Silent, Savage and Swift
Life continued for me in a way that I had never known. We had family dinners every night, we made decisions together as a family unit, the entire family would go to places and no one would be left behind like an embarrassment to the family's name, we were very protective and proud of each other. Words were used for encouragement along with arms to give hugs. Kashii loved to give me a hug and then lower my face down so that my eyes would be looking at the top of my feet so she could plant a big kiss on the middle of my forehead, leaving behind two lip prints and not telling me. I would go around until someone pointed it out to me that I had lip prints on my head, unless I happened to catch it in the mirror. You would think that I would be able to remember to wipe my head off after every kiss from her, yet I never did. It wasn't because I was stupid or slow, I was so overwhelmed with the feeling one gets from the love of a parent that I really did not know which way was up half of the time.
Nakagana kept up the continuing lessons of mind and body, skill and strategy, every day and night. We spent the last hour of our night in the dojo reflecting and meditating, cleansing the day out of our system before we would go inside and bathe before going to bed. He was a wise and powerful teacher, kind and patient, he was very understanding. It was amazing how much I learned in the short amount of time that I had with both Kashii and Nakagana. I was with them for no more than five years, however in that five years time I had learned all that I would ever need to know to keep me alive to where I am today. The last time that I saw the both of them is a day that is burnt into my soul and heart, I see it every time I close my eyes, I hear it every time I go to sleep. When I meditate at night I feel it in my heart, the hurt, the pain, the misery, the love that I watched disappear that night twenty years ago when I was fifteen.
I was not schooled in the public system like the rest of the children from my youth were. Nakagana and Kashii taught me everything I needed to know about life, reading, writing, math, history and arts in the small pagoda of our backyard, our property, our temple in the middle of our small village. Kashii would take me into the back of the dojo where she had a large rice paper curtain drawn across to separate the room into two and teach me all of the book smarts she knew. If an IQ test was ever created to accurately measure the level of intelligence she had I do not know of one, it is rumored that her mind and Nakagana's mind are two of the minds that they measure everyone else off of, but again that could just be a rumor, but I think that it is not. After lunch I would be given an hour of reflection in the back yard fountain and gardens area. It was always a welcome break before the last three hours of the day with Nakagana and the physical part of my day.
With each training session I had with Nakagana he would incorporate not only reflex and strength training but also the daily lessons of his beloved Kashii. I would be discussing the importance of history and what I learned about it alongside proper sword thrusting angles to better disable your opponent. He would always incorporate what I had learned with his movements and techniques. I do believe that he had discovered one of the most effective teaching tools for anyone, it not only cemented the facts that I had learned with movements, but it taught me how to multi-task.
I am thankful for the many things that Kashii and Nakagana taught me and did for me, I am most thankful however for the feeling of family that have bestowed upon me and the love they shared with me. One day Nakagana had asked me a question that had been burning its mark on his psyche for quite some time, he asked me where I had learned how to fight with the style I used to dispatch Hakana and Hokori that day so long ago on his fence.
I had been waiting for him to ask me this since he started showing me the techniques of the Samurai he had learned from his father, for I knew it would be important to him to know whose teachings he had continued. He seemed rather pleased, and very shocked, by my answer. I looked at him and as I always did I told him the truth, I was never one to hide a fact to try and make the blow any easier, I always speak the truth and let it come out for what it is, regardless of reaction or outcome. I looked at my father and said, "The answer I will be giving you is the same one as what you have come to believe it to be Father, I was never taught. I acted on sheer instinct and gut reaction. I have never been shown how to fight other than by you." I will never forget the smile he had once he heard the answer he had been waiting for.
