Chapter 4
Though it was nearing nightfall, the balmy summer evening generated much activity in the streets of Rokkaku. The late-setting sun cast red slants of light over the buildings beside the shore. Sakuno was perched on a railing of the pier as she watched the crowds of people dwindle. She had been told to remain out of the way while the inventory was transferred from the ship to carts and wagons. She had some opportunity to sleep during the voyage, but fatigue still crept upon her, tugging on her eyelids. The tide hitting the sand gently beneath her sounded so peaceful. She succumbed to the desire to close her eyes, and her head nodded onto her chest.
For a moment, she thought that she could feel the world rotating, but a hand quickly caught her arm before she fell, jolting her out of her trance.
"Tetsuya." Kaneda stood beside her, his hand securing her. "We're heading to the inn now."
Swaying slightly, Sakuno carefully dropped herself back onto the platform. "This is…Rokkaku, right?"
"Yes, the coastal towns," Kaneda promptly answered. "Yamabuki is still hours of travel away, so we need our rest tonight."
Sakuno only made a noise in turn and followed Kaneda dazedly. Ahead of them were the twin sailors—Ryo and Atsushi, Sakuno remembered Kaneda had called them. Akazawa then entered her line of vision as he was a few paces in front of the twins. Getting Kaneda's attention, she pointed discreetly at the tall, dark man.
"…does that man…mister…?"
"Akazawa?"
"Yes…does he mind that I'm going with you?" Sakuno did not find the idea of traveling with the man pleasant, but she felt deprived of any alternative.
Kaneda chuckled. "He was having a mood today mostly because of our most recent supplier, so it had nothing to do with you. Mr. Akazawa tends to get cranky after dealing with troublesome people like that."
Sakuno still wasn't sure if that was a relief to her or not.
It was then that the group arrived at an inn that was obviously meant for long distance travelers as it was very close to the wharf from which they had come. They entered into a large common area with tables and tall bay windows, opened for light and fresh air. There were some patrons sitting at tables with the remains of meals before them, so Sakuno assumed that the inn's downstairs was also a restaurant.
Akazawa approached a man standing behind a counter, a tall shadowbox filled with keys upon the wall behind him. Before Akazawa could say anything, the other man looked up and smiled with recognition.
"Mr. Akazawa, you're back already? That was a fast trip," he greeted lightly.
"Yes, well, we didn't need much this time," Akazawa answered. "If our usual room is available, I'd like to have that one, Mr. Saeki."
"Yes, of course, Mr. Akazawa."
The two men's voices faded from Sakuno's attention as she looked about the room some more. Most of the light came from the sun shining through the windows, but since darkness was falling, a worker lit lamps around the room. A young woman with a pleasant smile on her face emerged from a backroom to fetch dirty dishes off of the tables, and a small boy—four or five years of age, Sakuno guessed—trotted behind, wiping the tabletops.
Sakuno suddenly heard the voice of Saeki, calling, "Oh, Yumiko."
Turning, the woman smiled at Saeki and quickly walked over to him while still balancing a pile of dishes in her arms. "Yes?" she sweetly asked.
"You cleaned Room 22 today, didn't you?"
"Oh! Yes, I did; I think I still have the key," she said while shifting the weights in her arms; "My ring of keys are in the apron pocket."
Saeki conscientiously took some of the plates to free her right hand, and withdrawing the giant ring from her apron, she placed the keys onto the counter.
"Your usual party, Mr. Akazawa?" Saeki asked uncertainly, eyeing the twins and Sakuno.
"No; Kaneda and I will be sharing the room with the others," Akazawa replied.
Yumiko immediately piped up, "Well, you will certainly need more bedding then." With a twinkle in her eyes—"I doubt that all of you can fit in the bed."
Much to everyone's surprise, Akazawa just laughed at the statement while Kaneda noticeably colored and one of the twins cleared his throat.
"Well, that can easily be fixed," Yumiko said, still maintaining her sweet smile, seemingly oblivious to the innuendo she herself had made; she took back the pile of plates from Saeki as she said, "I'll get you boys some more quilts. Kohta, come help me."
The small boy who had been wiping tables immediately paused his task to follow the woman while answering, "Yes, mama."
"I can help you, too, ma'am," Kaneda hurriedly exclaimed, eager to leave the room.
