Mori versus the Oni Part 2 - Chapter 1
Fresh Winds Bring Rotten Words
Next Chapter | Part 1 - Chapter 1
Mori wandered from merchant stall to merchant stall down the main street of Niocho Nio. The town was unrecognisable from his last visit, when in the dead of night he and Sadatsugu had snuck through the town invested with oni; demons. Then the town had been home to nothing but the demonic, mud, and chaos. But now Niocho Nio hummed with activity. The people had returned to the towns and villages after the death of Lord Kagawa and the sealing of the gate the Oni had used to cross from their realm into the human realm. The oni left behind either perished or were hunted down. Mori had left that unforgiving task to the warrior monks of Unpen Temple and others dotted over the small island. He folded his arms inside his dark kimono and inspected a stall of small statues carved from wood. A kneeling woman caught his eye, her hands pressed to her face and covering her eyes.
‘You like?’ The merchant said. Mori barely heard the merchant over the din of the street. The merchant’s eyebrows rose and a thin smile grew under his moustache.
‘Mori, over here. They have sweet dumplings,’ Ano said pulling on Mori’s sleeve. A man and his wife hurried by carrying a basket of radishes and satsumas.
‘Another time,’ Mori smiled to the merchant and turned to his youngest sibling. ‘I gave you money.’ Townsfolk thrummed up and down the street buying their daily necessities and more.
‘I know but I wanted to know if you wanted one,’ Ano said. She clasped her hands and swayed side to side.
‘I do. Ask Kota too,’ Mori said.
Ano nodded with a grin and dashed off into the crowd, disappearing amongst the far taller townsfolk. A geisha floated through the street, her porcelain face gently smirking at a man as he bartered. The man coughed and sealed the deal then and there. Then the geisha turned her eyes on the merchant and winked. She curtsied with a delicate tip of her head and lift of her flowered hikizuri. The geisha continued on through the middle of the street. Dozens of eyes, men and women, followed her and a few men trailed her to wherever she was going. Mori followed the smell of the sweet dumplings through the crowded street towards Ano. He wondered where Kota had got to. His brother, no longer a boy, had been presented with his own sword by Enki at Unpen Temple not a moon before. A simple but powerful honour for slaying an oni that had found itself in the foothills around the temple. Strong blessings had trapped the demon but Kota was no less a hero for slaying it with Mori’s wakizashi when he did. Mori ran a finger along the hilt of his wakizashi and then his uchigatana.
‘Mori!’ Ano’s voice pierced through the hum of Niocho Nio.
Mori found his sister and brother next to the dumpling cart holding skewers with three dumplings covered in honey on each. Ano held one out to Mori. Honey dripped down her chin. Mori accepted the sweet treat and thanked the trader. He bit into the spongey delicacy and hmm’d with delight.
‘I heard they had problems back in Osaka,’ the dumpling merchant said to the rice seller in the next stall.
‘Problems? What like?’ The rice seller said.
‘Bandits. Rough sorts. Not just stealing but killing and worse.’
‘In Osaka?’ The rice seller laughed. ‘Not a chance. The Shogun’s own defend the port.’
The dumpling maker held his hands up, ‘I only tell you what I heard from that ships captain that arrived this morning.’
Mori licked his lips of honey and leaned over to the dumpling seller. The man was thin with a pointed chin and wispy beard. ‘Which captain?’ He rubbed the character, 人, on his hand. An itch raced up his arm following the tracks of the swirling pattern etched into his skin.
‘He was down by the harbour. Big man, completely bald. You can’t miss him.’
‘Thanks for the treat,’ Mori said tossing the stick into a bucket beside the cart. ‘Come on,’ he said to Ano and Kota still munching on their treats. Kota’s sword sat high in the himo around his waist, the end of the scabbard close to his ankles. Mori reminded himself to make Kota eat more. The trio slowly made their way to the harbour side. Men haggled with sake makers while women bartered with farmers. Children, younger than Kota and Ano, played games of chase amongst the legs of their parents, neighbours, and strangers. A boy darted between Kota and Ano, a medallion in his hand, he slipped between Mori and another in a blur before a man shouted to for someone to stop the thief. Mori turned to find a grizzled man with snub nose and bushy eyebrows meet his gaze. The boy with the medallion nowhere to be seen.
