Samurai Awakening Read online

  After the next morning’s run, David entered the dojo to find Masao, Takumi, and Natsuki talking in a corner. Rie apparently had not come back or at least was not going to show up to practice while Natsuki was around.

  “Good, you are not too late. From now on, Natsuki will be joining you in the mornings. Start basics then spar,” Masao said.

  David walked over to stand in his usual place next to Takumi. Natsuki quickly blocked his way, shoving him back toward the other side of the dojo.

  “Now that I’m here you’re at the end. You’ll address me as sempai,” Natsuki said.

  ‘She wants me to use same suffix as older classmates? Like she’s my superior,’ he thought.

  “Why not Princess Natsuki instead?” David asked. Natsuki’s eyes flashed as she dropped into the familiar Matsumoto fighting stance.

  “That’s enough. Begin!” Masao called, visibly annoyed at their posturing.

  The students worked through the Matsumoto basics. Takumi as always, was perfect. Natsuki, rusty from over a year of not practicing, was slow and made mistakes. David caught her constantly watching Takumi. Over a month and a half of training had helped David memorize the basics to the point he was smoother, though his form was imperfect. As with every practice, they worked through empty hand blocks, kicks, punches, and sword basics. After a quick break, the students donned their sparing gear. They replaced their wooden practice swords with the lighter bamboo swords, and then lined up at the back of the Dojo.

  “David, you may have noticed that the others have different colors on their armor. It is to help with camouflage and to give them a personal character. Even Natsuki has hers. Since we now know what animal Kou is, we will paint your armor as well. Normally you would do this, but for a Jitsugen Samurai, there is a different process.

  “More on that later, now let us see how Takumi and Natsuki do together. It has been awhile after all,” Masao said seriously. David thought he could see a rare smile twitch at the corners of his mouth.

  David moved aside while Natsuki and Takumi faced each other. At Masao’s command, the pair bowed, Takumi lower than Natsuki. Thanks to Rie’s lesson, he knew it was probably an attempt to flatter Natsuki. David was glad he had a mask to hide his disgust. A second command brought them to ready stances while a final command set off an explosion of bamboo.

  David was stunned as the two connected repeatedly. The strikes and parries seemed a graceful dance. The quick-footed pair revolved around each other, seeking openings. The battle was evenly matched, two skilled opponents equally aware of the other’s skill and ability. Nothing Natsuki had ever done in his presence had hinted at this kind of potential.

  “STOP!” Masao called. Natsuki and Takumi halted mid-swing at Masao’s command, then lowered the swords, stepped away, and bowed before removing their helmets. “That is enough. Natsuki, you have been away too long. Takumi would have beaten you on the second move if he had not been holding back.”

  Blushing, Takumi quickly turned away from Natsuki, who looked as if Masao had just slapped her.

  “David, let us see how you do,” Masao said. “Natsuki, remember he is new. For you, control, is essential, if you hurt David, you hurt Kou.”

  Natsuki’s face hardened in determination before she replaced her helmet. As with the previous match, David and Natsuki followed Masao’s commands, though their greeting bows were disrespectful, barely discernible spasms. At the command to attack, David raised his sword to block Natsuki’s attack. Instead of continuing, she slid under his block, elbowing his gut and knocked him to the ground,

  David rose gingerly. They bowed and attacked again. Natsuki feinted then moved in from above in a classic kendo strike. David, missed the block and took the impact full on the head, falling to his knees from the force of the blow. Getting back up, David attacked repeatedly. Each time Natsuki quickly beat him. Though he became slow and sluggish, David refused to give in. Masao sat quietly on the sidelines watching the pair but not intervening.

  Finally, knocking David down for the tenth time, Natsuki took off her helmet, and bent close, her face full of contempt. “I can’t believe Koji-sempai even bothered to beat you up. You’re pathetic.”

  Filled with frustration, David pulled off his own helmet.

  “At least I’m not constantly sucking up to a bunch of superficial jerks,” David said hotly.

  “You know Koji-sempai might just be right. You really aren’t worth the effort,” she replied.

