The Toki-Girl and the Sparrow-Boy, Book 10: The Reluctant Dragon

By Claire Youmans

With Azuki's future again at risk, can she and her friends forge fulfilling lives as society turns repressive and even the dragons are leaving Earth?

Japan, 1879. The first class of the National Secondary School will soon graduate, but what's next for the dual-natured Toki-Girl Azuki; her Sparrow-Boy brother, Shota; Eagle-Boy Akira and Dra

• Language: English
• Publisher: american i
• Release date: Aug 30, 2023
• ISBN: 9781733902090

Claire Youmans

Claire Youmans first went to Japan in 1992 and was immediately captivated. After years of travel and study, she continues to be charmed and amazed by a fascinating history and a culture that is both endearingly quirky and entirely unique.In 2014, she started Tales of the Meiji Era with The Toki-Girl and the Sparrow-Boy's unparalleled blend of magical realism and historical fantasy in the first book of the series, Coming Home. She continues exploring the collision of magical realism, history and folklore to share her love and fascination with a very different country and culture.Exciting adventures continue to unfold in this delightful fantastical yet historical world. Follow these at www.tokigirlandsparrowboy.com, www.facebook.com/tokigirlandsparrowboy/ and on Twitter @tokigirlsparrow, linkedin at www.linkedin.com/in/tokigirlandsparrowboy, IG @ tokigirlandsparrowboy, and http://claireyoumansauthor.blogspot.com, for poetry and ruminations on life in Japan.

Book preview

Prologue

Japan is a real place and the Meiji Era is a real time, running from 1868 to 1912. This was a wonderfully exciting time around the world as new inventions changed how people worked and how people lived. New ideas and ways of thinking changed how people viewed the world around them, their systems of government, and their relationships with each other. Nowhere was this truer than in Japan, which leapt from a crumbling feudalism to a modern first-world power in that incredibly short period of time.

In the World of Make-Believe, however, there exists a Japan that incorporates both the objective reality and Japan’s colorful, adventurous folklore. It comes to life with stories that reflect the lives of normal humans and the not-so-normal folkloric beings who shared this space and time with them.

In the northern part of Kyushu at this time lived a family that straddled the Artisan and Samurai classes, yet owned their own land without being either nobles or peasants. They worked hard, they paid taxes and they acquired, by adoption, their daughter, Azuki, who could become a Japanese Crested Ibis, or toki, and their son, Shota, who could become a sparrow. Greed and a lust for power resulted in the deaths of the parents and the flight of the children who found only war and tumult on their doorstep when they returned.

How they regain their human heritage, how they cope with their changing world while still remaining their individual and unique selves, how they make friends and help others despite the total lack of certainty in and about their lives gives rise to tales and adventures of the Meiji Era.

The Toki-Girl and the Sparrow-Boy series combines history and folklore in a unique blend of magical realism and historic fantasy that allows an accurate portrait of Japanese culture and civilization with all its relentless integrity and quirks, its accommodations to the West, misunderstandings of Western ways and steadfast refusals to budge in substance while changing in form.

www.tokigirlandsparrowboy.com contains links to reviews of these enchanting books, a way for you to please leave your own and a glossary of Japanese words used—in a form that can be amended as this series and other stories in this universe progress. It also has a list of characters, so they are easier to track through the successive books.

All the books are listed and updated there with information about what happens in each, to make the series easier to follow, plus purchase links to all major retailers. There is also information about the art that illustrates the books and more about the history of this fascinating period. It was a time when anything could happen and most likely did.

Join Azuki, Shota and their friends in all their intriguing and captivating adventures as they live their own tales of the Meiji era!

The Reluctant Dragon

CHAPTER ONE

Gemba thundered down the path as fast as his stubby legs would carry him. Sensei! Sensei! He had to get to Sensei! Those people who had come to the secret Outcast Village where he and his mother used to live–they wanted to find Lady Noriko, but Gemba didn’t think they were her friends, even though they were ninja, just like she was. Only he wasn’t supposed to know that, let alone say it.

It was winter so it was cold in the mountainous northeastern portion of Kyushu, but Gemba dripped sweat with the effort of his run. Sensei knew things, knew much more than Gemba did. Sensei would know what to do. Gemba’s short arms swung around his round body as he ran along the trail through the forest, as he hurried to find Sensei.

There! The trail joined the track that ran across the pass connecting the port towns on the northern shore with the coastal villages dotting the east coast and going all the way to Beppu and Oita, actual cities that Gemba had never seen but which held a mythical status in his mind, maybe as good as Amida Buddha’s Western Paradise. Gemba hoped to go there when he died, like some people said he might. Sensei said that wasn’t the school of Buddhist thought he followed, and Sensei of course thought his school was the best, but he wasn’t exactly clear in his explanations of what his school’s teachings were—not so Gemba could understand, anyway. Gemba personally would be happy with Beppu, where all the different hot springs were.

Just past the Temple of Mary with all the Jizo statues outside it, Gemba skidded left to race down the hill. He hesitated. Noriko-sama’s dojo was close to the top of the path, connected to the Maeda house by a covered gallery, but, no, Gemba wanted Sensei. Sensei would be at the school, and that was at the bottom of the hill.

Maeda Yuta-sensei glanced over his shoulder at the window of his classroom in the modern National School Building in the large clearing near the village’s tiny harbor when he heard someone crashing through the woods. A dozen young people watched as he inscribed mathematical equations on the chalkboard. His niece, Azuki, the Toki-girl who could become a Japanese Crested Ibis; his nephew, Shota, the Sparrow-boy; Renko, the Dragon Princess, and Akira, the Eagle-boy, were four of those young people. The other eight, ordinary humans all, came from various farms and the larger village over the pass and comprised the entire local secondary school.

