|
The Adventure of Yami Cheza: part 1 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
I'm reposting parts 1 and 2 since I just posted part 3. Sorry it's taken so long! sweatdrop Gomenasai!
A refresher for anyone that cares: I'm poking fun at Japanese legends and this story was born from boredom (that's why its so ridiculous).
The Adventure of Yami Cheza
Chapter 1: The Fox
Long ago in feudal Japan there was a young woman named Cheza who lived in a small village with her grand parents (as most characters in Japanese legends do). Why a Japanese girl would be named Cheza, nobody knows, but the villagers assumed it was a demon name. Everyone avoided the Yami house because they thought of their name was a bad omen, and nobody needed bad luck. When they would walk by it on their way to the markets they would chant sutras to protect them.
One day her grandfather said, “Cheza, no one will marry you…”
“Because they think we’re demons,” she rolled her eyes, explaining.
“…So you must find favor with the gods.”
“How is that going to change people’s opinion of me?” She stopped fanning herself for a moment. It was an extremely hot and humid day.
The old man’s white eyebrows furrowed down into a deep V as if he were talking about something very serious. “You must go to Mt. Fuji and…”
She threw her Uchiwa fan at him, smacking the V between his eyes. “Why do I have to go to Mt. Fuji?!”
The fan slid down his face and he rubbed the red mark it left behind. “Because you must find favor with the gods so that they might cast a spell on you to make wealthy men want to marry you!”
“I’m not going to climb some mountain so someone will marry me! Why do I have to get married?”
“Because I’m tired of living in a shack!” gonk
She looked up through the hole in the roof. When it would rain, they’d get wet. And he was just a poor old man…
“Then get up there and fix it!”
The old man’s jaw dropped.
She walked over to her fan and started waving it in front of her face again.
“But…I’m just an old man!” crying
“If you can work in the fields all day you can mend a stupid roof! If you don’t want to do it, hire someone to! Either way, I’m not climbing a…”
Her grandmother walked into the room.
“Dear, I have your bag packed for your trip!” She said in a pleasant voice with a smile on her face as if it was something to be happy about.
Cheza dropped her fan in disbelief. “You, too?!” gonk
Her grandfather shoved her out of the house with the bag. “You cannot return until you have gained favor with the gods!”
“…”
She just stood there in a silent shock as her grand mother bowed repeatedly, saying “Banzai!”
Cheza finally pulled the stick over her shoulder her bag hanged from and took off. She could faintly hear her grandparents in the distance. “Sayounara!”
“Pssh! ‘Banzai,’ ‘Sayounara,’ my butt! Do they seriously think I’m going to return to make them rich? I might as well stay on the freaking mountain if there really are gods up there!” she thought bitterly.
She stood along the side of the road, waiting for someone to go by with a wagon of hay. Fuji-san was a long ways off in the distance. Finally somebody did come along, but they weren’t transporting hay, it was chickens. She finally got fed up with them doo-dooing and pecking on her so she jumped off and walked the rest of the way there.
That evening as the sun set, she reached the base of Mt. Fuji. She panted, exhausted from the long walk. “Stupid… old people… had to choose… Fuji… out of all… the freaking… mountains!”
She sat down on a rock to catch her breath and saw something out of the corner of her eye. A fox was watching her in the bushes.
“Hey little, kitsune…” she said in a high voice. She reached out her hand to it. It hesitantly came toward her.
“I’m starving! Maybe I can cook it over a fire!”
Suddenly its ears twitched and it cocked its head to the side.
“That’s a good little…”
CHOMP!
“AAAAAAGH!” She swung her hand around trying to shake the fox from it, but it was just dangling in the wind. “GET OFF!” scream
She grabbed her bag and hit it, making the fox fly into the bushes. It slowly sat up and rubbed its head with a paw. She heard a voice from somewhere, like a man’s, say, “OW…!”
She immediately turned to the fox. Did it just talk? Was it a god?
