Having made it into the Land of Frost, I noted that the closer I got to its borders, the more I saw why it was named as such. The air became colder compared to the warmth of the Land of Hot Water. Once far enough into the country, a layer of frost lay upon the ground as I walked further along the path, surprisingly still warm, or at least the parts of me covered by the clothes given to me.
The clothes were somehow both breathable enough to cool me off when it got too hot yet kept the cold out and insulated me from it. So far my training has helped me by leaps and bounds since it has been several days since I encountered the monks, and my control has improved enough whenever I stop to take a break from walking to train and attempt to walk up the trees.
I hadn’t abandoned chakra, nor ki and chi. Each had their own uses, and like any tool, I wasn’t about to toss it aside when it could prove helpful down the road I walked.
My first attempt was… incredibly embarrassing, to be honest. I managed to get up a pine tree with three steps before falling back down on dirt and grass after taking off most of my good clothes and putting on what amounted to rags.
Kojirou’s laughter further embarrassed me as he got a hoot out of me falling and looking like an idiot. But it didn’t stop me as I slowly got better and better at it but never fully got to one of the higher branches, let alone the top of the tree. I even practiced the basics of the sword and footwork before trying something more advanced with ki and chi.
Needing a ranged option besides using chi to make a whip sword, and since I know absolutely nothing about hand signs I doubt I would be amazing at them since Kojirou’s skills were more reliant on a sword or blade than hand signs. Plus from the looks of things as capable as the shinobi arts are they are not the overpowered broken ones people would talk about in Shippuden.
I never watched much of the series nor paid attention to those discussions besides what crossed my perusal on the internet because it didn't interest me to go out of my way to look it up. I had other things to do and watch than Shippuden, even though I enjoyed the original Naruto.
Taking a stance and drawing the blade out, except instead of running forward, a gust of wind tussles the plants and sends frost and snow scattering in the air. Still not what I need it to be, but it’s getting there. I noted that after using chi against the monks, my chakra felt… balanced. The word didn’t properly convey what it felt like, but it was the closest I could describe it.
When I used chakra against the monks' creations, it felt like it was more physical than a mixture of what it was supposed to be. Me practicing in ki may have upset the balance of my chakra, making it lean more towards the physical than the spiritual, so when it should have interacted and helped resist their chi like it did with Itohime, it didn’t.
Wiping myself down and changing back to my nicer clothes before moving and making purchases from the occasional village I come across to get some jerky or other provisions that would last a long time before spoiling.
At one particular village, I thanked the generosity of an older couple who, unlike the rest of the village, didn’t attempt to short me on what was agreed upon and were willing to sell me some form of candy considered a specialty of the Land of Frost when I got a sweet tooth and had enough of eating jerky or whatever else I could scrounge up.
From the looks of it, no one was buying this particular batch, and despite it being fine, it was getting closer to expiring, so they let me buy it at a decent discount after having helped them with some manual labor that the husband struggled to do in his old age.
Waving goodbye to them with a smile as they smiled back, walking to the edge of the small village before seeing some commotion ahead. Seeing several adults and kids yell at a teenage girl. One thing that drew my gaze is how pale her skin is. It may as well be like the snow around us, and her hair, despite being black, glistens like snow at dawn.
She wears a white kimono that is nothing fancy but is a darker shade of white contrasting her skin and looks dirty and worn with frayed edges and tears seen on it here and there. She reminds me of Lucy from Bram Stoker's Dracula, who held that child in her hands as she was going to feed off of them before getting caught.
“Begone you foul monster!”
“Go back to the forest, you abomination!”
“We don’t want your kind around here.”
Both adults and children hurl insult after insult at her as she shrinks in on herself as they start throwing rocks at her. As an adult picked one up, I had enough and grabbed his arm, stopping him in his tracks.
"H-hey, what’s the big idea- oh, Ronin-san, apologies, I didn’t realize it was you.”
