>>5920123You get up quickly. It’s not hard because Masami helps by yanking you by the back of your neck. You don’t need to look to know it’s her and not someone else.
“Thanks.” You say, the two of you jogging towards the scene. As you arrive, Yuna is already there, perched over her sister like a vulture while Naoki lurks nearby, motionless like a statue until he catches sight of you in his periphery.
“Two out of three of us have slain demons, so Masami’s next. Assuming hers is exactly between hulking monstrosity and this little shit, I’m not sure I like her odds.”
You look to Masami to try and get a bead on her take on all this. Stupefied! You probably were too, coming awake from a dream and needing to form some kind of coherent perspective.
It’s not that you approve or disapprove. It’s more that you feel like you’ve encountered an iconic moment of a sort, something that defines a person. Not a big moment, just a little moment. The moment between moments that defines who you are, as a man and a ninja. Were you some kind of warrior? Did you approve of solving things with violence, even between friends? Would you join Naoki in bravado and banter, taking him up on his tacit offer to join him in victory?
Or was this some kind of cold reality? Were you the person to take this in with a solemn nod, and refer to it as a sad necessity? For the good of the village, maintaining a sense of uniform morality, a moment where the law of your cohort settles into place, an iron lock securing an iron chain that says ‘Talk shit, get hit.’ is the way? To grow older, and become stern men who wave a hands of approval to the little brutalities that constitute your bloodstained little impure world? To accept that this is the way it’s been, has been, and will be forevermore?
A microcosm that represents an endless wheel of revenge through means of force, turning ever onward, subsuming kids, adults, communities, villages, nations, and the world itself.
Or… You could just look beyond. Back through the looming woods over yonder to the bonfire you’ve built and the friends you’ve made out there somewhere in the darkness. Let this moment pass in silence, to die wedged between the things in life that are actually worth focusing on.
Masami is gauging your face now too. You have nothing to say other than “Well. Alright. Let’s get back to the bonfire.”
“Hmph. Alright.” Naoki says, immediately turning back to trudge with you back into the light. Masami scampers behind the two of you, swimming in your wake. You remember that her perception of herself as that kind of person is a real source of doubt for her. Just another little peek behind the curtain, another quiet moment lost in time.
You turn back to let the memory sink in for sure.
