Kakuriyo (Vol. 1): Chapter 1: Don’t Give Rice to Ayakashi
T/N: please note that any numbers written as (#) will indicate a footnote that will be founded at the bottom of the chapter. Thank you.
Title: Chapter 1: Don’t Give Rice to Ayakashi
Previous Chapter: Prologue
I walked through the Uomachi(1) shopping district. It’s a quiet shopping street for the elderly, lined with shops that have been around for ages. It was early in the morning, there weren't any people on the lonely shopping street, and every time the strong spring breeze blew, the ancient arcade groaned. However, in the arcade, the darkest shadow moved around. And if you check your surroundings carefully, you’ll find… something moving in the gaps between the alleys.
There may not be people, but there’s always… them.
I was aware of their presence, but I just looked forward and walked fast, ignoring them. They were wary of me. I could feel their chilling gaze on me, but I ignored them all the same.
I was starting my first day as a sophomore in college. With the tuition fees left by my grandfather, I had to study hard, get a job properly, and become a productive member of society.
They can’t be fooled.
As I quickly passed through the shopping district, I saw the torii gate of an old shrine across the road. The entrance to the shrine rested on the top of a hill. Long stone steps laid beyond the torii gate, lined on either side by cherry trees. They were in full bloom during this time of year. The vermillion torii gate at the top of the stone steps seemed more vivid than usual.
I was startled when I noticed someone sitting under the vermillion torii gate. The man was suspiciously dressed, wearing black clothes and an ōni(2) mask. “....”
The air was crisp in the early morning hours and yet something tense took my breath away. The moment I laid my eyes upon him combined with the irregular movement of the falling cherry petals filled me with a strange sense of foreboding.
At first glance, he seemed human, but the longer I stood there, the less he seemed human. My brow harshly wrinkled when I realized it.
Oh… he’s an ayakashi(3).
Ayakashi are not human beings like their name suggests. They’re generally referred to as yōkai. They are invisible to ordinary people, but their presence often causes strange phenomena, unsolvable cases, and evil.
But not all spirits are evil. They are capricious, moody, and very troublesome, but most of them live in the shadows of humanity. They try to avoid people as much as possible. However, modern Japan seems to be a very difficult place for them to survive. They have nothing to eat, they starve, and sometimes, out of desperation, they attack people to eat them. While there are those who attack humans for some perverse enjoyment, most do it to survive.
The easiest targets for them are the humans who can… see.
The masked ayakashi under the vermillion torii gate turned his gaze on me and blurted out, “I’m hungryyyyy…. I. Am. Hun. Gry.”
I raised an eyebrow. He didn’t come over to me nor asked anything of me. He just sat there, looking hungry and sad.
“I’m hungry,” he blurted out again. I couldn’t help but be curious, but still, I don’t reply to the mysterious ayakashi I’ve seen nor spoken to before. I couldn’t let him know that I could see him. I shouldn’t have stood still, so I hurriedly turned away to escape.
But I stopped.
I threw my head back and groaned with frustration before I turned back. I went up the stone steps of the shrine and came up to the ayakashi dressed in a black kimono and hidden behind an ōni mask. He sat there seemingly without a care in the world. I was still a little hesitant, but I tightened my expression and offered the masked ayakashi a plain flat steel bento box.
“Hey, is this ok? This was going to be my lunch.”
The ayakashi got up and looked down at me.
“You’re hungry, right? ‘I’m hungry! I’m hungry!’ I can’t have you attacking people because you’re hungry.”
I stared at the emotionless mask of the ayakashi. He looked again at the bento box. He lifted a hand out from within the sleeve of his kimono. His hand was about the same size as a human man’s but with claw-like nails.
I squeaked as his claws grazed the back of my hand as he reached for the bento box. It stung a little as he took it. He lifted the lid of the bento box. Cherry blossom petals slowly fell down onto the bento.
It was a rather simple bento – half of it was white rice with two pieces of pickled radish. The main dish was plum flavored grilled ginger pork loin. Next to the pork loin was simmered lotus root, mustard spinach salad, fried shimeji and maitake mushroom with bonito flakes, and a rolled omelet with scallions.
“....”
For a while, the ayakashi stared at the contents of his lunch box before he shifted his mask slightly to expose his mouth. It seemed that perhaps he had the face of a young man under that mask.
Oh well… it’s not like ayakashi actually were they age that they seemed.
He picked up the chopsticks from the box and politely said, “Thank you for the food.”
The politeness didn’t seem like something an ayakashi would do. He picked up the simmered lotus root first.
I stared blankly at the ayakashi who was eating my food. I sighed in resignation to myself. Oh, I’m such an idiot. What can I say? I have a soft spot for hungry ayakashi….
