Welcome Back, Old Friend

The last vestiges of slumber slipped from his consciousness in the way a falling curtain closed on a setting stage, and with it all that'd been left were three words: Where am I?

Memories flashed across his mind's eye — a boy curled up with his head tucked between his knees as he wept in an empty hallway of sorts, a man swallowing mouthfuls of tears while holding onto a folded square of smooth white paper, and the fever. He distinctly recalled the sensation of being trapped in one's flesh, unable to draw enough breath to even plead for help. And all that came after was a void of nothingness, a voice spoke to him but not once had it revealed itself. Then, there was the river of glowing lights and the proclamation of a wish being granted.

But whose and for what reason did they desire the man known as Yakushi Tadashi?

Moreover, what did any of those things have to do with him?

My name is not Yakushi Tadashi, he thought to himself as he recalled the pair sitting before his altar. It was as the old woman professed — he was the Sundering Calm, Bunretsu-no-Shizukesa.

A living blade.

He focused his energy outward to feel the shape of his being. The dissonance of lingering within the body of a mortal had left him with a sense of unease, and a need to remember himself. While the little room his altar had been placed in was unfamiliar to him, his body rested across as a bed crafted from iron carved with a field of chrysanthemums in full bloom with their stems rising to curl around his blade. He could not feel the cold of the metal; there was no flesh he possessed to sweat and bite from heat nor cold.

Instead, a straight blade hewn with the flat and narrow taper of a calamus leaf was forged from dark iron and inscribed with swirling golden clouds burnished beneath an amber sheen. The middle of his blade ridged like a fish's spine was tied with rice rope and swayed at the ends with a pair of bells secured to vibrant red tassells. The curved pommel of his hilt, and the serrated grip of his blade, it was all the same down to the pommel — the only body he cared to remember.

But then why could he not forget what it felt to look into the palms of those trembling hands?

And… who are these two?

At last, he turned his attention to the pair sitting before him. The little girl nervously glanced up between him and the older woman as if she could not decide where to lay her attentions. Her eyes lingered on the older woman for a beat longer with every pass, and swept over him as though she didn't know where to look. However, the old woman stared at him resolutely as though he had eyes to meet hers with. To call her gaze keen would have been to do her a great disservice; her eyes tracked across the length of him no matter where he shifted his energy. He'd even attempted to throw her off by separating his energy between the tip of his blade and the ropes binding him, but she merely chuckled.

Whomever she was, age had yet to addle her mind.

Yet, all she did was stare at him with a well-pleased smile settled upon her lips. The wrinkles lining her mouth deepened with apparent amusement, and the crow's feet perched at the rising outer corner of her eyes dug in their talons when her eyelids shuttered.

So, she would refuse to tell him anything at all, would she?

He relented on attempting to coax an answer out of her and sought out the rest of her being instead. From what he could tell, she was at least in the twilight years of her life with the setting sun at her back. Most would prostrate themselves before his altar and leave offerings but she did not shrink away from his presence nor flinch at the suddenness of his voice. Her hands remained folded in the voluminous cradle of her scarlet hakama, wrists draped in white from the billowing sleeves of the robe cinched around her frame.

Dark hair pulled back from her scalp and tied in a neat ponytail hung loosely against her back in a steady fall to pool at her feet. Ashen grey feathered her temples, and though the old woman's face bore the marks of time, the density of her spiritual energy plumed around her body like vapor rising from a kettle.

There was no doubt she had been a great warrior in her youth, and time had not dulled her skill in the slightest. Nor did she feel the need to hide her apparent strength from his sight. It was almost demonstrative in nature — such blatant familiarity..

Wait, could it be?

"Kozue..?"

The old woman — no, Kozue, for now he recognized the sound of her laughter when it bubbled up and spilled past her lips, each chuckle adding a cheerful note to the quiet room. How could he have forgotten this?

"It's good to hear you still remember me," she said once she'd sobered from her joy, eyes softened with an unnamed thing he couldn't quite place. The thought was whisked away from his sight as she leaned into a nearly reverent bow before him.

It was odd to witness. The Kozue he recalled was different from this elder. A prideful, headstrong woman lauded as the great beauty of her generation. She showed no obeisance to man nor god and begrudgingly took respects with her seniors. Her voice was a silvery upset, capable of tearing arguments to shreds with wit and silencing rooms with a single word. She was one without parallel, and thus, no one was bold or foolish enough to impersonate her.

