Lessons
“How could he forget to put the helmet on? And how could you forget to remind him about it before they started to beat each other up? You are worse than children.” The high-pitched voice of his sister in combination with a clinking sound he could not identify made enough noise to wake the dead.
“Now, calm down and stop blaming me. I was not even here during the match and he is old enough to remember important things by himself.” Another voice answered with a huff and made her shut up in an instant. “Be glad that I returned earlier. Otherwise you would have to take care of the wound by yourself.”
In any other situation, Souji would have started to grin in amusement. There was only one person in the whole world that was able to shut his sister up within seconds without arguing at all. Hijikata-san simply spoke his mind whenever he was annoyed. He did not care what everyone else thought about him and his manners. As long as they left him alone with their requests, he was fine.
But this was not any other situation. His head was throbbing with pain and the memories of the match with Yamanami Keisuke slowly returned to him. He had lost within minutes and he had been avoiding the blade of his opponent most of the time. To top it all, he had managed to run straight into the sword instead of landing his final blow with a combination of strikes he had perfected after years of work.
He cursed himself in his thoughts and tried to open his eyes. He needed several attempts, because his eyelids were still heavy and the darkness tried to pull him back in its arms. Nevertheless he kept struggling and groaned under his breath as he finally opened his eyes and the sudden light caused the throbbing pain to turn into a feeling as if he had been running against a wall at full speed.
He blinked for a few times to get used to the light, before he tried to sit up. Immediately, two strong hands on his shoulders forced him to stay in a lying position and a still slightly blurry face appeared in his field of vision. Dishevelled black strands of hair which had escaped the high ponytail framed the distinctive features and a pair of not really concerned eyes observed him businesslike.
“Listen just once and stay where you are until I took care of the wound. Otherwise you might hurt yourself even more than you did with that foolish attack.” Hijikata-san instructed him before he let go of his shoulders and turned back to a wooden basin which was most likely filled with water. He dipped a piece of white fabric in it and wrung it out until it did not drip anymore, but was still damp enough to clean the wound.
Souji felt like someone jabbed a blade right into his chest as he listened to the harsh words. His heart skipped a beat and he could not breathe for a few seconds. Unconsciously, he clenched his fists in helpless anger against himself and gazed at the ceiling of the room. There was no way for him to gain the position of the best swordsman at the Shieikan Dojo again, as soon as the news about his failure spread. He had disappointed everyone because he had been distracted in the probably most important situation of his life and he would have to listen to their comments and jokes all day long. To top it all, they would go back to treating him like the younger students.
“Leave me alone with your concern.” He snapped and sat up quite determined as Hijikata-san turned back to him and was about to clean the wound. Since Souji caught him off guard, he did not even get the chance to get a hold of his shoulders to push him down again and only blinked at him in utter confusion.
“I neither need your pity nor your help or anything else. I am not a child anymore..” He added and took advantage of the general confusion to get back on his feet. Although his legs were shaky and his surroundings started to spin again, he crossed the room and left without another word. He even ignored the death glare of his sister that tried to stab him from behind and the last thing he heard was a quite annoyed and still confused comment from Hijikata-san: “What the hell got into him? I did not even think about treating him like a child, I just wanted to clean that wound.”
A sigh escaped his lips after he had closed the door and followed one of the hallways to the inner courtyard. To his relief, he did not come across other students or teachers since most of them were occupied by the forenoon lessons. He was in no mood to meet them and to talk to them about the newest things they had learned or about the pretty girls they had met at the festival last week.
He needed time to think about his match with Yamanami Keisuke. He needed time to figure out how he could ever dare to face the senior master again and how it was possible that he lost in such disgrace. He could not even put a finger on all the emotions which where whirling through his head right now. As soon as he tried to hang on to one feeling, it slipped through his hands like sand. The constantly throbbing pain in his head and the light spinning of his surroundings did not help his attempts at all.
Accompanied by the faint sound of his footsteps he left the building and sat down on the edge of the porch. The planks were still in the shadow and quite cool, but he did not mind and enjoyed the silence around him. While he looked up at the light blue sky and the few clouds which travelled over it, the sun started to warm his bare feet since they were dangling over the edge of the porch. It was only a matter of time before he calmed down and closed his eyes due to the bright sun which only increased the pain.
He was not sure how long he sat on the porch like that. It could have been an hour or just a couple of minutes. Only when the crunching of gravel under a pair of shoes got through to his ears, he opened his eyes again and glanced over the inner courtyard. But instead of meeting the death glare of his older sister or Hijikata-sans dangerously flaring eyes, he was greeted by a friendly smile and a pair of calm eyes.
He felt the urge to leap up to his feet and to hide somewhere else, but at the same time he felt like he was frozen on the spot. There was no way he could talk to Yamanami Keisuke before he got a hold of all the emotions inside of him. Not to mention looking in his face and being constantly reminded of his defeat. He set his eyes on the ground and tried to ignore the fact that the other samurai sat down besides him after he had crossed the last metres of distance. A few moments, there was only silence.
“I am truly happy that I got to fight you.” He finally broke the silence with his soft voice and made Souji look up. He could not believe the words of his opponent and stared at him for a few seconds. “You are talented with your sword and one day, you will be a great man. I am happy that I could teach you a lesson.” He continued and turned his head to look Souji straight in the eye.
“You call that a lesson? Making everyone see that I am still a child?” He snapped and turned his head away again to stare at a tuft of grass as if it was the most interesting thing in the whole world. It was not polite to simply turn away as if his opposite was not existing, but right now he didn’t give a damn about it.
“Soujiro... You are no child just because you lose a fight. Quite the opposite is the case. You are already strong enough to face a total stranger in a match. It does not matter if you win or lose as long as you don’t give up.” He continued after a short break. His voice was still calm and when Souji looked back to him and met his eyes, he could not find a single spark of arrogance or lie in them.
“You know, you almost got me with that last move. I was not prepared for such an advanced strike. I never faced someone who was able to use the technique of Sandanzuki as perfect as you did and I only hit you with my sword, because I was surprised and had no time to stop my movements.” Souji could not help himself and looked up to the other man once again. He had never expected to be praised by his opponent.
“But I lost after all. There is no way I can look Kondou-sama in the eye again.” He retaliated with a sigh. Yamanami Keisuke only raised an eyebrow at his words and shook his head after a few moments of thinking about his words. “You are taking this match a little to earnest.” He added and smiled at him once again, before he leaned back and watched a small cloud which was drifting over the sky.
“You know, someone told me that we should never let success get to our head and failure to our heart. He said those two simple things were the key to true swordsmanship.” He continued after some time had passed. “Try to keep these things in mind, when you follow your road through life. It helped me a lot when I had finished my apprenticeship.”