As the dumpling man had promised the captain was easy to spot. Towering over the people around him and bald as an egg the captain barked orders to his crew emptying and filling his ship with a practiced rhythm. Water lapped the walls of the harbour. Long, sleek ships sat moored while their sailors drank their wages and captains sold their wares. Kenji’s ferry sat at the far end gathering passengers for the trip out to the islands and on to the mainland. ‘Wait here,’ Mori told his brother and sister. Kota nodded with a seriousness ill-fitting his age.
Mori marched through the sailors lugging crates and barrels across the harbour side. He side stepped a large, topless rower, dripping with sweat and carrying a handful of coins. Mori guessed he was headed for the sake den, or the geisha house which would double as a sake den if he had enough money. He approached the giant of a captain, ‘Welcome to Niocho Nio,’ Mori said with a smile.
The captain paused and peered down at Mori with a round face and rounder eyes. His chest was barrel shaped and his arms thick and knotted with muscle. Dragon tattoos coiled both his arms. He grunted his response and whistled to a crewmate. He yelled an order over Mori’s head.
‘I heard you have news from Osaka. Something about bandits?’ Mori said.
‘You wanna fight ‘em?’ The captain said.
‘I want to hear about them first.’
The captain snorted. ‘Grimy fellas that come down from the hills. Rusted weapons, poor armour. Don’t talk much. Grunt. Snarl. Gnash their teeth and get to killin’,’ the captain shrugged. ‘Bandits.’
‘Any kidnapping? Thieving? Ransoms?’
‘Nah, driven by bloodlust is all,’ the captain scratched his prodigious belly. A wide, curved blade hung from his belt. ‘Look you wanna fight ‘em passage is couple gold or work on the ship. Bringing stuff or other men. That’s extra.’
‘Straight to it. I like that. Only me. I’ll work. Name’s Mori.’
The captain grunted. ‘Sada. We leave first light tomorrow.’
Mori nodded to Sada as his mind raced on how to return Ano and Kota to Unpen Temple and then get back to Niocho Nio all before first light. He couldn’t sleep, that was for certain. He could manage a meal in that time. Maybe. He returned to his siblings sitting on the edge of the harbour watching the ships bob in the water while sailors unloaded cargo and searched for the nearest sake den. ‘We need to go back to Unpen.’
‘Why?’ Ano said staring at a woman in an orange and blue silk kimono. She twirled on the deck of a ship while half a dozen samurai watched and drank. Her sleeves glided through the air like autumn leaves.
‘I’m going to Osaka. Trouble is brewing.’
‘Oni trouble?’ Kota said leaping to his feet and resting a hand on the hilt of his uchigatana. ‘I’m coming with you.’
‘You have to protect our sister.’
‘Enki and the others can do that,’ Kota said.
‘You’re too young,’ Mori said. Too small, Mori thought.
‘I’ve killed a demon,’ Kota said with a clenched jaw. Mori glanced around to make sure no one had heard.
‘One is different to dozens, hundreds, all at once. Keep your voice down,’ Mori said. The last thing he wanted was a following of townsfolk prodding him with questions or mishearing and spreading panic.
‘I don’t want to be left alone,’ Ano’s small voice reached up to her brothers.
Mori looked down at his sister and smiled sadly. He furrowed his brow, ‘You won’t be alone. Yuna and Rei will be there.’
‘No. They won’t. Yuna said her sister is taking her back to their home to salvage what’s left and rebuild,’ Ano said. She bounced her heels off the stone of the harbour.
‘Naomi—,’ Mori said.
‘Already left. Didn’t you know?’ Ano scrunched up her nose. ‘You’re never there anyway,’ she sighed.
Mori opened his mouth but there was nothing he could say. Busy with clearing the island he’d forgotten his siblings when no one else was there to care for them. He cursed up at the sky, ‘Fine you can both come. We sail for Osaka at sunrise. We’ll stay in the town tonight,’ he knelt down and turned Ano’s face to his. ‘You need to stay at Kota’s side at all times. Got it?’
Ano nodded.
‘All times.’
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