Samurai's Choice

Shuffling feet and clanging metal woke Ryo from his sleep, jolting up with blurred vision and a racing heart. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes and yawned, looking around with curious eyes. Leaning back on his hands, he groaned softly. The sun wasn’t even up yet. Ryo stared up at the top of his tent, tracing the sewing with his gaze and breathing deeply. The tent was a deep tan with yellowing spots scattered around. Other soldiers made fun of his old ratty tent but it held a special place within Ryo’s heart. The tent was originally his fathers', Osamu’s, who had died in battle when Ryo was only a child. His mother had gifted him with the tent the day he left home and Ryo was honored to bring the memory of his father with him. Ryo could only hope to live up to his fathers' name.

The tent flap flung open and shaggy black hair appeared. A shining grin and bright hazel eyes glimmered at Ryo. Ryo smiled softly, shaking his head at his best friend. Denki picked up Ryo’s boots. “Come on, I’m starving.” He tossed the boots at Ryo, hitting Ryo center mass causing him to exhale sharply.

Ryo rubbed his chest to get rid of the ache, rolling his eyes on the way to energetic Denki. “Alright I’m coming, I’m coming. Just let me get dressed.” Ryo shook his head at Denki’s excited face as he left the tent. Shuffling around, searching for his shirt while pulling one boot on at a time. Finally finding it, he slipped the shirt on, stretching his arms to get rid of the aches.

Even after ten years, Ryo was still amazed at Denki’s ability to be so happy and alert so early in the morning. Denki and Ryo first met when they were only 5 years old when they met, both had been running from their mothers in attempts to continue playing through dinner. They had quite literally run into each other, glaring at the other before bursting into giggles. Ever since that moment they had been inseparable, managing to stay together even through samurai training.

The walk to food showed that more of their fellow soldiers were like Ryo in the morning. Some even glared at Denki’s exuberant behavior. Ryo smiled softly as he inhaled deeply, they were lucky enough to have tofu today. The smell made his stomach grumble in hunger. Ryo missed the food from home, where he could have fish and meat sometimes. The food for the soldiers was rather bland, mostly brown rice or porridge. Sometimes they had tofu like today and miso was a favorite of Ryo’s. Most of the soldiers just chewed the miso, but Ryo preferred to put it in hot water and make soup.

While they ate Ryo let his gaze wander. All around him, the soldiers were laughing and joking with each other, without a care in the world. He stared down at his bowl, pushing the rice around slowly. His stomach growled with hunger but Ryo couldn’t bring himself to swallow it. Nerves were getting to him, his head swirled with anxiety about the battle ahead. Today was his first battle as a samurai. It is a great honor, his father would be proud of him but Ryo couldn’t shake the bad feeling in his gut.

Ryo managed to gulp down half a dozen bites before surrendering his bowl to Denki. Denki’s delighted exclamation made Ryo smile. Denki and Ryo went their separate ways to prepare for battle. Ryo started with his kote, golden armored sleeves that he pulled over his light tan undershirt. Next came the suneate and haidate, black metal tied around Ryo’s legs to protect them. Ryo started to feel the weight of his armor, heavy but comforting. The do came next, to protect his chest. It was pearly white and rose red, the same colors as his fathers'. His shoulders bore the sode, shoulder armor that was black in color with red accents. Ryo’s kusazuri came next, red and black to match the sode, wrapped around his waist, tying together his body armor. The final step is his helmet, or rather his father's helmet. Ryo held it in his hand, gripping the red and white helmet tightly in his hand. Once put on, his armor would be complete and he would be ready for battle.

With a slow deep breath, Ryo placed the helmet on his head. Tying the string under his chin, he smiled, confidence filling his chest. Exiting his tent, sword in hand, Ryo glanced around. Elite soldiers rushed around, helping the other samurai with last-minute preparations. Denki ran up to Ryo, he was still smiling but only a little. Ryo could see the nerves dancing in Denki’s eyes. Denki’s armor was practically identical to Ryo’s, but where Ryo’s was red, Denki’s was blue. Their armor complimented each other, brothers at heart and brothers in arms.

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Cries of pain and shouts of anger rattled through Ryo’s head. Everything was chaotic, Ryo could barely tell who was on his side. Everyone was yelling and screaming. Sweat streamed down Ryo’s back or was that blood. He didn’t know. Looking down, he watched the blood drip off his katana. The dark red liquid dropped into the grass before disappearing, like it was never there. A flicker of motion, a little too close and Ryo raises his sword, blocking a blow that would have taken his head off. Sword on sword, Ryo shoves hard, throwing the opposing warrior off balance. Raising his sword above his head, Ryo slices down. Left to right, top to bottom just as he was taught. His katana caught the warrior's neck, blood erupted from his neck. The warrior's eyes went wide as he struggled to stop the bleeding.

“RYO!” Ryo whirled around, looking frantically for the source of the voice. He knew that voice. It only took him seconds before he saw blue and black armor running towards him. Ryo sighed, a weight lifted off his chest.

