Chapter V: The price of Death

It was near dark when he finally made it back to the village. The heavy clouds were cloaking the little light of the night sky. He should have been tired, but he didn’t felt a thing. As always, his purpose was his strength. He was renewed now with enough vigor to cut his way towards revenge. He felt somewhat lighter than usual. “Maybe it is that whatever I’m doing now is not for me” he thought.

As he walked towards the tavern, some sounds caught his attention. Three soldiers, different colors than the others he had faced, he noted, were surrounding another figure. Walking closer, he saw that they were trying to pull a woman; she seemed like the geisha he had seen some days ago. They were obviously drunk; the stench of sake was evident even from the distant. Their loud voices and lewd sounds covered his light footsteps.

His katana was a silver crescent of death in the night. Before the first soldier hit the ground, another one was already impaled. The third had a chance to scream before he died. He wasn’t a hero; he didn’t need theatrical moves and intro speeches. A simple backstab was all he offered to those beasts.

The tavern door burst open. Another two soldiers were running out. They paused for a moment. Their eyes moved from his bloodied sword to his face, only to end up in the three dead bodies that now littered his feet. They started to run.

He didn’t chase them back. He needed those two to deliver his message. Death will be the answer for their crimes here.

“Why… Why do you hate us so much?” A frail voice, ready to break whispered behind Kenzo.

Kenzo’s eyes met the elder’s face. The old man’s shoulders now slumped heavily. The color was drained from his face, as he continued his speech.

“First Ryu… next our children… now this… Why do you want this village to perish? What have we done to you?” The elder didn’t seemed like he was expecting an answer for his questions, resignation was written allover his face.

Kenzo didn’t expect the village to like him. He had started this journey back, knowing that he would never be accepted by this community. But those words baffled him. In the end, he had killed and drove away some of the soldiers that were harassing them. Why did the elder thought that this was a bad thing for the village?

“I didn’t do this for me old man. That was for Hiro.” Was all that Kenzo could respond.

“Hiro was young. The death of his parents hurt him. But even a young child, wouldn’t want his whole village to die. If you really did that for one of us, then you admit that your mind differ only a bit from the ravings of a boy. The only honorable thing left for you to do, is to leave. I cannot force you to do this; I am too weak to do so. But I vow to you, that if you stay, my spirit will haunt you to eternity.” The words came out slowly, like the elder was speaking to a kid that failed to understand why the sun came up everyday. The words, calm, whispering, stung like million whips cracking in the mind of Kenzo.

He didn’t knew why, neither did he realized the reason, but it all seemed true. Disheartened, Kenzo turned his back to the village, and once again started to walk away, his weak vows and promises forgotten like a child’s broken toy. He felt like the old man has trampled on his thoughts.

A single raindrop fell on his head, and Kenzo felt like in this little droplet of water, was all that remained of his essence, forever cast down. Soon, the downpour escalated. Kenzo didn’t know if the sky was crying for his soul or for the village. If the watery blanket covered his vision so as to hinder his sight, or as a mean to protect others from his image.

His early strength was leaving him. His body was rebelling. Twenty hours of running and walking, away and then towards the village, with only some little troubled sleep in between them, were rewarded with ostracize. He would again walk away now. Away from everything he knew, towards death. And when his might would finally betray him and his soul would leave his mouth, he would be lost forever.

He was walking on the fields now. A little more and they too, will be lost behind him. An anxious voice shouted somewhere in his left. A female voice was beckoning him to come towards her.

He walked towards her. Towards the angel, or demon, sent by the heavens to judge him. He walked almost next to the woman in order to see her. The clear and powerful voice of hers didn’t suit her aging form. The small elder lady took him by surprise. He kept saying some things that were lost in the noise of the hellish rain as she grabbed him by the hand. Few minutes later, Kenzo was standing, soaked wet, inside a plain wooden house. A raging fire was desperately trying to keep away the cold, but he knew that something more than this was necessary to warm his frozen heart.

“Sit down young one.” The unexpected voice took him out of the trance. “Sit by the fireplace to warm yourself. You think that by dying in our fields you’ll do as any good?”

Kenzo, still confused just obeyed. A strange feeling was overcoming him; he hadn’t followed someone’s instructions since he was a kid. But yet, the strong voice of the woman, seemed to be able to direct him as she saw fit.

“So what will you do now?” She asked. “Where will you bring terror?”

Kenzo denied her an answer. His eyes were focused outside of the small windows, towards the rain. He wanted to be outside there. To let the rain wash him away, maybe clearing him; maybe clearing his mind. He needed an answer; to know why the villagers thought that someone who protected them didn’t deserved a place there. Two old people in a single day have commanded him. Two weak bodies that could be undone in mere seconds by his hands were somehow projecting more power than his blade.

