Anchihiiroo - Origin of an Antihero Read online

  I just shook my head. I didn’t have any tears left after all of the disaster from the last few days. I felt sad for Touji and Maebure, the kind people from Hiun who looked after me briefly. At this point, I had already become numb to death and dying. It was not exactly a comfortable thought for a five year old to have.

  Soohei seemed to sense my feelings. “You are safe now. Even if the ninjas did a horrible thing, they also pushed the pirates away from Animetown. They will not come any closer.”

  “I guess,” I replied.

  Soohei jumped to his feet. I remember being surprised at how limber he was for an old man. “Come, Yoshi, let me show you around your new home.” He smiled at me.

  “How did you know my name?”

  “You spoke in your sleep,” he answered.

  “Oh.” I gingerly swung my legs to the side of the bed. Soohei retrieved a wheeled chair and brought it to me. He gently placed me into the seat, his smile never wavering.

  “Are you ready for the tour?”

  His positive energy was infectious and I felt soothed just being in his presence, despite all of the bad things I had witnessed. He pushed me around the temple and showed me all the different sections of my new home. I saw the gardens where they grew their own soybeans and other vegetables. He showed me the sleeping quarters of the trainee monks that he called samaneras. There were some there that looked barely older than me.

  I was more impressed with the training area where the monks learned aikido. Bikkhu Soohei explained to me that this was a form of fighting that relied mostly on self-defense without injuring your attacker. I asked my first question at that point.

  “Why not hurt someone who wants to hurt you?”

  Soohei’s answer was cryptic. “Why continue a cycle of pain when you can be the source for ending it?”

  I thought about his question but could not come up with a good reason other than my feelings that if I had a chance to inflict pain on those that hurt me so much, I wouldn’t hesitate to take it. I didn’t voice this thought. We stopped at a thick wooden door with a red bird painted on the outside.

  “What is this room?”

  “This is the room that lends our temple its name. Suzaku is housed in here.”

  “What’s a suzaku?”

  “Not a suzaku. Suzaku. She is a legendary bird, a phoenix. But she currently slumbers.”

  “So there’s a big red bird sleeping behind the door?” I asked.

  Soohei laughed. He opened the door and let me look inside. There were wall sconces placed around the room. The light flickered and forced my attention on a fairly large egg in the center of the room. It was probably two feet wide. It was streaked with red and gold and glittered in the lighting.

  “It’s a big egg.”

  “Yes. And Suzaku sleeps inside. She has been sleeping for over one hundred years. One purpose of our temple is to await the one that will fulfill the prophecy of Suzaku Temple.”

  “What’s a prophecy?”

  “It is a series of events that we expect to happen based on stories from long ago. When Suzaku came here to die, she told the monks that she would not awaken again until she was approached by a hero worthy of her companionship.”

  “Die? But it’s an egg.”

  “Yes. The phoenix dies in a ball of flame. From her ashes arises an egg with a young phoenix inside. She is both the same phoenix as well as her child.”

  “She’s her own mother?” I concluded.

  Soohei laughed at my child perspective. “I suppose you could say that. You see the ash spread across the floor,” he said, pointing.

  “Yes.”

  “It is hot to the touch for anyone who Suzaku does not feel is worthy. When our novice monks turn thirteen, we test each one of them to see if they are the ones to fulfill the prophecy. So far, all we have seen are burned feet.” He laughed quietly at his joke. Soohei gently closed the door to Suzaku’s room.

  “What else do people learn here?” My mind returned to the monks practicing martial arts.

  Soohei rubbed his chin. “I suppose I can show you. You’ve never been exposed to other parts of Toonopolis before, but you know that Animetown is just a small part of a larger world, right?”

  “Yes.”

  He pushed me down a corridor and opened another door. Inside, I watched some of the older monks doing very strange things. I saw one monk pull a large club out from behind his back. It seemed to come from nowhere. Another was walking on air until he looked down and fell into a heap.

  “What is this?” I asked.