“Ryo, you’re alive. I knew it.” Denki still had a smile on his face, even if his eyes reflected the carnage they both were witnessing. He was breathing heavily, his katana no longer shining in the sunlight but covered in sticky red blood.

“We are alive.” Ryo smiled back at his brother in arms, clasping arms with him in greeting before they both turned back to the battle.

The battle raged on, Ryo and Denki fought side by side and back to back. Keeping each other safe, like they had promised their mothers. Ryo sidestepped a sword and then froze in horror. He watched in slow motion as the sword he avoided made its way into Denki’s shoulder. Ryo’s eyes were filled with horror and regret, he didn’t realize Denki had been so close.

“Ahhhh.” Denki cried out in pain, the force of the blow bringing him to his knees. Blood flowing out of his shoulder, covering his blue armor in red.

The scream broke Ryo out of his frozen state. His face construed with anger as he swung and killed the enemy. He twirled to look at Denki and just barely raised his sword to block what would have been a killing blow to Denki. Dispatching the warrior quickly, Ryo knelt next to Denki, tearing cloth off his own armor to press into the open wound.

“Hang in there Denki,” Ryo murmured, tears in his eyes. He tied the cloth tightly around the wound, hoping it would stop the blood flow.

Denki’s smile was full of pain as he looked at his best friend. “I’ll be fine, it's just a scratch. A really big scratch.” Denki’s statement managed to get a small smile out of Ryo. “Behind you!” Denki yelled before falling to the ground. He saw a samurai in shiny black and gold armor coming up behind Ryo with their katana raised.

Ryo stopped the enemy blade with inches to spare. His eyes were wide as he stared at the clean blade, behind it was a glittering samurai draped in expensive armor that hid the scared eyes. The opposing samurai was not very skilled, Ryo managed to disarm him within minutes. His last move was knocking the helmet off the golden samurai. Beneath the helmet was the sweat-soaked hair of a child. Ryo hesitated, this boy was even younger than him.

“Please, I don’t want to die.” The boy begged, his eyes filled to the brim with unshed tears.

Ryo couldn’t do it. It was different when the enemy was fighting him and he was just trying to survive, but this boy was on his knees unarmed. All the others had been spur-of-the-moment decisions. He knew he had to kill the boy but his arms just wouldn’t move. Ryo just stood there with his sword raised in the air. In the distance, Ryo heard the thunder of horses. Hesitating only a moment more he whispered sharply at the boy. “Run. Now.” With wide eyes full of relief, the boy scrambled to his feet running as fast as he could away from Ryo.

“After him!” A booming voice echoed from behind Ryo, causing him to whirl around with wide eyes. It was one of his teachers, Tadaaki Sakai, a samurai with decades of experience. While Ryo was busy staring at the older samurai. “Do you have any idea who you just let live?” Sakai's voice was only just above a whisper but held the same effect as a yell.

Ryo flinched, falling to his knees with his head bowed and his sword presented in front of him. “I couldn’t do it. He was only a kid.” Ryo’s voice was a whisper, his eyes clenched in shame and fear.

Sakai knelt down on one knee, forcing Ryo to look at him. “That was Shogun Tachi’s son. The one person we were meant to capture or kill today. His death or capture would have been a possible end to this war.” Sakai shook his head in disappointment before standing. He motioned towards Ryo with his hand. “Take his weapon and escort him back to camp.”

Time passed quickly for Ryo, he barely saw the walk back to camp before he was deposited beneath the arch at the edge of the camp. He didn’t know how long he was left kneeling there. The Daimyo came and went, Sakai came to talk to him but Ryo didn’t hear a word. He knew what was next. By allowing the son of the enemy to live, Ryo had dishonored himself and disregarded his orders.

Another warrior was shoved to the ground next to Ryo, shocking him out of his thoughts. The man was covered in dirt and blood. “Two dishonorable cowards to take care of.” A passing soldier shouted.

Ryo stared at the man, he was just a foot soldier. He wondered what the man did to dishonor himself. Shaking his head, it didn’t really matter, they would both be dead by morning anyway.

Ryo’s katana was tossed at his feet. Looking up, he saw that it was Sakai who had tossed it at him. The old man's face was set in stone, but Ryo could see the disappointment in his eyes. Ryo slowly reached out and picked up his katana.

“You know what to do,” Sakai said loudly so that the surrounding area of warriors could hear him.

Yes, Ryo did. He was to perform the ritual of Seppuku, or honor suicide to regain honor for his family. Ryo unsheathed his katana, it would soon enter his lower chest by his own hand. His hands were shaking, he was scared. Clenching his jaw, Ryo steadied his hands as he pointed the tip of the sword to the left of his belly button. He needed to do this so his family could regain the honor he lost by letting the enemy’s son go. Taking a deep breath he closed his eyes tight and pulled his hands towards him sharply. His last thought was of his mother and of Denki, hoping they were both alive and well.