Chapter 1
I casually leaned forward in my seat and covered my mouth as I cursed my opponent. Kawaharu sat patiently across from me with her perpetual head-tilted-eyes-squinted-smile.
"You're as easy to read as a book Kinuito." She said in the tone our teacher uses. I felt my nose flaring of its own will. I've got to stall for time, so I dramatically smack my palm to my forehead.
"That's why I love you Kawa." I laughed and flashed my most mischievous smile. "I, Kinuito, have awaited a worthy opponent. The girl prodigy born for greatness versus the teacher's pet." I could see Kawa's eye twitch. "For you see if I know that you know that I know you're reading me, then I can calculate your every move. How you may ask?" I waved my hands in front of my face. "Why, using my amazing brain of course. And all through mathanatical stathistics!" I shut my eyes and moved my Shogi piece while looking about as confident as wet toast. Truthfully, I was never good at Shogi. Don't tell anyone, but I was pretty bad.
"Please Kinuito, your pronunciation." My teacher, Sensei Shioseki, interjected with a sigh. Losing at Shogi I could handle, but her disappointment hurt.
"With your arithmetic marks? I'm thinking you have a higher chance of meeting Atuykarounkami than beating Kawaharu."
I opened one angry eye and stared daggers at Takaharu, Kawa's twin brother. He was like a brother to me too, though we argued who was older and none of us really knew. I don't know if we girls took more care of him or if he took care of us, but we always stuck together.
"Takaharu, you would do well to make a habit of not throwing the goddess' name at your classmates like waste paper." Sensei Shioseki reprimanded Takaharu. I stuck my tongue at him.
Almost like Atuykarounkami herself was in the room, the Shogi pieces began to rumble and then the shelves of books along the walls of the small classroom. The four of us looked across at each other and held our breath. The quake faded to a stop about as fast as it had started.
"She doesn't scare me." Taka spoke first with a small quiver in his voice. His eyebrows were halfway up his forehead. He crossed his arms and bit the inside of his cheek.
I chuckled mostly to myself, but also to see if Kawa was paying attention. "Don't worry, I think my pieces were here and your pieces were there. Now we can finish our game." I thought I pulled off my ploy flawlessly, but her mouth was open before I finished talking.
"Hey, I know you're trying to cheat!" She jumped forward, gripped the board in both hands, and got into a bear's stance.
Kawa and I go way back, so I know just which hairs to pull. "Wow Kawa. That is so un-lady-like to lose your cool like that, don't you think Sensei?" I could see both of them straining to keep their paper smooth faces unwrinkled.
"Maybe we should call it for the day. I don't think we'll be getting much more done. Thank your opponent and I will ring the bell for the day." Shio has the patients of an angel, though sometimes when she's angry I think it's a fallen angel. I like to think of her as my mom.
"Well Kawa I think we have to call it a draw. Don't you think?" I nudged her with my elbow. She dragged her shoulders, I gave her the biggest, most annoying smile I could conjure, and we both bowed to each other.
"Be careful out there today you three. The earthquakes are getting more frequent and I have things to do, so try not to make me have to come get any of you out of trouble tonight."
Taka waved to us from the doorway. "Thank you Sensei Shioseki. Come on you two I swear you're twin sisters instead of me." Shio nodded and begged us to leave her alone. I could hear her head fall into her hands as we turned to leave.
The three of us headed out like we normally did, but life on the island of Kiyoshima hadn't been normal for a while. I felt like it would be okay as long as I had the Twins and Shio with me though. The weather today was warm, but I could see angry clouds on the horizon. It was even still a little foggy from the morning frost. We would frequently experience summer and winter in the same day. You just had to keep an extra cloak rolled around your waist for emergencies. The island used to be tropical year round, but the weather changes caused most of the plants take a faded brown color. The ocean was still pretty, even as it threatened to pull the island into it with every wave.
We went to the docks to see who felt like feeding the village orphans. I never felt like I deserved charity for being an orphan, but everyone on the island was part of the family of sorts, so I never felt that alone, even after my parents both went off to fight in the Civil War for the Mikado. I would rather not think or talk about it though. What good would that do anyway? On that day, when they told me the news, I think I already knew. I think somehow I could feel it.
The docks were livelier than usual today with a ship in port.
"So, how long are we supposed to wait for this next supply ship? When's the next one scheduled?" I heard the dock workers talking.
"The ship from Shyahoro that came before this one was almost a moon ago. Things are going to get tight around here sooner rather than later. Have you seen what happened to the farm patches?" The other dock worker shrugged and rubbed his forehead. They noticed us perking up our ears trying to listen. "I'm telling you the last ship was just a passenger ship. They barely had supplies to barter for." They motioned us to move along toward the dock kitchen, which was mostly just an open butcher and baker stall that shared soups and bread with us. We looked at each other apprehensively, but listened to our growling stomachs. We knew well when adults didn't want us listening in.
We lined up at the bar on our stools, though we were barely tall enough to eat on them. There were already two people there eating and drinking. Tsurumatsu had his spear resting next to him and nearby was a lady I didn't recognize, but my eyes could hardly avoid her. She wore white robes and her hair was wound up tightly over her head with red bows and red lipstick on her lips and under her eyes. She must be from the visiting passenger ship the dock workers mentioned. Probably from Naaru, the huge capital city nearby, since make up was not common in Shyahoro. Her beauty made me anxious, so I called to Tsurumatsu.
