The area was densely wooded with these trees, but strangely, she didn’t hear any insects or birds. Also, the pomegranate trees looked like shrubbery compared to the surrounding older forest; or rather, all the other trees were simply humongous. This gave the whole place the darkness of twilight even in the middle of the day, but the far end of the pomegranate patch was sunk in an even eerier blackness.
Yae’s life was in critical danger, but even so, she couldn’t will herself to enter the patch. She sidled up to a shorter tree at the edge nearest her. Her arms and legs were muddy, and she had many small scratches.
There was a tremendously thick pillar, sooty crimson in color, stuck into the ground at an angle next to the tree. It looked as if a giant had thrown a lance down from the sky.
Yae picked up a rock off the ground, aimed for one of the pomegranates on the tree, and threw it. Reaching the fruit would have been a piece of cake as a fully grown woman, but with her unreliable and weak toddler’s body, she couldn’t even reach the lowest branch no matter how hard she tried. She threw rock after rock, and by the time her arms had started to grow numb, she finally succeeded at knocking down one pomegranate. She picked it up carefully and began to cry.
“I’ll starve if I don’t eat anything… But…this looks like it’s going to kill me…” The fruit was clearly dangerous to eat. Yae could see nothing but writhing pain in her future if she bit into it. She was convinced it was unsafe. “This is a life-and-death decision. How did I end up in this situation…?”
The skin peeled easily because it’s ripe, not because it’s rotten. The seeds on the inside only look black because it’s dark outside, and the hard white beads are just my imagination. I can eat this. It won’t hurt me. It’s just food. Here we go… Yae’s hunger-impaired thinking and her body’s pressing demand for nutrition forced her mouth open.
It was disgusting. It tasted rotten. But Yae still ate it. She had only one reason.
I want to live.
There were some very hard bead-like things inside it that might have been seeds, and she swallowed those as well. She couldn’t stop herself from eating. Her desire to live made her temporarily lose her mind.
I want to live, no matter what it takes…
She didn’t want to die again. The thought of her heart, her soul disappearing into nothingness as if slipping into sleep terrified her. She wanted to live. Her blood boiled and her body screamed with that desire.
Yae let her tears fall as she ravenously consumed the fruit. At some point, she realized she could have a much bigger problem than it being rotten—What if it’s poisonous? Just as she finally registered that cruel possibility, her consciousness began to fade. Oh, this is the end. I’m truly dying.
By the time she opened her eyes next, someone had rescued her.
“Dr. Yae, do you have a second?”
Yae heard a voice from behind her just as she was about to perform an Appellation charm on what was called a Japanese andromeda in her previous life. She hadn’t dipped her brush in the inkpot yet, so she rolled it up in a cloth and returned it to a light-brown leather bag hanging from the sash around her waist. “Of course,” she said with a smile.
It was Misao, son of Kadaru, the chief of Kaki Province. He was a large man at over six shaku—about one hundred and ninety centimeters—and his big red eyes suggested a childlike nature more timid than cheerful.
It was currently the beginning of summer, in the fifth month of the lunar calendar. Misao’s clothes were thin to fit the season. The basic form of dress didn’t differ between men and women, consisting of a long round-necked robe, a sash, pants, and leather shoes. As such, Yae and Misao were dressed similarly. She wore an indigo robe with a sash of white fabric over it, and her collar and cuffs were decorated with a vine pattern. Misao’s light-green robe had delicate embroidery, and the waist was tied together with a yellow sash. It was a combination that reflected youth and brought to mind the scent of fresh greenery.
“Sorry for interrupting your work, Dr. Yae,” he apologized.
“I don’t mind. I was just thinking of taking a break,” Yae said with a shake of her head. Misao smiled softly as if to gauge her mood and scratched his short reddish-brown hair.
It always made Yae feel strange when people from Kaki Province called her “doctor.” Ignoring her age in her previous life, Yae currently had the body of a fourteen- or fifteen-year-old girl. Misao was young himself, but he was still in his mid-twenties.
“I have a message from Father,” Misao said. “He would like you to perform the Kaizaka March tomorrow night.”
“Ah… It’s already been a year. Understood. Please tell Chief Kadaru that I will start preparing right away,” Yae responded, turning away from Misao and gazing off into the distance.
Misao smiled with relief but then immediately winced. “Uh, Dr. Yae…,” he started nervously, looking behind Yae with an anxious expression. “Lord Kuroashi is back. He’s right behind you.”
Yae turned around to see a giant tiger sitting behind her as if he had just appeared out of thin air. Kuroashi had pitch-black fur as if formed from the depths of the night. His eyes were bright yellow like sunflowers or dandelions, and surrounded by his black fur, they looked like two full moons resting in the night sky.
“Lord Kuroashi can’t get enough of me. I’m always looking up to find him by my side,” Yae said teasingly, giving the tiger a pat on the head. Kuroashi scrunched his nose and glared at her with great irritation. This tiger couldn’t take a joke.
She tugged Kuroashi’s ears and teased him for his sullenness, and Misao’s expression turned serious. “Demon beasts really do like you, Dr. Yae. So much so that I’m worried one is going to gobble up your soul like candy someday. I suppose I have no right to say that, though, given how long we’ve made you sacrifice yourself for the ceremonies…”
Misao left hastily after relaying his message, and Yae decided to suspend her Appellation work and return home. Kuroashi followed behind her without hesitation. Yae glanced at the tiger and then turned toward the mountains, their ridgelines like raging waves in the distant sky. The haze hanging over the summits looked like a white dragon taking a nap with its body wound around the peaks. It was a beautiful, otherworldly sight.
Kaki Province, where Yae lived, was a village situated in a small basin within a valley of Mount Yagi, one of the peaks in the Hachimi Mountains. Yae looked ahead and saw beautiful green terraced fields blanketing the slope of Mount Yagi. Red azaleas and yellow buttercups bloomed between them.
There were crops planted at the bottom of the windy basin as well, their trenches receiving water from a river that curved through the land like a snake. Houses were built here and there between the fields. The sight of countless terraces winding their way down the slope of the mountain was one of the defining characteristics of Kaki Province, which made up the southern region of Izumo.
Izumo was called a country, but its scale was about equivalent to a prefecture in Japan, and a province was essentially a prefectural town or village. The population of Kaki Province was only about five thousand.