Where the Spider Lily Blooms

Two wanderers admire the scenery while a city burns below

Created with Midjourney

Content warnings¹

A German version of this story can be found here.

Two figures sit halfway up on the mountain overlooking a burning city. The larger one is wearing a blue kimono, with a longer katana and a shorter wakizashi in his belt. The smaller one is wrapped in a black hooded cloak and bears no visible weapons.

"Why did you come back?" the armed man asks.

"I wanted to watch the rest of the gang burn."

Down below, people are running through the streets, panicked civilians, armed soldiers and shadows with torches, still spreading the fire.

"Do you regret the time you spent with them?"

The smaller figure shrugs off the hood. Her black hair is tied simply at the nape of the neck, her round face devoid of white powder or rouge. "No," she says slowly. "They accepted me when I had nowhere else to go. But they've betrayed their own values. When you cut Koji down before me, in my mind I'd already separated from them."

"That's why you were so calm," the man growls. "True, I just saw a common pickpocket when I chased you out of that tea house. But then you never batted an eyelid, even when you were standing in a pool of blood. That's when I feared you were one of the hidden ones, or worse."

The woman chuckles. "I was only worrying about how to apologize for stealing your purse. Koji was never kind to me. I was afraid of sharing his fate, yes, but never afraid for him."

"There was only half a month's pay in that purse."

She shakes her head. "For us, that is a fortune. Am I forgiven?" she urges abruptly. "Or do you still resent me?"

"If I resented you, we wouldn't be talking like this," the man says. "If anything, I should apologize to you. Caught a few of your buddies down there tonight."

They watch the sparks rise into the night. The shouts and cries are far away, like something out of a play or a dream.

"I hope you caught more than a few," the woman whispers darkly. Then she nods at his katana. The black lacquered scabbard is adorned with a red spider lily². "Enough blood for your blade?"

"The others will take care of the rest," the man says but draws his sword nevertheless. The thin steel reflects the dancing flames below and illuminates their faces. The woman stares hungrily until the man resheathes it.

"Where will you go now?" she asks.

He shrugs. "I might wander the country for a while. Offer up my sword in exchange for coin where it's needed. Travel is bitter and lonely without company though."

"How fortunate," she says dryly. "I just happen to have an idea that might make your travels much sweeter, Sanada Toshio."

"I'm listening… Noriko."

When the fires have burned down and nothing but cooling ash remains in the dawn, the man and woman stand and leave the mountain together.

Author notes

The Sanada were a well-known clan in Japanese history, associated with the Matsushiro Domain (present-day Nagano). Sanada Yukimura, possibly its most famous member, was sent to the Toyotomi clan as a hostage in 1587 and ended up marrying Chikurin-in, Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s adopted daughter. Later, he went on to oppose the Tokugawa in the Battle of Sekigahara that ended the bloody Sengoku period in 1600 as well as in the Battle of Osaka where he died in 1615. He was called the "Crimson Demon of War" and the "last Sengoku hero".

I probably first read the name Sanada Yukimura in the manga series Samurai Deeper Kyō which I borrowed from my best friend in secondary school. Kyō and other pop culture stories introduced me to Edo period Japan and its wealth of larger-than-life characters, a fascination that obviously continues to this day.

This story is also a small nod to the Shinsengumi, an elite group of swordsmen made up of commoners and low-ranked samurai employed by the Japanese bakufu government from 1863 to 1869. They were tasked with keeping the peace in Kyoto, a job which often involved crossing swords with bandits and anti-bakufu rebels, inspiring yet more pop culture stories.

Will we see Noriko and Toshio again in the future? Who knows…

1. Fire, mentions of blood & murder

2. Also known as corpse flower, the Japanese red spider lily is poisonous. It often blooms at or around grave sites in autumn and is said to guide the dead into their next reincarnation.