"There we go, it's not too heavy, right?" Ritsuki adjusted the straps that ran over the saddle. The elk shook his head as if to tell him he was fine.
The injured calf they found had been a red elk, and as he grew his orange-crimson fur became more and more prominent, as were his two towering horns.
They named him 'Akai' for the colour of his fur, as well as for his love of the water.
"That should be all your rations for this month, Momota..." the spectacled man said behind his tall grey ledger.
"Thank you most kindly, Mister Yamada..." The boy nodded as he adjusted his navy blue coloured cowl.
Ritsuki was dressed in rather regal attire, a tucked-in robe the same colour as his cowl with puffy pants and a beige-coloured overcoat which went down to his knees.
His deep brown hair was styled into a fine and proper bun under his hood.
Four years and seven months had passed since Ritsuki and his mother moved into their secluded home in the hills, and the boy was now seventeen years old.
He was a looker, though not handsome in the traditional manly sense; should he be described, you would use words like pretty, fair, or gorgeous. The boy could even pass for a fetching young woman with the right clothes and makeup.
He had never grown out of his peachy complexion, but he was nonetheless known for being reliable and honest; the people of Bizen often joked the boy was as strong as an ox.
"I shall be going now." He was doing well for himself.
Just as his mother hoped Ritsuki would overcome the grief of his father's death if he nursed the injured calf back to health, the boy had grown rather fond of Akai the red elk.
"Do be careful on your way, Momota." the ledger said without looking up from his pages.
"Hmm...?" the boy turned back and Akai stopped as well.
"Lots of bandits on road these days and you're only armed with that walking stick. I can't exactly offer insurance for your rice, you know...?" the spectacled man just shrugged.
"I see, thank you, Mister Yamada..." he promptly nods and went on his way, tugging on the strap of Akai's saddle he guided the red elk through the village crowd.
He would spare content glances at the humble settlement on his way back, taking in the rural lives of the people.
He turned to his left where the contemporary village stretched up to the hills, Bizen was known for its pottery and furniture. Then he turned to his right, the bay was busy with fishermen paddling across the cool evening waters.
"Do you think they've been fruitful, Akai?" the boy sighs as he turned to his beastly friend.
The animal shook his head and squeaked, Ritsuki softly laughs.
"Oy, Momota-san...!" he heard someone call from the bay, a young man he immediately recognised was waving from one of the fishing boats.
"Ah, it's Hiroshi..." he waved back, "He's always too familiar with everyone..." Ritsuki mumbled with a chuckle and Akai seemed to agree with him with another squeak.
Hiroshi seemed ecstatic that he had waved back, pumping his fist as he jumped about atop his fishing boat. Ritsuki turned his head forward again and smiled.
People would wave and tip their hats as he passed them by, the town's atmosphere was lovely.
"Oh, if only I were a few years younger..." one elderly woman even jokingly laments which draws a chuckle from Ritsuki.
Arriving at the final stretch of houses before the dirt road that led up to their house, he stopped for a moment as did Akai. Looking back towards the bayside village he bowed and whispered thanks to the humble town.
Then gesturing to Akai, Ritsuki and his beastly friend made their way up the long and winding road.
Ritsuki loosely pulled on Akai's straps as they made their way up a certain tall incline on the dirt road, combining their strengths to overcome the steeper sections.
"Are you getting tired, Akai?" The boy huffed out, prompting the animal to shake his head to reassure the boy.
"Don't worry, we're almost home..." They were a few ways away from their house, still having about six turns to go through the mountains but the hard part was largely over now.
They had made it past the steep inclines and the road that stretched ahead was relatively levelled.
The duo then came upon a clearing, a rather large log had been placed blocking the path ahead.
"Mmm-hmm...?" Ritsuki reeled his head lightly, "What is this doing here...?"
Gesturing for Akai to stay, he approached the felled tree trunk to inspect it.
"Well, that's just confusing... this is premium camphor, I wonder who would just leave this behind..." the boy muttered to himself.