With her only "friend" gone, Sakuno glanced at the silent twins, Akazawa who was waiting for a key, and Saeki who was flipping through the ring of keys in order to find the one for Room 22.
"Uh," Sakuno started hesitatingly, "I'll go see if they need more help."
No one seemed to notice her speaking, so she quickly sidled to the back door that she had seen Yumiko, her son, and Kaneda walk through. She accidentally ran straight into another man who had been coming out of the room while she had tried to enter it. However, before Sakuno could fall, she felt a strong arm catch her.
"I am so sorry! I didn't see you," the man said as he steadied her back onto her feet.
A tall man, he held himself similar to Ishida, so Sakuno immediately felt comfortable before the kind stranger. She nodded her head in a reserved greeting and apologized, saying that the collision had been her own fault.
"Did you need something?" he inquired.
"I—" Sakuno stumbled over her next words. "I was looking for—"
"Tetsuya?"
She heard Kaneda's voice behind the large man. Recognition passed over the man's face. "Oh, are you with Akazawa and Kaneda?"
Kaneda appeared beside the tall man, his arms laden with a pile of blankets. "Yes, Tetsuya is going with us to Yamabuki tomorrow. He's from Seigaku."
An indiscernible shadow briefly entered the other man's face before dissipating into another friendly smile. "Is he now? Well, it's not often that foreigners decide to settle here in Rikkaidai, is it?"
"No, it's not," Yumiko wistfully replied to no one in particular as she and Kohta squeezed past the group.
The other three followed just in time for Sakuno to see Yumiko and her son disappear into another side door behind the bar, and the tall man with the friendly smile joined Saeki at the opposite of the room where all the keys still glittered playfully from their hooks on the wall. The twins and Akazawa were absent, and she could only assume as Kaneda immediately headed for a stairway that the three of them were already in their room for the night.
As she clumsily followed Kaneda up the narrow stairwell, wondering how the young man could climb the steps so rapidly while carrying so much, curiosity finally overcame her.
"Do you know who that man was, Kaneda?"
"Sure. His family has owned this inn for as long as I can remember. His name is Taka. He's been in charge of the inn for some time now, and Mr. Saeki helps out. Mr. Saeki actually owns the restaurant, but they became a joint business when Taka took over for his father." He glanced over his shoulder at Sakuno who was attentively listening. "I remember Mrs. Saeki describing it to me once—how terrible the mess had been, combining the buildings. For the restaurant and his family's living quarters, they bought the place next to Taka's inn and did a lot of renovations. You know, tearing out walls, building up different walls, new floors, and on and on."
They came to Room 22, and because Kaneda lacked a free hand, Sakuno tried the doorknob and, finding it unlocked, opened it for him. Akazawa was standing by the window, his back to the door, and the twins were both kneeling on the floor, going through their knapsacks. At Kaneda and Sakuno's arrival, Atsushi stood to help spread the quilts in the corner of the room.
"So," Sakuno ventured again, "are you good friends with Mr. Saeki, Kaneda?"
As Kaneda smoothed out one of the quilts, he just shrugged. "Mr. Akazawa and I stay here often due to our frequent traveling. I'm not well acquainted with the family, but—"
"His wife loves to talk," Akazawa finished the statement for Kaneda.
"Well," Kaneda faltered but smiled, "yes, she does."
As the others freshened themselves with water from a basin in the corner, hushed conversation spattered here and there, Sakuno finally felt a wall of exhaustion slam against her, and she curled up against the quilts. The blanket shifted as someone sat beside her, but she only opened her eyes when Ryo nudged her. She struggled to sit up as he helped her to fold one of the blankets into a makeshift pillow. Once again, she flopped down with her eyes only half open. Atsushi and Ryo both settled themselves beside her, and in her blurry half-lidded vision, she saw an exchange between the other two men as Akazawa gave an unexpected peck on Kaneda's lips only to have the younger man swat him away albeit good-naturedly, another dark stain upon his cheeks.
Sakuno felt a smile tug her lips. Even without Fuji, she felt unusually safe. As someone extinguished the last bit of candlelight in the room, her eyes slid completely shut. With a trace of the smile still on her lips, sleep draped its veil around the tired princess.