Therefore, there was no other recourse than to believe this elder was Kozue.

Time certainly had changed her. While her voice still resonated, its richness was low and mellowed in a way he had never heard before. The inherent beauty once coveted lingered throughout her being from the graceful rise of her shoulders to the neatness of her folded hands. He felt an ache somewhere deep inside of him, but why was that?

"… You've grown older."

Kozue's shoulders tensed for a split second. If his attention hadn't been focused solely upon her, he might have mised the way her shoulders rolled back from a tiny tremble.

"Living will do that to mortals, it seems," Kozue stated dryly, her lips thinned and shuttered eyelids overshadowed by an arched brow. "And yet, you have not changed at all."

Relief washed over him at her expression and razor-sharp rebuttal. 

"The benefit of immortality. Even the immaterial becomes tiresome, and your chatter awoke me before I could come to a conclusion."

Kozue's eyebrows drew together gently, then she huffed a laugh and shook her head.

"Uhm, Granny…? Who are you talking to?"

A small voice cut through their musing and drew attention to the little girl tucked in Kozue's shadow. He belatedly realized her presence considering how quiet she'd been. For good reason, it seemed. Fear impressed itself into the wideness of the girl's round brown eyes. She clutched at Kozue's sleeve with one small hand and tucked herself against her side as though to ground her. The restless disquiet within her spirit permeated the room's tranquility, and he could hear the air groan under the weight.

She cannot hear nor see me, he noticed with waning interest. What use was there in placing his concerns within a being whose eyes and ears were practically ornaments in battle?

Kozue turned to the girl and cupped her cheek with the gentleness of a mother. She swept a tear from beneath the girl's eye, and smiled warmly. "Be at ease child, I am well. I'd only meant to have a conversation with Shizukesa-sama."

The girl laid her small hand on the back of Kozue's and looked up to her in return. Anxiety scrawled across her face, evident in the uncertain glances flicked in his direction, but he could tell she attempted to hold her composure for Kozue's sake. He was sorely reminded of the boy seated at his grandfather's side attempting to speak warmth and life into him whilst death circled around their tiny world.

It was an act made in vain, but an honorable one nonetheless.

"The girl believes you have gone senile, Kozue."

Kozue turned to him with plain dismay, then glanced at her young charge who faltered from meeting her gaze as though her true feelings would be seen. "My, it has been some time since I've received such looks." Her eyes drifted back to him with an unspoken question, and if he'd been in the possession of a head, he'd have turned away in refusal.

"Don't look at me. I've no intention of demonstrating myself for a child."

Well, he imagined it did appear strange from the perspective of one without the ability to see, bearing witness to her—

Wait a moment.. dId she refer to Kozue as 'Granny'?

How was that remotely possible?

He turned the thought over in his mind. The Kozue he knew refused the company of men, and would rather draw him against her throat than lie with one. Therefore, it couldn't have been a blood relation… unless tragedy befell her.

"Is something troubling you, Shizukesa-sama?"

As much as his thoughts stirred about his mind, Kozue's voice came through startlingly clear. With it, he realized a rattling noise had broken the air's tranquility and it was coming from somewhere nearby. Concern etched itself in the contours of Kozue's face, and the girl tucked beneath her arm stared in his direction with her face half-hidden against Kozue's side. Ah, was that sound coming from him?

The vibrations of his blade trembling against the iron fastenings keeping him secured upon his stand sounded much louder now that he focused on them. Slowly, he disciplined the length of his body until it fell within the familiar stillness he sought. How unusual. In troubled times, he kept a firm grip on himself as a means of providing a reliable presence for Kozue. How long had it been since he'd trembled with such rage unknowingly?

If he possessed a face like Yakushi Tadashi, what expression would he be making?

"Kozue, who is this girl?"

"Considering how long you've slept, I am willing to overlook your disrespect," Kozue huffed, then fondly gazed down upon the girl who peered up at her with a wondering expression. "She is no mere child, Shizukesa-sama, but the third daughter of the Amanogawa Clan. I believed it best she bear witness to the sacred blade which brought this land prosperity as part of her evening lessons."

He caught her eyes, and noted the delight aglow in her gaze.

"A weapon is nothing without its bearer."

Her lips parted with a soft oh before curving into a small smile. Her eyes crescented as she laughed, "How kind of you, Shizukesa-sama."