The long struggle of his soul ended. He lost. Tears came upon his eyes. The rain inside his body was worse than the downpour outside. Silence was governing now the small cabin. Little by little, his composure returned. His stone carved face regained its strength, enough of it anyway so as to look at the old lady.

“You really did it for Hiro-kun didn’t you?” She asked again in a motherly tone.

“His blood is in my hands, a river couldn’t wash it away.” Kenzo said as he tried to clear out his throat from the tears.

Noriko gently smiled. “You have changed a lot in a few hours haven’t you?” She mused.

Kenzo knew she was right. Two days ago, he was Kenzo, a man sworn to defeat Ryu, a simple purpose, a simple man. It was him. But now, he found himself regretting about the death of a child. He found himself wondering why, and what, others thought of him. Opinions forgotten like a million years ago were back. He was no longer Kezno, and this scared him. He didn’t know who he was anymore. When his purpose faded away, so did he alongside.

“Why did you kill those soldiers Kenzo?” Her voice was demanding, a harsh tone. He thought that maybe his life would end now, from a poison, and yet he didn’t cared.

“Hiro asked for revenge, I wish to deliver it.”

“And if you were Sadao, the man that those soldiers belong too, what will you do?”

“I would probably send more, and when they died too, I would think twice.” He sincerely answered. No false modesty here, he could deal with some soldiers, even five of them couldn’t take him down.

“So you Kenzo, all your opponents you killed in fair battle? Remember who you were Kenzo, and judge by that. Would it be below you to poison a worthy adversary? If you could wouldn’t you sent tens of soldiers against him? And now ask yourself again. How can you defend yourself against bows? How can you stop a single poisoned dart from hitting you? How will you battle a hundred soldiers?” She paused, giving him time to understand that he wasn’t god, as all, so he too, could easily perish.

“Let him send a hundred soldiers, I can hid in the mountains, I’ve escaped much better military, those would be harmless to me.”

Noriko smiled sadly. “So, in the end, you did it for you, not for Hiro…”

His puzzling look showed her that he really didn’t understood, so she continued.

“You give to your life more worth than others do. What will the lord gains if he chases you on the mountains. NOTHING. Revenge is childish… What he wants is right here, and it will be us who will pay for your crimes. And you… You will just be hiking on a mountain, away from the village you claimed you tried to help. If you truly did it for Hiro, you would have stayed, and died alongside us, next to the simple farmers that cannot defend themselves. When you do something in another’s name, it is your responsibility to cover, and even die, for that name that you stole. For steal you did. No one gave you the right to avenge our people and our dignity. You just grabbed it as everything you did in life… Really Kenzo, why did you came here in the first place?”

Kenzo, for the first time, understood what he had brought to the village. Yes, he could run away, but the village couldn’t. If the feud lords were like him at all, their wrath would be unending. For a long time, Ryu has held back their greedy hands, and now, that Ryu was no more, the lords thought that what was due for them, they would take it. Only now, lives were lost, soldier lives, lives that would have to be repaid in blood. If it wasn’t his blood it would be the villagers. Even if villagers and he would perish, he had just given to the lord a tool to use in order to get even more out of those peasants. But he really did it for their good. It was his inability to comprehend his action outside of his small circle of influence that has done the harm. He realized where the old woman was going now.

“I came here to battle Ryu, all my life I have devoted to this.” He said to her beaten, a fight, that he had already lost was unveiling before his eyes. And truly, his vision was coming true as Noriko opened her mouth to answer.

“You see now don’t you? All that you did in life was to kill. Death brings only death young one. And for you, it didn’t mattered. You craved death, it was your purpose. But now the tables have turned. You didn’t want to bring death. But you’re only weapon, is to kill, and murder you did. But this will only bring more pain. Hiro didn’t wanted revenge for nothing. Hiro wanted to destroy the soldiers so that they would leave the village in peace. But this is not feasible at the moment. You wanted more the soldiers to leave this village alone than to perish. And this is why you lost. Ryu didn’t kill any of them. Not because he couldn’t, but because this way, the wrath of the lords couldn’t be focused. Whatever little peace he had managed to achieve for us, you broke it in a night.” She sighted.

“Rest here Kenzo for the night. Death brings only death, and this was all that would give us if you died today outside. So many years searching for death, has made your mind too weak to understand what it takes to bring life. Let the tears you shed clear your sins. And tomorrow, like a young boy, beg from someone to teach you how to bring life, but I fear it is too late for you.”

And with that, the old lady stood up and went to sleep, leaving Kenzo alone in the small room. On his right, the fire raged. On his left, the watered continued to fall merciless. And on the inside, the water that were the woman’s words were slowly dousing the fire that burned in his heart.

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