The Day of Thunder

[Shiba Kumori]

-Wanderer's Refuge Village, Bat Clan Provinces-

Year 26-27

The young Matabei walked along the streets of the growing little village on the southern shores of Lake Ryo. The sounds of hammers and the warmth of furnaces from each hut in this section of the town filled the air. Night beset the village as he finished his chores working for Shogen the smith and began walking home with a precious package wrapped in silk. The master had retired early that evening... he had too much to drink (as he often did) and did not feel well enough to continue working.

Despite his master's proverbial warts, Matabei felt he was lucky to work for a man like Shogen. He was an elder smith. One of the first in the clan when it formed after the Tournament. He’d been a prolific craftsman for many years and had recently been trained by the new lord, a man called Kakita, who had cut a demon in single combat and earned great fame for their little tribe. Kakita's fame drew many new students to the village. Everyone wanted to learn how to craft a sword as strong and beautiful as Kakita's and it was Shogen who had been trained in their village with the secret transmission of the Empire's most recent rising star.

Shogen, however, was anything but a pleasant master. He worked the boys and girls under his tutelage relentlessly. Mocking, derision, and swings of his stick were the only forms of critique one received from Master Shogen. Compared to the average student things were only worse for Matabei. Since he was a small child he had struggled to speak. Shogun was ruthless in mocking the boy. Matabei could not even easily say his own name with ease. He always got stuck on the 'b' sound.

----

"What's your name boy?"

"M... Mat... Mata.. Matab... Matab... hei."

"Matahei? What a silly name. Who's your father?"

"Ry.. Ryoshun... Mat... Mata... Matazo... zo..."

"They can't even send me kids who can speak right... What a joke."

----

That had been his first interaction with Master Shogen... and every interaction since was like unto it. He wished he could speak straight... To be able to tell his master his name was Matabei, not Matahei. But his wishes had never come true... He figured that his work would have to make up for his other deficiencies. So he had worked his fingers to the bone for the last three years. He would walk into the smithy early every morning. Clean, prepare, and ready the tools for all his fellow apprentices. Despite everything, Master Shogen never acknowledged his effort... If he even knew what the boy was doing. The only time Matabei ever saw the Master come in early is when the Lord Kakita had come to visit his smithy with his companion, the mysterious woman known as Kakure.

Kakure would sometimes come and observe the smithies of the village. She was an odd woman... head shaved like those new monks, but with a mask that covered the upper parts of her face. Matabei had been startled when he walked through the streets early one morning. As he opened the smithy for the day he looked up and saw Kakure standing across the street... staring at him silently. She had nodded gracefully and then disappeared between the neighboring huts.

He often caught sight of her... lingering among the mists of the morning and evening that cascaded from the lake... This continued for several weeks until one day he found her waiting for him at the entrance to his master's shop.

----

"Matabei..." He was shocked to hear his true name.

"Take this." She extended out an object wrapped in silk.

He opened the wrapping to find a large bar of metal ore.

He looked up and opened his mouth but, as always, the words would not come.

From the woman's lips a poem came in return to his unspoken apprehension,

Kokoro shite
Kotoshi wa nioe
Ominaeshi
Sakanu hana zo to
Hito ha miru tomo.

"Though to some you may appear
an unremarkable flower that does not bloom.
This year... Young golden lace,
Bloom and let others smell your fragrance."

Without further explanation the woman walked away down the street into the mists, leaving Matabei holding the metal in his hand.

----

He had worked for months on the metal... privately before his duties as Master Shogen's apprentice. He had to wake even earlier than he had before... hiding the developing blade safely behind the woodshed each morning to avoid being found out by his master. He brought in his own wood for the fires each morning so not to have his master get angry at him for depleting his stock. Yet despite his best efforts it seemed as if Shogen somehow knew… he’d been growing more and more belligerent these past few months. Drinking more… sleeping later… Shouting more and more in his sleep. It seemed like he knew Matabei was up to something and it didn’t sit right with him.

Today was a great day though. Matabei had finally finished his sword... It was finally done... just needed a handguard. He wanted more than anything to give it as a gift to the mysterious woman who had set him on his quest of self-improvement. He was not a confident young man... but he was sure this was better than anything his master had ever created. He had engraved only a simple character... 'Mata'... on his blade. It was his soul in this blade... something that would last longer than he would. Something not held back by his inability to speak clearly. Something someone strong could use to accomplish great deeds like the Lord Kakita.

