The Story of Ryujin

"Hmmm.....I have a hard time believing that," Musashi commented with a skeptical look. "You like to cut the air with that blade, but that is all you are doing is cutting the air with it. You are only reliving the event and not actually in combat."

There was a sense of power that rushed through Tatsu's mind as he kept swinging the sword. He started to feel invincible like he couldn't be destroyed or killed. He felt unstoppable.

"Sloppy...." Musashi shook his head. "You are feeling nostalgia. I see the look in your eyes. That is what you are feeling is nostalgia."

"I can't lose, I never lose," the dragon said as he swung downward as he lifted the sword up again. "I will never lose again. To whatever I fought! I won't lose."

Miyamoto Musashi shook his head. He put his bowl down and struggled to stand up. He grabbed the cane that was not far from him from his table. The dragon continued to swing the sword as if he was some proud samurai warrior.

Tatsu swung hard to the left and then to the right. There was a look of pure satisfaction from the dragon's face. He was so concentrating on the sword that he was using that he virtually ignored the older man entirely.

Musashi took his cane as he quietly walked behind the dragon avoiding the tail that swung around behind Tatsu. He stepped to the side and moved to his left as Tatsu swung his sword to the left and saw Musashi at the last second. He jolted his body to a complete stop, narrowly hitting the individual square in the face by a mere centimeter. Musashi did not even move an inch as the dragon realized that he almost struck him by accident.

The dragon's eyes widened as he lowered the wooden sword down and turned to look directly at the older man. There was no anger in the older man's eyes. He seemed perfectly calm as ever as the dragon backed a little bit from Musashi.

"Forgive me, Musashi, for almost hitting you," Tatsu apologized.

The older man's response was simple. He held his hand out. "Let us play a game. There are no rewards for this game. It is simply a matter of who is the best here. The goal for me is to hit you with the blade and you to try to hit me with a blade. It is a simple test. Would you like to do this?"

"Yeah......yes," Tatsu replied, surprised by the old man's request. He gathered his composure as he resituated himself. He saw Musashi still hold his hand out. "Wait, I can end up hurting you. You are tiny compared to me."

Musashi was unfazed. "I will need to choose my weapons. I will need to get past you."

Tatsu stepped aside as Musashi walked over to the weapon rack. He pulled out a wooden mock-up of a wakizashi or a short sword that measured to be around 18 inches long and swung it a little bit in his hand. He was checking the balance before seeming to be satisfied with it. He then pulled out a wooden mock-up of a katana measuring at about 24 inches long. He repeated the same steps as before as he checked the balance. He looked satisfied as he swung it a little bit. He turned to look at the dragon.

"Two swords....." Tatsu remarked. "You are going to fight me with two swords?"

"It is good to see that some of your senses are returning to you, dragon," Musashi commented. "You are starting to remember who you were, or at least how you fight. However, what I am not pleased with is your style."

"It would be easier to have one sword. You won't be able to hold the sword correctly, and you won't be able to hit me with it."

There was a smile on Musashi's face as it returned to a neutral look. He said nothing in response to Tatsu's words.

"I......don't know if I should do this," Tatsu told him. "I would hurt you, human. You wouldn't last long against my blows. I am far stronger than you. Even if these are wooden swords."

Musashi took his katana and, with his right arm, lifted it up in a position away from his body while he took his wakizashi and held it close to his left hip. His stance was still utterly dead still. His eyes focused on Tatsu. The fierce gaze of the older man and steady calm of the individual started to make Tatsu nervous. How was that possible? This man was practically three feet shorter than the dragon. This human had no possible way to defeat him with just ordinary wooden swords.

Yet he stared up at the dragon like there was no end. He had his swords at the ready. Tatsu tried to shake it off as the dragon readied himself. He knew that even with his fragmented memory, these humans were inferior to dragons. It was impossible for even a duelist to ever beat a dragon even in a mock engagement.

There was no way that he could lose. He readied his katana as his dragon-like eyes focused on the older man. He lifted his sword up in the air and did one downward chop on the older man determined to hit his head.

