"Are you sure you should still go?" the woman asked, anxiety in her voice. Following her question, the farmer turned back to face his wife.
"Don't worry, Aya-chan. I told you it would be fine," said the farmer lightly with a grin.
"Don't you think it's strange? She met our son just another day, then the next day she appeared in our house? And her question yesterday.. Don't you think she might be planning something?"
"Haha, you should see her pushing the cart yesterday. I don't think that girl would go that far just to deceive us. It's not like we are rich or anything."
"But still…!"
"I know, I'll be careful."
And with those words, the farmer waved his hand towards his wife, before pulling the cart out of his yard with him. Nevertheless, the wife couldn't help but worry.
Hours ahead, with the sun risen up in the sky, Aya took their youngest out with her for a quick shopping trip to the centre of the village. Living on the edge of the village blessed their family with better vegetation as well as fertile land, but at the cost of accessibility. So was the shared issue of the farmers within the border village. Nevertheless, their existence was necessary, despite the difficulty that they had to face. After all, without them, procuring proper food would be even harder for the villagers, and the quality of life within the village would drop even further. And so, they were told to embrace their farmer lineage proudly. Her, and the husband, that is.. Yet the job felt almost thankless. All those effort, yet they couldn't even ask for a proper profit. Not without acquiring ire from the rest of the village for that. Therefore, suppressing the frustration in her thought, the wife could only sigh as he took the first step of her long journey towards the village's market.
Then, right in front of the slope closest to her house, she saw her. The traveling Miko, sitting on the slope's side, frown on her face and paper in her hands. Her being there so early in the day made Aya uncomfortable. Wondering if she should take the long way around to avoid the Miko, she was prepared to turn back. However, without her realising, her son had already dashed towards the frowning priestess.
"Miko nee-chan!" shouted the 9 year old boy, drawing the Miko's attention towards him despite his mother's hidden intention.
"Oh! You!" said the priestess in surprise that quickly turned into a smile. "Who was your name again?" she asked, noticing how she had yet caught unto the boy's name.
"Jin!" the boy answered cheerfully, without hesitation, all the while approaching the priestess in steady pace.
"Jin-chan, huh? Good morning!" Mitsuki patted the boy's head as soon as he was within her arm's reach.
"Morning? Nee-chan, it's afternoon!"
"Really? Still seems pretty early for me!" said Mitsuki jokingly with a smile as she pinched the little boy's cheek lightly and playfully.
"Jin!" the mother called out with a rush and followed after her son in a slight limp, panic in her face.
"Oh, good morning, miss!" Mitsuki greeted cheerfully as soon as she laid her eyes on the limping mother. However, the response was not what Mitsuki expected.
"What are you doing here?" asked the farmer's wife, her tone harsher than what she herself expected, reflective of her distrust towards the Miko. Obviously, Mitsuki caught unto the fact pretty fast.
With a complicated smile on her face, Mitsuki let out a small sigh, before answering.
"I know you won't believe me, but I mean no harm," she said, knowing how her statement would likely not alter her perspective anyway. As expected, the mother responded to her statement with another gaze of suspicion as she grabbed her son's hand tighter, forbidding him from getting too close with the priestess. Nevertheless, Mitsuki had decided that she wouldn't back off. Instead, she flipped the paper that she had been drawing on and showed the diagram she drew to both the mother and son. Without being prompted, the Miko began her explanation in what seemed to be an excitement.
"Yesterday when I pushed the cart, I noticed that this area was the most challenging to traverse during transport. The inclination and the uneven path were not ideal for heavy cart movement."
The paper that the Miko held was full of scribbles and lines along with some number and random calculation. The boy totally had no idea about what the big sister was babbling about and could only stare in confusion at the mess of a scribble. Meanwhile, the mother, unable to grasp the intention behind the girl's word, couldn't care less. Determined to protect her family, she grasped the boys hand stronger as she dared herself to speak up.
"I don't know what you are planning, but.."
"I'm planning to build a system that would make the transportation of materials easier," said Mitsuki quickly, interrupting the mother's accusation. This time she had made it as clear cut as possible before she could accuse her of having hidden intention. In result, the mother paused for a while, as she processed the Miko's word, unsure of what to think of it.
