The Day of Thunder

Matsu had been patched up slightly, thanks to Yumi helping her cross the finish line. But she didn't sleep. She had set about to work. Armor tossed asunder, and finding a shovel somewhere.

Digging through the evening. Bishamon the only reason her arms still could wield the shovel. Tears had been streaming down her face until she had nothing left.

She couldn't leave him behind. She couldn't let a fellow Thunder not have peace.

The body of Akodo Kenji was covered by her fur Cloak. But the woman was at the bottom of the hole she had dug, collapsed in the corner. Her body ached, and she choked back another cry. The enormity of what they had done cascading down her emotionally.

Matsu was a wreck.

Kenji had been a paragon of honor, he had been at the forefront of their fight against the Champion of Jigoku and he had died honourably. Yet why did Naraku feel slightly ashamed to be here? Was it because he had survived? Was it because he had chosen to save the one he loved? Had he been selfish?

All these thoughts swirled inside his mind as he paced towards the grave of the fallen Thunder.

He looked at Matsu, greeting her, yet no words escaped his lip as he eyed the corpse of their fallen comrade.

"I promised Lady Makime I'd bring him home..." She broke the silence, not looking up from her knees, her arms wrapped around them. "... He was the best of us. He was an example for what all samurai should be..." Her voice broke again, as the Amazon buried her face into her knees.

She mourned him, because he didn't just serve, he did what had to be done, and knew what the risks were.

"... I shouldn't be crying like this, Naraku." Wiping her face, "I am a Daimyo. I can hear what Lady Makime would say. I have to be stoic, to bear these losses with grim features, because I have to be strong for everyone who serves beneath me," a fist crashed into the packed dirt of the side of the grave.

"But I couldn't keep my promise..."

"It was thanks to you that we managed to defeat the Champion. You were the one that wrestled a godlike being to submission and forced him to the ground. You were the one that fell twice and got up three times."

"Tears are a sign of weakness?" he scoffs at the thought, ignoring that a few weeks ago he would have been the first to say such. "They show YOU care. That those under you are not simple numbers. Tears without action are a sign of weakness, not the tears by themselves."

He looks to the sky, holding back his own tears. "Kenji died with honor. He died like any samurai should aspire to. And today we will celebrate his sacrifice by living another day"

"It's a bad day for rain." She looked up from the grave she sat in, wiping her eyes. "Celebrating his life is fine... but he needs to be mourned. There's Honor in that. Kenji was in his prime. We can," she sniffed, shaking her head, "... we can be sad because we won't know what kind of future he would have had. Other than if how he lived and died was anything to say... he'd have had a wonderful life..."

"Yes," he said still struggling to hold back his tears. "I swear I will honor Kenji and Zhe's sacrifice. I will make sure that Honor and Mercy are never forgotten in my life. They deserve to be remembered as the heroes they were."

"And you Matsu. I will always tell my children that it was because of your actions that they exist. None of their parents would be alive had you not done that."

Ai was in pain and she would have to rest after this exertion but she would not allow others to see Kenji off without her. So she was fashionable late and found a stone to sit on and tuned her shamisen for a moment.

Once she felt satisfied, she started a soulful song and began to sing for the fallen and lost, “Mama told me when I was young, ‘Come sit beside me, my only child and listen closely to what I say, and if you do this it'll help you… Some sunny day!"

“Oh, yea..."

"Oh, take your time, don't live too fast, Troubles will come and they will pass, You'll find a partner, yeah, and you'll find love and don't forget there is someone up above… And be a simple kind of samurai… Oh, be something you love and understand! Baby, be a simple kind of samurai… Oh, won't you do this for me child, if you can?” She sang soulfully from the pit of her soul.

Ai continued, “Forget your lust for the rich man's gold, All that you need is in your soul and you can do this, oh, baby, if you try… All that I want for you, my child, is to be satisfied and be a simple kind of samurai, oh, be something you love and understand. Baby, be a simple kind of samurai!”

She looked to the Heavens and sang, “Oh, won't you do this for me child, if you can?”

“Oh, yes, I will…” and then she played her shamisen for all it was worth, eking out every last beautiful soulful note she could find.

Then she continued singing, “Child, don't you worry, you'll find yourself, Follow your Honor and nothing else, and you can do this, oh, baby, if you try! All that I want for you, my child, is to be satisfied… And be a simple kind of samurai; oh, be something you love and understand! “Baby, be a simple kind of samurai. Oh, won't you do this for me child, if you can?”

She finished with, “Baby, be a simple, be a simple samurai… Oh, be something you love and understand... Baby, be a simple kind of samurai… be a hero… this one is for you Akodo Kenji… Wu Zhe.”