Bloodstained Rose

Chapter 6

Everything at the camp had been demolished following the ambush from Kyo and Matsu. Rei stepped over the tent to see numerous slits running down its canvas. Her heart began to sink deeper into her chest as she took notice of Shugo’s gear lying alone in the grass, still undisturbed through the night. The morning light had cast itself upon the firepit, creeping towards an empty patch of grass, revealing a lone rose—its petals stained by droplets of blood. She knew it was Shugo’s right away.

“This is all that’s left.” Rei said to herself.

The thought of losing Shugo caused her legs to buckle, forcing her to her knees. A few droplets of the morning dew had infused with the blood, causing the crimson-colored liquid to drip off the plant. The sight, as grizzly as it was, brought her to tranquility for just a second as the gears in her head began to spin. Soon, the image of the bloodstained rose had been burnt into her mind, causing her to choke back tears. In that moment, she felt a sudden burst of inspiration as she started began to hear Shugo’s words, what do you feel?

She had to put it to words. The morning sun had slowly but surely continued its journey over the horizon, lighting the valley with a pink hue. Rei could feel the urge to continue the mission and go home, but she decided to give in for once.

◆◆◆

Shugo began to groan while his eyes cracked open to the light starting to pierce the gloom. He had been fast asleep in a nearby cave after the camp had been attacked, fearing another pass from the gang. There was not much he could have done in his situation to go after her. When coming to consciousness, he recalled the night before, and the current situation. Rei is still missing.

He immediately took off out of the cave and towards the camp site as fast as possible, making his way up the side of the hill from before. Upon arriving, he felt relieved seeing Rei facing the rising sun alone with her ragged clothes. He could only imagine the night she had gone through.

“Can I enjoy the sunset too, or do you wanna tackle it by yourself?” Shugo asked her, finally breaking the silence. Rei had been taken off guard and tried to hold back her excitement as best as she could before approaching him.

“I thought they got you.” she muttered.

“Yeah, I thought the same happened to you.” Shugo gazed at her. He could barely make out any the scratches, mud, or tattered clothes from this angle. Rei stood and faced him, putting him further at ease as her face shined a bright grin.

“I didn’t actually find any fire,” Rei said while starting to feel her voice beginning to break. “I didn’t think I’d make it back.”

A few tears started to build up in her eyes; a lot had gone on in her head over the night. Shugo walked over to try and calm her down, brushing some tears from her face. Rei lunged forward and wrapped her arms around him, finally resting her head against his shoulders and welcomed his embrace.

◆◆◆

The welcome home had hardly been warm with the mission being a failure. Both Dan and Sara were certainly not in this world anymore. Shugo and Rei had burnt away a week of their lives, barely returning with them intact. Upon waiting for a debrief, they had managed to get the first proper meal since the patrol had begun. Shugo took a sniff of the soup to try and figure out the source of the aroma before taking a sip. Rei sat across from him, staring blankly at the bowl in front of her trying to process the events of the night before. Dinner was starting to turn into a repeat of the walk back—Shugo did not want to deal with more silence.

“I know you’re tired, but you gotta eat something.” he finally said as he lowered his dish.

“I’m not that hungry.” Rei said while continuously gliding the spoon around the edge of the dish.

“You haven’t said anything since this morning.”

“I was just thinking about Sara and last night.” Rei placed the bowl back down on the ground and curled her legs into her chest nervously, placing her chin between her knees.

“What’s bothering you then?” he inquired upon finishing the last of his soup.

“Sara could’ve been here if I took the shift like I was supposed to.” As much of a stretch it was, Rei still placed the blame on herself. Shugo had remained silent. He stared over to see her starting to scratch at the ground again, slowly drawing trenches before. Rei clenched it tight and said, “My will to write is what got them killed.”

“Is that really how you feel?” he asked as sincerely as possible. Rei let the thought rattle around in her head as grinded her face into her thighs. Shugo thought of some more positive reinforcement, but he held onto his words. She was stubborn, but above all things she was complicated. He instead had relented and decided to head back to his quarters, turning to face her once last time and saying, “You need to get some rest. I’ll see you around, Rei.”