It is not always something that one thinks of, but as you go through life and you grow up, so does the rest of the world. I had lived inside the safety and solitude of the fences that surrounded our property, fences that I helped my father Nakagana help build. As I grew up and learned the basic fundamental building blocks that have made me who I am today, the rest of society had moved on somewhat. In my honest opinion the world disintegrated down to a lower form of life that had no meaning or bearing on anything good or healthy. Crime rates had jumped to an astronomical high that the town had never seen before, big corporations moved in and polluted our air with the filth and stench of industry, brutality became the norm on the streets that once housed serenity and calm. I heard the screams of women and children often before going to bed at night, to try and fix that Kashii would play the flute she carved out of bamboo to soothe me to sleep. One night however, even she could not ignore the sounds that were coming from the street and she became frightened. It was then that the training that Nakagana had shown me came to be most beneficial, for he and I were standing back to back with our swords drawn walking towards the gate that closed off the street.
We heard at least three women screaming for someone to help them, no one seemed to care or even do anything to stop their screams. One of the screams sounded like a young girl, no more than twelve being brutalized by what sounded like five other men, if not more than that. We could hear the other women screaming to leave her alone, to stop, doing all they could to make the horror stop. We heard one of the women get slapped and fall to the ground. It was at this moment that I became acutely aware of all the things around me. The leaves made a loud, crisp noise as the wind ruffled them, the air took on a pungent aroma that filled my nostrils, the shadows became clear and it seemed that I was able to see even the smallest blade of grass on the lawn. I looked to my left and saw, actually felt more than saw, Nakagana staring at my face seeing if I was ready for this. "My son, it is do or die as they say. Are you prepared?"
Hearing the girl getting beaten and who only knew what else beyond the fence made me more than prepared, I looked at him and said, "Father, this is what I was born for." At that we kicked the gate open and stormed through with our swords raised and our eyes peeled for all that came our way.
I believe that the first thing to happen was my blade was driven through the first back of the man standing in front of me as Nakagana's blade separated the head from the shoulders of another man in front of him. Once they fell that left five other men to dispatch of, all of them standing with their mouths hanging open, not knowing what to do. One of them made a move with his right hand towards his side, I could only guess that he was going for a gun, and I reacted as my father taught me. I disabled his attack before doing anything else to him. My blade was a bright blur in the glare of the street light as I crouched low and leaned forward, moving my sword in an upward motion at the same time. His right hand fell into the dirt at his feet. Out of the corner of my eye I could see the young girl being helped up by the other four women, her eyes were red and swollen, her clothes torn. Seeing this and knowing what was happening to her made my anger increase even more, intensifying my senses to a realm that I had never known existed until then. The breeze was a voice in my ears telling me to stand and attack.
I brought the sword across my chest and flipped the handle around in my hand so the blade was sticking out behind me. I thrust my arm backward while holding the sword like that and felt the blade penetrate the man running towards me, I spun around to see the blood pouring out of his crotch as the metal of my sword disappeared into his pants. I let go of the handle and watched as he feel onto his back, my right hand had another sword in it almost immediately after my left hand let go of the other one. I turned towards the man that had his hand cut off and watched as he stood there screaming curses at me over and over again and again. He fell to his knees in front of me and held his arm that ended in a bloody stump in front of his face, holding it up with his other hand, showing me the effect my blade had on him, all the while screaming in pain and surprise. Without a word I brought the blade up so that I could see the world reflected behind my shoulder and held it there, much like a baseball player getting ready to swing. I could see another figure behind me as I was preparing the final blow for the screaming handless person in front of me.
I reacted on pure instinct and slashed the sword down in a world class baseball swing and silenced the screams in front of me. I kept both hands on the handle of the sword and spun around with the blade pointed out in front of me, pointed directly at the approaching figure behind me. The blade entered his body at his stomach and exited out of his back, as instructed I twisted the handle of the sword once to the left, once to the right as I pulled my blade out of his stomach. He fell to the ground and bled to death from the mortal slicing of his stomach and intestines. I stood up and grabbed the handle of the sword sticking out of the other man's crotch, in one swift movement I had it in my hand held in fornt of me, blood was all over the blade looking black in the moonlight.
