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The Memoirs of a Master
Topic Started: Nov 30 2010, 08:31 PM (53 Views)
Shishio
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Memoirs of a Master
Background Music:Time Forgets

*Note the post is switching from 3rd omnipresent to 1st person, it starts off as a conversation between Kame Sennin and the student of a fall friend that he took in years ago, its the first time they've seen each other in twenty years he asked him to tell him the story of when he became a martial arts master. Roshi then begins his memoirs including the mastery of his martial arts and his spiritual powers.*

I chuckled softly at his words, my old tired eyes taking in this young man's features I still could not believe it had been twenty years since Masuhito-san passed away leaving a single student to carry on his name and his martial arts. "Can you tell me Kame Sennin-san?" The title seemed to have taken the place of a name I had at one time, a name that I no longer remember, a time when I was nothing more than a boy stuck in a troubled time of war. "I can tell you, if you brought my nudie magazines like I asked." His eyes widened and he began to laugh, his hand reaching for the bag that was placed beside him when he sat down. "I did you one better." He said, a smile on his face as he exposed the contents of the bag to me, I could feel my heart swell and my body jump at the sight. "I've brought you DVDs." I could not suppress my scream of joy, my body moving on its own as i danced across the small living space taking the bag and shifting through the various movies before sitting in my seat.

I can not say I am happy the way I turned out, a perverted old man that has been living since before the second world war. I can't say that I am upset with my life style either, a one of peace and no stress though occasionally i find a straggling martial arts junkie coming to me asking to be taught in the ways of Kame-Ryu, they some how found out I was living probably by this man of some other form of information. "So will you tell me?" This boy, Katsuhiro annoys me much like his late master Masuhito did when we were together. A deep tired sigh escaped my lips, the excitement from earlier draining from me. "Yes, I will tell you how I became a master. But for you to understand you must hear my story from the beginning to understand the type of world that molded me and the things that I saw and did." I stared into his bright young eyes, I felt him shrivel under my intense gaze from behind the dark lenses of my sunglasses. They were no longer the eyes of a dirty old man but those of a martial artist that has seen his share of horrible things in his life time, or so I would assume.

**

I was born in a small poor fishing town outside of Yokohama, I remember playing in the stream and throwing rocks in the ocean like every child did in my village. There was no television, cars or lights in that time or air conditioning. I remember during the winter my family and I would huddle up like hens to stay warm using the tatumi mats as blankets because our sheets were too thin and we would freeze to death in the cold. My father would build a small fire and huddle us up by it, my mother cradling me in her arms, my father behind her holding her close to him and my sister clinging to my mother's side.

I don't remember much of my sister except that she was beautiful like our mother. Her hair was a midnight black her skin snow white but it was her eyes that attracted everyone to her. She possessed the most unique and beautiful set of eyes anyone had seen. They were a grayish blue that highlighted her entire face, I remembered hearing my father speak highly of her saying she would be the most beautiful girl in all of Japan one day. But what hope did a poor Japanese girl have at being noticed as the most beautiful when all around her in the larger cities there were more beautiful women, geisha?

At the time I didn't understand it, I was four years following behind my nine year old sister like a duckling followed its mother. There were times when I preferred to be around her more than my real mother. It seemed that despite our poor status we were happy, that we were able to survive even through the toughest challenges that the gods threw at us but if you assume that then you are wrong. For a time our family was able to survive , to put enough food on the table to keep us alive and enough to keep money following no matter how little it was but by the Spring of 1929 or town was on the brink of starvation and extinction. I remembered foolishly voicing my hunger hoping that I could have more of our rationed foods, but there was not enough to spare a hungry child enough a drop. Sometimes my sister would give me her portion or give food to me that I did not know where it was coming from, it turned out she was receiving food from a wealthy family, the owner of the fishery that was placed to the far east of our town smothering us with its pollutants but bringing in money at one time for our town.

By the summer of the year things had gotten so bad that my sister was given away. I remember that night well, thunder rumbled and roared in the distance lightning flashed and rain fell heavily on us as my dear sister was taken from my family. I remember running after her barefoot crying and screaming "Onee-san come back! Come back Onee-san!" I remember the pain in the sole of my feet as the sharp rocks cut into the soft unprotected flesh. I stumbled and fell face first into the mud crying until someone picked me up, that is all I remember of that. There is not a time that I don't wonder why it had to be that way, why did she had to be sold off. I searched for her one day and I found she had become a famous geisha, we visited one another several times but that is an entirely different story.

