Boyohboy. I know it's been a long while since anything of this had been worked
on, but that's okay because it is finished now! Yaaay! No more cliff-hangers! Anyway, for those
of you who are familiar with this story, please be aware that it has been through immense changes.
You may wish to read it from the very start since I changed some of the names, concepts, did
grammatical corrections, fixed plot holes, and switched chapters around. I figured if I had
to do Minni's work, then I would do this.
---Crushafo
Dragon Tears and Raven Curses - Chapter One
"What luck!" Ryo declared as he stared with wide eyes as the little cabin in front of him. He, Nasutei, and Seiji were currently in the forest in the foot of the Hiei mountain range, looking for a home for Ryo. A place where he could live in peace and not have to worry about Byakuen scaring the wrong people.
The people in the tiny farming village several miles away had told them of an abandoned cabin that had been on the market for several decades. Potential buyers always tended to become spooked if and when they should set foot in the cabin, let alone buy it, and those who did buy it quickly set it up for sale once more.
But Ryo did not care. After all, what was he-a Samurai Trooper!-supposed to be scared about? He wanted a cabin-preferably like the one he grew up in-and he was going to have a cabin!
It was small and made completely of wood. It was said that the last person to live peacefully in the cabin had been a carpenter and his family just before World War Two. It only had three rooms and a small dugout in the back that served as a toilet; running water had to be obtained from a small near-by stream; and electricity did not exist. It stood in a slight clearing, surrounded by a dense forest.
But it was simple, and it was beautiful, and it was what Ryo wanted.
So Seiji and Nasutei were glad to let him roam happily through the cabin while they waited outside with the real estate agent, who nervously glanced around. Seiji eyed the little round man when a bird flew out of the bush and the man jumped and squeaked. Seiji slowly edged away from the man.
Ryo came outside with a large smile upon his face a few minutes later. "I'll take it!" he said. The agent sighed unhappily; knowing this customer would be back within a week, demanding to sell it and wanting to get out faster than he had moved in.
"It is rather cute," Nasutei spoke, which earned a glare from Ryo.
"Cute? This is a man's home, Nasutei. It isn't cute!" he told her curtly. She smiled sheepishly and shrugged. While it was true that the female mind was far more complex than the male's, who could really say how or why men acted or spoke the way they did? It had to be testosterone; that's what it had to be. If Ryo was willing to finally move out of her grandfather's mansion and make it on his own, then who was she to complain?
Now . . . If she could just do the same for Jun and Touma . . . She would be set for life!
"How soon do you want to move in?" Seiji asked quietly. Ryo glanced around.
"Well, she obviously needs some work," he began slowly. "The roof will have to be reshingled and some of the walls will need to be reinsulated. The door hinges need oiling and the inside needs to be cleaned up; but it really shouldn't take too long. Like you said, you're going to help me, and if we work together without fighting over who gets to pound nails, then we should be done within a week."
Seiji shrugged. He was only trying to help Nasutei get rid of Ryo; otherwise, he would not be helping but studying for up and coming exams in college. Ryo cheerfully skipped off to the car and bounced in. Seiji raised an eyebrow as he watched his friend riffle around in the glove box for a pen and began to sign the papers the agent flourished forth immediately.
"Isn't funny though how that man is desperate to get rid of this place, and yet is doing so reluctantly?" Nasutei whispered into Seiji's ear. Seiji shrugged again; some situations did not need to be discussed. He had no intention of stopping his friend.
He stiffened as a cold wind blew, and then rubbed his arms through the sweater he was wearing. He glanced as casually as possible over his shoulder at the cottage. It felt as if something was watching him. He glared at the window, and then snapped back in surprise as he watched something white peer through it and at him.
With a flash of some billowing material, the creature was gone. Seiji shivered again and could not shake a feeling of bad foreboding. In the distance, a raven cried out.
"Ah man! I can't believe I am actually doing this!" Shuu grumbled under his breath as Ryo scrambled cat-like up the ladder to the roof where he and Seiji were currently pounding shingles into. Ryo set the bucket of nails down as he glanced over the edge down to where Shuu was currently raking the over-grown yard.
Ryo laughed down at him. "You were the one who did not want to climb up here and help us!"
