Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Keizoku wa Chikara Nari ❯ Chapter 1

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
Keizoku wa Chikara Nari
(Ñontinuance is strength too)
There was a road in a lush green bamboo wood in blue mountains. Several travellers were walking along the road - some merchants in bright striped kimono, carrying packs with their goods on bamboo sticks, a woman in a large hat with a veil and a pink kimono, a blind female shamisen player in a green kimono, with a shamisen behind her back, feeling her steps with a cane. Suddenly another traveller came to them, a tall slender young man with large dark eyes and long shining dark hair, in a tall black hat, a bright green wide closed robe with arabesque pattern, purple loose trousers and straw sandals over white socks, with a closed folding fan in his hand.
'Good afternoon!' the young man said with a smile. 'I'm Shimizu Yukinari Shonagon, and I'm just travelling. And who are you and where are you going to?'
'I'm Honya Tomoe, and I'm going to see Prince of Teng's Pavillion,' the woman in a veil said.
'It is beautiful, worth to see,' Yukinari said with a smile. 'Good name, Tomoe, a drop shaped pattern. And Honya, bookstore owner.'
'Yes, my husband is,' Tomoe said with a smile.
'We are Tsukiya Taro, Kashiwaya Saemon and Kiriya Ryosuke, and we are going to Nanchang to sell our goods,' one of the merchants said.
'All right,' Yukinari said.
'I'm Yamashita Tsuyu, and I'm going to Nanchang to play in the market there,' the blind shamisen player said.
'A beautiful name, Yamashita Tsuyu, dew at the foot of the mountains,' Yukinari said with a smile.
'Thank you, Yukinari-dono,' Tsuyu said.
Yukinari opened his fan and began fanning himself slowly, his fan was white with red maples.
'A beautiful fan, Yukinari-dono, red maples,' Tomoe said.
'I was conceived in the time of momijigari, viewing of autumn leaves, and my mother was then wearing robes in the pattern of kurenai momiji, scarlet maple, and there was always a folding screen with red maples in her rooms,' Yukinari said with a smile. 'So my fan is always with red maples.'
'Oh,' Tomoe said.
Suddenly a voice out of nowhere said, 'I hope I get there safe.'
'What!?' Yukinari said.
'That's my thought!' Tomoe said.
'I hope we don't meet robbers who kill us and steal our goods,' the disembodied voice said.
'That's my thought!' one of the merchants said.
'Where is my father now?' the voice said.
'That's my thought!' Yukinari exclaimed.
'Chill coastal wind
Pierces my body.
Does the beach plover too
Cry in despair?' the voice sang.
'That's my thought!' Tsuyu said.
'What is this?' Tomoe cried. Others joined her.
'SILENCE!' Yukinari shouted. Everyone fell silent.
'Clear your minds like in meditation,' Yukinari said firmly. 'It's a satori, a mountain goblin who confuses people by speaking their thoughts aloud and then eats them. Clear your mind, and it flees.'
The travellers tried to clear their minds.
'I can't!' Tomoe cried.
'Try!' Yukinari said.
Suddenly the voice stopped.
'It fled out of boredom or fear,' Yukinari said with a smile.
'Thank you, Yukinari-dono,' the travellers said bowing deeply.
'You are welcome,' Yukinari said with a smile.
'Are you an onmyoji master, Yukinari-dono?' Tomoe asked. 'I heard there are many of them in the capital of Jianye.'
'No, I just know a lot about these things,' Yukinari said with a smile.
'That was quite a fright,' Tomoe said.
'Keizoku wa chikara nari, continuance is strength too,' Yukinari said with a smile.
'What about your father, Yukinari-dono?' Tomoe asked.
'My father is a youkai,' Yukinari said. 'He disappears for years, travelling and helping people. I don't even know his name, he conceals it, so I bear my mother's surname, Shimizu, as if he was adopted into her family.'
'I see,' Tomoe said. 'Will you protect us, Yukinari-dono?'
'I will, I promise,' Yukinari said with a smile. 'Tsuyu-sensei, the song in your mind was Iso Chidori, Beach Plover, right?'
'Yes,' Tsuyu said with a smile.
'Please play it for us, sensei,' Yukinari said with a smile.
Tsuyu sat down by the roadside, put her cane beside her, took her shamisen in her hands and started to sing.
'My uneasy sleep
Was broken at dawn
By the temple bell.
Ai!
Indeed to what can I compare
This world of empty wishes.
Ai!
In the River of Tomorrow
Yesterday's waterfall
Is today's shallow.'
She played a sad, poignant melody.
'Chill coastal wind
Pierces my body.
Does the beach plover too
Ñry in despair?'
'Brilliant, sensei!' Yukinari said with a smile.