Here goes nothing, it's been ages since I've done this
last...
Pastpresent 9 - Echoes In Darkness
If there was any indication that it wasn't as light as
the rest of the series, this is it...
> It was not something that revealed itself in a
sudden stroke of lightning. Rather, it was a gradual
awakening, as if from a light doze in a sun that was
rapidly getting too warm for comfort. I was not happy.
There was something fundamentally flawed with how I
was living.
The simile in this paragraph was one of the best descriptions of
teenage angst I've heard.
At first, I tried to ignore it. It frightened me for
reasons I could not explain, and my bravery has always
been limited to certain areas in which I excel. I fear I've
seen too much of this side of myself in you to please me,
but no matter. No child will ever be completely to the
liking of his parents, especially where their own
shortcomings are concerned.
Ahh, yes. Genma, the one to talk about shortcomings...
The Saotome family home was large for a house in
crowded Tokyo. The house itself was only of medium size, but
the garden was large and lavish, protected from the
surrounding area by stone walls.
You'd be surprised how many of these places abound in the suburbs
of Tokyo (Nerima being just one example)
The central feature of the garden was a roughly circular
pond, the home of several long-suffering carp. Saotome-sensei
was fond of aerial attacks, and Soun and Genma had wound up
toppling into the pool more often that they cared to admit. The
fish were very agile and rather stressed-out as a result.
Wonder how stressed-out fish really can get...
Both of the two disciples of the master were familiar
with the garden in a way difficult to understand. Saotome-
sensei had raised them both up to favored status on the same
day, and informed them that they would no longer pay him a
weekly teaching fee.
If I may make a diffident suggestion... might it sound better to write,
"Both disciples of the master..."
"Money is proper for the lower levels of the Art," he had
told them. "That is fair value. But the inner secrets of the
Saotome-ryuu are more valuable that all the wealth in Japan.
To give me money and think it a fair exchange would be an
insult. If you will be my students, you will give me your
unquestioning obedience. That is a worthy payment! And you
will remind yourselves of this fact by keeping my garden in
order."
It could be worse... Saotome-sensei could have them waxing
his cars. (Wax on, wax off...)
Saotome-sensei demanded that his garden be perfect.
That meant that every blade of grass and every shoot of every
bush had to be exactly the right length, to the millimeter. And
the master could tell instantly if it wasn't.
Working for people like this really stinks... especially when you're
not getting paid for it. And to throw a grocery job in the mix on
Genma, much less his mother... wow, I wonder how he doesn't
snap more than just a feeling of slight angst.
> Genma chuckled sourly. He and Soun, on their own
initiative, had once spent an entire week comparing notes and
pouring over the koans, stories, and spatial relationships of
the elements making up a quarter of the garden. At the end they
had uncovered a sequence of powerful strikes that had since
become a favored attack, a beautifully simple blocking
technique, and a set of relaxation techniques designed for
developing ki. Both of them were firmly convinced that
Saotome-sensei would never have mentioned them.
They deduced this from the presence of holes or rocks in
the garden? Wow, I need me one o' 'dem Japanese gardens!
Worst of all, there were major elements in the garden
that the master had yet to identify or expound on.
Wonder if this includes "carp-fu".
Genma shook his head in disgust. Getting nostalgic for
work he had yet to finish?
Especially the hot and sweaty kind... Genma certainly has
changed over the years.
"Yes. No. I don't know." He sighed, frustrated. "I love what
I do here. Learning from Saotome-sensei is such a privilege,
and such a joy... why would I ever want to do anything else? I
don't know anything else! There is nothing else!"
Gee, this sounds familiar...
"You've chosen a bad time to have your personal crisis,
then," the old woman said, smiling slightly. "It started after
you and Soun and Nodoka returned from that trip, didn't it?"
"Yeah." It had. He had felt the first faint stirrings of it on
the plane home. "At first I thought it was just me coming down
from all the excitement, but now..."
Skirting death can do that to a person... but I see where he's
coming from. Time on a plane, especially when one's returning
home, is a marvelous time to take stock in life and figure out
what you're heading back to.
"Nonsense," Grandmother Saotome said firmly. "I know
you and Soun. You love nothing better than fighting some
absurdly powerful and dangerous foe or technique. It's not in
you to be afraid of something like that."
Until Happosai.
"Then the war. He was based in Rabaul, and quickly
became an ace. Nishizawa, Ota, Sakai, Saotome... he was one of
our best. Fighter pilots are not so different from martial
artists."