"Are you all behaving yourselves? You know with all this weather the last thing I need is to come get you three out of trouble."
"Why is that always the first thing everyone tells us?" Taka rolled his eyes.
"Sensei Shioseki told us the same thing before we left school today, you two sound alike." Kawa added with a smile. Tsuru faltered while fitting a spoonful of soup into his mouth at the mention of Shio. I couldn't tell if Kawa timed it that way on purpose or not. You never knew with her sometimes.
"You would do well to make a habit of heeding your Sensei then." He maintained his composure, but everyone knew he melted like a snowflake on Shio's tongue.
At the mention of Shioseki the lady with the red make up turned to us. "Oh, you all know Shioseki? I'm actually here to see her. I'm on a secret mission you see." Her eyes smiled along with her, like a mother's would, although she spoke to us like we were half our age. "I'm a scholar in training, just like her."
"Oh, I can show you to the school house, she might still be there." Taka spoke up a little too eagerly. I could see Kawa give him a sideways glance. "Uh, I can catch up with you guys afterwards and we can meet up at the usual place." Kawa and I both cleared our throats. Not in front of Tsurumatsu, Taka.
"We've got to do homework of course." He deftly added, but we both sighed in defeat. Tsurumatsu gave us a knowing glance between bites.
"I think I will accept your offer," she leaned toward us and replied softly "I'm Akafude." I could see Tsuru stoically maintaining his concentration on his food.
We got our soup and bread and thanked the butcher. Taka ate with a particular gusto today, to which Kawa and I exchanged thoughts with our eyes. We waved to Taka and Akafude as they went up the path toward the school house as well as gave him a long, knowing stare. To which he shrugged and assured us he wouldn't be late.
The sun began to set and sent streaks of orange across the sky. At least the sun sets were still beautiful. Tsurumatsu gave us one last "stay out of trouble" and Kawa and I headed out to our usual hang out spot. It was a little ways into the island, past the houses, up a few rocky outcroppings into a perfectly flat plateau just above the tree line. The angry clouds off the shore kept their distance and gave us a perfect view of the sky and the horizon. It was our favorite place to go. Almost like it was part of something inside us. Sometimes we'd spend the whole time silent.
We both let our hair down and listened to the sea breeze shake the trees. In these moments I liked to imagine going on an adventure, like the stories we read in class with Shio about the Mikado. I wished I had some heroic mission to fulfill, but at the same time there was no where I'd rather be than here in my home on Kiyoshima.
"Hey Kawa," I barely got the words out when we heard a stick break and the brush behind us rustle. "Hello, Taka." We both said without missing a breath.
"One of these times I'm going to get you two. Or something else will. What if I was a demon from Denebokshiri?" Taka had two branches in his hands for camouflage and sat next to us.
"Must you use that word? I'm trying to relax." Kawa laid flat on her back. "What were you saying when the demon showed up Kinu?"
"You ever think of leaving the island? Like when you grow up?" I replied without acknowledging Taka making demon faces.
"I don't think so. I mean, what's out there that isn't here?" Kawa was always the most grounded of us three, never taking chances. She wouldn't even swing from ropes into the river with Taka and I. He was definitely the risk taker. I guess I'm sort of like a follower. Maybe a little bit of both of them at times.
"Oh! You actually reminded me of what I was going to tell you guys!" Taka dropped his branches and pounded the ground with his palms. "I heard Shio and that lady Akafude talking before I left. She said they might make everyone leave the island, because it's not safe here anymore, she must have been talking about the weather."
The weather was definitely out of the normal, but we'd been going through it for a while. What could be different now?
"Well, if they think we should go, maybe they know best?" Kawa said looking a bit shaken by the news.
"I thought you wanted to stay on the island." I teased her. I'm not sure how I felt about leaving the island myself. What was really out there? The unknown scared me, but it also kind of excited me. Was leaving the island the journey I'd been day dreaming of?
"You know they say no one ever leaves this island, that's what the sailors from Shyahoro say. That everyone that goes to this island either never leaves and spends their whole life here or they do leave and they die right after." He paused and looked at me apologetically after realizing what he'd said. I smiled halfheartedly. I didn't want to talk about my parents or the Civil War. Not on a good night like this.
We all stopped to think for a moment. As if on cue, we all looked toward the horizon and saw a falling star. Then a light that seemed to come from under the water and up into the sky. We all looked to each other mouths drawn.
"Did you?" I couldn't finish. They both nodded.
"Maybe we should go home." Kawa got up and unfurled her coat from her waist put it on. The sea breeze took a cold turn and Taka and I did the same with ours.
"Oh come on Kawa you're no fun, this is perfect! Let's go down to The Circle. Maybe we'll find something. I brought the torches!" Taka looked to me for the deciding vote. I was more reluctant than I had realized. What had we just seen? Am I going to be a Takaharu or a Kawaharu? This is just how an adventure would start. It would be exciting! We've explored the circle a hundred times before though, so I'm sure we'll be fine, but would this be pushing our luck?
"Well," I pushed the words out of my mouth and grabbed them both by their shoulders "you know what?" I took one of the torches out of Taka's hand. "The last thing the adults need is to come and rescue us, so we'd better take care of ourselves." and I lit the torch.