Chapter 3 - Our share of bad experiences
August 7, 1562
A vast haze had been shadowing much of the town yet no rain descended, only the black blanket of clouds sprawled over most of the forest that Hinata was based. A dark scent of abnormality reeked through the town. Many of the denizens had been squabbling of a sudden downpour of rain that could potentially cause widespread flash flooding destroying all of their precious crop. It was early in the morning and Motoko was asked of the ever daunting and ever rewarding task of bringing food and offerings to Kojiro and the other Elders. Sometimes they told, though often-exaggerated, stories and folklore. But on the more likely occasion the remainder of the offerings were pooled to the storehouses and the offerer was given some as well. As the day progressed most lingered indoors as the growing season had just ended and remained nothing to do. For the sparse ones who did leave their scene of residence they more would either visit the market or the shrines.
In the open market many traded goods for raw materials, crops, or meat but some went to just visit relatives and friends, but two unfamiliar faces arose from the shadows of a carriage. The taller of the two was none other than Kaede, on a normal occasion newcomers were welcome but this time it was different. A sense of disdain which was easily distinguished by the looks and sneers of the townspeople, was targeted those of military background or bloodlines and were treated as second-class. Many came to Hinata for one main purpose, to stay hidden from the dogs of war, the ever sought sense of harmony was what attracted so many to such an insignificant town so out of plain sight stained with such oddity about it, but now a family linked to such a martial group like the Oda clan poisoned its peace. As Kaede and her mistress walked down the main road of the market total and utter silence shrouded the minds of the old folk and triggered questions in younger passerbys. Kaede, silent as she was seemed hostile to those who were talking about her and her beloved mistress and often tossed cold death glares. She wore a light blue kimono, wit an elaborate, beautiful design of a winter cherry blossom sown in, her eyes were attempting to ignore the crowd but if looks could kill the market would have been soaked in a blood bath. Naru on the other hand was thoroughly enjoying herself, all this time she had been cooped up in her room while being guarded by a soldiers, she was glad to finally get a bit of fresh air. She was hungry as they left before they had a meal so she went to an inn and settled down as Kaede followed. The first table was unoccupied and so they sat down as they waited for a server to take their orders.
"What would you have then?" asked Kaede, Naru thought for a moment.
"I have never had commoner's food, I don't know what is good," she answered quite frankly.
"I suggest eating some type of meat you seem quite famished and meat is quite filling," she proposed.
"We have been through this, I hate the taste of meat," she insisted. A man arose from the table adjacent to theirs, this man had been listening in on their conversation and finally spoke.
"If you are attempting to stay away from meat, then I suggest something like Miso soup," he said.
"May I ask who you are?" Kaede inquired.
"Most people around these parts know me as Urashima Keitaro, what is it that you go by miss if you do not mind me asking?" said Keitaro.
"My name is Katsura," she answered quietly. "It would be much appreciated if you would kindly leave us to our business Urashima-san."
"I only made a suggestion, no need to take it to offense," he tipped his straw hat to Kaede, he then turned to Naru "And to you a good day, ladies," He then got out and left as a server went to clean up the dishes.
After Keitaro left Naru spoke again, "What a nice young man."
"Quite rude, eavesdropping on us like that."
"He was only trying to help," as Naru said that a server finally came to them before Kaede had a chance.
"What would you like to order?" said a server.
"She will have-"
"The Miso soup, please," Naru interrupted.
"Okay then, and I guess I will have grilled eel."
"Your orders and tea will be out in a moment," the server softly said. After Kaede and Naru finished their meal, Kaede insisted on paying for the meal, oblivious to the fact that money was not part of the townspeople's vocabulary as were many other words but no more so than the currency system.
It was obvious to Kaede that Naru wanted to go around the town some more but she wasn't used to walking so much, she had gotten exhausted by noon. The closest building was that of a young couple which had coldly shut them out saying,
"We do not need your kind here."
A doctor said the same next door. After that she sat down at an open air tavern, with her mistress laying her head in Kaede's lap as Naru slowly dosed off. Kaede was too feeling drowsy as a familiar face in a straw hat appeared before her.
"Oh my, what two lovely maidens do I see?" said he.
"Oh, hello again," Kaede uttered snapping out of her state of lethargy. "What could it be that you want now?"
"I was just wondering what members of the Narusegawa clan, of such prestige, be napping in this old pub is all," speculated an offended Keitaro. "No offense to the owners," he kindly apologized to the manager.