"If you are worried, you can watch me over, and I won't take any step closer to your house than the ends of these slopes," added Mitsuki with a light smile on her face. Her eye was full of confidence and determination, as if challenging the mother to prove her wrong.
"If I happen to act suspiciously, you can call me out for it. If I can't explain, I'll stop. But.."
"At least give me a chance to prove my intention."
After the pause, Mitsuki continued her sentence in a more serious tone. Smile had faded from her face, leaving only her fiery, determined gaze as she met the mother's eye directly, causing her to freeze once more, undecided. After all, she couldn't find any sign of deceit within the golden haired priestess' eyes.
Seeing her reaction, Mitsuki could only smile wryly. As she expected, that promise alone wouldn't be enough prove for the mother. Nevertheless, she had never intended to back down. Instead, she flipped back her sketch as she brought the paper closer to her once more, and returned her attention to it.
Per the previous night, Itachi had started on his reconnaissance on the desert area, and so does Kisame who went ahead to gather more information on the village's few late night establishment.
Being in the desert, camouflage is hard enough as it was. As easy as it was for any tracks to get blown away, it would be equally easy to leave unintended track as well. One might cover their form, but it would be hard to cover the trail left behind on the soft sands immediately should the need arise. Again, he felt that Mitsuki's ability to manipulate wind would come in handy in such situation, erasing the track subtly as they go. The thought pops up in his mind almost immediately, surprising even Itachi himself. Somewhere along the way, he had begun to rely on the girl far more than he would like, even though he had always been one to tackle his problem alone. Truthfully, he didn't know if it was a good thing, or a bad one.. After all the thought of being comfortable, being dependant, felt so alien to him it was scary. He had indeed decided to put his trust in the girl, but.. Even within his partnership with Kisame, good partner as they were, they would cover each other's back, but never depend on one another. They worked as well alone as they were separately, which was the purpose of the two man team from the beginning. One keeping watch of another while also being their support, but in any situation, both are expected to be able to handle their job alone. More importantly, if one decided to defect, the other would be expected to take care of it. But, it wasn't the case between him and the girl, and he had begun to question if it would not be good for both him, and the girl, in the long run, especially with how things are going for him, Conflicted, Itachi squeezed unto his forehead, giving his furrowing eyebrow a slight massage as he tried to put the thoughts aside. Reprimanding himself silently, Itachi swore to find a solution of the predicament on his own, like how it had always supposed to be for him.
Meanwhile on Kisame's side, after a night long stake out on the village's only drinking venue, despite not a lot, Kisame had an inkling on what was happening on that odd night, and countless previous other nights before over the few years. An inkling, as he could only hear bits and pieces of complaint from the father who had his daughter taken away. For such little piece of information, he had drunk quite a high amount of drink. Even priding himself in being able to hold his drink, Kisame still felt slightly queasy by the time the sun rose.
"Oh well, I guess I should be done for the day.. Now all I can do is just wait.." he thought, squinting his fish like eyes as soon as the sun's ray hit his face the moment he stepped out of the izakaya. He had set everything in place, but it would definitely take time for new information to come in. Until then, the only reliable sources of information were those who had lived inside the village, but enquiry with commoner had never been Kisame's strong suit. After all, he stands out too much, and his appearance, least to say, strokes too much fear among the commoner, and would leave a lasting impression on them. Of course, that would not be ideal considering their current situation and goal..
Mitsuki had managed to create something akin to a simple mechanism after hours of tinkering, threading, spooling vines and creating makeshift instrument from plant materials. Supporting the mechanism was some plants that Mitsuki had grown for its roots and wood's endurance.
"Done!" declared the girl victoriously as soon as she finished tying the anchor in a dead knot. "Now to try this thing up…"
"What are you doing?"
The question came suddenly from behind Mitsuki. Truthfully she had been wondering if the guy would ever ask, or will he just watch over her quietly as the time passed. Nevertheless, she was ready to answer.
"Hehe, good question!" answered the Miko in excitement. "I'm creating a simple pulley!"
"For?"
The young man stepped out of the cliff's shadow and approached the Miko with bored expression on his face. It was indeed, the eldest son of the farmer's family. Before the Miko could answer however, he added.
"And I shall let you know, even though we own some field, doesn't mean that we are rich.." stated the young man suddenly, unasked.
