Kunimitsu watched his men training, silently, eyes moving from one to another, pausing to rest on the group in the corner, leaning on their blunt spears and laughing, until they fell quiet and straightened and returned to practice. His gaze returned, again and again, though, to one particular pair of warriors.
“So, Echizen convinced Inui to train with him? Such impressive enthusiasm.”
Kunimitsu glanced aside at Fuji, come to stand with him and watch. “Inui invited him.”
Fuji’s brows rose and he looked more sharply at the circling pair as they closed yet again. “He’s interested by someone so young? Echizen can’t have had a man’s name for more than a year or two.” The murmur was absent, though, and Kunimitsu waited to hear what Fuji saw.
Inui was pressing the younger warrior, never following the openings offered by Echizen’s stance, always cutting for the real weakness. Echizen’s eyes were wide and sweat had soaked through his shirt in places, even in the cool morning air, but…
“He’s not afraid,” Fuji stated.
Kunimitsu nodded agreement. Echizen wasn’t afraid. He was watching.
Inui’s next strike didn’t connect. Echizen’s wooden sword slid inside his and slashed high across his hip. Inui was suddenly stiff as they stepped apart again, and Echizen was grinning. Kunimitsu settled back a bit.
“You think he’ll win.”
Kunimitsu glanced at Fuji and didn’t answer. Inui was the best tactician among the Uesugi forces. No one could count more than a handful of successful attacks on him, in training, besides the other generals. And Fuji, of course.
But this boy, with the sharp eyes and unreasonable strength and arrogant mouth, was going to defeat Inui in a training bout.
“He’ll come with us, when we move out next month,” Kunimitsu said, and Fuji cocked his head.
“Will that be enough to show you? Kaga’s forces are pretty raw.”
Kunimitsu was quiet for a moment, watching the soft, warm sheen of polished wood as practice swords flickered in the morning shadows of the training hall, listening to the crack and scrape as they met.
“When the temple in Kaga gathered the peasants and small samurai to rise,” he said at last, softly, “Tachibana was wise enough to ally them to one of the stronger overlords, to throw the rest out. And when they had, he and those he had gathered to him were strong enough to throw Togashi out in turn. Tachibana himself…” Kunimitsu’s eyes narrowed. “They will be enough.”
It was Fuji’s turn to nod silently and Kunimitsu settled back against the wall as Fuji moved away through the training pairs.
Kaga would be a good place to see Echizen’s real mettle. Kunimitsu’s mouth tightened.
Echizen’s form was beautiful. Deadly.
And wrong.
Somehow, it was both too much and not enough. There was a hunger and a bleakness behind those bright, focused eyes, a desperation that contrasted strangely with his obvious strength. Kunimitsu needed to know what was wrong, and know it before this ragged edge on Echizen’s spirit cut apart any of his fellow samurai.
He would hope to find out when they fought Kaga, and Tachibana’s men.
End
*purrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr*
So Fuji isn’t a general?
*hearts*
No, he’s not. *frowns* I actually don’t know /what/ he is, yet. Just that he isn’t a general. He might be a captain. Or he might not be an officer at all. I’m thinking it’s probably the latter. Ryouma is going to end up in somewhat the same position, I think.
That make sense, given the nature of Fuji’s issues in canon – perhaps he’s not serious enough to be an officer. And given the way Ryouma is shaping up in this one… yeah.
I can’t wait to see Eiji and the rest, but especially Eiji. X3
Fuji and Tezuka were simply wonderful. *pleased*
Thank you!
*grins* Eiji’s fun, in this ‘verse. Pretty ruthless, really. I don’t know when we’ll meet him ‘face to face’ as it were, but he does have a part coming up.
