The village's mayor had toured around the village in the morning; reinforming folk on his tin megaphone about the stricter food rationing the Imperial Government mandated to all citizens. This tighter government portion control had one of the elderly village folk grumbling his woes before Rei Ishikawa at his shop.
"Bah! We eat to 1793 calories a day already! Now we're told to eat less!" Grumbled the elderly man. "It's our children who suffer the most!"
He stood before Rei who was a tall and slightly muscly presence behind his sweet display counter, which creatively displayed a sparse variety of colorful dango, daifuku and wagashi.
A lot of people came to know Rei as the friendly giant with a sweet tooth, since he was 6-foot-2 and broad in his chest and shoulders. His squarish face, rugged stubble and thick brows completed his manliness.
"Suzuki-san. This is a time of war and Japan has more people that it can carry. Food needs to be rationed. Think of all our good soldiers fighting the enemy for us. We must face these times with honor and a strong community." Rei gave a manly reminder to the wiry old man whilst handing him an extra piece of dango on-the-house.
"Aye, that is true." Suzuki-san changed his tune when his stomach was sated with sweet dango. "I'll be going now."
Rei politely waved off his elderly customer who hobbled out blissfully through the blue linen noren that was his shop door. He heaved a sigh when he was sure the old man was gone.
"Rei-san! You shouldn't spoil people with freebies! They become expectant and take advantage of your good nature!"
Rei groaned at the heavy scolding he received from his wife at his back. It's not like he didn't have an ulterior motive for his generosity. The people were his business, so he had to treat them well. The old man Suzuki had brought a number of sweets from them the day before, so he was providing a bonus to a loyal customer.
"Asako-chan. It's customer service. We need to maintain a business." His deep voice answered with a conviction that didn't sway his wife.
Asako was a complete physical contrast to Rei in her modest, stylish, blue kimono. She was petite in build (almost as slender as a teenage girl), modest in her mannerisms and dainty in her looks with smooth pale skin for a woman her age. Her hair was always done up in a traditional bun. Her modesty stopped with her looks. The village people viewed Asako as the Sweet Man's Sharp Tooth Wife for her occasional cutting words and bluntness.
"You need to ask for payment next time! We're not a charity business!" She further scolded with a haughty scoff, firm on her stance that maintaining business didn't mean giving away precious freebies.
She dropped her scolding with a weary sigh, feeling exhausted by their repeated arguments and joined him at their shop-display counter. Her eyes wandered over the little amounts of sweets they had to offer.
Because of the Imperial government's food rationing mandate, they had to recalculate the lack of ingredients in their recipes. Fortunately, they were able to self-sustain most of their shortfall from their own farm produce. Rice was a major player with their sweets. The government's strict rationing had made it difficult for them to fulfil on large orders. All their high paying contracts from Nagano towns and villages ended without renewal, so they were forced to rely on the piddly local patronage. They had converted the small store to a tea shop/night bar with a handful of café tables and chairs to make up for shortfalls. Half the time the people used their shop as a meeting point for gossip, and rarely bought sweets. It was a bleak outlook for their business.
Shuffling noises of the noren being pushed aside snapped Asako out of her depressive thoughts. She lit up at the sight of her two childhood friends stepping inside.
"Asako-chan!" Honda-obasan coyly greeted her friend.
Asako warmly greeted the two women who sat at the café table where most of the daylight shone through the shoji panels. She instantly prepared tea and wagashi on-the-house for them, oblivious of Rei's groaning about her 'hypocritical reset button' being pressed.
"So, what's on your mind?" Asako's voice drifted across to the two women seated at the table.
She sat in one of the seats to join them, leaving any incoming business to Rei.
"Well..." Honda-obasan started.
Asako listened animatedly as the woman gossiped feverishly about the young mother and her child living with Hinata between mouthfuls of sweets and tea.
"I saw her when she was walking with our Mayor. Such a pretty young thing." Honda-obasan said. " I wonder why our Mayor left her in that boy's care?"
The talk made Asako ponder the fact with a frown. Why did their mayor leave them to that boys' care? Surely, he was aware of Daichi Chikafuji's nephew being of that type. She wasn't the sort of person to superficially pass judgement on a man, and Hinata was a polite and well bred boy. Yet to leave a family to that boy's care was poor form. It was just as well the child was a girl.
"It would be like having two women run the house." Honda-obasan chuckled. "I'm honestly surprised Ito-shichousama didn't invite the woman to his own home. She's very much his type."
Asako frowned, not liking the direction this gossip was headed. Despite being young, Ito-shichousama was managing the village efficiently.
"What does Akira-chan think about this? He frequents that boy's place a lot." Asako tested for her friend's reaction and smirked at the woman's sudden silence.
Their conversation was fortunately disrupted by Watanabe-sensei and five children entering the shop. She was glad that someone had at least given them a decent bath, recognizing the displaced kids who had travelled for days in a truck from Osaka. The muddled expression behind their eyes were worrisome, especially the harshness she saw in the two preteen boys standing protectively close to the little ones. She hoped they weren't going to be a troublesome influence to the local kids.
