by Fuyumi Ono
“First of all, your parents have to be itinerants.”
“You mean it comes down to your parents?” Shushou glanced at the annoyed-looking Gankyuu, who nodded.
Kinhaku only chuckled. “Yeah, that’s what it comes down to. Your parents become itinerants or refugees. In order to put food in their mouths, they sell their kid to the master of a goushi or shushi guild house. You apprentice as a kid and become a koushu as a adult.”
“Buying and selling people is against the law.”
“It’s less a matter of buying and selling than struggling to get by and lacking the resources to raise a child. If you’re a refugee, the orphanages won’t take you in. So you find a person who will. What else can you do? The parents might even collect some consolation money, if they’re lucky. That’s pretty much how the story goes.”
“Is that how Gankyuu and Kinhaku became koushu?”
“Well.”
“I see. So that’s what gave you two such contrary personalities. Considering the lengths you went to become koushu, you should take pride in it.”
Kinhaku again responded with a loud laugh. “Regardless of the lengths anybody goes to, I don’t think anybody ever became a koushu because they wanted to.”
“People do all sorts of things for all sorts of different reasons. What happens to the goushi when there’s no longer a kirin on Mt. Hou? If I become empress, you’ll be out of a job.”
“When people stop going on the Shouzan, goushi don’t waste time becoming shushi overnight. When the work dries up, they go into the Yellow Sea and hunt kijuu. Though they don’t all do the job the same way.”
“How’s that?”
“Before I went into business for myself, my guild master had three of us about the same age working for him. We didn’t work as guardians during our apprenticeship. We went kijuu hunting with the journeymen. Except we skirted the trail used on the Shouzan. In that we differed from regular shushi.”
“Huh.”
“Following the road there and back while hunting kijuu drilled the details of the journey into our heads. Even when there’s no longer a kirin on Mt. Hou, they’ll keep doing the same thing. You see, even if it’s just the goushi, they’ll stick to the routine or the road would soon disappear.”
“The road would disappear?”
“It’s there in the first place because people clear out the saplings and dead wood, cut the weeds. If nobody walked here, the Yellow Sea would soon swallow up any evidence it was ever there. That’d leave the goushi in a real fix. When the time came, they’d have to start all over from square one carving out a safe route.”
Shushou nodded and glanced back over her shoulder, at the long column of people going on the Shouzan climbing the rising slope through the sea of trees.
“So this road was surveyed by the goushi.”
“What do you think, Shushou? Maybe you’ll grow up to be a guardian.”
“If becoming empress doesn’t work out, that wouldn’t be a bad idea either. I think a life on the road would agree with me. Which isn’t to say I find everything about the job appealing.”
“Like what?”
“The way goushi do things may be the way they’ve always done them, but I don’t always agree. Maybe they got abandoned by their families and that’s why they became koushu, but it wouldn’t hurt goushi and shushi to adjust their thinking about some things.”
“What a strange girl,” Kinhaku laughed.
Gankyuu sighed. “Quit spouting nonsense and pick up the pace.”
“And if I’m being totally serious?”
“Then quit thinking such serious nonsense. Try walking without making a fuss.”
About what? Shushou was about to counter, when the goushi at the head of the line called back to them.
“Hey!”
Shushou raised her head. A tree had fallen over at the crest of a steep slope, blocking the path.
The people and kijuu would move it out of the way. It was a scene Shushou was used to by now. She felt the inevitable spark of irritation at this obstacle to their progress, and regretted the burden placed upon the kijuu and horses. But at the same time, observing them hard at work lifted her spirits.
Gankyuu, along with Kinhaku and the goushi, ran up the tree. Behind them, several people noticed what was happening and hurried back down the hill, probably to inform Shitsu Kiwa. Gankyuu and the others gestured at the tree and pointed at forest on the left as they discussed the situation. Looking more closely, Shushou could make out a narrow path winding through the woods.
“What are they talking about?” Shushou mostly asked herself.
Rikou cocked his head to the side. “No idea.”
Gankyuu indicated the forest again, then looked up at the sky, his face clouded with concern. Shushou reflexively looked up as well. The sun was by now slanting toward the west. The time of day was closer to dusk than noon.
The ad hoc committee finally came to an agreement and Gankyuu returned.
“What’s the matter?” Shushou asked.
Gankyuu took the reins of the haku and started toward “We’re camping out here tonight.”
“But it’s still—” Shushou indicated the sky.
“The road ahead is impassable. We’ll have to detour through the forest. Except there isn’t a well-defined road. We’ll camp here and forge a path first thing in the morning.”
“Why? Can’t you remove that tree the same way as all the other ones?”
“There’s a youma up ahead. A big one.”
“Eh?”
“That tree was left there by previous goushi. It’s new. Probably this winter. Trees were felled from both the left and right.”
Taking another look, the path was indeed blocked on both sides, the trunks not shattered or uprooted but showing the handiwork of axes.
“That’s the sign of a youma we can’t handle, the kind of youma that should be avoided rather than confronted.”
Chapter 22
[3-6] “So the way ahead really is impassable.”
