Yawn
Fumiya looked up at the ceiling as he slowly awoke, the searing pain from the mark was gone, as it only appeared once a day at random times.
After awakening he woke up old man watari and the two drank some green tea while chatting.
"So where are you headed Fumiya?"
"Ill be going to sendai Mr watari, I know of a great itako that lives there. I'm hoping she knows how to help me with my curse"
Fumiya reached out and touched the left side of his chest where the mark was curled up. It was like a snake with the tail coiled around the navel while upper half of the snake layed on the chest. It had two slit eyes and a leaf on its head. There were leafs sprouting from the snakes mouth
Ive never seen anything like it. Old man watari thought as he stared at the mark
"The itako's name is Ako" Fumiya was about to continue until the old man spoke again.
"An Itako in sendai? They usually practice in more rural areas right?"
I find that odd too... could she be a- no... no way!
Fumiya thought for a moment but couldn't really come up with a concrete answer to the question. Itako were socially marginalised and not officially recognised. So they were focused on helping the community.
"Well, maybe she's a special case. Anyway im only going to ask her for some divination since im not that great in that field."
After finishing his tea and chatting a bit with the old man Fumiya finally got dressed and packed his things.
He wore waraji shoes, a black kimono, a obi and a kinchaku. The kinchaku was tied to the obi and used to carry Fumiya's stuff.
Inside her had a bottle of salt, mugwort, sakaki leaves, garlic, onions and a few talismans.
After checking to make sure all his things are there he went to old man watari to give his final goodbyes.
"Already leaving huh? You've only been in our village for 4 days. You sure you don't want to stay?"
Fumiya smiled faintly and shook his head. His long black hair was fluttering in his wind.
And his right eye was slowly turning grey.
"I'm sure i don't want to stay. Perhaps ill come back though one day, when I do ill make sure to bring back a gift with me"
"If you happen to end up in southern okinawa, if, would you pick up a Sakishima Tsutsuji flower? It was my wife's favourite flower"
He did tell me he was born in Ryukyu(okinawa) when it was a puppet state. During that time it was a major trade hub and that's how watari met his wife, a Korean woman. Japan used ryukyu as a backdoor access Chinese goods, since the shogun limited foreign trade. After the 1609 invasion ryukyu no longer had access to a large army and weapons were restricted. Old man Watari lived with his father and mother, Mr Endo Raizō and Mrs Endo Chiya. They were all merchants trying to sell spices, Watari ended up meeting his future wife, Hwang Ji-yoo. The two fell in love but old man Watari's father ended up killing some competition he had out of pure jealousy and making the family land in a tight spot. They had to move out to the yamagata province soon after that scandal.
And while in yamagata his wife ended up contracting a disease and passing away at the age of 54, they had no children together but they loved eachother deeply, old man Watari has been left alone ever since.
"Ill keep an eye out for you"
Turning around Fumiya began walking east to sendai's direction.
Japan was relatively peaceful under the watch of Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, the current shogun also known as the dog shogun because of his animal protection laws.
After about 3 hours of walking Fumiya's feet were tired, but luckily he was already standing infront of a village, it was quiet and looked to be pretty peaceful.
It was almost summer, flowers were blooming and trees looked more vibrant than ever. There were some houses that had three floors and there was a giant rice field on the left side of the village. As Fumiya entered the rice fields he was greeted by a bald man with a head so bald the light was bouncing off it. He had a wide smile on his face as he glanced at the flooded rice paddie.
"Oh its just perfect! I mean perfect! I must simply thank the gods for this!"
He chuckled and then waved at Fumiya
"A visitor? We barely get those! Welcome to Aokura village! The best in Yamagata!"
He seems extremely positive, and like a nice person.
The man had wrinkles on the side of his slit eyes, and he was wearing a black kimono
"I'm Adachi Fumiya... may I ask for your name?"
"Hada Makoto! Son of Hada Anji! Nice to meet you friend!"
He's too happy...
"You wouldn't mind showing me around the village now would you?"
"Of course not friend." Makoto accepted the request with glee and led Fumiya along the dirt road towards the village. The houses had straw roofs and sliding shoji doors. It was more lively than Mizukane village for sure. There were more people outside too, two old men sat by the engawa veranda playing shogi while another woman walked around selling herbs.
Fumiya's attention was instantly attracted towards a little girl sitting by the door hugging her knees, her cheeks were a bit shallow.
Makoto's smile faltered a bit but it wasn't caught by Fumiya
Is she starving? But that house definitely has a rice farm, or maybe its something else...
"And that right there is our inari shrine!" Makoto exclaimed with pride as the two of them walked under the torii gates and came across a clean shrine that was clearly taken care off.
Very nice... ill give them that.
"Makoto! Yamato died!" A short haired man with brown eyes ran to makoto, his pace was steady though and he didn't raise his voice too high
"Yamato? How?" Makoto asked with a shocked expression
"He died from starving to death!"