Oh…you skipped over Kaidou and went straight over to Inui. But I guess Kaidou wouldn’t challenge Echizen right away? Inui probably wants to get some data…
Ii dataI wonder what Eiji would look like when he fights. It’d be pretty hard to do acrobatics in the samurai armour…but if he were a ninja then that’s different… *suddenly imagines Eiji and Gakuto throwing shurinken and kunai at each other*
Okay…since Tezuka is Taisho…and Momo is Taii…I can imagine Fuji being Chusa. I think. With his skills and all. 😡 But it’s your story do whatever you want! @_@;
Fudomine~ well they’re Kaga now. Oh, I wonder how Tezuka will make Echizen really improve… 😡
*nodnod* I’m not planning to hit every match. There are just too many. So it’s basically the one’s for the characters who speak to me most. Alas, Kaidou has never really been a strong muse for me. *sighs*
Ah! Do you have any citations for ranks besides bu/Taishou and Taii, in this period? I couldn’t find any other ranks in actual, attested use. And I’m /really/ hesitant to fill in the blanks with the military ranks that developed later.
*wry* And, I have to say, Tezuka is kind of wondering what he’ll do with Echizen, too.
Yeah, I remember reading the notes before you mentioning that you’ll only do the matches that you liked the best.
For the ranks I went to wikipedia… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_office
I compared the Japanese Imperial Army ranks to the United States army ranks…
Ah. *nodnod* The thing is, the Imperial Army is a very specific historical body, late 19th and early 20th C. Some of its ranks come from way further back, but Taishou and Taii are the only ones I’ve actually been able to trace as far back as Sengoku. *is quite frustrated by this* Maybe the universities I have access to don’t have enough military history journals. *a bit woeful* It would have been a whole lot easier finding background if I’d set this in Tokugawa. But Sengoku is just so much fun.
[lazy smile]
ah, there you are Fuji…. [strictly refrains from purring]
No, I can’t really see Fuji as an officer, either. It’s not his style… that level of responsbility is not something he desires or needs. A strong leader, worthy of his respect and mind… that’s something else.
Okay, fangirl begging here: please, please, please, please, please let there be some little itty bit of TezuFuji/FujiTezu in here… the intimacy of their friendship just screams for it. I think I’m just resigned to the fact that I’ll probably always be a TezuFuji fangirl… even when I het-pair them.
Interesting that you set Inui as seeking Echizen out. I’d be interested in seeing his rational for that. Does he see watch Tezuka sees– the deadly potential? or just the potential? In the series, it seemed like he saw the potential, but he underestimated it, underestimated Ryoma’s lethalness. Inui fell into his own trap of self-confidence. Which, really, was understandable. After all, only Tezuka and Fuji had ever been able to defeat him without fail, right? And the others, he was always able to win within reasonable predicability, right?
And, yeah, have I mentioned how much I love the Tezuka-Fuji interaction?
Hmmm… now… let’s see… if he’s playing against Inui now, am I to assume he’s already played against Kaidoh? Maybe that’s what first drew Inui’s attention to Ryoma. And next to follow is some Momo-Ryoma interaction… after the freshmen congratulating Ryoma, but… the freshman wouldn’t know that Tezuka plans on including Ryoma in next month’s advance, yet… which means, maybe some of that MomoRyo interaction………
*snickering* A bit of Momo and Ryouma interaction coming up, yeah.
As for the TezuFuji… they are, in this ‘verse, close enough that it could be interpreted that way. Even though I am totally standing by my threat to make Tezuka married and give Fuji a long-standing romance with a courtesan. *evil, evil smile* Wait till you find out who she is.
*hearts*
But yes! I think Inui did see the brightness, but underestimated Ryouma’s deadliness. Hence his surprise during their bout, here. *pets Inui* Poor guy. Not used to the surprises. The matches I do hit, I’m trying to keep as close to the tennis version as I can, given the swords.
Oh, I’m all for Tezuka being married and Fuji and Yumiko having their romance…. I just want my TezuFuji, too. ^_^ Somehow I don’t see very much love or affection or even companionship in a Tezuka-marriage, not in this setting. Although, from what I’m coming to understand of Japanese culture, that’s not really all that uncommon. Marriage is not about love, after all–that strange, modern Euro-American ideal.
