(A/N: I haven't had the concept for this story on my mind for too long, but I decided to write it out now instead of a later time. I don't think I've been this impulsive with a new story in a long time (lol).
I got the inspiration after watching "Dororo", which if you haven't seen yet, I highly recommend it. There's also a bit of inspiration from mythology, especially Greek mythology.
That's all I have to say for now, so I hope you enjoy your time with this story. I really hope that I create something good to read for everyone.)
Y-X-Y-*o*-Y-X-Y
"Oh ho ho!" a short, middle-aged man with graying hair and a beard, wearing a hooded brown robe, groaned in frustration as he looked through countless crates, buckets, bottles, and baskets. "Of all the days to run out of red pigment!"
In only a week, the Grand Bout would take place and a new village chief would marry the priestess. Along with a bride and leadership of the village was the prize for the competition itself, a shield made by the craftsman, Kaseki. Unfortunately, the said craftsman was worried it would never be finished in time.
He had already finished carving the shield itself, but had none of the desired pigment to paint the design and lacquer it afterwards. He felt ashamed to not have the proper materials for the project, it made him feel like an amateur.
He let out a long sigh, "Well, crying about it isn't going to get this done faster."
He grabbed a basket and carried it on his back, leaving his house. He crossed the bridge, flinching halfway across when a plank wobbled under his sandal.
'I'll have to construct a new one after the Grand Bout,' he thought.
"Hey, old man," the village guard, Tetsuken, who had recently married a few months prior, and he heard his new wife was pregnant, greeted in a good-natured manner. "Off for more supplies?"
"You bet," he responded. "Be on the lookout for me, would ya?"
He chuckled, "You got it!"
He walked through the forest, always keeping his guard high in case a large predator was in the area. Being an artisan, he knew the most plentiful sources for red pigment, and with his deadline fastly approaching, he thought safflowers would work best.
There was a patch of safflowers near a stream not too far from the village that he frequented. He was always amazed how they were able to grow no matter how harsh or giving the climate was.
It was not long before he found a field of familiar red, orange, and yellow flowers. Under the sunlight, the little flowers almost looked like gold.
He wasted no time picking as many as he could, excitedly filling his basket with entire handfuls, "The gods sure have blessed me with this trip!"
With his supply replenished, he was ready to go back to the village and finish his project. The moment he took a step forward, he suddenly heard a high-pitched cry, one that could not have been more than a short distance away.
His first thought was that it was an animal, perhaps an infant predator, such as the lion cubs he had seen many times in the area throughout his years. Knowing that there was potentially a predator nearby terrified him, a short man like himself would never stand a chance.
However, the longer he listened to it, the more it sounded like a human baby's cries. It made no sense to him that a baby would be in the forest, with a family or alone.
He wanted to leave, there was no way it was a baby; even if it was, what were the chances that it was alone? The cries continued and his heart broke, he could not move, least of all away.
Against his better judgment, he ran in the direction where the crying sounds were strongest. He hoped this was a decision he would not end up regretting.
He ran through seemingly unending foliage, passing the human statues he saw his whole life. The green tunnel finally came to an opening at a clearing, where there was a small cave that was nearly on the brink of collapse.
Near the cave entrance was the broken statue of a woman, he could tell it broke a long time ago by how worn some parts of her were. Very close to the shattered stone woman was the source of the cries, a human baby.
He walked up to it to get a closer look, and nearly fell backwards. The infant had no limbs! No arms or legs!
How was it alive? Was it even human? Was this a curse? A bad omen? A demon?
A million thoughts were going through his head, and most of them were telling him to run back to the village and forget the whole thing. Alerting the soon-to-be former village chief would have been the rational thing to do.
And yet, he could not help but sympathize with the child. It must be difficult not to have limbs, even for a baby, he had been small and underestimated his entire life, ever since he was a mere child himself.
Instead of running, he got closer to the baby, noticing that it was a boy, and realizing how tiny he was. He could not have been older than a newborn, and yet he clung strongly to life with his equally strong cries.
