A Short Fictional Story Of Usagi Yojimbo's Youth
By Nate Alig
(Master Yosho)

Before the wandering days of the ronin known as Usagi Yojimbo, he was a young boy. He was very young and very clumsy; breaking things was what he did best.

At this time he was training at a small Shinto shrine, his instructor was a wise old ferret by the name of Yosho Harimatsu. The Shinto shrine was very beautiful, set in the heart of the mountainous regions of Japan, its tall arched gates stood over the tops of the golden trees, as it was now autumn.

Along the backside of the Shrine masters quarters, the floppy eared youngster trotted along before starting his morning chores, his white fur shone brightly in the bronze morning sun, he was totally care free. Remember: Usagi, at this point in his life, means: destruction and injury follow in this ones path.

Usagi’s carefree attitude was quickly when he tripped over the dangling Bokken Daito (wooden training sword), sending him falling flat on his face. At the speed he was going, it sent his oversized sandal flying through the air as well as a delicate shoji door. Panicked the young furry ran in through the doors only to see Rei Horoko, a young raccoon, holding the side of her head where the heavy sandal had hit. At this point Usagi was totally berserk, he kept thinking to himself, "She’s gonna kill me, and how the hell am I gonna fix the door?"

Rei turned to him, he could tell by the look on her face that she was absolutely livid, Usagi started to slowly walk backwards, he turned and bolted out the door and across the courtyard with Rei fast on his heels. The berserk raccoon was wielding a large wooden ladle, if he didn’t know any better, he’d say her eyes were glowing red!

With a well-aimed throw, the ladle flew through the air and almost found home, the back of Usagi’s head. It seemed like out nowhere that Master Yosho appeared and the ladle was caught mid flight.

With a soothing voice Yosho asked, "What seems to be the problem Rei?"

In an agitated voice she replied "I was in the kitchen making breakfast, when whose shoe should come flying through the door, Usagi’s, and it bonked me on the head!"

"So you were gonna kill me with a ladle, it’s not like I threw it at ya ..."

"SO, it still bonked me in the head!"

"Maybe you two need to get something to eat."

At this time the trio retreated to Master Yosho’s quarters, where they sipped hot green tea and ate rice cookies, good thing it was one of the better mornings.

Usagi had a rival in his youth; he was a younger Hare, more powerfully built than a rabbit, named Timu Naito. This young hare was totally serious all the time and had a surely attitude, he challenged everything that walked on two legs. He walked around in his earthen colored Gi and brandished Kendo Bamboo sword, it was the pride of his life, hand made by him last autumn.

On this particular day, it was somewhat of a tournament day. All of the youthful students would compete to see who would have the honor of simply being the best. The competition would be Kendo (Japanese fencing) and it was a process of elimination, to weed it down to the two greatest fighters.

Usagi’s first match was against Jamu, a cat that was two seasons older than he was, the match was won by Usagi, only by luck though, Jamu had taken a stab at Usagi and it got caught underneath one of the ties on his kendo armor, with a quick and powerful swing Usagi brained Jamu a good one.

The matches went on like this for the whole day, as fate has it, Usagi and Timu were the final combatants.

At the sound "FIGHT!" the two warriors charged each other, Timu went for a slash at the neck, Usagi quickly ducked below it and accidentally delivered a painful blow to Timu’s right foot-paw, he jumped about and yowled in pain. He turned with a glair and charged again; Usagi charged as well, he managed to trip right in front of Timu, sending him sprawling all across the wooden floor.

"I’m blind!" Usagi screamed, he wasn’t blind at all, he just had Timu’s sandal caught in the facemask of his helmet. Timu took advantage at his opponent’s further disabilities, and Timu delivered the match-winning blow.

"Good match, I would have lost if my sandal hadn’t gotten stuck in your face mask."

"Thank you Timu it was an Honor fighting with you." Usagi began to walk away, disappointment overwhelmed him, he thought of what he could have done, and what he should do next time ...

"Hey Usagi!" He turned to see who it was, it was Timu, "Hey sorry you lost...can I have my sandal back now?"

"Yeah sure thing." As Timu walked away Usagi thought to himself, "Well I didn’t win the tournament but what is victory anyway, I really don’t care if I win. My real victory is tonight, when I stick Timu’s hand in a cup of warm water and make him wet the bed..."