(...)
The ground scraped beneath Sakuno's feet as she frantically gripped the rope tighter, simultaneously rubbing the palms of her hands raw with rope burn. The mule that she was charged with leading had become agitated and started to buck, threatening to dump its entire load onto the ground. Atsushi and Ryo quickly came to Sakuno's rescue, one of them taking the rope from the shaking girl and the other cautiously approaching the mule to calm it down.
"You were pulling him too hard," Ryo observed once he had soothed the animal's nervous state.
Nursing her sore hands, Sakuno just glared at the creature. Once Atsushi was sure that the mule had calmed down, he returned the rope to her.
"Is it all right?" Akazawa called from ahead where he and Kaneda were driving the cart.
"Yeah," Atsushi returned the call; he and his brother retook the reins of their mules.
Thankfully, Sakuno mused, as she watched the twins handled four mules themselves, I only have one of these things to deal with—idiotic, brainless brute.
As if reading her mind, the mule stomped one of his hooves, causing the tense girl to jump. Atsushi looked back at her, but she assured him that everything was fine. The mule simply gave another derisive snort.
It was late in the morning, and the group traveled farther toward Yamabuki as they tread the rocky avenue into the mountains. They had begun to pass more people in the last hour, so Sakuno assumed that the village was near. The road was also wider and smoother here than it had been a few miles back where any wrong step could cause a nasty fall onto the rocks or into the thick underbrush.
In these past few hours spent in Rikkaidai, Sakuno had felt herself slowly being dissolved into the persona of Tetsuya. Her home in Seigaku, her servants, the duties and lessons—all of it blurred into an ethereal collection of distant memories even though it was but a few days before that she had still lived in that fantasy of an existence. As she thought about this, carefully stepping over a large root jutting from the ground and leading the mule over it as well, she felt the sturdy slip of paper in her pocket again. Her hand unconsciously moved over it and felt the card through the fabric of her pants. She recalled the strange interaction which she had with Mrs. Saeki this morning.
Sakuno had been trailing Kaneda and Akazawa as they planned to purchase mules for the trek to Yamabuki. Before they left the inn, however, Kaneda insisted that as much as he appreciated her willingness to help, she wasn't needed. Not inclined to argue, Sakuno watched the pair disappear down the road where she had taken a seat beside one of the windows in the common room.
"Traveling to Yamabuki, are you?" a woman's voice asked.
Startled, Sakuno looked up to see the same ever-smiling woman from the night before. Without asking, Yumiko sat down before the young girl and continued her friendly conversation.
"Kaneda mentioned you were from Seigaku, yes?" The woman's smile grew. "I'm sorry, but I've forgotten your name. It was—?"
"Tetsuya," Sakuno quietly answered, still eyeing Yumiko cautiously.
"Ah, yes. Kaneda did call you that, didn't he?" Her eyes gleamed. "Well, for someone trying such an adventurous start in a new country, could I entice you with a bit of fortune-telling?"
Sakuno just stared, but Yumiko continued talking as though she had never expected an answer.
"I'm sure I put them in here," she mumbled taking out her ring of keys and a couple of cleaning rags out of here apron. "Ah! Here they are." Onto the table were laid a deck of cards.
As Yumiko began to shuffle them, she reminisced, "I used to read tarot cards for my brothers when we were younger, and I became quite skilled at interpreting them. I personally like to arrange them for past, present, and future."
Sakuno could not help but be fascinated as the older woman took three cards from the top of the shuffled deck and laid them in a triangle onto the table between them.
"For your past," Yumiko began, flipping over one of the cards, "there is the Wheel of Fortune card. Hmm, yes, that must be referring to whatever caused you to leave Seigaku."
Sakuno mutely nodded, mesmerized by the brightly colored tarot card.
"Next is…a two cups card. It's not as powerful, but still, it fits well with your present situation. It is a good card to have.
"And lastly, there is…oh, my," Yumiko stopped with a soft giggle. "Don't you have an interesting future ahead of you."
Sakuno confusedly studied the last card. It had a picture of a winged spirit and two people—a man and a woman, both naked—standing before it.
"The Lovers," Yumiko said. "It means that romance and change are certainly to enter your life, but…to appease the Gemini, something else must be given up."
