• Chapter 2

    Kichiku had been running for what seemed like forever carrying the boy. Finally he got tired and having just heard a rocket and seeing it fly overhead realized that his cohorts were not pursuing them and decided to rest. "No one is coming after us, but I'm afraid I have no idea where to go. I'm so sorry little one."

    It's okay Kichiku san." the boy said, remembering what the other man had called him. "Daddy always said if something bad happened, go see sifu."

    "And where is sifu?"

    The boy pointed to a mountain in the distance. "There."

    Kichiku got a second wind and followed the boy's directions. It was a long and arduous journey to the mountain. Up close there were crags and chasms and it was hard to navigate the mountain. Finally they managed to get to a small wooded plateau. A waterfall could be seen in the distance and as they tried to approach it they came to a strange building. "Sifu's house!" screamed the boy, "Sifu! it's me Douji!"

    An old man answered the door. "Douji, my boy, how are you?" the old man said, then he looked at Kichiku and his face changed. They recognized eachother, "I see... come in, it is not safe out here."

    Kichiku started to speak "Master Ryu..."

    But the old man cut him off. "No need to explain, I have feared this day for four years, ever since I left you and Hidariude at 7th Moon."

    Kichiku was surprised, he remembered that Ryu had trained him, but not that he had anything to do with Hidariude.

    "Know that I am happy to see you, only I am sad to know what cicumstances these must be. I have held vigil here for four years, alone, save a few visits from Douji and his parents. I have had so much time to dwell on this, I could not help but imagine I would only see you again if they sent you, and I had left knowing what they would do."

    "Master, I am sorry."

    "That you would even think to say it is enough for me to know you are sincere and therefore better than those you have left behind. Consider yourself forgiven, you acted under orders, but now you are free. Allow me to finish training you."

    "But Master, I am such a brute already, why should I gain more strength when it causes so much destruction?"

    Ryu laughed, "Didn't that same strength also bring little Douji here safely? There are ways for you to use your strength that are not so destructive. I will not train you to destroy anymore, I will teach you that you can channel your strength for good things as well. Now you smell like smoke, soot and ash. Get out of those clothes, cleanse yourself and get some rest. I will provide you both with fresh robes and you can get a fresh start tomorrow. I am too old to tend the daikon garden or the rice paddies, and you have a lot of ground to cover. Good night."

    Kichiku got up early in the morning for his first day of work and training at the Shrine of the Golden Dragon. Though his body had been tired, his mind was more restless. Just yesterday, he had thrown away his entire life as he had known it, but much more troubling was the realization that his whole life had led him to be nothing more than a weapon. He stared at his hands and only saw destruction. Kichiku began to head outside, but when the front door creaked, Ryu's voice interrupted him.

    "The sun is not even rising, the crops themselves still sleep and you have not eaten. Why so eager to get ahead of the day?" Kichiku just stood in the doorway. After a pause Ryu continued. "Sit down for some tea and a rice cake, you will need your energy for the day ahead, especially after what you have been through already." Kichiku sat down wearily. "It is hard to imagine a weight too heavy for you too carry, and yet you look as though you carry such a burden. Would you care to speak of your problems." Kichiku continued to sit in silence, staring at his rice cake. Ryu began to pour more tea for Kichiku. His cup flowed over and as it rickled across the table it landed in Kichiku's lap and burned him.

    "Ow!" Kichiku screamed, "Too much!" Ryu got up to clean up the mess.

    "Yes sometimes you do get too much, but the flow does not stop for you, you must learn to get rid of the old or it just keeps coming at you."

    "You could have just not poured the tea."

    "And you could accept my hospitality and a second chance with the fresh attitude the opportunity desrves. I see you still carry the burden of your past, but if you do not forgive yourself it will taint all that comes afterward. Like your tea cup, you can not take in the new good if there is no room because you still have all of the old bad." Kichiku picked up the tea cup and drank.

