor,
“You should have come to me, not taken this matter into your own hands,” grills Arachie.
“There was no time! What the hell difference does it make now? What does it matter? She still died,” sneers Zui.
“She died in childbirth Zui,” says the General.
“She died as result of her wounds,” corrects Zui warningly.
“Meili brought shame upon Captain Delun, with her many intimate relations with other men... and with you. And I want to know, heed my words old friend, I must know, I command you to tell me the truth of this. Meiili's son, Liu Chan...”
“...’Tis not possible you arrogant bastard. You have been waiting all these years to ask this of me? You were my trusted friend, your sister too was my beloved friend, we were supposed to be a family and all you had but do was ask of me!” shouts Zui.
“Are you, or are you not?” asks Arachie with a low warning growl.
“‘Tis not possible,” replies Zui.
“Why not?” asks Arachie.
“Because Meili and I never shared so much as a kiss. I know not who the father is,” replies Zui.
“Nor did she, because was a drunkard like you, and a whore!” shouts the General furiously.
Zui finally snaps under the disgraceful slur against his dear beloved friend Meili and attacks Arachie with a series of strong armed strikes. The General parries with his furious opponent and the two trade flying kicks whilst countering each other’s jaw breaking heels. Zui eventually breaks through the General's defences and knocks him backwards through the screen door of the tavern. Zui tears down the other screen door and pursues his fallen rival and the General's legs become a windmill of rotating legs as he takes Zui's from beneath him before flipping back to his feet.
As Zui rises, the General follows with a savage bloody uppercut, Zui returns with a punch and the General catches his fist and throws him across the suddenly vacant tables. Zui scrambles to his feet amongst a pile of broken tables and chairs and races back to deliver Meili her overdue justice. Zui embraces his drunken state and uses it to his advantage as his lazy arms and unpredictable body movements throws the General of balance. Zui delivers five hard knuckles to the General's gut and ducks to avoid his counter punch. Zui delivers a hard uppercut to Arachie's face and follows with a roundhouse kick knocking his head against the bar surface. Zui delivers two rapid kicks to the back of his legs then repeatedly thrusts his knee against Arachie's head beside the bar until it dissapears through the wood in a loud splintering crash. The General thrusts his foot into Zui's shin and rises to his feet with his head covered in long bloody scores. The General blocks Zui’s next attack and counters with an endless barrage of gut rippling windmill punches to Zui's ribs. As the wind is knocked out of him, the General lifts Zui up between the legs and throws him to the ceiling. On his way back down the General catches him by his skinny legs and swings him like a rag doll. Arachie lets go of his legs and watches in panting fury as he smashes through a hard wood wall. General Arachie's blood soaked moustache twitches with blood running down his nose as he awaits Zui's return, and he needn't wait long as Zui recovers and trips through the hole in the wall. Zui stares him across the room, and the two Jade soldiers finally enter the tavern to aid their General.
“GET OUT! This is between me and him,” says the General.
The two
soldiers reluctantly leave the half -destroyed tavern and the General and Zui re-engage one another.
“Now that we are here, finally engaged in combat, I realise how much I long for your death, for Meili,” says Zui, picking up pace.
“I wish not your death, but you are the one who person who could bring about my nephew's shame,” says Arachie, adopting the preferred stance to deliver a lethal strike.
“Then why have you waited until now?” asks Zui crossly.
“Zui, you leave me no choice,” says the General regrettably.
The two battle and trade heavy blows but ultimately it’s the General who desires more to protect Liu Chan's honour. He swaps between various styles of Wushu to throw his opponent off guard and Zui continues his preferred Drunken style, but the General's Wushu is too complex to counter as he picks up speed. But both refuse to allow the other to get the upper hand as blood flies from deep cuts and oral gashes in streams and spatters of loose dark red. Arachie bellows with anger as he pounds his fist into Zui's pulverised face and Zui finally drops to his knees in a semi dazed state. Feeling regret for already wronging his friend and causing him undue suffering, he also feels compelled to end his life and sever all ties to Liu Chan's disgraceful heritage. Arachie draws his fist back and his knuckles crack as he prepares to end Zui's life quick and painlessly. Driving his fist forward, his knuckles stops short a few inches of a lethal life-ending blow.
“Do it,” croaks Zui.
“I must,” says the battered General, “for his honour,” he adds regretfully.
“For his, or yours?” asks Zui dismissively. “Honour? You would not know its true meaning,”
The General draws back his hand and holds it clenched and shaking, then he hesitates and lifts Zui to his feet instead. As the General curses under his breath at his own lack of will, Zui hobbles past the General and takes a seat at the bar, and the General uselessly joins him. Arachie gestures to the landlord's set of eyeballs peering over the bar counter, and his two shaking hands reach over to pour them two shots of Baiju.
“For sacrificing our friendship I will never forgive myself,” says Arachie.
“Still holding true to your ‘forgiveness is for the weak’ philosophy?” says Zui rhetorically.
“Forgiveness condones our wicked actions and regretful mistakes and inform those we have wronged we are free to wrong them again. I willingly wronged you, I will not ask of you to condone my actions, but I will suffer the consequences of our broken friendship, just as I have since the day I sent you to the Liumang prison,” says Arachie.
“I served only five years. I do not assume I was released early due to my well behaviour,” says Zui.
“On the day I was promoted to General, my first act of duty was releasing you from that place,” replies Arachie solemnly.