With my sister gone it was only me left, the only son it was lonely during that time. The sky always seemed grayer when you are alone but as time passed I began making friends, learning to read the ocean as a fisherman I was oblivious to the changing world as we prepared for war. My brother Takehito was born three years and like my sister I was given away but to a Buddhist temple. I don't remember much from when I first got there but I do remember seeing a ghost child waving at me and I pointed it out to one of the monks called Yahiko and he took me to see the lead monk Yagyuu. I remember our conversation like it was yesterday he asked. "What's your name?"

I stared up at him like he was speaking a foreign language and simply pointed behind him to the ghost girl and said one word...

**

I stopped speaking for a moment focusing my gaze on Katsuhiro, his face was filled with emotions. He was eager for me to continue but I no longer wanted to speak of those times and yet I knew I must so that he could hear the story from my mouth and no longer go on the words of his master. "Please Kame Sennin-sama continue."

"Give an old man time to reflect will ya? You little bastard."

**
The first thing I learned there at the temple was about the two different energies that make up the world. One was Ki an internal energy that allows us to do wondrous things the second was the energy very few could use and even knew existed. Spiritual energy, reiatsu. I was taught using the old methods unlike you and your brothers to open my ki channels could mean death and to forcefully pull your energy from within you resulted in internal mutilation. My training started that very day of my arrival to train my young body and mind into a weapon.

I remember running up miles of temple stairs with a weigh on my back and my forearms and hands bond with miniature weights. At first I could barely take a step, I cried hoping that they would take pity on me but they didn't. The other children that had been taken in were moving past me getting stronger and mocking me that motivated me enough to get stronger. In a matter of week my body was strong and so was my mind but I was no different from the others except that I caught on faster. What set me apart was my discovery, a break through in martial arts that still to this day credits me as it creator.

The spring of 1936 when Japan was at all out war the temple had taken in refugees from the war. I was eleven and already an elite of the children Yagyuu had placed me in isolated training for the last year. I sat naked under a waterfall gathering ki in my stomach and manipulating it, pushing it through every channel in my body when I came across another source of energy. At first the tingling sensation startled me but as I continued to dip into that power until I learned to fully control it that did not happen for many years after discovering the reason and how to do it.

Unlike today my power was never awakened because it was never asleep to begin with. I see children every day with new powers bring brought to the surface by a hollow attack but for someone that has always been spiritually aware, that never lived a normal life and was trained in spiritual arts from a child it was never asleep. I did not understand the true nature of that power my power but I understood that without a way to purify the energies I will would never be able to master it.
**
"You asked me earlier how I became a master..I did not answer the question and for that forgive me. Like everyone else I did not become a master overnight it took years of dedicated practice but the defining moment in my life that made everyone consider me to be a master was the last day I fought. The day I committed the ultimate crime." I clasped my hands together and leaned forward Katsuhiro waiting anxiously.

"The day that the remaining LDT members call the epic battle some call it Ragnarok, the end of the world and I agree with the term in more ways than one it was the end of the world for me.."
**
I made a mistake that no teacher should ever make, I passed on my arts to an unworthy student and looked over his unstable and sadistic mannerisms. I was for a chance to live a peaceful and secluded life after I had witnessed so much death and a high profile life after the temple and my home was destroyed years earlier. Nobunaga had been a student with great potential and one that I believed could take over the League of Divine Tempest one day but I failed to notice the evil in his heart. The hunger to become stronger and harm others for the sake of himself and even as he did those horrible things that I did not think possible in the reformed world I sat idle by in my home by the ocean trying to escape the world.

I remembered seeing Masuhito for the first time in five years on a brisk April day. "Kame Sennin you must do something! He is smearing your name and killing people. Our friends!" His pleas answers as I turned my back to him to face the ocean watching as it licked at the shore. "Will you stand there and do nothing then? Bah!" That was the last time I saw him so serious but his pleas were not enough to get me to go and face the monster that I created. Months passed and Nobunaga continued on his rampages killing countless people with the martial arts style and powers I taught him how to use. It seemed that once again the world would be taken by darkness of a worse kind one that plagued the spirit world and could cause harm to the natural world.

