Dale Furutani - Kill the Shogun

For all the wrongs that Okubo had inflicted upon the Lady, the Lady’s child, Kaze, Kaze’s clan, his own clan, and numerous other victims, Okubo deserved the harsh hand of justice. Okubo was evil. Undoubtedly, the greatest evil embodied in a single man that Kaze had ever come across. But to destroy him, Kaze had to use his sense of righteousness and skills as a swordsman, instead of his rage and anger as one of Okubo’s victims.

He stepped back two or three paces, watching Okubo carefully, but lowering his sword to the aimed-at-the-knee position. He took a deep breath and slowly let it exhale, trying to vent the rage within his body with the escaping air. “I am the sword of righteousness. I am the blade of justice,” Kaze said in a low voice.

“What are you saying, fool?” Okubo asked, unable to hear Kaze’s words. “Don’t think that you’re going to escape. I’ve been waiting for this for a long time. For all the hours in the dojo that I trained, I motivated myself by always having your face before me. That’s why my skills with the long sword have grown so magnificently. I had a good motivator. My hatred for you. Now, by the gift of the Gods and the machinations of Ieyasu, I will finally be able to satisfy this hatred and kill you. I only pray that I don’t have to kill you all at once. That I can cut at you, just as I’ve damaged your arm, and slowly slice you into pieces, savoring each moment.

“I’m going to tell you something,” Okubo said. “I will have a great victory banquet that will celebrate the complete and final destruction of you, your clan, your Lord, your Lady, and all the people that I hate. Your head, pickled in salt, will be the centerpiece for that banquet. I’ll invite all my samurai, each in turn, to relieve themselves on your face, to show the contempt I have for you. And I won’t forget Ieyasu, either,” Okubo said with a small smile. “As my destruction of you and your clan has shown, I’m a patient man when I need to be. I will eventually take my revenge on Ieyasu. I had hoped to work with Ieyasu and improve my position. I’ll still do that. I’ll also wait for any opportunity to destroy Ieyasu and his entire household.”

Kaze was surprised that Okubo revealed so much of himself, but he realized that Okubo felt free to display his inner thoughts because he knew that only one of them would be alive at the end of the duel.

Kaze knew the same thing.

Unlike Okubo, however, Kaze felt no need to provoke or taunt. In fact, he was trying to do the opposite; to withdraw emotionally from the duel, to swallow his rage and achieve a state of non-mindedness, to defeat himself before he tried to defeat another. He realized that the more he wanted Okubo dead, the less likely it was that he would achieve his goal. The more he tried to control the bout, the less he was in control of himself.

Okubo stepped forward to attack once again. Kaze planted his feet, feeling the strength flow into him from the earth. Automatically, Kaze’s blade flew to the right position to block Okubo’s daito, the slim sliver of steel moving almost of its own accord, without Kaze having to consciously direct it.

When Kaze didn’t give ground, Okubo stepped back. He had a look of concern on his face, wondering what sudden change had occurred so that the techniques and tactics he had used successfully just moments before were now neutralized.

“I am the sword of righteousness. I am the blade of justice,” Kaze said to himself. Over and over like a mantra. The sword of righteousness and the blade of justice.

With his blade at the aimed-at-the-knee position, Kaze twisted his sword until the shiny surface caught the sun’s rays, bouncing a shaft of light upward and into Okubo’s face. Okubo blinked at the flash of light hitting his eyes, and Kaze stepped forward, putting himself inside the arc of Okubo’s blade. He was putting himself into the reach of death, but it was the only way to get close enough to deliver a cut at Okubo.

Okubo slashed downward at Kaze, intending to cleave him in two. With Okubo slightly off balance from the blinding light, Kaze was able to move to one side. He felt Okubo’s blade swing past his face and come close to his shoulder. The deadly edge of the blade slightly brushed the cloth of his kimono, and he actually felt the wind generated by the moving sword slide down his arm.

Once Kaze was safely inside the arc of Okubo’s blade, the long sword turned from an asset into a liability. Although it had greater reach, it was not as nimble as a standard katana. Without Kaze’s thinking, without his planning the blow, his blade came across horizontally and transversely sliced Okubo’s stomach, just like the cut made during seppuku. Okubo gave a cry of pain and looked down to see his entrails bursting forth from the wound. He gave a moan and reached out with one hand to hold his guts in.

Holding his long sword with the other hand, he took an ineffectual slice at Kaze, one Kaze easily blocked. Kaze stood back and assured himself that the cut he delivered was mortal. He looked at Okubo’s face and saw pain and fear painted across it. He should have stepped forward to deliver a blow to Okubo’s neck, taking his head and putting Okubo out of his misery. Instead, Kaze turned on his heel and started walking out of the grove. Behind him, he heard Okubo give a gasp of pain. Kaze looked over his shoulder and saw Okubo take two staggering steps, and then crumple to the ground, like a rotting leaf falling off a branch. Lying on the ground, Okubo looked up and his tearful eyes caught Kaze’s for a brief instant.

“I’ll see you at the gates of hell,” Okubo said, before the pain caused him to suck in his breath sharply and say no more.

“Perhaps,” Kaze answered. “I’ve killed too many men not to make hell a possibility. But everyone I’ve killed had an equal chance of killing me. More important, most that I’ve killed have made the world a better place by leaving it. You, on the other hand, have always sought out the weak and helpless to kill. You relished making their death as slow and painful as possible. You’re one of those twisted men who take pleasure in the pain of others. If I were a truly good man, I’d come over there and take your head, putting an end to your suffering as you spill your life and guts on the ground. But, unfortunately, Okubo, I am not that good. For what you’ve done, it would take a Buddha to want to ease your passage into the void. For the deaths I’ve caused and the suffering I’m putting you through, my karma may lead me to hell. But you’ll be going before me.”

Kaze left the grove, leaving his enemy to die a slow and agonizing death. When he approached Ieyasu, the Shogun knew how the duel had gone.

“It’s a pity,” Ieyasu said.

Kaze wasn’t quite sure what Ieyasu meant by that. Maybe he thought it was a pity that a ronin killed a daimyo. Perhaps he thought it was a pity that it was the human condition to fight. Maybe he just thought Kaze was a fool for taking Okubo instead of the other rewards offered him.

Ieyasu didn’t elaborate, and instead, seeing the wound on Kaze’s arm, he ordered a retainer to bring Kaze a bandage. As the bandage was being tied, Ieyasu said conversationally, “I saw you the last time you fought Okubo at Hideyoshi’s great sword exhibition. I enjoyed that. I would have liked seeing you this time, too, to see if your skills have diminished.”

“You would have seen a poor exhibition,” Kaze said frankly. “I let anger control my sword, not righteousness. Until righteousness controlled my sword, I was losing.”

Ieyasu nodded. “Anger is an enemy.”

When the bandage was tied tight, Kaze stood and gave a stiff, formal bow to the Shogun.

“Thank you for having my wound bandaged, Ieyasu-sama.”