    After breakfast Kichiku and Ryu went outside to begin tending to crops. There was a garden with daikon and tea, rice paddies, and a cherry tree. "First you will prune the tea bushes, collecting leaves while making sure they do not grow too tall. Next you will collect water from the rice paddies while checking the rice plants, making sure that they do not get drowned so you can not see them. The water you collect you will then use to water the tea bushes and the daikon in the garden."

    "And what about the tree?" Kichiku asked, indicating the cherry tree.

    "I will take care of the cherry tree." Ryu replied simply, yet with a hint of finality.

    Kichiku got to work on the tea shrubs, which did not take long. Ryu watched him to make sure he cut them right. "Just enough to keep the bushes low and enough leaves collected to brew tea for tommorrow."

    Manual irrigation turned out to be much harder. It took him several hours to move water from the rice paddies to the garden, one bucket at a time. "Isn't there a faster way?"

    "Waste not, want not. Besides it's good exercise for body and soul. I must attend to the cherry tree now. I will see you around noon."

    A few hours later, a little after noon as promised, Ryu returned to check on Kichiku. "That is good enough for today. It is time for lunch and then training."
    Ryu prepared lunch for Kichiku and Douji. Douji, used to his visits with sifu Ryu, was happy and laughing with him. Kichiku felt disconnected from it all and ate quietly.

    After lunch they went to Ryu's dojo. "First, meditation, you need to clear your mind." Kichiku tried to meditate, but his mind was still filled with memories of the raid at the commune. As the scene played out in his mind, he jumped up, unable to stay still with his own thoughts. "Anxious are we? Very well, let me test your focus with some sparring."

    They went a few rounds. "Just as I thought, you are broken. You are all force and no focus. Come with me."

    Ryu led him to a compost heap where he threw old tea leaves, twigs, and daikon stems. Flies were buzzing over the compost heap. "Kill the flies by hand. Strike them each from the air."

    Kichiku made many strikes but not one fly fell.

    Ryu drew his sword and with one swing, all the flies dropped except one.

    "You missed one."

    "No, I didn't. That one is yours. Don't just look at the fly, use all your senses. Listen to it's buzz, smell it out, feel the wind of it's wings."

    Kichiku attempted to strike the fly again. And again. But for hours the fly evaded him until the sun set. "Enough for today, he will bring more friends for tomorrow."

    The next few weeks went the same way, every day work, training, and Kichiku simply following along. One rainy day, Ryu approched Kichiku. "Kichiku, I can't help but notice how distant you seem. I understand you came here under distressful circumstances, and I have tried to be patient with you, but you have made no progress. I truly am thankful for you rescuing Douji, and he is as well, but it is discomforting that you have ignored him since."

    "I am afraid I might hurt him if I get too close."

    "What hurts him most is feeling alone. You took his family and left a void, and you must fill it, both for him and for yourself. When you left 7th Moon, you left behind all you knew. It was all for the best to not be a part of their evil, but while you escape the corruption from without, you face corruption from within. You must open your heart and finish what you started."

    Kichiku approached Douji by the window. "Hey Douji, how are you doing?"

    "Just watching the rain. You have the day off don't you?"

    "Yes."

    "The tears of the dragon granting my wish."

    "What wish?"

    "To spend more time with my big hero. Shinryu made it rain so you don't have to go outside and you can stay here with me."

    Kichiku smiled and hugged Douji, and they spent the rest of the day playing mah jong, go, and other games. For the first time in his life, Kichiku actually felt at peace.

    The next day, Ryu took Kichiku back to the compost heap to try the flies again. This time he watched closely, he listened to the buzz, he smelled their spewtum dripping from their mouth, he felt their wind. He singled out one fly and clapped his hands around the fly. After a moment, he opened his hands and released the fly unharmed. "Focus and restraint, you are improving."

    Just then, something soared overhead and landed in the lake near the rice paddies. "A rocket?"

    "7th Moon?"