NEVER NEVER NEVER

Musashi vs Kojiro

"Musashi is three hours late!"

When my blood starts to boil with impatience, I detect a small wooden boat floating in the vast sea like a leaf.

I squint my eyes to see if the boat is what I have been waiting for; my opponent Musashi Miyamoto.

Musashi is cross-legged, and his arms are also crossed in front of his chest, while an older man with a straw hat is rowing the boat with a single oar.

When the boat reaches closer to the shore, I scream at the ferocious sea ahead.

"Musashi!

"You are damn late!"

He looks at me and utters a word with a faint grim.

"Kojiro——You are already doomed!"

My blood gushes up in my head with anger, and I dash toward Musashi for a kill.

"Musashi! You are dead!"

Musashi jumps high out of the boat with a long wooden oar in his hand.

The sunray behind him blinds his figure, and I squint my eyes to aim at my prey. 

I swing my long four-foot sword upward with all the strength I possess.

I target his head to kill him instantly.

The tip of my sword touches Musashi's forehead cutting his white bandana in half.

But he doesn't even flinch his eyes.

His wooden oar is about one foot longer than my sword.

Musashi swings the oar with all his might, and his eyes are wide open as if Damon is piercing into hell. 

The oar lands right in the middle of my skull and cracks it open.

The blood gushes out of my skull, and I fall to my knees on the soft white sand.

The sand around me stains with blood. My body slowly falls forward, and my face bites the dust. 

My eyes stare at the waves caressing the pure sand.

My vision slowly gets blurred and out of focus.

It turns completely pitch black as if someone blew a candle off at night. 

The duel is over. Musashi instantly killed me.

My name is Kojiro Sasaki. I was born in a small village in Fukui, the northern part of Japan, and developed the Ganryu sword style at an early age. I was known as the most skilled swordsman, the inventor of 'Tsubame-Gaeshi,' striking back the opponent from a low below after plummeting down the sword from a high above. My blade moved as fast as a flying swallow changing the direction in rainy spring. I could kill a flitting swallow with a single blow. That was why my sword technique was called 'Tsubame-Gaeshi,' and all the samurai in Japan feared me.

At first, I served Hosokawa-clan as their chief weapons master, and Lord Hosokawa was proud of me because I enjoyed my fame and glory in all of Japan. I heard of Musashi when I served as the swordmaster at Kokura-clan. Musashi was younger than me, and everyone saw him as the next-generation genius who would change the mastery of swordsmanship. He was as tall as I was, five feet and ten inches, to be exact. We were unusually tall for the Japanese. But Musashi had a robust body.

Musashi was the most fierce swordsman to avoid fighting because he killed a well-known samurai, Kibei Arima, when Musashi barely turned thirteen. He was born with the killer instinct and abhorred an ordinary life. Musashi needed to feel the zest of life at all times. He risked his life at duels to feel that he was alive. Musashi journeyed all over Japan for a stronger opponent, yet; no one could defeat him in a sword fight. He was most known for the use of double swords; one was longer than the other. He was the only samurai who knew how to maneuver them effortlessly.

To solidify my legacy, I knew I had to defeat Musashi. I found out Musashi was on his way to the town of Kokura before reaching the Kumamoto castle. He sent me a messenger for a duel at Ganryu island, north of Kyushu. I couldn't turn it down in front of my pupils. By then, my dojo had grown to a prosperous size, and all my pupils wanted to see me fight with Musashi to know who would be the best swordsman in entire Japan. So I accepted his fight immediately.

Musashi killed me with one single blow of the wooden oar. He didn't even use his double swords. After my death, Musashi was crowned as the swordsman of the swordsmen, and my legacy disappeared into obscurity. I was forever remembered as the loser at the Ganryu fight, the most famous duel in Japanese history.