This fanfic takes me very long to write due to building the world from scartch. Due to that I will be uplaoding every second day. Hope you understand.
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They spent the rest of that day together.
All three of them, in their small house, with the afternoon light coming through the windows and the sound of the stream just audible.
Juzo didn't go anywhere. Didn't check on supplies, didn't visit the village elder, and didn't do any of the hundreds of small tasks he normally had. He just enjoyed the moment with his family.
They prepared dinner together.
All three of them crowded into a kitchen that was barely big enough for two adults, let alone two adults and a three-year-old who insisted on helping with everything, but was making a mess out of everything.
Kiriko's job was simple. Stirring the pot. She stood on a small wooden stool, both hands gripping the ladle, stirring with intense focus.
A simple thing to do, right? Not if your name was Kiriko, who kept trying to taste the broth and, in that process, kept burning her tongue.
"Kiriko, it's hot."
"I know."
"Then why did you just--"
"I was checking."
"You checked three times."
"It needs a lot of checking."
Juzo, looking at his daughter and wife banter, giggled in silence.
***
After the food was done, they ate together.
The menu? Steamed rice, miso soup with mushrooms, grilled river fish that Suzune had prepared that morning, along with pickled vegetables from the garden.
Kiriko sat between her parents, eating as if the food would disappear if she did not eat it fast enough. Her cheeks were stuffed lika a rat.
They talked about nothing important. Juzo described the towns he'd passed through. The bridge that was being repaired on the eastern road. The merchant who'd tried to sell him a "magical" tea that supposedly cured everything from headaches to bad luck. Suzune told him about the leak in the roof that old man Takeshi had helped patch. About Kiriko's ongoing rivalry with Kiro in their daily games of tag.
Normal daily things.
After dinner, Kiriko's energy finally ran out. It happened the way it always did with children. One moment, she was chattering about the kanzashi and how she was going to show all her friends tomorrow, and the next moment her eyes were drooping, and her head was slowly tilting sideways.
Juzo caught her before she could fall into her empty rice bowl.
"And she's out," he whispered.
Suzune smiled. "You want to carry her?"
"As if you have to tell me."
He scooped her up softly as she curled into him instinctively, one hand finding his collar, the other clutching the kanzashi she'd refused to put down since he'd given it to her. Even in sleep, her fingers held it tight.
They laid out the futons side by side. One large one for the adults and the small one for Kiriko, positioned right between them, because she would wake up in the middle of the night and move there anyway, so there was no point pretending otherwise.
Juzo set her down gently and pulled the blanket up to her chin. Tucked the edges around her small body the way he always did, the way his own mother had done for him when he was small.
Kiriko murmured something like 'daddy' in her sleep.
Juzo brushed the hair from her forehead and softly kissed it.
Then he lay down on one side, and Suzune lay down on the other.
***
Next morning, the Roosters did their normal routine of screaming their lungs out to wake the village up.
Smoke began to rise from kitchen fires. The village slowly woke up and began another day.
That was the comfort of a place like this. The clam of the village. The certainty that tomorrow would look like today, and today looked like yesterday, and the rhythm would continue unbroken for as long as the mountains stood.
By mid-morning, the village center was full.
Juzo stood beside his travelling pack, which he'd dragged to the middle of the crowd. This was the part of his return that the village waited for almost as much as his family did.
Because Juzo was the village trader.
Every month, he left the village and made the long trek to the nearest towns and cities. Sometimes further, depending on what was needed. His pack was stuffed with the things the village couldn't produce on its own.
Things like medicine from the apothecary down south. Metal tools, nails, blades, and needles, from the blacksmith. Fabric that the village women couldn't weave themselves, salt, lamp oil, and News.
That last one mattered more than most people realized. The village was isolated. Tucked away in its valley, shielded by mountains on three sides and dense forest on the fourth. What happened in the rest of Japan reached them through Juzo's words and through nothing else.
Like always, the village gathered around him.
Juzo clapped his hands once. "All right, everyone. The goods are here."
"When I call your name, step forward, and I'll hand over your order. Same as always. Nice and organized, no shoving. I'm looking at you, Genta."
A stocky man near the back raised his hands. "That was one time."
"It was three times."
"The first two don't count."
The crowd laughed at the small exchange.
Juzo grinned and began.
"Takeshi-san."
The old man who'd helped patch Suzune's roof shuffled forward. Juzo handed him a wrapped bundle of herbal medicine and a small jar of salve for his joints.
"Ume-san."
A middle-aged woman stepped up. Juzo handed her fabric, which was Indigo-dyed. She ran her fingers over it and nodded with satisfaction.
