Kayo shuddered. She didn't like this. She didn't like this one bit. The sun was out, the sky was blue with only a few fluffy clouds in it, and the smell of fresh fish assaulted her senses. That didn't make up for the one glaring problem: there was a boat involved.

She still wasn't certain how the medicine seller had managed to talk her into it. Oh right. Promises of fresh fish for lunch. She frowned at him and his nonchalant posture as he leaned against the boat's railing.

Unlike Kayo, he was enjoying the fresh breeze on the open sea. They were crossing the Seto Inland Sea to reach the southeastern edges of Japan to stock up on supplies, particularly rare teas and spices that would fetch a higher price in the northwestern regions. "We are not crossing the Ayakashi Sea, Miss Kayo."

"Do I need to remind you of our last trip across a sea?!" Kayo hissed.

"Yes yes, you remind me every time we're near water," he grinned as she jabbed a finger in his shoulder. "But would you rather walk around the Seto Sea? It is quite large."

Kayo huffed. He had a point, but she didn't want to admit to it. It was rather nice not to walk or hike, even though her feet had finally gotten used to it.

"Ah, another merchant," the man approached them in a simple kimono, a bundle slung over his shoulder. "I had hoped to find some here in the back of the boat. Do you mind if I join you both?"

"Certainly," the medicine seller welcomed him.

"Some upper class being rude at the front?" Kayo questioned.

"Annoying, more like it," the merchant replied. "Most are fine, but there's a scholar who seems to believe he's the kami's greatest gift to man. I don't think I can listen to how important he thinks he is anymore."

"That sounds absolutely irritating!" Kayo agreed.

"Terribly," the merchant agreed. "He's spouting all this talk about some new manuscript on atmospheric something or other. All sounds like yokai to be honest. He's busy talking a priestess's ear off, and she's likely only listening because she's polite. To think someone like him is a samurai descendant. I figured a former samurai would at least have some humility to him."

Samurai were expected to have noble intentions and be positive role models for society, but the medicine knew that was just the outward appearance. Without war to keep them busy, they did sometimes turn to scholarly works, and that turn seemed to make this particular one an absolute nuisance. "You might be surprised at how samurai truly are in this era."

"Sounds like you've had some nasty run-ins with a few," the merchant said, leaning against the railing.

"Most are pleasant, but some assume the worst," the medicine seller replied. "I have been thrown into jail a few times."

The merchant scoffed. "They always assume the worst with us when we just want an honest living. They've nearly done it to me too. The name's Akihiko, by the way. Carpenter."

"Kayo," she introduced herself. "Apprentice medicine seller and this is…" she peered at him.

"Just an ordinary medicine seller," he replied.

Akihiko laughed. "I get that. There were times when I considered abandoning my name and duties, to just travel the world and see further than the reaches of the Seto Sea, but I do rather like what I do."

"I didn't think artisans really traveled all that much," Kayo noted.

"I work for the shipyards here," Akihiko said. "Repairing boats, docks, the buildings. There was a need for artisans across the Sea so my company sent me."

"Alone?" Kayo questioned. "Or are there others here?"

"Just me," he replied. "Some of the artisan companies along the Seto Sea sometimes exchange artisans when they need someone with a particular skill. It's the only way to see another town. And honestly I just like being out on the sea once in a while."

Kayo still wasn't sold on the sea part just yet. She looked up as a pair approached them dressed in working kimono more suited for the sea. They both had fishing rods slung over their shoulders.

"I hope we aren't a bother in joining you in the back of the boat," the woman bowed.

The medicine seller offered a respectful bow in return. "Hardly a bother, given that you do not mind staying with those of a lower class."

"Anything's better than that annoying know-it-all," the man huffed. "I'm Tsuichiro and this is my wife Hama. We're just trying to catch some fish, and that loud mouth is scaring them all off."

"I do hope this scholar does not decide to grace us with his presence," the medicine seller mused. "The back of this boat might sink under the weight of his ego."