The strike was so quick. Tatsu's sword went down on the older man's head as the man yelled a powerful shout, startling the dragon as Musashi's own katana deflected the blow. The dragon's sword almost flew from his hand as he shifted to the left a little bit. He was completely open as Musashi's wakizashi went straight to the center exposed belly of the dragon. There was nothing he could do as the blunt wooden blade smacked his gut. This all happened in less than half a second.

Musashi pulled back. The battle was over as quickly as it started. Tatsu stood in shock as he finally backed away. The older man's gaze was the same as before. For a mere human, this man not only bested him in a mock engagement but clearly and utterly dominated the fight.

Of course, nobody was hurt. The wooden blade couldn't have cut him anyway, no matter how hard Musashi wanted to. Only ego could be tainted, but that was determined in the dragon's point of view.

"How is that possible?" Tatsu asked the older man. "I had you. I am bigger than you. I am stronger than you."

Musashi backed away from the dragon. "Care for another round? You do not seem convinced."

"No.....," the dragon shook his head. "There was no hope in defeating you. I had lost long before the match was even made. I fell to this....world defeated from some battle that there was no hope in winning. My armor shattered and crumbled to dust. My sword.....the great and powerful sword I had was knocked from my hand. You made the claim that you are a duelist. Your own writings claimed that you killed a man when you were thirteen."

"You are correct, great dragon," Musashi said. "I am Miyamoto Musashi or what is left of him. I have won 61 duels. Sixty-one duels were issued to me, and I never lost to any of them."

"How is that possible? If only my memory returns," the dragon almost showed annoyance. "I.....I am sure that would be impossible."

"Sit down and relax, Tatsu. I wish to sit down as well. My spirit wishes to keep standing, but my body grows tired and weary. Sit, sit...."

Tatsu lowered his katana as he walked a little bit away from the weapons rack. Musashi himself stepped and retrieved his cane as he walked by his bed and table and sat down next to him.

"Good....." Musashi said. "I have won all those battles, but that was long ago.....my body knows my time is soon. I wrote the Book of Five Rings as my last way to teach others how to fight and fight properly."

The dragon was sitting cross-legged as Musashi himself followed suit. Even in his towering form, Tatsu listened to the older man's words.

"I don't know if fate.....maybe something is guiding you to here," Musashi explained. "Maybe the heavens itself is guiding you to here after your great loss as a way to ensure that you will never lose again. Without any more information, I have nothing to go by. In the end, it is the simple truth that I now have a dragon sitting next to me recovering as he watches the great duelist best him."

"I just wish....that I knew what was happening. Where did I come from? Why do I feel familiar with that blade? Why did I lose to you? It just makes no sense to me."

"Tatsu.....even I do not know your name," Musashi explained. "Do not fret yourself. Confusion is guiding you. In your confusion, however, you are displaying acts of wisdom. You knew your defeat was there, and you stopped. I saw no true acts of overconfidence, only what judgment that you saw before you."

"And what was that? That I could be bested in battle by small creatures such as yourself?"

Musashi looked away from the dragon. "Let me tell you of a battle. It was my first battle ever. I was thirteen like you read. In my foolishness to show how much of a man I had become, I issued a public challenge to all. My parents had died by then, and my uncle took and raised me as his own. A man by the name of Arima Kihei arrived at the temple and said that he wanted to fight me. My uncle did everything he could to stay for my defense. He shouted that I was just a boy and that I had overstepped my bounds and that Kihei should leave me be."

"What happened then?"

"My uncle was right.....but Arima refused to back down. He had written by decree that he was to engage me in a fight. Refusing a fight would dishonor him. I remember my uncle looking at me. There was no look of disappointment in his eyes. He turned to face Kihei, and he drew his quarterstaff to fight for my place. Kihei had a wakizashi ready to kill him. I would have none of it. I charged at Kihei during the confusion. Amazingly I knocked him down. Kihei gave me a look of anger. He was not determined to kill my uncle. He was determined to kill me. He would never get that chance, though. I had my own quarterstaff that I grabbed and engaged him. I had him as he fell to the ground; One of my blows struck him hard on the head, and I watched as he bled to death on the floor."

