Your Light

(Yes I based this on a scene from one of the Samurai Warriors games fight me)





Ransei had been united in the playful contest arranged by the senior warlords, and Hanbei, the youthful winner under Hideyoshi's rule, had been in high spirits.

But ever since the strategist's coughing fit at his victory party, his friend Kanbei couldn't help but distance himself from the levity. Hanbei had long been in ill health, and the fit had only brought that to the forefront of the younger man's mind.

Even that fact, that Kanbei was the younger of the two, was a constant reminder of Hanbei's condition. Even their lord had initially believed Hanbei to be a child, and Nene had doted on him as such. Both strategists suspected that she still believed it to be true, although Hanbei, of course, took it in a relaxed manner.

There was a small squeaking sound just before a tug at Kanbei's robes. "Pika!" Hanbei's Pikachu declared insistently, tone conveying something that a ghost-linked person could never understand otherwise.

"He wants to see me?"

The mouse nodded and waddled away, leading Kanbei to a dark side room, a small place used for castle storage.

Kanbei's link, Lampent, burned a little brighter than usual to cast light around them, although he had told it not to, and a cough from the corner revealed why they had been brought there.

"Hey, hey Kanbei." Hanbei's voice was upbeat, but his watery eyes shone in the candlelight. "You ran off from the party and I haven't seen you since. It's been what, a week?" he asked as he slid off his chair, balancing on his ipponba geta.

Kanbei chuckled. "Observant as always."

"Darn right! Which means I also know you're trying to avoid me."

It was true, of course. "Yes. You're, if I may, a sore winner."

"I can't help it if I'm the best. To win while sleeping, that's always been my goal. It wasn't much of a challenge. It's a good thing we like Master Hideyoshi or else he'd have to consider us a threat. What's that you say, even the slightest spark of rebellion has to be extinguished?"

To bring that up was unusual. "...This doesn't seem like the time to discuss that."

Hanbei smiled, but it wasn't nearly as broad as usual. "I'm going somewhere with this. You're /almost/ as good a strategist as I am. Almost. And that means you're really observant. So surely you've noticed..."

It was about Hanbei's declining health. But he had always avoided discussing it directly, and bluntness wouldn't be welcome. Instead, Kanbei followed his line of sight, straight to Lampent.

It had returned to its usual flame, even that being bright. But since the victory, it had burned brighter than normal. Even Kanbei's avoidance had done nothing to change that. And the reason was obvious.

"...Yes. It's been stronger lately. Brighter. It's been absorbing an especially powerful spirit..." The spark that would be extinguished. Hanbei had invoked that phrase for a very distinct reason.

Hanbei looked down, winding his hands behind his head. "Yeah...I wouldn't have been much company over the past week. I've been really tired, haha. But you'd have to be pretty bright to know that."

"Making jokes at a time like this, Hanbei?"

The older man's expression changed, and he jovially jammed a finger on the corner of Kanbei's mouth. "We may as well smile! Even you can smile, right?"

Kanbei pushed the hand away. "You're taking this awfully well."

"Yeah well, not much I can really do about it." He wobbled back and forth on his shoes. "Funny, huh? This great mind can unwind a hundred variables and predict exactly what an entire army will do, at lighting speed. But...heh, the mind can be out in the moon and stars but the body is just part of the soil."

"That's...one way of putting it." Kanbei muttered. "Still, I wanted to keep Lampent at a distance."

Pikachu squeaked again, and Hanbei picked it up, rubbing its forehead. "It wouldn't have done any good. At least my spirit isn't going to waste. I wouldn't be surprised if it gets really fat off me!"

Ordinarily, Kanbei would have said that such a thing wasn't possible, but he had already chided Hanbei on his attitude. "I'd long ago made peace with my mortality, but I hadn't thought you would have done the same."

"Well, that's why I said you're /almost/ as good a strategist as me," Hanbei giggled, holding back another cough. "And with me gone, Master Hideyoshi will be depending on you. No more "gather 100 Pokémon" missions for you, big time Junior Warlord!"

"Hanbei." Though he addressed the other man, Kanbei glanced towards Lampent, which hung impassively in the air, rocking to and fro. "You wouldn't be saying this if it wasn't close by."

Hanbei's expression darkened, and his hand stilled on Pikachu's head. "I need you to do me a favor. Once I die, could you take care of Pikachu?"