He carefully picked up the infant, he was so small that he could cradle him in his hands. "There, there. Don't cry, little one."
His voice seemed to calm him as he finally stopped crying, though he looked as if he could start again at any moment. In his calmer state, Kaseki could see that he had a small tuft of dark hair and warm, golden brownish-orange eyes. On his face was a strange black line, it was slightly jagged and began thickly at his jaw before thinning as it traveled up his cheek in a very slight curve and ended with a sharp point at the corner of his eye.
"Just like one of my adorable pieces of art!" he laughed as he lifted him slightly.
He removed the basket from his back and sat on the ground, carefully setting him between his crossed legs. He tore off his sleeve and ripped it open; he could always repair it later. He wrapped the leather around the baby like a blanket, it fit him perfectly.
"Maybe having no arms or legs isn't such a bad thing after all," he remarked jokingly.
He stood up, carrying the baby in one arm and holding one of the woven straps of the basket with two fingers, while balancing himself with the remaining three. When he did, he noticed the grass was slightly wet, he looked at his fingers and saw that the skin on the tips had turned yellow.
He hummed in wonder, "Now what could have done this?"
For a second, he thought taking the infant with him was a bad idea. What could explain the sudden change of his fingers other than sorcery? But, maybe there was another explanation. After all, it was only a few of his fingertips, not all of them or his entire hand.
Something told him to immediately find a way to remove the staining and he had a feeling that his leather clothes were not enough. Hoisting the basket strap to his shoulder while holding the child, he made his way back to the stream where the safflowers grew.
He washed his hands in the flowing water, keeping them there until the yellow stains eventually faded. It took a long time, he estimated it must have taken nearly twenty minutes.
With his hands clean, he picked up the baby from a small patch of soft grass he set him on when he arrived at the stream. He carefully brushed off some stray blades of grass that clung loosely to the leather.
"There. It's about time for us to get back to the village, don't ya think?" he asked the infant good-naturedly. He squirmed slightly in his hold.
It had been five years since that fateful day, and life was anything but easy for the child. He needed his adoptive father to help him move and feed him when he was hungry, meaning he could only eat whenever he was not busy with a project. He did not know which was more humiliating, not having arms and legs or needing help with the simplest tasks.
To add insult to injury, everyone in the village hated him. They thought he was a curse, a hideous monster that was better off left where he was found. The only reason he was not rotting away as a nameless corpse was because they could not afford to lose their master craftsman.
Kaseki knew how upsetting it must have been for him, so to give him at least a small feeling of independence, he decided to make peg legs to help him move on his own. It would likely do very little in allowing him freedom of movement, but it was all he could do; he could not create flesh and blood limbs.
The boy sat in a chair, watching as he connected the wooden legs to the stubs his own would have been with wrappings. They were unbearably uncomfortable, itchy, scratching and poking at his skin, but he was willing to put up with it if it meant he could finally walk.
"There we go, how does that feel?" Kaseki asked.
"Good," he lied.
"Alright, now," he stood up from the floor with a grunt, "let's put it to the test."
He lifted the small boy from the chair, the added weight of the peg legs hindering him slightly, though he had handled much worse before. He slowly set him on the floor, trying to see the best way to steady him to make it easier. Once he was confident he was able to stand, he slowly took steps back while keeping his hands out in case he needed him.
With his full body weight now being lifted by only the wooden legs, the pain in his flesh grew. It felt as if they buried deeper into his skin, like maggots on a carcass.
Proud that he was standing on his own, he encouraged him to take it further, "What are you waiting for? Start walking!"
"Uh, okay," he nervously replied.
The peg legs were heavy, almost too much for him, yet he was still able to lift it high enough to attempt his first step. He was wobbly and nearly fell forward, causing Kaseki to rush to his side, but he somehow managed to lift the other one in time to balance himself.
"I… did it?" he asked himself in disbelief.
His adoptive father was stunned by the achievement at first, but quickly recovered and cheered in self-congratulation, "Oh ho ho! I knew I could do it! Now you can walk all on your own!"