"I believe it was Urashima was it not? Well, you see Ojou-sama was feeling a bit exhausted so I let her rest, but what is it to you anyways?" informed Kaede.
"You are quite correct, please do not take my actions as a manner of disrespect in anyway in fact it is quite the opposite I wish to provide you and your Ojou-sama with the utmost hospitality. So would you prefer it if you could stay indoors, Katsura-dono?" offered Keitaro.
"I guess, what harm could that do?" she lifted her mistress onto her back. "Lead the way." As Keitaro went to his home he tooke Kaede around to get a feel of the place, he showed her the local shrine, a good restaurant, and also some of the shops that were around. As much as much as Kaede wanted to deny it, she enjoyed herself as well. It was almost an hour before the approached the part of the town he lived in. After a few minutes of struggling against the crowds of which seemed endless amount of people, but ultimately ending at a small Minka with a shop attached which had smoke coming from the roof, with an immense crowd surrounding it. A sign simply said Blacksmith.
"Excuse me if I may, but where is this?" Kaede inquired as they approached the small house.
"It is a blacksmith shop, I work here," Keitaro answered, then presumed to rattle on the door.
Kaede thought for a moment as she was about to speak but the door slid a bit ajar then was slammed completely open. "Keitaro-sama, where have you been!?" yelled a man wearing a blacksmith apron, with short messy hair and had a scar above his right eye, he was a bit older than Keitaro and taller. "The shop has been busy all day we really could have used your help!"
"Well you see-," Keitaro began but was soon interrupted by the man.
"What are those two doing here!?" shouted the blacksmith after noticing Kaede and Naru. He then pulled Keitaro away spoke in a hushed tone, "You do realize who those people are, right?"
"Of course! Why would I bring a stranger here?" He said back then proceeded to go back to Kaede, but the man stopped him again. What do you want, Ishihara-dono? To kick them out!? They are our guests and should be treated as such, besides this is my house, if you do not approve of them you can leave."
"Okay, I will let them stay, but I will not trust them..." he trailed off and walked through the curtain that lead to the store front. Keitaro then turned back to Kaede
"Sorry about that, I will show you to a bedroom," Keitaro said with a subtle hint of anger. When Kaede walked into the house, she realized that the building was quite old, with most of the walls having been worn out to the point that it had small holes. Cobwebs were in most of the ceiling corners, the tatami was threadbare and the shouji were tattered or torn. As she looked around she felt bad for this poor man. When they finally reached the bedroom they gently placed Naru down. The futon was probably the newest thing in the house which relieved Kaede a bit.
Seeing as that was taken care of he left to tend to the shop, as Kaede quietly looked over her sleeping mistress and smiled. She then looked around Keitaro's room, she had not realized that he only sought to look after them and felt a little guilty as she had not been a bit rude to him. She did not even thank him for letting her stay at his home, she decided to thank him after he got off work. She soon drifted off to sleep next to her mistress.
There was a rattle on the front door, "I will get it," Keitaro said as he went to the front and slid the door open only to see the raven-haired beauty. "Oh, why good afternoon Matsudaira-dono, what brings you here today?"
"Good afternoon, Urashima-sama, I'm just here to bring some firewood and some food for the guys," she said offering him four containers, and then a large bundle of cut firewood. "Well I will see you later and Masayuki-san said he was going to stop by for a visit after his guard shift later. So well I have to go my uncle wants me to help clean up the dojo," she said happily and then proceeded to leave after she spotted Kaede who was, as previously stated, wanting to thank Keitaro for his hospitality. "What is she doing here?" she said instantly recognizing Kaede's auburn hair and clothing pattern as the Narusegawa clan's appearence. The Narusegawa crest was also a dead give away.
"Calm down, Matsudaira-dono, she is just visiting, you are acting a lot like Ishihara-dono," Keitaro said as an attempt to settle Motoko down.
"But how can I? She is one of those merciless killers like Uesugi or Oda-," she said in a fiery tone which made Kaede back off, but Keitaro interrupted with almost equal amount of energy.
"Stop that, Matsudaira, what has she done to you as I said to Ishihara-dono she is my guest not your enemy, if you hate her so much do no come back here until she leaves!" this statement seemed to add more fuel to Motoko's anger yet she started to shed a bit of tears.
"How can you say that especially what happened to your family-," she stopped realizing what she said. "I'm sorry, I did not mean it I-."