"Oh come on! You guys know I am a ground person! But still, just why should I have to be the one to rake?" Byakuen took an absent-minded swipe at Shuu, causing the man to jump back in surprise. "Oh, knock it off!" Shuu swatted at the tiger with the rake as Byakuen gave him a toothy smile.
"You know, you could still back out of what you are doing and come up here and help us!"
"Heck no! As I said, I am a ground person. I like my feet being firmly planted on the soil!"
Ryo laughed again as he pulled away from the roof's edge and began to remove nails out of the bucket. Seiji selectively went through the large pile of shingles next to him, patiently looking from shingle to shingle until he found one to fit in the bare spot before him. He accepted the nail Ryo gave him, and then waited for his dark-haired friend to slather tar on the spot before he fit the shingle over it and nailed it secure.
"Is anyone thirsty?" Nasutei called from inside the house where she and Shin were dusting and mopping. Cries of, "No," "Not yet," and "YES!" were heard. Shin poured Shuu a glass of lemonade as he rushed into the house. A few minutes of coaxing then took place as Shuu wanted to stay in the cool exterior and not do any more raking. After promises of a chocolate cake, Shuu was persuaded to resume his duties.
"You know, it's funny," Shin told Nasutei as they found a pile of women's and child's clothing inside of a sturdy trunk in the far corner beneath the musty bed, "I feel as if I am intruding into someone's personal life." He looked at the rich-colored kimonos, some large, some tiny. Nasutei nodded her head in agreement.
"I know, but the house is now Ryo's, and what else are we to do?" She stared at one of the small kimonos-a bright yellow one with red flowers- and then fingered it lovingly. "This is a very gorgeous kimono," she said softly. "A little girl must have been very proud of this."
A whistle went off and Shin got to his feet and walked over to the stove. He grabbed an oven mitten off the dirty counter and used it to pull the screeching teapot from the heat. He tipped the spout, spilling hot water into a near-by bucket of cold spring water. Pounding echoed through the house as someone worked another nail into another shingle. Shin carried the bucket over to the wall and threw water on it before grabbing a sponge.
The banging came to an abrupt halt, followed by several curses. Shin looked upward at the roof, an amused smile flitting across his features as he poised one hand in the air, holding a dripping sponge.
Nasutei looked up at the ceiling as well. "Who would you say it is this time?" she asked. Shin looked up at the roof.
"Sounds like Ryo, so I'd say he got his foot into the path of the hammer, or he was hammering and got his thumb." They both grinned knowingly. For many men, it was a fact of life: When you hammer, some body part will, eventually, get in the way. It was testosterone, Nasutei felt. That was what everything mounted to with men.
Ryo stumbled into the house, his thumb throbbing painfully. He gave Nasutei a teary-eyed look. She rolled her eyes and made him sit down on the bed and wait as she cleaned his thumb with a clean rag soaked with cool water. Shin pulled the emergency kit from out of nowhere. The pounding began anew, this time by Seiji. Ryo sulked as he watched Nasutei wrap his thumb up in what seemed to be miles and miles of antiseptic and gauze.
"Maybe that should provide you with a well enough barrier of protection should you decide to hammer in any more nails." Nasutei finished both her speaking and wrapping with a flourish of her hands. Ryo glared at his thumb. Whether he was offended at having his thumb wrapped to the point where it was the size of his hand or that he had been clumsy enough to hit it with the hammer in the first place, Nasutei could not tell.
"You sure you used enough?" he grumped sarcastically. Nasutei simply tsked and shooed him out of the house as she went back to her cleaning.
"I'll wager you someone will be back in an hour," Shin said from the wall he was scrubbing.
Nasutei shook her head as she swept the broom over the floor. "No, half an hour. And one thousand yen says it is Ryo again."
"Deal. I'm putting my money on Shuu."
She watched them work their way through her house. She wanted them to go away and leave her alone. Her husband built this house for herself and her daughter, and they would be back soon and they would not like what they see. Right? Wasn't that how it was supposed to be? She was supposed to keep the house nice and neat until her husband came back.
Or was he? She couldn't remember any more. To be sure, she had tried to keep the house clean, and she had tried to wait for him, but something happened and her daughter went away and bad men came and . . . No, wait. Bad men came first and they . . . Darn! Now she couldn't remember! But she did know that this was her house and these people did not belong! If it was the very last thing she did-brrr, that thought made her shiver-she was going to make these people go away!