Hearing the subtle accusation, Mitsuki could only let out a bitter laugh. "Haha, I feel like I've heard those words somewhere today," she said with a forced smile, half-jokingly. "I'm not here to scam your family, I promise.."
Hearing the priestess' retort, the young man scoffed.
"Then why are you doing all these? Too free?"
"Wah, how rude," answered Mitsuki with a frown that had formed to accompany her bitter smile. "Shun, was it? Do you not believe in goodwill anymore?"
"I believe that nothing is free in this world"
Hearing the boy's bitter answer, the priestess couldn't help but let out a groan.
"How old are you? You still looks so young, who hurt you?"
"That's just the reality of this world."
Hearing the young man's retort, Mitsuki's expression rapidly changed from frowning to laughter. Somehow, the cold manner of the teenager's response, contrasting with how he was curious enough to actually talk to her, reminded her of someone she knew.
"Well, you're not wrong," said the Miko cheerfully, to the young man's surprise. "It's always better to be safe than sorry after all"
Shun was rendered speechless as the Miko walked down the slope with springs in her step. Not to mention, as soon as she arrived at the bottom, she begun to gather stones from all over before loading them to the net of her weird "mechanism".
"You are an odd one, have someone told you that?" the boy added with complicated frown on his face as the Miko gestured for him to pull unto the rope that was anchored near the young man's leg.
"All the time! Now can you please pull?"
Baffled, the young-man decided to follow the girl's whimsical request without question, helping her with her "test" as result.
After scouring the peripheral for a good few hours, Itachi had managed to pinpoint several places that would have a good potential to be the hideout's location. Careful as he was, he tried to approach few of them immediately, as discreetly as he could. Even so, thorough exploration turns out to be nigh impossible, not without potentially alerting any guard. At the very least, he had confirmed that there were chakra activities within those pinpointed location. Whether the signal was from passer-by or travellers making stop, he couldn't be sure. All he could do then was only to take note of them and mark them on the map until there were more chance for him to examine them closer. Even so, the distances between each spot were still relatively far from the village. Somehow, it made him wonder if there were some other secret spot or secret entrance somewhere he couldn't check. After all, as cold as the desert was during the night, especially being close to winter time, shinobis aside, he couldn't imagine how the girls from the village could survive the trip. Sighing, again, the thought pops up in his mind. His pride and determination aside, it would be foolish of him to waste his time instead of asking for Mitsuki's help considering the situation. It seemed like he really had to depend on the girl, after all.
The mechanism didn't work as well as Mitsuki thought it would be. Firstly, the fact that operating it would need a two-man team, one to load the net and the other to pull the wheel up. Considering that, it wasn't really practical in the long run, since it would cease to be ineffective the moment help was not available. Secondly, was the mechanism's load limit. It was impossible for her to transport everything within the cart in one go, so it ended up taking a few trips back and forth. Thing was, Mitsuki had anticipated as much, however it took even more phase than she'd like, mostly attributing to the limit of her, and the son's physical power. Despite the mechanism already reducing the strain of transport, it was still not efficient enough in the force's distribution. Not only that, the durability of the system was worrying as well. The vine was already finely braided as it was, yet after one day usage, Mitsuki had already saw signs of wear and tear.
"I don't think this will last another day," grumbled the Miko audibly as soon as she finished her checks. On top of the slope, the farmer and his son was loading back the cargo into the cart to drag the whole thing back home.
"Are you still going to do this tomorrow, Missy?" shouted the farmer from the top of the slope the moment he saw the Miko finished her inspection.
"Of course! But this mechanism is not good enough, I have to think of something else, or it won't last.."
Hearing the Miko's confusing gripe, the farmer could only smiled wryly, not understanding what was in the girl's mind for her to be doing such tedious thing for a payless work.
"At least, think while resting your leg. Come on over!" Shouted the farmer, grinning with intention of inviting the priestess over for a break. However, despite hearing the farmer's invitation, Mitsuki held her stance and shook her head.
"That, I cannot," said the girl firmly, to the farmer's confusion.
"What nonsense are you saying? A short break won't hurt, come on up!"
Despite the farmer's insistence, the girl still didn't make any move, and only responded with guilty smile. Seeing that the girl seemed to have no intention on explaining, the farmer's oldest son sighed.
"She promised mom she won't go closer to our place closer than this slope."