Unsure whether that was a good fortune or not, Sakuno timidly spoke up.
"Uh, Mrs. Saeki—"
"Yumiko, please."
"…Yumiko, is that…bad?"
Yumiko scrutinized the other girl with an intent look that made Sakuno suddenly feel discovered and naked. But the brief strain was relieved as Yumiko gave another one of her bright smiles.
"Tetsuya, why don't you take this card? Maybe it can be a reminder of your future as you travel today."
"Tetsuya!" Sounding as though he had been trying to get her attention for a while now, Kaneda's voice suddenly cut into her thoughts.
"Uh, what?" Sakuno blinked at their surroundings, her hand limply still holding the mule's reign.
"We're here."
She looked at the town before her. It was teeming with activity—despite its precipitous position on the mountainside. Deftly tucked around large trees and cliff sides, Yamabuki gave the impression of being a strong community. As she followed Kaneda on a main path, the town seemed to expand, and when they turned a corner around a large bolder, Sakuno was surprised to see the town extend even farther up the side of the mountain. People were bustling all about the streets—men with carts hauling wood or grains, pairs of giggling girls coming from the woods with filled water jugs, a group of young men fixing the cobblestones in the street, women carrying chickens and other food while their children skipped around their skirts.
It was only when Kaneda asked about her mule's load that she realized that the twins and Akazawa had already left them.
"Oh," she heard Kaneda talking to himself as he went through the pack, "fabric. Alright. Why am I always the one that has to go to Sengoku?"
"Well," he said, now standing beside Sakuno, "Tetsuya, welcome to Yamabuki. The others have left to deliver their merchandise, and so shall we. Come on."
It was not long until they stood before a small shop, squeezed between two much larger edifices on either side. The structure emanated color between the dark green roof and gaily colored sign proclaiming tailor in golden paint. Kaneda stopped to tie the mule to a nearby post, and having removed the animal's load, he faced Sakuno.
"After I give this to Minami and Sengoku, we can go find the others. We'll head on to Shitenhouji after we eat something, I suppose."
Sakuno nodded. "How far away is Shitenhouji?"
"Not far. Just over the mountain in the next valley. If we are on the road by mid afternoon, we should reach it by late evening."
"Okay."
Kaneda stepped up into the colorful building, and Sakuno thought to herself about the town. Everything thus far in Rikkaidai had been far from what she expected. She had anticipated seeing dilapidated remains of towns and villages, akin to a war-torn landscape. As she stared at the town of Yamabuki, a town that seemed to nearly cling to the mountainside, she began to understand what Kaneda had meant when he said that Rikkaidai had emerged from the epidemic a stronger people. As frantic as she still felt, she had meant kind people, and calmness slowly spread over her as she finally assessed her situation.
I was with Fuji, but we were separated. Maybe he followed me. If so, where would he look?
The sound of the shop's door opening caused Sakuno to turn her head sharply towards the store, but only two young women exited, a redhead standing at the door and saying, "It was lovely doing business with you. Come again soon!"
"He's brought our order, Sengoku," another voice called from inside.
"What?" Sengoku hurried back inside. "That's great!"
The conversation continued, but it was muffled to Sakuno. Inquisitively, she peered through the front window for the first time, seeing all of the rolls and colors of cloth placed in shelves that extended from the floor to the ceiling. Towards the back was a man with spiky brown hair, gathering up scraps of fabric from a counter and beside him was the redhead, presumably "Sengoku." Kaneda had placed his bundle onto an adjacent countertop, and Sengoku was eagerly going through it.
"Hey, Tetsuya," a familiar voice greeted.
Sakuno looked behind her and saw that Ryo and Atsushi had approached her. When she inquired about Akazawa, they told her that he was selling the other mules and would be joining them soon. The bell above the shop door rang again as Kaneda walked out. Seeing the twins, he asked again about Akazawa's whereabouts, and when he received an answer, he then suggested that they meet the other man so that they could waste no time in continuing on to Shitenhouji.
Rokkaku! A voice suddenly yelled in Sakuno's head, and with an alarming realization, she remembered that the name of the settlement that she and Fuji were supposed to stay in was Rokkaku. They had left that town that morning! She tried to think up excuses as panic crept up onto her. She had been tired; she had been alone. Kaneda had been kind, and she didn't know where else to turn.
