Kyuzo awoke earlier than usual. Normally he rose with the sun but today it hadn’t yet crested the horizon before he stirred out of his bed. The last few days had been filled with incredible events that seemed to be compounding on one another, becoming more and more unbelievable as the week progressed. Last night he had just been told he was to be a magistrate, to take charge of an entire village. He took a deep breath and shook his head at the memory. He had no idea how to run a town, and all this responsibility was being thrust upon him leaving Kyuzo confused and a little overwhelmed. Granted, he was honored to be receiving so many blessings. It was just that it was a lot of them all at once.
He took his time dressing, considering the next course of actions he should be taking as the new head of the town. Kyuzo wanted to be sure not to dishonor himself, or those who worked under him. The group he had met several days ago, the one that kept popping up and continued to be a factor in his life, was now working for him as shogunate. He still wasn’t sure what to even make of that. They were an interesting bunch and finding a job for everyone’s ‘unique’ talents was going to be difficult. Finding talents he could use would prove to be just as difficult. Another deep breath came and went, Kyuzo attempting to calm his thoughts, it wasn’t working as well as he had expected. Feeling the need for a little serenity already, he decided to watch the sun rise.
Kyuzo opened his tent to find a small group of heimin waiting outside. Before he could ask what was going on, they entered his small home and began packing and taking his items. He just stared as they made quick work of the few items he had brought with to the tournament, eventually dismantling his tent as well. They were all going in the same direction, so instead of causing a scene Kyuzo just followed the group to their destination. The house he ate at last night, coined the Mayor’s House, the one Otomo had been staying in, seemed to be where his worldly possessions were being taken. He approached the house, uncertain whether he should enter or if he should wait for someone to attend to him. It wasn’t customary to barge into another’s house, but it also wasn’t customary for a group of peasants to be moving your items without asking either. There didn’t seem to be anyone around but those moving his items. They must be moving him in the biggest house since he was taking over as standing ‘mayor’. He could live with this.
Kyuzo called out to the nearest heimin who didn’t seem to be carrying or doing much of anything.
“Go fetch Kitsuki Anjin-san and have him inform the rest of the group to meet me here, along with him.” The peasant nodded and ran off.
Kyuzo entered the house, inspecting the place he was going to be living. He had seen the courtyard and the receiving area last night, but hadn’t had the opportunity to tour the rest of the place. It wouldn’t have been acceptable to ask to be shown around, living quarters were deeply personal places. The house was a large square with the receiving room being the first room you would enter, which also opened to the courtyard in the center of the house. The courtyard could open on the opposite side to a short hallway leading to a backyard where a bathhouse was located. There was a kitchen already establish and eight other empty rooms. After a little toying he found you could move the walls into whatever position you wanted, allowing one to make bigger or smaller rooms. The floors also made a familiar creek when he walked across them. Kyuzo smiled thinking about the hallways of his dojo. It was the same noise that would have you standing holding buckets of water, or running while dragging a log behind you because you didn’t obey the bedtimes assigned. The entire house had mockingbird floors throughout.
After directing some of the heimin who were busying themselves around the house to move walls into a place he found acceptable for his bedroom, Kyuzo waited at the front of the house for the rest of the group to arrive. The group began trickling in. Shiba was the first to show up. Kyuzo smiled to himself thinking about their practice duel last night and the trophy he took from it. When the dinner party had headed indoors Kyuzo had hung back and retrieved Shiba’s mon that he had once again successfully removed. He figured he’d keep it after Daigotsu had given him hers. Though that was a very different scenario than with Shiba. Daigotsu had come up to him after he took the win, stood much closer than one should be, and slid the cloth under his belt. She gave him a memento of herself and it had made his heart quicken, her brushing against his stomach had only reinforced the strange feeling she enticed.
Matsu reported in next looking as lovely as ever. Last night she had worn a very flattering kimono, low cut and tight against her body. Kyuzo had tried not to stare lest he face her wrath. Matsu had made it clear she lacked interest in men and outright threatened him. And at lunch he had learned she was already betrothed, although she was quite bitter about it. Neither of those made her any less beautiful to behold, and Kyuzo enjoyed looking at her.