Then both Ritsuki and Akai heard the sound of a dry twig breaking behind them, the boy remained rather impassive while his animal friend adorned a defensive stance.
"Well, well, well, what do we have here...?" a gruff, condescending voice came.
"Reach for the sky, mother-fucker...!" a more crazed-sounding voice came from behind the log and by now Ritsuki had adjusted his stance as well.
Of course, this was a stick-up; he sighed as Mister Yamada had indeed warned him of low lives on the road.
"I don't want any trouble with you people." Ritsuki immediately levelled his hands with the ground, indicating that he would not incite a scuffle.
He scanned the half-a-dozen group of bandits who all finally came out into the open.
Most of them seemed to carry improvised weapons save for two; the presumed leader who wielded a sword and the crazy-sounding one who twirled a chained sickle.
"Shame, trouble seems to have found you," the swordsman bandit simply stated, "Now empty your pockets and give us the rice, there's no need for a scuffle, eh?"
"I'm afraid I can't do that," he muttered just loud enough for them to hear. The bandit's face twitched.
"What did you say-?"
"My mother... She's waiting for me at home and these are our rations for the month, I can't give you the rice or she'll starve..." he then sternly said.
The bandits looked among themselves and laughed.
"Alright," it was the swordsman bandit who chuckled as he approached, "Don't say we didn't try for you."
When he was close enough the bandit lurched forwards with his strike, committing himself entirely, and thus when the boy swiftly dodged, he was left terribly off-balance.
"Don't say I didn't didn't try for you too..." Ritsuki replied with a voice wholly void of emotion.
Immediately improvising his walking stick as a weapon, he batted the man's sword away before striking him hard on the top of his head.
The boy's waking stick was carved from camphor, ironically the same hardwood species as the log on the road and as a result, when the hardwood struck the man's skull he was immediately out for the count.
The other five bandits still standing watched with surprise as the lieutenant of the operation collapsed to the ground.
"Pardon me..." Bending down, the boy bathetically picked up the bandit's sword, seeming to contemplate using it as his own.
He turned his attention to the remaining bandits and frowned with no apparent malice.
"Must you persist...?" They couldn't respond for a moment before the bandit who wielded the kusarigama would rally them with a yell.
"K-Kill the bastard!" he simply shouted.
Three of the remaining five then charged, two of them went for Ritsuki while one ran for the rice bags on Akai.
Ritsuki immediately tossed the katana on his left hand to the chain-wielding bandit, who was so alarmed at the sharp blade flying towards him that he stumbled in his steps to catch it.
He then moved to the other one who was equally as anxious as the former, the bandit's gaze on him was wild and dreading.
Wielding his walking stick with both hands, he approached the bandit who used a wooden staff, and in his panic, the man struck first.
"Hah! Hah! Hah!" Ritsuki grunted as he repeatedly parried the bandit's swings.
Suddenly thrusting for his head with a dash, Ritsuki successfully baited the bandit to lift his guard so that he may strike his legs.
"Pardon me...!" Stopping short and pulling back, the boy then swung for the man's knees with enough force to take him to the ground.
"Gah-!" the bandit grunts as je landed on his back.
Ritsuki nodded satisfied before turning back just in time to duck under the blunt end of the crazed bandit's kusarigama chain that came flying for his head.
"Woah...!" he exhaled expressed as he got low to the ground.
"I have the range advantage now, suck on that you fucking queer...!" the bandit laughed hysterically.
"W-what...?" Ritsuki couldn't help but voice his genuine shock before subconsciously taking note of his complexion from his hands and shrugging.
Of course, the lowlife would make fun of his unusually peachy complexion.
He ducked again just in time to avoid another blunt hit, directing it instead to the staff-wielding bandit behind who had just got up.
"Here I come!" Ritsuki mirrored the man's amusement and smiled as well, though his own was still so naive and innocent in comparison.
"Holy fuck-!" the man wielding the kusarigama didn't even have a chance to finish his sentence as the young man tackled him to the ground and aimed his walking stick at the bandit's face.
