A Rare Wish

Meeting the Client

“Are you a samurai?” Ryuzo asked through narrowed eyes.

“Yes,” he growled.

“Who is she?”

“I don’t know. She and her little group never told us their real names. They were passing through and whoever was chasing them attacked my v-village,” he said, voice starting to get shaky. “Attacked everyone and my son died! He was ten years old!” he cried out as he started sobbing.

Akari dropped to her knees with tears rolling down her cheeks. “I don’t remember!” she screamed. “We don’t remember anything! But, we are both so sorry! We don’t know our loved ones and whether they are dead or alive. At least you know, even though the answer is a painful one,” she cried. Her knees were together with her heels facing her thighs. She rubbed at her eyes with the back of her hands. “I’m so sorry!”

The man cried with her and I couldn’t stop shaking. I had an innocent’s life and death on my hands. My tears were in my eyes. I closed them before masking everything, hiding everything, and quickly pulling the sword out of the ground and his hand, ignoring his whimper as I gently handed him his sword. I bowed deeply to him, eyes closed as I looked at the ground, bent at the waist. “I apologize for everything that has happened.”

“Bitch,” the man growled out, angry with my dead apology. He stormed off and I stood up straight, being tackled to the ground by Akari. She hugged me tightly as she cried into my shoulder. I had to be strong. I needed to stay strong.

I heard Etsuo scoff, but only continued rubbing Akari’s back with my right hand and staring at the ground. Someone grabbed my left wrist and I turned to see Chizu on her knees with my hand in her lap and a few medical supplies in a box next to her.

She started to disinfect my hand before wrapping my palm and fingers with bandages, making sure the entirety of the wound, where my hand had curled around the blade, was covered. Akari soon stop crying and pulled back to look at me, her eyes almost making me want to cry. “K-Kagami?”

“Mhmm?” I asked gently.

“Wh-what di-d we do?” she said, voice an aching whisper.

“We did nothing. It was my fault. It was my decision. You weren’t the cause,” I said numbly, trying to reassure her. Sure, I didn’t believe we were innocent people, but I also didn’t believe that Akari would ever let a child get hurt if she could do something about it.

“We shouldn’t have let them join. They will only bring more trouble,” Etsuo growled.

I ignored him. “Chizu, thank you, but are you okay?”

“Yes, thanks to you,” she informed with a soft smile.

“I just acted naturally,” I muttered, staring down at my bandaged hand.

“And your natural reaction was to protect someone else,” Masako said, hand landing gently on one of my shoulders. “Which means you are a good person and we don’t have to worry about you hurting us, nor Akari, by the way she reacted, right, Ryuzo?”

“Right,” he nodded, smiling at his wife.

A sigh of relief left me, my tense shoulders relaxing. “Thank Kami,” I whispered.

“Come on, let’s continue on to Iwa. We have plenty of supplies so we can last out in the woods for a few days, but I think we should stay close to the creeks that come off the Golden River if we can. The travel period will be three or four days depending on breaks and weather,” Ryuzo said, looking over Masako’s shoulder at the map in her hands.