“What is going on here? Why are you all attacking that teenager?” I ask, getting to the point of why they are being so cruel to her.
“You don’t know? She is a Yuuki-Onna! Dangerous creatures that appear like us but are pale as the snow and as deadly as a blizzard. Freezing lost travelers they come across.” As he explains this to me, the crowd has stopped trying to throw rocks at her when noticing my presence, as the girl has tears streaming down her face.
“Well, what has she done for you all to treat her like this?”
“She was trying to enter the village when we don’t allow them in.” A plain-looking woman said, but she didn't explain why she isn’t allowed in or is treated so poorly.
I give her a look that she withers under, but when she thinks I am not looking at her, she gives me a dirty look. “Then what has she or her people done to any of you to not allow them in? I mean not just stories you had heard but what they have done to you personally?”
Everyone falls silent before one of the teenagers in the village points at her. “She tried to get me and the other kids to let her into the village so she could feed off of us.”
“That’s a lie!” The girl finally speaks, breaking her silence as tears stream down her face at their treatment of her. The crowd starts murmuring before it turns into an uproar, and they look ready to start tossing rocks at her again before I walk past the crowd, having had enough as they stop now, going silent and instead watching as I get closer to her.
She looks uncertain of me like a cornered wild animal as she looks at my sword at my waist. Taking it and holding it away from myself before gently and slowly setting it on the ground. She relaxes at me placing my weapon where I did.
“Would you be willing to tell me your side of the story?” I ask her as she wipes away the tears before quietly telling me what had happened.
“We tend to keep to ourselves, occasionally bartering or trading with any merchant that is willing to trade with us. I get rather lonely since I am the youngest among our tribe and have seen the kids from this village having fun. I saw them having fun when they are normally doing chores,” She says, steadying her breathing as I give her a sympathetic look. I am still wary of her since she could be lying, but the villagers themselves showing they are not exactly trustworthy somewhat helps her case. Plus, with my mind’s eye having grown so much, every minor detail I picked up showed she wasn’t hostile.
It’s something that I can understand growing up alone and ostracized by other kids. I will admit to being a little weird when I was younger, but as Cowboy Bebop said it best about kids. Nothing can be more cruel at times than a child.
“One of them noticed me and invited me over. They said that if I helped them with their chores, they would treat me to some food in the village and introduce me. I believed them and helped them as they joked around and had fun, and I even joined them for a brief moment.” She has a sad smile on her face, looking down at the ground.
After staying silent as I let her collect herself, she continued, “Then when following them back to the village, they told me to leave, and I asked why. They said I would not be allowed in the village and my kind don’t need food like they do, so I should leave. I didn’t like how they were treating me and the things they said, but I never once attacked them or did anything. I only argued back that they should be holding up their part of the agreement, but one of them ran off while the kids picked up their tools and some rocks, and then the adults showed up…”
I fall silent at this.
She could be lying, and it may all be a trick, but I see no deception so far and noted how the villagers never said anything specific about what they had done to them to be treated as such, nor did they properly explain why she is here. Even if she is eerily similar to the stories I remember hearing about the Yuki-onna my dad used to gush about, she hasn’t done anything wrong as far as I am concerned.
I wasn’t the most well-versed in those stories, but if they are even remotely as capable as they are portrayed in my old world's stories, then she and her tribe could wipe these people out with ease. Now if they can fend off any retaliation that the nation would send to deal with them, that is another story entirely.
Letting out a sigh before I stand up, I say, “Stay here. I will talk with them.” She gives me a searching look, what she is looking for is beyond me. Rising and walking back to the villagers who had been watching this entire time.
“I will escort her out of the village. No more attacking or harassing her, and from what I have put together, the kids used her to do their chores while going back on their end of the deal.” I say evenly, having had enough of these people. It felt like dealing with the Puritan nut jobs from the Salem Witch Trials.
I was raised in the Christian faith courtesy of my mom. Still believe in it to an extent despite the bad actors involved. Considering where I am and whose powers I have, I would find it hard to not believe there is a God of some kind out there after this.