A flurry of activity erupted as a number of people, starting with Shitsu Kiwa, rushed forward. The koushu had already stepped away from the road and were setting up camp a little ways into the forest.
As usual, it was Kinhaku who nodded. “Don’t even try. That’s what those trees are saying. The kind of thing we’re not about to second guess.”
“But—”
“Then what are we supposed to do?” said Ren Chodai, stepping into the conversation. Shushou was a tad surprised to see Chodai asking a koushu for an opinion about anything.
“The signal left by our colleagues is clear. We’ll leave the road and detour through the forest.”
“How long will this take? How safe is it?”
“Safer than going straight. Maintaining a brisk pace, we should be through this part of the forest in a day. It’ll be rough going until we get back to the road. I expect they also left a sign telling us where the detour ends.”
“Any chance of us getting lost in all this wilderness?”
“I can’t say there isn’t. So we’ll take all the necessary preparations.”
“Meaning this youma or whatever is the kind of adversary that makes the risk worth it.”
“We don’t actually know what’s out there, except it’s enough of a threat that the road was blocked to keep us out of its territory.”
“I see.”
“There is one additional request I’d like to make.”
Chodai raised his brows. “What’s that?”
“Ask those traveling with your party to take cover in the forest too. Don’t light any fires tonight and especially don’t cook any fish or meat. Definitely don’t slaughter any fowl or sheep. If possible, eat stale rice and make as little sound as possible. Space yourselves out of earshot of each other. Even then, you can’t be too careful.”
Chodai didn’t look happy with these conditions but nodded. “I can’t promise anything but I’ll take it under advisement.” He tur
ned on his heels, walked back to the road and down the hill.
Watching him leave, Shitsu Kiwa sniffed before facing Kinhaku with a bright smile. “You goushi really came to the rescue there. Lying low and keeping things quiet tonight should stave off an attack?”
“There’s no guarantee.” Kinhaku answered bluntly. “Those trees were probably felled this winter and in a hurry. There’s no guarantee the youma in question hasn’t moved on in search of prey, or isn’t still in the vicinity and waiting ahead of us. Meaning tonight you’ll want to post guards and stay on your toes.”
Kiwa reacted with a brief but anxious expression before nodding gravely. “Forging a path through this forest won’t allow for a horse-drawn wagon.”
Kinhaku shook his head. “You could transfer everything to handcarts and have your people pushing and pulling. Better yet, abandon the wagon and carts and divide the packs among your retinue and horses. Hand out what you can’t carry to the rest of the company.”
“Y-you can’t be serious!”
“Did you really think you’d be able to drive that wagon all the way to Mt. Hou? The going will soon get much worse than this. Even if you kept to the road, you’d be shedding baggage before long.”
“But—”
“You’ll want to quietly start making satchels, slings, backpacks and the like. If you don’t have the material, tear up the tents and wagon covers. The most valuable things you’ll be carrying are water and food. And when you can’t carry all of that, water’s more important than food.”
“How much water?”
Kinhaku clucked to himself. “I wish I knew. We’re pretty much in the dark too. I can’t say how long the detour will take us or where we’ll end up. But run out of water and you might as well start digging your own grave.”
“What about sending out scouts?”
“If you think it’d help, don’t let me stop you. But that’s not something we do.”
Kiwa trudged away in befuddled silence. Kinhaku and the goushi turned to their employers. They were joined by Shushou, Gankyuu and Rikou. “The situation ahead is as I said it was. We don’t know how things will turn out after this. I’m sorry, but for the next while you’ll have to bear up with whatever hardships come our way.”
Kinhaku’s employer, a kindly old man, silently nodded, evidence of his unshakable trust in him. Others expressed their reservations more vocally, but reassurances by their goushi seemed to qualm their fears and bring them into accord.
Of course, Shushou thought to herself. That was the difference between Kiwa and them, between the employer and employee. A goushi’s employer started out with the belief he couldn’t cross the Yellow Sea by himself. So he sought out a man he could entrust his life to and brought him along. It followed that every step along the way he would continue to trust the word of the man who held his life in his hands.
Shushou said quietly to Gankyuu, “No sense in putting yourself out for somebody who doesn’t already trust you. Is that it?”
“What?”
“The reason you’re so cool to the concerns of others. It’s tough going out of your way for people who don’t trust you in the first place.”
Shushou believed that Kinhaku was a fundamentally good person at heart. And though there was plenty to dislike about Gankyuu, she couldn’t consider him a hateful person. He’d brought Shushou this far in the Yellow Sea and looked after her like an overprotective parent. What she simply couldn’t abide was this need to remain coldly indifferent to everybody else.
She savored a small feeling of satisfaction, sure she’d chanced upon the key to his personality.
But Gankyuu’s response was anything but complimentary. “What kind of a fool are you?”
This time, it was Shushou’s turn to stand there in open-mouth surprise. “What do you mean by that?” she fumed.
Sparing her only an exasperated expression, Gankyuu strode over to Kinhaku to further discuss the particulars of this or that.
“And after coming up with an explanation that gave him every benefit of the doubt,” Shushou sulked.
