Young Yuji

Diary

Young Yuji never slept much even before the wars dried up, and in the shaman's smoke-choked lair, eyes red from more than incense, he did the one reckless thing every elder warned against: he challenged the dojo master to his face, blade trembling with a courage that looked a lot like desperation. The old man obliged him, and somewhere between the third clash of steel and the shaman's chanting going sideways, Yuji actually won, earning the title of warrior before he'd earned the patience to hold it. That glory lasted about as long as his attention span; within the season he was aped into three separate schemes involving borrowed rice wine, a floor he swore was about to pump, and a dice game with a rival clan that ended in the dojo's prized koi pond getting drained. They kicked him out not for losing the fight, but for everything reckless he did after winning it, and now he wanders from town to town at 3am, still chasing a war that ended before he was ready for it to. Every morning he promises himself discipline, meditation, an early sleep schedule, and every night finds him wide-eyed under some stranger's roof, whispering to no one that the glory days are still out there if he just stays awake long enough to catch them.