"Kaneda?" she spoke up softly, desperately trying to keep her voice steady.
Conversation ceased between the three other men. "Yes?" Kaneda ventured.
"…can I—?"
"Taichi, turn around, you idiot!" a voice sharply cut in.
Sakuno looked beside her, moving instinctively, only to barely miss an empty cart shooting by. A gangly teenager was running after it while an even smaller boy had stopped beside Sakuno.
"I'm so sorry, please!" he stuttered. "I didn't see you, please?"
Silenced by the boy's emotional outburst, Sakuno found no words of reply, only wondering what the boy was saying please about.
"Hey, it's your own fault, Taichi. When you're leading, that implies watching where you're going, not nagging your elder."
Taichi turned a disconcerted look upon the other boy. "Akaya, you were pushing the cart too fast, please!"
Pulling the cart back a few feet, Akaya pouted while running a hand through his curly black hair. "No, you weren't walking fast enough."
"I know we need to return to the site immediately, but this isn't a race, please."
"Well, at this rate, Mr. Sanada will get there before us."
Taichi paled with panic and once again turned to his and Akaya's silent audience. "Again, I'm really sorry, please! Are you okay?"
"Uh, I'm fine," Sakuno slowly said, unsure of what was going on with the two boys.
Taichi grinned happily and ran over to the cart. "Come on, Akaya! We have to get back in time for Mr. Sanada, please!"
Sakuno heard Akaya mutter suck-up under his breath which fell only upon the deaf ears of the other energetic boy. They continued trudging down the road, Taichi occasionally harassing Akaya to which the older boy just sulked in annoyance.
Completely silent, Sakuno, Kaneda, Atsushi, and Ryo watched the diminishing cart as it went farther down the road. Sakuno heard Akazawa greet them when he walked up from the same direction that the two cart-drivers had disappeared in. Still dazed by the sudden appearance and disappearance of "Taichi" and "Akaya," they all mumbled something in reply, but Kaneda then recalled the previous conversation.
"Tetsuya, weren't you about to say something earlier?" he asked.
Sakuno was caught off guard, and the presence of Akazawa making her more nervous, she stuttered, "Uh…w-would it be alright…if I looked for work…here, instead of…" She paused, trying to remember. "…Shitenhouji?"
Kaneda blinked. "Ah, well, I don't see why not…"
"He's not from around here, so he would need someone's help to even ask for work. We don't have time," Akazawa murmured quickly to Kaneda.
Sakuno fidgeted as she heard Kaneda return with, "We've brought him this far; the least we can do is help him settle."
Before Akazawa could say anymore, Ryo cleared his throat and spoke up. "Actually—sorry, sir—some townspeople today told me about a logging site towards the edge of town. They said that the loggers need workers and are hiring almost anyone right now."
Sakuno didn't know that she had been holding her breath until it swooshed out in a sigh of relief. She thought that maybe she could stay in Yamabuki; of course, it was not the original city that Fuji had planned for them to go to, but it was closer than Shitenhouji.
As Kaneda smiled and said that they should take Tetsuya there immediately, Sakuno could only hope that anyone else she might meet could be as kind as these sailors and merchants had already been to her.
(...)
Sanada swiftly walked up the steep path. He was thoroughly annoyed that some miller had had the audacity to accuse his workers of selling weak wood.
They work under me. Accusing them is the same as accusing me, and I don't cheat buyers, his thoughts growled. Even if they are tactless and demanding.
His thoughts were briefly interrupted as he passed two men he did not recognize. He nodded politely at them, one of whom remained silent while the other mumbled a greeting. Sanada knew that he was close to the site and was wondering why such strangers would be there. Quickening his pace, he turned a corner to see Niou speaking to what looked like a child. His eyes scanned the entire scene quickly as he got closer. Akaya and Muromachi had been clearing the felling site for a large oak, but they both had stopped to watch the interaction. Akutsu had been bucking some logs and then loading them onto a wagon, but he, too, had paused. Meanwhile, Taichi had practically skipped with excitement over to Niou and the small person. Sanada could now see it was another young boy, about the same size as Taichi and probably the same age.