  “There are laws governing our world that we in Animetown are still learning about. Other parts of Toonopolis seem to accept them as normal but we have been exploring them as well. It is quite like–”

  “Magic,” I finished.

  “Not entirely. It is more like–“

  “Not interested.” My curt answer seemed to set the Bikkhu back a moment. After hearing about ninjitsu, I had no desire to learn anything else about the magic of Animetown or any other parts of Toonopolis.

  “Come,” Soohei said, breaking my thoughts. “I want you to meet another young boy who recently arrived here.”

  I stared at the red bird on the door until Soohei wheeled me away. He took me to a small room that was littered with metal parts, screws, and other debris. A strange-looking boy lifted his head as we approached and smiled. He wore loose-fitting goggles and a smaller version of the robes that the rest of the Suzaku Temple monks wore.

  His hair and skin were pure white. I guessed that he was a few years older than me but we were the same size.

  “Greetings, Bikkhu Soohei,” he said jovially. His hands were working on a small mechanical device with a screwdriver.

  “Yuki recently came here from a family in Animetown, Yoshi.”

  My five-year-old mind didn’t filter the next question. “Why is he so white?”

  Yuki lifted his goggles to reveal a pair of pale blue eyes. His good nature didn’t falter. “I am an albino. There is nothing wrong with me, so don’t worry, Yoshi. I just don’t have color in my skin like you.”

  He placed his tools down and walked to me. He put out his hand and I shook it.

  Soohei seemed pleased. “I will leave you two to get to know each other. Since you are the two newest residents here, I hope that you will become friends.”

  The Bikkhu left us at that point. Yuki offered to show me the mechanical devices he was working on. It was so interesting and Yuki loved to talk about them. I felt that Soohei knew that Yuki would be a good distraction, but I didn’t have time to think about it. Yuki kept my mind racing with his talk of robotics and gears and wheels.

  Thus my time at Suzaku Temple began. I was treated no different from any of the other novice monks. When I turned seven, I was given my own set of robes and began my training in the Order of Suzaku.

  The next five years passed with little to note. My training taught me the Buddhist principles of mindfulness and peace. I learned how to cultivate vegetables and to prepare them. I was trained in aikido. The monks also allowed younger novices like Yuki and I time to play and be children.

  Yuki’s thirteenth birthday came and went and he only got burnt feet for his attempt at approaching Suzaku’s egg. I was only a few months away from my thirteenth birthday, as best as the monks could guess. No one knew the actual date of my birth.

  Yuki wasn’t surprised that he wasn’t the hero of the prophecy. His genius with robotics continued to grow and he was working with a crazy idea that he could build some sort of artificial intelligence and make one of his machines be alive. He spent much more time in his tinkering room than anywhere else.

  Even though he was two years older than me, I far surpassed his size and ability in physical activities by the time I was ten. We grew to be as close as brothers over the years, our differences being the glue that brought us together.

  Some of the kids were playing hide and seek when I broke one of the major rules of Suzaku Temple. I remembered
that there was a small spot in Suzaku’s egg room just on the other side of the door that had no ash on the floor. I figured that would be an amazing hiding spot.

  I ran to the wooden door with the red bird on it and snuck quietly inside. I pulled the door shut and stood on my toes to keep my heels from touching the ash on the floor. I could hear kids outside being found and the seeker run past the door several times.

  My legs began to cramp. I heard the other kids begin calling for me. “Yoshi! You win, Yoshi! You can come out!”

  I breathed a sigh of relief. Then the flames on the wall sconces shot up in the air and caught me completely off guard. I spun in place and lost my footing, falling into the ash on Suzaku’s floor.

  My screams alerted the other kids to my location. Yuki was the one to open the door. I looked up from the floor and realized that I wasn’t feeling any pain. Yuki looked stunned and told one of the other kids to get Bikkhu Soohei.

  “Yoshi? Are you okay?” he asked.