Lastly Kitsuki and Daigotsu arrived together. He found Kitsuki harder to catalog than the rest; he was obviously well read and intelligent. He had an unfortunate affliction, which he didn’t shy away from recognizing in the presence of others. And although amiable to everyone, Kitsuki seemed to be taking a liking to Daigotsu. He had seen the two together on more than a few occasions over the last few days, and with what Daigotsu had said at lunch yesterday, that she would stand beside Kitsuki no matter where he went, that sounded a little intimate. And then there was dinner where Kitsuki knew Daigotsu wasn’t feeling well and made apologies for her. Why Kitsuki and not someone from the Spider clan offering an apology? And Daigotsu herself, Kyuzo wasn’t even going to pretend he understood her. He found her presence and prowess in combat alluring, but she had other qualities that unnerved him or just screamed that he should keep his distance. The more he learned about her, the more intriguing she was becoming and the easier it was for him to overlook those scathing flaws.
“Good morning everyone,” Kyuzo said once the group had finally come together. There was a round of polite greetings between them as Kyuzo looked over to the house, he hadn’t thought of how to go about this besides jumping right into the thick of things.
“How was dinner last night?” Daigotsu asked, not directing it towards anyone in particular.
“I thought about trying to figure out why you weren’t there last night… but, I don’t know, I had a lot to think about.” Kyuzo was surprised he even said that in front of everyone, or at all. In his head he had something better, what he was trying to convey is he was thinking about her, but it had just come out awkward. “Are you okay?” He quickly tried to cover his tracks.
“I am feeling much better,” Daigotsu said with a nod.
“You look fine. You look a lot better than…” Kyuzo eyed Kitsuki who was much paler than usual and ragged looking. Maybe he was now ill from whatever Daigotsu had.
“You look like you spent a night in the Shadowlands,” Shiba bluntly put it.
“Maybe you can explain in a little more detail what happened to her last night, Kitsuki-san?” Kyuzo didn’t want to bother with Daigotsu’s short and shielded explanations. Kitsuki on the other hand had no problem over indulging in explanation. Kitsuki inhaled deeply and blew it out as if the thought exhausted him. He shook his head and refused to speak. Whatever it was they could talk about this after things were taken care of, they had much on their plate and not as much time to complete it all.
“First of all,” Kyuzo began getting down to business, “Collect some people to gather your stuff and bring it here. There’s no point in you living in tents.”
“I must have missed something,” Daigotsu tilted her head.
That’s right, she wasn’t at dinner and so she probably had no idea they had all become diplomats for their clans. Or that they were going to move in together. Or that they now were running the town.
“I‘m going to be this…” Kyuzo didn’t want to start there, that made him seem like he was lording over everyone with yet another title that had been placed on him. “We‘re going to set up this…” No, not a good place either. How did Otomo explain it? “This area we’re in right now is going to be… a Spider borderland. And that’s my job.”
“What does that have to do with the mayor’s house?” Daigotsu was right, he really hadn’t explained the situation well with that. He was floundering. Kyuzo had so much on his mind he didn’t even know how to get it all out in a coherent way.
“Setting it up is my job, I mean. That’s why you and all of us were invited to dinner because we’re all expected to be here and manage this.”
“We’ve all been assigned by our respective clans as dignitaries of this new outpost.” Kitsuki explained everything in one sentence. Kyuzo nodded in agreement, that’s what he was trying to get at. He had a long way to go if he was going to be leading not only the group, but an entire town, and being a diplomat interacting with the Spider clan.
“Needless to say,” Kitsuki continued, “These positions will present some bizarre challenges.” He looked even more haggard than when he first showed up. “This, I suppose, is something we’re getting rather used to…”
“Alright. Would anyone like to hold any job in particular? It’s up to me to assign positions and I would appreciate your input. I barely know you and can’t claim to know where you’d excel yet.” This was one of those things he hadn’t yet had the opportunity to consider. Since last night’s dinner, and this morning’s interruption, he had been thrust into running things without any information. He didn’t even know what the town produced, if anything. Or how many lived here. This was a nightmare he wasn’t trained to handle.
“The women!” Matsu exclaimed. Kyuzo stared at her. He wasn’t even sure if that was a real answer from Matsu or if she was just joking. What kind of position would that be anyways?
