Dawn of the Samurai

"Then I'll just be Koza. The Ishida clan is no more now, but I don't care. Who needs nobility and status anyway? After all, I tried to hold on to it and what did it get me? A bounty on my head. I'm tired of looking at this house. What do you say we burn it to the ground?"

 

"That sounds like fun. You will always be my brother and even if you don't have the Ishida name you will always be noble in spirit. It's nice to have family. Don't burn mother's journal. I would love to read her best fiction."

 

"Then you hold on to it." Koza said as he handed her the journal.

 

"Thank you. It should be an interesting read. I can't wait to find out what it says. The chances are it will be total fabrication and therefore laughable."

 

"The story of someone claiming to be related to us, but in fact having no connection to us what so ever. We ought to publish it."

 

"A story of a fictional mother who loses a child that she actually cares about and her motherly concern for her remaining child. Shall we publish it as comedy?"

 

"We should, being the farce that it is."

 

"Well they might just go for it. Lets torch the house so it will be gone. We can sell the land and move somewhere we want to go."

 

"I'll light us some torches so we can both get some satisfaction out of this."

 

"That sounds wonderful. I want to do something that would normally be frowned upon. I have spent all my life being good so now I can rebel at last."

 

"Rebelling abainst our non-existant parents. This is going to be fun."

 

"Well its not as if they are going to do anything is it?" Maiko started to laugh. "You need to be free of the past Koza and this might be the answer."

 

"Let's get to it." Koza said as he haded her a lit torch and lit one for himself.

 

Maiko took the torch and began to set things alight. "Come on! This is really fun. Goodbye home I never knew!"

 

Koza started lighting another part of the house aflame. "Goodbye, home of broken dreams."

 

Maiko hurled the torch into the blazing house and stood back to watch it burn. She grinned and hugged Koza's arm. "It's the end of the past and the beginning of the future starts here and now."

 

"You're right. Now let's go sell the land and be done with this place."

 

Maiko followed him and felt lighter. She was her own person again and not attached to an unloving family legacy. She hummed quietly to herself.

 

Koza sold the deed to the land which was in the casket of scrolls they took from the house.

"That land was worth more than I thought it was." He said to Maiko as he pocketed half of the money, handing the rest to her.

 

"When this is all over we will have to be neighbours somewhere. You can't go far from me because of the swords. We can keep an eye on each other like family do."