Water lapped against his feet as he stirred awake. The medicine chest washed up next to him on the shoreline and Kayo clung to the edges of his soggy kimono. He rubbed at his face as he pulled himself out of the sand.
He sat up, staring out into the sea. The Inland Sea wasn't known for tsunamis, but there were yokai that could cause them. Unfortunate, honestly, as they were now stranded on one of the many islands that dotted the seascape. Their boat floated just out of reach. Well what was left of it as the wave had split the boat in half. Several boards washed ashore. The sky above was perfectly clear and the waters completely calm.
"I hate boats!" Kayo pushed herself out of the sand. "We should've walked!"
"Yes, yes," he agreed. "This was hardly a normal occurrence."
"There's always something lurking in the waters!" Kayo shouted, trying to find her combs in the sand to tend to her unwinding hair.
"There are yokai everywhere," he pointed out, leaning forward on his legs. "Few that could cause a tsunami, though."
She huffed, pulling the remaining combs from her hair as she flopped back in the sand. Her hair was nothing but a tangled mess now, wound around seashells, seaweed, and some unfortunate small driftwood. She ran her hand through it, attempting to pull everything from it. "So what do we do now?"
"Wait, it seems." He reached over to the medicine chest, pulling one of the drawers open, handing her some chopsticks. "For your hair."
"Thanks." Well at least she could look somewhat presentable, even stranded on an island in the sea. She wound her hair up, tucking the chopsticks in the bun. This really did suck, but at least whatever caused this was out there and not over here. She leaned forward, picking up one of the shells she'd pulled from her hair. "Say, do you think whatever caused this was after someone on the ship? Like the Ayakashi Sea?"
He wrung out his long sleeves with his hands. "Perhaps."
"You can't give me an answer like that after what we went through!" Kayo jabbed a finger at him.
"It's hard to say, Miss Kayo," he clarified. "Something certainly did cause this but it is hard to say if it is targeted just yet. I have not ruled out the possibility."
She huffed, dropping the shell back in the sand and returning to fixing her mess of hair. She was reasonably upset. Everything was supposed to be normal crossing the sea, but boats were always so much trouble. The only one that wasn't recently was the river boat they took to get to Lord Ii's estate, but that didn't make up for how gruesome that mononoke ended up being. Smearing samurai on the balcony. She nearly shuddered at the memory of it.
"Do you know the history of the Seto Inland Sea, Miss Kayo?"
She peered at him from behind her wet hair. "History isn't exactly something I'm well versed in," she shook her head. "Never needed it as a servant, you know."
"A bloody civil war once raged on here some era ago between powerful clans, the Heike and the Genji," he said. "The war culminated here in the sea, the Heike taking advantage until the tides suddenly changed. Rather than surrender, the Heike drowned themselves in the sea."
Kayo frowned sharply at the sea. "So what, this is some ancient mononoke?"
"They would've been long put to rest by now," he said. "Instead the souls of the Heike clan merged with the native crabs, giving them shells that look like angry samurai faces."
Kayo pursed her lips, trying to imagine angry yokai crabs.
"They're generally harmless," he added. "And edible." He pointed at some nearby crabs scuttling about on the shoreline. One turned, sporting a shell that looked like an angry samurai's helmet.
Kayo stared at the crab as it scuttled off towards the water before laughing. "It really does look like an angry samurai! How ridiculous!" She looked past the crab, seeing someone approach. "Mr. Akihiko!"
"Miss Kayo, Mr. Medicine Seller! I'm glad you both weren't lost at sea," he said, relieved.
"I thought we were the only ones who survived!" Kayo exclaimed.
Akihiko shook his head. "Most of us ended up on the nearby beach, even the annoying scholar. But regardless, come and join us on the beach. The fisherman and his wife are trying to catch us some food."
"I could definitely go for some food right now," Kayo quickly stood up despite the wet kimono trying to fight against her. She searched for her sandals for a moment, finding them half buried in the sand next to the medicine seller's geta. She fished both pairs out, shaking the sand off them. She grabbed the soggy small medicine chest, slinging it over her shoulder. "C'mon, let's go. Better than being stranded by ourselves!"
"Yes yes." Not that he would object. He stood up, picking up the medicine chest before staring out at the sea for a moment. Something was out there, something lurking in the depths of the sea beyond their broken boat. He suspected the tidal wave had targeted someone on the boat, but there was still the possibility it was a large yokai capable of creating tidal waves that had rolled over at the bottom of the sea. Getting to know the other passengers, even the obnoxious ones, might clear things up a bit.
He followed Kayo and Akihiko up the beach and through a light forest along the beach's edge, soon reaching where the others had gathered. Most were present there. The fisherman and his wife, the annoying scholar, the priestess, and the carpenter who guided them there. The boat master was notably missing.
