The Hogosha are still beautiful, even after I've killed more than I care to count. They serve their people and bring about results, which are rare in this day and age.
Some in Kusari say that enlightenment comes from an upward lifting of your mind into a new plane of existence, glimpsing that plane for a split second and settling back down to the ground.
As Gaijin say, that's bull****.
Enlightenment comes from falling from a perch of ignorance and realizing you're just another insect crawling over other insects, forever fearing death and nonexistence from some unforgiving 8 year-old with a god complex.
I've gotten cynical from my travels, for that you'll have to forgive me...
...or blame me. That's probably the conclusion I'm going to come up with anyway.
This is the Bounty Hunter Aikin Sanshi, former Hogosha retainer based on Deshima Station and other bases intermittently. And this is my attempt to make sense of the past in order to reconcile the present.
Ancestors be damned...
My ancestors would be a good place to start. The Sanshi family has historically been retainers for the Hogosha since early in the organization's history. My family has served with distinction from every position, from thugs to accountants. People within the shogunate may change, but the Hosgosha is a stone bulwark. Relentless in it's persecution and removal of unwanted elements, they have been regarded as heroes and villains, and are perhaps the most colorful of the Kusari criminal organizations.
The first recorded San to serve the will of the Kusari people was my great-great-great grandmother, Saika Sanshi. Saika was a Hideyoshi mistress around the time of the revolution. As the story goes, she was a loyal cohort to the Emperor until several Samura agents contacted her, informing her of the coming storm and enlisting her in their plans. Saika was troubled by this and spent several nights of soul-searching. Poetry flowed through her of the greatness of the Kusari house and her thoughts of rebellion or loyalty. Finally she made a decision and betrayed her master for the Samura agents.
I don't know how much of the story is truth, embellished or not. For generations my line has taken this story with one meaning and one meaning alone. Now, with the contact of other houses and newer information flowing in, the story passes to me, and I find new wisdom in it. New ways of thinking, especially since I have traveled the Sector and encountered peoples of different viewpoints. Of one thing I am certain:
Rebellion is in my blood.
"The thirteen saloons that had lined the one street of Seney had not left a trace. The foundations of the Mansion House hotel stuck up above the ground. The stone was chipped and split by the fire. It was all that was left of the town of Seney. Even the surface had been burned off the ground.
Nick looked at the burned-over stretch of hillside, where he had expected to find the scattered houses of the town and then walked down the railroad track to the bridge over the river. The river was there."
If memory serves, there is a definite time my story starts, in a police holding cell on New Tokyo. The police had arrested a Gaijin on charges of consorting with pirates. Getting frustrated with their officer's lack of progress, they allowed several Hogosha retainers to squeeze the information out of them.
I was on my first assignment.
The assignment's name was Neil Leary. He was a Bretonian Armed Forces member.
Of course, they didn't tell me that when I took the job.
Information, swine. That's all I want. Then you can put your Gaijin tail between your legs and run back home. Now tell me what I want to know!
Suro was in rare form, after his promotion and recognition for duties to the Emperor his ego had gotten bigger. Not so big that we couldn't function as a team, but big enough that he could slip and kill this worm.
He's a human being, not a worm.
I cleared my throat.
Suro, perhaps we should allow him to clean up the gaijin blood from the floor, it's starting to hurt my eyes.
Suro smiled that smile. He knew my codewords like a second language. Suro dropped the gaijin, falling into a pool of blood that had been forming right under his head. There were deep cuts in his face and his nose looked crooked.
Start licking, gaijin. It may be the last meal you have in a while. Suro pulled a chair over and sat down, giving me the go-ahead.
We both don't want to be here, do we? I was pacing then, giving him a wide birth, not wanting him to think I would threaten him physically.
Good cop, bad cop.
I hesitated with this case, because I'm not fond of killing people. Gaijins in particular. I'm not going to hurt you, boy.
Im impressed, you haven't lied yet...
I moved in closer, the Breton didn't move, perhaps from exhaustion or bravery, I can't tell nowadays.
But hear me, I won't shed a tear if you die right here on this floor.
...oh, your a bad lier Aikin, san.
His face lit up, I saw his will break and his lips move. He betrayed his brothers, his country and his pride with those words. Killing a spirit makes the body wish for death because of the things a soulless shell can do. A quote from an anonymous Kusarinese, I doubt he felt how I did after that interrogation.
You should be proud, Aikin! You serve our soldiers, and the shogunate. Why would you have second thoughts about serving in the infamous Hogosha?
Because you make me sick, baka.
Because you make me feel as though I must choose between our common laws and our organization.
Bah, laws are for the weak, we serve the shogunate. Remember that, young one.
Suro's words fell on me weirdly. I sat on my mat in a private room in the Tea House. My sake getting old in my cup as I pondered his words and my feelings and thought on the matter. Here was Suro, making perfect sense as usual, and somehow I always found something to shoot back, disgracing myself.
What you know and what you think you know are two very different things.
I pushed all worry and negative thoughts out of my head for now. It was time to move on. New Tokyo may be our base, but we have many other duties.
"The thirteen saloons that had lined the one street of Seney had not left a trace. The foundations of the Mansion House hotel stuck up above the ground. The stone was chipped and split by the fire. It was all that was left of the town of Seney. Even the surface had been burned off the ground.
Nick looked at the burned-over stretch of hillside, where he had expected to find the scattered houses of the town and then walked down the railroad track to the bridge over the river. The river was there."
