Chains of Chugi and Makoto by Yoritomo Somori
"No wall stands forever. Only duty stands forever."--Kaiu Hosaru, A Perfect Cut
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Chains of Chugi and Makoto
by Yoritomo Somori/Simon Gill
An idealistic young samurai is ordered to testify to a lie.
Old friends meet again after years apart.
Part 1: Meetings
The sounds of shuffling feet and scrolls whispering against their wooden racks echoed through the almost-empty library. A few brave souls had stayed in this library to the end, saving scroll after scroll of ancient knowledge.
Now that the Kusatte Iru no longer threatened Kyuden Isawa, those scrolls must be returned to their rightful place. Isawa Danruko was one of those aiding the effort, her soft fingertips brushing the paper while she searched for the right shelf. Her thoughts strayed little from her task.
Shiba Kishiyu was a man of resolve and courage when facing his usual enemies, bandits on the roads of Rokugan. Today he fought a different enemy, boredom, and this time he fought alone. Beneath her pale, fragile and beautiful features, Danruko could be as fierce as a winter storm when she had need, but now she lay absorbed in her books as placidly as an Asahina's water garden.
Kishiyu shifted the scrolls in his arms and looked at the carvings on the end: more notes on experiments. Surely they had finished this section by now. Another twinge passed through his leg; he ignored it again. He had been asked to hold these scrolls and he would, until Danruko asked for them.
Looking up, Danruko gestured to the remaining scrolls in Kishiyu's hands. "I'm sorry, Kishiyu, I've completely lost track of the time. Put those scrolls down and we will find something to eat. I wouldn't like to think I am starving you. Big men like you need a lot of rice. Do you remember where the kitchens were?"
"I understand, Danruko-sama, I believe they were this way." Kishiyu kept his voice carefully neutral, lest he show that he was mildly discomfited by her usual familiarity in such a public place.
"Kishiyu, we're alone. There is no need to be so formal." Danruko smiled broadly, covering her mouth with a small hand. "Lead the way, my friend." The smile stayed in place on the corner of her lips.
Kishiyu smiled and bowed deeply from his waist. "As you wish." Even after a year, he still felt uncomfortable with Danruko's manner in private. Despite this, he still deeply enjoyed her company. Talking with someone who could start explaining the mysteries of the Fortunes and end up discussing the price of rice a hundred years ago was an interesting experience. There was always something else she knew that Kishiyu wouldn't imagine was worth knowing or couldn't imagine existing.
He turned to lead and smoothed his face. He knew Danruko had done the same. Too many people would talk if they were anyhing but formal in public.
The shoji screen slid aside before Kishiyu's hand reached it and he looked into the face of someone he had not seen since his Gempukku, the day he had met Danruko. Latoyu, a man he had been proud to call friend, a man he had shared a great deal of pain and joy with. A man whose gaze held no recognition.
The informality had left Kishiyu temporarily without grace; he simply stood frozen for a moment and stared. A slight cough from the figure behind Latoyu prompted Kishiyu to bow low and step the side. Recognition came easily: this was Isawa Tondoru, a powerful earth shugenja and possibly the next Master.
Surprise lay on surprise, and Kishiyu could do nothing for the moment but silently walk into the corridor and wait for Danruko to take her place beside him.
The shoji slid home with a solid crash of wood on wood, Danruko waited a moment, then asked, "You knew that man?"
"Shiba Latoyu. He was a dear friend when we were growing up. We joined the school on the same day and could not be separated until the day we chose our names. Until the day I swore I would never leave your side." A tinge of regret coloured Kishiyu's words: despite what he had gained, he had lost much more.
"Then when I bathe, you must find him and talk. I am sure I will be safe in the bathchamber in my family's castle." A small laugh left her lips. "Do you remember that time we ended up hiding near that mountain pool and your sensei came out of nowhere?"
Kishiyu's eyebrows quirked in surprise. "I do, yes, but why bring it up?"
A slight shake of Danruko's head marked her lack of surprise at Kishiyu's reaction. "Because it seemed similar enough, you dealing with people you knew while I was bathing. At least you won't have to explain why you just had your back turned instead of being over the ridge."
Kishiyu exclaimed, "We were hiding from a band of ronin at the time, here we just have to hide from the matchmakers!"<
"I know."
Kishiyu laughed inwardly, why did she have to bring that up? Just like her to find a way to put him off-balance. Neither spoke until they had reached the kitchens, the silence shared like a comfortable blanket.
Interlude
As the sun set beyond the Unicorn lands, shadows flitted through the bowels of Kyuden Isawa. But not all were fleeting tricks of light. One had purpose.
Shiba Latoyu stood at ease, his grandfather's blade resting lightly in his hand. A twitch in a leg and an arm brought the katana sweeping in an arc through an imaginary opponent's head. Another twitch, and stinking guts voided themselves on the floor of Latoyu's mind. Another twitch and blood pooled around a blade of pure darkness in Latoyu's side.
Part 2: Dying Words
Leaving Danruko at the entrance to her bath chamber, Kishiyu glanced at the last rays of the sun filtering through the thin dust of the day. Words babbled in his brain, all of them questions. So unconcerned with the corridor around him, he failed to notice metal glinting deep in shadow and disappearing around a corner.
