They rode in silence for hours. Oyakata Kenjiro stared out the window, watching the scenery roll by. The lush landscapes of the countryside and farms. The only exciting bit was when Ezra led the carriage onto a ferry and Kenjiro paid the raft owner some silver to take them to the mainland of the Sasake Empire.
Hiroshi sat with his fingers on the windowsill of the door, trying to lean out as much as he could while they were traveling the distance to the mainland. Up to this point in his life, he had never been on the water. It was thrilling, the waves, that sweet, salty air flowing into his lungs. He couldn’t help but be a little excited. The nerves of leaving home behind him now.
“Have you ever been to the mainland, Hiroshi?”
Oyakata Kenjiro’s voice snapped him from his wonder and brought him back to reality and he slid slowly back in his seat. He looked down at the space between the two bench seats. While the outside looked very plain and simple, the inside was lavish and comfortable. Leather seats with lots of cushions for long rides for important people. Golden trim throughout the seats and behind where the Oyakata sat was a painted scene depicting the original battle between Kentaro and Kenichi, the War Kami.
“I haven’t, master,” Hiroshi said lowly, unsure exactly how he should address or speak to the Oyakata. “My father took me fishing a couple of times, but he was always working or we would be training or going to watch sumo.”
Kenjiro nodded his head and looked back out of the window with a faraway look in his eye. Hiroshi was still back in his seat, still looking at the floor between the bench seats, unable to look up or out of the window once more. After what seemed like forever, Hiroshi figured Kenjiro wasn’t going to say anything else to him for the time being and he started to slowly look back up.
“Your father taught you love for sumo, hm?” Kenjiro said, which made Hiroshi bow his head once more.
“Yes, master. He would take me to the arena often and we would watch. Many of the people that worked there knew my father. He’d take the day off work, and let me skip my studies and we’d go when the big tournaments happened,” Hiroshi explained, and finally looked up. He found Kenjiro no longer looking out of the window, but now staring at Hiroshi. His eyes were dark and intense, he was no longer the man who came to dinner with the family as he was last night. Hiroshi gulped. His stare seemed to pierce right through Hiroshi. Kenjiro nodded his head and once more looked out the window and Hiroshi looked back to the ground.
“We’re almost to the dock on the mainland, sir,” Ezra said, appearing from nowhere in the carriage's window. “Just a few more minutes and we’ll be pulling up to the dock.”
Kenjiro looked out of the window, past Ezra. He nodded his head once and then leaned back, seeing that Ezra was right. The landmass of the Sasuke Empire was getting larger and larger.
Ezra gave a wide grin, showing his missing teeth, when Hiroshi looked up at him. The man was older and grizzled, but behind the rough, patchy sun tanned and dry skin Hiroshi saw a kindness. The old man winked at him and looked back at Kenjiro. “So, where are we staying for the night?”
Kenjiro was still looking out the window, now up at the sky. He made a soft noise, almost like he was groaning in thought. He leaned back in his seat with a sigh and shrugged. “We’ll head to the next town and find an inn,” he said and closed his eyes.
Ezra nodded his head and walked away to make sure everything with the horses and carriages was ready to go when Kenjiro opened his eyes again and said, “We’ll need somewhere with a big back area, or a large room. Hiroshi’s training is beginning.”
Ezra leaned his head back once the Oyakata started speaking once more. Hearing the instruction, he looked towards Hiroshi with another one of those large, mostly toothless grins before he started laughing. “Aye, sir.”
When Hiroshi looked up at Ezra, his eyebrows raised, he wondered exactly what all of that meant. What exactly had he signed up for? He could still hear Ezra laughing as the chains and metal workings began rattling as he got the horses ready. “Poor boy doesn’t know, does he, Chet?” A horse responded with a noise and Hiroshi gulped before he looked back up at Kenjiro with wide eyes.
Wait, what kind of name is Chet? Hiroshi looked out the window with a cocked brow, trying to get a peek of the man with his horses.
Hiroshi never got that peek. It was only a few moments later until the carriage rolled once more. He bumped and bounced as the carriage got off the ferry and onto the dock, and then onto the dirt road. His eyes shifted from the Oyakata then out of the window. He furrowed his brow and steeled his resolve then poked his face to the open air window so he could watch the roving landscape.