The woods were dark as he made his journey back home. The trees seemed to bend in the mist... and strange noises seemed to carry on from up ahead. The blade rested safely within the silk wrappings which Matabei held close to his chest. He could see a strange glow on the mists in front of him. Perhaps his parents and their neighbors were having a bonfire in the square... The mists swirled in front of him. But these mists did not feel wet as the ones from the lake did. These felt more like... webs... obfuscating and delaying his progress home.

Something did not feel right... He began to hear whispers on the wind... surrounding him and coming suddenly from different angles.

"Idiot..."

"Babbling dotard..."

"Speak clearly you half-wit..."

He pressed on through the clinging malaise which hung around his small wooded hamlet. The mists grew brighter... the color of flame... with each step towards the square. The first hut came into view... and it was he feared... the straw lit the night sky bright with the flames that soared from the roof.

"What do you think you can do?"

"It's too late."

"Run! Coward."

The mists urged him to flee... the sights of the little town also dragged on his soul. The neighbor girl... throat cut with inhuman claw marks... laying awkwardly facing up with open eyes. Each house alight with fire... Other bodies strewn throughout the pathways. Chaos had come to his home. He looked around in confusion and despair... holding his blade close to his chest.

He heard a scream from deeper within the town... and his feet carried him forward. He came to the path leading to his own home. Approached the door pensively before suddenly having the front door burst open with flame. A body flew towards him having been expelled through the door. His mother's shattered body rolled and came to a stop at his feet. She laid unconscious at his feet... most likely dead... holding the severed head of his father.

From the remnants of the door he saw a silhouette. A monstrous creature stepped forward with heavy steps. A terrifying laugh reverberated through the woods.

"Matahei the Stutterer!" The creature called out. "What do you think of the work I've done on your home?"

Matabei squinted through the smoke and the mist to see the face of his family's assailant. It was Master Shogen... His face at least... His body had turned into some monstrous mass of blackened skin and glowing green fissures.

"I've paid your parents back for the insult they made me bear in teaching you. Now... just to remove the stain from my honor that is you!"

Matabei felt a ringing within him... it reverberated within the blade that he held against his chest. The rumbling bounced back and forth to the blade increasing in magnitude with each passing second.

Matabei slowly unwrapped the blade. He held it in his hands and extended it out towards his enemy.

In a voice as clear as the midday sun that cuts through the mists of Lake Ryo, Matabei replied, "I am Ryoshun Matabei. And I am not afraid of you."

The Demon Shogen smirked menacingly and rushed towards the waiting Matabei. Claws extended from the old man's fingers that dripped with blood and unknown corruption. He reeled back his arm to bring it down with terrible force, raking across Matabei's smaller form... but found no purchase on the flesh. In the last moment Matabei dove forward... sticking his blade into the belly of the beast and turning it upwards with the strength of his smithy-trained forearms.

The blade cut through the inhuman armor skewering the creature who roared in surprise and fury as the blade inched its way upward. The beast grabbed the handle over Matabei's hands to stop the upward momentum and then backhanded the youth, sending him flying into a thicket. Shogen ripped the blade from his torso as unholy ichor gushed from the wound.

Matabei heard only the stomping of angry demonic feet as he lay dazed, face-down in the bushes. Something swelled inside him, urging him to stand... but the last bit of strength in him only allowed him to flip himself up and witness the monster looming over him.

"Mata ne (See you later)... Matahei." The demon raised his hand with his fingers pointing like knives towards Matabei's heart.

Then suddenly the beast stopped... his head jerked slightly and there was a rustling of wind...

The skin of the creature's neck burned starting from a straight line that emerged... and then a second later the eyes rolled back as the head rolled from the shoulders and fell to the ground.

Dazed and confused... Matabei pushed himself upright inside the bush. A few feet away he looked and saw a man still frozen in perfect slashing form... The figure had his back turned to the boy and stood erect slowly... wiping the blade in his hand before smoothly replacing it within a saya decorated with a crow pattern.

The samurai turned and looked at the youth in the bush and Matabei recognized the lord Kakita. The mist seemed to slowly dissipate... and he heard footsteps running down the path towards the village. Kakita extended a hand out to Matabei to help him stand.

The two shared a silent exchange of acknowledgment for only a brief moment before an escort of spearmen and townspeople from Wanderer's Refuge rushed forward into defensive formation. A collection of townspeople came forth with buckets and began putting out the flames. Among the throng of people rushing to the scene, a silent masked woman slipped out and came to stand next to Kakita.

"This is the one I told you of brother... The one with a soul as strong as steel." A gentle smile appeared on the lips of the masked woman.

She turned to him and said, "You have done well young gold lace... Let me introduce you to your new sensei." She placed a hand on the daimyo's shoulder... and the two of them nodded towards the young man.