But one thing that is one of the easiest ways to piss me off is not abiding by both the letter and, more importantly, the spirit of something. In the case of the faith, warping and twisting their god into a false idol that fits how they think it should be so they don’t look as big of an asshole as they would be otherwise. There is nothing quite like pointing to your faith you changed and saying, ‘Look, I am not a bad guy; my faith says it’s okay!’
Or in this instance, a bunch of superstitious nonsense that may have merit because of other supernatural entities or groups giving the rest a bad name, but overall, they haven’t attacked these people.
The villagers hearing what I had said about the kids narrowed their eyes but didn't say anything before looking at said kids. “We didn’t do anything, she tried to follow us into the village!” The eldest says in his shaggy clothes with his dirty mop of hair on his head. The other kids agree before the adults glare at me.
At my unimpressed stare, the boy crossed his arms over his chest as he tried to shrink in on himself. His eyes are wide like a deer in the headlights of a car shifting around nervously. Yeah, it looks like they are lying.
“From what she told me, the kids made a deal with her that if she helped them do their chores, they would let her into the village and she could have a meal. According to her, they were goofing around and slacking off and not doing what they normally do under an adult's supervision before one of them spotted her.”
“That’s a lie!” One of the girls stepped forward, pointing an accusatory finger at me, and I stared down at her, giving her such an intense look that she wilted under it as one of the adults stepped between me and her.
The wild look in her eyes told me she doesn’t have anything to deny it with besides simply calling me and the Yuki-onna a liar. Since I am an outsider and the girl is, as far as they are concerned, an irredeemable monster, then even if the kids are truly lying and they know it, they will side with them.
“Look, please just get her away from the village, Ronin-san.” One of the men says, hands clasped together as he begs me, looking worried as he glances in the girl's direction.
Shaking my head before letting out a sigh and walking towards the girl but not before giving them a piece of my mind, “Learn to raise your children better. No one likes lazy pieces of shit that don’t provide anything to the group, especially when they happen to lie and cheat. As my father would always say, consider the source.”
None of them dared say anything to me while I am still here, but I can feel their glares on my back as I calmly walk towards the girl as she stares bewildered at me.
“Let’s leave this horrid place.” I say quietly to her before walking past her and further into the snow and frost of the forest that the village is on the edge of. After a second of hesitation, she scrambles to catch up with me before the villagers mutter to each other as they go back to what they were doing, but not before the boy and girl that spoke out against me get a good slap each for their troubles.
“Sorry.” The girl says to me, her gaze upon the ground, looking down.
“You have nothing to be sorry about.”
Her head snaps up to look at mine. “You got in trouble with the villagers and had to leave because of me.”
I smile and shake my head. “I was leaving anyway after restocking on supplies while getting a few luxuries I could enjoy. And even if I wasn't, I refuse to be in the presence of a large group of people I can’t stand nor trust.”
“Oh…” She doesn’t know how to respond to that.
“But if you have anything to be sorry about, it should be letting those little gremlins take advantage of you. Never let someone take advantage of you again.” I say, speaking from the heart, looking back on all the times I went above and beyond the call of duty for my first job only to be treated like a doormat for three years before having had enough.
Mom was right about that. She could tell me all she wanted about not letting them do that to me, but in the end, it took me being put through the ringer before having had enough and standing my ground. I will give her this, it was brave to still call out those liars and cheats when they had numbers with the adults backing them up.
“… I was the youngest amongst our tribe. I had always wanted to join them when they had fun.”
Hesitating for a moment before deciding to hell with it. My hand is gently placed on her shoulder as she looks up to me. “I was once like you when I was a child. I was different, and many of the children would bully me, and I was nothing more than an outsider to them.”
Pulling out some jerky as I see her eyes go to a piece before I take it out and offer it to her as her hand shakily reaches out for it before finally taking it and scarfing it down.