"Genta."
The stocky man shouldered through the crowd to collect his order. A new axe head for chopping wood. He tested the weight in his hand and gave an approving nod to Juzo.
One by one, Juzo called the names. One by one, the villagers stepped forward, collected their goods, bowed or nodded or said their thanks, and stepped aside.
The items were widely different. Sacks of salt, bundles of rope, a set of sewing needles wrapped in cloth, a jar of ink for the elder's records, medicine for the young mother whose baby had been coughing, and a whetstone for the fisherman's knife.
Small things, but essential. These things kept a village alive and functioning.
After the last adult had collected their goods, Juzo folded the cloth and dusted off his hands.
That was when the children's gang stepped forward.
They'd been waiting the entire time. After the adults were done, they surrounded Juzo.
Kiriko stood at the front, leading the group.
Juzo looked at them as he sighed and put on a face of deep regret.
"Sorry, kids. Nothing this time."
The kids went wild.
"NOOOOO!"
"But Juzo-san!"
"You ALWAYS bring something!"
"LIAR!"
"I've been good ALL MONTH! Do you know who hard it was?"
Kiro looked like he'd been personally betrayed by his closest ally. One of the younger boys had already started tearing up. A girl was glaring at Juzo, as if ready to knife him when he was not looking.
Juzo turned away from them.
And giggled silently.
That was the plan all along. Unfortunately for him, his daughter was used to his antics.
Kiriko saw it as she narrowed her eyes.
She walked up to him and kicked her father's shin hard.
Thwack.
"Ow!"
Juzo hopped on one foot, grabbing his shin. "What was--"
"Stop teasing them, Daddy."
"I was jus-"
"Stop."
Juzo looked at his daughter and sighed in defeat.
"Got it, hime-sama."
He reached into the pack behind him and pulled out a small cloth bag. The moment it appeared, the children's eyes perked up. The sniffling stopped, so did the glaring.
Juzo loosened the drawstring and tilted the bag so they could see inside.
Candy.
A luxury in a village like this. Something most of these children had tasted rarely.
The clearing erupted.
"CANDY!"
"LINE UP!" Kiriko commanded, already positioning herself at the front.
The children quickly got into the line, ready for the elixir of life they called candy. Juzo crouched down and began distributing five pieces each.
Some of the children shoved all five pieces into their mouths at once, enjoying the sweetness.
Others held theirs carefully, eating one and tucking the rest into their sleeves, rationing their treasure for the days ahead.
Kiriko saved her, as she only ate one piece. Then, she wrapped the other four in the cloth from her kanzashi and tucked them in.
Smart girl, Juzo thought, watching her. Gets that from her mother.
The adults watched the scene with warm smiles. One of the older women, Ume-san, walked up to Juzo and patted his arm.
"You don't have to do that every time, Juzo. The candy isn't cheap."
Suzune appeared beside him, slipping her arm through his. "Don't say that. He'll get sad."
Juzo said nothing. But his ears turned slightly red.
The other adults laughed.
Suzune leaned into him. "He has a soft spot for kids."'
Juzo scratched the back of his head with a sheepish expression. He looked at the children, now scattered across the clearing, some trading candies, some arguing about who got the biggest pieces, some simply sitting in the dirt and enjoying the sweetness.
"Kids deserve all the love in this world. The more love we give them now, the more love they'll know how to give when they grow up."
The laughter around them softened. As a few of the older villagers looked at each other and nodded.
Suzune squeezed his arm. "That's very thoughtful of you."
Juzo opened his mouth to respond.
"Ew."
Kiriko said, pointing her finger at her parents.
"Ew ew ew."
The crowd exploded with laughter.
Juzo and Suzune turned red.
"Kiriko-"
"EWW!!"
More laughter, nothing more entertaining than a daughter making fun of her parents.
For a moment, the village was full of warm laughter.
And then the sound stopped as an arrow came from the tree line.
It tore through the air, and it hit Genta in the chest.
The impact made a disgusting squealing sound.
Genta, who had been standing beside Juzo with his new axe head still in his hand, looked down.
The shaft of the arrow protruded from his chest.
He stared at it.
His mouth opened to say something. Not out of pain, not yet, but out of confusion. This was not supposed to happen.
"What…?"
The axe head slipped from his fingers and hit the ground, as his knees buckled.
He fell.
The laughter immediately died. For one long second, nobody moved.
Forty people stood in the middle of the village, frozen, staring at the dead man on the ground, with blood pooling around him.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!"
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Well....... You saw that coming.... Some people just want see the world burn.... Sadly, I am one of them.. like my goat Gege👀👀