MidReal Story
Snowbound Redemption
Scenario: A samurai must confront his demons at the snowy base of mount fuji
Create my version of this story
Eri Tanaka
skilled archer and Takeshi's confidante, childhood friend of Takeshi, petite with sharp eyes, fiercely loyal
Kaito Sato
young apprentice to Takeshi, looks up to Takeshi as a father figure, lean and agile, eager and brave
Takeshi Hiro
samurai warrior, friends with Eri and mentor to Kaito, tall with scarred arms, stoic yet haunted
The snow was falling heavily as I made my way up the mountain.
I had been walking for hours, and the cold was starting to seep into my bones.
I pulled my cloak tighter around me and continued on.
The wind howled in my ears, and I could barely see a few feet in front of me.
But I knew that I was close now.
I could feel it.
I had come here to seek redemption for my past failures, and I would not leave until I had found it.
The snow crunched beneath my boots as I finally reached the top of the mountain.
I looked around, but there was no one there.
I was alone, just as I had expected.
I sank to my knees in the snow and bowed my head.
“Please,” I whispered, “give me a sign that you can hear me.”
But there was no answer.
The wind continued to howl, and the snow continued to fall.
I am a samurai warrior.
It is in my blood to fight and die for my lord without question or hesitation.
But four years ago, I failed to do just that.
The memories of the Battle of Toba-Fushimi still haunt me, consuming my thoughts and drowning my soul in sorrow.
I could not save my lord, and many of my comrades died on that fateful day.
It was a decisive battle that marked the end of an era and changed the course of history forever.
I carry the weight of their deaths with me everywhere I go.
And that is why I am here, on the snowy base of Mount Fuji, making this treacherous journey to atone for my failures.
There is no one else who can help me now.
And if the gods will not listen, then I do not know what I will do.
The wind whipped around me as I continued my ascent up the mountain.
The snow was falling even harder now, and the air was so cold that it burned my throat and lungs with every breath I took.
It would be easy for me to turn around now, to go back to the village where it is warm and safe.
But I could not bear to live with myself if I did.
I had come too far and lost too much.
I did not want any more blood on my hands.
As I walked, I thought about all the men who had died at my side during the battle.
I thought about all the families who would never see their husbands and fathers again.
And I thought about my lord, who had entrusted his life to me and paid the ultimate price for it.
The snow was as white as their bones now, and it stretched out before me as far as I could see.
I knew that it would not be long before the cold consumed me too.
But still, I pressed on.
Because I had to.
When we arrived at the top of the mountain, it was late afternoon and the sun was starting to set in the sky.
The snow had stopped falling by then, but it was still coming down hard in other parts of the country.
Soon, it would be spring, and the snow would start to melt, revealing the landscape that lay hidden beneath it.
But I did not know if my spirit would ever be free from the burden of what I had done that day.
I had come here to seek redemption, but I did not know how much longer I could continue to do so without losing my mind completely.
I sank to my knees and bowed my head once again, hoping that this time the gods would answer my prayers.
But still, there was nothing but silence.
A light snow was falling as I trudged up the narrow, twisting path through thick woods towards the top of Mount Fuji.
I had been walking for hours, and my legs felt like lead, and my lungs burned from trying to suck oxygen out of the thin mountain air.
But no matter how hard I tried, it didn't seem like I could ever get enough of it.
I knew that was because there were too many holes in my soul, if not in my heart, and that the air was seeping out of them as fast as I could take it in.
I was a samurai warrior; a man of few words and many thoughts, and more than anything else right then, I wanted to be able to just stop thinking for a while and let the heavy silence of the snow-covered mountain fill me up instead, until there was no room left for anything else.
But I knew that wouldn't happen, not yet anyway, and not until I had climbed all the way up the mountain and back down again first, even if it killed me in the process.
I didn't know if it would or not, and I didn't really care, either way.
All I knew was that it didn't matter to me anymore, and that nothing else ever would again; not after what had happened to us at the Battle of Toba-Fushimi, four years ago, when I had failed to protect my lord and my comrades, as I should have, and they had all died because of it, as they never should have done.
I could still see my lord's face, twisted in pain as he lay dying on the ground, and the angry glares of the men who had killed him, looking down at me from above, as they stood over his body with their swords drawn and ready to strike again, if I gave them any reason to do so.
I remember thinking that it wouldn't be long before they did, and that they would have been right for doing so, too; not after what I had done to them, and what my lord had allowed them to do to him, as well.
When I finally reached the peak of Mount Fuji, I couldn't take it anymore, and I fell to my knees in the snow before the gods who watched over us all and begged them to forgive me for my sins, and for abandoning them like this, when everything had gone so wrong and my life was no longer worth living, and for throwing away all the gifts they had given to me so carelessly and selfishly, without ever having given anything back to anybody or anything else, except for myself .
I took my sword from out of its scabbard and laid it down on the ground before them, as a symbol of my repentance, and knelt before it, with my head bowed low and looking down at the ground, as if too ashamed to meet their eyes or too frightened to look up at them and see the disappointment in their eyes when they saw me like this, kneeling before them like a coward and a beggar without any honor or any dignity left, after everything else was gone or taken away from me already.
"Take it," I whispered softly to them under my breath, and then said it louder and more firmly when they didn't answer me the first time, as if they hadn't heard me the first time and needed to be reminded of what I had said before."Take this sword from out of my hands and give me something else to hold onto instead; something better than this useless piece of metal and wood which is good for nothing anymore except for hurting people who don't deserve to be hurt."
Then, I laid the sword down on the ground before them again, and got to my feet and stood there, waiting for them to answer me, as if they would; but of course, they never did, and that was when I knew that they wouldn't.
The wind howled all around me and the snow swirled up about my feet and legs like a cloud of angry white bees, while I stood there like that, waiting for them to come and take it away from me, but there was no sign of them and no one else to do it either, and so I took the sword back in my hands again and took a step forward into the wind, as if daring fate to take it from me instead.
When they still didn't answer me, I walked away from them then and left the sword there on the ground behind me, for somebody else to take it instead, when they found it and saw what I had done; and then I left the peak of the mountain behind and began making my way back down the way that I had come up all by myself.
Descending the mountain was more dangerous than climbing to its peak, but at least it was downhill all the way back to Edo, so I went on my way as quickly as I could, before the storm caught up with me and took my life along with everything else that had already been lost.
I hoped that the gods would forgive me for what I had done and what was still to come, but if not, then at least they would understand why, even if nobody else did; because at least of all, myself.
In any case, I was going back down again now, instead of going up any higher; but even so, the summit of Mount Fuji was still a long way behind us yet and a long way above us yet, even though we were already far from the place where we had started out from before.
