My retelling of Sojiro's tragic past in two parts: Innocence and Experiece and 4 chapters.

Innocence

Part I

The Boy Who Smiles

It was very quiet that autumn night, except for the crickets chirping stealthily in the grass. The moon was large and full that night through the clear sky and it shown down on the Seta rice company. The company, despite the loss of its founder Seta Kihei, was doing very well for itself. The company survived through Kihei's wife, son, and his children. But the one who really made the business run was Sojiro.

Sojiro Seta was not like the rest of his family; he had been born by a prostitute through Kihei and was left with the family when Kihei died. However, the Seta family despised Sojiro because of it and forced him to do all of the work around the house and the business. This made Sojiro quite strong for an eight year old boy, but also very susceptible to anxiety and a feeling of being hated.

"You stupid brat!"

Nomisuke's blow was so hard it forced Sojiro through the door of the home, causing him to roll and fall hard on his face. Nomisuke, Sojiro's step-father, stepped into the doorway to continue yelling at Sojiro.

"I told you I wanted 100 barrels of rice moved to the west shed today! Get out there and move 'em, runt! When I tell you to do something you're supposed to do it."

Sojiro came to his knees, pain still flooding over his body. Nomisuke took a drink of sake 1, expecting Sojiro to get to work. Sojiro only lifted up his head, revealing a pleasant smile across his face. This only infuriated Nomisuke even more.

"What the hell are you smiling about?!" He threw the jug of sake at Sojiro's head, causing blood to flow down his face and into his raven black hair.

"Listen up! Until you do the job right, you aren't setting a foot inside this house!" Nomisuke screamed as the rest of the Seta family came into the doorway. Sojiro could barely concentrate on what was being said because of his previous injuries and now his new one beating in his head. His sight was tinted red from the blood, but he could see the rest of his family come to the door.

"You can sleep outside tonight!" yelled Nomisuke, being halted by his only daughter, Kijo.

"Come on, why do you bother with him, Dad?" she said sneering.

"And don't forget to do your chores when you're done with the rice!" added Yokoshima, Sojiro's step-mother.

"And massaging my shoulders, too!" Tengu, one of Sojiro's step-brothers, included. "I've been working hard all day and I think I deserve it."

Sojiro, still bleeding, got up and turned to start moving the heavy barrels of rice. Even before he could get far enough away to not here them, Sojiro's family began to talk about him.

"The old man sure left us a lot of trouble with this brat he had with some other woman." Nomisuke grumbled.

"It's all right dad," added Yanosuke, Sojiro's other step-brother. "Just think of him as a servant who we don't have to pay and can abuse for life."

"He brought it on himself," said Kijo. "Always smiling like that. He must think we took him out of love, but we were only worried about what people would think.

"Huh? What's that?" Tengu asked cluelessly.

"Stop kidding around!" snapped Yokoshima. "I would never let him inherit a cent of our wholesale rice business! It belongs to my kids!"

The five watched Sojiro walk off towards the rice shed and then went back inside were it was warmer.

Part II

The Entrance of Makoto Shishio

The cold air wrapped around Sojiro like a blanket as he struggled to lift the heavy barrels on his back to the shed. Day after day it was like this for Sojiro: he would do his chores and the chores of everyone else and he received no retribution for it. Sojiro went back to the yard where the rice barrels were stored to get another one, his bare feet freezing on the cold stones. For two hours that night he moved the rest of the barrels over, collapsing from pain and exhaustion nearly every time. He finally finished and went over to the family's well to rinse off his dirty hands and face. He took a rag and stuck it into the cold water before pressing it gently to his wound. He winced in pain as he put it to his face, but he accepted the cold sting and began to whimper a little. Sojiro knew that this wouldn't stop. He knew that the pain would come everyday. He wasn't as stupid as his family believed.

"I can't keep going like this," Sojiro thought. "Maybe I should just end it all…"

Sojiro's thoughts were interrupted by a scream in the distance. Sojiro looked to the direction from where the scream came, and then heard another, this one in more anguish. Without thinking, Sojiro ran to investigate, past the side of the main building and down an alley, hearing another scream and the shadow of a man falling. Sojiro walked out and saw two men holding katanas 2, a police officer and a man loosely wrapped in bandages, and three other dead police officers on the ground. The police officer attacked the bandaged man, and Sojiro watched in horror as the bandages man sliced off the police officers arms in one swing, and then cut him completely in half. Sojiro stepped back onto a twig, getting the attention of the bandaged man. He turned to face Sojiro with a crazed look in his eye.

"You saw me? Didn't you?!" he demanded. Sojiro stepped back until he hit a wall and fell to the ground. The bandaged man walked up to him.

"Now that you've seen me I've got no choice," he said quietly as he lifted up his sword. He was about to swing down, when Sojiro, out of instinct, began to smile.

"Does dying really make you that happy?" the man asked, lowering his sword slightly.

"Well…I…" Sojiro closed his eyes and anticipated his demise and his freedom from his abuse. Instead, he heard the man lower his sword.

"Kid," he said. "Get me some bandages. And some food. I'll let you live if you do." A part of Sojiro wanted to let the man kill him, but another part was too afraid to die, so he agreed. Sojiro lead him into the rice shed were he changed his bandages.

"Now I can move a little easier," he said picking up a rice ball. Sojiro was hiding behind a rice barrel a good distance away.

"Um, mister?" he asked with fear in his voice. The man looked at him angrily and he ran behind a different rice barrel.

"Don't call me mister, kid. I have a name," he replied to Sojiro's cowardly actions. "Makoto Shishio. That's what you can call me." Sojiro looked up.

"Um, Mister Shishio?" Sojiro continued. "You were killing those police officers. Doesn't that make you a bad person?" Shishio picked up another rice ball.

"The people in the Meiji 3 government are the ones who are bad." Shishio replied. "They used me to do their dirty work and then rewarded me by setting me on fire."

"Then you're a good person!"

"No kid. I'm actually an evil person" Shishio had an evil look in his eye as he said this, causing Sojiro to run even further back into the shed and cower in fear.

"Relax, kid. I already said I wouldn't take your life." Sojiro came back from behind the rice barrels and went over to where Shishio was sitting. Shishio took the last rice ball.

"I kind of like this place. It'll be hard for them to find me here." Shishio said as he finished the last rice ball and leaned back against a rice barrel. "I'll be hiding out here for a while." Shishio let out a sigh and went to sleep. Sojiro was still sitting in the corner, terrified about Shishio's words.

"I thought so. He really is a bad man," Sojiro thought. "But…" Sojiro thought back to when Shishio had killed the police officer. "He's an incredibly strong man."

1 Sake (sah-kee): rice wine

2 Katana: one sided Japanese sword

3 Meiji (may-jee): Government of Japan from 1868-1912 in which Japan became very modernized and re-opened it's doors to the outside world after 250 years of seclusion during the Tokugawa Era.

That was "Innocence". "Experience" will be up soon.