Of Gaijutsu
by Ree Soesbee
Hitomi rests upon her ivory throne, stone hand resting softly against her cold cheek. Perhaps she has been there for a day, a hundred days, a thousand lifetimes...or perhaps that is the illusion. Time slips by. Togashi sits upon the throne now, his cracked face blackened by obsidian. The eyes are the same. Now the light of the moon glints off the glass of her body. "Tell me the tale one more time, and I will set you free..." she promises. Yes. I will tell her what she has asked, and when I am done, Togashi's eyes will no longer look at me from within her face. The Father's eyes. Where are you now, Togashi, father of all, I ask?
Her eyes are my only answer.
I was raised at the side of the kami, and I knew his secret from the day of my birth. They say that the children of the Sun have no mercy, but I know that to be false. He was a father to me. He was all I could see in the world. My only memory of sight is of his face. Togashi's face.
"The child will die," the servants had said, but when Togashi entered the room, they fell silent. After the baby' lips were stained with his blood, the Champion whispered, "He has much to do..."
When the epiphany came, I bore the anguish because he told me that I could. While others fought with swords or spells, I fought with visions. The day was bright and a startling sky arched above the Mirumoto palaces. Birds flew overhead and a rushing river tore down the mountainside, but old Gaijutsu saw none of it. Only the whirr of wings, the sound of water crashing against rock, these were his world. He knew every rustling branch and falling leaf, although he could see none of them. Gaijutsu's memories fled past him as the warm summer sun touched his flesh. Behind him, a footfall warned of the her approach. He waited until he felt her young hand touch his, and heard her voice laugh in his ear, "I caught you, grandfather!"
"Hitomi," he smiled, touching her face with his fingertips. "You did indeed. I never heard you coming." She was almost seven. He was nearly sixty, and the sun had withered his old bones.
"What are you doing, grandfather?" She asked, settling into the grass beside him.
"Mixing the colors for my tattooes." He showed her the rich reds, bright blues and pale greens, knowing each one by touch, and by some other sense. Vision sense. Her questions were swift and intelligent, and her fingers eagerly touched the colors. "Can you see the colors, grandfather?" Gaijutsu smiled. "No, child. But I do nothave to see them to know they are beautiful."
"Grandfather, do you give all the ise zumi their tattoos?"
"Yes, my child. That is my place here." His hands stirred a rich orange from the herbs in his wooden bowl, and he smiled at its cool feel. "When will you give me one?" She laughed again, but her laughter was cut short by a sound in the wood. Gaijutsu's head turned from instinct, and he saw Togashi step from the shadow of a tree.
It was always disconcerting, Gaijutsu thought, even after all this time. His world was a living blackness, a void filled with sound and feeling, but empty of sight. He had never seen a tree or a river, had never known what a horse looked like, or seen his son's face. Yet, always, in the darkness, he could see Togashi. The intrusion on the face of nothing was surreal, but for sixty years, Gaijutsu had borne its presence.
If Togashi spoke, Gaijutsu did not hear him. The voice was not so much in his ear, but in his mind. The sound was as deep as the mountain's roots, covered in layers of age and weariness. "So, you want a tattoo, Mirumoto Hitomi-san," the Champion asked.
Brave for her age, Hitomi bowed as her brother had taught, and whispered, "I... I want to be an ise zumi, like my grandfather." Gaijutsu felt her hand tighten on his as Togashi approached. Although he could not see the girl, he saw the fondness on Togashi's face as he looked down at a small point in the blackness which surrounded the old man.
"You love your older brother very much, Hitomi-san." The words were not a question, but Gaijutsu felt his grandaughter nod. "Then on the day he celebrates the anniversary of his marriage, I will give you what you ask." That day was only three weeks away.
He felt Hitomi bow, but the motion was brief and stilted with excitement. "Togashi would tattoo one so young?" Gaijutsu thought, in shock, and in his mind, the face of his Master turned toward him.
She will not be young for very much longer. With that, Togashi was gone, and the absence of his presence was a void in the blackness.
"His mask frightens me." She whispered, throwing her arms around Gaijutsu's neck.
Until that moment, Gaijutsu had never realized that to others, the Champion of the Dragon wore a mask.
How can I see her? The question ached to be asked, but Gaijutsu did not move from his seat on the cold wooden floor. At the foot of the ivory throne, he looked up into his grandaughter's face.
I never knew she was so beautiful.
Her cool, alabaster skin glowed with the light of a distant moon, and her soft black hair hung low beneath her shoulders. In her silver kimono, the folds softly covering the curves of her muscular body, Hitomi looked like an Empress - like the Mother of the Sky herself. She must have many suitors, now that she is the Champion of the Dragon, Gaijutsu thought. I could never see her when she was a child -there was only Togashi.
But now he is gone, and our ways are gone with him.
Grandfather, you know what I must ask of you. Her voice echoed, as Togashi's once had, in the void which encompassed his world.It is time.
Gaijutsu nodded. "The others have all gone? All the ise zumi. Such a terrible waste..." His bones ached, even though the pillow he knelt upon was soft. For a moment, his mind lingered on that far-away day, where the sun had warmed his skin and his granddaughter's laughter had echoed on the wind. I gave them their choice. Those who did not wish to serve have betrayed me. But I will not hunt them down.
"They will fight you."
I know.
"They do not believe that you have the right to Togashi's greatest secrets. Perhaps they are right..."Her eyes, yellow and green with the light of the universe, stared into his soul. "If you do this, my granddaughter, it may mean the death of the Dragon..." She said nothing.
And the life of a new age.
"I am too old, Hitomi-chan. Too old to understand, anymore. I am too weary to make the journey to the monastary, and I would not leave the mountains of my birth. If Togashi is dead, then let me follow my Master into that darkness. I would not have him go alone." The words were difficult to say, but her smile lightened his burden. "Let my death be honorable."
Her smile warmed his ancient heart, and he felt her cool hands touch his. A swift pain took him from behind, and the world exploded into starlight. He lifted his arms, and suddenly he could see - the moon, the mountains, his own hands covered in Togashi's rich black blood. So beautiful, he whispered, but his words wer lost in the swelling of a rising sun. He lifted one hand to reach for hers, and Hitomi led him to the edge of the Celestial Heavens. Be at peace, Grandfather. You will always be with me.
Then she was gone, and the light closed around him forever.