“Could you be more specific?”
“Captain of the guard,” Shiba said loud and clear. Kyuzo wasn’t certain if he’d ever heard her say a sentence without stuttering, let alone so definitive.
“Yeah,” It made sense to Kyuzo to put the Lion in charge of defenses and training personnel. “Yeah, Matsu, you should fit nicely as Captain of the guard.”
“I would do well with bookkeeping,” Kitsuki offered.
“Done.”
“I could be in charge of commerce,” Daigotsu suggested, “Food, trading, the like.”
Kyuzo didn’t want to outright tell Daigotsu no. He had allowed both Matsu and Kitsuki to pick jobs they wanted and to deny Daigotsu, a Spider, equal chance at position might cause discontent before they even got started. He imagined what trading would be like under the charge of a Spider. The image that came to mind was one quite violent and destructive.
“We don’t want to be eating people,” Shiba responded. Kyuzo could see she was in an ornery mood this morning. Though he was glad she said it and he didn’t have to go into detail about why he didn’t think Daigotsu would be ideal for that job. Daigotsu shrugged; apparently she didn’t take it as insulting as it clearly was meant to be.
“Kitsuki, could you also handle the trade agreements and finances?”
Kitsuki nodded, “Easily enough. I will handle the affairs of the public.”
“I may not speak with the kami, but I could coordinate religion.” It was Daigotsu again, this idea seeming even worse than her previous one. He didn’t know what code the Spider followed, but he was certain Bushido wasn’t it. They worshipped Fu Leng and Jigoku, and having a whole town fall under the taint wasn’t the way Kyuzo wanted to be remembered.
“Daigotsu,” Kyuzo began carefully choosing his words, “You will be in charge of all the things that require a Spider to be in charge of at the Spider gate on the Spider boarder. Is that acceptable?”
“I will live up to every expectation.” Kyuzo wasn’t sure if she realized he had edged her out of a direct position, and he also wasn’t sure what expectations she planned to be meeting, however, she seemed pleased enough to be given a task, even if it wasn’t clear on what that task may be.
“Now, we just have to figure out who will be constructing for our needs.”
“Asahina-san,” Daigotsu sure was talkative today, “In lieu of the Crab, who are by far the most renowned engineers, I could step in. The Spider are quite resourceful.”
He didn’t see a problem with that. There wasn’t much Daigotsu could pervert in overseeing the building of walls and houses. “You could oversee that but don’t forget your primary duties.”
Daigotsu nodded. “Kitsuki-san,” she leaned towards the Dragon, “We will be together quite often with me as head of construction and you in charge of the paperwork.” Maybe Kyuzo wasn’t wrong about the two of them. Daigotsu hadn’t made a comment to anyone else about how they would all be sharing a roof and be together often. No, she singled out Kitsuki.
Kitsuki gave a small smile and nodded. “Very well. Might I suggest you also take charge of scouting and border surveillance?”
“Isn’t that something under the Captain of the guard? I wouldn’t mind taking that position if it would please you, Asahina-san?”
“Oh no, no. That’s Matsu’s job.” Kyuzo was quick to snuff that out. That was also something he didn’t need, almost as bad as Daigotsu in charge of religion creating a tainted village. Or trade, resulting in what he imagined pillaging the neighboring countryside. He was not about to give her reign over their soldiers where she would have them slaughter each other, or innocents. The Spider were well known for their unrelenting aggression, killing all who stood in their way.
“How would I fit into all of this?” Shiba asked pointedly. Kyuzo hadn’t forgotten about her, the Shiba were the best yojimbo in the Empire and having one in their presence was a blessing from the Fortunes.
“You will be the High Guard, Shiba-san. You will watch over us while we watch over the rest.” Shiba nodded with little emotion.
Kyuzo looked around the group, mentally going over the list in his head on what he believed a town needed. Matsu would be the tactician. Shiba, the loyal yojimbo protecting all. Kitsuki will handle all the public affairs where a strong speaker would be ideal. And Daigotsu… well, she would handle the odd and end jobs that would keep her out of trouble and didn’t require her to be punctual. She was late to the lunch yesterday and didn’t even show for dinner. Now looking at her she didn’t seem the slightest bit ill, but Kitsuki on the other hand…
“Why are you so ragged, Kitsuki-san?”