Tsuichiro snorted a laugh. "That is far too accurate, medicine seller." He cast his line off the back of the boat as Hama tended to the baskets filled with fresh fish.

"I am surprised to see fishers on a ferry," the medicine seller observed.

"Our boat was destroyed in the last storm," Hama explained. "We haven't been able to replace it. The food tax is always steep, so we've been using ferries for fishing. The boat master gets his share of fish and we have enough fish to feed ourselves and the city."

"That's really smart, Miss Hama!" Kayo said. "But it sounds like taxes are really bad here."

Hama shook her head. "It's just harder to handle without our own boat."

He found it oddly amusing. Three different classes in the lower class all talking about fish and their annoyance with a particular upper class scholar. They weren't that much different, all trying to make ends meet and live in modern Japan. Perhaps extending a hand wouldn't be too far outside his caste. "Well, it might take awhile since I'd have to work during my free time, but I could build you a simple boat," Akihiko offered.

"Did you hear that, dear?" Hama called out.

"I sure did," Tsuichiro called out over his shoulder. "We could pay you in food for labor and supplies."

"That sounds like a deal," Akihiko said.

The medicine seller peered past the carpenter, finding a man in a rich kimono approaching. He held an expensive-looking scroll and was rattling off information to a priestess who looked annoyed with him but was trying to hide it.

Kayo leaned past the medicine seller. "I bet that's Mr. Scholarly Annoyance."

She peered at Akihiko who rolled his eyes as the scholar approached.

"Have you never seen shironue? I have. They are quite a mysterious sight, lights dancing out upon the water," the scholar boasted. "No matter how close you get, they're always far away."

The medicine seller looked at the scholar sideways. The description was accurate, but the name was wrong. The strange lights on the water were called shiranui, not shironue. He was getting his yokai mixed up.

"While I can appreciate your interest in the arcane, Mr. Tanbei," the priestess gently pushed him away, "I would much prefer to return to my prayers."

"More than an interest," the scholar insisted. "It is a passion, a field of study! I wrote one of the best scrolls on unusual seafaring phenomena."

The priestess looked less than impressed.

Kayo leaned over to the medicine seller. "You think he'd get the hint she's not interested in what he has to say."

The medicine seller grinned just a bit. "Perhaps we could sell him some intelligence charms."

Kayo snorted. "I don't think that'll help. He's so clueless. He's too busy trying to impress her with knowledge."

"It is not even correct. He's got the name wrong."

Kayo attempted not to start laughing, clamping a hand over her mouth until the need for giggles subsided. "So much for being scholarly." She blinked a bit as the sky suddenly grew dark. "Hey, I thought today was clear!"

"That's not a storm!" Akihiko pointed over the side of the ship. "That's a tsunami!"

"But how?!" Hama exclaimed. "This is the inland sea! There aren't tsunami here!"

Kayo clung to the medicine seller in panic. "I hate boats! I hate them! I'd take the Ayakashi Sea again over a tsunami!"

The boat creaked, flipping sideways as the water picked it up and threw the passengers into the cold waters below.

….

Author's notes:

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! That could've gone better! The Seto Inland Sea is a mostly landlocked sea with good weather and light rain. Certainly not a place for tsunami to happen. In modern times, there is a large bridge across the sea, but here, there are just boats.

So some cultural notes! We're dealing with the rigid caste system the Tokugawa Shogunate established. The upper class are samurai and nobles all the way up through the ranks to the shogun. The rest are lower, the peasants. And even in these divisions, the ranks were split up more. Artisans and farmers/fishers and then merchants at the very bottom.

Farmers/fishers were expected to provide food for themselves and for the upper class in a food tax. Which was literally the food they grew or caught as payment. Artisans paid their taxes through labor. A lot of what the lower class did was provide for the better of the city.

Samurai often became scholars and artists, though many continued to serve their former lords. This particular former-samurai just became annoying.

I wonder what will become of the travelers after this little mishap.