Chapter VI: Actions matter

When Kenzo woke up, the sun was already high, it was nearing noon. Despite feeling somewhat guilty for that long a sleep, his body still showed signs of exhaustion. Disregarding them, Kenzo slowly rose from the floor that he had slept and began to think about the situation he had created.

It didn’t took him long to understand that he could think absolutely nothing about it. No matter how hard he tried, all the plans he could conceive implicated a death or two. And from his previous conversation with the old lady, he knew that this was not something he could afford. She also didn’t seem to be in the house, so as to ask her for advice. Unwillingly, he decided that the only other person that could possibly enlighten him on what can be done, was the elder, the one that had ostracized him not a day before.

Satoshi was looking disgusted at the thug’s face. “I thought I told you to leave Kenzo” He said annoyed.

“I know now what I have caused. Worry not old one, my blade will remain in its sheath if this is what it takes. But I really want to help.” As his eyes met Satoshi’s, he felt the rage of the old man. And yet, he continued. “I come humbly before you, to ask you if there is anything at all that I could help you with. I will accept whatever mission you have for me, in order to loosen the grasp of the feuds around your necks, a grasp that I have helped tighten.” And with that Kenzo bowed slightly to the elder.

“Grasp… Tighten… Atone… What nice words you can use when you wish. What nice phrases to describe a bloodied massacre… You wish to help? I told you before, leave. I will take care of the village.” His mocking voice, echoed in the mind of Kenzo.

But he was prepared. Kenzo knew that this was going to happen and was ready for it. “You’re just farmers. What can you do against an organized army? Even if peace is what you’re talking about, a blade can come in handy. Just like Ryu’s…”

The elder couldn’t hold his anger inside him anymore. “Ryu? You aren’t even worthy to speak his name scum. You are just a nobody, someone who murdered one good man just for his pleasure. We farmers, can handle our business well Kenzo. We bring forth life. We battle the weather… You are the one that cost us much more grain that we can give. For this is what you are forcing us to do now. Plan? There is no plan. There is just groveling now. All because of you, we must give most of our grain to the feuds to appease them. If I don’t make plans where and how to hide some of it, just enough so that we can survive the winter, then we will perish. Tell me Oh! Great samurai… Can you hide wheat? Then you are no use to me. Just leave my house.”

Kenzo didn’t listen much of what the elder was telling him. His thoughts were stuck at the foolish attempt that the elder was going to try. Something flashed in the depths of his memory…

He had come to extract vengeance on one more man that had used him. He was still young, maybe seventeen or so. The target hadn’t actually caused him too much pain; he was willing to let him leave, alongside his wife, in exchange with all the money the man had. Kenzo thought it was o good deal, money that he desperately needed, for a life that anyway wouldn’t last long and was not a real challenge for him. The next day, accidentally, he saw the man’s wife trying to sell some jewelry of hers. The thought that they have hidden from him HIS money had infuriated him. Neither of the couple lasted the night…

Kenzo tried desperately to reason with the old man. If the feud lords were anything like him, the act of hiding something from them, would cause even more suffering. And large secrets like those had the tendency to always slip.

After about two hours, Kenzo was walking towards the east, the stupid elder hadn’t listened him. In his little mind, the old man, couldn’t understand, that for those people, the people like Kenzo, the ‘why’ was unimportant. Only actions mattered, their intentions wouldn’t save their lives. He pitied himself now… What a little man he was… he had never really understood why people did what they did. How many had lost their lives to his blade, for just trying to survive? He wondered…

It was a well paved path this one. And this was logical, this path lead to Sadao’s feud. He was informed, that in about two days distance, the first military outpost could be found, and that was his target. Two days ago, the only reason to go to such a place would be to wreck havoc. But now, he was walking towards there to have a chance to explain to the lord, in order to not destroy the village.

His puzzled thoughts, thoughts of how he could tell and explain those things, were interrupted by a small patrol. He tried to act peacefully. He then shouted to them to stop. The soldiers were mere puppets. They obeyed their commands to their best of capabilities, and Kenzo wasn’t ready to die yet, not before he could ease the situation.