Rei lifted her head to see him already walking away. At this point, she was too tired to respond. Her eyes began to creep shut as her body began to droop lower to the ground. Eventually, she found herself slipping deeper and deeper into a trance. The stars above had already faded into the darkness, leaving her alone again to face the abyss. A gust swept through, causing her to rise to her feet. The wind produced a siren-like howl that echoed on. Rei held her hands to her ears to try and block the sound as the horrid screech only seemed to get louder.

“Just stop it!” Rei screamed at the top of her lungs. Her wailing voice only managed to amplify itself along with the droning from this unearthly roar. Not too long after, her own word began to echo out and back toward her before turning into an ear-piercing signal of its own.

“Rei,” a heavenly voice spoke from the horrid noise, drawing Rei closer to it. Weighed down by the agony of helplessness, she began clawing away at her ears trying to find the source.

“Please, stop.” Rei said back, feeling tears starting to roll down her face. She looked onward to see that the village had completely disappeared, leaving her alone in a forever spanning patch of grass under a pitch-black sky. A short distance ahead, she could make out the silhouette of a person—a woman—drawing closer and closer. Soon after, Rei could see her hair was white like snow, draping over the shoulders and accenting her voluptuous figure. Both of her eyes had their own pigment—one green, another blue—that shined bright like jewels in the void. Rei had completely been overtaken by the sight of her, almost attracted by her appearance.

“You know what you have to do,” she said again. Rei could only shake her head in dismay as she started to approach the woman.

“Can you show me?” Rei asked her curiously. Her chest started to warm up as the dreamy figure began to draw closer. Deep down, her emotions were in such disarray as the woman placed her hand gently around her. There was something about this that had puzzled her, only making the sensation feel less surreal.

The woman whispered finally, “Please, find me.”

Rei found herself still sprawled across the dirt from the night before. Her body had a quite foreign ambience to it today. Last night’s dream came and went—she had never felt such emotions or sensations in her life. It was a dream, a confusing one, but she was completely dumbfounded as to why she could not remember it. She recalled the void and the noises—she could not remember the rest. As soon as she began to recall the snowy-haired woman from her dreams, she paused upon realizing it had been many hours since she had last seen Shugo. Since they had spent the week together in the field, she expected they would be able to use this day to write.

Today, she was going to finally have something to show him to make up for an entire wasted month. During the day, she had already gone on to try and write and memorize a poem for him. She waited again under the same tree over by the corner of the monastery, still going through the words in her head. It was much quieter today. In fact, everything felt like a stark contrast to the norm. The village was quite timorous as a few of the posts were vacant. Each of the fields had fewer workers as well. The solitude first seemed welcome, but she grew more uncomfortable by the minute as surely, she would have expected Shugo to come marching around the corner any moment. Feeling alone, she quickly made her way to the center of the village.

◆◆◆

Naomi had been pulling weeds from the fields, quite a dissimilar experience from her usual routine. She had normally found herself doing work in the center of the village or around the monastery. Unlike Rei, she had been raised differently, being kept from combat and many of the other struggles in the daily norm of the village. Being that her father was one of the elders, she had more of an excuse to avoid manual labor. Despite that, she had chosen to take a spot in the field for just this day, regretfully in hindsight at that.

Her hands had been covered with splinters and blisters after hours of pulling the till against the old roots protruding from the ground. After feeling it slip from her hands, she furiously stomped on the ground, finally off-tilt as she grabbed hold of the handle of the tool and threw it ahead of her. The till sailed through the air and over towards Rei, who had been rapidly approaching. Rei reached out and grabbed hold of it in flight, barely stopping before it had connected with her face.

“Oh my, Rei.” Naomi spoke after a big gasp. “I didn’t see you.”

“It’s ok,” Rei said as she inspected the tool. She too had felt a little tense today but brushed off the near miss and tossed the till back to the ground, finally asking, “Have you seen Shugo?”

“Ybarra?”

“Who?”

“The guy you went in the field with.” Naomi said again, perturbed from the response.