"I can?" he questioned.
He nodded, "Sure." He pointed at the open entrance of their house, where light beamed in strongest, "Go out and explore. See the world with your own eyes."
With his wobbly steps, he walked to the doorway, where he was met with a blue sky and a gray ground, obscured by sunlight. He looked back for approval and he nodded, smiling.
He walked outside, quickly closing his eyes when the light became overwhelming. When he opened them, he saw a beautiful blue sky with thin white clouds swept across like brush strokes, seemingly highlighted by the sunlight. For the first time in a while, he felt happy.
He started to walk around the houses, watching as people washed clothes and prepared food. Every step created even greater pain, causing his eyes to water with tears and forcing him to stop after only a couple of steps.
There was a sudden cry near him and he watched as Kinro, a boy less than a year younger than him, grabbed his toddler brother Ginro and ran into their house. More children did the same, running inside or their parents dragging them.
"The monster can walk!"
"Run!"
"Get inside!"
"Stay indoors, children."
It was hard to forget that they hated him. They hated him so much that they were blind to the marvel of Kaseki's peg legs. They gave him, a boy without legs, a chance to walk.
He looked at his reflection in a puddle of water after someone tipped over a bucket. No arms, a loose and slightly frayed tunic with a rope around his waist, long dark hair that covers one side of his face, hiding his black mark, and blood seeping through the wrappings where the flesh stopped and the peg legs began. He really did look like a monster.
"Hey!" an irritatingly familiar voice shouted.
He looked up to see a slightly older boy with blonde hair named Magma, considered to be the prodigy of strength. Behind him, there was another blonde-haired boy named Carbo, and a very short boy with a slightly bulbous head named Mantle.
"Since when can you walk?" Magma jibed.
"They're fake," he responded, blankly and honestly.
He tapped one of his peg legs on the ground to show that it was not real. He winced at the painful friction of the wood against his raw, bloody flesh.
"Do you think we're stupid? You're bleeding!" Carbo pointed at him.
It was at that moment he realized Magma and Carbo were holding sticks while Mantle had small rocks in his hands. He knew what they wanted, he wanted to run back to his house, but he was in too much pain.
He stepped back to turn around and before he knew it he was on the ground. A flurry of hits from sticks and rocks hit him from seemingly all directions as he futilely kicked his peg legs.
"Daddy! Daddy!" he screamed. "Daddy! Help me!"
"Shut up! No one's coming for you!" Carbo taunted.
"Yeah, no one!" Mantle added, throwing a rock at him.
"Who would help a monster like you?" Magma laughed.
"I would." A pot was thrown at them and they ran away, leaving the bruised and battered boy on the ground. Kaseki helped him sit up, noticing the bloody wrappings, "Oh, you should've told me they were hurting you. No, I'm sorry I wasn't here to protect you."
He buried his face into his brown robe, crying into the leather, "I want these off."
He untied the wooden legs, he could almost feel the vomit in his throat when he saw how much he bled in such a short amount of time. Red fresh blood and brown dry blood stained the tops of the wood.
"Come on," he picked up his adoptive son and the peg legs, "let's go home and get you patched up."
For the next couple of hours, Kaseki set aside all of his projects to clean up the injuries before they became worse. Fortunately, in his many years as a craftsman, he knew the best herbs to use for pain relief.
He laid the boy down once he was finished and started cooking a meal. He made two kebabs of grilled fish for them, holding them in both hands. He fed himself with one while the other was held over his mouth.
There were three fish on his stick, while Kaseki had five on his own. He finished one fish until it was a few bits of flaky white meat loosely hanging on to the thin, boney skeleton and moved to the next, but only ate half.
"I'm done, I don't want anymore," he told him.
He would have asked him to finish the half-eaten fish, but he knew he had a rough day and likely not much of an appetite at the moment. To be honest, he was surprised he was able to completely eat the first fish.
"Alright, suit yourself," he replied. He removed the last, uneaten fish from the stick and skewered it on his own, almost done with his food.