"Good morning ladies, Ishikawa-san." Watanabe-sensei's mouth was stretched with a generous smile.
He began to introduce the five kids who hovered closely to his side. Asako turned her nose up at the two scrawny preteen boys who had light brown eyes and reddish-brown hair. She had heard of mix-race (nisei) children being sent to Japan from other countries. It made her mad that her government were letting in these ill bred brats whilst good families were barely able to eat a decent meal. These children were not the type of people her son fought the war for.
She huffed at the boys and cast her eyes over of the three littler ones hanging onto the boys' shirts. They looked normal and probably around the ages of three to five years.
"Here you go." Rei-san said to the children as he gently handed each child a piece of dango with a friendly smile and gentle pat to each head.
"Dōmo arigatōgozaimashita." One of the preteen boy's bowed respectfully to Rei with modest thanks.
Watanabe-sensei thanked them for their time and ushered the children out of the shop to visit another area on their tour.
"What is this world coming to that we allow foreign children into our homes?" Honda-obasan voiced Asako's thought.
"Hmph. We already have a food shortage as it is, now there's going to be more people starving," Asako said bitterly as she watched the noren's swaying slow to a rest.
The three women let the experience go with a sigh and turned they conversation to lighter topics. Rei continued to work the shop on his own in the background.
Thanks for reading this chapter.
Kei, and his twin brother Rei, used their bodies to protect the little ones from old farmer Satō's belt whippings.
"Yah ungrateful brats! Yah steal food from meh when I graciously let yah stay in meh home!" The livid old man before them angrily spat out as he lashed at Rei and Kei's backs with vehemence.
The twin brothers bit their lips as their backs stung from whipping after whipping until they bled.
"I'm sorry! It's not Rei-tan or Kei-tan's fault." The tiny voice of the little girl pleaded before the angry adult with distraught tears streaking her face. "I was hungry."
"Nisei brats! Yah make meh sick." Old Man Satō spat on them and to the floor.
He stopped his belting with a weary sigh and told the kids to get lost and don't come back until night fall. If they failed to come back, he'll sic some dogs on them to track them down; thinking on the extra rations of food he'd lose out on without having the kids around his place. He was able to eat like a king because of them, but they were proving to be a nuisance.
The little ones helped the twin preteen boys hobble out of the minka farmer house and down the gravel road to a part of the village they had yet to explore.
They wandered off track and into a field of sunflowers when Rei was showing signs of collapsing. The skin on both the twins was clammy with a cold sweat and festering with pus and blood around the open wounds. Kei's eyes was glossing over with delirium as infection seeped in.
"Rei-tan! Kei-tan!" The girl and two young boys cried out as their older twins collapsed to the dirty ground, unconscious.
The disturbing cries had reached Hinata's ears when he was tending to the vegetable garden on the other side of the field. Instinctively, he raced for the sound of the children's sobbing and panicked at the sight of the two young boys bleeding unconsciously to the ground.
"Little Miss! Can you be brave and go to that house over there to bring back my water can," he gently said to the sobbing girl. "You brave boys, can you go with our princess to protect her? At the house call for a woman there to come."
The girl and two boys nodded, taking note of the cottage on the other side of the meadows.
The sight of the backs of the boys' before him broke Hinata's heart. It crudely reminded him of the similar scars he carried on his own back from the hateful beatings other boys had given him in his school-days. He checked the boys' pulses and was relieved to feel regular beats from them. The sight of the infected wounds on their backs concerned him.
The girl soon returned with Aiyama-san carrying the water can.
"I saw Mei-chan. She said that you asked her to bring you this." Aiyama-san said, not hiding her shock and worry about the boys' conditions. "I told the boys to stay with Miki-chan."
"Can you help me carry them back to the house?" Hinata asked, as he carefully washed the wounds the best he could with the can.
He gave the little girl a warm smile. "Thank you for being brave and helpful to your brothers. Come."
Hinata and Aiyama-san carried the boys back to their house, with the girl hurrying after them.
"Miwa-tan, Shouta-tan!' Miki excitedly greeted the two young boys she saw hovering around the cottage's engawa porch.
"You're here Miki-chan?!" One of the boys said with sigh of relief.
"I see you know our guests Miki-chan." Hinata said when he stepped into view with an older boy in his arms.
He and Aiyama-san laid the boys on the tatami in his room. Hinata spent some time tending to their wounds and wrapping them in a clean bandage.
Aiyama-san groaned when she realized that the girl's short hair was full of lice. Luckily the boys' heads were shaved low, so nits couldn't stick to them. She made sure everyone had hot baths. When they were cleaned and fed, she had them sit in the main room to undergo an intensive combing and nit-picking session. It made her sigh with a gentle smile, enjoying the bonding session.
"Mei-chan. We'll need to cut your hair shorter because of the nits, sorry." She politely said to the young girl, whose dark eyes looked forward with a lost expression.
The young girl acknowledged her words with a nod. The young boys stared at Aiyama-san's motherly face wistfully, praying they could stay with her. She had been very kind and caring towards them during their trip from Osaka, making sure their sickness was gone with her healing skills. So when they were forced to separate at their final destination, this had made them distraught. They were relieved to be reunited with her.