I looked over at Nakagana and saw that he was finishing off his opponent with a move that he had yet to teach me. His opponent had retrieved a gun before Nakagana could stop him from doing so and it was pointed right at Nakagana. My breath caught in my chest because I thought that my father and mentor was about to die right in front of me, however what he did next was astounding.
In each of his hands he held a sword, when he saw that the gun's barrel was pointed directly at him he started to move his hands in a cross-over pattern in front of him. His hands were moving so fast that the blades made what looked like a see through metal curtain in front of him. As he spun the blades like this he also took a step towards the man and the gun, never breaking eye contact on the face of the gun holder. The girl, the women and myself all jumped when we heard the loud bang of the gun, one of them even screamed. However what we saw made all of us fall silent, including the shooter.
Off of the metal curtain in front of Nakagana we saw a small spark flare up right in front of his face. We also heard a small ting as the bullet bounced off of the blades circling like a fan blade in front of him. The shooter was so surprised by this that he dropped the gun and tried to run away. He did not see the head of one of the men that Nakagana had killed just previously behind his right foot and he fell to the ground hard, hitting his face on the street as he did.
When Nakagana saw the man turn to run away he stopped spinning his blades and jumped into the air with the swords held out to his sides. His feet landed on either side of the sprawled body of the shooter, his hands had been held in front of him, the cutting edges of the swords were held against either side of the neck of the person below Nakagana, his hands steady and poised to finish. The person below the blades was terrified, tears were streaming down his face, he was not making any intelligible sound come out of his mouth, he held his hands up as if that was going to make it all go away, make it stop. Nakagana watched him for a small amount of time, no more than thirty seconds. The man stopped blubbering and crying and turned to look and see if Nakakgana was going to spare him his life, in one small movement of his strong hands Nakagana ended his fear, and his life.
Kashii had run out of the gated entryway and had stood in front of the women helping the girl off of the ground. In her hands she had a small robe for the girl to throw over her ragged, torn, and missing clothing. She whispered something to them that neither Nakagana nor myself could make out and the women ran away without a word, the girl stopped and turned towards us before she ran away. She raised her hand and waived, a small smile on her face, and then she was gone into the shadows of the night.
The three of us stood there looking at each other before we walked into the yard and closed the large wooden gate behind us, all of us picked up a piece of the large log that was slid into place to lock the world and the fight behind us. One thing I have come to learn was that no matter how tall or strong the fence is, you will never be able to close the past behind it.
Nakagana kept up the continuing lessons of mind and body, skill and strategy, every day and night. We spent the last hour of our night in the dojo reflecting and meditating, cleansing the day out of our system before we would go inside and bathe before going to bed. He was a wise and powerful teacher, kind and patient, he was very understanding. It was amazing how much I learned in the short amount of time that I had with both Kashii and Nakagana. I was with them for no more than five years, however in that five years time I had learned all that I would ever need to know to keep me alive to where I am today. The last time that I saw the both of them is a day that is burnt into my soul and heart, I see it every time I close my eyes, I hear it every time I go to sleep. When I meditate at night I feel it in my heart, the hurt, the pain, the misery, the love that I watched disappear that night twenty years ago when I was fifteen.
I was not schooled in the public system like the rest of the children from my youth were. Nakagana and Kashii taught me everything I needed to know about life, reading, writing, math, history and arts in the small pagoda of our backyard, our property, our temple in the middle of our small village. Kashii would take me into the back of the dojo where she had a large rice paper curtain drawn across to separate the room into two and teach me all of the book smarts she knew. If an IQ test was ever created to accurately measure the level of intelligence she had I do not know of one, it is rumored that her mind and Nakagana's mind are two of the minds that they measure everyone else off of, but again that could just be a rumor, but I think that it is not. After lunch I would be given an hour of reflection in the back yard fountain and gardens area. It was always a welcome break before the last three hours of the day with Nakagana and the physical part of my day.
