Winning Vote Above
Your day might be a little busy this time, but you still make an early stop at the local shop. This time, you're here to get yourself a proper map of Suginami and pick up some deep fried tofu, for the offering. And thank her for the help a couple of days back, if the same store clerk is in.
The Seven Eleven is almost empty, in the early hours of the weekend. You're not the first customer, but just about. The clerk is in too, and you exchange a pleasant, polite greeting before heading into the store proper.
You let yourself browse a little longer in the prints section, after quickly finding a small foldable map of the whole Tokyo. It's not as detailed as you hoped for, but it's workable for its size.
Your eyes linger on a specific magazine section.
It's a martial arts periodical stand. You let out a surprised huff of air, and almost instinctively, you rub at your eyes, because it feels a little surreal. You know there couldn't have been one such as this in the other life, and Nodoka never really paid much attention to the periodicals before. Then, braced for anything, you look again. Right in front of your face - Martial Arts Figure Skating Weekly
, featuring an interview with Azusa Shiratori.
It's still there. A small section, but a separate and marked section, nevertheless.
There's a thick booklet about the recent Tokyo chess boxing competition between high schools - you're almost sure that such a thing has never existed in your other life.
Nerima's Furinkan High defends the trophy for a second year in a row, a small byline claims.
Could it be… about Ranma? You don't remember any story that included martial arts chess, but it sounds exactly like something Ranma might have gotten involved in.
A quarterly magazine for martial arts rhythmic gymnastics, promising photos of the up and coming Hokkaido University as they prepare for an international competition with Korea. You remember Taiga mentioning he was training a Hokkaido team during your small talk,
could it be the same one?
You browse a little longer, finding not a single periodical for martial arts blacksmithing, but learning of the existence of a handful of improbably sounding martial arts. Surprisingly, barely any coverage of… regular martial arts. It's as if the regular martial arts aren't made into a publicized spectacle or are considered not newsworthy, unlike all of the other exotic ones.
You end up picking up a couple of the magazines, to maybe catch a glimpse of Ranma - there's a high chance they're mentioned in there… somewhere. You've got a handful of conflicting memories, so you're unsure which competitions Ranma could have participated in and which they couldn't have been near to at all.
The girl at the till smiles at you and gives a short, evaluating look at your purchases.
"Thank you for all your help the other day," you say as her gaze turns back onto you. "I was a little… lost and you helped me with an important first step." You bow to her.
She chuckles, a little awkwardly, but then repeats the gesture right back. "Glad to have helped."
You find yourself a little stuck between the expected distant politeness and a wish for a human connection, which becomes a complete inability to just outright say what you've been thinking.
Thankfully, she does initiate some small talk herself. "Martial arts?" she asks, absently adjusting her long dark hair. "I knew that had to be a sword you're carrying!"
"It is," you admit, a little taken aback by the sudden spike of excitement in her voice. "How…"
"Oh, just a guess. I really wanted to be a wandering martial artist when I was little!" she overshares with excitement. "Do you get into fights offen? Face off any monstrous yokai?"
"Not really."
So far the only fights with monsters have been only in your head.
Since there is no one else in the store and you've got a bit before you have to make for the train, you let the conversation continue. Sure, your new acquaintance Haru Yamada is a little too excited about sword and kenjutsu while you're not exactly the best expert on it… you find that you know enough bits and pieces to hold the conversation for a while, and keep recalling more and more half-forgotten lessons you've watched.
That bodes well for your future job.
Turns out, you live on the same street - Haru's taking care of her older grandmother, and working a day job to make the ends meet. You tell her little bits of pieces about herself, but not too much. Since your own Honorable Grandfather is very much a dark cloud of a presence in your mind, you do let it slip that the Shimizu family forged the blade, and are a family of martial arts blacksmiths. You even mention Seisyun High and your recent employment there.
Haru's quite a bit more excited about all these details than you are, but it's nice to hear someone supportive of your choice to teach, even if they have no reason to know of your true ability to do so.
Eventually, a few more customers come, and you have to leave to meet up with Taiga for a little errand he asked your help for, so you say your goodbyes.