“Are you scared of me?” Only a few moments had passed of mostly the same scenery as he had seen on the island before Kenjiro had spoken.
Hiroshi closed his eyes and leaned back in his seat. He took a moment to think about his answer before he opened his eyes and looked up at his Oyakata. “No, master. I just don’t want to do the wrong thing. I’m already further than I ever have been from home.” Hiroshi looked down once more. “I just don’t want to screw up. This all means a lot to me, and my family.”
Kenjiro nodded his head in understanding. “Don’t let those nerves paralyze you,” he instructed.
Hiroshi nodded his head. “Yes sir, thank you sir,” he said before turning to look out of the window once more. He was a little more dismayed, though. Now with those feelings put into words, the knot in his stomach returned and he leaned back in his seat, no longer caring to look out of the window.
Hiroshi woke to Ezra yelling outside of the carriage. He blinked his eyes and looked up at Oyakata Kenjiro, who looked annoyed at the entire ordeal.
“I’m sorry I fell,” Hiroshi had started to say.
“Stop,” Kenjiro commanded. The command came quickly, sharply. The Oyakata wasn’t looking at Hiroshi. He stepped from the carriage and climbed down the couple of steps onto the ground.
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Hiroshi didn’t dare to follow, but he tilted his head and reached his neck as far as he could out of the window so he could see what was happening. The carriage had pulled up to a large stone wall with a guard tower on either side of a large wooden door that opened wide.
“You fools! I am Oyakata Kenjiro from the Hajima Stable in Toko! I am on my way back to the capital from the tournament on the island of Kokokan. Open these doors,” Kenjiro yelled up to the guards.
“I can’t sir. Apologies!” One guard yelled down in response before it sounded like he was getting shouted at from the other side.
Ezra looked down at his charge and said. “I tried tellin’ ‘em, sir. Told ‘em who you are, they didn’t seem to care.” Ezra shrugged. “Maybe we’ll be sleeping in the woods tonight under the stars.”
Kenjiro huffed and folded his arms across his chest just as the doors opened, with a lone figure running out as soon as he could fit through the doors.
“I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” He had a loud pitched, almost whiny voice and sounded like he was out of breath. He approached the Oyakata and bowed furiously. “I didn’t know it was you, sir. There have been many attacks from spirit beasts in these woods lately. The guard captain suggested I keep the doors locked to help save the city. I gave the command. If I had known I’d be visited by… Well, anyway, come in, come in. I will get a room in the inn for you, my treat.”
“Well, if you’re offering, how about some baths as well?” Ezra grumped from his driver’s seat.
“Quiet, Ezra, you will get your bath. Who are you?” Kenjiro didn’t bother looking up at his driver but kept his eyes on the man who rushed from the town.
“Oh, sorry, I’m Mayor Ichiro sir. Come, come, before anything strikes out from the woods,” he ushered Kenjiro and Ezra to take the carriage inside the town walls.
Kenjiro stood on a step and held the door closed. Ezra gave a command to his team of horses and moments later, Hiroshi was bouncing along once more in the carriage. He was still trying to get a peek out of the window, but now Kenjiro was blocking everything from view. While in the process of moving the backpack and hat that was sitting next to him on the bench seat, the carriage stopped moving.
“Come Hiroshi,” he heard his master call him. The whole carriage shifted when Kenjiro climbed off the step.
Well, that was fast.
Hiroshi looked up from his bag and out of the window he saw his master’s back walking towards a plain wooden building. Hiroshi felt the carriage wibble and wobble under him as he scooted out and climbed down to the cobblestone street. He had his pack on and his hat around his neck hanging on top of the pack.
The inn loomed over Hiroshi, and he looked up at the three story building. It was plain looking, but it looked well maintained. There was a lot of intricate detail work in the wood's trim around the building, which gave it an understated luxurious feeling. Hiroshi tried to move ahead of Kenjiro so he could look at the carvings in the wood, but he was stopped.
“Help Ezra with the luggage. I will secure us a room and make sure it’s alright if we use the back area to train,” the Oyakata commanded Hiroshi.
Hiroshi closed his eyes and held back the grunt he felt coming. He had just reached the doorway, which had lines carved with gold inlay. On the top of the rounded door before Hiroshi turned to face Kenjiro, he noticed a carving of a small pond with pebbles around it.