“Yeah, him.” Rei smiled after finally fitting the pieces together as several of the villagers like herself did not have last names. Shugo Ybarra, what a name. It had not been too uncommon for many to grow up with the elders instead of parents.

“I traded with him today.” Noami said as she pulled her feet from out of the dirt before kicking her legs forward, flipping her sandals off her feet and over to Rei.

“He switched?”

“I’m regretting it already,” Naomi plopped down on a small rock protruding from the dirt. She gave her head a snap, swinging her frizzy hair behind her and saying, “Why ask?”

“No reason at all.” Rei said without hesitation. Naomi immediately lit up and smirked, slowly leaning in as she held her hand over her mouth.

“Oh yeah, no reason, huh?”

“Yeah, no reason!” Rei slowly blushed as she returned.

“Yeah, yeah, ok.” Naomi giggled as she turned away from her, finally looking back over to the nearly deserted fields.

“You’re the one who switched with him. What is it to you?”

“Ok, enough,” Naomi shook her head, “this really isn’t like you.”

“You don’t even talk to me the much, so how would you know?”

“Yeah, I don’t talk to you that much,” she added, getting Rei fired up. It had been a rough day, so she gave her a nudge across the shin with her fist and said, “You don’t have to get so defensive; I was teasing you.”

Rei smiled back; she gave in and went to go take a seat next to her. In the back of her mind, she was thinking about Shugo not showing up.

“I’m sorry.” Rei muttered softly.

“Yeah, that’s not really you,” Naomi continued while Rei began to slide in closer to her. “That’s not a bad thing! You’ve been a little bit more talkative lately.”

“You think so?”

“I’m used to the Rei who didn’t talk much. I think we might have to find her; because warriors don’t do a lot of talking.”

“That’s a good one.” Rei began to drag her fingers through the dirt again, causing Naomi to look back over to her. Somewhere beneath her gaze, Naomi could feel something was off with her friend.

“Alright, I was joking with you.” Naomi blurted out while nudging Rei with her elbow. The quick hits brought a smile to both of their faces as they playfully traded blows.

“Well, I was looking for Shugo, but I think you teasing me makes up for that. It's like he never left!”

“Oh wow, you’re really upset he isn’t here!”

“No,” Rei flinched and snapped back to her, “he owes me a favor.”

“Oh yeah, there she is!” Naomi exclaimed in hopes to get her amped up.

“I just needed to find him,” Rei began to think of her poetry as she spoke to her. Still a little self-conscious, she tried to deflect away from the topic, “If you see him, let him know I’m looking.”

“Alright then,” Naomi said finally, getting ready to return the work. Rei began to make her way back into the village, determined to finally get a chance to recite her poem. Once she had gotten near the edge of the field, Naomi called out, barely getting her attention. Rei turned back to Naomi just as she shouted, “He will like you better with short hair.”

◆◆◆

Hideo and Toki had taken the time to clean outside the shrine before winter. With Naomi in the fields, Toki had felt inspired enough to do some of the common tasks in support. The two cleared out the brittle autumn leaves beneath the statue of Hideo-Jin-Ichi, allowing it to stand magnificently in the afternoon sun.

“I think that should do it for now,” Hideo said finally. Toki nodded back, brushing his fingers in between the hairs of his beard, admiring the scenery. The two turned away from the statue, shifting focus to Rei as she approached the shrine. Both elders towered over her in size as she introduced herself with a quick bow.

“Hideo-san, I came bearing news.” Rei said, still leaning forward to them. Hideo waved his hand, dismissing the gesture.

“We already spoke to Shugo. It is unfortunate we could not locate the hunters,” Hideo replied calmly. “We will gather another team soon.”

“You and Shugo did more than we could’ve expected,” Toki added as he slowly readjusted the belt around his robe. “We will need you to try and recover, because we need you to help with this one.”

Rei nodded. The pain from dodging Yuuma’s deadly strike still lingered on, but she had been prepared to move again if the call were sounded.

“I am ready for the battle,” Rei said to them while trying to think of how to phrase the next question. It’s the perfect time, she thought just before continuing, “I even have somebody who is willing to fight! Shugo, he would be great.”

