A Life of Mush

First Published: October, 1999 by Dark Horse Comics

• Miyamoto Usagi

The story begins with Usagi taking a break from his travels, eating riceballs under a tree. He is interrupted by a rude, hungry child, who demands to have some of Usagi's rice balls. Usagi refuses, suggesting the child ask politely, but instead the boy charges at Usagi with a stick without success and falls down a small slope just beyond the tree. The boy marches back up the slope but Usagi has already departed, leaving behind a riceball for the boy despite his deplorable behavior.

After devouring the riceball, the boy chases down Usagi, explaining his name is Eizo and that he has run away from his father's farm to become a samurai or an outlaw, wanting a life of adventure. No "life of mush" for him. Usagi allows the boy to travel with him and tries to explain a little about bushido, the warrior's code. Eizo decides Usagi is a "bore" and that there was more excitement back on the farm than traveling with him. However, Eizo stays with Usagi long enough to be given a meal at an inn, where he decides Usagi must be a coward since Usagi mentions he tries to avoid fighting. When Usagi decides it is time to leave the inn, Eizo stays behind, saying he thinks he will head back home. On the way out, Usagi bumps into a rough looking fellow, apologizes, and then departs.

The rough looking fellow and his friends swagger into the inn and order some sake, the former claiming he would have thrashed Usagi if he had not left. Eizo decides these are guys he can "really learn from!" and asks to join their gang. He tells them he thinks they are tough, not like the "coward samurai" who has "a lot of money" and "thinks he's such a big shot." The brigands thank the kid for the tip and head out after Usagi. Eizo tags along, and once he discovers what the brigands are up to, he is remorseful and tries to warn Usagi but is pushed to the ground by one of the gang.

Eizo chases after the brigands, thinking usagi "is such a wimp" and is sure to be killed. He is in time to be astonished to see Usagi thrashing the entire gang. The brigand Usagi bumped earlier tries to escape and in so doing spies Eizo, who he blames for setting them up. Before the brigand can slash Eizo in two, Usagi kills him, though the brigand falls onto Eizo, and Eizo experiences his death rattle in his face.

Usagi helps Eizo out from under the dead brigand, and Eizo runs home screaming for his daddy. Usagi guesses Eizo realizes "a life of mush is not so bad after all."

Last change: 19. May 2003

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Usagi Yojimbo, including all prominent characters featured in the stories and the distinctive likenesses thereof are trademarks of Stan Sakai and Usagi Studios. Usagi Yojimbo is a registered trademark of Stan Sakai. Names, characters, places, and incidents featured in this publication either are the product of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons (living or dead), events, institutions, or locales, without satiric content, is coincidental.