Chapter 4

"Our ability to adapt is amazing. Our ability to change isn't quite as spectacular." ― Lisa Lutz, The Spellmans Strike Again

"Repeat after me now, Shizu-chan." Miyagawa Katsugorō said while pointing to himself as he sat next to me on a mat. "O∙tou∙san."

I stared at my new "father" blankly before I went back to amusing myself with the medium-sized rubber ball that was on the mat in front of me. It had been three weeks since being picked up by the young boy and I had recovered nicely from my case of hypothermia without any complications. The human body, while fragile, was also strangely resilient at the same time.

When I was first adopted, I was fully expecting to die shortly afterward, but to my own surprise and nearly everyone else's surprise, I survived. After realizing that I wasn't going to die, the other doubtful, new family members quickly rushed to obtain everything a baby girl would need from the neighbors and the marketplace. They certainly weren't going to deprive their new family member of what they believed to be the "basics". Before I knew it, I was surrounded by plenty of second-hand items. They were really striving to spoil me since it had been quite some time since they had a girl in the house seeing that the person that would have filled the role of "grandmother" had died a while back before I arrived.

The young boy sighed exasperatedly before taking the ball from my hands and placed in on the mat behind him. "No," he said firmly as he tried to get me to speak again. "Repeat after me: O∙tou∙san."

I ignored him and crawled around him to retrieve the ball he confiscated. After I had the ball in my hand, I merely planted my little butt on the mat and sat behind him while rolling the ball around on the mat. I wasn't interested in his little speaking lesson nor did I feel the need or want to bond with him. I still had a serious case of disconnect with this new body. I couldn't see this boy as my family. I already had my own family with a real mom and dad back in the future and I didn't need a new one.

Katsugorō yelled in into the empty air in frustration as he pulled on his hair before falling over onto the mat at my reaction, causing the nearby Otojirō to burst out laughing at his younger brother.

"Relax, she's probably too young to speak. She's tiny compared to the other babies in the village." Otojirō said mirthfully as he watched his younger brother roll around on the floor in frustration. "Although this does make me wonder how old she is. Otou-san, Kumezō, how old do you think little Shizuka-chan is?"

"I'd guess around nine to ten months old." Kumezō guessed with a grin as he continued to laugh internally at his youngest brother's frustration. "She can sit up by herself, crawl, pull herself up into standing position using some furniture, and walk a bit as long as she's holding on to something. What do you think, Otou-san?"

"Yes, that sounds about right, but her lack of 'baby talk' worries me along with her behavior," the father of the boys said with a sobering expression. "She doesn't try to talk, she doesn't cry, and she acts like she doesn't want to get close to us. You did name her well, but her behavior makes me wonder is she really is 'all there'."

"She is!" Katsugorō objected. "She's really smart! Remember that puzzle box you gave to Kumezō-nii that he was never able to solve? I gave it to her to play with two days ago and she solved it in like five minutes!"

"Then why doesn't she respond to you, or any of us?" questioned Otojirō.

Katsugorō's face fell immediately after the question. That was a good question. "May— Maybe she doesn't like me…" he mumbled while looking downcast.

Dammit.

Now he looked like a kicked puppy and I feeling more and more guilty by the second. Maybe it wouldn't hurt to indulge his wants a little bit? He did rescue me from certain death, even if I wanted to die, by not leaving me on that old fishing boat and I should repay him somehow. I let the ball roll off the mat before I got on my hands and knees and started crawling back to my "father". When I got close enough, I reached up and tugged on his sleeve to catch his attention.

"Ch…ch…chi...ue…" I tested my new voice.

Well, my vocal cords seemed to work just fine. Let's see if I get my speech under control and form whole words now.

At my attempt to communicate, Katsugorō instantly cheered up and smiled encouragingly at me while the others watched on in curiosity. Why was there a sudden change in little Shizuka-chan's behavior?

"That's it!" Katsugorō cheered me on. "Say Otou-san."

"Chi…chi…chi…," I continued to say before I finally spat out the word, "Chichi-ue!"

Katsugorō, or should I call him Chichi-ue now, crashed onto the floor comically at the word I finally spat out and whined with those big cartoon-like tears running down his face. "Nooo, that's not what I wanted you to call me. I wanted you to call me the affectionate Otou-san, not the formally stiff Chichi-ue. I wanted to have the cute and affectionate relationship with my darling daughter, not the stiff and strict relationship."