You did make a new friend, at the very least.
There's some little light jitter in your hands as you pace outside of the train station in Itabashi, the decision of a few days back replaying in your head. You've made up your mind, but your body just doesn't wanna calm down, especially not after the conversation you had before the train ride here.
You've got a job now, right on the upcoming Monday. At Seisyun High.
Teaching martial arts.
You clutch onto the wrapped sword, and can't help but keep fiddling with it a little. There's no way back, now that you've committed to it. Yes, in theory you could still run away, but you've committed to the strike now, and doing anything else would be even more foolish.
The best way to improve, is to step in, fearlessly, as close to the opponent's blade as possible and fight back with all your heart. To learn to reach into the flame without getting burned, you remember.
Is it good advice? You don't-
"Nochan!" a shout comes, interrupting your thoughts.
You spin around and smile. When you left Taiga alone on the train, even after a handful of assurances that he could see the roof of his house from the little train station, you couldn't help but worry.
Needlessly, it seemed.
You bow for a greeting instead of accepting an offered hug.
Maybe next time. Taiga, it seems, continues to be a bit of a renegade when it comes to showing little drops of affection, probably due to the amount of traveling he's done. You're starting to suspect he's spent quite a bit of time with westerners, which might explain his little accent you cannot place yet.
"Thank you for doing this," he offers a deep bow back, this time very much formal, like a modest Japanese man should be.
"You're a friend," you say. "We've already agreed I'd be meeting you for the Seisyun commute, what's one extra day?"
"Still, you didn't have to," he says, and reaches out for something out of his backpack. He's wearing a different suit, a little darker blue, and slightly less worn, but the bandana and the shirt look the same - if clearly recently ironed. He's also shaved clean since you last saw him.
The bulging backpack is all the same.
"Here," he hands you something.
The small device on your palm is very much alien to you.
"We've got a few spares," Taiga explains. "I've already called to activate it."
Oh. It's a pager. A tiny window for displaying digits on a grey box with a few buttons. You turn it over, finding a blank back except for a long number, written on a small piece of paper and glued to the back with a piece of clear tape.
"Activate it?" You ask. "Is it expensive?"
"We buy them in bulk, so not really." Taiga shrugs. "And we had space for a spare number on our plan, don't think much of it. You're the one who promised to help me."
"You'll have to teach me…"
He does.
All the while you lead him to a local shop, where he buys a new phone for his home, he keeps explaining the basics of pager use.
Your new thingamajig doubles as a digital clock, has an impressive memory for fifty last saved messages, can delete the ones you don't want, and can even scroll up and down if the message was longer than would fit on a single screen.
You get a feeling that while utilitarian, it's one of the more expensive models. It looks brand new, promises quite a few hours of operation on a single battery, with connectivity anywhere in Japan, and maybe even in South Korea, although Taiga seems unsure about that last one. Something about Okinawa and Jeju islands looking too similar. You can't tell if that was a joke or not, since you've never been to either.
All in all, it's nothing more serious than running a simple errand with a friend. It's good to know Taiga has your back, and it makes sense to help him in turn.
The little chore complete, you head back to the train station where you first met up today. You decline an invitation to come over for tea, because you had made other plans, and you know it wouldn't be fifteen minutes - especially as he happily mentions Chiyoko being home.
You wouldn't mind meeting his wife, even if it would be weird for a part of you - but not today.
"Some other time," you promise, getting into the train.
Taiga waves as it pulls away, the box with the new phone under his other arm. You're more sure about his ability to find his way home this time.
You hadn't lied when you said that you'd made plans for the rest of the day. The thought has been in your mind ever since you saw the envelope your payments arrive in. Ever since you stopped repressing it all and understood what it meant to have a Shimizu estate sending you payments.
It's something you must do. It's the least you can do.
You were very young when your father died. You don't remember much about the funeral, it's all a big messy ball of clouded, painful flashes of spotty recollection; rather than a clear, true memory. You still know where to look for the grave… Unlike the old Saotome family grave quite a bit outside of Tokyo, your father was buried in the Suginami ward, and yet… You've only ever been to tend to the former a couple of times, and haven't even once visited this one.
