Blade's Edge, page 1
part #1 of Chronicles of Gensokai Series
Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Foreword
Glossary of Terms
Anatomy of a Katana
Tsuka
１１０９年
３０日 １２月, 老中 １１０９年
Mune
１１１１年
21日 ６月, 老中 1111年
3日 ７月, 老中 1111年
5日 ７月, 老中 1111年
1日 ８月, 老中 1111年
１１１４年
17日 ３月, 老中 1114年
21日 ３月, 老中 1114年
1日 ４月, 老中 1114年
4日 ４月, 老中 1114年
5日 ４月, 老中 1114年
1日 １２月, 老中 1114年
5日 １２月, 老中 1114年
１１１５年
5日 ３月, 老中 1115年
6日 ３月, 老中 1115年
10日 ３月, 老中 1115年
11日 ３月, 老中 1115年
Shinogi
１１１９年
3日 10月, 老中 1119年
4日 10月, 老中 1119年
9日 10月, 老中 1119年
14日 10月, 老中 1119年
15日 10月, 老中 1119年
16日 10月, 老中 1119年
20日 10月, 老中 1119年
21日 10月, 老中 1119年
25日 10月, 老中 1119年
26日 10月, 老中 1119年
28日 10月, 老中 1119年
Ha
１１１９年
28日 10月, 老中 1119年
30日 10月, 老中 1119年
1日 11月, 老中 1119年
4日 11月, 老中 1119年
5日 11月, 老中 1119年
6日 11月, 老中 1119年
8日 11月, 老中 1119年
9日 11月, 老中 1119年
10日 11月, 老中 1119年
11日 11月, 老中 1119年
21日 11月, 老中 1119年
23日 11月, 老中 1119年
Kisaki
１１１９年
1日 12月, 老中 1119年
21日 12月, 老中 1119年
Saya
１年
30日 1月, 新議 1年
Acknowledgements
Kickstarter Supporters
About the Author
Other Works by Virginia McClain
Rain on a Summer's Afternoon:
A Collection of Short Stories
Copyright © 2015 Virginia McClain
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 150305733X
ISBN-13: 978-1503057333
To Brenda and Tom (aka Mom and Dad) for loving and supporting us, always.
Foreword
So, first things first, if you’re not the kind of person who really enjoys reading forewords… probably best if you go ahead and skip to the story. No really, there’s nothing all that exciting here. The good bits are in the story!
Of course, now you’re probably wondering why I’m writing this at all, if it’s not part of the ‘good bits.’ A very fair question. The answer is, this book has a lot of stuff borrowed from feudal Japan and I’m here to clear up a few things about why that is, and how it is in NO WAY historical fiction, even though there are a couple nuggets of inspiration from feudal Japanese samurai culture. So, if hearing about that sounds like your cup of tea, by all means, stick around! If not, head to the story. That’s why we’re all here anyway. You can come back and read this later if you decide you’re curious.
It’s your call, but you’ve been warned. The good stuff lies ahead. This is just a lengthy disclaimer about how this book isn’t actually about Japan.
Ahem.
Hi there! If you’re still here then that must mean you like forewords a lot, or perhaps you’ve gotten to the end of the book and thought, I can’t decide if that was supposed to be historically accurate or not. Is this book really about Japan?
The answers, quite simply, are No and No.
This is a fantasy book. The world in which it takes place is completely fictitious, in both space and time. Gensokai doesn’t exist anywhere, and it never has. That said, if parts of the story make you think of Japan (or of the Japanese language) that’s because I was living in Japan at the time that I wrote the first draft of the story, and the more I learned about Japanese history, culture, and geography the more bits of inspiration I found for this tale. The fictional culture of the book was inspired by feudal Japanese samurai culture. The physical landscape of the book was inspired by the Japanese landscape. And the thing that was most heavily inspired was the language. As a language nerd (I majored in Spanish linguistics in University, and have been obsessed with learning other languages since I was a kid) I thoroughly enjoyed picking words (or sometimes just pieces of words) out of Japanese and using them to make my own.
So, as you go through this story, you might find that parts of it seem taken from a Japan you recognize as either current or historic, and then you may find other pieces that don’t fit that mold at all. I’m afraid the inspiration was loose, driven by a love and appreciation for all the things I was learning at the time, but not bound by the reality of any of them. I definitely made up words that do not exist in Japanese, and the place and history of Gensokai is entirely a product of my own imagination. The only reason I use Japanese at all, instead of a completely fictional language, was that I felt it helped establish the feel of the book, and also I lack Tolkien’s patience when it comes to creating a new language from scratch.
Glossary of Terms
Some of the following terms are actual Japanese words, however, most of them are fabricated words made strictly for the purpose of this fictional work. Some are based in Japanese roots, while others are simply English terms made to apply to things in the book. While Gensokai is its own world and is not actually based on Japan, lots of the vocabulary for the book is taken from Japanese to help give it the feel of the feudal Japanese culture that the book was inspired by.