  “I bet Chul Moo loved your great badminton skills,” David said in a whisper. He attacked as her eyes widened in rage. Natsuki’s bamboo sword was up in an automatic guard in an instant. With his attack knocked aside, David’s unprotected skull smashed into the unforgiving wood of Natsuki’s sword.

  ‘A fallen leaf on the ground will be eaten by insects and decay, but a leaf rising on the wind can become a tempest,’ Kou thought as David regained consciousness. He groaned. ‘That means get up.’

  Opening his eyes, David saw the dojo ceiling above, with the bright morning light streaming in. Slowly he got up, feeling his head he found his hair matted with dried blood, though the injury had already mostly healed. The only other person in the room was Natsuki, kneeling a bit away from him in the uncomfortable seiza position.

  “Just because you contain a god, doesn’t mean I won’t still kick your butt. You better improve quickly or I’m going to become an expert at seiza, not kendo,” Natsuki said, her voice strained but tightly controlled.

  A loud growling laugh from Kou burst out of David as he struggled to stand. Natsuki jumped up and ran out of the room.

  ‘Well that went well.’

  ‘Next time try to avoid getting hit on the head. It hurts. You’d better hurry or you’ll be late for school.’

  Suddenly enthusiastic, David jumped up, swaying from the sudden rush of blood and the swelling knot on his head, which began to heal almost as soon as he felt it.

  ‘You’re right. Maybe Rie will be there and I’ll be able to clear up this whole Natsuki thing.’

  When David got to school, he was pleased to see that Rie had indeed gone on ahead. Unfortunately, she was off in the corner talking to Chul Moo so he did not have a chance to talk to her. Following Takumi as he went to his seat, David leaned in, taking the advantage of how late Moriyama-sensei was.

  “Hey, since when have Rie and Chul Moo been friends?” he asked.

  “I’ve seen them talk before, but I guess doing it so publicly is her revenge or something,” Takumi answered.

  Rie had changed seats, preferring the empty seat next to Chul Moo, rather than her usual spot. David’s attempts to get her attention were cut off when Moriyama entered and started talking about the day’s schedule and classes.

  David was unable to get Rie alone until after school. Before badminton practice, he caught her coming out of the girls’ locker room. As he sidled up to talk to her, Rie turned on him.

  “I have to go. You should go hangout with your new playmate Natsuki,” Rie said, unusually harsh. Chul Moo stood in the shadowed corners of the gym staring intently at the pair while they talked.

  “It’s not my fault! Really!” whispered David hurriedly before Rie could walk off. “Kou went off and did the bonding on his own. You know I don’t know how this stuff works. I hate her anyway.”

  “Whatever. I’ll still play badminton with you and help, I mean we are still friends, but I can’t be around her,” Rie said with sad eyes. Leaving David alone, she walked off towards the other girls on the team.

  ‘I don’t get it. Natsuki is much nicer. Why are you so worried about Rie?’

  Shaking his head, David walked over to where the boys were warming up, mentally replying to Kou along the way.

  ‘Just help me win. I definitely don’t need to lose anything else today.’

  Reaching the group David fell into the rhythm of stretches by habit, ignoring the other boys around him.

  ‘I’m still too clumsy with your body. You’ll have to do tha
t on your own. At least you’re not as flabby as you used to be.’

  ‘Thanks, you can just keep out of my memories.’

  “Don’t worry, she will come around. She’s giving me the silent treatment too, though I wish she’d stay away from Chul Moo. The rumors are already bad enough,” Takumi said from beside him.

  ‘Look who’s talking. All you can do is cute people to death,’ David thought, still focusing on Kou instead of Takumi. Takumi leaned closer to David, jabbing him in the ribs with an elbow to get his attention.

  “You really need to work on the ‘paying attention to the real world’ thing while talking to Kou. I’ve been talking to you for the last five minutes. Did you hear anything I said?” he asked, realizing David had been zoning out.

  David’s only reply was a “Huh?” before Tsukasa stepped in and began handing out assignments. Luckily, he paired David and Takumi together.

  “Sorry, it’s just so hard to concentrate on everything around me when I’m talking to him,” David said, taking the opportunity to apologize as they walked to their court. “So who are we playing against?”