“Yes, master,” he said finally, and bowed before walking back to the carriage.
Ezra was already on the roof of the carriage, untying the luggage. “No worries lad, just a couple of bags to take down and then you can get to exploring,” Ezra called down.
Hiroshi stood there and watched the older man untie the couple of trunks. “Your new master doesn’t pack light, oi,” he griped.
Unsure what to say, Hiroshi just stood there and smiled awkwardly. Eventually, he gave a nervous laugh.
“No worries. So, are you excited about the big tournament? About being under the illustrious Oyakata Kenjiro? The man was a fierce rikishi in his day, from what I hear. Alright, brace yourself now. Get ready to grab this trunk,” Ezra never really gave Hiroshi a chance to answer, just kind of kept talking in his gruff, raspy voice while he worked.
Once Hiroshi saw Ezra drag an end of the trunk to the edge of the roof, he positioned himself under it and raised his hands as high as he could.
This isn’t going to go well… Hiroshi thought as the trunk edged inch by inch over the edge of the roof of the carriage. The very tips of his fingers reached maybe the middle of the door to get into the carriage. Ezra said Kenjiro didn’t pack light.
Hiroshi gritted his teeth and spread his legs apart a little, like he was getting ready to shiko. He didn’t go quite that low, but he wanted to have a good base, so he didn’t drop his master’s luggage. The trunk looked like it was covered in fine leather, and he didn’t want to be the one to damage it.
“I have it!” Hiroshi shouted out as soon as he felt the trunk land in his hands. Luckily, Ezra didn’t just let it fall on the boy like he had originally thought.
“Let me know when you really have it, boy. Don’t need to be dropping his trunk,” Ezra called down. “I have the other end.”
Oh.
Hiroshi blinked and straightened himself, his chubby arms flexing under the weight of the trunk. “I think I have it, but go slow,” he told Ezra.
Slowly but surely, the trunk was taken and put easily on the ground. Along with the first trunk, there was a smaller second and a luggage bag. They were all coated with fine black leather, but were rather plain looking.
“Alright, I’m going to take the carriage around back to the barn. You head inside and see if there’s some kind of cart or something. Those damn trunks are too heavy to carry together, and I don’t want to make a bunch of trips.
Hiroshi found Kenjiro standing in the lobby waiting for him. His arms were crossed, and he looked out a window to the back area. Hiroshi could make out part of the carriage as they came on and he heard Ezra yelling to the horses.
The lobby, like the outside, was plain, but the intricate designs in the well-polished wood told Hiroshi it must have been a nice place. There was a gigantic fireplace that took up one side of the room. It wasn’t lit since the weather had warmed up since the winter. Around the fireplace were some large plush brown leather sofas and chairs.
The ponds and pebbles seemed to be a common motif for the hotel, and Hiroshi wondered what the name of the place was. He didn’t really see a sign. How are people supposed to know the name of the place?
He wondered as he got a closer look at the design work in the wood. On closer inspection, it looked like vines and leaves with an occasional thorn. The lobby desk had a full-blown beautiful painting of the pond and pebbles around it where the artist faded the artwork into the wood and then finished the painting with carving.
“Take the cart out to Ezra, he can finish up. Here are the keys to our rooms. You and Ezra are sharing. They’re both the same so it won’t matter which you end up in,” Kenjiro said, holding out his hand.
Jarred, out of his appreciation for the woodworking and artwork, hearing his master’s voice, Hiroshi stands and looks wide eyed at the Oyakata. After walking over and grabbing the keys, he bowed softly at him.
“Master, what is the name of this inn? I didn’t see a sign, and was curious. It’s a very nice inn.”
Kenjiro smirked and nodded his head. “Yes, they don’t really advertise here. Hoping it allures some of the more private businessmen and affluent people. The name is The Little Pebble Inn and Spa, which is why there’s so many little ponds and pebbles in the art.”
The Oyakata brought a hand to his chin and looked over Hiroshi for a moment with his pack and hat on. “Do you have your mawashi in your pack?”
Hiroshi nodded his head quickly. “Yes, master.”
“Good. Bring it with you out back when you come. Give your pack and hat to Ezra to take care of though,” Kenjiro instructed, and then turned and walked off through an opening leading outside. He didn’t wait for Hiroshi to answer.