Reaching the room that the servants had indicated was Latoyu's was easy; dealing with what he saw was not. First, the blood, so much blood. Second, Latoyu himself lying. On the floor. In the pool of blood. His blood.
A moment later, Kishiyu had his sword in his hands and stepped into the room, shouting for help. Seeing nothing, he dropped to his knees, trying to avoid the blood staining the wooden floor, listening vainly for signs of life. Hearing the shallow and ragged breathing of his old friend, he shouted again.
Latoyu's eyes flickered open briefly, "Kishiyu...Tondoru...daisho..." His whispers died as he died, his life ebbing away with each gasp.
Staring at the slowly pulsing wound in Latoyu's side, Kishiyu's mind went blank and fell in on itself. Everything he ever knew fell into a hole in his mind, a hole pulsing with a deep red.
Finally recognising the presence of another, Kishiyu looked up. Directly into the eyes of Isawa Tondoru. Kishiyu still could not speak. Words were simply lost to him.<
Tondoru was the first to speak. "Has anyone else seen this?"
All Kishiyu could do was mutely shake his head in answer.
Tondoru looked on in sympathy. "Return to your chambers. I will take care of things."
Kishiyu found enough of his voice to croak out, "His last words were of you and his daisho. There was something more, but he--he was gone before I could hear it."
Tondoru listened and cocked his head. "Then I must decipher the riddle he left, as his daisho was lost to him in the battle against the Kusatte Iru. Now return to your chambers. You are in danger of losing your composure."
Kishiyu spoke in a choked whisper. "Thank you for your consideration, Tondoru-sama. I will go."
Part 3: Loyalty's Price
In a room otherwise devoid of light, a single candle burned. Kishiyu's eyes fixed on the core of flame. Memories seethed in his mind, a sea swept by the storm of Latoyu's death and Danruko's reaction.
She had listened in stunned silence as Kishiyu repeated what he had seen. When she heard the last, she had volunteered to inform the magistrates staying in the castle.
As the candle slowly burned, thoughts came to Kishiyu of his time growing up with Latoyu. Of the single time Latoyu had persuaded him to leave meditation early to hunt in the forests outside of the dojo and the time that Kishiyu had to persuade him to approach their sensei with the knowledge of what they had done.
More memories sparked like lightning through his mind's eye. The first taste of sake, shared with Latoyu. The first visit to a Doji artisan's exhibition, shared with Latoyu. The only visit to Toshi Ranbo, shared with Latoyu.
He would share nothing with Latoyu again save perhaps those final moments before death. Even after their parting, Kishiyu had hoped that he would be reunited with his friend once more. But his letters were never returned and his inquiries were met by ignorance. He had eventually stopped writing and stopped asking. What could have happened to Latoyu?
The candle flame guttered out when the screen to Kishiyu's chambers was thrown aside violently. Danruko stamped in with a look of disgust on her face. "Those fool bureaucrats want to keep this quiet. They don't want the fact that Tondoru's yojimbo was killed here to be common knowledge. They want you to tell the magistrates that you talked to him and he was alive when you left. They want to say that Latoyu was killed when he sneaked out of the castle."
Kishiyu absorbed what Danruko had to say without blinking an eyelid. Danruko was about to repeat herself in gentler tones when Kishiyu said simply, "I see. These are their orders?"
Danruko spoke gently, her head bowed and her hands reaching for Kishiyu's. "Yes. I'm sorry, Kishiyu. I'm sorry that you must do this." Her face came up as she searched in Kishiyu's face for his reaction. She watched the stunned look in his eyes slowly fade.
Kishiyu looked into Danruko's eyes. "My superiors have ordered me to give false testimony. Whatever I do I would leave the code of bushido behind. Why do they ask this of me?"
"I don't know. What are you going to do?"
Kishiyu stood and took up his daisho. When he spoke, his voice was hard; tonight's events had tempered the steel of his soul. "What I must."
Part 4: Honour's Cost
No man keeps white robes, for to do so would presuppose that he would dishonour himself and his family so greatly that seppuku was the only solution.
Kishiyu had never expected the situation to be forced on him. He could not wait for the white to be provided; after today his actions would mean nothing.
To lie to a magistrate or disobey an order--his choice was no choice. There was no way out that could follow bushido to the letter. There was no way he could go. There was nothing left for him.
But there was something left for others.
Putting aside the brush he was using to write his last words, Kishiyu looked at Danruko. The woman he had given his life to deserved something, deserved to know that if he could live, he would live for her.
"Danruko, I love you."
Shock registered on Danruko's face for a moment. She stood and walked to Kishiyu's desk. The pre-dawn light glistened in her tears as she leaned towards him and kissed his forehead lightly. "I know. I love you too. Remember me in Yomi as I will remember you here."
"I will." Kishiyu took what he had prepared into his hands and slid the screen open.
Epilogue
A single piece of parchment lay on the Council table, a corner marred by a single drop of blood and the mark of a single tear.
"Know I cannot lie
Dishonour binds on all sides
The truth will be found."
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