  “You know, now that you’ve told me that, Grandpa is going to make you practice concentrating on multiple things during your evening practices. We are playing Natsuki and Mizuki,” Takumi said with a grin. Groaning at both the pairing and the extra work he just loaded on himself, David took his spot on the right side of the court, waiting for Natsuki and Mizuki to show.

  “Let’s just hit them all to David, we’re sure to win then,” Mizuki said, more than willing to start their usual mental assault in her groups’ usual overly-loud-listen-to-me voice.

  “Maybe,” said an uncharacteristically subdued Natsuki. Her lack luster reply surprised David as much as Mizuki, who looked almost affronted.

  Despite several misses by David, Takumi was more than a match for both the girls at badminton, leaving the score relatively balanced. With Natsuki’s team ahead on the last point, Mizuki lobbed a high shot towards David’s side, a shot he missed several times already. His eyes turning orange, David leapt back, then vertically up, for him an astonishing move that placed the shuttle in a perfect smash position. The power from weeks of the Matsumotos’ training matched with the perfect positioning of the hit sent the shuttle hurtling back towards the other side.

  Natsuki, caught off guard by the change in David, froze. The shuttle sailed past her head, hitting Mizuki full in the face.

  “Ouch! Natsuki! Jeeze, pay attention, you just let them tie!” Mizuki yelled. Despite the laugh that he could not help but let out, David thought the class representative was a bit overly annoyed for just a single miss.

  With Takumi serving and both of the girls off balance, he quickly scored the last two points needed to end the game in their favor. Yelling at each other, Mizuki and Natsuki stalked off towards Tsukasa to tell him the score, but not before Natsuki turned and gave David an angry glare.

  “I think she is mad at us,” Kou said aloud.

  “Yeah, I think so.” Takumi watched as Natsuki walked away. Turning, he saw David’s orange eyes staring after Natsuki. “Hey. Not at school! I guess you mean you and Kou. Don’t worry. Natsuki patented that glare when we were kids.”

  “Who’s worried?” David asked, asserting control once again. His eyes their usual blue, David smiled. With a laugh, he walked over to Tsukasa to find out about their next game.

  Back at the Estate, David learned that in deference to Natsuki, Rie would no longer train with him in the mornings. Instead, she would practice with Grandpa. Although David tried to talk to Rie at school and the Estate, she constantly found ways to be where he was not, no matter where he looked. Eventually, he stopped trying.

  Even though they did not spar, David’s practices with Natsuki resulted in a slew of new bruises, which fortunately healed before he got to class. David’s evenings were filled working with Grandpa to merge his and Kou’s understanding of their two forms. He was relieved that it was just as difficult for Kou to adapt to his human form as it was for him to get used to being a tiger. Unfortunately, Grandpa had plenty of exhausting exercises ready for them each night. Changing into Kou turned out to be no easier than summoning the Seikaku. It took so much concentration that both David and Kou ended up with a few mixed parts most times they changed.

  “It should be natural,” Grandpa said. “Work together, don’t think about changing, just do it.”

  Kou growled in frustration, but together they redoubled their efforts. All the while Natsuki and Takumi looked on in amusement as they struggled through Grandpa’s exercises.

  “Funny is it?” Grandpa said with an evil gleam in his eye that immediately made Takumi frown. “I’ve got plans for you two.”

  Rifts

  June,

  We soon learned that we did not have to put all our thoughts into words. We simply understood each other. It helped that I had been able to listen in on his dreams. Unfortunately, my more animal tendencies often got in the way, and some things were still foreign to both of us…

  Even as the summer days grew longer, it seemed Tsukasa-sensei had ever more for them to do at badminton practice. When David and Takumi left the gym to head home after another grueling practice, it was already darkening. As usual, Rie disappeared with Chul Moo before the boys had finished changing. Left alone, David and Takumi took to the deserted farm roads through Nakano town.

  “You really should give Natsuki a chance. She’s not all that bad once you get to know her,” Takumi said as they walked. Natsuki and her friends had a new tactic. Whenever David was around, they made a point of chatting happily with Takumi, while completely ignoring David. Even Shou and Naoto had commented on the palpable tension between them. “With Natsuki back on the Estate, I’d prefer not to have to play peacemaker every day.”