With each training session I had with Nakagana he would incorporate not only reflex and strength training but also the daily lessons of his beloved Kashii. I would be discussing the importance of history and what I learned about it alongside proper sword thrusting angles to better disable your opponent. He would always incorporate what I had learned with his movements and techniques. I do believe that he had discovered one of the most effective teaching tools for anyone, it not only cemented the facts that I had learned with movements, but it taught me how to multi-task.
I am thankful for the many things that Kashii and Nakagana taught me and did for me, I am most thankful however for the feeling of family that have bestowed upon me and the love they shared with me. One day Nakagana had asked me a question that had been burning its mark on his psyche for quite some time, he asked me where I had learned how to fight with the style I used to dispatch Hakana and Hokori that day so long ago on his fence.
I had been waiting for him to ask me this since he started showing me the techniques of the Samurai he had learned from his father, for I knew it would be important to him to know whose teachings he had continued. He seemed rather pleased, and very shocked, by my answer. I looked at him and as I always did I told him the truth, I was never one to hide a fact to try and make the blow any easier, I always speak the truth and let it come out for what it is, regardless of reaction or outcome. I looked at my father and said, "The answer I will be giving you is the same one as what you have come to believe it to be Father, I was never taught. I acted on sheer instinct and gut reaction. I have never been shown how to fight other than by you." I will never forget the smile he had once he heard the answer he had been waiting for.
It is not always something that one thinks of, but as you go through life and you grow up, so does the rest of the world. I had lived inside the safety and solitude of the fences that surrounded our property, fences that I helped my father Nakagana help build. As I grew up and learned the basic fundamental building blocks that have made me who I am today, the rest of society had moved on somewhat. In my honest opinion the world disintegrated down to a lower form of life that had no meaning or bearing on anything good or healthy. Crime rates had jumped to an astronomical high that the town had never seen before, big corporations moved in and polluted our air with the filth and stench of industry, brutality became the norm on the streets that once housed serenity and calm. I heard the screams of women and children often before going to bed at night, to try and fix that Kashii would play the flute she carved out of bamboo to soothe me to sleep. One night however, even she could not ignore the sounds that were coming from the street and she became frightened. It was then that the training that Nakagana had shown me came to be most beneficial, for he and I were standing back to back with our swords drawn walking towards the gate that closed off the street.
We heard at least three women screaming for someone to help them, no one seemed to care or even do anything to stop their screams. One of the screams sounded like a young girl, no more than twelve being brutalized by what sounded like five other men, if not more than that. We could hear the other women screaming to leave her alone, to stop, doing all they could to make the horror stop. We heard one of the women get slapped and fall to the ground. It was at this moment that I became acutely aware of all the things around me. The leaves made a loud, crisp noise as the wind ruffled them, the air took on a pungent aroma that filled my nostrils, the shadows became clear and it seemed that I was able to see even the smallest blade of grass on the lawn. I looked to my left and saw, actually felt more than saw, Nakagana staring at my face seeing if I was ready for this. "My son, it is do or die as they say. Are you prepared?"
Hearing the girl getting beaten and who only knew what else beyond the fence made me more than prepared, I looked at him and said, "Father, this is what I was born for." At that we kicked the gate open and stormed through with our swords raised and our eyes peeled for all that came our way.
I believe that the first thing to happen was my blade was driven through the first back of the man standing in front of me as Nakagana's blade separated the head from the shoulders of another man in front of him. Once they fell that left five other men to dispatch of, all of them standing with their mouths hanging open, not knowing what to do. One of them made a move with his right hand towards his side, I could only guess that he was going for a gun, and I reacted as my father taught me. I disabled his attack before doing anything else to him. My blade was a bright blur in the glare of the street light as I crouched low and leaned forward, moving my sword in an upward motion at the same time. His right hand fell into the dirt at his feet. Out of the corner of my eye I could see the young girl being helped up by the other four women, her eyes were red and swollen, her clothes torn. Seeing this and knowing what was happening to her made my anger increase even more, intensifying my senses to a realm that I had never known existed until then. The breeze was a voice in my ears telling me to stand and attack.