“I… didn’t sleep well,” Kitsuki slowly put the words together. That wasn’t like Kitsuki at all. On top of that Kitsuki also wasn’t the type to keep answers secreted away. He shared some unpleasant information yesterday at lunch; a little clarification on why he wasn’t functioning to his fullest wasn’t any more personal than that. Kyuzo eyed the ragged Dragon, something wasn’t right here.
“You really do look terrible,” Shiba again bluntly pointed out.
“You should get some rest, Kitsuki-san,” Daigotsu suggested. “I have a feeling you may need it later.”
Kitsuki just turned and slowly made his way back to where the remaining tents were camped. Daigotsu followed. Matsu and Shiba also headed out to collect their personal belongings, leaving Kyuzo alone to… do what? He had to speak with the mayor, or the previous mayor, figure out the current workings of the town and what he could do to improve them. Otomo-dono had said he expected to see an increase in the town’s size and production, in order to do that he had to know what they were even producing.
As if Kyuzo could manifest his thoughts into reality, the mayor came to call on him producing several pages of inventory, records, and missives, including a list of those inbound to the town. A group of Kaiu, the best engineers of the Empire, was going to be here in a matter of days to build the gate. Emerald Magistrates were also making there way to the city. Good, that covered construction and law enforcement. Volunteers from the Scorpion, Spider, and a large group of Lion totaling 100 samurai would take longer to arrive, but were at his disposal to man the gate once it was built.
The primary source of trade and income was rice, along with the sake brewery and a small silk dying operation. During the spring and summer the town also produced their own silk from the silkworms that hung on the cherry trees. Overall, the town was well suited to grow exponentially, no wonder this one had been picked to be the border town for the Spider.
Kyuzo made sure to inquire on the usual happenings of the town. Number of citizens. Frequency of visitors. He wanted to know exactly what he had to work with and didn’t want any surprises if he could manage it.
After the long conversation with the mayor, it was rounding to lunch. The rest of the group had been moving around the house, marking out their rooms or other areas needed. Kitsuki was having some servants move around walls to create an office separate from his bedroom, in fact on the other side of the house from his. Matsu staked claim to the front most corner room, closest to the entrance and receiving room. Daigotsu pushed around some walls choosing a room adjoining Kitsuki’s, placing her in the back most corner of the house. Shiba set up near the kitchen, isolating herself from the rest of her living companions. Kyuzo had chosen to put a room between the courtyard and the back entrance, giving him access to both the front and back of the house if he desired it, without having much in the way of floorboards to cross.
Kitsuki was his closest neighbor, and on the other side was the office Kitsuki had put together. The fact that Daigotsu chose to make a room closer to Kitsuki than Kyuzo, or anyone else for that matter, or by herself like Shiba had done, only made him more suspicious of a secret relationship between the two of them. It was a silly thought when he considered who Daigotsu was.
Daigotsu was always exhibiting odd phrasing and strange behavior, all the little eccentricities he had been noticing over the last two days may just be Daigotsu being Daigotsu. After all, she had given him just cause to believe she was interested in him. She forced a gift on him, not that he was complaining, and simply the area in which it was placed was rather personal. She had also accompanied him for a tea ceremony that he performed for just the two of them, and although he was distracted by her unsettling mismatched eyes, and she had grimaced when drinking the tea, she had conducted herself with a calmness he previously didn’t believe she was capable of. He also saw her face for the first time and was surprised by how normal she looked under her mask. Then there was the eye patch she had worn to lunch to cover her blue eye, proving she had some sense of what polite company entailed. Yeah, the behavior she exhibited towards Kitsuki was probably just another oddity that Kyuzo didn’t understand about the Spider clan.
Having delegated the day’s tasks out to others, Kyuzo found himself with a few hours of free time. He had been working on a cherry tree painting, and decided that now was as good of time as any to spend his time adding to it. He enjoyed painting. It was a skill that took not only a keen eye, but a sharp mind able to separate the complexities of your model and piece it back together with a brush. Standing for hours and the careful strokes needed added to the physical skill required to paint as well. Painting also helped him remove unnecessary thoughts from his mind. You had to devote your full attention to what your hand was portraying from your mind, leaving all the unanswered questions and uncertainty that could cloud your thoughts with no room to exist.