Eihei - The elite guard of the Rōjū (an actual Japanese term meaning elite guard)
Fuchi - The well of one’s ki (taken from the actual Japanese word for abyss)
Gensokai - The name of the island realm in which our adventure takes place (taken from the Japanese words for element and world)
Ha - The actual Japanese word for the sharp edge of a blade
Hakama - The pants worn by Kisōshi (actual Japanese term for divided skirts that men wear on formal occasions or for certain martial arts)
Hebi-kyū - This is a made up term containing the actual Japanese word for snake (hebi) and the actual Japanese word for level or rank (kyū). In the context of the book, Hebi-kyū is the lowest rank for a Kisōshi (it is the first rank they achieve through testing) whereas the highest is Ryū-kyū.
Hishi - The elite assassins used by the Rōjū (taken from the Japanese word for secret history)
Josankō - The school where all josanpu are trained (taken from the Japanese words for midwifery and school)
Josanpu - A woman trained in the arts of birthing and care for women’s health (the actual Japanese word for midwife)
Kami/kami - This word is taken from the actual Japanese for spirit or deity. For the purposes of this book the capitalized Kami means deity and the lowercase kami means spirit. (It is both the singular and plural of the noun.)
Katana - the long curved blade used by all Kisōshi (the actual Japanese word for a single edged sword)
Ki - A person’s spirit or energy (actual Japanese word for spirit/essence)
Kimono - Traditional clothing worn by men and women throughout Gensokai (the Japanese word for clothing –especially traditional Japanese clothing)
Kisaki - The point of a blade (actual Japanese word for the point of a blade)
Kisō - Energy manipulation (taken from the Japanese words for energy and manipulation –note that the actual Japanese definition differs from this made up usage)
Kisōseki - A rare person who, due to an overlap in elemental powers, is able to track using kisō (word fabricated from a combination of energy manipulation and tracking)
Kisōshi - Elite warriors trained in fighting who possess an innate ability to manipulate one element (word taken from Japanese for “energy manipulation person”)
Kisōarashi - A rare person who is able to monitor storms due to an overlap in elemental powers (word fabricated from a combination of energy manipulation and storm)
Mooncycle (moon) - Three tendays in Gensokai. Most common usage is “moon”
Mune - The blunt back edge of a blade (actual Japanese word)
Obi - The wide decorative belt worn with kimono (actual Japanese word)
Oni - Demons or bad spirits
Rōjū - The ruling council of elder Kisōshi in charge of making all decisions for Gensokai (using the actual Japanese word for the Shogun’s council of Elders)
Ryokan - A traditional inn (actual Japanese word)
Ryū-kyū - See “hebi-kyū”
Saya - A scabbard (actual Japanese word)
Seiza - A folded seating position (actual Japanese word)
Senkisō - A Kisōshi with elemental ties to fire or air and thus to battle (taken from the Japanese words for energy manipulation and war/battle)
Seasoncycle (cycle) - The term for a year in Gensokai, most commonly referred to as a “cycle”
Shoji - sliding screen door or window (actual Japanese word)
Shinogi - The widest part of a katana, the part between the mune and the hasami (actual Japanese word)
Shuriken - A small sharpened disk used as a weapon by the hishi, often coated in poison (actual Japanese word for “throwing star”)
Tatami - A mat made of dried woven grass and straw typically used as flooring, also a standard measure of length: approximately one meter by two meters in size (actual Japanese word)
Tenday - A period of ten days (taking the place of weeks in this world)
Tsuka - The hilt of a katana
Uwagi - The jacket worn by all Kisōshi (taken from the Japanese word for a traditional jacket)
Wa - Harmony (taken from the actual Japanese)
Wakizashi - The short sword worn by kisōshi to accompany a katana.
Yukisō - A Kisōshi with elemental ties to earth or water and thus to healing (taken from the Japanese words for energy manipulation and healing/medicine)
Yūwaku - The all female ruling power in Gensokai before the Rōjū took power
Anatomy of a Katana
tsuka - hilt
mune - back edge
shinogi - middle (widest point if looking at a cross section)
ha - front edge (cutting edge)
kisaki - point of blade
saya - scabbard
THE SCREAM MADE Taka drop the snowball she had just been aiming at her best friend’s head and turn towards the gate to see what was happening. In a single heartbeat Mishi was by her side and crawling onto her shoulders to get a better view.
“Mishi-chan!” she hissed. “I can’t see when you do that!”
She brushed her younger friend’s hands from her face, where they had strayed to cover her eyes. Mishi was a cycle younger than she, but barely smaller. Still, the girl insisted that her two fingers’ width of height deficiency meant she could use Taka as a staircase whenever she pleased. Mostly Taka didn’t mind, but someone had just screamed. This was serious.
Once she had cleared her vision of her friend’s hands, she was able to see what was happening at the small gate that led into the snow covered garden.
“Mishi-chan… is that… is that Rika-san?”
She didn’t give Mishi time to reply, for in a single breath they both recognized the older girl, and in one move Mishi had dismounted from Taka’s shoulders and they had both begun running in Rika’s direction. As they neared her, they saw that her face was streaked with dirt and tears, her clothes soaked with melting snow, and her body a mere shadow of what it had been when she had left them only two moons before.