  “Hey it’s not my fault. She’s the one who’s always yelling at me,” David replied. His first memories of Natsuki had yet to fade. As far as David was concerned, Natsuki could just stay with her pack of friends.

  “I think Takumi is right. She is a hunt mate, it is never good to have someone so close, be so angry,” Kou added.

  ‘You’re not helping,’ David thought, letting his annoyance at both Takumi and Kou for bugging him about Natsuki wash through him.

  “I hear Kaeda has been egging on Koji,” David said. “Like Natsuki didn’t put her up to it. I should show him what a chunk of metal through his foot feels like.”

  “I’m pretty sure Kaeda would be happy to see you get beat up again without any encouragement,” Takumi said carefully. “Koji-sempai and his goons are a problem, but you know we can’t reveal what you’ve learned. If you suddenly beat him up then you’ll blow your cover. Let Rie and I think of some way to deal with them.”

  David gave his host brother a long stare, and then dived into a row of high plants. After a few minutes of struggling about the sugarcanes, the cute puffy haired Kou came prancing out of the tall stalks.

  “Do you mind grabbing David’s clothes? We might need them later.” Kou looked up at Takumi, batting his big tiger-eyes.

  “Hey you shouldn’t be running around as a tiger! Someone might see!” Takumi said, quickly checking to ensure no one was nearby.

  “We need to practice. Besides, I am tired of walking around on two legs all the time. It is dark and we will be to the trees soon anyway,” Kou said using his head in place of arms to gesture to the lonely sugarcane fields to either side. Not a soul was in sight along the deserted dusty road.

  When they got to the main road, Takumi quickly dashed across. Feeding on David’s sense of humor, Kou pranced slowly across. Takumi scowled down at him as they entered the trees. Kou gave Takumi a glimpse of his fangs and a snarl in return, and then took to the tree branches to head home.

  Kou heard Natsuki coming long before Takumi. Lacking Kou’s animalistic senses, Takumi fell into his fighting stance minutes after Kou had first heard her approach. Suddenly dropping into a protective stance, Takumi circled looki
ng for the intruder.

  “Oh stop,” Natsuki said as she stepped from a stand of trees. “Like you’d be able to stop me if I wanted to get to you. “This is really unfair. After this week there’s no way I should have anything to do with the possessed gaijin. But no. He transforms and poof, here I am.”

  Kou jumped out of a nearby tree to land in front of Natsuki. Still all kitten, his overly large eyes peered at Natsuki past his short multi-hued fur. Kou’s short ears and snout made him look all the cuter given his big paws.

  “Well we have to practice sometime, correct? Plus is it not more convenient to feel the pull when we should be heading for evening training anyway, rather than say, in the middle of a bath?” As if to accentuate his point, Kou licked his paw and started brushing it through the puff of fur on the top of his head. All the while his tail flicked excitedly behind him. When this did not get Natsuki to change her reaction, Kou sat back on his hind legs, giving an unmistakable smile and batting his eyes again. It was such a human gesture from an animal that both Natsuki and Takumi burst out laughing.

  “Ugh! I can’t even stay mad at you. Why can’t you just stay a tiger all the time,” Natsuki asked, ignoring the fact that David was still inside, listening to every word.

  “Whether you like it or not, we are one,” Kou said.

  “Well at least Rie won’t be bothering us. She can have Chul Moo,” Natsuki said. David thought he heard a hint of disappointment in her voice.

  ‘I wonder if it’s for Rie or Chul Moo,’ David thought.

  As the Estate came into view, David sank back into his own mind, letting Kou take over. Reveling in the freedom, Kou climbed a tree and jumped from branch to branch while Takumi and Natsuki talked softly below him.

  Once on the Estate, Natsuki headed for the Matsumoto workshop, while Takumi and Kou headed to their rooms to drop off their bags before evening practice. In his room, David struggled back into their human form and donned some clothes before following after Natsuki. The workshop was the third building on the perimeter of the central Japanese garden. Lower than the dojo, its air of antiquity contrasted sharply with the more elegant main house and stylized dojo.