The screaming outside still hasn't stopped. It seems like it's been going on for days. Kaasan told us to hide, for me to protect Shun-chan, and for us not to come out until we hear the screaming stop and the soldiers are gone.
I'm holding Shun-chan close, he's shivering and crying, trying to be as quiet as possible. It's gone quiet now, I hear hoofs pounding the ground outside. They're passing the house, which I suppose is good. Ours was one of the last houses in the village, I'm guessing it's over. Getting up, I go to peer out the window, to see if it's over.
Shun-chan grabs my arm, crying, begging me not to go. "Aniki! Aniki, onegai! They'll get you, too. Like they got Kassan and Tousan! Please, Aniki!" I looked down at him, my reflection stares back. His face is dirty, the tears make clean little streaks as they descend. He stares up at me with blue eyes, exact replicas of my own, and clings to my arm. "It's all right." I tell him gently. "It's over now." I pry his hands off my arm and head outside.
The thing that hits me first is the stench. Bile, manure, urine, and blood, all mixed with the smell of burning flesh. I stumble backwards a bit from it, then I see what the war has done to our home. Bodies lay everywhere, like dolls discarded by some careless child. I see some of my friends lying outside their houses, some have arrows in their backs, others have been sliced in halve by swords, and there are yet, still some who have been trampled by horses or burned to death by fire. Looking around, I'm certain that Shun-chan and I are the only ones who have survived the massacre.
Just then I hear Shun-chan scream in the distance. I run to him and find him standing over a few bodies crying. He runs to me and throws his small arms around my waist, burying his head in my chest. I look over his shoulder to see that the body he was standing over was Kassan. That's funny, I wonder why most of her clothes are ripped off. I noticed most of the other females in the village where like that too. I see Tousan's body a little further away, he'd been decapitated. His head lay just beside his body.
Still holding Shun-chan, I turn away. We walk back into the house together, side by side, as I think about what we should do. I'm the oldest, and with Kassan and Tousan dead that means it's up to me to protect Shun-chan. We have to leave here, I don't know where we'll go or what we'll do, but we can't stay here. And I'll protect Shun-chan, no matter what, Kassan told me to.
I'm grateful that Shun-chan has already cried himself to sleep. This means I can do what I have to alone. I creep out of the house and back to our parents bodies. I may still be a child, but I know about honor. I can't leave our parents to rot out here. So I bury them, it's a double grave with a pathetic marker, but it's the best I can do. By the time I'm finish the sun has long since been down, I stumble back to the house and make sure I'm out of Shun-chan hearing range before I throw myself onto the blanket and cry myself to sleep.
The next morning Shun-chan's up before I am, he's already gotten breakfast and says he's sorry for acting like such a baby. He asks me what we're to do now and I tell him we can't stay here. He looks at me as if I'm Seiryuu and can do anything, which frightens me because I can't. I discovered that last night when I was too tired to bury any of the others. I tell him to go find us some food for a couple of days as I begin to pack what meager belongings we have left.
I know where our parents
hid the most important things and look at them, trying to decide if we
should bring them along or not. I finally decide on the book of stories
Kassan use to read to us from and Tousan's flute. I tie them and the food
that Shun-chan's brought up in what manageable clothing I can find left
and we walk out of the village. Not knowing where we're going or what will
happen, but that we'll always be together. After all Shun-chan's my reflection,
how can I lose that?