Dale Furutani - Kill the Shogun

“Have your samurai wait here,” Ieyasu ordered.

Okubo licked his lips, disquieted by the Shogun’s strange orders, but he motioned with his hand for his escort to wait. Okubo’s samurai looked at each other, perhaps thinking they should disobey the order and not allow their Lord to go unescorted into the woods. They had seen many examples of Okubo’s wrath at not being obeyed, however, and so the samurai stood around, looking alternately at the impassive Shogun and the back of their Lord, retreating into the woods.

Okubo made his way between the trees gingerly. His damaged leg was a hindrance, but he had worked hard at compensating for it through the use of the especially long daito, so he was confident that he was able to handle anyone, or anything, that was waiting for him.

In a few minutes, he found the meadow Ieyasu had mentioned, but found it empty. The sun was high in the sky, and it turned the grass of the meadow a soft golden-green. Okubo walked into the meadow a few feet, then stopped to look around.

“I’m here,” a voice said softly from behind him.

Okubo spun around and looked up. He saw a man sitting on a tree limb above his head. He was sitting in the lotus position, an unsheathed sword lying across his knees.

“You!” Okubo’s face changed from surprise to hate with the quickness of a summer storm. “I’ve waited a long time for this!”

“As have I,” Kaze said. “And this time your chamberlain isn’t here to try to bribe me.”

“What do you mean?”

“You don’t know?”

Okubo smiled. “Why don’t you tell me?”

“The night before the final match of Hideyoshi-sama’s sword tournament, the chamberlain of your clan visited me. He promised me that the valley between our two clans, the one your father was always fighting over, would be ceded to our clan if I let you win. It was a devil of an offer, because your chamberlain knew that an offer to enrich me would have no meaning, but an offer to help my clan would tear at my loyalties. Later my Lord came to wish me luck, and he saw I was troubled. When he heard your clan’s chamberlain visited me, he didn’t ask me the details, he just said to follow the path of honor.”

“Honor! You should have taken the offer. It’s the way of the world to take the path of advantage. You’re a bigger fool than I thought. No matter. I’ve been training for this moment for years. I expected to meet you under different circumstances, but I will defeat you this time. I’m astounded that Ieyasu-sama arranged this.”

“If it makes you feel any better, Ieyasu-sama has a little incentive for you if you’re the one who walks out of these woods alive.”

At Okubo’s puzzled face, Kaze continued. “Ieyasu-sama will give you my old Lord’s domains permanently if you are victorious. Currently you only manage them, until Ieyasu-sama decides what to do with them. If you live, he will make them part of your hereditary possessions. I heard him tell Honda-san that to placate him, when Honda-san raised a fuss about letting me have this confrontation with you as a reward.”

“Then I’ll have a double pleasure at killing you,” Okubo said. “My leg is a constant reminder of my hatred of you, and being able to permanently treat your clan the way I want will make things all the sweeter.”

Suddenly, Okubo stepped forward and took a vicious overhead cut at Kaze, sitting on the branch. Kaze rolled backward on the limb, grabbing his sword and flipping over in the air, landing on his feet with his sword at the ready as Okubo’s daito sliced completely through the limb he was sitting on.

Kaze moved forward to the attack, but Okubo’s daito was already in the aimed-at-the-eye position, the extreme length of the blade keeping Kaze at bay. Okubo retreated into the meadow, where he would have free room to maneuver his long sword. As he moved, Okubo talked.

“Have you visited your old home lately?” he asked. “As you know, I am renowned for my strictness as a leader. Your previous lord was such a weakling, he didn’t even have pots for boiling criminals in his domain. I’ve certainly fixed that, and in the few years I’ve been controlling your old home, I have used them frequently. In fact, your old clansmen have a new saying. They say the fires of their miserable life are hotter than the fires of hell. I hear they call me Oni Okubo , the Devil Okubo. That’s quite a compliment, don’t you think?”

Kaze’s face flushed from anger. “You were always good at cruelty,” he replied. “It’s not something that most men would be proud of.”

“On the contrary. I have always been good at pleasure. At least at the things that give me pleasure. Do you know that I had both your Lady and her daughter? I was the first man to enjoy the Lady’s pleasures besides her husband, although I did let several of my officers indulge themselves with her after I was done. I also took the virginity of her daughter. I think she was six or seven at the time and raised an awful fuss until I beat her quite senseless. I can’t say which I enjoyed more, the mother or the daughter. They each had their special charms.”

Making a low cry from his gut, Kaze attacked Okubo, slashing furiously at him. Okubo easily parried Kaze’s blows with his long sword. Then, almost as if he was playing with Kaze, he stepped forward into a quick counterattack that drove Kaze back. Kaze parried the blows from the long sword. He was intent on pressing his attack to kill Okubo, but his anger confused his sword sense, making his parries seem mechanical and ponderously slow.

A bad block to one of Okubo’s cuts left a deep gash on his forearm, sending a tingling sensation up his arm that spelled a weakening of his use of the arm. For some reason, the skills of a lifetime seemed to desert him when he wanted them most.

“Ah, first blood,” Okubo said. “This is a Masamune blade. They’re forbidden by Ieyasu-sama, but I don’t know why. This one has a special thirst for blood, and seems to seek it every time I draw it. I intend to sate it today, feasting on your blood. You know, you’re not really as strong a swordsman as I remembered you. I think in the ten years since we met my skills have increased and yours have declined. In a way, giving me this limp was almost a blessing. It forced me to take up the daito.” He made a quick slash with the long sword, creating a vicious swoosh as the blade cut through the air at high speed. “With this blade I control twice the area that you can with your katana. It’s easy when I can keep a safe distance from you while still threatening you with my blade.”

Okubo illustrated his point by stepping forward to attack again. Kaze was driven back. Okubo laughed. “See! Your puny sword is no match for my daito.”

Kaze looked down and saw the blood dripping off his arm. He then looked at the long expanse of Okubo’s sword blade, twice as long as his own katana. The daito was gleaming dully and malevolently, even in the bright sunshine; truly a Masamune blade. Kaze’s own blade shone brightly and cleanly, but it was far from being close enough to deliver a cut, much less a mortal blow, to Okubo.

Until you defeat yourself, you cannot defeat others.

The words of Kaze’s Sensei came to him. It was true that Okubo’s long sword gave him superior reach, but, digging deep into his spirit, Kaze knew the reason he was being defeated was not because of superior weaponry. Kaze was being defeated because of a lack of character.

He was attacking Okubo with rage and hate in his heart; two emotions that inevitably destroy the man who holds them. He was letting his anger control his blade and he was letting his hatred control his ability to fight. The result was that he was not using his skills the way he was taught. He could use those skills as an instrument of rage and hatred, or he could use them as an instrument of justice.