I brought the sword across my chest and flipped the handle around in my hand so the blade was sticking out behind me. I thrust my arm backward while holding the sword like that and felt the blade penetrate the man running towards me, I spun around to see the blood pouring out of his crotch as the metal of my sword disappeared into his pants. I let go of the handle and watched as he feel onto his back, my right hand had another sword in it almost immediately after my left hand let go of the other one. I turned towards the man that had his hand cut off and watched as he stood there screaming curses at me over and over again and again. He fell to his knees in front of me and held his arm that ended in a bloody stump in front of his face, holding it up with his other hand, showing me the effect my blade had on him, all the while screaming in pain and surprise. Without a word I brought the blade up so that I could see the world reflected behind my shoulder and held it there, much like a baseball player getting ready to swing. I could see another figure behind me as I was preparing the final blow for the screaming handless person in front of me.
I reacted on pure instinct and slashed the sword down in a world class baseball swing and silenced the screams in front of me. I kept both hands on the handle of the sword and spun around with the blade pointed out in front of me, pointed directly at the approaching figure behind me. The blade entered his body at his stomach and exited out of his back, as instructed I twisted the handle of the sword once to the left, once to the right as I pulled my blade out of his stomach. He fell to the ground and bled to death from the mortal slicing of his stomach and intestines. I stood up and grabbed the handle of the sword sticking out of the other man's crotch, in one swift movement I had it in my hand held in fornt of me, blood was all over the blade looking black in the moonlight.
I looked over at Nakagana and saw that he was finishing off his opponent with a move that he had yet to teach me. His opponent had retrieved a gun before Nakagana could stop him from doing so and it was pointed right at Nakagana. My breath caught in my chest because I thought that my father and mentor was about to die right in front of me, however what he did next was astounding.
In each of his hands he held a sword, when he saw that the gun's barrel was pointed directly at him he started to move his hands in a cross-over pattern in front of him. His hands were moving so fast that the blades made what looked like a see through metal curtain in front of him. As he spun the blades like this he also took a step towards the man and the gun, never breaking eye contact on the face of the gun holder. The girl, the women and myself all jumped when we heard the loud bang of the gun, one of them even screamed. However what we saw made all of us fall silent, including the shooter.
Off of the metal curtain in front of Nakagana we saw a small spark flare up right in front of his face. We also heard a small ting as the bullet bounced off of the blades circling like a fan blade in front of him. The shooter was so surprised by this that he dropped the gun and tried to run away. He did not see the head of one of the men that Nakagana had killed just previously behind his right foot and he fell to the ground hard, hitting his face on the street as he did.
When Nakagana saw the man turn to run away he stopped spinning his blades and jumped into the air with the swords held out to his sides. His feet landed on either side of the sprawled body of the shooter, his hands had been held in front of him, the cutting edges of the swords were held against either side of the neck of the person below Nakagana, his hands steady and poised to finish. The person below the blades was terrified, tears were streaming down his face, he was not making any intelligible sound come out of his mouth, he held his hands up as if that was going to make it all go away, make it stop. Nakagana watched him for a small amount of time, no more than thirty seconds. The man stopped blubbering and crying and turned to look and see if Nakakgana was going to spare him his life, in one small movement of his strong hands Nakagana ended his fear, and his life.
Kashii had run out of the gated entryway and had stood in front of the women helping the girl off of the ground. In her hands she had a small robe for the girl to throw over her ragged, torn, and missing clothing. She whispered something to them that neither Nakagana nor myself could make out and the women ran away without a word, the girl stopped and turned towards us before she ran away. She raised her hand and waived, a small smile on her face, and then she was gone into the shadows of the night.
The three of us stood there looking at each other before we walked into the yard and closed the large wooden gate behind us, all of us picked up a piece of the large log that was slid into place to lock the world and the fight behind us. One thing I have come to learn was that no matter how tall or strong the fence is, you will never be able to close the past behind it.
posted by Yojiro at 1:02 PM
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