I stared at Chichi-ue blankly. I wasn't going to call anyone other than my own real father from my past life "Dad". It did help that the Japanese words for dad sounded nothing like the English and Chinese terms, but if I was going to call Katsugorō my "father" then I wasn't going to use the informal, affectionate term I would have reserved normally for my dad from my past life. This was as far as I was willing to go.

"Whoa! Did you just hear her speak? I wasn't just hearing things, right?" Kumezō asked in amazement. I probably should start referring the two older brothers as "uncles" now.

"No, you weren't hearing things," the Otojirō-oji-san said with just as much amazement. "She just spoke!"

"But she wasn't repeating after Katsugorō," the father of the boys, or Ojii-chan, said as he narrowed his eyes at me with suspicion. "She knew that Chichi-ue was the more formal term for Otou-san, the question is: How?"

"Oh! Maybe it was when we took her out for a stroll yesterday," suggested Otojirō-oji-san. "Remember? We passed by Omasa-san when she was calling her father-in-law Chichi-ue. Maybe she figured it out from that?"

"How could she?" argued Kumezō-oji-san as he observed me curiously. "She's too young to understand."

"I know how," Ojii-chan said as he narrowed his eyes at me, even more, to look at me seriously. I leaned in to hear his answer. Maybe he somehow knew what my situation was. Maybe he had the answers I was looking for. However, I was sorely disappointed when he broke out into proud, boisterous laugh. "She must be one of those rare genius babies."

Why did I ever think that Ojii-chan had the answer again?


"Look, Shizu-chan!" Chichi-ue exclaimed as he waved me over with one hand and pointed at the setting sun with the other.

I left the flower I was staring at alone and went to Chichi-ue's side. We were both walking back home from a dojo called Shieikan Hall. Chichi-ue had just started going there daily after all the farm work was completed for the day and I always tagged along.

"The sun's setting. Doesn't it look beautiful? Do you want to sit on Otou-san's shoulder and watch the sunset together?" Chichi-ue still hadn't given up on trying to get me to call him "Otou-san".

I nodded silently before I toddled over to where Chichi-ue was standing and clasped his hand lightly. He grinned happily down at me before he heaved me up onto his right shoulder and turn back towards the setting sun. It was now 1848, two years after I came into the lives of Miyagawa's family. At the start of this year, Chichi-ue had started going to Shieikan Hall[1] after working in the fields every day to train in the Tennen Rishin-ryū[2] sword style and, while I was still pretty distant, I found myself following Chichi-ue after he left home every day to go to the dojo. I just so used to his presence now that it felt awfully strange to not be around him and I felt the extreme need for normality. Once Chichi-ue saw that I was following him, he couldn't bear to turn me away so I got to go with him to the dojo daily.

"I wonder what's for dinner tonight. I think Kumezō-nii's cooking tonight," Chichi-ue said out loud to himself after the sun disappeared behind the mountains before he looked up at me and asked, "What do you want to eat, Shizu-chan?"

I shrugged my shoulders silently in response causing Chichi-ue to frown while looking up at me.

"Use your words, Shizu-chan," Chichi-ue reprimanded me lightly. I wasn't the most loquacious child and usually only spoke when spoken to.

I blushed lightly at the light scolding before saying, "I don't care what I eat as long as we all have food eat," with a ghostlike voice that almost disappeared into the wind.

I really didn't care what I ate for dinner as long as it had the proper nutrients I needed. I wasn't a picky eater and in a time where there wasn't all that much food security, no one could really afford to be a picky eater.

Chichi-ue chuckled at my answer. "I bet everyone wishes they had you as their daughter just for your eating habits. Well, let's go back home now."

"Okay," I agreed quietly as Chichi-ue walked the rest of the way home with me sitting on his shoulder.

When we arrived home, Chichi-ue and I were greeted with the delicious scent of an oden[3] style hotpot. The smell of the fishcake was absolutely mouthwatering. It must have been market day today.

Ojii-chan smiled widely at me when he saw me sitting on Chichi-ue's shoulder and reach over to pick me off of his shoulder.

"How was my little granddaughter today? Where you good for your Otou-san at the dojo today?" Ojii-chan cooed at me as he held me in his arms.

"Um!" I cutely said in conformation while nodding before asking about his back. He had pulled a muscle while tilling the soil earlier this morning and he was being pretty reckless by picking me up right now. "Ojii-chan's back still hurts?"

