The Sword of Kaigen

by M.L. Wang

She would let a fonyaka pull her life from her mouth, she would give her soul a thousand times over, if she could just bring Mamoru’s back.

It was someone else’s story, and I was just passing through it. This… you were my story… and I was so selfish, so tied to that shadow that I missed it. My son, I— I’m so sorry it took me this long to understand. I’m sorry—” The words caught in her throat, choking her, until pain shot through her chest, forcing her to let them out. “I never loved you the way I should have.”

Let me hold you one more time. Just one more time, you’re going to let Kaa-chan hold you and treasure you the way I should have the day you were born.

The best Misaki could do was hold her baby, and love him, and love him, and hope it was enough that she could let him go.

“It is enough that, even for a moment, I had a son like you.

“I protected Setsuko and the children.” Misaki felt her face twist into a snarl of rage. “Five people were here in the house with me when the Ranganese broke down the doors, and all of them are with us now.” Her snarl turned predatory, and she felt the need for blood in her teeth. “One of our sons was with you. Just one. And where is he now?”

“Because the child doesn’t belong to its father!” Misaki burst out, surprised by the rage in her voice. “Who says that children belong to their fathers? We carry them, we nourish them inside us, we bring them into the world, we do all the work in raising them. Then these men—these men think they can just take them and kill them?”

As much as Ryota was Dai’s, he was yours. As much as Mamoru was Takeru’s, he was mine. He was mine!”

“I didn’t want any of this, but I birthed that boy, and nursed him, and loved him—all because my parents wanted me to marry a Matsuda! The only reason I am here is that you are a strong theonite who was supposed to keep me and my children safe! That’s what I gave up my life for. Safety.”

I married you, I had a son with you, and you left him on the frontlines to die when you had a chance to save him. Takashi is not going to answer for his death. You are.” She whipped Siradenyaa from her sheath and leveled the blade at her husband’s chest. “Draw, Matsuda Takeru!”