“Don’t eat so fast, it’s not going anywhere. Now where was I? Oh yes! I would have given anything to be a part of any of their groups and was willing to do something for them just to be one of them, and they were only taking advantage of me like those kids did you. A lesson I learned the hard way is this-- if they cannot see past your appearance and see the real you, no matter how desperate you are, they are not worth even associating with. And those kids are the last people I think you should want to have anything to do with.”
She wasn’t lying, and from what mind’s eye picked up, she wasn’t thrilled knowing they had taken advantage of her. She didn’t want revenge as far as I could tell, which I was relieved by. It's a bit much to seek death on another person over something like that. I would still screw them over but not to the point I would end up taking their lives.
But I did feel some sympathy towards the girl. Far too many times both of my arms had been tied behind my back, figuratively speaking. They were not giving me exactly what I was owed even if it was a small amount of change, but they did try to see how far they could get away with it and backed off once I made it abundantly clear my kindness was not a weakness and if they pushed too far, there would be consequences.
Unfortunately, I had to deal with them when it came to food and supplies that were necessary on my travels. I would say this is the most people I have encountered in such a large group that have done this compared to before.
That old couple were the only people in that village that were fair about things, and the older man even had a quiet discussion with me about being careful with the other inhabitants of the village. They will try to cheat me if they know they can get away with it. I appreciated his warning.
Not many people come through their village, so they attempt to take as much as they can while giving as little as possible. They didn’t do it nearly as badly with me as they could have, but being a lone ronin must be a rather effective stick to remind them to not overreach. Not that it wasn’t going to stop them.
It would seem even in this part of the world the little people are aware of the stories of how quickly samurai or ronin can and will take offense, especially if you are trying to pull a fast one.
The Yuki-onna falls silent at my advice as she looks at me out of the corner of her eye as she slowly eats the jerky I have given her. “Thank you.” She says as we fall into silence, enjoying the food and each other's company.
That is until I break it. “Something I am curious about if you don’t mind me asking?”
“A-ask away!” She chirps nervously.
“I have heard of a Yuki clan in the Land of Water. Is there any relation between them and Your people?”
“Oh! Um, my mother and others had talked amongst the tribe about that, and at least from what I had heard, they are related to our kind. How they came to be I don’t know, and the older members of my people never discussed it at least when I was around…” She trailed off.
Now that is interesting. So Haku’s clan are descendants of, or in some way related to, the Yuki-onna. I wonder how many other individuals or clans have something similar going on?
“Did you enjoy the jerky? Sorry if it wasn’t much.”
She waves her hands placatingly at me. “Oh no, it was good, and thank you for sharing with me even if you didn’t have to.”
I simply smile and note she has a little pink along her cheeks. "Well, I figured you were owed something since those people decided to go back on their end of the deal. So what is your tribe like, and what do you all do to survive and make a living out here?”
Walking along the path, the cold is the only thing to accompany us as she explains things about her people, "Well, unlike other Yuki-onna from the Lands of Iron and Snow, we do not have any ill will or need to cause harm to humans. It’s why, from what the elders of my tribe said, we left the Land of Snow in the first place since the other Yuki-onna were giving the rest of us a bad reputation, and our tribe had at times in the past fed off of humans, but we only did so when the land that sustained us was not enough to feed us all… and that was a long time ago.”
Realizing what she said, she looked at me with clear worry on her face before I calmly shook my head as she in turn calmed down before continuing. "Well, we usually tend to our homes and families, while we are known for being good at sculptures made of ice or even selling ice in bulk to those interested, but we haven’t had much business besides one merchant in particular.”
The rise of my brow showed my interest now in one thing, in particular, she had said. “So what do you guys eat? Since you don’t eat people anymore.” That particular part put me a little on edge after dealing with the spider bitch that had her family and home burned down. It helped settle my nerves that she wasn’t hostile.
