Interlude: The Strange Life of Gōketsu Haru
- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Interlude: The Strange Life of Gōketsu Haru
"Is there anything else, sir?" the foreman of the movers asked Haru politely. The crew had been waiting outside when Hazō showed up. The Clan Head prick had gotten everything started and then bounced, too important to do anything as unpleasant as packing.
Granted, the movers hadn't wanted Haru or his family to do any of the packing, either. The foreman had politely suggested that they focus on directing and let the workers take care of actually putting things in boxes and the boxes into storage seals. It was a strange world.
Haru looked over at his father.
"No, thank you," Dad said to the mover. "That was the last of it. So...now we just walk over to the compound?"
The foreman nodded. "Yes sir. They've been getting your quarters set up, so I imagine it will be ready by the time we get there. Nothing special—just airing the place out, running a broom over it in case any dust got in, setting up the braziers and the Purifier seals, that kind of thing."
Dad tilted his head in surprise. "Purifier seals?"
"Yes sir. It's got some long name that I can't remember, but we just call them Purifier seals. You point them at a brazier and it sucks up all the smoke and makes it vanish. Really handy."
"They're...giving us seals to handle the smoke from the fireplace? Instead of just a chimney?"
"The chimneys haven't been installed yet, sir. Apparently it's hard to include them in the jutsu that they used to make the family residence. I think M'Lord intends to install proper chimneys once spring rolls around, but doing it in the winter was going to leave the quarters too cold for too long."
"I...see."
"The factor has already settled your rent and will deal with any wrap-up with the landlord, sir. Shall we?"
"After you."
o-o-o-o
"This is the dining hall," their guide (Hiroe?) said, gesturing unnecessarily at the massive room they had just walked into. A mismatched collection of furniture—some long rectangular tables with benches, plus some smaller round tables with chairs, plus some low tables with cushions for those who preferred to eat seiza—made the place feel oddly homey. Each table had one or more baskets containing chopsticks and each place at each table was set with a linen napkin and a cup. The cups and chopsticks were again mismatched, presumably the product of someone going through every shop in town and cleaning them out of their current stock. At least a hundred people, most of them civilians, were eating and talking in various clusters around the room.
"So...where does the food come from?" Haru asked, looking around. There was a notable lack of tubs or pots.
"Right over here, My Lord," their escort said. She was an attractive blonde, a few years older than Haru, wearing a blue-and-green silk kimono with a large Gōketsu mon on the back and a smaller version over the heart. She smiled and gestured to a set of long tables against one wall. A grey-haired old man with a Leaf headband and a small tremor through his whole body sat in a chair at the end farthest from the door. There was no food or place settings on the table.
Haru and his family followed her over to the tables, which turned out to be completely covered in storage seals, each labeled with the name of a dish. As they approached, a civilian twenty-something who had been sitting and chatting quietly with a trio of friends stood up and approached.
"Good afternoon," he said, smiling. "Welcome to the Gōketsu dining hall. I'm Futoshi, one of the docents. If you need any help reading the papers, just let me know."
Eri, the useless illiterate, picked up one of the papers and stared in confusion. Behind her, Hiroyo and Airi crowded close to see. The two girls had been meek as mice ever since they arrived on the Gōketsu estate, but natural curiosity was starting to assert itself.
The 'docent', whatever that was, peeked over Eri's shoulder. "Chicken stew with peas and rice, ma'am," he said helpfully. "Also bread, a green salad, ginger ice cream, and hot apple cider. I've had the stew; it's tasty, but that particular seal is from the Blue Sky batch. A little overseasoned as I recall." He moved a few steps down the table and picked up another seal. "If you want the stew, may I recommend this one? Summer Day is a little lighter on the curry and leans more on the rosemary. Much better in my opinion."
Haru looked down the fifty-foot line of tables. Every square inch was covered with seals.
"You use storage seals for food in your cafeteria?"
"Yes sir," Futoshi said.
"'My Lord'," probably-Hiroe corrected. "This is Lord Gōketsu Haru and his family."
Futoshi's smile slipped and he swallowed nervously and touched his forehead in apologetic salute. "Sorry, My Lord. No offense intended, if you please."
"It's fine," Haru said faintly. "The seals?"
"Oh! Right. Yes, all the food is kept in seals until it's ready to be eaten. It keeps the vegetables fresh, the hot things stay hot, the cold things stay cold. Please select whatever you'd like. Gakuto there"—he gestured to the palsied ninja against the far wall, sitting and rocking while staring vaguely around—"will operate the seals for civilian diners. The dining hall is open 24/7 and there's always a ninja on duty, as well as three of us docents to read for anyone who needs it. The food is all in closed-top bento boxes to shield against storage stress; when you're done if you could please bring them back to be sealed up again, then put them in that bin against the wall. There's a reasonable variety—the kitchen staff makes new stuff all the time, so we build up an assortment of things. They take requests during daylight hours, so if you want something specific that you can't find on the tables you can ask a docent and we'll go have the kitchen make it special." He shrugged. "It obviously takes longer, but it's no trouble."
Haru looked helplessly at his father; the other man offered a bemused shrug.
"Thank you," Haru said. He looked down at the papers and grabbed the first thing that seemed interesting: braised river bass with rice and a honey glaze, salad, rice pudding, and hot apple cider. The docent led the rest of the family down the table, reading off the labels on each paper and suggesting options based on surprisingly detailed knowledge of the contents.