There was a look of pause in Musashi's face. "It was the first time I ever killed a man....suddenly the realization of the world was upon me. I knew that I was capable of becoming more than I ever realized. Of course, everything that I know now didn't happen to me that night. It would have taken a very long time for all of that to happen. I would spend time dueling others and participating in wars that we either won or lost. I would not hesitate to say that in all my fame, there are some battles that even I could not win."

"The readings and the way you fought," Tatsu interrupted him. "You used two blades against me? You did it with such ease....."

"I call it the Niten Ichi-ryū or the two heavens are one strategy. It is something that I learned is the true way to victory against others and how I won every duel that was thrown to me. I have spent the last few years of my life documenting it in those papers. My friends, students, and family have begun to make copies of my works to be sent to others so they can learn this technique as well," Musashi had a small smile develop on his face. "I guess they won't document the 62^nd duel I had with a dragon, but I don't think they will believe me if I told them."

"I can go and tell...."

Musashi waved his hand to the dragon. "Don't worry about it. My time has passed, and I await my passing. I have accomplished my deeds and my teachings. It will be a good and honorable death for me."

Tatsu looked at his wooden katana and Musashi's wooden katana that they just got done using for sparing together in their mock fight. He picked up his wooden katana and stood up. He carefully backed up a little bit and held the sword in his hand. He had both his hands on the grip and then held it with one hand. He began to swing it freely in the air again.

"You wielded an Odachi....." Musashi remarked as he watched the dragon swing his sword. "You are so immense in size, and the way you handle the sword is like seeing you with a massive blade. You pour all your strength into thinking that you had something so powerful. In the end, it would not save you."

Tatsu stopped swinging to look at Musashi that still sat comfortably on the floor watching him. "An Odachi?...."

"A great sword bigger than that katana you are holding. Most swords of their length would be about 35 inches long, but they can be any large size. With you and your size and height, the sword would have to be huge. You would have certainly had reach if you had one against me. Then again, it wouldn't have mattered...."

Tatsu looked at the sword again. "I feel like my memories are slowly returning. Each time I swing this sword." A thought had occurred to the dragon as he looked upon the older man. "Can you train me in how you fight?"

There was a pause in Musashi's thinking. He almost shrugged to him. "My teachings are in my readings, but you wish to learn from the man who wrote it? I can teach you, yes. In the end, though, it will be up to you to teach yourself as much as I am helping you teach yourself. From what I can tell, you have a long time to learn from the readings as you want. It will be the only way to victory great dragon."

Tatsu held the wooden katana in his hand and looked at it. The dragon nodded as his whiskers flopped freely in the air.

"So be it...." Musashi said. The older man took the wooden katana that he used and tossed it to the dragon in which Tatsu caught it in the air with his other free hand. "Niten Ichi-ryū is about fighting with a sword in each hand. Typically it is done with a katana and wakizashi, but with you, you have reach and height. I would almost say that you could fight with a small odachi sized sword or something to that equivalent and a katana in the other hand. With your strength, it is easy to see you wielding two small odachis, one in each hand. The choice is yours."

"I see using two swords of the same length...." Tatsu remarked. "If you are the man you are renowned for and whatever I fought defeated me awhile back, then my tactics were flawed.....truly flawed. I must adapt and change, or I will lose again."

Musashi nodded his head. "That is the first step to victory. Your spirit must adapt and accept the changes. We will begin right now. I have nothing else to do but meditate, eat, sleep, and relax. I cannot guarantee that you will be the greatest duelist ever, but if you continue to train over and over again, then you will be victorious. Are you ready to do so?"

"Yes," Tatsu replied without hesitation.

"I see...." Musashi seemed satisfied to hear the answer. He gestured the dragon to stand in front of him. "I need to see you in front of me. Is that understood?"

"Yes," the dragon replied as he took his two swords and walked to the center of the cave where Musashi could look directly in front of him.

"Good. I don't need to break my neck looking at you. You will address me as Sensei, your teacher when you talk to me. I don't care if you are a dragon or not. You are my student. Is that understood?"

"Yes, Sensei," the dragon said without hesitation.