“How noble,” replies Zui dryly.
“I cannot give you back those five years, but...”
“I do not give a fuck about five years. I would have served ten if only you had been truthful and stood by my side,” replies Zui.
“Had I been truthful and stood by your side, Liu Chan would be then marked by his mother's shame, you know this,” says Arachie. “Liu Chan's mother...”
“You cannot even say her name,” says Zui looking at Arachie in disbelief. “Does she mean so little to you?”
“I miss her every day, but what was I to do Zui? If you are not something in this world, you are a nobody, one of us had to be the stronger person if we were both to survive. I endured her ways because I pitied her,” says Arachie.
“Say her name, Meili, say it!” shouts Zui, slamming his fist on the counter.
“Meili was my sister, mine not yours, you did not help! If you were such a good friend why did you not urge her to listen?!” snaps the General.
“To what! She was perfect,” replies Zui.
“Everything was a joke to the both of you; you never cared about anything but yourselves,” says the General.
“You were the same before your parents passed!” says Zui.
“Because I became responsible for feeding and sheltering not only Meili and I, but feeding you and your endless drinking, both of you!” says the General. “My duty was, and always has been, to my family. Liu Chan is all I have left of Meili, if word of this reaches Liu Chan's ears...”
“I have not spoken of this to a soul, nor will I, for Liu Chan's sake,” replies Zui.
“I trust you,” replies Arachie nodding gratefully. “Zui, regarding the ceremony,” adds the General.
“Best I do not attend, I have nothing to say the Emperor he desires to hear,” replies Zui.
“Do not allow your hate for me to rob you of your glory old friend; your actions during the attack were courageous. You are the better man this day,” says the General wincing to his feet.
“I am the better man every day,” replies Zui, knocking back a shot.
“You should not lose yourself in drink my old friend,” says Arachie.
“We are no longer friends you and I. Leave me in peace. Go,” says Zui irately.
“Zui...”
“I said fuck off!” shouts Zui.
General Arachie discards Zui's anger with an angry scowl and hails the two guards from outside. The two youngsters appear and the bloody General gestures to the two sacks over their shoulders and he slams one on the counter for the barkeeper.
“For the damage,” says the General.
“For you, there is enough buy your own tavern,” says the General, dropping the other bag in front of Zui. “Get him a drink,” adds the General crossly pointing to Zui.
“You believe you can buy my forgiveness with the Emperor's wealth? You believe you can ease your conscience with cowrie shells?!” says Zui crossly.
“Not from the Emperor, but from my own savings,” says the General.
“That is what I always liked about you Arachie, you always possess a solution. It must be difficult having all the answers,” says Zui snidely.
“You know what I always liked about you Zui? How Meili always believed she was safe in your reckless irresponsible company, so much so I believed it also,” says the General.
“Are you saying I am to blame?” asks Zui.
“No, I am. The fault lies with me. I should have been there to protect her, but I wasn't. But I can honour her memory by raising her child, for she lives on through him. And every time I look upon his face, I see Meili's. I will not see him go down the same path as his mother... or you. Do I regret holding you responsible for Meili's death and sending you to Liumang? I’ll regret it every day of my life, but given the opportunity I would do things no differently,” admits the General.
“The first thing I did upon my release was visit the lake where we once played as children and pick a Lotus for Meili,” says Zui sadly.
“My extension of hand does not end with cowrie shells, for you will never change,” says the General, ignoring his sentiment.
“What do you speak of now?” asks Zui puzzled and cross.
“There are five hundred cowrie shells in that bag; you will piss all of it against the wall before the end of the summer season. Should you ever wish to return to your former profession, you know where to find me,” says the General.
“Yes I know where to find you, in a latrine crafted from divine light where you will be holding the Emperor's cock,” says Zui, snatching the bottle from the barkeeper’s hand.
General Arachie seethes and storms out with the soldiers in tow, and Zui guzzles from the bottle of Baiju and throws it against the drink shelf. The barkeeper stares at Zui admirably with puppy dog eyes and Zui looks backwards over both his shoulders, curiously wondering who or where the man is looking at. With no one behind him he stares back at the barkeeper in annoyance.
“What the fuck are you looking at?” says Zui.
“You are him, Zui... the one who fought amongst the dragons... in flight, you are him?” asks the star-struck manager.
“No, different Zui,�
�� he replies quietly.
“Have a drink on the house,” says the barman smiling proudly.
Denying the credit of a free drink for his brave actions, Zui reaches into his bag and tosses the barman a cowrie shell.
“How much for the tavern?” asks Zui.
“For you, no charge,” says the barman, ogling his own bag of riches.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Five days and nights had passed since Kamui Li's meeting with the Black Dragon, and not even the wise beast's words could destroy his determination to destroy the Darkness and free his homeland. His mind is set, and he cares not for the dragon's pessimistic foreboding. He cares not for the beating of drums; he cares even less for the incredible displays celebrating Chung Denshi's commitment to Emperor Yu-Huang. In the Shinnen palace throne room Kamui Li stands front and centre of his formation of Samurai with Xan Li standing before the Onna-Bugeisha. Opposite the long formation of Samurai, a formation of Jade soldiers stands just as sturdy and disciplined. The space between the two armies forms a wide walkway with enough room to host a display of Wushu and dragon dancing. Akane Junko stands eyes forward, with little reason to celebrate or feel any kind of hope for the future.