"No, all better now. See, I can pick you up now too."

"But you better put her down now, Otou-san," Otojirō-oji-san said teasingly as he pulled a stack of bowls from a cabinet towards the back of the room and turn around to face us with the bowls in his hands. "You can still hurt your back again, old man."

"Nonsense!" Ojii-chan retorted as he placed me on the ground.

As soon as my feet touched the ground, I ran off towards Kumezō-oji-san. I wanted to see how he prepared tonight's meal. As a girl in the late Tokugawa era, I would be expected to be able to prepare proper meals in the future. I'd better start learning how to cook this era's food with cutlery tools this time period had available. There's nothing wrong with getting head starts where possible.

While I was heading towards Kumezō-oji-san, Oji-chan declared, "I'm at the age where I can be called old yet!" before he flexed his muscles in a silly manner to show off his youth.

"Maybe not yet, but you're getting there," Kumezō-oji-san snorted as he stirred the delectable food in the pot that was hanging over the open fire pit. When he noticed me nearing him, he quickly nudged me away with his knee. "Oops, careful Shizuka-chan. You don't want to burn yourself by getting too close to the fire."

"I know that." I pouted.

I felt completely insulted! I knew how to handle myself around fire!

I huffed before ignoring Kumezō-oji-san's warning and stood on my tippy toes near the hot pot as I tried to peer at the ingredients in the pot, but I couldn't really see anything other than the fishcakes that were poking up from under the broth. It really sucked to be so short sometimes.

"Shizuka-chan," Kumezō-oji-san repeated my name sternly when I didn't back away from the flames. I turned to look at him with big innocent eyes before I backed away from the flame. Fine, I would let him has his way this time. "Good girl." He sighed in relief. "Now go help Otojirō-oji-san get the chopsticks."

I nodded obediently before I rushed off with bright childlike energy to find the chopsticks we stored in the cabinet against the wall and next to the cabinet where we kept the bowls and plates. Chichi-ue grinned at my childish energy before he went to go help Otojirō-oji-san with the set up the bowls and the little table-like trays that had already been placed on the floor near the fire.

When I reached the closed cabinet, I stood on my toes just so I could reach the handle just to pull the cabinet doors open. With the cabinet door opened, I jumped to reach the container containing the chopsticks, but I totally failed to get them. I jumped a few more times to attempt to reach the chopsticks, but alas, I still couldn't reach them and there weren't any small stools I could stand on nearby.

Why did Kumezō-oji-san ask me to fetch the chopsticks again?

He knew I was too short to reach them. I turned to shoot him a peeved look only to see him humming with a carefree expression while stirring the pot…

He did that just to get me out of the way, didn't he?

Chichi-ue laughed out loud at my expression before he came up from behind me and grabbed the chopsticks in the cabinet before handing them to me.

"There you go, Shizu-chan," Chichi-ue said with an amused grin. "Do you want to use a spoon today?"

Chichi-ue always asked me this before each meal and the answer was and always will be the same. I shook my head vehemently. I knew how to use chopsticks and my pride from my previous life wouldn't let me use a spoon while everyone else was using chopsticks. It was true that at age two my hands didn't have their fine-tuned motor control yet, but I was skilled with my hands…

Hmm, that sounded a bit dirty…

But all the same, I was skilled with my hands before I died, and I was determined to get that skill back, even if that did mean I would look silly while trying to eat my meals right now.

"Are you sure, Shizu-chan? There's soup today." Chichi-ue explained as he knelt down look me in the eye while patting my head. "I don't want you to accidentally splash yourself with the hot soup."

"I won't burn myself. I can use chopsticks." I dismissed the spoon suggestion with a pout and I turned around to toddle towards Otojirō-oji-san with my unsteady feet so I could hand him the eating utensils before I ran back towards Kumezō-oji-san to watch him cook.

I changed my mind. He wasn't going to get rid of me so easily.

"Shizuka-chan! Stop standing so close to the fire!" Kumezō-oji-san scolded me once more when he took his eyes off the pot only to see me standing next to him again. "Why do you never listen to me when I'm cooking?"

"Kumezō-oji-san, the broth is boiling over the sides of the pot," I pointed out bluntly. When he turned to scold me again for the second time, he stopped paying attention to the contents of the pot and now the soup was escaping over the sides of the pot from the temperature being too high.