Once he was done with eating, he cleaned his hands and both of their faces. He put the seven skeletons and one unfinished fish into a vessel to dispose of later.
It was already past sundown, not too late but he still had to complete the projects from earlier. He had enough oil and wick to last him a little while, he was confident he could get them done before the night grew too dark.
"Go ahead and get some sleep, Seido," he smiled down at him as he gently stroked his hair. "You'll feel better in the morning."
He turned away from him to avoid being distracted as he started his work. Unbeknownst to him, the child watched as he carved, sanded, painted, and lacquered. They were all brilliant and uniquely made; how could no one else see it in the peg legs?
After a while, he moved onto his side as best as he could, one of the few things he could do on his own. With his back to his adoptive father, he closed his eyes to rest for the night.
Before he fell asleep, the words of his tormentors and the villagers echoed in his head, especially one: monster. 'I'm not a monster.'
Eight years passed since his first and last attempt at walking, and thirteen since he was found by Kaseki. Numerous peg legs were made for him over the years, but he never again tried to walk outside; not after he scared the whole village, not after he was beaten.
He spent most of his time staring out the window, watching villagers and wishing he was born with a different body to be like them, to live a normal life, to not be afraid of them. He could see birds from the window and he watched them fly through the air, he envied their freedom and their gracefulness.
If walking was not an option, Kaseki decided to take a creative approach and craft something he never had before. He was not even sure what he was making if he was being honest, but he knew how to construct the basic components.
He made a chair, but purposefully constructed it without the legs. Afterwards, he made two wheels, the same that would be used on a wagon. With the main parts completed, all that was left was trying to figure out a way to connect them through relentless trial and error.
He wound up breaking more than he thought and was forced to spend nearly a full day with repair work. Whenever it happened again, the cycle continued, only to be repeated again almost immediately. Needless to say, he never had to work so hard on one project since his beginning years as a craftsman. Strangely, he could almost consider it fun.
Eventually, he found a method to connect it all together, by carving a wooden pole and attaching it underneath the chair with the wheels on both ends. He tested it by pushing it from behind and it rolled perfectly.
He was ecstatic! He finally found a way for his adoptive son to move again! He was so happy and proud of himself that his clothes could not conceal his muscles.
His excitement quickly died down when he realized one problem, how would he be able to move on his own? He could not be there for him the whole day, what if there was an emergency and he had to leave the house? He almost burst into tears at the thought of the worst case scenario.
He then remembered the many peg legs he made over the years and an idea came to his head. Though Seido rejected them in the past, he could find another way for them to be useful.
A number of the peg legs were unfinished, he either had other projects to work on and forgot about them, or he stopped himself from taking it too far because he knew he was still afraid. He cut notches into the wood and connected them like a puzzle. He used a combination of tree sap and charcoal as a bonding agent, and once he was satisfied that it was dry, he tied twine to hold it in place and applied more of the sticky substance for additional support.
With the project finished, there was only one thing left to do. He hid it all under a sheet and covered his adoptive son's eyes with a blindfold as he carried him.
"What do you want to show me?" he asked.
He sat him on a stool and removed the blindfold from his face, "Be patient, would you?" He took hold of the sheet, but did not pull it off yet, "I've worked very hard on this, so I hope you like it."
'Why does he always have to say that? Now I can't not like it,' he mentally groaned.
When the sheet hit the floor, his mouth was agape as he was unable to find the words to say. It was a chair with two large wheels in place of the legs, and perfectly balanced in the seat were two long sticks with tapered yet flat ends, which he could not help but to liken to peg legs.
"What is it?" he inquired, the shock still prevalent on his face and in his voice.
"A special chair I made so that you can move around easier," he answered. "And these," he grabbed the long sticks, "are to help you move on your own."
"But I-" he proceeded to protest, only to be cut off.
"You don't have to go outside if you don't want to," he told him softly. "I just want you to have something in case of an emergency and I'm not around."
He was silent as he thought, before asking, "Can I try it?"