  I stood up and looked at the wall sconces. They were flickering in their normal state again. I wondered if the flame bursts were just my imagination. I was covered in the phoenix’s ashes but wasn’t burning. A realization hit me when Soohei came to the door. I barely heard Yuki’s question.

  “Yoshi! Are you burnt? What happened?” Soohei’s voice had more concern than anger, but I could tell he was not pleased with me for being in the room before I was thirteen.

  I brushed the ash off my robes and gave a thumbs-up. “I am okay, Bikkhu. I am not burnt.”

  A giant crackling sound behind me diverted attention away from me. I turned and saw that a large fissure had appeared in Suzaku’s egg.

  “It is you,” Soohei said. “You are the one of the prophecy, Yoshi.”

  “I’m what?”

  All the children raised in Suzaku Temple had some hope that they would be the ones to awaken the legendary bird on their thirteenth birthday. None of us really expected it, however. “Suzaku?” I asked the cracking egg.

  The fissure opened wider and a flare of motion arose from the egg. Suzaku was absolutely beautiful. No description of the phoenix could have matched what I witnessed that day. She arose without any of the normal wet, sticky goo that I had seen covering hatchling chickens and ducks.

  She spread her wings and her red and orange feathers glinted in the light of the fires on the wall. Her tail feathers reached almost to the floor even though she was hovering about five feet in the air. Her wingspan was around three feet and her body was approximately the size of a large hawk’s. She stared right at me and spoke with the voice a young girl, high and pleasant.

  “You have finally come to me, hero.”

  “I have?”

  “I have slept in that egg for over one hundred years,” she said with a bite in her voice. “Please don’t tell me I woke up for an idiot.”

  Her sharp tone caught me off guard. The insult she threw didn’t really mesh with how beautiful she was. She flew down and landed at my feet, kicking up some of her ash.

  “Cat got your tongue, kiddo?” she asked. “You know who I am, right?”

  “Suzaku. This temple was built around you to keep your egg safe while awaiting the hero of your prophecy to awaken you.”

  She flew into the air again and looked over my shoulder, “Good, Soohei, at least you educated him properly. I thought I was going to have to die again.”

  “You know me, Miss Suzaku?” Soohei asked. I had never seen him at a loss before.

  “I’m a light sleeper,” she said with a chuckle.

  I made eye contact with her and her eyes seemed to change color in the flickering firelight. “You’re not what I expected,” I blurted.

  “Yeah, neither are you, so let’s just get the disappointment out of the way.” She hovered in the air again and looked me over. “I feel in you a great destiny, though, which is why I awoke and why my ash did not burn you. You are to be great, Yoshi, and I am here to help you.”

  I could hear Soohei and the novices gasp behind me. I felt a swell of pride. The phoenix had chosen me. I looked at the Bikkhu and my friends. Some of the other kids looked jealous. A few seemed a little annoyed. Only Yuki and Soohei beamed with pride to match my own.

  I exited the room with Suzaku flying over me. The crowd backed up and formed a circle around the phoenix and me. Soohei approached.

  “It’s time to start your training, then, Yoshi.”

  “But I’ve been training, Bikkhu.”

  “No. You have been trained as a regular monk, my son. You must be trained to be a warrior now. You must become strong in mind, body, and spirit. You must seek out the three greatest senseis in Animetown and learn from them before you are ready to become the great hero you are destined to be.”

  “But first,” said Suzaku, “I have to pee.” As everyone stared at her, she responded, “What? You try living in an egg for a hundred years and see if you don’t have to pee when you get out.”

  She gracefully flew past the novices and through an open window in the hall. All eyes turned back to me. I shrugged. “At least she went outside?” I offered as a justification.

  “Yoshi, let’s get you prepared for your journey,” said Soohei.

  Suzaku flew back into the hall and landed next to me. She looked at novices gathered around. “I feel much better; thanks for asking.” We followed Bikkhu Soohei down the hall to prepare me for my hero journey.

  Part Three: The Mind Sensei

  “I’m hungry,” Suzaku declared as we stood outside the entrance of the Buddhist temple.