"Shit!" he cried in alarm as he rushed to fix his mistake.

"Kumezō-nii! No foul language around Shizu-chan!" Chichi-ue instantly exclaimed as he swooped in to pick me up and took me further away from the fire and the angry spitting pot.

And for the sake of being a little shit just because I had nothing better to do, I repeated after Kumezō-oji-san and said, "'Shit.' What does 'shit' mean?"

"Now look what you did Kumezō!" Ojii-chan yelled before he turned to me and said, "Shizuka-chan, that's a bad word so you should never say it, okay?"

"Okay," I reassured Ojii-chan as I watched Kumezō-oji-san panic like a headless chicken.

Kids could be such little shits sometimes, but most of the time it not like they were trying to. They just didn't understand. I, on the other hand, was an adult in the skin of a child. I knew exactly what I was doing and being a little shit on purpose was such devious fun.


Crash!

A loud sound startled me out of my sleep and I quickly moved closer to Chichi-ue. Being a poor farming family, everyone slept on the same straw mat on the floor of the same room during the night. It wasn't the most comfortable arrangement, but it made it easy to see who was in bed and who was still awake. When I that loud crash startled me awake, I had jumped up in alarm and quickly scanned the mat. Everyone was still on the mat so that meant that whatever made that loud sound in the other room was either an animal that had managed to get into the house or it was a thief.

"Shh… It's okay Shizu-chan." Chichi-ue tried to calm me down before he looked to his older brothers and his father. "Otojirō-nii, Kumezō-nii, we're going to go investigate what caused that sound. Otou-san, stay here with Shizu-chan."

All the other men silently in agreement before all of them sprang into action. Otojirō-oji-san and Kumezō-oji-san got up out of bed first to grab their own bokken[4] and left the room to investigate first while Chichi-ue first made sure I was snuggly in Ojii-chan's arms first before he grabbed his own bokken and ran off to join his brothers.

"Hush now, Shizuka-chan," Ojii-chan whispered kindly, patting my back for comfort despite the fact I was already calm and quiet. "Everything will be fine. Your Otou-san and your two Oji-san will chase the thief away."

"But what if it's an animal like a wild boar?" I questioned him. Trying to chase off a wild boar would be a much more difficult task than chasing off a human.

"No, it's not an animal," Ojii-chan stated. "An animal would be far louder. This is a clumsy thief. Besides, there have been thefts in other nearby villages."

"Will they be alright?" I still didn't think of them as my family, but I liked them and didn't want anyone to be hurt in this encounter.

"Yes. Don't worry, they're big strong men and they'll beat the thief up until he's black and blue and runs away in fright," he said before he lightly tapped on the tip of my nose. He certainly had a lot of faith in his sons.

"Hey you!" I suddenly heard Chichi-ue yell in another room of the house. "You're not stealing from this family!"

"You can't stop me, you limp noodle!" I heard the gruff voice mystery man retort.

"We'll see about that! Prepare yourself!" I heard Chichi-ue declare before he gave a loud battle cry, probably just before he charged at the thief.

There were brief sounds of wood clashing upon wood in the scuffle before I heard the loud snapping sound of wood. There were sounds of struggle after that. Then I heard a loud, "Oof!"

"Surrender now!" I heard Chichi-ue demand before I heard the sound of footsteps running towards the source of the scuffle.

"We've got you surrounded now!" I heard Kumezō-oji-san say in the other room.

"You're not getting anything from this household!" Otojirō-oji-san said next.

The next thing I knew, I heard more thumping and yelps of pain filled the house before I looked through the bedroom window just in time to see the thief abort his mission and flee into the night. The morning soon after that, rumors of how strong Chichi-ue had started spread out through the village and into the outskirts of Edo. While Otojirō-oji-san and Kumezō-oji-san also helped chase off the thief, it was originally Chichi-ue who beat the thief into submission. When the rumor of how Chichi-ue ran the thief off finally reached the master of Shieikan Hall, the master of the dojo wasted no time adopting Chichi-ue to name him as his heir and the successor of the dojo.

In 1849, Chichi-ue moved into Shieikan Hall as the heir and a permanent resident of the hall and seeing that how he couldn't bear to leave me behind, he brought me with him. From the moment of his adoption as the successor of Shieikan Hall, he became known as Kondou Isami and I became Kondou Shizuka.