“Oh, I have to go to university now. Just leave the bento box somewhere nearby. I’ll come back later to pick it up.”
When I turned to leave, he muttered in a calm voice, “It’s delicious, Aoi.”
His words surprised me – I stopped. I was honestly happy to hear that my food was delicious. However, not wanting to seem caught off guard by the first ayakashi I had ever dealt with, I replied brusquely, “Then don’t leave anything behind.”
I didn’t turn back around, instead, I ran down the stone steps and briskly walked towards the station. But wait. “How did he know my name?”
My light blue dress fluttered in the breeze as I stared suspiciously back at the trees surrounding the shrine on the hill. The small cherry blossoms that had fallen to my shoulders fluttered away as I turned around to head to school.
I encountered something strange.
The encounters with them are always sudden and inescapable. For those of us who can see, as I do, their activities are always in sight. Even in this modern world, ayakashi exist close to our daily lives.
“Well, well.”
There were some ayakashi living on the bank of the creek by the station. The little kappa(4) pointed at me and tried their best to climb up the bank. My grandfather called them ‘temari kappa’ because they were about the size of a temari(5) handball and looked like a cute little character mascot. They’re weak, harmless ayakashi who typically live in groups and use their adorable appearance to con food out of me.
“Aoi-shama(6) – pwease.”
Here they come. I said, “Wait a minute,” as the temari kappa scurried around, checking to see if there were any people around. The reason I go to university so early in the morning is because of these little guys.
I took a plastic container out of my bag. Inside of it were many small rice balls made from brown rice filled with chopped cucumbers and miso marinated chicken.
After all, kappa love cucumbers.
When I offered them the rice balls, a fierce battle began, as if I had tossed a piece of bread into a carp pond.
“Tank you very much! It’s very difficult for kappa to eat in this desolate realm.”
“The kappa have been fed by Aoi-shama!”
In an overwhelming display of mock patheticness, the temari kappa hugged their rice balls and rubbed their cheeks against my ankles. They’re cute but sometimes irritating. If only there was some kind of good fortune to be gained from investing in them. As I put the container away in my bag, I sent off the temari kappa that were still hanging around.
“Come on, come on, stop flirting and get your asses back in the river. If people see me talking to you guys, they’ll treat me as if I’m crazy since they can’t see you.”
There was one temari kappa with beady little eyes still stuck to my ankle. It put its little hand over its mouth and tilted its head back to look at me.
“I’m still not satisfied,” it complained.
“I’ve been cutting corners lately,” lamented another kappa, igniting more to get on their feet to complain. I looked down at them with narrowed eyes, suppressing my boiling anger.
“What? You guys do know that I’m not that patient, right? If you have a problem with me, I’ll batter you up and fry you in oil. I’ll eat you as tempura!”
“You can’t eat kappa! We taste bad!”
“That’s a lie! Grandpa says you tastes like axolotl(7)!”
“AHHHHHHHHH! AHHHH! AHHHHHH!”
The kappa now paled when the specific taste was mentioned. With a click and a quiver of their beaks, they rolled back to the river banks.
“.... Damn those low-ranking kappa. So quick to get carried away.”
I mumbled my complaints as I brushed my hair away from my face. Despite complaining, I always bring food for the kappa. I wish they’d put up a sign that said, ‘Please don’t feed the kappa’ around here.
“Aoi-shan.”
“Hmmm? What’s wrong with you?”
A very small temari kappa, Chibi, remained at my feet – probably a child amongst the kappa.
Chibi sat down flat on his haunches and turned his round eyes towards me as he shared his sad wisdom about the world: “This world is a world where the weak get weaker and the strong get stronger.”
With their tendency for drama, perhaps, he had missed a meal.
“It can’t be helped.”
With another sigh, I took out a rice ball I was saving for myself from my bag and I gave it to him. Chibi sat up and flailed his arms and legs. “Tank you very much!”
“It was meant for me, but please eat it with care.”
Chibi responded with a little “Aye,” and ate with gusto. I bent down to watch him and poked his swollen cheek with my index finger. “Is it good?”
When asked, Chibi nodded a little and looked up at me with moist, round eyes. “Aoi-shan is a strange person: the only person who gives rice to ayakashi.”
“That’s because only a few people can see ayakashi.”
“Most of the people who can see us try to exorcize us.”
“If I had such a power, I would have done so too,” I answered.
Chibi just casually leaned back while he continued to eat. “Aoi-shan would never do such a thing. I know that.”
“....”
I snickered at the kappa and rose from my knees. I couldn’t afford to be too concerned about the kappa any longer. The sun was starting to rise further into the morning sky. People would be around soon. If anyone saw me talking to ‘nothing’ they’d be instantly creeped out.