“Unfortunately, that would be up to our Daimyo.” Toki interrupted her.

“Shugo would be great for the job, we really do make a great team!” she said once more, enthusiastic at the proposition. Hideo shook his head.

“He’s convinced you to write poetry and now he wants to be a warrior?” Hideo challenged her immediately. Rei looked back at him, taking a moment to realize her place before turning ahead to the shrine, fearing being scolded any further.

“Poetry?” Toki asked.

“No, not anymore.” she replied faintly, tipping her chin to her chest in embarrassment thinking of her poetry being discussed aloud.

“If we weren’t preparing for winter, I’d say write.” Hideo said to her as sincerely as possible.

“I don’t want to write anymore. I only wanted to see what I was capable of,” Rei lifted her head, “I need to keep the village safe.”

“It takes a lot of courage to be able to do what you do. It is one thing to have a passion, but another to make your passion the welfare of your people,” Toki spoke as he lifted his hand and placed it softly against her shoulder. “I sense potential in you.”

“We all see it,” Hideo quickly jumped in. “Someday you’ll be an elder like us.”

Being an elder or having a village under her was something she may have never considered. Both men continued, going back and forth with small anecdotes as Rei started to recite the poem in her head once more.

“Where is Shugo?” Rei interrupted them, finally shaking her way out of thought.

“Oh, he was here before you showed up,” Toki said while gesturing behind her, over towards the lonely tree.

“I apologize,” Rei bowed again, “I was looking for him.”

Hideo glanced at her menacingly for a moment before following along with a smile. Toki leaned forward to her to keep the formalities and returned with a slow, but respectful bow.

◆◆◆

Shugo stared across the monastery and further into the valley as he sat atop the tree, perched on a branch and kicking his legs carelessly. He had chosen this spot time and time again to clear his thoughts. It had one of the best views—second only to one of the watch towers. He watched Rei leaving the shrine by herself, walking alone with her head held forward as she made her way over towards him. Without making eye contact, she leaned against the trunk of the tree below, and then attempted to collect her words.

“I'm sorry about earlier, I don’t poetry is a waste of time,” Rei said aloud before resting her head against the bark. She gave it a quick punch, gently striking the tree and saying, “I’ve always had a problem making my mind up. I’ve always had somebody pushing me along to make decisions for me. Right now, I want to write poetry.”

Shugo, still speechless, looked down on her as she still refused to make eye contact with him. He knew how confusing she was at times but was welcome to hear her try to express herself.

“If you want to do that, we should start with some basics,” Shugo said to her. He leapt forward and slowly lowered to the ground while channeling power from the Deep. Rei was silent. Finally, Shugo landed softly and then faced her, asking again, “What do you feel?”

It was back to square one again. Rei lowered her head, still trying to recite the words inside. Shugo only shook his head and began to walk away from her. He had tried to teach her, but he was beyond the breaking point. At this point, he found himself just like another one of the elders—another force in Rei’s life to push her to make decisions. That was not something he wanted from this friendship. Rei quickly drew her tantō and raised her head to him. The sudden noise from the blade leaving its scabbard had brought him to a halt. He turned to face Rei, seeing her standing with the knife still to her side. With her free hand, Rei grasped onto as much of her hair as possible and raised the weapon to it.

“As I stand here, my heart is heavy,” Rei began to slowly cut into her hair, “Yet it’s so empty, I’ve lost something so dear. Here, this bloodstained rose, a reflection I see. Now I see the light, this bloodstained rose is me.”

Rei lifted her hand to the wind to release the strands to it, watching as they sailed on in peace. Shugo took a moment to nod, admiring the poetry before folding his arms.

“Is there anymore?” he asked her, smiling warmly.

“No, it’s not very good.” Rei’s voice was trembling, both of her eyes had begun to water up from embarrassment. Shugo on the inverse had finally realized his time was not wasted and was overflowing with excitement.

“I told you that you were a good poet, you just have to believe in yourself.”

“Now what?” she said, brushing the excess hair still stuck to her palms.

“I think it’s time you hold up your end of the deal.”