“Good afternoon, Asahina-sama,” Kitsuki’s voice called from behind him. Kyuzo had left open his door since the weather was beautiful and he had no need to shut out the world while he painted. Kyuzo turned to find Kitsuki standing in the doorway, Daigotsu slouching behind him.
“Afternoon,” Kyuzo responded.
“I apologize for interrupting your painting and will make this quick,” Kitsuki began. “We went for a walk about the town and noticed that the Unicorn and Scorpion clans were still around in some numbers.”
There was that suspicion again. Here they were together, and they walked around the town together. Daigotsu sure was dedicating a lot of time to spend with Kitsuki.
“I overheard the Unicorn talking and there was potential planning to keep some men behind. Armed. And they didn’t seem to have a purpose they were forthcoming with. I wasn’t under the impression that they were welcomed in that capacity. The Scorpion seem to have the intent to offer scouts for our use before reinforcements arrive.”
Kyuzo ran it over in his mind. It wouldn’t be terrible to have extra trained men and women sticking around, but he also didn’t want one clan attempting to make a power play in his newly inherited town. “I wouldn’t say they’re unwelcome as far as this being a joint function border gate. However it is very early to be considering amassing forces here and it seems they’re not afraid they’re stepping over boundries.”
“Since they haven’t been invited to stay, we should certainly be cautious of their motives. Perhaps we could tactfully request some to stay, but convince them to lessen their numbers?”
“I’ll have to speak with the Captain of the Guard about this, but I will keep your advice in mind.” Day one and there seemed to already be trouble brewing.
“Very well,” Kitsuki bowed and headed towards the study.
“Kitsuki-san,” Daigotsu touched Kitsuki’s arm before he left. “Are you going to be staying in the house for the remainder of the afternoon?”
There she went with that touching again.
“Most likely, yes.”
“I will take my leave then.” Kitsuki nodded in response and continued on his way to the study leaving Daigotsu behind who was now looking at Kyuzo.
“Asahina-san,” There was something about the tone she used that gave Kyuzo the feeling she was up to no good. “I noticed you had a bow the other day,” Daigotsu paused. Had that been a question? It didn’t sound like a question to Kyuzo, but she was standing there silent either unable to finish her thought or waiting for a response.
“Yes?” Kyuzo said filling the silence.
“Could I borrow it?”
Kyuzo blinked at Daigotsu. “That’s mighty forward of you, as to be expected. But I have to ask you why you would want to use something of mine?”
“I do not own one.” Yes, short cryptic answers, the Daigotsu way of speaking.
“I suppose you want to use my arrows as well?” Kyuzo said slightly annoyed.
“Yes. But if you would rather me spend the time to find a fletcher in the town, I suppose I could dedicate the rest of my afternoon to that.”
“If that’s the case, you could also find a bow.” Kyuzo wasn’t certain what she wanted with it, but handing over his weapon to anyone wasn’t something he was apt to do.
Daigotsu shrugged, “That works for me.” She turned towards the front door, obviously done with this conversation.
“Wait,” Kyuzo called. He didn‘t want her to take offense to what he had said, and strangely he didn‘t really want her to leave yet either. Daigotsu half-pivoted so she was looking over her shoulder at Kyuzo not showing him the front of her body which indicated she wasn’t giving him her full attention. Then again, she leaned and slouched and often didn’t look at people when talking, maybe this was another of those Daigotsu oddities. “It’s just that I don’t know what your intentions are, so I can’t say yes.”
“I was going to try to shoot it.”
“So, you were going to practice with it?”
“Yes, I have only seen it used and I think it’s about time I mastered it myself.”
“If that’s the case I can teach you and I have no qualms with you using my bow.” Kyuzo smiled, “Just let me clean this up first.” He quickly put away his painting materials while Daigotsu waited in the courtyard. Kyuzo grabbed his bow and joined her. “Do you know where there’s a target area around here?”
“I know where to go. Just follow me.”