"Ah, you're finally here," Shuusai-sensei, the master of Shieikan Hall said as he came to greet Chichi-ue at the front door when we arrived. "Oh? And little Shizuka-chan also came too."

"Ah, well, I just couldn't bear to leave her behind so I brought her with me," Chichi-ue explained sheepishly as he scratched the back of his neck.

I managed the politest bow I could with my three-year-old body while saying, "We'll be in your hands now so please take care of us."

From now on, we were going to be living at the dojo rather than back on the Miyagawa family farm, so it was best to be polite and on my best behavior.

"My, so polite," Shuusai-sensei said with pleasant surprise. Most young kids at this age would either act super bratty or super shy, but I was just simply polite. "Despite her following you here daily for the past year, I think this is the first time I heard her speak," he then said to Chichi-ue.

"Oh, that just because Shizu-chan doesn't really like to speak," Chichi-ue explained. "She really acts more like a ghost than a child most of the time. She's small, quiet, and unnoticeable most of the time. She likes to follow me around while making no noise. But she won't be any trouble. She knows how to behave herself and she's also more capable than all the children her age."

"A ghost? Really now?" Shuusai-sensei said while observing me with more interest. "Well, let's get the two of you situated. Come on inside."

Chichi-ue gave me a small nudge with his knee to signify that I should follow Shuusai-sensei inside the dojo and towards the living quarters. I quickly followed his silent instruction and shuffled after the dojo's master while Chichi-ue followed closely behind.

"I wasn't aware that Shizuka-chan was coming with you, so the both of you will have to share a single room," Shuusai-sensei said when he came to a stop in front the open door of a fairly spacious room."

"That's no problem. Since Shizu-chan is still so young, I'd prefer to have her close by." Chichi-ue answered before he beckoned me closer. "Shizu-chan, come closer and take a look at where we'll be living from now on."

I shuffled closer and peeked around Chichi-ue's leg to get a closer look at the room. It was well furnished and it was a pretty large room for two people to share. There'd be no complaints from me. I looked up at Chichi-ue when he gently dropped his hand on the top of my head.

"Do you like the room?" Chichi-ue asked while patting my head affectionately.

I nodded yes and Shuusai-sensei smiled down at me kindly.

"I'll go fetch another futon for Shizuka-chan to sleep on, so why don't you two get comfortable?"

Wait! I got to have my own bed this time?

"Okay!" I exclaimed cheerfully before I quickly toddled into the room, causing both men to burst out laughing at my sudden boldness.

I wouldn't have minded if I still had to sleep with Chichi-ue, but he snored and drooled in his sleep sometimes. If I was going to get my own futon[5], then I certainly wasn't going to turn it down. This was the start of a new chapter in our lives.


[1] The Shieikan is the Tennen Rishin Ryu Dojo, which existed in Ichigaya, Tokyo. The Dojo was established by Kondou Shusuke in 1839. After Kondou Isami joined the Roshigumi, Sato Hikogoro maintained it until 1867.

[2] This style, like other koryū arts, teaches kenjutsu, bōjutsu, and jūjutsu. The style was famous in Edo, and was headquartered at the Shieikan dojo.

[3] Oden (おでん) is a Japanese winter dish consisting of several ingredients such as boiled eggs, daikon, konjac, and processed fishcakes stewed in a light, soy-flavored dashi broth. Ingredients vary according to region and between each household. Karashi is often used as a condiment. Oden was originally what is now commonly called misodengaku or simply dengaku; konnyaku or tofu was boiled and eaten with miso. Later, instead of using miso, ingredients were cooked in dashi and oden became popular.

[4] A bokken (木剣, bok(u), "wood", and ken, "sword") (or a bokutō 木刀, as they are instead called in Japan) is a Japanese wooden sword used for training. It is usually the size and shape of a katana, but is sometimes shaped like other swords, such as the wakizashi and tantō. Some ornamental bokken are decorated with mother-of-pearl work and elaborate carvings.

Bokken should not be confused with shinai, practice swords made of flexible bamboo.

[5] A futon (布団) is traditional Japanese bedding comprising a quilted mattress that is usually laid on the floor. A bedding set consists of both a mattress (敷き布団 shikibuton, lit. "spreading futon") and a duvet (掛け布団 kakebuton, lit. "covering futon"), although the word "futon" is also used to refer specifically to the mattress. Both elements of a futon bedding set are pliable enough to be folded and stored away during the day, allowing the room to serve for purposes other than as a bedroom.