Blood on the Katana Sword

Chapter 11

You should’ve seen the look on Matt’s face when I handed him his brand new Fender Caster Bass “todai”. I haven’t spoken to my favourite Australian bloke since the day he threatened to Red Blossoms. And to be honest, I missed his Accent with capital A.

“Ay! G’day Watanobbi mah mate. Howy’re doin’ todai?”

Aaaaaaaaand we’re back to the way things were before. Watanobbi. Seriously, I haven’t heard him call me that in a long, long time. Classic Matthew Rochery, I missed him. I’m REALLY glad I could patch things up with him. So it looks like everything I’ve done wrong with our hard-earned funds are all behind him now, now that he knows I’ve donated the rest of the funds from the Katana sword the LGBTQA+ community through f*******:, support groups and websites, GoFundMe accounts (for queer AND underprivileged individuals. Every person counts) and stuff like that. It was our original plan back in college for where the money will go to. We planned it. And I made sure to follow up with it. Both Matt and I (and the other three too, soon after I tell them) are glad that it’s been done.

The silly bloke acted so surprised when I told him I’ve sold off my one and only oh-so-precious family heritage on the web, and that it’s actually possible to sell something like a Katana Sword online (people buy and sell weird stuff from all over the net anyway, whaddya expect, mate?). Lol. Even after all the trouble, the bruises and blemishes, relative transphobic slurs and insults, the physical crotch-knockin’, balls-bearin’ torture (plus the blood-in-front-of-my-pants-for-all-to-see humiliation, the best part) I went through to get it? YES, Mr. Rochery. I went through all that to get the sword and then I sold it. For you. For me. For us. For people like me. For things more important than some stupid relic or family “honor” or traditional heritage crap.

Because how useful is an ancient sword to a regular guy like me in the modern world anyway?

I explained to Matt (in a more civil manner to his more open-minded ears this time. Thanks for listening and at least TRYING to understand, man) that I didn’t transition for the perks of it. Male privilege is NOT what I’m after. I am not “trying to be a guy” to have an “easier life” or s**t like that. That’s how a sexist American society works and yes, I’ll probably benefit from my gender in a way or two over those of my birth s*x (like getting paid more for the same job), but still I AM A MAN AND I AM SUPPOSED TO BE A MAN. THAT’S WHO I AM UNDER ALL THESE LAYERS OF FEMININE CONDITIONING. That’s all. That’s all why I did what I did. I had to do it. I WANTED to.

Because I WANT to.

It took Matt some time to digest that. It’s ok. I can give him as long as he needs to slowly move in the right direction. He looked at me for a long time, and finally he just nodded and smiled and accepted what I said. Then he grabbed both my hands and said God and Jesus both don’t hate on anyone or encourage discrimination against ANYONE at all, no matter how different they may be from the norm. That’s not how religion works, he says. That’s not the Christian way of life. Discrimination has NO place in the holy world and society. And he won’t let it happen to me, especially from bigots and bullies who dare call themselves “Christians” or even “members of the church” just because they do Christian stuff like go to church, pray and talk to God, work at the church, celebrate Christmas, Easter and Good Friday (not all of them do, though. I don’t know about that), and claim that they’re just “following what the (heavily misquoted and ahem-ahem LOST IN TRANSLATION) Bible said”. As my “brother” or “brethren” Matt says he’s gonna protect me from all of that — as a way of saying thanks for putting up with him beforehand.

“Scotty’s roight, mate. In todai’s society we oughta just take what ‘em religious folks’ say wi’ a pinch o’ salt!”

He’s right. Scotty was right. Love thy neighbour, indeed.

DAMN, I LOVE MY BEST FRIENDS AND BFFS FOREVER!!! RED BLOSSOMS FOREVER!!!!

The world would SERIOUSLY be a better place if Christians (and everyone else) would REALLY heed the words of Jesus Christ and the Ten Commandments and all that religious text instead of misquoting or misinterpreting them or only taking out PARTS of the text to fulfill their own bigoted goals and to justify their hatred of minority groups. Hypothetically, say, if there’s NO religion in this world, not to say all religion is bad but, if all religions were eradicated, would people finally be able to live among each other in peace and acceptance? Or would be naive little creatures just find new reasons (however silly) to hate and kill each other?

…….

I guess some questions just can’t be answered by the average person.

But anyway. Everything’s sorted out between me and Matt now and the official Bassist of Red Blossoms is BACK WITH THE BAND with his brand-new instrument. I can tell he’s been waiting his whole life to receive. I owe him it, though. It’s about time. And we’re also planning to redesign our band logo. It will now include the colours of the Transgender flag (light blue, pink and white) to acknowledge Jeanne’s and my identity. So now our logo will be a red cherry blossom with pink, white and light blue in its center instead of just black and white previously. It’s a small but significant change which is (in my opinion) best made BEFORE we start becoming popular and gaining fans because they ARE such fans who turn against rock stars and musicians after they come out as who they are. #UGH #FakeFansBeLike

Other than our logo, Matt and I have discussed in detail and agreed that the keys, chords, and pitches of our songs shall be changed accordingly to suit my increasingly masculine voice (thanks, hormones!). Pretty soon, vocally, I’ll transition from a Mezzo-Soprano (female mid-range) to a Bass (male low range). It will take years (not sure how long exactly. Doc says it varies by individual) so it won’t be a sudden drop in pitch and tone, so I hope fans and listeners won’t notice at all as we gradually change our sound-related stuff. They might get shocked at the sudden and drastic change when their initially feminine-sounding lead singer suddenly starts singing like a guy. Haha. :p

I’m glad I took the leap of faith and began my transitioning, even though it got off to a rather rough start with Red Blossoms. Once I make enough money for my body and to stay afloat in general life I’m gonna change my whole self. I plan to, eventually. Grandma and Marissa knows. And I have their full support. I dunno what dad will say. I forgot to mention that he called me up again some time after I won the sword from Jeremiah and told me he saw this happening with me because I have been showing “signs” of being this way all throughout my life since I was born. “What kind of signs?” I asked him. He said “Dunno. Erica, er, Eric. I could just…… tell. I think.” And then I put down the phone like “what”.

I’m not sure what went through his mind each time he saw a “sign”, but at least now I know this: it wasn’t 100% unexpected for him. He. Freaking. Saw. It. Coming. He saw that I would make the decision eventually. He knew it would happen.

(Are you psychic or something, dad? Because I could use your “powers” to predict the success or failure of my band in the future. Haha! Talk about practical use in the modern world for some hocus-pocus that turned out to be right about me! Somehow. Heh. I don’t believe in psychic abilities but lol anyway.)

Above all of this, I hope Daisy Chen will one day fall head over heels in love with me regardless of my birth s*x. She first has to accept me for that part, but I’m a guy now and I heard she likes guys (straight, huh?) from all the who’s-dating-who gossip from around college so I think I’ll be fine on this part.

Oh, and before we parted ways for the day, in exchange for the Bass, Matt gave me a purple keychain with my name on it. He bought it for me in Australia when he temporarily left America to “recollect his thoughts”, he told me. He added “Watanaga” in pen below the bright PINK letters of E-R-I-C. He said he couldn’t find one in Red and/or Black so he suggested I paint a coat of any colour I like on the back part.

I just did and it makes me think of the song “Paint It Black” by The Rolling Stones.

“I see a window keychain and I wanna Paint It Black……”

So now I have a new keychain and Matt has a new bass. Yup. Our friendship is officially repaired!

Eric Watanaga.

The End.