Lampent moved a little closer, before Kanbei's reaction, and looked the mouse up and down. "...You know that I have no bond with electric types."

"You don't with most people either. How you managed to find a wife is something even my genius can't figure out. Pikachu knows you though." The mouse wriggled in its link's hold to wave a short arm at Kanbei. "It trusts you. And you too, Lampent." The lantern swung around like a top, a sign of agreement. "I know you'll do a good job, even if you can't use it in battle."

"Very well," Kanbei nodded. "I will devote myself to this task."

Hanbei and Pikachu laughed at once, the same time taken and the same pitch hit. "There's that strategist at work! Pikachu will watch over you as well."

"Hmph. You both seem confident in that."

Pikachu hopped down onto the ground, and Lampent followed to its level, examining its future companion closely. "It's a good world to be confident in. I never thought I'd live to see a peaceful Ransei. It would be pretty boring to stick around."

"Would you say so without this dagger over you?"

Hanbei shrugged. "Yeah. But then I'd just travel or something. I advise you do so. You could use a vacation. Get some sun."

Years on the battlefield had done nothing to change Kanbei's pale complexion, something Hanbei had often joked about to the younger man's irritation. But he couldn't help but find it somewhat darkly charming this time. "I commend your bravery. Yet your foolishness is still apparent."

Another shrug, and Hanbei again stuck his hands behind his head. "Think I'll see Arceus again? Or maybe your new god?"

Arceus had been summoned and bound by humans, and Kanbei had lost his belief in its divinity. Certainly it existed, which alone had been a shattering discovery. But that it was merely an architect, a creator with no other powers, had dealt a blow to the devotion of many. Kanbei had taken to following a god that outsiders spoke of, a mother goddess known as Mew. Another being that he was confident in the existence of, as it was connected to Kenshin's mysterous link, the beast known as Mewtwo. "Mew does not deal with the afterlife. I have heard tell of a creation of Arceus, a being that rules the underworld, though even the most detailed legends and accounts of it are spotty."

"It may take one look at you and see you as competition." Hanbei chuckled.

"Your foolishness is still apparent," Kanbei repeated, but softer.

"Hey...I have to confess something and I think you're the only person I can tell. Not even my family, and really not Master Hideyoshi."

Kanbei merely nodded.

"Honestly, I'm s...not looking forward to this. I try to think of it as just a nap that lasts forever. In concept that sounds great, doesn't it? Just kick back and relax until the end of time. But I'll miss so much. I'll miss seeing what happens to Ransei and the rest of the world..." He shook his head. "This isn't how a genius strategist acts, is it? Someone like me should be prepared for any and every outcome. You said you prepared for your own mortality, but so did I, I thought. So you haven't either, not really."

Lampent spun around, twirling the light in the room as it went and casting a brief shadow across Kanbei's face. "When the variables are unknown, it is impossible to strategize. Yet the outcome befalls everyone."

"Well, that's awfully fatalistic, isn't it?" Hanbei pushed off from the wall again, and swayed back and forth on his geta. He was back to his usual tone. "You've got to smile, I guess. Even you. Can't do much about it but wait and do the most we can with what we've got. You know, I worry about you." He turned, and took Kanbei's arm. "About what you'll do when I'm gone."

Kanbei had wanted to avoid that too. "I won't lie to a dying man. My life will go on. I will remain in Master Hideyoshi's service. My family will continue in some way or another. I will age, and eventually I will die, be it from any cause. My life will continue much as it has." He paused. "Although I will remember these days with you fondly, and regret your early end."

"Eh, there's no reason to regret it. It's not as noble as dying in battle, but at least this way we can say goodbye." He leaned against Kanbei. "I'll miss you too. I'll dream about you, though. You, and Master Hideyoshi, and my family, and Pikachu, and all our retainers, and those great battles we all had." Another pause, much longer than Kanbei's, and he rested his head against Kanbei's arm. "Or I won't. But it's nice to think of."

"Nothing we can do about it," Kanbei told him. "Have you told any of those others, or are Pikachu and I the only ones who know?"

"Well, my doctor, of course. But I haven't. I don't want my family to worry. They'd just make a big fuss and all want to be around me." Still against Kanbei's arm, he waved his free hand near his face. "And I'd rather go quietly. No doctors, no big fuss. Just Pikachu, and you if you'd be there."