He was slightly surprised by his question but happy nonetheless, "Of course."
He lifted him up from the stool and set him down in the chair. Afterwards, he wrapped the stubs where his arms should have been before tying the sticks, hoping that it would reduce any pain.
"Now, let's put this to the test. Try moving a little," he instructed.
"O-okay," he responded, a bit nervous.
The sticks were much heavier than he thought, far more than the peg legs, the only positive thing about them was that they did not hurt. Still, he was willing to give it a chance, especially since his adoptive father spent so much time on it.
He pushed one stick forward before he did the same to the other and pulled himself up, the chair rolling with him. It was like a child's first steps.
"It works!" Kaseki cried joyfully, wrapping his arms around his adoptive son. "I knew my adorable little invention would work!" He paused for a moment when he remembered a major problem from all those years ago, "Wait… do they hurt you?"
He shook his head, "No, they don't."
"You're not lying to me, are you?" he questioned, stroking his beard.
"I'm not," he replied insistently. "They really don't hurt."
He wrapped his arms around him again, crying tears of joy, "It works!"
The chair wobbled slightly, causing the boy to panic, "Stop! You're going to make the whole thing fall over!"
"I'm sorry! I'm just so happy that I finally found something that works!" he still cried.
He poked him with one of the sticks, trying to nudge him off, "Don't make me use this!"
More than five years passed since the day Kaseki made the special chair, and more than eighteen since he was found; it would be nineteen years very soon. He tried to become a more frequent face in the village, but it was the same, people ostracizing him for his lack of limbs and strange chair.
Despite what they thought, he still used it to get around, and he had grown quite muscular due to his "walking sticks" yet he still retained a slim frame. His hair was much longer, reaching just above his pelvis, and tied up in a ponytail. It completely covered half of his face, obscuring his black mark from view.
He had been the subject of many talks his entire life, but one day he heard of a new topic in their discussions. A strange outsider had taken refuge in the shed of Chrome, the self-proclaimed 'sorcerer,' and had even tried to step on the village bridge, only to be quickly stopped by Tetsuken's sons, Kinro and Ginro.
He was not in doubt of the stranger's existence, not when the entire village was talking about him, but he did think it was slightly unfair for them to immediately deny him entrance. Then again, he figured he was one to consider anything of the sort, taking into account that he was simply lucky to have been adopted by the essential craftsman, he would never be living among them without him. He was too afraid to roll his chair anywhere near the bridge, fearing that he would be prevented from entering and be forced to survive on his own.
When he asked his adoptive father how he felt about the outsider, he said he was indifferent to his presence as long as he was civil. Apparently, most of the older villagers thought the same way, but, unsurprisingly, the younger people, Magma among them, had opposing thoughts.
They even considered forming a posse to "run him out of the village," as they had put it. That was the sanitized version of what they really wanted to do, the only reason they did not follow through with it was due to Kohaku, the chief's second daughter, being involved. Their unhidden bloodthirsty intent was another reminder that he truly was a lucky one.
Only a few days after the stranger's arrival, he heard that he, along with Chrome, Kohaku, and a little girl named Suika who wore a watermelon rind as a helmet, were serving an unusual food called "ramen". While the food itself was free, eating it was not, the people who ate the "ramen" were put to work heating up a furnace; but that was not the oddest thing about the food-work exchange.
Yet another outsider was spotted eating the new food, and the stranger recognized him, but claimed not to know him. It was speculated that he was associated with a mysterious "long-haired man," he denied it, but those involved in the confrontation did not believe him, yet he was put to work nonetheless.
A thunderstorm hit later that day and many thought the presence of the two outsiders had caused it, that they had angered the gods. Personally, he thought that was paranoia and utterly foolish to think any deity would be upset over something so small.
One of them had ripped a plank from the bridge, which infuriated Kaseki and dramatically changed his opinion on the stranger. Magma and his posse confronted them on the bridge, armed with weapons, but he heard the recent newcomer made flowers disappear from his hands, frightening them and thus de-escalating the situation.