"Good," Musashi said. "Last but not least, learn to bow to people. I don't know if you had the process down or not when we passed the gate earlier, but you will need to learn some customs if you are going to be living here with the people of Japan. I can blame the fact that you are suffering amnesia, and you are waiting for your memories to return. Perhaps you have always been with us, humans. It does not matter to me, but what is happening now. You need to bow like you were when you were at the gate yesterday before and after your training, and to others, you meet around here. It is a custom and respect for the people around here."

"I understand, Sensei," Tatsu said. He did what he did before. With a sword in each hand, he bent forward and bowed to Musashi. His wings and tail remained closed as his tail shifted slightly. The two long whiskers hung low from his snout, almost touching the floor as he bowed graciously. He returned back to a regular stance with each sword to both his hips.

"Hmmm.....you will get better, but that is good enough. Let's get started, shall we?"

Musashi took and moved the small flat table away from him to give him more room for his legs as he continued to sit cross-legged.

"The first step is your stance when you fight," Musashi explained. "Your posture is very important and how you present yourself. Human or dragon, that posture is essential. In your human form, you are still quite tall, but it can still mean that you can lose just as easily. A tall tree can still be cut down just as easily as a short tree."

"I understand, Sensei," Tatsu replied.

"First, you must be a wall. I would normally say do not tilt your head, but in your situation, you are possibly going to face enemies that are shorter than you, or if creatures like you exist that you will have to look up. Nonetheless, it is important that you do not bend your neck. Keep your back straight."

Tatsu adjusted his posture a little bit.

"Keep the enemy in front of you. Do not look around. Avoid blinking, if possible. I don't know how often you blink, but I have seen you do it once in a while. I saw you do it when you tried to attack me earlier. If you took any longer, I would have struck when your eyes closed. You can watch your opponent and gather the patterns."

"Incredible....." Tatsu acknowledged.

"Keep your shoulders down. Keep your back straight, and do not let your butt stick out. Use your neck muscles to ensure that your neck does not move. Avoid showing any expressions."

Tatsu adjusted his body accordingly.

"Good," as Musashi looked at the legs of the dragon. "Your knees. Adjust your knees and push the toes of your......clawed feet up a little bit. You must be ready to move fast and adjust your height if your opponent is taller than you."

"I understand, Sensei," Tatsu replied. "I saw you do that in the fight earlier."

"It is good that you spot that in your opponent. He will be ready to jump forward if you attack or prepare to block. You can come up with a countermove for it. Last but not least, you will need to master the concept of the kusabi wo shimeru. It involves using your lower abdominal muscles to push against your belt or waist."

Tatsu did as he was instructed, but he was having a hard time doing it. Even tightening his neck was hard.

"It will not happen overnight," Musashi continued. "The goal is to train yourself in these methods of posture. Typically the route of the Niten Ichi-ryū is to have one sword by your waist close to you while the other one is outward and away from you."

"Would there be variations to these fighting stances?" Tatsu asked as he adjusted the swords in his hands to have his left most sword grip close to his waist and the outer one forward and ready to chop down.

"Of course, but that is in all due time. We have much to go off of......"

Chapter 3: May 4th, 1645

Days had gone past in the cave as Tatsu continued to learn everything he could from Miyamoto Musashi. It was early in the day, and the cycle repeated with the dragon learning every move as much as possible. The cave seemed to be like a time capsule as if time was still as the dragon learned every move set, and time continued on outside like nothing was happening at all.

Tatsu was in his dragon form as he would hold his swords outward in both directions. He kept his focus in the center. He never looked directly at Musashi anymore. He followed his instructions carefully all the time.

"This form," Musashi explained. "Is the stance to hold if you are engaging many targets at once. Be mindful that if you are in this situation, you are doing this to get yourself out of combat, or you have nothing else you can do. You have to fight, or you die."

"I understand, Sensei. My question is, why do you use this stance? It leaves you open to attack in the center."

"It does, and very clearly, it can lead to that, but your swords are outward to be able to help prevent the enemy from flanking you. That is the graver threat than your front. The enemy is using superior numbers to hurt you. It is also a way to intimidate your enemies in hopes to possibly escape."