Chapter Text
Sana still remembers that day like it was yesterday. As a young girl, she would often wonder into the forest, just outside her family compound, and sit in brush that housed a small stone statue of a fox. She would lay in the grass and talk to the fox statue as if it could listen and talk back.
Growing up an only child was not the cause of Sana’s lonely childhood. It was being the niece of Tsushima’s highest leader, the Jito, that caused Sana to often converse with the stone outside of her parents, tutors, and house servants.
The Minatozaki clan oversaw the Toyotama prefecture of Tsushima Island and housed a long line of decorated samurai. One of which was Sana’s father, who insisted Sana continued the family legacy of Samurai. Much to her mother’s disprovals, Sana began her training as a samurai instead of training to be a normal clan leader.
As the day passed into evening and the cricket began to chirp, Sana dozed off with heard head resting against the fox statue.
“Sana”
Sana heard a soft voice call out to her but figured it was the wind playing tricks.
“Sana, my dear”
Sana recognizes the voice as not the wind, but her mother. She slowly opened her eyes to see the sun setting behind her mother, who was crouched down, with her hand slowly caressing Sana’s disheveled hair.
“Mother?”
“My daughter, you know you should not be this far outside the compound. Especially at this time of day.”
Sana would not have been able to tell her mother was scolding her if she had not been used to her mothers soft voice her entire life. However, the squeeze on her shoulder reminded her, she should’ve been home hours ago for her writing lesson.
“I’m so sorry mother!” she gives her mother a deep bow and as she lifts her head from the ground, her mother’s eyes disappear in a smile and Sana can see the wrinkles in her mother’s face more clearly. Sana’s mother looks at the statue behind her daughter and nods towards the stone fox.
“Sana, who told you about this shrine?”
Confused, Sana replies, “No one told me. I was walking around the forest a few weeks ago and found it. I did not know it was a shrine.”
“My daughter, this is an Inari shrine.”
Sana’s questioning face pushes her mother to continue.
“Inari is a kami, Sana, and the foxes are Inari’s messengers. These shrines are all around Tsushima to protect the people and their homes.”
Sana nods as her mother explains, but furrows her brows and says, “Mother, I thought the Samurai protect Tsushima.”
Her mother’s hand falls from her shoulder and grabs Sana’s hand.
“Yes, the samurai protect us, your father protects us and soon you will protect us, but one day the samurai won’t be able to protect us, so we pray to Inari and the other kami to guide us.”
Sana is left in thought while her mother stands and hold out her hand for her daughter. Once Sana is also standing, grasping her mother’s hand, she says, “How do I find the other shrines? This one was hidden.”
“All you have to do is follow the foxes and they will lead you. Never forget that my dear. If you are lost and wondering, follow the foxes and you will find your way.”
Sana’s mother lead them both back to the compound as the day turns to night. They are greeted by a bowing woman at the front gate.
“Lady Minatozaki, Lord Minatozaki has arrived home and has requested to speak with you in the garden.”
“Thank you Myoui-San. Can you please take Sana to her room to prepare her for bed.”
“Of course my lady.” The woman bows once more and takes Sana’s hand and leads her away from her mother.
“How was your day, Lady Minatozaki?”
Sana skips ahead to pick up a small white flower growing amidst the weeds leading to Sana’s family home.
“It was alright sensei. Mother scolded me for going into the forest.”
The women chuckles and says “My lady, how many times must I tell you to not call me sensei? I am not your sensei, I am a house servant.”
Sana laughs and launches herself into the women’s arms and says “but sensei, you taught me how to braid my hair and you are much nicer than the other sensei. All he does is smack my hands with a bamboo stick.”
Sana pouts as the woman struggles to hold the growing girl in her arms. The woman sighs as see is too tired to argue with the future clan leader.
“Of course my lady.”
Arriving in Sana’s room, the young girl jumps onto her bed and giggles for no apparent reason. The older women laughs with her.
“My lady, I wish you and my daughter were able to be friends. She could use a friend like you.”
Sana stops jumping. “Like me?”
“She doesn’t speak much but she wants to be a samurai just like you.”
Sana’s eyes go wide, “Really?! We can train and protect Tsushima together!”
Sana’s energy is infectious and the woman is momentarily caught up in the fantasy of her daughter and the future clan leader being samurai together. While not impossible, a commoner becoming a samurai was difficult. She smile towards the energetic girl.
“Maybe you and Mina will be close friend one day.”
The woman leaves Sana after preparing her for bed and Sana is left alone once again. She wonders if Mina is pretty. She wonders why she’s never met her sensei’s daughter. She would love to have someone to talk to beside the stone fox statue. Before she can fall asleep, Sana hears her father’s voice just outside her room.
“Myoui-San, please send your family my regards.”
“Of course my Lord. They will be honored.”
Sana hears nothing for a moment and then a feminine voice fills the silence.
“My lord, how is Lady Minatozaki feeling?”
“Not well I’m afraid. Her illness is worse than we first thought. The doctor says it will continue to progress at a fast rate and there is not much we can do as of now.”
“Have you told Sana yet?”
Hearing her name makes Sana move closer to the paper door.
“Lady Minatozaki and I have discussed this and we just want our daughter to spend time with her mother without death looming over their heads. She’s too young to understand anyways.”
“My lady is smarter than you think, my lord, but whatever you decide is what’s best for the girl. I just hope Lady Minatozaki lives her final days in peace.”
“ So do I, Myoui-San. Thank you.”
Silence fills the air as Sana tries to understand everything she’s heard. A sick feeling settles in her stomach as she realizes, her mother is dying and fast. Her eyes fill with tears and her head filled with confusion. Her mother doesn’t seem sick or hurt, so why must she die? A sharp pain finally settles in her stomach and moves it’s way up and into her chest. She feels sick and her eyes burn.
— end of flashback —
The same pain she felt on that day begins to eat away at her stomach as she watches samurai after samurai get slaughtered on the beach where they tried to make a stand against the enemy of Tsushima.
Bodies litter the beach and smoke fills her lungs as Sana watches her uncle get taken by the enemy leader. With an arrow in her back and one in her shoulder, Sana attempts to reach her uncle across the sand.
She raises her katana and begins to run toward her target. A yell escapes her throat as she inhales more smoke. Before she can bring her katana down on a nearby enemy, another arrows slices through her armor and she fall to the ground as the arrowhead is bedded into her stomach.
She no longer can move her arms or legs no matter how hard she tries. Her eyesight starts to blur and the world around her begins to burn. Her eyes finally close as she comes to terms with her impending death. She welcomes the rest as she knows soon she will meet her mother and father once again.