Rikou tapped her on the shoulder and said with that distracted smile that never left his face, “C’mon. Sit down. Now’s not the time to be throwing sand in the gears. We’re the dead weight in a place like this.”
“But I’m right, aren’t I?”
Rikou smiled. “While laudable, your thoughts about the goushi that led you to that answer are meaningless here.”
“Why do you say that?”
“You’re a smart kid, Shushou. For whatever reason, you have a high opinion of Gankyuu. Therefore you wish to believe he’s a good person at heart. Am I wrong?”
Shushou nodded reluctantly. She sat down dejectedly next to Seisai and leaned back against his by now filthy-looking coat. “There could be something to that.”
“But I’m pretty sure what you consider a good person and what Gankyuu considers a good person are not at all the same. Gankyuu has his own expectations and logic. Whatever conclusions you come to based on your expectations and logic are besides the point.”
“I don’t understand what you’re getting at.”
“You like kijuu, don’t you?”
“Yeah, I do.”
“So you’d like to be a wrangler or a shushi. Becoming one of the koushu no tami appeals to you.”
“To tell the truth, it does.”
“Thought so.” Rikou nodded and grinned. “But do you comprehend what being a koushu is all about?”
Shushou looked up at Rikou. “What what is all about?”
Behind her, Gankyuu sighed. “On that subject, even a man who freely buys and trades suugu is unlikely to have opinion worth listening to.”
“That’s harsh.”
“And true. I can’t imagine that a man who wears silk while riding a suugu into the Yellow Sea is going to know a damned bit more about the koushu.”
“I wouldn’t say you were wrong.”
Shushou took in Rikou’s wry smile and Gankyuu sullen expression and clenched her hands. “So you’re saying there is no way I could possibly understand?”
Gankyuu bobbed his head as if this were the most obvious thing in all the world. “You’ve never been a refugee or itinerant, have you?”
“No. And you’d have to be a fool not to know the answer to that question.”
Gankyuu smiled at the pale, shaking girl. “I also know how bright you are.”
“That’s right.” Shushou said with unmasked pride, “I am Banko’s daughter. I just wasn’t the first in my class, I was the smartest in the whole school. I’m not the one with the comprehension problem. It’s you.”
“Anybody who would say something like that will never understand the life of the koushu.”
“What I don’t understand is why you’ve never tried to be a better or smarter person than a dog’s tail.”
“A what?” Leaning back against the trunk of a tree, Gankyuu reflexively straightened.
Shushou got to her feet and observed him coolly. “The sixty-five ryou I gave you is yours to keep. Thanks for all you’ve done up till now. And goodbye.”
Chapter 23
[3-7] “Hello there, Miss.”
Ren Chodai glanced over his shoulder at Shushou. He and several of his party were sitting in a circle beneath a tree. They were clearly in a churlish mood.
“Was there something you wished to discuss?”
Shushou said, “I came to ask you for a favor.”
“What’s that?”
“I’ve had enough of shushi. I was wondering if you could hire me, doing chores and whatever.”
Chodai blinked several times. “Hire you?”
“Yes. You’ve seen enough of me to know that I’m in good physical condition. There’s nothing wrong with my legs. I can put in a full day’s work. What do you say? I don’t care how menial the tasks are.”
Chodai exchanged looks with the men gathered there then gestured to her. “Nothing personal, see, but I think it best you go
back to the shushi.”
“I think not. I can’t abide the way shushi and goushi do things.”
“The way they do things?”
“That’s right. I’m not going into specifics. Frankly, I don’t even want to think about it.”
Chodai thin face clouded over. “Miss—Shushou, was it?—if you insisted, I would have no problem treating you as a guest. Unfortunately, as you have pointed out yourself, I am a novice when it comes to the Yellow Sea.”
“No matter how much a person knows about the Yellow Sea, if that knowledge is in the service of a twisted heart, then it doesn’t mean a thing.”
“A twisted heart.”
Shushou stared at the ground, her hands still clenched in anger. “Koushu are itinerants. It’s a tough life, I know, without a family or emperor to protect them.” She raised her gaze. “But it’s not like I don’t have any idea how tough life can be. It’s tough living without an emperor. It’s tough having youma coming out of the woodwork. Why else would all these people put their lives on the line to travel to Mt. Hou?”
Chodai quietly looked back at her.
“Yes, itinerants and refugees have a hard life. Supposedly it’s not possible for people like you and me to understand what that’s like. If that was true, nobody would ever venture into the Yellow Sea. It’s the koushu who don’t get it. It’s obvious to anybody who gives it a few minutes of thought that the koushu got dealt a bad hand in life. But that’s no excuse to beweep their outcast state, curse their fate, and envy those better off than them. And then when they’re in a place they know like the backs of their hands, lord it over everybody else.”
“Shushou—?”
“No matter how familiar they may be with the Yellow Sea, if they’re going to use that knowledge as some sort of retribution, they’d be better off as ignorant as the rest of us. That’s all I’m going to say. I am indebted to them for bringing me this far.”
“I see,” Chodai said with a thoughtful nod.
“I just don’t want to be around them right now. At any rate, Ren-san, you’re going to keep following the road, aren’t you?”
