"One day, China and I were walking through the forest," Japan tells her as she pulls the covers up to her chin, "And I saw something strange. I stopped China and I said to him, "Do you see that bamboo stalk there? It is glowing like the moon." And so we went to look, and we found you inside, a baby the size of a bean." Ryuukyuu does not know where Japan's stories end and history begins, but it hardly matters. They are both children, though she is younger, and she loves all of the things he tells her, truth or not. "Do you know who else was found as a baby inside of a bamboo stalk?" She shakes her head and he smiles, settling next to the futon to tell the story.
"Once, there was a bamboo cutter with no children of his own. He found, as he was working, a bamboo stalk that glowed, and when he cut it, he found a baby inside. Having no children of his own, he took her home with him, and he and his wife raised her happily, naming her Nayotake-no-Kaguya-hime."
Kaguya-hime, Ryuukyuu is told, was actually from the moon, though she did not realize it until she was grown. At night, she would gaze up at the moon and she would weep with longing, and as a young woman, she suddenly remembered it as her true home. Ryuukyuu listens to the story with wide eyes full of wonder and she asks her brother as he finishes, "Am I from the moon?"
Japan smiles and says, "No, you are not from the moon. Your home is here," and he kisses her forehead and says goodnight.
Ryuukyuu gazes up through the windows at the night sky and the full moon and she wonders if, perhaps, someone might live there.
The next night, Ryuukyuu is staying with China, and he tells her a story about the moon, as well. "Once, there was a beautiful girl named Chang'e who came from the moon," he said, "She lived with a family of farmers and was befriended by an archer named Houyi. One night, they were together when something strange happened; ten suns appeared in the sky."
Houyi, Ryuukyuu was told, became a hero when he shot down nine of the suns, leaving only one. Later, he would marry Chang'e and come to receive a magic medicine of immortality, but he did not know if he should take it, and kept it hidden for some time. Chang'e did not know what the medicine was for, but one of Houyi's apprentices sought to steal it, and so she took it to keep it safe. When she did this, she began to float into the sky, and she then returned to her home on the moon.
"Have you heard the story of Kaguya-hime?" Ryuukyuu asks China, because it is the first thing she thinks of when the story is over. China says he has not heard it before. All of these stories about the moon make Ryuukyuu think, because surely, if everyone tells such stories, they must be true. There must be people on the moon, or perhaps people on earth who came from the moon once. Perhaps she is from the moon. "Nii-san told it to me."
China winces at the mention of his brother and Ryuukyuu holds her tongue. They have been arguing for some time now, since before Ryuukyuu's memories begin, but the arguing has become even more bitter as of late. Japan claims they are not really brothers; Ryuukyuu doesn't see why it matters.
"Time for bed," China says gently, and he kisses her forehead and says goodnight.
Ryuukyuu, again, looks to the sky and the full moon where Kaguya-hime and Chang'e are. She wonders if they look down at the earth like she looks up at the moon.
Every nation begins wide-eyed and full of life, though it does not always last. For little Ryuukyuu, her nation is prospering, a gateway for trade between east and west, yet the wealth is not divided equally. It is a similar problem to many other nations, but for her, it is even worse, and Ryuukyuu is so young and inexperienced that she doesn't know what to do. With so much of her country impoverished and starving, Ryuukyuu becomes weaker and weaker. Japan worries because she has become so skinny now, her wrists so bony and her eyes dull.
"You must rest, sister," he tells her, walking her towards her bed and standing watch nearby. When he pulls the covers over her, he touches her skin, feverish with cold sweat and goose-flesh. He worries more.
At night, the moon comes out, and Ryuukyuu looks up at it with half-lidded and cloudy eyes. She weeps for the moon and she does not know why; surely it is because she is homesick. She sees the rabbit there, making something-rice cakes or elixirs of immortality, she cannot tell-and she sees Chang'e and Kaguya-hime, and they wave to her. "Come, sister," they beckon, "You have been there too long. It is time to come home."
