Spring Festival!
Written by: Sakura Solo
Chapter 1: Annual Town Meeting
Disclaimer: All things mentioned belong to Studio Ghibli
It was a fairly breezy mid-afternoon in early April in the western regions of Japan. Of course, Iron Town was no exception. In the short span, the locals had stopped burning the forsets to mining under the mountain, as well as setting up a self-sufficient community, even with a school once the women started getting married and having kids.
In the grade school classroom, Gonza was trying to teach the 50 or so children how to do long division. Amongst the youngsters was Mora, San and Ashi-taka's 8 year old daughter. Her hair was a dark brown, bobbed and she had her mother's eyes. She usually wore a simple black dress, while the other girls wore kimonos, and their hair was long, with the exception of Satsuki, who's hair was boyishly short, considering that when she had been 4, Satsuki was standing to close to a firecracker, which exploded, and set her hair on fire. Toki managed to dump a bucket of water on Satsuki's head, but it was too late! After a long hair cut, Satsuki's hair was way short, and it had been that way ever since.
"Good thing too," San had commented, "Satsuki's always getting into things, I'm surprised she hasn't broken an arm yet." Toki nodded in agreement, " You never know with her. I think she get's it from my side of the family." San nodded, and the mothers laughed over some tea while their daughters played upstairs in the loft, which was Satsuki's room.
A boy was reciting the answer, when the bell rang, signaling the end of school. This week, it was the middle schooler's turn to clean the building. There were shreiks of excitement as the children ran out into the afternoon sunshine. Satsuki and Mora were walking towards the local jail, where Ashi-taka was in for a supposedly hung-over Korohku, who just to drink too much sake at last night's go club meeting. Toki, of course, found out, and told him, "There is no way your coming home to act like this with Satsuki."
Korohku, dazed, had taken a whiz outside, when Jigo dragged him in for indecent exposure, and had waken up with a major hangover. That's how the girls found him, when they walked in fifteen minutes later.
Ashi-taka was doing some paperwork, when he noticed the girls. "Hey, Dad," Mora called. Ashi-taka smiled, "Hi, girls. How was school?" Sastsuki commented, "It was pretty good, Uncle Ash-taka, until two boys got in fight at recess. Haku gave Kanta a wedgie, and then, Gonza-sensei whipped them both. And I think Eboshi-sensei gave them detention for a month."
Mora piped up, "Dad, we got this letter at school," and she proceeded to hand her father a letter. Ashi-taka read it, and groaned. It was the annual town meeting, and not only did they drag on forever, but then there was the topic of the spring festival. This year, assignments were being given via lottery so hopefully the meeting would be short.
Korohku finished barfing in the chamberpot, and Satsuki walked over to the cell, and asked, "Dad, do you want me to get Mom to bail you out, again?" Korohku groaned, "No thank you, dear. I'm sure your mother will bail me out later tonight, hopefully."
"Typical of you trying to ditch meeting duty," Toki commented from the front door. Turning to Ashi-taka, she commented, "San's over at my place to get Mora, and I'm here to bail my helpless husband, yet again!" Korohku ran out the door, and promptly tripped over a stick, but got up, and went off to check on the oxen. Satsuki nodded, "Bye, Mora!" Mora nodded, and ran out the door.
Meanwhile, San was talking to some of the grade school mothers, when Mora shouted, "Hey, mom!" San scooped up the little girl, "How's my little pup doing?" Mora nodded, "I got my spelling test today, and don't forget that I'm sleeping over at Satsuki's tonight." San nodded, and mother and daughter left the settlement for the stone house Ashi-taka had built for them in the woods.
Some time later, Mora was taking her afternoon nap, while her parents were talking. "A lottery, huh," San commented, "Eboshi really needs to cut the meeting time down. In case she hasn't noticed, most of us females have offspring in school." Ashi-taka nodded, "I agree, but we are citizens, and at least this is only once a year. Besides, what's the worst that can happen this year?"
Little did they know, this Spring Festival was definately one to remember.