"Well, we can still eat to sustain ourselves, it's just not as efficient as using the naturally occurring energy of the land around us to sustain ourselves.”
“Wait, so the land is somehow creating energy for you to feed yourselves? How is it made, and can you feed off of the energy of anything?” My curiosity is now needing to be satisfied. I must have answers!
She is caught off guard by my excitement and curiosity, but she answers all the same, “U-uh, well, I don’t know how it’s made, but we can feel and sense it. It’s why we are drawn to it. I don't know how it’s made. It just forms from the surroundings and accumulates. But we can feed off of other forms of energy, like other lands, not that it would be good for us. It’s why my people stay near areas with a cold climate, or ones with ice or snow. If I went to a desert or incredibly hot area and fed off of what was there, it would be poison to me.”
She paused to take a bite out of the jerky, finishing it off. She smiles at me before thinking something over. “My name is Fuyuko Rei. May I know your name ronin-san?”
“My name is Kojirou Sasaki. So why would your kind feed off of humans in the past? Was there not enough to sustain all of you?” I asked simply to gauge her reaction to make sure I wasn’t about to have another incident like the spiders from before.
She frowns at that, staying silent for a brief moment before giving me an answer, “Sometimes there isn’t enough due to the leaders of the greater tribes having the privilege to feed on more of it than the rest that are from lower standing. So they make do with the energies inside of humans.”
“Do they feed on simply the spiritual portion, the physical, or both? Also, if you feed upon the energy of your surroundings, can you alter it if you feed too much?” Ideas came forth that I needed answers to. It was as much my curiosity as it was to make sure they weren’t like Itohime, and Fuyuko seemed easy enough to get answers out of.
Her frown deepens at my morbid curiosity but gives me an answer nonetheless, “All of it. Your energy stored within you would… be enough for some time. For the environment, it is no different. As we would harm a human by draining them even if no physical harm had been done to them, the environment is no different. It would suffer if we overfed.
Now that is interesting… “How would it be harmed if you did this?” I say cupping my chin.
"Well, we haven’t done this here since we have enough for everyone, but in the Land of Snow, at one point, from an old story, the elders occasionally speak of the leaders of the major tribes alongside their best fighters feeding far more than they would normally. It was said a great cataclysm was coming, and they did so in an attempt to fight whatever it was off. They devoured far more than what was normally needed to make themselves stronger.” She says it as if recounting the story she was told, putting on airs, and I won’t lie, she has me hooked.
“When they did, parts of the Land of Snow had lost the snow and ice it was known for, and grass and trees had begun to grow as warmth had begun to take over where the cold had once been. The tribe leaders and their greatest fighters went on to clash with this enemy, and they lost… the parts of the lands they had made impossible for our people to thrive in became lands that humans could take as their own. In time the ice and snow reclaimed those lands, but the humans remained stubborn and continued to live in those lands to this day.”
She finished her story as I wondered how true it is. Broken from my thoughts as Fuyuko asks me a question.
“Kojirou, what is traveling like?”
I glance at her, seeing her look at me with excitement at the question, “It’s enjoyable. At least until trouble finds me.”
She tilts her head at my response. “Shouldn’t there be more to it than just enjoyable? You get to see the world and enjoy all that it has to offer. Seeing things most other people could only dream of!”
“I have seen maybe a few things like that, but most of what I have seen can be seen from most places. Like this forest, there are plenty like it, except for less frost and snow for some. By all means it’s nice to travel and see things and experience new cultures, but there is nothing quite like returning home after a long journey.”
And isn’t that the truth? Like the few vacations I went on in the past in my old life, as nice as it was to travel abroad, the feeling of returning to your home was such a satisfying feeling. Though it’s also a sobering one knowing that I have no home to call my own here. And if I did manage to find a home, it would not last long.
That’s not even getting started on a love life or kids, even my neighbors would not want me bringing death to their doorstep. I pull myself away from those thoughts as Fuyuko continues to question me and I, in turn, question her.
