A Master's Failure

"Miyamoto Musashi is what you call a monster among monsters...do you have an answer for this situation....?"

"Knock knock," I said aloud while interrupting the conversation currently taking place between one of my most favorite Masters and Mr. Tokogawa by letting them know of my arrival.

"Come in..." it seemed that Master Motobe had already guessed my presence before I had even 'revealed' myself.

'Figures.'

There they were, the two men discussing my most prized 'possession', discussing his match with my dear apprentice in training Kaiou Retsu.

"Kuzan!" Mr. Tokogawa was obviously the one most excited to see me so soon after my last call.

"Kid," it seemed that my Master was less than stellar at my arrival, obviously wanting to 'protect' me from the great swordsman, especially considering our relationship and my talent at such a young age.

"Master," I bowed down to the man in a half bow, not forgetting the help he had so generously provided me when I was 'inexperienced'.

He had been the Master I had gotten along with the most, and I was probably the best disciple he had ever received. It was a symbiotic relationship; my master wanted to further the cultivation of the martial arts while I wanted to simply learn to attain more strength.

He had passed on his knowledge without reservation, and I in turn had devoured it without bias.

Bows, swords, spears, and rope.

Chains, axes, hammers, and smoke.

Maces, daggers, crossbows, and hope.

That's what makes warriors pray and cope.

Although I had also received some training in these at the Temple, it was just so much more fun learning from Master Motobe in person. His attitude towards these weapons was just so much more... pure.

"Don't let me stop your discussion, please, pretend as if I'm not even here...", a task which would undoubtedly prove difficult for them knowing my personality.

Still, as I continued whistling to myself while 'hiding' my presence more and more, they eventually moved on from staring at me, discussing the more important matter at hand...

"Motobe," the old man said, getting back on track...

"You're saying there is a 'hole' in my vision...well perhaps that might be true..."

"But this is what the man called Kaiou Retsu wished for, and he is placing his life on the line for...this is how far he is willing to go, or are you saying that he is a novice as well?"

'You're wrong Mr. Tokogawa, Kaiou Retsu is far from a novice...'

'He's a dead man.'

Still, the conversation proceeded exactly as I had predicted it would, the two men discussing Kaiou Retsu's 'resolve' in taking on such a 'monster'...

"Aren't you forgetting something Goroukou?" Master Motobe asked, not expecting a response quite just yet.

"For this match almost everyone is against the rules Retsu has set..." my Master said while giving me a sideways stare which I chose to ignore, "and that is because they all know the kind of man that Retsu is..."

"...however, this time his opponent is a monster called Miyamoto Musashi...", his stare only continuing to grow more 'intimidating' with each passing second, "It's almost as if we are in a dream and we don't want to wake up..."

Unfortunately, it seemed that Mr. Tokogawa was much more thick-headed than I gave him credit for, "I get the feeling, you want to give it a try as well, Izou Motobe?"

"You've got it wrong Tokogawa," I finally spoke after having sat here so quietly for so long, wanting to pass some time until the 'big day', "Master Motobe here just thinks that we need him to protect us from the big scary sword wielding monster..."

"KUZAN!" it seemed that finally giving the opportunity for him to lecture me as he had been hoping to do since I first arrived was not the 'best' of ideas, as I was met with an onslaught of stares and curses by my old master.

It had been so hard to get 'under his skin' at the start of my training with the old man, but as soon as I used the combined effort of my sister's wisdom and my forte in genius, I was finally able to 'break past his shell'.

Now my Master had no problems with verbally reprimanding me for my behavior, even in front of guests and longtime friends.

"Tell me I'm wrong Master," however I could tell by the look of annoyance on his face that I would be receiving no such lie from the man.

"As much as I, and I'm sure everyone else appreciates your help Master," he started to shake his head at my 'foolishness', thinking I had grown so egotistical from my strength that I was about to herd myself into a slaughterhouse.

"Don't you think it should be my responsibility as the 'big' brother to deal with my 'junior' disciple's dimwitted actions?"

My Master's frown turned upside down at my word of support for his way of thinking, however I was not done...

"Let him have some fun, I'll clean up the mess, I promise..."

[30 minutes later...]