He wrinkled his nose as they approached. The boisterous scholar was attempting to catch some fish the fisherman and his wife had caught. Poorly. The medicine seller dropped the medicine chest near the fire, pulling the fish off the fire.
"Exactly what do you think you're doing?" Tanbei demanded.
"Rescuing that poor burnt fish," he replied simply. "Unless you all truly desire to eat dinner burnt." He smirked a little bit as the scholar looked offended but didn't move to stop him.
"You know how to cook, Mr. Medicine Seller?" Akihiko questioned.
"Of course," he replied. "It is not much different than concocting medicines. There is a recipe for each, a delicate hand required, and patience. All are part of the craft." He hooked a finger around one of the upper drawers in the medicine chest, pulling out a small pan used for brewing medicines that required heat. "Miss Kayo, if you would check which herbs are still usable. Perhaps the salt, at least."
Kayo dug through the drawer, finding a jar of salt thankfully not soggy. She handed it to him, pulling out other herbs to let them dry a bit in the sun. While he didn't often cook, there were times where their travels took them far between villages. He had surprised her before when he cooked something simple over a campfire, but now that she'd traveled with him for awhile, the only thing that still surprised her were yokai and mononoke and boats.
"Mr. Medicine Seller! Miss Kayo!" the fisherman's wife Hama exclaimed. "It's good to see that you made it here okay!" She dropped the battered bucket next to the fire. "This should be more than enough to feed us all for dinner. I was hoping to get some crabs, but they're particularly difficult to catch on the shore."
"That's because of the grudge they carry!" Tanbei butted in uninvited.
"The what now?" Hama questioned.
"The crabs here have become yokai," the scholar rattled on. "It's a grudge left over from the battle between the Genji and the Keikei! The latter was defeated in battle and drowned so their grudge carries on in the crabs!"
Kayo rubbed at her face in exasperation. "It's the Genji and the Heike! He-i-ke!"
"Manners, Miss Kayo," the medicine seller said thoroughly amused.
"It's completely wrong!" Kayo insisted.
"It is," the medicine seller agreed. "But manners."
"Oh fine!" Kayo fussed. "You said the wrong names, Mr. Scholar."
"How dare you correct me, woman!" Tanbei hissed, reaching across the campfire.
The medicine seller stopped him with a singular finger, one the scholar found impossible to counter. "I would appreciate that you did not touch my apprentice."
Tanbei's face contorted in anger and frustration as he tried to move the medicine seller's hand. But no matter what he did, that singular finger would not budge. He withdrew his hand, scowling at the medicine seller and Kayo before standing up and storming off like a child down the beach to watch the water and the so-called Keikei crabs scuttle about.
Akihiko shook his head. "You think he'd be a little more respectful given our situation."
"Upper class aren't always happy when those below them correct them," the medicine seller said, setting more fish onto the pan.
Kayo huffed, folding her arms. "You told me the story and he got it wrong. He was ticking me off with that high and mighty attitude anyway. I couldn't listen to that nonsense anymore."
The medicine seller smirked as he returned to cooking edible fish, unlike whatever that boisterous scholar was attempting to make.
"I hope this means we'll get a bit of quiet now," the priestess admitted. "Ever since he started rattling my ear off about yokai, he's been wrong about every single name. I just wanted some fish and to plan how to get off this island. You said you were a carpenter, Mr. Akihiko?"
He nodded. "That's right, Lady Kawa. Our boat isn't in repairable condition, but I do know how to build one given time and supplies. There is a chance that the docks will send a search party after our ship doesn't dock, but just in case, I'll take a survey of resources after dinner."
"I think with all our skills, we can survive for some time on natural resources before either a rescue comes or Mr. Akihiko can build a boat," Hama said with certainty.
"I shall see to it that the kami watch over us as we stay here," the priestess offered.
"First, dinner!" Hama insisted.
"Yes, that first," Kawa agreed.
The medicine seller pushed the last of the fish on a makeshift plate before glancing out at the sea. Something was stirring out there, and it wasn't the heike crabs. He could feel the supernatural sense scratching at the back of his mind like an insatiable itch. The tsunami was feeling less and less like an accident and more like something wanted revenge. If a mononoke had indeed been created, he couldn't rule out any of his companions as a potential truth. A priestess who just wanted silence, fishers with a broken boat, a carpenter who wanted to see the world, and a scholar who thought he knew everything. Which one had been the target?
He turned back to the fish dinner. All he could do was wait for whatever it was to show itself, and that was perhaps more difficult than dealing with Tanbei's ramblings.
….
Author's musings
Loooooool Tanbei got told. What a cranky child, storming off like that.
The story about the heike crabs at the start is actually a real legend based on history. There is a whole division of yokai that revolve around historical figures or groups doing something wild or having something done to them and they become yokai or they curse an object for centuries. In this case, it was an entire clan. Heike crabs really do look like they have angry samurai helms for shells. They look pretty silly.