Even knowing where to look for it takes you a little while to find the exact place. You silently bemoan the lack of smartphones or any sort of automatic navigation, but at least you can read a paper map, one you've bought exactly for this purpose.
The cemetery is flanked by a raised highway, but the high wall ensures it's quite peaceful inside, but for a distant echo of a traffic buzz. There's a building with a shrine, too, but you're here just for the grave - and your memories of your father. You only borrow a little bucket of water and a wooden ladle near the entrance, to take with you to the grave.
There's but a single other living soul amongst the graves as you carry on, more and more sure about the exact place with every step you take. Surprisingly enough, the woman seems to be visiting someone nearby to where you're headed. There's a handful of Shimizu graves, but the family has all but died out, so you don't know who exactly it could be.
She's got brown hair tied up traditionally, a little similar to how you used to wear it, but in a different braided style. The woman is a little shorter than you are, and you guess her to be a little older, but it's not like you can exactly tell her age from a distance. Like you, she's also wearing more traditional clothes, even if her kimono looks a little more worn and isn't as decorated.
She notices you approaching, and you catch a hint of a surprised expression, but then her face turns neutral and she straightens up and starts walking away from you. By the time you reach where she was at, she's already turned a corner and it's near-impossible to catch even a glimpse of her hair between the little monuments and gravestones.
You're sure you've seen her before. When you were much younger, perhaps. But where?
Without a name to go with, you only have the memories you cannot trust. Was she a relative of your mother? Or a former servant from the old Shimizu estate? The household wasn't large, but you're sure there had to have been a servant or two helping take care of it, at some point.
Or, maybe, it's entirely unrelated to your visit and you've just projected a half-remembered face on someone who looks nowhere near anyone you ever knew. Still, you feel like there's at least a little significance to it. A part of you is already creating little theories, still playing guesswork.
And then, you're there, putting all other thoughts away in favor of… the surreal feeling of belonging. Surrounded by four generations of Shimizu graves.
The Shimizu great-great-grandparents are nothing more but names in the stone. Then, it's your great-grandfather and his wife, followed by your grandmother with space reserved for her husband.
It seems that your honorable grandfather is still kicking. Or, hopefully, buried elsewhere.
And finally… Your father. A single grave. A single stone pillar, standing about as tall as you are.
Alone.
You were too young to understand what exactly happened, and how your family's future broke apart, piece by piece, but you remember your father constantly taking the blame for every little fault, imagined or real.
He was the one to take blame for your mother running away. He was the one to suffer the punishment and take up more and more dangerous training. He was the one plunging bare arms into fires of the forge, suffering burn after burn with each an unsuccessful attempt at mastering a high level technique.
He was the one to stand between you and the grandfather - until the day he couldn't stand at all.
You take a long while, standing still, stands of memories slowly unraveling deep in your heart. The gravestone is a pillar behind which you take shelter from the fear, like you did as a little kid, hiding behind your father's legs.
It doesn't give you the same comfort. After all, you can't even remember his voice nor even his face.
What you can recall is just the touch. The rough, burn-scarred hands. The incredibly careful softness of their embrace.
The wind picks up.
You've got tears in your eyes. It took you for the wind picking up to notice them, as the wind steals them away from your face.
You wish you had known better. You wish you could have run away. You wish you hadn't been as afraid.
You wish you hadn't been born a Shimizu - especially now that you've got memories of a different life. However bad things had gotten, you weren't afraid for your life when you were a child.
With the context of nearly two lifetimes, your fears seem even more justified. You know for sure it was your grandfather that caused your father's death.
Better dead than an unworthy heir, you remember, like a distant echo. But there had to have been something else. Something more… something other that your father did - to earn the unbridled rage, to have the demands for mastery increase a hundred fold.
Your other life offers little hints of queer experience, of feelings of rejection by one's family. Maybe there is some truth to that. You suspect you would never know if your father had any
rivals the Honorable Grandfather found inappropriate.
You wish he was there, in the place reserved for his corpse.
You wish your father was alive.