Kyuzo followed Daigotsu as they made their way west out of town. Kyuzo found it a little odd that they were going outside of town to find targets, but Daigotsu had said she knew where to go, so he followed. Once they descended the hill, they turned south towards the woods. Perhaps there wasn’t a place in town to shoot so Daigotsu was going to use trees as target practice. It was hell on the arrows, but it was still suitable as long as they found some nice young growth, ones under twenty years. When they entered the small cropping of trees Daigotsu slowed down peering around. She was still moving forward but appeared to be looking for something. Yep, it must be young trees, Kyuzo determined.
It wasn’t until he heard a rustling coming from somewhere beyond them that he remembered the way Daigotsu had said his name at the beginning of the conversation. That way that made you believe someone was up to trouble. Daigotsu took another careful step and waved Kyuzo over towards her. He wasn’t sure what they were going to find, but apparently Daigotsu wanted to show him. Kyuzo tried to be as quiet as Daigotsu had been, but he seemed to lack the lightness in step that Daigotsu exhibited. Another interesting thing to learn about Daigotsu, she walks through the woods delicately. Kyuzo scanned the area and laid eyes upon the thing that was rustling ahead of them. There stood a decent-sized boar, foraging for food or whatever it was that boars did when pushing their nose into the ground.
“Right there,” Daigotsu spoke softly, “We’ll use that.”
“So, you want to kill this for sport?” Kyuzo wasn’t sure what to really do. Daigotsu had said she wanted to learn to shoot a bow, and now they stood maybe fifteen yards from a boar which she was telling him to use to teach her to shoot.
“Not sport. You wouldn’t just leave it there once we kill it, would you?”
Kyuzo exhaled heavily and contemplated the situation. He wasn‘t worried about the boar‘s life, he just didn‘t understand the need to find an animal that moves to loose Daigotsu‘s first arrows at. A disturbing thought came to him that perhaps the Spider use this tactic to learn any weapon. They did live in the Shadowlands where goblins and oni and other terrifying things he was told as a kid lived. Maybe it was a do or die feat, find something that could kill you and kill it first. “Is this some sort of trophy in your lands?”
“Oh no, we only keep trophies from intelligent creatures.” Just when Kyuzo thought the things Daigotsu said couldn’t get any more strange, she crossed the line into the bizarre. He didn’t even want to know what these intelligent creatures were that she was referring to.
The air filled with a deep squeal. “Shoot it!” Katsumi yelled as she stepped out and aimed her bisento.
How was he going to do that? He hadn’t even strung the bow yet thinking they would have had plenty of time for him to show her how to do the basics before actually shooting. The pig charged. Kyuzo dropped his bow and brought his hand to the handle of his katana. Daigotsu took two steps forward, meeting the beast before it was able to use its momentum to gore her. She plunged the blade of her polearm into the shoulder of the pig, angled towards its heart. She successfully knocked it sideways as it stumbled and swept its tusks towards her. Kyuzo took a step and sliced the neck of the boar with his katana. It wasn’t going to take much to finish the pig off as it was losing significant amounts of blood from Daigotsu’s wound on the other side of its neck. The pig shuddered and moved forward and backwards as its body began to shut down. Finally it fell to the dirt. Kyuzo sighed and flicked his blade in attempts to clean it before sheathing it.
“Wasn’t that fun?” Daigotsu exclaimed as she began tying the boar up.
Kyuzo just pressed his lips. On one hand he had just been tricked into hunting a pig and he felt a little betrayed by that. On the other, he had just helped Daigotsu kill a dangerous beast that weighed at least as much as the two of them put together, which she probably could have handled on her own, and that was slightly arousing. Not that Kyuzo thought killing things was erotic, but Daigotsu was obviously a capable woman and this was one of those things that quietly swept her flaws under the rug of reasoning.
“So… Yeah. You have blood on you.” Kyuzo rubbed his neck while he watched her tie the pig up.
“It’ll come out,” Daigotsu assured him. It may have been his imagination, but he could have sworn he heard her say “Mmmm” before she actually spoke.
“I don’t know… I thought you wanted to… We were just…” Kyuzo felt like she had played him for a fool enlisting in his help. But he saw what she did to the pig before it had even attempted to gore her, she didn’t need him around if she just wanted to hunt.
“We could find some birds,” Daigotsu suggested.