Kirin came to me months later in the dead of winter her cheeks streaked with tears and her eyes full of fear. Something that I had not seen since she was a child at the temple. "Hayate-san..he has killed Bao and Jiang." The words were like a sword to my heart my knees buckled my hand searching the wall for support. For my student to have come as far as to defeat two masters was beyond me. I felt guilty, it was my fault that Bao and Jiang had been killed if only I had listened to Masuhito and confronted Nobunaga earlier they would still be alive. I said nothing but we both knew what had to be done now, to defeat an opponent for the sake of the world and not for revenge was the purpose and even though the natural world knew not of the growing danger the unnatural world knew and though they had their enforcers they did not step in.

I met Nobunaga in the valley underneath the skies at the base of Mount Hiei the very place I trained him. I knew at that very moment that this was what he had planned the entire time, a battle with the man that taught him everything that he knew. I could smell the hatred on him, the evil brimming from his body like fumes. I tried to reason with him to avoid a cataclysmic battle. "Seji..do not resist, surrender and repent for your sins and I will cleanse your soul."

"Don't fuck with me old man!" He yelled, lightning surging from his body the energies mixing and surging from him like a demon. I could feel the tainted nature of the energies there was no mistaking what he had done, the reason behind his sudden power boost that allowed him to defeat Jiang and even Bao. He was mixing his reiatsu, ki and his life force. I told Kirin to stand back to leave this place and not turn around no matter what she heard or saw.

Seji charged towards us his speed beyond human, he became an embodiment of lightning and reached the level of skill that I knew he could reach. "I'll turn you into ashes old man just like I did to the others!" His taunts did not phase me, I was an experienced man with years under my belt while this boy only had ten or so compared to my forty but Kirin was not so calm. She acted before thinking, yelling out and rushing towards him the exact thing he wanted. "Kirin! WAIT!" It happened so quickly, instantly her voice rang in my ears and her blood splattered across my face and colored the ground. I heard her call our for me as she faded away into nothingness her soul leaving her body.

You can imagine how enraged I was at that point, first my friends and teammates and now the woman I have loved since I was thirteen years old and all by the hands of the student I taught. I unleashed hell on that boy, pulling every ounce of reiatsu and mixing with my chi to create my formless martial arts style, one that he had never seen before. Each strike that connected paralyzed him. Each blow broke a bone there was no holding back at that point. Our battle lasted for hours and before long my hands were stained with the blood of my student.

I went into hiding after that, isolated training for forty years where I completely completed and master every form of martial arts I knew and even perfected Raijin-Ryu style. I can't say I am happy with the end result, I was foolish in hoping that a child could fill in for me and change the world, I over looked his monstrous behavior. But not once did I believe Seji Nobunaga was evil, I saw him as my true heir and successor but like so many others he was corrupted by the evils of this world and then it was placed upon my shoulders as his master to save him. I won't pretend like I planned on it, like I was hoping to become even more famous by letting the situation build I was just tired and was continued being pushed I had to take action but it was too late, my friends, my family, life was destroyed.

**
We stared at one another for a moment, my gaze still unfocused and hazy but I could see his eyes on my face. "Sensei, you said that you became a master that day but why do you believe that? It seems that from the very beginning of your story you were a master or atleast a genius." I smiled at the boy, standing to my feet my hands resting behind my back as I watched the waves crash against the rocks. "I never thought of myself special, I never thought of myself as a master of anything but in my youth I did there is no such thing as being a master of anything. I said I thought of myself as a master the day I fought Nobunaga because I was able to see it." His mouth hanging open, his eyes confused but I smiled ignoring the question he was asking with his eyes. "Its late Katsuhiro and I would like to watch these movies you brought me."

I watched as he left, his hand raising biding me goodbye. Telling my story reminded me of the things that I had,been through the things I've done and must do. For forty long years I trained my body, never missing a day of my vigorous training that had been started all those years ago on that spring day at the temple I called my home. Throwing my fist into the air at the visible opponent I kicked, spun and released a powerful cry as the two surging energies collided and sent bolts of lightning into the air.

I had returned...to aid the younger generation with my knowledge and my strength and to protect the world I watched change before my very eyes from a child who cried every time he fell to a horny adolescent teenage boy to a lazy adult and to a dirty old man. I will protect the world with my life as I had done with my friend in the elusive League of Divine Tempest.


[[I think this is one of my best works. I learned alot from Memoirs of a Geisha and feel attached to Muten. Despite the lack fo activity on Battling Souls and the lack of respect he got from the people I rped with on that site/]]
Edited by Shishio, Nov 30 2010, 08:34 PM.
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