In the end, his old tricks denied to leave him. At least, only one more body had been added to his gruesome account, and not all four… With blood on his hands, Kenzo looked at the fleeing soldiers. “Why did you have to attack…?” He said to himself.

During their mindless shouting they have told him much though. Now Kenzo knew that he wouldn’t be able to talk peacefully with them. The price on his head has risen. All negotiation would fail before they even begin. His reputation has, once again, screwed his plans.

But in the battle that ensued he has seen something else too. Fear. Those people fought with only half of their souls committed. He had a terrible name, and here, he had proven it right. He knew that soldiers conveyed, usually, what their commanders felt. Morale was based on it, whole battles judged by it. Ryu couldn’t amass that much fear. His opponents knew that even if they lost, they would be spared. The feuds lords knew this too, and they had let him live. But now the tables have turned for them also. They feared for their lives. And fear, almost always, causes someone to make hasty and stupid decisions.

There was nothing left for him to do. Everything he tried has brought death, death to other people. The old lady has told it right.

“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.”

He was unable to conceive anything that wouldn’t, ultimately, lead to killing. Maybe that’s why the elder wanted him out. With his mind all out of ideas, Kenzo returned to the small tavern to drink. He needed to forget…

The tavern wasn’t empty; neither did its patrons leave when he arrived. A sign that slowly even the villagers were getting accustomed to his presence here. The driving force behind humanity, its ability to adapt. As Kenzo was drinking, he reflected on his own ability to change. Maybe all those things that were occurring on his mind were the effect of his lack of purpose. Sadly, they had come too late. He has tried to slow down, to rest. But in doing so, his sins had caught up with him. They say that no good deed goes unrewarded. Well… no bad things go unpunished too. A million of choices had shaped him, a million of errors that would bring his undoing. It was too late for him to be saved now. Can one thing reverse thousands?

Slowly his mind was starting to spin. Maybe it was the sake, maybe it was the buzz of the other conversations around him. It was one particular conversation that caught his attention. A group of peasants were talking about those days. About the misfortune that has hit their village. They never mentioned his name, but the looks that they were giving him when they spoke about it, were enough to make him plummet even deeper in the numbing alcohol.

They were talking about what they will have to sacrifice now. How many, nearly countless, hours of hard work, would have to go, just to appease the lord. How many lives may be in real danger now, how many of them are already lost… Hiro… Ryu… It seemed that for the village, Hiro was a symbol, the living proof that they could persist through the hardships that they faced. They spoke of Ryu like it was one of them. And in the end, he was. Not only for his actions, but Ryu, was also born here, Kenzo heard. The son of a farmer, the son that went into the military away, to learn how to fight, after his father’s death. The man that has forgiven the same soldiers that had stole his father from him, by sparing their lives… With bitterness, Kenzo also heard them talking about the elder’s plan. If people knew it and talked about it, it wouldn’t be a secret for long, he realized…

Kenzo was thinking of following the elder’s order when he first came to this tavern. Some drinks to cloud the mind, a little rest to strengthen the body, and maybe he would disappear from this village. The only thing left of him there, a bad memory. But in the villagers conversation he realized something else. No matter where he went now, no matter how fast he ran away, the damage was done. When he was alone, when he acted on his purpose only, they were not consequences. The only thing that could go wrong, was him dying, a mortal wound. But now, he had left his mark to this village too. It was left there like the strike of a poisoned blade, a wound that was not fatal, but a scar that wouldn’t heal easy. It would bleed the villagers for a long time, it would torture them. It didn’t matter if he stayed or go. Whatever his actions now, the damage had already happened, the blood was gushing out, and will continue to flow. Even as the old Kenzo, he had never left a seriously wounded opponent to suffer like that, the little honor that was instilled in his soul during his training forbidden that. The wounds should either be fatal, or easily healed, no middle way around.

No place to stay, the elder has banished him one too many times. No reason to run, his actions were already done, and, after all, there was no place that he called home. Kenzo sat there drinking. “If I’m to leave, and if I cannot leave, what am I to do…?” he wondered…

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