The Happenings of Tsuko Araki

1843 A.D. Part One

   Tsuko was without a doubt, not cut out for his work. He was lazy, he was irresponsible, he couldn't even hold a job for longer than a couple days, until this one of course. Though in his defense, it was hard to find a job in Edo Japan that wasn't guarding the rich as a samurai, or being a samurai for hire to rob the rich. That social norm applied to him, along with everyone else in the prefecture of Settsu. His "work", was being the house samurai of the Shinonome family. In the Edo time period, samurai had gone from warriors who lived and died for their name and honor, to power hungry administrators and bureaucrats, who cared only to climb the social ladder. However, there were still situations where families would have samurai warriors, though it was largely just for show, and barely did any actual fighting due to the rate of crime dramatically decreasing as Japan became more and more modern. 

   This very situation is the situation we find Tsuko in, spending his time, idling around in a traditional Japanese household with barely anything in mind besides sleeping and every now and then, training. Simplicity, is something he favored most in life, and he had just that for quite some time, being a samurai of defense, with nothing to defend against. But like all good things in life, that too, had to come to an end. Shouting and protesting had woken him up from his peaceful slumber, along with a wake up call Tsuko didn't ask for.

"Tsuko! Wake the hell up!" a voice all too familiar to him yelled from across the courtyard.

    He did no such thing, staying still on his futon with all the doors and windows closed, and no desire to come out of his dark and warm alcove.

"You cannot seriously still be sleeping, it's already half past three! At this rate you might as well classify yourself as nocturnal... or one of the ghost samurai..." the short and stout man barged into Tsuko's room, leaving a passage way for light to pour in.

"I'd actually be fine with that you know, the sun isn't out at night," Tsuko replied sharply, turning over under his blankets to face the side of the room that wasn't shining light in his eyes. Toshi, what'd I tell you about coming in my room before I got up to make tea?"

"You did make tea, two hours ago, drank half of it, and left the rest on the table, and went back to bed," presumably the man named Toshi snapped back at him, sitting down next to him and shoving his hands into Tsuko's back and pushing him back and forth.

   Tsuko sighed and sat up, rubbing the back of his head, "Touché, I'm up. Now what do you need me for?" 

"Shinonome's son? The coronation? Today?"

The now fully awake samurai shot up out of bed and stood on his two feet, looking down at the ground and holding his hands to his head. "Shit, shit shit shit shit! Why didn't you wake me up sooner you damn idiot! How much longer until the ceremony starts?!"

   Toshi smirked and looked down at his pocket watch, a gift from a Dutch tradesmen who had recently made his way back to Europe. Toshi was also a house samurai, who also served the Shinonome family. In some cases though, he would be summoned to protect trade ships as they came in from the south. Backing up a little, the Shinonome household was a family of nobles who controlled a large part of the ports in Osaka, the capital city of Settsu at the time. As opposed to Tsuko, who was a family servant, Toshi was a secondary servant who was in charge of miscellaneous tasks, one being to protect ships from thieves and bandits who looked to steal imports. Earlier that week, Toshi had been on patrol for a ship coming from the Netherlands when he caught two people trying to steal a keg of beer. As thanks, the captain of that ship gave him a pocket watch, which were hard to come by in Japan. "About thirty minutes?"

   "Thirty minutes!? Isn't the coronation not until dusk? It's still completely bright outside, then sun is barely starting to set!". Our lazy protagonist attempted to speed out of the room and ended up tripping over Toshi's leg, resulting to Tsuko laying flat faced on the ground. He thought it was clearly not going to be his day, and he was right.

 "Actually they moved it up a couple hours on account of the fog moving in from the north. They didn't want to have to move the ceremony inside because people couldn't see," he replied to Tsuko.

"Is it even worth it anymore? I don't even think they'll notice if I'm missing," Tsuko said, coming out as muffled as he was talking into the floor board.

"I doubt that entirely actually, Shinonome's son is very much looking forward to you being there. And I'm sure you understand how much you mean to him. Nobiru is the son you've never had and you know it Tsuko."

   Laying there for a bit, Tsuko ran all the scenarios through his head, determining whether or not he really wanted to go. "I guess, I won't be seeing the squirt anymore after this anyways...". He sat back up rubbed his temples, breathing in and out loudly, letting it turn into a yawn.

"That squirt is turning twenty one today and is about to become the head of the Settsu prefecture. You should see him off on his last day, after all, its yours too," Toshi said as he held a hand out to Tsuko, offering to lift him up.

   Reluctantly, Tsuko looked up at Toshi. He had only known him for about three years but to Tsuko it felt like a life time. After job hopping for about a year, he stumbled into the Shininome family on accident twenty years prior. Katou Shinonome, Nobiru's grandfather, had been hiking in the mountains when a small tremor caused an avalanche. Buried under the snow for almost eighteen hours, the at the time fifty seven year old could only cry out for help so loudly, his feet incapable of moving, along with his fingers. Fortunately however, after clearing some of the snow for his own path, Tsuko heard Katou a little ways away, finding him, digging him out of the snow, and carrying him almost ten miles back to the nearest hospital. Ever since then, Tsuko had been serving the household, protecting Katou's children, and caring for his grand children. Even though he never bonded with anybody but Katou and Nobiru, once he met Toshi, the two were almost inseparable. He was the only friend Tsuko had, considering he felt as Katou and Nobiru were his family.

"Hey... thanks... for coming to get me,"

   Toshi smiled and put his hand out closer to Tsuko, "Well if I didn't who would?"

   As he clasped his hand into Toshi's, Tsuko sprung up and let out a small chuckle, "Shut up you damn bastard, I would've gotten up myself."

   It was Toshi's turn to laugh as he pulled Tsuko up off the floor, almost throwing himself off balance. "We both know that's not true, don't kid yourself. Now go on, get out of here, you still have to get ready." 

   A lot of things didn't occur to Tsuko that afternoon. Like the fact that the protesting for ceremony had only gotten worse and worse, and the inclement weather would shroud the capital in layers upon layers of blinding fog. He left his room lackadaisically, heading through the courtyard to the Shininome Shrine room without care. Chances are if he had paid just a little more attention to the space and people around him, he could have done something. If he had noticed the rising number of people outside the property walls, the blanket of fog, rolling over the mountains and into the harbor, and the hundreds of Kishin Eggs swarming around the city, he could have done something.

But he didn't.