Naito:
I wait first thing in the morning. Up here in this hill where my sister and nephew lie. But I should’ve known… A man like him, fearing for his life will try to extend it as much as he can. So it’s expected he won’t come this morning.
But I wait. I wait in the cold. I shiver for hours, even when the sun is out. It’s not the cold isn’t it? It’s the -excitement- of finally getting my sister, her son, my father and my brother justice! Each strand of hair is standing in my body. Every muscle taut and ready. It’s only mid-day but again a coward like him? He’d want to extend his life even by just a few hours! I’m patient. I’ll wait… What’s a few hours compared to the -years- that I’ve waited for that wrongdoer!
I’m sitting, watching the sun as it sets behind the tombstone of my sister. The jizo statues are waiting -with- me. They too are waiting for retribution. Even this tree that is sheltering me right now whispers to me. My vitriol has weight! It is -just-! It is imperative! Justice is inescapable! It is my preordained fate to be the champion of my sister! I am an apostle that will do battle to inflict a great reform for the injustices my sister suffered and for the life of her child that perished because of him!
It’s night. I shake back and forth, in front of my sister’s grave. I touch the now cold headstone. “Sister sister. Just a little bit more. He won’t come right now but I -know- he’ll come by midnight. He’s a coward and infidel you see. Be patient…” I lean my forehead against her pillar and slowly, quietly, knock my forehead against it over and over again. The waiting… The waiting is unbearable. Unbearable… I reach down, feeling the handle of my spear. It’s not my father’s spear but I know his spirit now lives in it. “Give me strength father. I’m the only one left.” I close my eyes, “Guide me -please-. Make me be victorious! If I -kill- him, then all of those people in the Aizu clan will see how wrong they were. They will regret and remember sister as the -good- person she was. Just like they’ll be reminded of the life, you and brother gave so selflessly for Aizu! They’ll remember -us- and forsake that interloper! And they’ll see that I was justified in destroying him. Leaving nothing of him on this Earth except for his dust once I turn him to ashes.”
I hear a bell. The midnight bell from the one lone monastery on the opposite hill. I hoist myself up and quickly scan my surroundings. I run downhill first, maybe he’s just made it. But he’s not there? I run up the hill again but again there’s no one there. I look up on the moon and realize, maybe he’s hiding. “Come out! Come out!” I run towards and through the trees but he’s not there. The only other place… I scramble back to my sister and beyond her. I look down on the cliff and only see a glistening river at the bottom. Not a single soul.
“AHHHH!!!!!!!” I scream! I take my spear and fight his shadow instead. Damn you! Damn you! You abomination! You coward! I make a mighty swing against his shadow but only hit air and I lose my balance. Falling on my knees to the ground. “Sister…” I look at her and her son as tears start to fall to my hands. “I’ll -make- him come. He’ll get his due. I -swear- to you.”
Did that woman tell him? She broke him yes? No. He -chose- not to come here.