Hiroe waited until everyone was food-equipped and then gestured to an unoccupied table. "Shall we sit?" she asked brightly.
o-o-o-o
Eating attractively-portioned food out of a storage seal in a massive dining hall was only the first of the surprises. Once they were done, Hiroe led them on a tour of the grounds.
"This is the children's school," she said, gesturing to a modest granite building. "Everyone from six to twelve is expected to attend six days out of seven." She turned her nigh-constant smile on Airi and Hiroyo. "That would be you guys! You'll have a great time, I promise. There's lots of other kids to make friends with and you'll be learning reading and numbers and exercising and stuff."
Haru frowned. "They aren't ninja."
"Oh, it's not like the Academy, My Lord. Well, maybe a little. I think Lord Gōketsu based it on his own schooling but the physical side is scaled down. Stretching and slow tai chi instead of actual taijutsu, monkey bars and plum blossom piles without the spikes, that kind of thing. That's only an hour a day, though. The majority of the time is reading, numbers, history, 'critical thinking skills', that kind of thing."
"'Critical thinking skills'?" Emi asked. "What's that?"
Hiroe gave an embarrassed shrug. "I'm still learning it myself, ma'am. It seems to be about how to make good decisions." She turned and pointed at a much larger building a short way off. "That's the university, the school for grownups. There's three tracks for morning, afternoon, and evening; you can attend whichever one your schedule allows and each track has a beginner, intermediate, and advanced session. There's also two professors on the estate who are teaching special-study seminars." She furrowed her brow in thought. "I think one of them was poetry and one was engineering?"
"How much does it cost?" Haru asked.
"Oh, it's free, My Lord. In fact, it's mandatory for grownups until they can pass a basic literacy and numbers test. You need to attend at least one per day until you can test out but you're welcome to stay for more whenever your duties allow. They take roll and keep track of who has passed their test and who hasn't. If you skip too many classes you'll be called in for disciplinary action."
Dad stiffened. "Disciplinary action? Like...flogging?"
"Oh, no sir! No, things like unpleasant chores or enforced calisthenics. Oh, speaking of which, we should get you all over to the hospital for delousing and a checkup. It's standard for all new arrivals. Right this way!"
o-o-o-o
Like every ninja, Haru was all too familiar with medic-nin and their hurried, grumpy attitudes. It was no big deal to sit where the chūnin growled at him to sit, be still while the man ran a glowing-green hand over Haru, and then to 'get off my table' when barked at. It was a bit harder for Airi, who cowered back from the ninja doctor's headband.
"Look, girl, I don't have all day!" the man snapped. "I've got an entire waiting room full of mudsacks with boo-boos and sniffles that I'm expected to get through today. Get on the damn table!"
Haru interposed himself between the doctor and his now-crying stepsister. "Excuse me, sir. I've got this." He turned to Airi (taking care to keep the doctor in his peripheral vision because ninja) and squatted down to be at her eye-level. "It's okay, Little Pearl. He's not going to hurt you, he's just going to make sure you're feeling okay."
Airi forced herself into his arms and buried her face against his shoulder. "I don't want to!"
"Shh, it's okay," he promised, patting her back. "I promise, it'll be fine. He's not even going to touch you, okay? He's just going to make his hands glow and put them near you to check you over. It's a cool ninja trick, like when I walk on the ceiling."
"Hurry it up," the doctor growled. "I've got a lunch date and I need to get through your brat and six more before I'm allowed to leave."
Airi cried harder, but she didn't resist when Haru picked her up and set her on the doctor's padded table. He rubbed her back until the sobs turned to sniffles, then kept a hand on her shoulder while the doctor scanned her. The whole procedure was over in less than a minute.
"Her humors are unbalanced and it's giving her a fever," the doctor said. "I drove off most of the spirits but she'll need to come back tomorrow and the next day to be sure they haven't spawned."
"Yes sir."
"Good. Now get the fuck out."
o-o-o-o
"And here is the treasury," Hiroe said, leading them inside another of the granite buildings. "It's also the estate store, where you can buy most things you'll need. You're obviously welcome to go into the city, but the clan can get better prices on most things. We have professional hagglers on staff, so you can ask them to go with you for shopping trips in the city if you like." She grinned. "Granny Mayuka is amazing! We haven't had a lot of new arrivals lately, so last week I was assigned to the supply staff; I was doing a run into Leaf to get ingredients for the kitchens and she went with me. The merchants were terrified."
"'New arrivals'?" Dad asked.
"Oh, right, I didn't explain. Gosh, I'm such a ditz. I swear, if my head weren't nailed to my shoulders I'd leave it somewhere. Right, I'm primarily on New Arrivals duty. When people move onto the estate I help them get set up. Make sure they know where everything is and what's expected, find out their job skills so we can assign them properly, that kind of thing."
"You get a lot of new arrivals?"
Hiroe shrugged. "Not so much anymore, but a few. Lord Gōketsu wants to grow the clan; he's had us hitting up the orphanages and convincing tradesmen to join up. Work houses, too. Anyone with actual skills, we buy their debt and move them here."
"I...see."
"Anyway, as a member of Lord Haru's immediate family you'll be given a stipend of three thousand ryō, plus an extra fifteen hundred for your three dependents. You'll still be paid for your work, of course. The stipend is purely supplementary."
"You're...you're going to give me almost five thousand ryō just for moving here?!"
"Oh, no sir! No, that's just the weekly stipend. The moving bonus is fifty thousand for each civilian member of a ninja's family."
"...I think I need to sit down."
Voting is still closed.
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