I had finally escaped from my Master's 'demands' for me to explain 'myself', and from Mr. Tokogawa's continuous words of harassment even after I had assured him that I would not 'interrupt' the 'fight'.

'Now time to see what my even older Master's up to...' I walked into the Dojo where Master Kaku's martial arts lesson was currently taking place...

"...like a feather, let your whole body become like that...move as if you are unconscious and without restraints..."

"Your muscles, your bones, even your strength,...down to the very essence of your body...all of it is stiff...so you have to leave your very body behind...you have to escape from it..."

I sat simply and quietly among the numerous other students who were currently paying extreme attention to his lesson and continued to listen to the old man's 'encouraging words...'

"Your wall of hard flesh,..." Master Kaku pointed particularly as if to direct his words at me, despite knowing full well that I had mastered the technique long ago, "...will need to have the flexibility of an ice pack."

'Ah, looks like he's still trying to get back at me for all of the hours he had to spend watching over them.'

"It needs to be able to move as a piece of paper caught in the wind, until you finally reach the level of a feather..."

It seemed like from his lecture that despite his long life, Master Kaku had never seen a 'martial arts' movie before.

'Cutting a leaf in two is literally the first thing all swordsman do you old man!' I wanted to yell out, however I knew it would make no difference so I continued my 'vow' of not interfering in the 'fight'.

Still, I waited for him to finish his lesson, despite the harm it would clearly do to my fellow 'hyper' disciple from the temple, until my attention was caught again by Master Kaku switching up his 'act'.

"The two sword style...it's not something that only Musashi can do..." and there he began, flailing his arms around and performing a sword 'dance' powered by his skill in the Chinese Martial Arts.

"Beautiful Master, truly..."

The old man ignored my words of praise and kept teaching his lesson, not wasting a second, which was a detail that I especially admired about the Emperor of Kaious...

I listened to his story of the fight between a crane and a snake, which basically watered down to the crane 'enraging' the snake with its petty attacks until it could finally make use of that moment of 'carelessness' by the snake to win the fight.

'I always hated that story,' I continued to listen to his words while shaking my head, 'after all, how could a snake ever be tricked by a crane? Plus it had been an unfair fight from the start, how was the snake supposed to catch the crane without wings?'

'Stupid old story.'

"Retsu...please stand up..." the Grandmaster spoke to my dear 'brother in woes', directing him to 'dodge' his blow while he himself struck him with a sword.

"I need you to 'flutter' around, completely immerse yourself, become a feather..." he spoke with great conviction, "if you are cut by my sword, you will die by Musashi's..."

"Yawn," I covered my mouth with my hand, continuing to fight a losing battle to stay awake, after all it was all too comfortable, listening to Master Kaku's word of training while I simply laid fully down on my back while using my palms as my pillows, not caring about the many weapons nor people that were in place near me, as I dozed off into sleep.

"Zzzzzz..."

"Zzzzz...."

"zzzz..."

However my body jolted awake when it finally sensed what it had been waiting for...a confrontation between my two martial masters...

"Just as I expected from Kaiou Retsu, it seems you are indeed stronger than me..." my dear master of weaponry spoke to my fellow disciple of the Temple, as I was 'shocked' awake by the colliding of two worlds...

"But."

"Not stronger than Musashi..." Master Motobe spoke while trying his best to imitate Musashi's trademarked stance with his fingers, a job he was failing spectacularly at doing...

"Why don't we 'cut' all of this nonsense out?" I spoke a joke, while watching my old master's obvious attempt to show Master Motobe the 'strength' of 4000 years of Chinese Martial Arts. He knocked the Furuki master out with one simple 'punch' and looked towards me as if flaunting his superiority over my other master.

'Poor Master Motobe,' however, I simply stayed silent, not wanting to 'incite' another 'martial war' between nations.

"Good luck Retsu," was all I could say to my 'friend' before leaving them to their own thing before the match that would be commencing soon...

I walked out of the Dojo, not minding the strange glares I was getting from both of my Temple's great Kaious, as I continued to walk away freely without a care in the world.

'This fight, that fight, this weapon, that technique, it's all so stupid...'

The stage was set, the lessons having been learned, the match progressing exactly as I had hoped it would proceed.

'Nothing has changed...'