Shun's explanation surprised both Mitsuki and the farmer. Mitsuki especially, as she didn't expect the older brother to know. Seeing the confusion on both Mitsuki's and the father's face, Shun sighed and elaborated further.
"Jin told me about it after he's back from shopping with Mom. Despite being young, doesn't mean that kid doesn't understand things. Why else do you think I was watching?"
Shun's explanation was aimed more towards Mitsuki, who then tilted her head questioningly.
"Because.. you were bored?" guessed Mitsuki, plainly. After all, despite criticizing how she was likely too free, the young man ended up helping Mitsuki with the whole testing and everything as if he himself got nothing better to do.
Hearing the girl's guess, the man sighed in disbelief before turning his back against the slope.
"Anyway, that's the case, so let her be, dad.."
"What the.. something like that happened when I'm away?" said the farmer, conflicted. Scratching his head, feeling bad for the girl yet understood his wife's viewpoint, the farmer decided to go with one last offer. "Well, she didn't forbid you to receive anything, right? At least, drink some tea before you go! Just don't move from there!"
After that, joining the son, the father also turned his back and pushed the cart back towards his house.
Kisame had just woken up from his sleep catch up, slightly hung-over. What woke him up was the repetitive hard tapping on the window. Somehow, Kisame could guess what was making the sound.
And indeed, it was Itachi's crow.
With a groan, Kisame stood up to open the window and let the crow in. Immediately, the crow roosted on Kisame's shoulder, message on its leg. Without rushing, Kisame reached unto the message and untied it from the crow, before unfurling it. Inside were a few short lines and oddly, some money. The short lines, however, was classic Itachi, thought Kisame as he grinned with mixed feeling.
"Won't be back. Surveillance."
"Welp, of course," thought Kisame, noticing how dark it had become already, yet instead of being there himself, Itachi chose to send a crow. It was obvious that he was in the middle of something. Weirdly though, the girl hadn't returned to the inn yet, as well. Wondering what the girl was doing to be late for dinner, Kisame shrugged and returned his attention towards Itachi's note. Then, Kisame read the longer 2nd line beneath the first one.
"Here's today's dinner money,"
Kisame chuckled reading the first part of the second sentence. That partner of his was as serious as ever, seemingly conscious that the night was supposed to be his turn to provide dinner.
"Who cares about dinner money anyway," he thought with a grin, imagining his partner's secretly concerned face as he thought about not being able to join in for dinner. "I guess he's expecting me to buy for Ojou-chan's share too?" pondered Kisame, seeing the amount of money attached within the message roll. After concluding that, Kisame went on to read the continuation of that message.
"Might need Mitsuki to help with tracking. I'll pick her up tomorrow."
"Now that's a long one," thought Kisame, wondering why Itachi didn't send the message directly to the girl instead.
"Send report back via crow"
"…." Kisame couldn't begin to wonder of how would he give the detailed report of what he had gathered these past 2 days with the crow as messenger. Somehow he wondered if Itachi forgot how yesterday they never ended up sharing reports with one another because of the stuffs that happened.
Kisame gave the crow a stare, and the crow tilted its head and cawed.
"Oh well, I guess you'd be stuck with me for a while now," said Kisame to the crow awkwardly, just before he remembered that he still had to go out to buy dinner for both him and Mitsuki.
The one who came back with a hot cup of tea was Shun.
"Dad told me to bring this to you," complained the eldest son as soon as he saw Mitsuki spotted him.
"Ah, thanks. I won't be long, don't worry," remarked the Miko as soon as the guy handed her the cup of drink. Without waiting, she then proceeded to take a sip from the cup, only to stop in pain in second after.
"Dumbass, it's hot obviously. Can't you see the steam?"
Hearing the insult, Mitsuki answered with a frown and quite mumble. After all, she got the feeling that Shun wanted her to hurry up and go back so he could also go home, since being outside was so cold. Hearing no response however, the young man changed his question.
"What are you even a priestess of? Priestess of plants? Aren't you in the wrong place?"
Hearing the odd question, Mitsuki finally answered with judgemental frown on her face.
"What does that even mean? Are you just teasing me?"
"After all why come to this village of all else? Isn't it an odd choice? No one who came here ever have good intention."
The unexpected talkativeness of the young man surprised Mitsuki. Wondering if it would finally be her chance to gain some information, Mitsuki baited.