You wish for a lot of things that cannot happen.
Then, the wishes run out, and you're left with a boiling anger, simmering deep inside of you.
You know you can't do anything about it, not as you are now. You don't even know if Ranma could, were they a legendary martial artist like in the stories. Your grandfather reminds you of a different demon and parasite from those. Just… he's a different kind of devil, one of pure malice and hate. Would he also be unkillable, unable to be defeated forever, just sealed in a cave for decades?
You wish neither of them can really live for hundreds of years, like you've read in the stories.
A gentle rain starts.
You find yourself with no umbrella, but even if you had one, you wouldn't bother protecting yourself. Especially not with the wind as strong as it is.
Your thoughts, once again, return to Ranma. Honorable Grandfather wishes for a perfect heir. For a male one. What would he say about a girl? Or a boy Ranma with a curse? Or any other sort of Ranma, one who lives by their own rules?
The Ranma you have read about would take the promise of harsh, deadly training and thrive under a challenge. But you can't know for sure - if that's even the kind Ranma that's yours. The risk is too great.
And yet, you've taken a first step already. You've broken one of Grandfather's rules. Even if the letter of the law set for you doesn't exactly forbid teaching - hell, it was expected of you, should your Grandfather have perished prematurely with no one else to train the heir… You know it goes very much against the spirit of the edict, especially if the old man is still kicking.
He knows what you've decided. He knows where you live. He knows where you work.
The only way forward is though.
You turn your anger into a flame, deep inside your heart. Then, you push some of the worries aside. You were here to do a job, and you're gonna do it.
You bow to the gravestone, and step forward. You place the little offering of the abura-age, still wrapped so it sits untouched by the rain. It's heavy enough to not be blown away by the wind. The grave itself is surprisingly well looked after. There's staff taking care of the graveyard, but they usually don't go the full distance like this. There's barely any weeds to speak of. Nothing worth touching.
All of the Shimizu graves look taken care of like your father's one. Nothing for you to do.
Even as the drizzle of the rain is picking up, you still take care to pour some water to wash off the gravestone. It's not in any way dirty, but it's the gesture that matters.
You debate which is a better way to deal with the offering. You could let it sit there on a gravestone, until a graveyard caretaker takes it away to be disposed of, if it doesn't get blown away… or you could eat it.
You sigh. If only the rain wasn't growing stronger, then you could just find a semi-sheltered nook and let the animals take care of it. That would be the more traditional way… except the modern caretakers sometimes frown on the wildlife and insects visiting the graves. Not that their opinion matters when it comes to a proper offering for the departed.
If there is a kitsune ancestor in your blood… You know one would find the offering before the caretakers would.
After a longer while of silent contemplation, you move out of the mental cover of the gravestone and stand up straight.
You still wish for peace, but you are a true Shimizu. Your grandfather, for all his bluster and rage… he married into the family, wasn't born as one.
There, standing in the rain, cold water of your family name seeping into your hair, you decide that you will fight. You refuse to back down in fear. You refuse to return to the box your grandfather has placed you in.
You will get
through this all.
One day at a time.
You look up into the sky.
You will spend the rest of the weekend preparing for your first lesson. Pouring through whatever memories you have. You will only have to be an assistant anyway. You might not be the best one for the job, but you have found a source of determination in your soul. You have a friend and an ally there.
Soon, you will stand on your legs even more firmly, and reach out to Ranma too. Once you've reunited together, the sky's the limit. Assuming neither your nor Ranma are claimed by the honor trap of the contract.
You stumble, but still manage to walk out of the graveyard with your head held high, even as the sky is pouring heavier and heavier rain on your head. Your heart burns with the fire of the forge, and the rain tempers you for the future.
This coming Monday, your first fight of the many.
You'll be ready.
[ ] [Arts] You should learn as much as possible. It's a little expensive, especially before your first payday, but you should get as much of the martial arts periodicals as you can, whenever you can. Everything from martial arts baseball to boxing chess.
(-1 stress to Know-It-All-Not, +1 stress to Precarity)
[ ] [Arts] You should learn more. Buy some periodicals. Browse them in store when you can. It's a big world, but you'll adapt.