Ever since I was a child, I could see ayakashi. Because of this peculiar constitution, I was a burden to my mother and was considered creepy by everyone else around me. It was my grandfather, Tsubaki Shirou, who rescued me from my lonely exile.
My grandfather’s name was well known among the ayakashi. What’s more, he was not only hated by humans but also by ayakashi. I, too, have had many ayakashi troubles because of my grandfather. Whenever I’m in trouble with ayakashi, I’d serve food to the ayakashi.
They are often hungry and when they’re starving, they eat people, preferably those who can see ayakashi. I am one of them, unfortunately.
In short, I’m an easy target in my own way. However, by handing over food first, I’ve been able to avoid being eaten by starving ayakashi. Regardless, I have my own reasons as to why I can’t leave a hungry ayakashi alone.
Before my grandfather took me in, a mysterious ayakashi saved my life. When I was a child, I found myself in a situation where I was suffering from starvation. There was a strange ayakashi that shared their food with me.
Hunger is painful. I can’t just sit back and watch, whether it’s a person or ayakashi. That’s why I can’t ignore a hungry ayakashi and give them something to eat.
Later that day…
Leaving the nearest station, I walked along the riverbank where the kappa lived and stopped at the shrine by the Uomachi shopping district. In the morning, I had given the ayakashi with the ōni mask a bento box. Did the masked ayakashi eat the bento box?
He was no longer there, but when I climbed the stone steps and looked down at the foot of the vermillion torii gate, I noticed not the steel bento box I had handed him that morning, but an old bento box wrapped in a mysterious patterned tenugui(8) cloth. It seems that it had been there for quite a while – plenty of cherry petals had piled up on top of it. There was a beautiful hairpin inserted into the knot of the cloth.
“Hey... did he give me this cloth and hairpin?”
Before I realized it, I found myself sitting down on those stone steps and pulled the hairpin from the knot of the tenugui. I held it up in the air. It wasn’t flashy, but it certainly was pretty: an underdeveloped camellia bud hairpin.
Was it made of glass? Or some kind of stone? The clear crimson was eye-catching. “Pretty….”
The shrine grounds were quiet and empty. I spun the hairpin, watching the colors shimmer and shift as sunlight filtered through the trees. A strong gust of wind blew through, rustling the trees. More cherry blossom petals fell mysteriously shifting the hues found in the camellia bud.
“Oh… I wonder if that masked ayakashi ate its lunch properly?”
I unwrapped the bento box from the cloth. I checked the contents of the lunch box and was impressed to see that it had also been thoroughly washed. “He’s unexpectedly serious ayakashi….”
This time, I unfolded the tenugui cloth and looked at it. The late afternoon sunlight filtering through the trees made the pattern stand out even more – the dark patterns standing out against the light cotton. I didn’t know what the pattern, which reminded me of crawling worms, meant.
Instantly, something was wrong. The long tenugui cloth moved on its own, as if it were alive, fluttering into the air and beginning an undulating dance before my eyes. The tenugui became long and taut, as if the four corners were being pulled, as if a large scroll was being pulled open right in front of me.
“Hu-huh?!”
I was too stunned to make a sound or even blink.
As I kept my gaze on the tenugui, the earthworm pattern on the cloth, gathering at a single point, creating a huge black circle. Suddenly, the black circle engulfed the rest of the cloth and filled my vision with darkness, as if spewing ink from unknown depths.
It was so bright that afternoon, and yet, what was that darkness? As soon as the darkness completely filled my vision, I felt like I was falling, as if I had lost my footing.
It was silent. I felt a shock in my body as if I had been plunged into warm, dark water. The bubbles that surrounded my body tickled me. I felt helpless as I kept falling into the dark, warm water, deeper and deeper. I struggled to breathe.
Eventually, I saw a light in the distance. As I frantically reached for it, something grabbed my arm and pulled me up hard.
“Let’s go to Kakuriyo, my bride,” someone whispered in my ear.
It was familiar. It was the low voice of the ōni-masked ayakashi.
Footnotes:
(1) Uomachi is a district in the city of Kitakyushu, which is the northernmost city on Kyushu Island, which is the largest southern island of Japan.
(2) No direct translation but can be thought of as an ogre or demon.
(3) A collective name for yōkai (lit. strange apparition) that appear above water.
(4) A type of ayakashi. They’re basically water imps with a dish on the top of their heads that hold the water of life.
(5) Temari are small, intricate, colorfully designed handballs.
(6) The Temari Kappa talk in a cutesy lisp (read: kawaii) that I tried to replicate in their dialogue. Certain typos are intentional.
(7) I would like to note that the translation was ‘Wooper’ directly… like the pokemon.
(8) A cloth that is traditionally used as almost a bag.
Table of Contents
Chapter 2: The Ōnigami Master Innkeeper