I read a webarticle once about how love has destroyed marriage. It was rather enlightening. I wonder if I saved the address somewhere….
As for the matches… just considering the setting of your story, I think it would be difficult to protray many of them. After all, in a battle, things can get pretty chaotic, ne? The matches would be overlapping and interferring with each other as opponents battle and defend and attack… The ichinen trio, for example… half the time they won’t even be on the battle field, right? so all their fanboying would be done before and after the fact… Oh, the drunken celebratory after-parties…. [grins and tries to imagine Ryoma and sake]
Will you be bringing more of Nanjiroh into the story, too? That would be interesting… do the others already know of Nanjiroh’s fame and then surprising disappearance? Do they talk about him in legends…only to be confronted with the debauchery of the truth? [glints] hmmm… don’t think that last sentence came out right. blah. tired and want to sleep. oh well. [sighs]
Okay, I’ll let you get back to writing.
I actually took pity on Tezuka and fixed him up with a woman he at least gets along with. They’re not romantic or demonstrative or anything, but they are happy. Sanada and his wife are a lot more distant with each other, and from what bunnies have appeared so far, Niou’s and Yagyuu’s wives spend most of their time with each other.
*sparkles* You read my mind, though! Ichinen and sake and Echizen /will/ be happening!
*considers* I think Nanjirou will be the constantly present absence. It’s his shadow that will always be in the stories. Both of his legendary skill and his debauchery *wry*
now. seriously. how horrible is it of me to be picturing Niou’s wife lusting after Yagyuu and Yagyuu’s wife lusting after Niou? What’s worse is if they were actually sisters… [is shot]
Sanada’s just distant. It would take a strong personality to pull him out of his distancing, and, I don’t know. I just don’t think there would be many good Japanese girls of the time who would really care to try. Let him go, fight his battles, stay away for days and months on end. And when he returns, fine. She’ll make sure his robes are cleaned, that his bath is drawn and meals are served. If he demands it of her, she’ll spread her legs and give him release. And if not, then that’s all the better. She has better things she’d rather do with her time.
Tezuka’s wife… I still maintain that he and Ryuzaki’s daughter would make a good couple. That kind of sweet and kind, caring young woman who wants desperately to gain his pleasing. And Tezuka isn’t as difficult to draw in, either.
question: does anyone really know that Nanjiro has a legitimate kid out there? I’m sure there are plenty of bastards rumored to be his. Maybe even a couple of would bes trying to claim him, but….
I expect it’s well known locally and less known the further away you get from whatever town Nanjirou settled in. Communications between domains was… problematic at this point in time. But I rather think the domain lord would have kept an eye on any warrior that famous settling down in one of his towns, so I expect the higher-ups of the garrison were made aware of who Ryouma is.
*grins* And Fuji, of course was one of those sentences that made me smile and think “haha, duh, he can’t be a general afterall, he’s got to be some funny in-limbo people who everyone recognises anyway.”
I like how the snippets are all so dignified and quiet and water colour-y.
*vigorous nodding* Very much that kind of person, yes. I think even more of that will come out in the rain match, supposing I can ever get the thing to gel. *pokes at bunny*
*beams* Thank you.
Because Fuji would shy away from that kind of responsibility and rank, right? And it’s so much more fun being a wild card. :3 And here comes along this n00b, threatening his position as Wild Card Of …[insert clan name here]! RAIN MATCH RAIN MATCH RAIN MATCH OMG *GNAWS*
♥
He totally would! And yes! There will be a rain match darn it! *eyes muses* Come on, guys, gimme more than five seconds of this thing.
*cheers you on* COME ON MUSE-TACHI. I know you can do this! It’s very important to have a duel in the rain, after all! It, um, shows resilience to pneumonia and various other things that samurai Do Not Fall To! :O