He thought to argue. It was not kindness but mere fact which brought forth those words, but Kozue parted her attention from his to look upon the girl again. She laid a hand upon the top of her head, smoothing back her dark hair with the coaxing gentleness of a grandmother, "Go on, little one, introduce yourself."

"Mm…" The girl hummed uncertainly, then carefully unwound herself from Kozue's side. She turned in his direction with flitted eyes unable to discern where they should position themselves. He watched every quirk of her expression while her lack of awareness left her completely defenseless. What good was imparting wisdom upon someone with the inability to understand what was right before their nose?

The girl seemed to give up on trying to find where to train her attention, and shifted low with her palms placed flat on the floor and her forehead pressed to the ground in supplication.

"Hello, B-Bunretsu-no-Shizukesa-sama.."

He kept his eyes on her as he spoke to Kozue, "A timid thing, isn't she?"

"She's only shy because she knows not what to expect from you, Shizukesa-sama," the child's breath hitched at those words and she began to raise her head alloting him a glimpse of her disgruntled expression, "Go on, child, he is listening."

Her cheek puffed slightly with an indignant air as she lowered her head again and sighed, "Okay, Granny…"

Perhaps she was not as timid as she seemed.

"My name is Kasugayami no Yua… it is a pleasure to be within your presence."

"Kasugayami... is that not the village which lies in the shadow of Tenseiboshi, Kozue?"

"It is the very same, Shizukesa-sama."

He vaguely recalled the fuzzy outlines of a humble village nestled within a forest of verdant leaves, forever cast beneath the veil of a shadow. So, this wisp of a girl was born from that place.

"An Amanogawa child, hm?"

One who could not see nor hear him—

Whose spiritual energy was practically non-existent—

An empty vessel.

"Another failure."

The moment the words floated into the air, a piercing spike of spiritual energy lashed out at him. He would have blinked at the suddenness of such ferocity if he'd had eyes but the spiritual energy clashed against his barrier, fizzling out in a fine steam. He turned his attention toward Kozue; their stares interlocked with neither making a move to look away. Her aura flared around her, flowing energy deviated from its straight-moving path to curve upon itself in a swirling vortex of emotion.

He watched, transfixed on the muddle of bright colors representing Kozue's contempt and pain.

The girl staggered up from her bow and shuffled on her knees to Kozue's side, grasping at her sleeves once again. "…! Granny, what's wrong? Do you need to see Hisa-chan? Did I do something to upset Shizukesa-sama?"

Kozue tore her eyes away from him, and the swell of her aura receded like the tide as she gently cupped the girl's face in her palms. "Nay, child. I was merely taken aback by Shizukesa-sama."

Relief rolled off the girl, soft and sweet as she glanced at him then lowered her voice as though her whisper would keep him from hearing, "Did it— did he say something bad?"

"Merely thoughtless," Kozue had said the words lightly but the implication behind them gave him pause. There was no lack of thought in his assessment at all, "He assessed the depth of your hara, and was taken aback."

What had she said? He stared, unsure of what order of events Kozue was orchestrating for the girl's benefit. Or perhaps she was asking him to look at the girl's hara.

"H-He did?"

He turned his attention inward and loosed a fine thread of spiritual energy toward her. It connected and swirled around the first layer of the girl's aura, sinking further with little resistance. He waited patiently as the thread traversed where multiple layers should have been but only found the equivalent of a hole.

"Kozue, her foundation is terrible."

Non-existent, he should say, but Kozue paid him little heed.

"Mm, Shizukesa-sama believed you are brimming with potential—" What nonsense was she speaking? "With time and training, you'll reach new heights indeed."

Livid, he cried out to her, "That is absolutely not what I said, Kozue!"

Kozue smiled, patting the girl on the head. "Be diligent in your efforts, okay? Shizukesa-sama looks forward to you reaching your potential."

"Are you blatantly ignoring me?! Kozue!"

Had this woman lost all of her senses? A child with no spiritual perception could hardly hope to reach any sort of potential. And what was this nonsense of effort?! Could a snail attempt to scale a mountain and gain legs in the process? It was utterly unthinkable.

"Yes!" The girl cried, her fists balled up and pressed to her stomach. When Kozue's hands fell away from her, she rounded on him again with twin stars gleaming in her eyes. A pink flush rose onto her appled cheeks as she stammered out, "This disciple, I-I mean, I'll work hard then, Shizukesa-sama!"

She giggled happily as Kozue petted her hand fondly, while he looked on in utter mortification.

What world have I awoken in…?!