"I wonder if Chikafuji-san's store has clothes for kids." Aiyama-san mused a loud and greeted Hinata when he entered the room.
"I've made the boys as comfortable as possible. They continue to sleep. I'll check on them in an hour," he carefully said to Aiyama-san.
He smiled at the sight of her grooming on the little girl's hair. His smile dropped with a groan when he saw she was carrying lice.
"Do you need more hot water?" he asked, but was already headed toward the kitchen to heat up the kettle over the small square Irori pit that kept the cottage warm as well as acted as the oven to cook the food.
He made a mental note to wash all their sheets in hot water the next day.
Hinata and Aiyama-san spent a lot of time making sure the children were comfortable as can be. Night was well and truly in place when a curt banging could be heard from the front entrance way. Hinata had just finished securing the amado around the cottage.
He opened the door to find the village's young law enforcer looking pristine in his all black uniform, french style stiff peak cap and white gloved hands. Tanaka-san was fresh out of college and a couple of years younger. Hinata found it strange for a mild-mannered man with a wiry body and mousy features to be stern enough as a law enforcer.
Tanaka-san was accompanied by a pot-belly middle-aged man with the crankiest and scruffiest face he had every seen. This man was his neighbor Satō-san from the farm on the other side of the sunflower meadows. He was vehemently pointing accusations at Hinata for kidnapping.
"You're the one who's stolen dem kids!" Satō-san accused Hinata.
"I beg your pardon?!" Hinata said back to the man with shock.
"Satō-san, accusing your neighbor for kidnapping is a serious offense. Unless you have some evidence, I will need you to zip your lips." Tanaka-san firmly reprimanded the senior man with a polite voice and smile.
Hinata was made aware of the man's looks being misleading.
"To what do I owe the pleasure for this visit?" He politely asked.
"I've been called to resolve a domestic disturbance between yourself and good neighbor here." Tanaka-san respectfully and blatantly gestured to the grumbling old man.
"What kind of disturbance? I haven't seen head or tail of him all day." Hinata glared at his neighbor.
"Do you have a bunch of extra kids in your house?" Tanaka-san soberly asked.
Hinata nodded. "Yes, they entered my property distressed and hurt, so I've been helping them."
Tanaka-san's face was expressionless when he entered the cottage upon Hinata's invitation.
"You stay here," he said to Satō-san at the entrance and added a warning of pressing charges with disorderly conduct should he disobey.
The old man grumbled, but stayed put with smugness when he felt he wasn't going to be in the wrong.
Tanaka-san politely asked for Hinata's story as they entered the main room, taking note of the conversation in his flip-notebook. He there took note of the children's conditions, Aiyama-san's statement and then entered Hinata's room to check the condition of the unconscious boys.
"What did you do to them?" He asked Hinata with a frown.
"If you're implying I hurt these boys, I did not!" Hinata defended himself. "They collapsed to the ground from the wounds on their backs. I cleaned them up and dressed them."
Tanaka-san carefully inspected the skillful bandaging that was keeping the wounds from infection, taking notes as he went. The material showed tell-tale splotches of blood, which he suspected had oozed out of lash wounds. He also noticed that the boys' faces and limbs were wiped clean with care. They were resting with the aim of recovery. His eyes glanced over Hinata's clean kimono and obi.
"I see." He stood to leave, having reached a conclusion of the truth.
"I'm sorry Tanaka-san, I haven't offered you tea." Hinata apologized for his lack of manners.
Tanaka-san gave Hinata a curt smile. "I'm on duty, so I won't need the tea. Please escort me to the entrance."
Hinata followed the law enforcer to the entrance where Satō-san was still hovering around.
"The children are to remain in Chikafuji-san's care indefinitely, with paperwork transferred over to him." Tanaka-san ordered as he took note of his words in his notebook. "Do you acknowledge these terms Satō-san?"
"What?! But dem kids be given to me to care for. I get the rations to look after dem!" Satō-san spat out angrily at the young haughty men before him.
"Are you defying my resolution?" Tanaka-san coolly said that made Satō-san gulp down the rest of his words. "Would you like me to perform a fitness reassessment of your farm's conditions towards these children's care?"
"The boys are in no conditioned to be moved. Chikafuji-san's home is cleaner and having a woman around the house will speed their recovery."
"But..." Satō-san began his further protest, but stopped when he copped the authoritative glare from Tanaka-san. "Fine."
He turned and stomped away from Hinata and the law enforcer.
"Thank you Tanaka-san." Hinata bowed gratefully to the young man.
"I don't like the idea of leaving boys in your care. Given the options, your place is a better fit for their recovery." Tanaka-san's next words carried a serious undertone. "It would not hurt my conscience to place charges on you for any moral harm done to these boys."
Hinata frowned at the man's accusation because of his preferences, but he decided his words towards his honor would be a wasted effort. "Understood."
He sighed with bitter relief when the village's law enforcer disappeared into the night.
Thank you for reading this chapter
Paragraph comment
Paragraph comment feature is now on the Web! Move mouse over any paragraph and click the icon to add your comment.
Also, you can always turn it off/on in Settings.
GOT IT