  “You’ve been eating non-stop for the past two days,” I replied. “Are you fattening up for a holiday?”

  “Hrmph.” She nipped my ear.

  “Ow!”

  “That’ll teach you to call a lady fat. I’m a growing bird. I need to eat.”

  I wanted to respond that she wasn’t much of a lady, but I figured it was best to just leave well enough alone. Soohei and Yuki observed the exchange from nearby but didn’t intervene.

  The two days after Suzaku’s hatching were busy with preparations. Bikkhu Soohei packed my bag with food and water. Suzaku insisted that I gather her ashes from the egg room and carry them on the journey. She said I would need them later but wouldn’t tell me why. I packed a few changes of robes but left with nothing else.

  I hugged Yuki and said, “You’ve been like a brother to me. Thank you.”

  Yuki glanced at Soohei, who nodded. “Funny you should say that . . .”

  “Are we ready to go?” Suzaku interrupted. “We have a lot of traveling to do and this sappy goodbye is upsetting my stomach.”

  “Are you sure it wasn’t the three helpings of breakfast that upset your stomach?” asked Yuki.

  Suzaku stuck out her black tongue at Yuki in response. I laughed, earning myself another nip on the ear from my new friend.

  “Yoshi,” the Bikkhu began, “do you remember where you need to go to meet your first sensei?”

  “To the hills near Hiun. Where the orchard once stood.”

  “Yes, there is a small hut belonging to a very wise old monk who once resided here but now lives in solitary. He will train your mind to be that of a warrior.”

  “So you’ve told me,” I responded. “But I still don’t understand why I have to train my mind if I am to become a warrior. I need to get stronger.”

  Soohei laughed.

  Suzaku sighed and smacked the back of my head with a wing. “And that’s why you need to get smarter first, idiot, because you don’t even understand why you need to be able to think to be a hero.”

  “You’re not a very nice bird,” I replied while rubbing the spot where she’d slapped me.

  “I never said I was.”

  “Good point.”

  I walked down the steps to the base of the temple. I turned back to see Soohei and Yuki returning to their lives inside Suzaku’s temple. The young phoenix landed on the dirt road next to me and looked up.

  “Guess it’s just
you and me now, kid,” she said.

  “I guess so,” I said, slinging my pack over my shoulder. “Let’s go visit the first sensei so I can move on to my real training.”

  I caught a scoff from Suzaku as she took to the air to follow me away from the temple in the heart of Animetown. It would be years before I would set foot inside Animetown again, although I wasn’t aware of that at the time.

  # # #

  I stood at the base of a familiar hill, looking up at the small thatched-roof cottage that now rested on top. Years before, I expected to die on that hill as Kunoichi hurled a fireball at me before her ninjas burned Hiun to the ground. My ears grew hot at the memory.

  “You gonna eat that?” asked Suzaku, breaking my memories.

  “Huh?” I replied before glancing down at the soy-filled bun in my hands. I hadn’t eaten any but suddenly didn’t feel the urge. I tossed it to the phoenix, who always seemed to need to eat.

  “Whadyathikinbout?” She garbled at me with a full mouth.

  “Nothing,” I replied. The anger dropped from a boil to a simmer as I repacked my bag and began to walk up the hill. It had been a simple two-day walk from Animetown to the monk’s hut.

  I was quiet as Suzaku observed the remnants of the destruction left from the fire and flood that wiped out Hiun, leaving me as the only survivor. No one had even attempted to rebuild the town. A few half-sunken boats rotted in the small harbor of the former fishing town that took me in after pirates razed my village, Higeki.

  I noticed during our trip that Suzaku only seemed to stop talking when she was eating and even then she sometimes tried to do both. She had delighted in hunting a few of the large rats that had taken up residence in Hiun and adding meat to her diet, since mine was solely vegetarian.

  “Waidup!” she cried, gulping down the last of the bun. I could hear her wings beating the air as she rose to fly after me. “Why are you in such a rush, hero?”

  “I need to finish my mind training so I can move on to my body training, right?”