Sensei, Sensei, Gemba cried, flailing his arms as he ran from the edge of the woods to the schoolyard.

With a few quick strokes of chalk, Yuta finished the final equation.

All of you, he said firmly, try to solve this. Renko-san, you’re in charge. The dragon-girl was gifted at mathematics. She was the one most likely to figure it out first and then she could help the others. I won’t be long. Yuta nodded sharply and strode to the door to meet Gemba.

Yuta liked Gemba. Though he was slow intellectually and suffered from some kind of congenital difficulty that subtly altered his appearance, he was cheerful and happy and enjoyed life immensely as he helped his mother, Midori, run the village sento. Due to Gemba’s disability and Midori’s own club foot, they had formerly lived in the hidden Outcast Village in the nearby forest. Diverting and artificially heating the small river’s water to create a sento, a hot bathing facility for everyone in the village, had been one of Shota’s best ideas, and created jobs for Midori and her son.

I’m right here, Gemba-san, Yuta said. What’s the matter?

"They’re shinobi, the young man panted, Ninja. And they’re coming to see Noriko-sama, but I don’t like them."

Who? Yuta asked. "What shinobi? Why do they want to see my wife?" Yuta knew better than to question Gemba so abruptly but this was unsettling.

At the Village. In the forest. I went to visit and they were there. Two of them.

Are they staying in the Village?

I don’t know! They say they need to find Lady Noriko! And they’re coming right now!

Yuta knew his own distress was not helping matters. He took several deep breaths. He didn’t necessarily trust Gemba’s facts. Sometimes Gemba got things jumbled. But he did trust Gemba’s intuition, and the young man was not happy about this potential visit.

Go into the school, Gemba-san. Yuta gently took the young man’s shoulders and focused on him. Gemba was tall enough so they were almost of a height. Yuta could almost look directly at him and make Gemba meet his gaze. "Please tell Renko-san I have to go to the dojo for a little while to see my wife. They should work on their mathematics until I get back. Can you remember that?"

Gemba nodded, reassured. Sensei was in charge now. He could relax. As he did, Yuta dropped his grip on Gemba’s shoulders.

"Sensei’s going to see Lady Noriko. They should do the arithmetic until Sensei comes back."

Yuta nodded. That’s fine, Gemba-san. Now go tell Renko-san, please. It’s important.

Gemba straightened, pleased to have an important task, and turned to the school. "Go tell Renko-san. Do the arithmetic. Sensei comes back," he muttered. Yuta’s mouth twisted a little as he watched. It would have to do. He whirled and started up the hill to the dojo.

A former sohei, Yuta used the skills he learned as a warrior monk to move with a runner’s speed up the hill without appearing to exceed a walk. He entered his home compound through the pedestrian gate that opened into the yard at the front of the house and dropped the bar across it. Anyone who wanted to come in that way would have to ring the bell. He rounded the house, ascended the steps to the gallery and leaped up the further steps to the small porch leading to the door of the dojo. He knelt and slid the door open quietly.

Yes? a woman’s quiet voice sounded from within.

A quick glance assured him that his wife was alone, standing off to the side of the door in case the visitor she had heard coming was hostile. She was wearing, as might be expected, a gi cinched with her heavily embroidered black belt and had a shurikan throwing star in her hand. Her morning students should have gone by now, but Yuta wanted to make sure.

Alone? he asked.

Yes. What’s wrong? Come in. Noriko stepped back, having assured herself that he was alone.

"Gemba-san just ran to the school. He said there were shinobi at the Outcast Village, and that they were looking for you."

"If they left right after Gemba-san, they’ll be here any minute, then. But my existence isn’t a secret, nor is the location of my dojo."

"That you are a kunoichi is, though." Kunoichi were women shinobi, or ninja, the pronunciation depending on whether the kanji were read in Chinese or Japanese style. All the known ninja schools had women members, but Noriko came from the very secret women-only Mochizuki school. Her menkyo kaidan, the credential that established her as a martial arts master/teacher and allowed her to establish her own dojo, came from her Shaolin masters in Tokyo. Her kunoichi training was a closely guarded secret.

"How did Gemba-san know they are ninja?"

The bell on the outside door of the dojo sounded.

We’re about to find out.

CHAPTER TWO

People were sometimes impatient with Gemba. The cheerful Gemba rarely understood why and his feelings were easily hurt. But if a person was willing to exercise tact and patience, Gemba not only knew and would impart interesting information, but was enjoyable company. Shota, small and kind of puny as a human—though as a sparrow he was on the large side and, he flattered himself, handsome—had made a friend of Gemba from the second they’d first met, when Shota, his sister and his uncle had stumbled across the Outcast Village in the haunted Ocean of Trees when fleeing attacking Karasu-Tengu, the bird-human hybrids who looked like kites and were reputed to be demons. Shota and his sister were dual-natured, not hybrids, fully both birds and humans, and certainly not demons.

Shota shot a glance at Renko, presently occupied explaining the reasoning behind her solution to the first equation to Yukio-san and Manami-san, brother and sister; normal human students from the larger village across the pass. Shota caught Gemba’s gaze when it strayed from its rapt attention to Renko’s golden hair and beckoned him over.

Azuki, the toki-girl, his older sister, saw what Shota was doing and gave him a crooked smile reminiscent of an expression often used by their Aunt Noriko. She and Akira had finished with the equations. Akira was working on his cartography, and Azuki was using her design skills to help. Sensei hoped Akira and Shota would go on to university when they graduated from the secondary program. Azuki and Renko had just found out they could not. Girls were now excluded from every avenue of higher education except a small Normal School in Tokyo, despite the fact that the Empress had sent five women abroad to study just a couple of years before. