Teruro pushed off of the Portuguese ship and started to navigate the small fishing boat through the moonlit bodies.
“You don’t have to go around the bodies, you know.” Takeko said, “They aren’t really there.”
“Eh? Hmm… Is that so?” Teruro tried to poke one of the pale bodies with the oar and watched the image ripple the way a reflection on the surface would.
“You know, Takeko, I have some questions for you…” he said as he sculled.
“Yes?”
“Why don’t you start by telling me what happened on the ship?”
Takeko shrugged, “Nothing much, a guy with a crooked club tried to bash my head in, but I kinda hit him first.”
“Kinda?”
“Yeah, my blow passed through his face. He wasn’t really there. Then, he ran away through the side of the boat, onto the water, and vanished.”
“…” Teruro looked pensive.
Drifting clouds dampened the moonlight and the ghostly image of the bodies faded from view.
“I understand that your master was cast out from his order for being more devout as a follower of the way of the blade than that of Buddha. Clearly he has trained you in way of true battle.”
Takeko nodded and shrugged.
“But why is it that nothing seems to faze you?”
Takeko sighed, “I guess I was going to have to tell you sooner or later. As you know, I have visions… I experience those visions from the point of view of a person in my vision. Everything they feel, see or hear, and, to some extent, think- I experience as well. But the real kicker is that while, to the world, my visions last anything from a few seconds to up to thirty minutes, their duration is unrelated to how much time I experience within it.”
“Eh? So then…”
“Yes, By the time I was twelve I had already experienced several lifetimes worth of visions. The highs of human achievements, the low of human weakness, and a great amount of everyday human activity. But then I figured out how to control it and only had visions when I chose to…”
“How did you get control over it?”
Takeko looked at Teruro, as if gauging his soul, and shrugged as she decided to trust him… “The secret is in my hair… When people look into my hair, they see truths about themselves. Sometimes people don’t want to hear the truth about themselves. When I look into it, I have visions…”
“So the cloth in that box you carry is woven from your hair… And that’s why you keep your head shaven.”
Takeko nodded.
Teruro frowned, “Hmm… Well, I guess that leaves me with just one question.”
“Ok…What is it?” Takeko said guardedly.
“We’ve been traveling together for a few day now. How is it that your pack seems three times bigger now than when we left?”
“Oh, I just I picked some stuff up along the way…”
“Stuff?”
“Yes… Well… When we stopped at that teahouse I got some rice, some dried fish, a pot of miso, and another of umeboshi… I picked up some chestnuts in that forest we walked through… in the galley of the ship I got…”
“Ok, ok I get the picture…”
“Hey look we’re coming to shore… I smell food!”
 |
| Sanma |
“You again.” Teruro said tersely as he leapt off of the boat and started pulling it onto the beach.
“Oh hi, it’s you! Do you have enough for us too?” Takeko enthused.
The muscular young man blinked in surprise and then chucked softly.
“As a matter of fact, I have! Right this way miss. My name is Ingen by the way.”
“I have a pot of Shijimijiru* going and there are a half-dozen Sanma** roasting next to the fire.”
 |
| Shijimijiru |
“Hmm… You were clearly expecting us. How long have you been here?” Teruro asked.
“I’ve been here for two days, I came straight here from the tavern where we first met.”
“Ha. I told you going through mountains would take longer!” Takeko exclaimed triumphantly.
“Apparently so… But that’s not important. What I’d like to know is, who are you? Why did you come here? What do you want?”
The young man shrugged dismissively, “I’m Ingen.” After a dramatic pause, he went on to conclude, “And I’m going to kill the man you are after.”
“Hey guys, since you aren’t eating your fish… Can I have them?” Takeko asked, pointing at the four remaining fish with the bones of two she had eaten.*Shijimijiru = Miso soup with clams
**Sanma = Pike Mackerel
Takeko has her priorities straight. Eat before figuring out anything else.
ReplyDeleteI like that the cloth is woven from her hair. But Teruro didn't see anything when he had looked at the cloth, did he? If so, I wonder why. I'll have to go back and check.
There's a BlogFeast on my sidebar. You should enter since food plays such an important role in your writing.
I guess having several lifetimes worth of experience helped get her priorities straight. : j
ReplyDeleteAnd no, Teruro did not. And there's a very good reason for that too!
I've noticed the blog feast... I've been weighing pros and cons about it. Thanks for the heads up though. : j
NOW I'm hungry
ReplyDeleteHeya Lulu, next thing you know you'll be having visions... Or is that more visions? : j
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to find out why Teruro did not.
ReplyDeleteI'm trying to decide which excerpt to use for the blogfeast. I'm considering three pieces.
Is it that hard a choice? : j
ReplyDeleteTakeko definitely has her priorities straight. A great installment, but I'm slightly ashamed to say that my favourite bits were the photos.
ReplyDeleteAlesa, it's CRUEL! Every time I read one of your posts with food photos, YOU MAKE ME HUNGRY. I'm now staring at the baked potato I've just taken out of the oven, and sadly, it is a disappointment. I want Japanese food.
:-)
If ever you and Steve come to Paris, I'll cook you a Japanese meal. : j
ReplyDeleteTo tell you the truth, the food was the most interesting part for me too... Do you ever get the feeling when you write that you're just endlessly rehashing events that have already occurred? Writing is too slow. : j
Definitely going to take you up on that! This is, of course, assuming I ever make it to Paris, which I am dying to do!
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, that happens to me all the time. I hate having to rehash things, but it can't be helped. Most readers understand it, though :-)
Well, theoretically, it's the first time for the readers. : j
ReplyDeleteGiven what Takeko said people see in that piece of cloth, the reason why Teruro failed to have any vision seems clear to me... ;)
ReplyDeleteAs for the heavy use of food in the narration, I definitely understand how one might see it as cruelty but I personally love it, as hungry is my normal state anyway: those scrumptious images therefore just provide me more sweet material to daydream about.
Funnily enough, letting my imagination browse about around the virtual buffet of my coveted delicacies is probably the closest thing I ever got from having a vision: the images thus generated are sometimes so vivid I can physically smell whatever is cooking in my mind at the time...
The first few times this kind of olfactive hallucination happened to me, I found it really odd that someone in my vicinity be cooking the very food I was thinking of, at the very moment I was thinking of it. Then I eventually figured out those sweet scents existed nowhere save in my own deluded mind...
Still, a rather pleasant way to experience the illusory nature of the senses, I'd say.
Thanks, Alesa. ;)
Hey Shi Ronglang, nice to see you on the blog. ; j
ReplyDeleteMaybe I should post your translation up too... What do you think?
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I thought so too, but you got to keep in mind that the people who are following the story have been getting it piecemeal over a significant amount of time. Or maybe it's because of our common interest that it seems so obvious to us. We'll see.
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Ha, thanks for sharing that anecdote! Foodie magic. I remember your relationship to food when we first met. It's cool how we keep growing and changing. : D
While you're on hiatus, please visit my blog. You won an award!
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