“-Books are one of the few things I can enjoy and find some entertainment in. How they describe the outside world beyond this land sounds so beautiful that I want to see it one day. All of it!” She was excited at the idea of adventuring out into the wider world.
“As interesting as that dream is, I would recommend doing your research into these places you want to visit instead of just wandering into them unprepared. Many people have found themselves in trouble because they didn’t do their due diligence in figuring out what they would need or if something dangerous is happening in the land they went to.”
“You sound like my mother when you say that…” She says quietly, visibly deflating at my comment.
“You say that like it’s a bad thing. Now how about we try something hopefully more tasty than the jerky?” I say digging out the package of candy the old couple sold to me.
Fuyuko stops and looks intrigued as I undo the packaging, and a glob of what looks like caramel sits there before walking over to a pile of snow and dropping half of the blob on it as it spreads out across the snow before hardening and doing the same with the other half.
“Take either one and I will take the other.” I say to her. She smiles at me before taking hers off the snow and sniffs at it before taking a small bite, and her eyes soon light up in delight.
Taking my own and grimacing at having a sticky hand after this, but that’s a problem for the future. It still is soft and not as hard as I was expecting before taking a small bite myself and letting out an appreciative hum. It’s sweet but not overpowering, as it tastes like apples mixed with cinnamon.
We both look at one another, smiling, and nod before enjoying the treats as we walk along. It feels cold once it enters my mouth, but it oddly adds to the flavor. We both take our time enjoying the treat for what it is, as I finally can enjoy something that has some proper taste to it.
We quickly finish our treats in no time. “Thank you, Kojirou. That was the best tasting thing I have ever had!” Fuyuko gushes at me, hands clasped together as she bows her head to me.
“Wasn’t about to let it go to waste, and I figured the more the merrier. Good food is even better when shared with good company.”
At my words, Fuyuko has a small blush on her cheeks that stands in stark contrast to the pale white of her skin. At times she reminds me of those creepy porcelain dolls Mom had inherited from my great-grandmother. Dad made her get rid of them when he swore one of them blinked at him.
But Fuyuko isn’t necessarily creepy like they were, she is easy on the eyes. It's simply that her appearance is a little unnerving, but I chalk that up to the uncanny valley.
She has long, slender legs with a modest chest, but even with her dirty kimono that is ripped and torn in places with dirt smudging parts of it, it doesn’t take away from how attractive she is, and to think she still has some time to grow until fully mature.
Noticing my gaze and how I am observing her face becomes crimson before she tugs her kimono tighter around herself trying and failing to hide herself from me. Chuckling at her antics she puffs her cheeks out before she settles down.
Deciding to do something to fill the silence I begin humming a song that I think is rather fitting to the current location as Fuyuko looks at me, interested in the song. When singing the lyrics, she looked even more interested.
“When leaves have fallen and skies turned into gray the night keeps on closing in on the day. A nightingale sings his song of farewell…” And on I went with a song. I caught some grief from some of my friends for liking the song, but I couldn’t help it. It just sounded so good for teenage me to like it.
Fuyuko looks enamored with the song as she listens with rapt attention. Eventually, the song comes to an end as Fuyuko claps a small smile on her face.
“I didn’t know you could sing! It was wonderful.”
I rub the back of my head nervously. “It was nothing special…”
“I disagree, that was beautiful. What was the name of the song?”
“Ice Queen.”
“O-oh… It is about a Yuki-onna?” She said it like she was not so sure she liked the song now.
“Not to my knowledge. I think the song was based on nature.” My response eases the tension in Fuyuko as she is about to ask more questions,, but my hand grabbing my sword and moving in front of her stops her as she looks where I am looking.
Standing ahead of us on the path is a man garbed in armor plates on sections of his body with his katana drawn as a number two headband is wrapped around his sheath.
Never a moment of peace, I think to myself, mentally preparing for the coming fight. I just hoped I didn’t have to kill anyone else.