“Oh my God, I’ve found a god!” she thought in disbelief. eek
The fox glared up at her. She stared carefully at its little black eyes, squinting. Oh yeah, it was definitely glaring at her like a human would.
“Hey…” she finally said, embarrassed, after some silent debating over if the fox really did talk. “…do you talk?”
“Do I talk!” It said to itself, rolling its eyes. He then crossed his arms over his chest, sitting on his back legs. “Don’t you?”
Her mouth fell open. “…………”
There was a long moment of silence where she was just staring at it. The wind blew a single leaf past them.
“I hope a fly flies in your mouth,” He huffed. mad
She quickly closed her mouth. “Are… are you a god?”
“A god?!” he laughed. “Well, I like to think so!”
She suddenly remembered a legend about Inari the fox god who would make the harvest flourish.
“Are you Inari?” she asked in awe. surprised
He busted out laughing, clutching his stomach.
“Where did that come from?” he finally managed to say.
She frowned at him. “I guess not. Anyway, do you have any powers at all that could, say, make wealthy men fall in love with me?” stare
“…What?” he scoffed. “You humans want everything given to you by some god!”
“Hey, my grand parents told me to ask for this! All I really care about is finding a place to live…”
“…Or getting this wealthy husband spell so you can rub it in their faces and not give them anything.”
She leaned toward the fox that stared her in the eyes. It was as if it knew what she was thinking. “Can you…”
“…Read minds?” he finished.
She nodded, eyes bugged. eek
“I can sense what people are thinking sometimes if I concentrate hard enough,” he said proudly, crossing his arms over his chest again. “Listen girl, I’ll help you find what you’re looking for since I know my way around the mountain.”
“You can take me to the top?” she said, excited. biggrin
“Are you kidding? It’s freezing up there! You probably can’t even breathe! But I will take you as far as I can go.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. She had heard foxes were usually sneaky creatures. “At what cost?”
“You have to give me all your food since you were going to eat me.”
“Uh, if my grandma packed me food, do you think I would try to eat you?”
“…She seriously didn’t pack you any food?”
“Grandpa said something as I was walking away about ‘If you get hungry, eat the divine fruit of the mountain,’ or something lame like that.” mad
“Well, what do you have in there?” he pointed to her bag with a paw.
She opened up her bag on the ground. There was a stone basin (with a crack down one side) to possibly cook something in, a few coins of the lowest form of currency, a small dagger carved out of wood and a lotus sutra.
“Why on earth did they give me a lotus sutra?” She held it up and saw that something was written on the back. “Oh right, too cheap to buy paper.”
“Dear Cheza,
Your grand father carved the dagger for you in case you had to fight a giant spider demon (as most people do in legends). The basin is from Sakaguchi-san from down the road. She said she’d chased her husband with this and so she gave it to me because she couldn’t use it anymore. I thought you might be able to cook an animal or something in it for food. Your grand father sent the money incase you need to make an offering to the gods.
Good luck on your journey!”
She wadded up the paper and threw it down on with the contents of her bag. She blinked a few times. The coins were missing.
“Hey!” She turned to the fox. “You took the only money I have!”
“Remember? Cost.” mrgreen
She glared at him for a moment and then said, “Fine!”
She tied her bag onto the stick and stood up. “Where’s the money? I don’t see you holding it?"
“I hid it somewhere for safe keeping.” He grinned as he brushed the dirt off his paws.
“Okay, so take me to the top, or however far we can go.”
“Tonight?” he asked bewildered.
“Yeah, tonight! I want to get this over with before I starve to death!”
“But it’ll be dark soon!”
“So? Aren’t you nocturnal, or something? You can at least smell your way, if nothing else.”
“But things come out at night!”
She rolled her eyes. “Let me guess: giant spider demons?”
He gulped. “So you know it’s crazy!” gonk
“Oh, please! Get a move on, or I’ll hit you with my bag again.”
He rubbed his head again and said, “Fine.” mad
YamiCheza · Wed May 26, 2010 @ 06:44am · 0 Comments |
|
|
|
|
|