When he heard about how fearful they were of the "disappearing flowers," he honestly could not hold back from smiling. It was poetically laughable how Magma of all people, who boasted of his strength regularly, could be frightened of something as small as flowers.
For a brief couple of hours, he was no longer the majority of conversation topics, it was Magma's stint of cowardice. The last time villagers stopped talking about him was when Carbo married Beryl. It would be childish if he admitted that he was angry that their wedding was, for a brief time, the one thing people could not stop talking about, but he was. It made his blood boil that Carbo, one of his tormentors, was being cheered and congratulated when he was beaten to the point where he was bedridden for days.
The day after the storm, he was at home with his adoptive father, eating their lunch together as they often did. He sat on the floor with his sticks still tied to him so that he could lift himself up when he was done. He still had to be fed instead of feeding himself, but it was either this or starve.
"I just finished with repairing the fishing boats," Kaseki mentioned.
He briefly glanced up, disinterested as he continued to eat, "Yeah?"
"I know you said your walking sticks were getting worn. I'll look at them later today," he told him. "How does that sound?"
He stopped eating and looked up at him, "Great, thanks."
A moment later, Chrome came into the house with a bundle of rope on his shoulder, ducking since he was slightly taller than the doorway. It was rare for him to cross the bridge, especially more so with him befriending the outsider.
"What do you want, Chrome?" the elder man asked, his voice slightly harsh and full of distrust.
He held his hands together, as if praying or begging, "Please, we just need help on this one project and-"
"Nope! I don't want anything to do with your sorcery," he refused curtly.
He sighed in frustration, his shoulders slumping, "I wish it didn't have to come to this."
He unraveled the rope over his shoulder and wrapped it around his upper body, binding his short arms to his torso. It happened so fast that the aging craftsman and his adoptive son hardly had time to react.
When the shock wore off, Kaseki tried to free himself, but the rope was tighter than he expected, "Confounded! Get me out of this right now, Chrome!"
The teen pulled on the only tail of twine that was not wrapped around him, as if trying to force him to stand up, "I will if you just come with me and take a look!"
"Fine," he begrudgingly agreed with a huff. He stood up from the floor and let Chrome lead him out of his own house.
"W- wait!" Seido called out as they were about to leave through the open doorway. "Where are you taking him, Chrome?!"
"Don't worry, I'll bring him back," he responded quickly, without answering him.
"Chrome! Chrome!" he shouted after him.
He grit his teeth as he pushed himself up from the floor with his sticks, a next to impossible feat if he had not done so numerous times before. He crawled into his chair, shifting into the correct position, and left the house.
They were already gone by the time he made it outside and they were nowhere in sight. He did have a hint about where they might have gone and dreaded it.
He moved as quickly as he could, trying to get to the bridge before they could cross it. As usual, people avoided him, making it easier for him to move through the village. There were rare times he was grateful for his appearance, and this was one of them.
By the time he finally got to the bridge, he unfortunately saw that they were already halfway across. Waiting at the other end were Kinro, Ginro, Kohaku, Suika, and the outsider.
The outsider had strange green hair that stood up, like the stalks of an onion, and wore a deerskin outfit with sack-like shoes. He was a teen, younger than him from what he could tell, likely about the same age as Kohaku and Ginro. It was the first time he caught a glimpse of the mysterious young man, and at that moment he wondered what he needed his adoptive father for.
Y-X-Y-*o*-Y-X-Y
(A/N: I hope you enjoyed reading the first chapter, it was certainly a bit of a doozy for me. Turned out to be a lot longer than I expected, but I guess it doesn't really matter as long as it's done.
Again, if you haven't seen "Dororo" yet, I can't recommend it enough, especially if you're into monster-slaying series and/or seinen anime. I'm honestly a little upset with myself for discovering it so late.
Before I forget, Happy Veterans Day to all those who fought for your country and your families. I personally have a few veterans in my family and I love and respect all of them for their service.
If you liked what I had for you, then I hope you'll stick around for the next chapter. There's so much I want to show you as the story progresses.)