“Rika-san?” they both called, as they ran towards her. Why had the older girl screamed? She was stumbling now, through the small wooden gate and towards the door to the orphanage’s kitchen, which lay only a few tatami lengths away from her across the snow buried garden. Her breath faltered and her limbs shook, and Taka was sure that the girl would collapse at any moment.
Taka and Mishi were rushing to help the older girl when they heard a deep voice shout from the gateway.
“Stop her! Stop that girl!”
They had no sooner heard the voice than they were nearly thrown to the ground by three grown men rushing forward to grab Rika. Just as the men reached her, the girl let out another yowl of despair. The noise was so awful that Taka would have covered her ears if her hands hadn’t been busy holding Mishi up from the packed snow that she and her friend had been flung down on.
Taka couldn’t make sense of what she saw before her. The men appeared to be normal villagers, men she would have recognized from the town market if it had been a normal day. But these men were all grabbing Rika as though she were some sort of dangerous criminal and dragging her back towards the gate with them. They were forced to drag her, her legs flailing as she tried to free herself, her ragged clothing and jagged bones cutting an ugly scar in the snow as they pulled her towards the gate and the black clad man who had first shouted that she should be stopped.
Mishi regained her footing first and jumped forward as though to confront the men, but Taka grabbed her friend’s shoulder in order to hold her in check.
“But Taka-chan, she doesn’t want to go with them,” Mishi said, and Taka knew it was true. She didn’t need to read the girl’s emotions with her kisō to know that Rika wished to be anywhere but in the hands of the men who held her, a fact made clear enough by the way she thrashed with what little strength was left in her frail body.
“I know Mishi-chan, but what are you going to do against three men and a Yukisō?” she asked, her grip firm on Mishi’s shoulder. “They’ll never let her go just because you punch someone in the knees.”
Mishi’s lips turned down at the reminder of how small she was, but Taka still held the younger girl’s shoulder. Taka was having a difficult time restraining herself from helping Rika too, but she was convinced that there was nothing that either of them could do except…
Mishi-chan, run and get Haha-san! she said without speaking, projecting her thoughts and emotions at her best friend instead. Mishi nodded, turned on her heel, and began running towards the kitchen door, but when she was still a full tatami length away from the door it opened on its own and out came Haha-san.
“What’s going on here?” the older woman demanded, as she hurried into the garden and wrapped herself more firmly in her winter shawl. Hope began to bloom in Taka’s chest. Haha-san wouldn’t let these men take Rika when she was so clearly upset. Haha-san took good care of the children in her orphanage. She would protect Rika. Taka was sure of it.
The black clad man’s lips narrowed and his gaze fixed coldly on Haha-san’s face before he replied.
“This miscreant has run away from the Josankō and is to be punished,” he said.
Haha-san hesitated before replying, and stepped back from where the man stood with the three villagers encircling the now quietly sobbing girl. Taka’s hope began to waver.
“Has she done something wrong?” Haha-san asked, her voice now subservient and her gaze directed at the ground before her, rather than the man clad in black.
“Aside from being born a josanpu and disobeying her instructors, nothing at all.” The tone of the man’s voice suggested that either of those offenses were more than enough to condemn a woman.
Taka’s hopes shattered then, as she watched Haha-san simply stand back and observe as the three villagers and the man clad in black walked away with a sobbing Rika carried between them.
Taka had been sure that Haha-san would do something to protect the older girl. Were they really going to stand there and let her be dragged back to whatever place had left her looking like a shade? She had seemed half starved. Haha-san might occasionally treat her wards harshly, or punish them for breaking rules, but she had always done what she could to make sure that the children at the orphanage were healthy and well cared for. Taka didn’t think she was the kind of person to let a girl be so poorly treated, especially not one of her girls.
“You two should get back inside before the cold gets to you,” Haha-san’s voice rang out from the door to the kitchen. Taka had been so focused on watching Rika’s procession away from the orphanage that she hadn’t even noticed the woman’s retreat. As she registered the older woman returning to the kitchen door, a small part of her world view shattered.
Taka turned to look at Mishi and saw that her friend was staring just as wide eyed at the procession of men and girl as she had been herself only moments ago.
“Taka-chan?” Mishi whispered. Even as Taka grabbed Mishi’s shoulder to turn them both back to the orphanage and what small warmth the place had to offer, she began to wonder if it could truly protect them from anything worse than the cold.
“Yes, Mishi-chan?” she replied at length.
“You’ll never let them take me away like that, will you?” Mishi’s voice was as small as the spots on a sparrow’s back.
“No, Mishi-chan,” Taka replied, hoping the words were the truth.
Rika had been the only other girl in the orphanage that Mishi and Taka had shared their secret with. Taka had been only three cycles old when Rika had caught her healing a small scrape on Mishi’s arm after the two cycle old toddler had fallen. She had warned her very sternly then that Taka should never allow anyone to see her using her powers, that she should hide her kisō as though her life depended on it.
