Wandering

Chapter One: The Town Beneath the Cloudy Skies

An enigmatic person holding a large suitcase walked on a lone path, wondering where it may take her. As she walked farther along the road, the cloudier it got. 'Hmm... I must be getting closer to the town of Oumi. The town beneath the cloudy skies. Let's hang out here for a while.'

She started running to the town and stopped to look around. Itsuko seemed to have stumbled upon a marketplace and it wasn't particularly crowded. She browsed the stalls and wondered if she could find an inn and a temporary job.

"SORA-NII~" Itsuko heard a young voice call from a distance.

"WHY ARE YOU RUNNING AWAY?!

"BASTARD! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!"

As the duo continued to run closer, Itsuko could make out a pair of boys which she presumed were brothers from their similar looks and the younger one's referral to the older one as 'Sora-nii'.

"LET'S MAKE UP!" She looked at the younger one who bore a hat was holding a stick and it looked to have...poop?

'This town just instantly became weirder. Why is a little boy chasing his brother with a stick with shit?'

"LET'S MAKE UP!"

"WE WEREN'T FIGHTING!" The little boy ran into a sign banging his head on it, effectively immobilizing him.

Itsuko rushed to the boy, worrying for his wellbeing. "Are you okay?"

She could vaguely hear the boy mumble, "He hates me even more..." Which was followed by a sob.

"Hey, are you okay? Do you need help?"

"I'm fine~" The boy sat up.

"You sure?"

"Yes~! Thanks for worrying lady!" The boy ran off, completely ignoring his injury and went to find his brother who was long gone.

"Excuse me," Itsuko said to one of the stall owners. "Who exactly were those two?"

"You must not be from around here. The older one was Soramaru Kumo and the younger one was Chuutarou Kumo. They are the younger brothers of Tenka Kumo who is the current head of the Kumo family and runs the Cloud Shrine. They are what you would call local heroes. Most of the time, Tenka will catch rogue criminals and Soramaru and Chuutarou will ferry them across Lake Biwa where they will be locked in Japan's largest prison."

"I see... Thank you for the information."

"No problem, Miss."

She walked away and continued to explore the town of Oumi, looking at the scenery before finally sitting under a tree, pulling an apple out of her pocket and munching on it.. 'Staying in this town will be a nice change of place. It seems interesting.' She became drowsy and eventually fell asleep.

Itsuko slowly blinked, waking up from her brief nap and stretched. She yawned and grabbed her suitcase, heading back to the marketplace to ask where she could stay for the night. There wasn't an inn that the townspeople knew of so she decided to ask Tenka Kumo if she could stay there for the time being. She planned to help around the shrine as payment.

"Do you know where the Cloud Shrine is?"

"Just go forward until you see a dense forest. You'll see a large set of stairs in the middle of that forest, it won't be hard to miss, trust me."

"Thank you, sir." Onward Itsuko went to the Cloud Shrine and the sun was setting by the time she made it to the stairs. 'Wow. That is one huge set of stairs. Sigh, it'll probably take me an hour or so to climb them.' And so begins her trek up the stairs which immensely tired her. 'That wasn't as bad as I thought... Now, where's Tenka?' She walked on aimlessly looking for a house and the head of the Kumo family.

"Hey! You're the lady from before!" Chuutarou shouted.

"Hello. How's your head?"

"It stopped hurting! My name's Chuutarou! Nice to meet you!"

"My name's Itsuko and it's nice to meet you too, Chuutarou."

"What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to see your older brother, Tenka. Is he here right now?"

"Ten-nii is busy! Do you want to come and wait?"

"I don't want to intrude."

"No, it's fine!" The youngest of the brothers grabbed Itsuko's hand and led her in. "Shirasu-san~! We have a visitor~!"

A young man with white hair and striking purple eyes emerged. 'A Fuuma? Weren't all of them killed?'

"Hello. My name is Shirasu Kinjou, what may I do for you?"

"Hi, I'm Itsuko Saito. I just needed to talk with Tenka-san but it seems like he is not here at the moment. Do you know when he will be back?"

"He should be back in a few hours."

"I'll just wait outside the shrine, then."

"No, no, please, stay here."

"But I don't want to intrude."

"Do not worry, you aren't."

"Why do you want to talk to Ten-nii?"

"Well, you see, I'm a nomad. I travel from place to place, never staying in one spot for too long. I happened to stumble upon Oumi and I need a place to stay. There wasn't an inn so I wondered if Tenka-san would allow me to stay here and in exchange, I would help around the shrine."

Shirasu smiled. "Well, I'm sure Tenka would allow you to stay. Do you want anything? Tea? Sweets?"

"No thank you, but thanks for offering, Kinjou-san."

"Then, I'll leave you with Chuutarou." Shirasu left the room and Chuutarou began to immediately bombard Itsuko with questions.

"Where did you come from? Do you miss your family? Do you have siblings? How many towns have you visited? How long have you been wandering?"

"Uh... I came from a large town up north. Of course, I miss my family. I have three siblings. I have an older brother, older sister, and younger brother. How many towns? I don't really know... Over a hundred maybe?"

"WOW! COOL!"

"Maybe I'll tell you my adventures later. As for how long I've been wandering? Five years."

"That long?!"

"Long story short, I left home once I turned eighteen." The duo continued to talk about Itsuko and she learned more about the Kumo brothers. Night eventually fell and Tenka was supposed to return.

"I'm going to the bath." Itsuko nodded and watched Chuutarou leave. A few minutes after he left, she heard a banging noise.

"Hello?"

"DON'T COME NEAR ME!" Tenka entered the room. He was panting and seemed to be in pain.

She could see Shirasu's silhouette behind the door. "Itsuko, get back. Let me take care of him."

She followed Shirasu's orders and stood back. Tenka's eyes turned almost reptilian and in that moment, blood splattered everywhere, even landing on Itsuko. Her eyes widened. 'W-w-what...?'