“Daigotsu,” Kyuzo waited until she was looking at him before he continued, “This isn’t my idea of target practice. I would rather something less messy that won’t overfill our storeroom.”
“Oh.” Daigotsu said it the same way she had when Matsu made it clear she wanted to bed Daigotsu, sudden understanding. As if it hadn’t ever occurred to her before that this wasn’t fun for everyone. She walked over to a sapling and broke it, using a knife to cut the green base that wouldn’t tear; quickly she trimmed off the branches and slid it through the ropes binding the boar, hoisting it onto her back. Kyuzo was trying very hard not to notice the blood that was trickling out of the pig’s gaping wounds onto Daigotsu.
“What else would you shoot at? Inanimate objects don’t move. Anyone can hit that.” They had started back towards the town, Daigotsu leading the way so he couldn’t see her when she asked, but she sounded genuinely curious.
“No, no, I disagree. It’s a very centering balancing act about enhancing your Bushido.” They walked in silence until they cleared the forest, Kyuzo taking a position beside Daigotsu so he could talk to her instead of the corpse of the pig.
“There are certain things in life that you won’t… that you just won’t be able to grasp having such innate skill in everything you do. See, most people would have to practice something to see the inner beauty of it. Perhaps you just see beauty in all things.”
Daigotsu was quiet for a while. It wasn’t that strange since she didn’t talk often, and even when she did her sentences were short and to the point. “Asahina-san,” her voice had lost some of the arrogance that it usually carried, “The next time you-if you ever do go practicing with me again, we’ll do it your way. I… think I might enjoy that.”
Kyuzo told himself he should stop being surprised by Daigotsu, but yet again he found himself at a loss of words on her sincerity. It was almost enough for him to forget she was about to carry a bloody carcass through the middle of town to their newly acquired house. Almost.
“Do you think you could wait here, Daigotsu? I’ll be right back.”
Before she could answer Kyuzo trotted off towards the Spider encampment. They weren’t hard to find, and even easier to convince to lend a sack and help do whatever it was they did to animals before preparing it for food. Kyuzo wasn’t dense, he was aware there was a lot involved in butchering an animal. He knew a thing or two about medicine and the way the human body worked, an animal’s wouldn’t be as complicated, but it was bound to have some of the same organs. When they returned Daigotsu seemed to already have started on disemboweling it. She was covered in blood. Kyuzo sighed again.
“Oh, nice catch! Who killed it?” One of the Spiders asked.
“Asahina-san delivered the final blow,” boasted Daigotsu.
The Spider slapped Kyuzo on the back. He should have expected all Spider to be so physical like Daigotsu was, but he wasn’t prepared to be touched by the others.
“Nice job,” the Spider said. Kyuzo just pressed his lips not wanting to respond.
“It’s a good kill. Are you going to eat some of it with us?” The other Spider was inspecting the corpse and was the one that asked.
“Hmmm,” was all Kyuzo could manage with his mouth closed and lips pressed tight. If he shared his true feelings on the matter, he was surely going to send his gate town into unneeded turmoil with the Spider clan. “To be fair, I would call it self defense.”
“It usually is with boars,” The one next to him commented. “Is it your first boar kill?”
“Yes.”
“It’s okay, it gets better from here.”
“No,” the other one piped up again, “Your first kill is always the best.”
“Let’s get this going,” Daigotsu urged.
“We get some of this for helping you transport, right?”
Kyuzo didn’t give Daigotsu a chance to argue, “Absolutely.”
It seemed to make the Spider happy; the task took no time at all to complete. Daigotsu and the Spiders negotiated for parts and who would be butchering the animal. Finally the Spider took off towards their camp with the carcass, leaving a bloodied Daigotsu for Kyuzo to accompany through town. He began to wonder why he didn’t leave once he had delivered helpers to Daigotsu. Watching them touch all that dead flesh, it gave Kyuzo an intense desire for tofu and to never, ever look at a pig again. He wanted to put this whole encounter out of his mind, a task made more difficult with Daigotsu sharing a house with him, covered in the boar’s blood, walking with him through town.
Kitsuki was right, Kyuzo thought. He had said earlier today that these positions were going to create some bizarre challenges. Kyuzo was now starting to think that that was an understatement.
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