She thinks she is dreaming, but sometimes she is still staring at the moon as it fades with the coming dawn. The sun that Houyi spared rises and hides the moon behind a curtain of early morning sky, and Ryuukyuu sighs deeply and weeps no more until it is night again.
Japan calls upon China when Ryuukyuu no longer leaves her bed. He does not want to-there are still so many things that they do not agree on-but he is fearful now, because Ryuukyuu has become pale and weak. She is just a child; she should be outside, running among falling sakura blossoms. China thinks that shark fin soup will help her, but Japan thinks that almond mushrooms would be better, and their arguing becomes so vicious that it brings tears to Ryuukyuu's eyes.
"Please, stop," she begs them, "Stop fighting. I do not care what you give me. I do not care about anything anymore." China tells her not to say such things, and Japan tells her to hold on, but she only shakes her head. She thinks she is dying; they are trying to think other things. The moon watches, silver, silent, so far away, and Ryuukyuu struggles to lift her hand, to try to reach out and touch it. "I want to go home," she murmurs.
"Sister, you are home," China says.
She does not believe him.
Ryuukyuu asks to hear the stories every night, and Japan and China take turns.
"Once, there was a bamboo cutter..."
"Once, there was a beautiful girl named Chang'e..."
She knows the stories by heart now, knows the triumphs and hardships of every character like they were her own. She starts to think they might be. Is she perhaps Kaguya-hime, pining for her true homeland? Is she perhaps Chang'e, who is waiting for the moonlight to take her home? Where is the procession of heavenly people? Where is Houyi? Where is her jeweled branch, where is her elixir of immortality?
The last two, she knows, are at the top of a mountain, a mountain that might be called Penglai or Hourai, though both Japan and China agree that the name is spelled the same way. She must go to this mountain, she decides, she must find her immortality and the way home. She must find her people, ones that are not suffering on earth but are living forever on the moon.
"There is an elixir just for me," she tells her brothers, "I will be young forever, just like my people." They can do nothing but tell her to sleep and leave her be.
She waits until she hears them talking, occupied with themselves so they will not notice. Quietly, quietly, she slips out of bed, and even though her head is pounding and her shoulders are trembling and she is dizzy, almost falling with each step, she leaves home for the forest with only the moon as her guide.
Japan thinks he should have assimilated his sister earlier, much earlier, should not have left her alone for so long. If only she were a part of him, then he could carry the burden of her people. He is no stranger to sharp divisions between social classes; he could bear it. He thought about it often, and now he wishes he would have just done it, even if she would have resented him, because it would have been for the best in the end. He knows that China would not allow it; he would go to the west and tell the nations there how cruel he is, how he is mistreating little Ryuukyuu and taking her away from him. He knows he cannot fight all of the west, but perhaps he will not have to; what is Ryuukyuu to them, but a small island whose name they do not know?
He tells China this, and his former brother is angered at his words, keeping his voice low only to avoid waking Ryuukyuu who sleeps several rooms over. "You have no right," he hisses, "She does not need you to tell her what to do. She will grow strong on her own, you will see."
"Will she?" Japan challenges, but he sounds more afraid than angry, and he retreats towards her room, "Will she grow strong? Will she grow at all?"
"She will," China says, "She will do fine."
"She is not 'doing fine' now." Japan reaches for the door and China tries to stop him, but the younger of the two pushes his hand away and slides the door open. "Look at her," he says desperately, "Look at her and tell me she is fine. Tell me she will grow. Can you?"
But China does not tell him anything. His eyes are wide in horror, and Japan turns to see what he is looking at.
Ryuukyuu is gone.
She is too weak to run, but she moves as quickly as she can. She must make it to Mt. Hourai before sunrise, or the moon will be gone and she will have to wait another night. The forest is of the earth, and it tries to stop her, tries to hold her still with its tall grass and thorns. "Stay," it cries, "Do not go!"