"What do you mean? Who are you referring to?"
Shun gave the priestess a doubtful glance. Seeing the seriousness in her eye and the innocence that she had carefully displayed to make the guy drop his guard, he decided to entertain the priestess.
"Those who are not natives are probably here for a stop in their travel, but never for long," he explained. "Those who stayed for long, doesn't usually have good intention."
"And that is why?" the girl enquired.
"Either they are looking to survey ideal place for war base, or they are here to plunder what was left on the aftermath of war."
Shun checked the priestess expression subtly as he explained to see if it triggered some kind of reaction. Surprisingly, all he could see was that she was seriously pondering about it.
"Oh, that and those on the run, since we are located near multiple political border so.."
"Logically, it would be an ideal place to jump border to elude authorities?" said Mitsuki with a complicated smile accompanied by slight frown on her face. She understood that, at least. After all, that was exactly the reason Itachi chose that place as their stop, other than the minor objective which was Mitsuki's Miko duty.
"Heee, you know that very well, aren't you?" teased the young man, enquiring. "So, are you one of them?"
Shun smirked as he asked the question. Noticing that, Mitsuki however was unafraid and met the guy's gaze directly instead with another smirk of her own.
"Well, sorry to disappoint you, but I'm not a wanted criminal as far as I knew," she said, internally jeering towards the fact the she indeed travelled with two person who fitted into that description.
"Huh, that so? Boring," stated the man in disappointment as he shifted his gaze away from the priestess's subtly golden glowing eye.
"And to answer your question, I serve the Goddess of Sun," added Mitsuki, answering the guy's enquiry in repayment for the information he had ended up providing her with, in hope that she would be able to dig even more information in return. After all, the world was indeed, transactional to some extent.
"Sun? Do you think we are lacking in sun? In the dessert?" said Shun, baffled at the notion. If anything, he'd wish there would be less sun in the day, for that matter.
"Well even though she is Goddess of the Sun, that is not what she is truly about," the girl added with apologetic smile as she drank another sip from her cup. "It's more about life-giving, and love, like how the sun shines indiscriminately for everyone and giving them warmth."
Yet, the girl's explanation made no sense for the boy whatsoever.
"The hell was that, I don't get it.. Why is she the goddess of sun, then? Why not goddess of life or whatever.."
Hearing the guys retort, the priestess let out a dry chuckle. "Well, why indeed?" she asked back, after all she was also not sure how to explain further without being extremely convoluted or long winded. Instead, she decided to redirect the conversation to her advantage once more.
"So what's with the night gathering few days ago? And the rain?"
It was as if Mitsuki's question hit the sore spot, Shun's face darkened the moment it dropped.
"What do you think?" he asked bitterly, rhetorically. Yet Mitsuki chose to answer to bait more of him.
"I think that they are bogus, but it was still impressive they could do what they did."
Hearing Mitsuki's response, the eldest son scoffed.
"In this time and age, with what everyone had seen the shinobis are capable of, it's definitely clear enough that they were lying."
"Yet everyone seems to go with it anyway, why?"
"We do need rain, but more than that, everyone is afraid of the consequences.."
Author's note:
This arc might be a bit long _(:/)L
Who am I kidding, it would be..
Also, bonus, Author vs OC shenanigans about this chapter's mechanism:
Me: "OK Mitsuki, let's think about this together! I'll integrate the system's detail and description into the story"
Few hours later,
Me: *Throw scribbles away* "WELL WHO WOULD ACTUALLY CARE HOW THE MECHANISM WORKS AND CALCULATE"
Mitsuki: *judgingly gaze with narrowing eyes* "Just say it's been years since you actually touched physics and torque calculation.."
Me: "PPPPSSSST, PPPPPPSSSSSST!"
Anyway yea i still have the scribble, just think of this as Mitsuki's actual note with worse handwriting
Me: "I EVEN THOUGHT ABOUT EACH COMPONENT'S STEP BY STEP OK FORGIVE ME FOR SCRAPPING DESCRIBING THESE WHOLE PROCESSSS ITS SO DAMN LONG"
Mitsuki: "Is this fanfic slowly turning into 's?"
Me: "Sssh don't break 4th wall.. D:"
More stupid Author vs OC shenanigans on my tumblr,
https/blog/tsuki-no-yomi-project
*pats Mitsuki with love*