He heard Niou saying, "Alright, Tetsuya, you can help Taichi clear sites of excess brush and slashing. If Mr. Sanada wants you somewhere else, he should be back soon enough to—"
"I'm here," he interrupted, now standing by the group.
He finally could see this "Tetsuya" better. An extremely effeminate boy, Tetsuya was short, slender, and had the wide-eyed look of a deer. He couldn't have been older than thirteen, but Sanada knew that he had always been bad at guessing someone's age.
"This is Tetsuya," he heard Niou say. "He came to Yamabuki just today, and some friends of his brought him to find work."
Sanada thought of the two men earlier at this comment; "So, I presume you hired him?"
"Yes—if you don't mind, sir."
"…Not at all. We need workers." Sanada now looked down at the waif of a person. "You can do as Niou say. Follow Taichi around where he works, and he'll show what to do. Do you have any experience in logging?"
Tetsuya seemed incapable of looking Sanada in the eye with those large brown eyes of his own, but his response was otherwise polite. "N-no, sir, I don't."
Sanada sighed. "Well, like I said, shadow Taichi. You'll learn soon enough."
Niou had since taken leave to continue helping Akutsu prepare logs for selling. With a glare, Sanada had enticed Muromachi and Akaya to resume their business as well. Sanada went over to the same oak tree to help them prepare the saw. Nearby, Taichi had dragged Tetsuya to the piles of brush he had been making. He chirped away, saying something about how he "couldn't believe that he'd see Tetsuya again, please, or especially work with him" and "that he was sorry about before, please" and "are you going to be in Yamabuki long, please?"
Slightly interested, or perhaps only eavesdropping because Taichi was speaking so loudly, Sanada heard him ask about where Tetsuya was from.
"Uh...Seigaku," the other replied hesitantly.
Sanada's ears impulsively perked at that. Seigaku? He was far from home. Certainly, Yamabuki lacked many of the niceties that the more established country across the lake had. Without realizing that he now stood straight, facing the two boys, Sanada spoke up.
"Do you have family that came with you?" he asked.
Tetsuya didn't realize at first that Sanada had spoken to him, but he finally scrambled from his crouching position, dropping several sticks as he did so. "Uh, uh, my brother—then I…"
Sanada's eye twitched. Jumpy, isn't he? "Are you alone or are you not?"
Tetsuya swallowed and thankfully regained composure. "Alone, sir."
"Those friends of yours who brought you here—do they live in Yamabuki?"
"No."
Not waiting for, or even expecting, further explanation, Sanada continued; "So, you must work because I assume that someone your age and as far from native country as you are hasn't a cent in his name. Where are you staying?"
He just realized how detached from his original task he had become, so he quickly relinquished an ax to Muromachi, instructing him briefly to start cutting a notch in the wood. He then closed the distance between himself and Tetsuya, not saying anymore, simply waiting for an answer instead.
During this, Tetsuya's face had screwed into a look of worry, as if realistic thoughts about food and housing never crossed his mind. "I…hadn't thought about that, sir."
As I expected. "Well, then you are hardly prepared for Rikkaidai—especially the mountains of Yamabuki."
At this comment, Tetsuya looked especially stricken, and Sanada felt his mouth twitching in an almost smile at the boy's naivety.
When Tetsuya seemed at a loss for words, Sanada relented. "Seeing as you are new here and now a worker of mine, you can lodge in my house for the time being. We clean up the site two hours before sundown. However, I have more business in town, so Niou can show you to the house."
The prospect apparently caught the boy off guard. "Huh? Uh…th-thank you…sir," he stumbled over the sentence, but Sanada could see the genuine appreciation on his face.
Sanada abruptly turned to resume his work with Muromachi and Akaya. "But until then—we work," he stated.
"Ah, yes, sir!" Tetsuya returned with much more enthusiasm than before.
As Taichi then showed Tetsuya where to take their armloads of brush, Sanada again caught himself staring. He couldn't help but find the whole situation odd. Of all places for such a clumsy and timid boy to end up, it had to be his logging site, and the irony of it all irked him.
Yet, despite all of that—as he listened to Tetsuya yelp in a mixture of surprise and fear as Akutsu suddenly appeared behind him, Niou laughing raucously and Taichi trying so hard to not laugh—he felt himself smile a little.
CHAPTER 4 - END