Turning to Akai - who had managed to kick his assailant in the groin - who was looking smug at the man rolling on the ground in agony, the animal then returned Ritsuki's nod.
Looking back down at the bandit who had a rather colourful language he spoke.
"As I said, I don't want any trouble with you people, so..." he turned to the two remaining bandits who flinched.
"I hope we never see each other again, goodbye now," he called for Akai with a snap of his fingers, and the red elk came galloping.
And just like that they were on their way, leaving the remaining bandits who were still conscious to stare at him.
"So you just left them there...?" Akiko asked flatly, handing the boy a bowl of miso soup.
Ritsuki inspected the old wooden hanya mask he had managed to fix. Using a mixture of eggs and honey, he glued the two broken pieces back together.
"I couldn't offer to take them back into town, they just tried to rob us..." Ritsuki defended himself, doing away with the mask and dangling it on his belt.
This was purely sentimental.
He hadn't done theatre in a long time, so Ritsuki kept the mask that he might never forget the best times of his youth.
"Mmm-hmm..." he heard his mother chuckle, and the boy frowned.
"You don't approve...?" he asked bewildered, "They were bad people, were they not...?"
"I don't believe it's that simple," his mother shook her head, and she noticed her son begin to peeve so she waved her hand.
"What you did was the right thing, Ritsu," she reassured, "But I wouldn't say all of them were bad people, perhaps misguided is a more appropriate word?"
"I... I suppose...?" Ritsuki scratched his head, "Well after their leader went down a lot of them seemed to lose their spirits, so..." he shrugged before quickly shaking his head.
"But they have a choice, and they chose to do bad things." Mother and son then ate their meal in silence.
"Do you remember Mister Tamaki?" she asked suddenly.
"Our theatre director...?" he cleared his throat as his mother nodded, "What about him?" he frowned with a tilted expression.
"When you were younger, one of your first shows went spectacularly wrong." the woman chuckled.
"I remember that your scripts were all mixed up, and you all talked over each other's lines. The reception of the performance was horrible."
"Ah... please don't remind me..." the boy exhaled and hid his face in embarrassment.
"It all went wrong because Mister Tamaki had spent too much time overseeing the musicians, and too little time proofreading his actors' materials." The old woman shook her head and then turned to Ritsuki.
"So whose fault was it that the play came out so horrible; the actors, or Mister Tamaki?" she gestured for a response.
Ritsuki sighed, "I... I can see what you imply..." he nodded.
Seeming to come up with no retort, the boy abruptly stood up and reached for his mother's hand and placed her knuckles on his forehead.
"Well, if it's your wish, I will keep your words in mind," he said as he lightly nudged his head.
"Thank you, Ritsu..." Akiko laughed heartily before her son pulled away.
Looking out the window the boy began to march towards the back door.
"I'll go and give Akai his dinner then check for eggs." the boy grabbed an iron bucked near the door.
"Do be careful, Ritsu... it's dark out there already." he heard his mother say before he went out.
"There you go, eat up now..." he told his beastly friend.
After Akai grew too big to house inside his room, Ritsuki built a small pen out of wood for him just beside the chickens.
"My mother was so proud of you today..." he sighed, Akai responded with a low hum.
Deciding to leave his friend to his meal, Ritsuki then marched over to their chicken farms.
His mother maintained a rather large operation, perhaps a hundred adult chickens at a time that produced almost a dozen eggs every day.
Perhaps the high-protein diet was hard on his bowels at first, but now he was pretty sure he had gotten a lot stronger for it.
Looking under the poultry houses with a gas torch in hand, he was in the middle of his scan when the gas light suddenly flickered off as a gust came and went.
"Hmm...?" he was taken aback at first, but strong winds were not unusual. Then Akai began to wail.
"Calm down, Akai. I'll light it up so you can see your meal in just a moment."
Padding himself up and down, he searched for his personal lighter until a chilling voice came from behind him.
"Charming..." the boy heard the familiar deep and monotone voice of an old man.