"Get out now!" Keitaro said, who Motoko had never even see get angry seeing him like this scared her also saddened her. She then ran out crying, Ishihara then came out of the store front.
"Hey, Urashima-sama, what is with all of the yelling, and was that Matsu-chan?" Ishihara wondered who seemed worried about them both.
"Yeah, it was do not worry about it, it is fine," Keitaro said in a quiet voice suppressing his guilt for yelling at Motoko like that as tears welled up in his eyes, "Just get back to work, I will come and help you guys later. And here is some food for you guys, Matsudaira-dono brought it over for you."
"Okay, well see you later!" he said getting back to the shop. Keitaro then went to Kaede.
"I'm sorry you had to hear that, especially what my friend said about your family, you must hear that a lot do you not?" he said sadly.
"Its okay, after being here for half a day you get used to it, but enough about me what about your friend will she be okay?"
"I can only hope so, I will go and check on her in a bit, maybe let her cool off, is it okay to leave your Ojou-sama alone?"
"She will be fine, but what I wanted to talk to you about was that; I never got to thank you about letting us stay here and I also want to apologize for being rude to you."
"It is not a problem, I just did not think it was right for you to be treated so unfairly, you see its not that the residents here hate you as a person its what you stand for, as your family is part of the Oda clan. After all most of the residents here came here to escape war or pregidous, but little do they know that they have become pregidous but towards people like you."
"This is just a question but do you hate really people who come from military backgrounds?"
"Well no, but also because my family is as such, most of the residents do not know or do not care because they trust us."
"I had no idea that you were like us, but what happened?"
"Its not something we like to discuss about, I really lack most of the knowledge of it as well. I only remember bits and parts of what I saw, I was only about four or five when it happened."
"I am sorry if it makes you uncomfortable to talk about it."
"I guess I can tell you, while my Clan was still in power, I lived in a prestigious family. Our clan taught swordsmanship and banned guns, which must have been part of our failure though I still believe today that guns are wrong. A terrible catastrophe befell my beloved castle, one of our long time allies, the Oda Clan, who decided to visit lived with us for a couple of months to get us to let our guard down then one night they attacked us killing most of the population, we did not want to harm anyone so why did they attack us? A large group of soldiers raided our home. A soldier shot my father who in his last amount of strength managed to stab the man with a knife, but the stab was not fatal and so my father was knocked back and the soldier aimed his rifle again, but my mother ran to him and begged him to spare my father's life but the man had other plans and slashed at my mother's neck with his katana and the reloaded his rifle. Shedding her blood across the floor as my father bled to death. I saw it happened, but to avoid death so I ran to my room to hide but he then burst into my room where and aimed his rifle and said 'I am so sorry, kid, please do not hate me for this, I am just following orders,' and I closed my eyes and prepared to die, but instead my great-uncle crept from behind and stabbed him in the back with his katana and slit his throat to make sure he died and then he took my hand and we escaped with my grandmother and with the few survivors that managed to escape and we found this town." Keitaro was in tears after he finished, trying to wipe them but they continued to fall. "I guess in a way you are like us."
"I am so sorry, I never would have guessed that such an atrocity happened to you, I regret asking, so that must have been why you got so angry when your friend mentioned your family. You should hate us and others like us, for we are part of the Oda Clan, indirectly, but part of it nontheless, yet why do you continue to protect us?" she asked, trying to console him while feeling even more sorry for this man who has experienced so much. She had never really experienced the horrors of war until just recently.
"When I heard him ask for forgiveness, I feel he did not really want to do it, I saw him hesitate before firing upon my father, I believe not all people are really bad."
"I have no recollection of a family, the Mistress took me in when I was on the verge of death due to starvation. I was the sole survivor of a village that was burned to the ground by a Warlord, I have been indebted to the Narusegawa Clan with my life. So if the time ever comes though I pray it does not, I shall willingly lay my life on the line for my Ojou-sama." While Kaede said this she did not realize that Naru had woken up and was listening in on this conversation through the thin walls.
"I guess she is that important to you, I see you want to protect her against the real world, from violence but that is too late."
"It is more of that I do not want here to experience what I did, even today she does not know of my past."
"Not many people know of my past, only close friends and relatives."
"And I guess I do as well now."
"Yes, I suppose you do now."
"I will check up on the guys." Naru was crying after learning of Kaede's past.