Meant to ask about this. I'm under the assumption that you're
referring to the young man Minatoko's involved with as "Saotome"
in this series of names. I take it that he married her (he's referred
to as "son-in-law" later) and took her family name? For some
strange reason, I was under the impression that taking the wife's
name wasn't common in Japan...
(boy, it's clumsy for me to refer to him as "young man"...)
> She shook her head sadly. "Then the tide turned, and the
American planes grew more sophisticated, their pilots more
skilled, their numbers doubling, tripling... there could really be
only one ending. I think the dear young man knew it. We didn't -
because of the censorship, you know. It came as a shock. They
didn't even have a body for us to burn."
Therefore, he probably ended his life as a kamikaze pilot...
Grandmother Saotome shook her head. "Our family has
never been eager to go that route, no matter how wretched or
disgraced our condition. No. She had been a person who lived
for the Art and her husband. He was gone. And so she turned
even more to the Art, discarding... important things as she did.
And it eventually killed her."
Vengeance without a specific target... yikes. That's the kind of
property damage that Ranma can only dream of.
He shook his head. Either he didn't want to, or he was so
afraid of doing so that it amounted to the same thing. And he
wasn't going to let several years work at fending her off go to
waste because of a little bit of angst.
Good to see he has his priorities straight. =P
"Okay, man, gimme your wallet and..."
Part of Genma's mind watched as he broke the mugger's
arm, dislocated his leg, and sent the ragged man flying into a
concrete wall with a moist crunch. He didn't break his stride.
The only bit of humor in the whole piece. Actually, it was
nice to offset this introspection.
He stopped several minutes later, staring blankly at
another set of steps. Joe's Garage.
When a person's feeling their lowest, they'll go where the most
feel welcome... good choice of location.
He looked at the bright lights for a few seconds, suddenly
very much aware of the darkness around him. Then he turned,
and made his way back into the night.
And Genma realizing that even sticking around here and talking
to the inhabitants was a good choice as well. Sometimes the
internal problems can only be solved internally...
He bent, and began to scrape away at the moss below it.
It looked uneven, ragged the way it was. If he was going to
break Saotome-sensei's instructions, he might as well do an
ascetically pleasing job of it...
Wow... getting on towards twilight, if not nighttime... and to relax
himself he does yardwork. He really should figure out that this is
what he's good at, instead of a grocery job... (maybe public
sanitation? ^_^)
What was this? He had heard of similar vaults in old
ninja clan citadels, but the Saotomes were hardly that.
Moreover, he would have thought that the bombing...
The bombing. Genma nodded. Perhaps this had been a
shelter, a hiding place in case the bombs fell or the home
islands were invaded.
Yeah, that's a heck of a hiding place.
A sense of panic overtook him about halfway down. The
moon seemed to leer above him like a cold dead eye, and the
walls suddenly reminded him of a gaping maw. There was
nothing but darkness below...
..foreshadowing? "Echoes in Darkness" indeed, he's going to
find something to his liking...
He wanted to climb back up. He didn't, though, even as the
panic began to catch and spread. Instead he descended even
faster, the full moon seeming to beam greenly down on him, its
glow outlining him and the dank earth in blues and blacks.
The moon changed personalities in a heartbeat, didn't it?
The knob turned easily under his grip. The door swung
open, and Genma stared. Beyond it was another room, smaller,
with a bed, a writing desk, a sword rack, and a niche for a vase
of wilted flowers.
Would this be a niche *for* a vase with flowers, or a niche
*containing* a vase filled with wilting flowers?
Genma lurched up into a sitting position, the sleep
receding like a black tide. There was something... where was
he... what...?
Beautiful way to set the scene immediately. Black tide, in
contrast to cozy room, sets the alarms off in the mind.
"Just me and a lot of dust," he said loudly.
"Glad to hear it," a voice replied.
"And WHAT have I told you about keeping the garden
neat? You're even wasting my light bill, Kasigi!" Saotome-
sensei barked.
"Eep!"
"I was told you were dead. Nodoka was told you were
dead."
She laughed, a painful, tearing sound. In the hollows of
her face, a ruddy glow blazed up, foxfire against the blackness.
"And do you think that is incorrect, disciple of the Saotome-
ryuu?"
There were kami, and things like those in Sumatra. He
had no trouble believing in ghosts. "No."