(+1 stress to Precarity)
[ ] [Arts] You'll learn with time. Browse what you can when in stores, buy only what you really want, like the periodical for martial arts rhythmic gymnastics - it might have Taiga in it.
(no stress change)
[ ] [Arts] You'll learn with time. Browse what you can when in stores, buy only what you really want, like the periodical for martial arts ice skating - Azusa is a name you remember, and Ranma might just be mentioned there.
(+1 stress to Know-It-All-Not)
[ ] [Arts] You'll learn with time. Browse what you can when in stores, buy only what you really want, like the magazine for the recent chess boxing tournament - Furinkan high is mentioned, so maybe Ranma will be in there?
(+1 stress to Know-It-All-Not)
VOTE FOR ONLY ONE OPTION FROM [Arts] VOTE
Note: whichever vote you choose for this section, you will be
at least partially wrong, since it's a vote about what you
think, not what's true. The "truth" will be adjusted to mismatch (^^) behind the screen, but this will be used to color future interactions with the woman, when or if you actually properly meet her.
[ ] [Stranger] She seemed painfully familiar, and she was visiting the same set of graves. You know next to nothing about your mother's side of the family, maybe she's your cousin or a young aunt?
(+1 stress to Regrets)
[ ] [Stranger] She seemed painfully familiar, and she was visiting the same set of graves. She's got to be a servant of the Shimizu family - there's been one or two, so she might know you and your father from your childhood.
(+1 stress to Caretaker)
[ ] [Stranger] She seemed to have a suspicious air about her. There's something a little inhuman about you running into her today. She could, nonetheless, be a servant of the Shimizu family. Weren't there multiple ninja servants in your memories? The Kuno family had one, and Ukyo hired a kunoichi retainer.
(+1 stress to Know-It-All-Not)
[ ] [Stranger] She seemed to have a suspicious air about her. There's something a little inhuman about you running into her today. Maybe… she's a Kitsune? Shimizu are said to have a little kitsune blood in their veins… Is that why she was visiting the graves?
(+1 stress to Legacy)
[ ] [Stranger] It's just a coincidence, she doesn't matter. Speculating is pointless. You're not likely to run into her again. Right?
(+1 stress to Precarity)
VOTE FOR ONLY ONE OPTION FROM [Stranger] VOTE
This is… a purely cosmetic vote. Don't read too much into it. Or do. I'm just a comment.
[ ] [Offering] You left the little snack in an easily reachable place, still packaged up, so it would be easy to notice (and easily found) by the caretakers of the graveyard. It will, most likely be thrown away.
(no stress change)
[ ] [Offering] You ate it. You do like the taste of fried tofu, and you remember your father liking it too. Eating it in the rain and outside was a little odd, but that's how offerings can sometimes go.
(no stress change)
[ ] [Offering] You hit it in a nook on the grave, out of the packaging. There, partially protected from the rain, it waits for a stray animal or insect to make it into a meal.
(no stress change)
VOTE FOR ONLY ONE OPTION FROM [Offering] VOTE
VOTE FOR ONLY ONE OPTION FROM [Arts] VOTE
VOTE FOR ONLY ONE OPTION FROM [Stranger] VOTE
VOTE FOR ONLY ONE OPTION FROM [Offering] VOTE
You do not need to include or even pay attention to the mechanics text with your vote
Vote open until 2025-04-06.
Hopefully by that time I will have the crisis update ready, and will post it soon after this little vote concludes.
Note:
It's here💙!
Sorry for taking a little longer than I wanted to. I've been struggling a little with this update. It's here now, though, so I hope you liked it, even if I can still see some things I'd like to change (I have set myself editing limits, or we'd be waiting even longer). 💙
As predicted, splitting off the crisis scenes into a separate update, since in addition to needing to finish them, I need to go through all of the actions and re-evaluate them in the view of Hibiki friendship promise taking up time, and the new employment plans.
Next time,
"Nodoka Quest 04+½ - Double Crisis".
The new stress increases will apply after the crisis ends.
Like always, feel free to ask any questions at any time.