Kanbei nodded slowly, knowing that Hanbei would feel it rather than see it. "I will. Lampent will hasten your end, however."

"Yeah, that's not a problem. Like I said, at least my spirit wouldn't go to waste." Hanbei stayed there for a moment longer, leaning against Kanbei, before letting go and standing straight again. "I never thought I'd outlast the war. I always saw it as being right before some climactic 'final battle' or something, with the army not being told until after, so morale wouldn't take a hit."

"Even now, you think the utmost of yourself. I suppose that's admirable."

"Ah-ah!" Hanbei chided, wagging a finger. "Master Hideyoshi is the utmost. Most of the time. When I've been utmost, it was at his word."

That had been uncomfortable, when Hanbei had told their master to watch his mouth around a superior simply due to the rules of the contest. "You're lucky you got away with that."

"Yeah, I guess I am. But it's not like any punishment would have lasted long. Heh, it's funny to think about. I rule Ransei, even as a game, and I die less than two months later. I think that'd be a record even for Ransei." Hanbei shrugged. "But that would be some way of being remembered, huh? It would probably overshadow my accomplishments as a strategist. So I'm lucky there too."

Even though he had used the word first, it seemed inappropriate to Kanbei for them to be discussing luck. "That's...one way to put it. To be remembered for our deeds is the best one can ask. Anything else is unimportant."

Hanbei grinned, ever so slightly less broadly than usual. "That's the way. But right now..."

"Yes?"

"Right now...I need to lie down." The smile was gone. "I can't stay awake much longer."





"Hey...Kanbei..." Hanbei had declined rapidly over the past two weeks, and when Pikachu had rushed to find the pale man, Kanbei knew it was time.

He sat on the floor, next to Hanbei's futon, and looked his friend over. "You haven't long."

"Astute observation, befitting of Ransei's top strategist," Hanbei smiled weakly. "There's something else I never thought would happen in my lifetime..."

"Me outranking you?"

"No..." Hanbei paused to cough into a small cloth. "Me being paler than you." At Kanbei's scowl, Hanbei chuckled. "Lighten up. Let's enjoy these last moments."

"That isn't something usually enjoyed. But you've always been one for the unusual. And..." Kanbei looked around. "This lighting. The day shines bright outside and yet this room is so dim."

"Yeah..." Another cough, this one bringing red flecks onto the cloth. "Easier that way. I'm surprised you don't like it, the way you talk about extinguishing sparks. But Chandelure lets off plenty of light." He gestured with his free hand to the newly evolved pokémon hovering to Kanbei's side. "I told you, it'd get fat off me."

"You have a passionate spirit," Kanbei muttered. "The world will be darker for it."

"I worry about you." The words were faint. "And about Ransei. All we all seem to know how to do is fight, even at play."

"As you told me, it would be boring to stick around in a peaceful land," Kanbei reminded him.

"Yeah yeah...but are we really at peace? Either way, I'll miss this world."

"The world will miss you." Others, including their master, would have found such a statement shockingly sentimental from the dour Kanbei, but Hanbei only snickered.

"Chandelure...now, you won't miss me, will you?" The pokémon spun around in the air, where it hovered directly over Pikachu in an attempt to keep it company. "I'm tired..." Hanbei sighed. "but I want you to not be lonely, Kanbei. You either, Pikachu."

The mouse squeaked sadly.

Kanbei only looked on, knowing that Hanbei had more to say.

"Chandelure's been helping me, after all. Thanks to it, I'll be the light that watches over you."

The younger man nodded slowly. "Even when it's raining?"

"I don't know..." Hanbei's voice had lost considerable strength since Kanbei had arrived, and was barely a whisper. "I haven't thought that far ahead. You'll think of something, though."

It was time, and Pikachu moved forward to stand beside its link, resting a tiny hand on the man's cheek. Kanbei and Chandelure remained back. "I will."

"...yeah. For now..." Hanbei coughed again, hand and cloth laying limp at his side, "...I have to get some sleep." Not a moment had passed before he was wracked with another fit, body shaking with his last energy, until he fell silent just as quickly, unmoving.

Kanbei remained still, waiting for a response until positive that there would be none. "Rest well, my friend."

Chandelure drifted down towards the fallen strategist, and Kanbei followed its movement as it drew Pikachu away.

"...I will always have your light."