"...no, I don't think that's incorrect...." Okay, I think I've parsed
it correctly. Took a couple secs though... ^_^;;
"With you? You have come to my place, your mind full of
sweet thoughts and hate and life, and you ask me this?" Her
voice moved to a sibilant hiss. "You are like me, disciple of
Saotome. I can feel your spirit calling."
The same sibilant hiss of chains sweeping across a stone
floor... good word-choice.
Genma shuddered. The last thing he wanted was to be like
this thing of shade and smoke. "I've heard about you. You
misused the Art..."
..but mostly smoke. Heck, she's got the unfiltereds out!
"It is a powerful Art, the basis of my father's form. Once
he was a powerful adept of it, before renouncing it to build his
own style." Minatoko laughed, the sound again making him
cringe. "He would never have taught me it, and once I would
have been happy to learn his pathetic dilution. Weak old man!
He left his scrolls in a bookcase in his study, never thinking
that his daughter might view them without his permission. I
read the works of Master Happosai, the first disciple of Master
Fuhai, and saw their strength. I asked my father to teach me
their Art. He refused."
Uh-oh. Unless I missed a chance mention in any of the other
chapters, this is the first time that Happosai's been mentioned
by name... had to happen eventually though. ^_^
"He would have denied me my birthright. Master Fuhai
was willing to teach me. I became his last disciple." She took a
long drag on her cigarette, sending the oily smoke billowing,
leaving her for a second as only two glowing points of red in an
inky sea. "It was hellish, but I learned. The terrible purity of
it... it made what I had learned before look like a child's
frightened flailing. Fuhai-sensei died before he could finish my
training. His heart had grown weak, and I struck him down in
his own hermitage, and claimed the title of Master of the
Musabetsu Kakutou-ryuu for myself."
She was able to claim that title based on the fact that she beat up
a withered old man? On the other hand, Happosai's never really
been the one to stand on much formality, I guess...
She sighed. "I don't believe he even meant to kill me, just
bend me to his will. Stupid, really. I had taken some young
people to use in my Art, and I tried to make use of them when I
realized how much more powerful than me he was. He was
forced to use a terrible attack to stop me. I do not remember
seeing the end of it. A pity. It was very good."
He could have just wanted her laundry bag, if you get right down to it...
"Use up would be more accurate. Their deaths would have
allowed me to defeat him, I believe... it was my focus, you see.
The door that opened my true potential."
Hmm... Minatoko needed people to die before she focused, but
the mere threat of anyone's death is usually the way Ranma
gears up for his battling... "Anything Goes" indeed. ^_^
He nodded, hesitating. "When Nodoka told those stories, I
wished... I wished that you were my mother too."
From honoring as a sempai to honoring as a mother. This
Genma certainly has a large heart when he wants to.
"Thank you," she said again. "Some memories are best left
in peace."
And some memories become more peaceful. I'm curious if
Nodoka would believe Genma if he ever told her of this
encounter.
She took the cigarette from her lips, examined it for a
second, and then crushed it between her fingers. Darkness fell,
swift and complete.
I believed this was a very fitting end to a rather poignant
conversation. Kudos.
He returned a few minutes later, then left again, leaving
the new, bright flowers in the vase.
An eminently good memorial, and even more fitting if I
believe those flowers to be from the garden of the
Saotomes...
The melancholy I'd felt vanished after that. It
would return from time to time, periodically, but never
as strong, and never lasting.
Nothing like a spirit psychologist to show one the error
of their ways.
Minatoko's shade knew me too well, I fear. But she
was not right, son. I am not her. And should the memory
of me rise to speak to some future disciple of the
Saotome-ryuu, in a dark night of the soul, it will not be a
twisted thing like her, curled around her empty Art like a
serpent around a ball of thorns.
Just another comment to say that it's... I dunno, just fitting... that
the art of Anything Goes is so... well, "anything goes."
C&C, as always, requested.
I hope this was what you were looking for... ^_^
Overall, I liked the tone of this chapter. After reading the
last chapter, and this one, I am even more a fan of this series
than I was when I read the previous chapters in March. It's
nice to see Genma have a soul once in a while... and a soul in
turmoil even in all of the comedic situations in life is all that
much richer for the emotions. Speaking of that, I've seen the
full range of emotions of this work, and so far they're all great.
Boy, is another chapter on the way in a day or two?
--- S. "Zoogz" Jamison