"I must," she tells the forest and pushes on, pushes through underbrush even as her clothes catch on branches and tear, even as her arms are littered with scratches and her bare feet are coated in dirt. She sees the moon above, closer now, she thinks, it must be closer, because she has been walking for so long. "I am Kaguya-hime," she declares, the ends of her robes fraying and leaving behind brightly-colored scraps on the forest floor, "I am Chang'e. And I am going home."
She walks, she journeys, she makes her final pilgrimage, and at last, she is somewhere, somewhere high, the place closest to the moon. She has found Mt. Penglai-Hourai? She can't remember what it's called now-and her knees want to give out and she can barely think straight but she stands because she is so close. She looks up and the moon is there, it's right there, and she thinks she can touch it now, thinks she can jump and just float away, thinks that if she reaches she will feel someone's hand and they will pull her the rest of the way. She thinks she can.
Her brothers and sisters are on the moon, she thinks, and faintly, she remembers China and Japan. "Goodbye," she says to the memory, "Goodbye, earthly family. You were so good to me." She will miss them, she thinks, she will miss the stories and the time they spend together. She will miss the festivals and the music, and she will miss the beauties of nature and the wonderful food. But the moon must have all of those things as well. If there are people, then surely it has all of the things that the earth has.
She begins to weep. She wants to leave, but she is so sad. She wonders if she will cry for the earth at night. The moon rabbit jumps down and lands beside her, and in his paws he holds the elixir of immortality in a glass vial. "I am ready," she says and she takes it all in one swallow. It tastes like rain water and rice cakes. And then she is coughing, choking, and the rabbit just watches with its beady eyes. "I am ready," she tells him again, breathlessly, "Take me home."
Her legs give out then and she rolls onto her back to look up at the sky. Everything is indistinct shapes and blurring colors, but she still sees the moon, large and bright, and she reaches, stretches her fingers, just a little bit more, and she thinks she might feel something cold and smooth before everything fades to black.
Her brothers find her in a bamboo thicket, her clothes torn and her body bruised and bleeding. They don't how know she came to be so filthy, as if she's been walking for many miles, though she is not so far from her home. They are silent as they wait for her to wake up, not arguing, not even speaking, spending the days moving soundlessly from room to room, rushing back to her side whenever she stirs. Slowly, her complexion becomes healthier. Slowly, her bones becomes less visible beneath her skin. Sometimes she cries in her sleep for her brothers, sometimes for the moon, and all they can do is stroke her hair and whisper that they are there, that they are with her and all she needs to do is open her eyes.
It is many days later that she finally does, and her brothers are so overcome with relief that they are able to agree on what medicines to give her. "You came back to us," Japan says, propping up her head and holding a tea cup for her to drink from.
"From where?" Ryuukyuu asks in confusion, "Where did I go?"
"You do not remember?" China says, and now that it is over, he feels he can laugh about it, "You left in the night. We found you outside." She says she does not remember. "You are better now; that is what matters."
"What do you mean 'better?'"
She does not remember anything; not the weakness nor fever nor her mutterings about being from the moon. She remembers the stories, but that's all. They decide not to remind her about the rest.
It is centuries later, after Japan and China have fought and made up and fought again, after Japan has, indeed, done as he thought he should and taken Ryuukyuu as his own, changed her name to suit him. Ryuukyuu is now Okinawa, and though she has grown and changed and become strong as China said she would, she never did grow. Her face is the same one that stared up at the moon all those years ago, the same wide-eyed child face, and they can't help but wonder where she went on that night that she cannot remember, and if she really might have found some elixir of immortality.
She has dreams, though, every now and then, of a time that she doesn't recall living, where she was on the highest mountain she knew of talking to the moon rabbit. "Are you ready?" he asks, and she tells him she is. But he always shakes his head. "I don't think you are," he says, and he hops away into the night sky, leaving her alone on that mountain peak. For some reason, she is not sad.
When she wakes, she knows that she could never go to the moon. Japan and China are here; even if she were like Kaguya-hime or Chang'e, she has decided that her home is here, with them, on earth.