I am above all this...

My eyes opened and I was floating above the town, flying like an eagle on the wing. I knew I had to be dreaming, but somehow this time I was able to control it. I was above the Honda Dojo and swooped down low to get a closer look. The moon was still bright and nearly full, and the family shrine, ornamented with gold and silver gleamed in the night. The crown jewel of it was an ancient katana owned by some long-dead ancestor displayed up at the top of the ten-foot-tall shrine.

I'd always wanted to see it for myself, to hold and draw a real samurai sword, and now that I was flying I shot over and grabbed it. It felt so real, light, but deadly in my hands as I pulled it out of its scabbard. I swung it around, gently back and forth, then gave it a quick slash. I longed to feel it cut through a man, slicing him open like a pig and cleaving through guts and bone.

<So do it…> a small dark voice inside of me urged.

Why not, this is my dream. I flew up and then shot north as fast as I could imagine. The town disappeared and I searched for where our army and the barbarians faced off against each other. The giant conglomerate of fires burning all over one area of the land attracted me like a moth. I'd never seen so many fires and something in me was overjoyed and gleeful, but as big as the first camp was the one just past it was massive.

There were perhaps a thousand fires stretching all across the valley; fires as far as the eye could see. I flew closer and could see this one wasn't just a warrior's camp, but that these barbarians were nomads. Women and children were moving about along with their soldiers, but given the time of night, there must be hundreds of thousands of people, a veritable city here. I was awed by the massive expanse of it, but as I came to the center I saw a massive tent, perhaps a hundred feet wide and almost as tall. I knew that had to be the palatial tent of the feared barbarian king. Well if this was my dream, I was going to be the hero and kill him I decided.

I flew down like an arrow, letting all the angst and rage I had at everyone who ever treated me badly and sliced through the top of the tent and entered the mostly quiet tent that was so big it had a bonfire still shouldering inside it. Purple and green bearded guards jumped up before me only to be cut in half as I flew like a leaf on the wind and women ran screaming.

For a minute it seemed like a flood of men just surrounded me, many unarmed, but each exploded in turn with a spray of blood as my blade flashed around slicing them open. I could feel it hot and wet, drenching my body, and that seemed to only make me stronger and faster. Their blood was my armor, and I was an avatar of death. Finally, there was a break in the madness and I spotted the giant man towering over me before his throne, his long purple beard encrusted with gems and gold, pointing a massive naginata at me.

"What kind of foul oni are you?" he shouted at me in his foreign tongue, but this was my dream so I understood him perfectly.

I grinned and licked some of his men's blood from my lips. "I am the hero of Greytown, and your doom," I responded in his own tongue, then charged. He tried to spear me with his polearm, but I cut right through it, his arm and up to his neck as his head came off, all with one epic slash.

The tent was empty now, just a massive pile of open bleeding flesh, with anyone else who had been inside, already fleeing for their lives. I calmly reached down and picked up the massive head that still wore its expression of shock and fear. I dug my fingers into his thick purple hair and held tight as I flew back up and out into the sky once more.

I didn't go far this time as I could feel the sunrise approaching as the moon edged toward the western horizon. Something told me my dream would end with sunrise, so I dropped down at the edge of our army's camp and walked the rest of the way.

"Who goes there?" some soldier popped up from a rock holding a long spear pointed at me.

I grinned as I held up the head, "It is I, Kenji Matsumoto, the hero of Greytown!" Then the sun broke over the horizon and I collapsed.

When I woke up I smiled and tried to hang on to the good dream and left my eyes closed. 'Man that was a good dream,' I thought happily before I gave it up, rubbed the sleep from my eyes, and looked up. That's when I realized something was very wrong.

My ceiling wasn't my home's ceiling, but that of a large tent, "Ah, the hero awakes?" I heard a familiar voice laugh.

I looked over toward it and there was Shinji Honda, decked out in his leather armor holding his helmet. "What's going on?" I asked confused.

"You won the war!" he chided me and punched my shoulder. "Man, if I knew you were so skilled I never would have insisted you stay behind," he laughed. "These last few months I've been really missing Setsuko and I cannot wait to get home and, well… you know."

"Marry her?" I asked still very confused.

"That's right!" he said with a wink and a nod. "I'm gonna marry the crap out of her for two days straight!" He chuckled and then turned and stuck his head out of the tent flap. "He's awake!" he yelled to someone outside, and the sound of feet came rushing up. A dozen men came running in, and I saw my father and Mister Takahashi among them. These must be the leaders of our village's army. I expected to see Shinji's father Mister Honda, but then I remembered the news that he'd died a few days ago.

They all cheered and congratulated me, asking how I'd done it, but I didn't have a good answer. It wasn't like I could tell them I was flying around with godlike powers. But after the excitement, they started talking about what their next step should be.

"Their army is leaderless and has lost its edge," Shinji said. "We should strike now!"

Another man spoke up, "Scouts report that a large contingent is leaving back north. We should just let them go, and hopefully, the rest will follow."

"They will run if we attack now. I say chase the dogs down!" Shinji eagerly encouraged the older and much more cautious men.

Mister Takahashi chimed in, "This war has been long and costly. These barbarians have plundered two other kingdoms before they came to our borders." He spoke in his best salesman voice, slow and reasonably. "If they are truly beaten and running scared we might sue for peace and demand retribution."

Most of the men started squabbling then over revenge and gold, and that is when my dad spoke up for the first time with a brief shout, "Isn't it enough?" All eyes turned to him, but he only looked at me. "We have all lost so much… Let us let them be and just go home."

Then in the quiet with him looking only at me all the other leaders' gazes also turned to me, making me feel as if I had to say something.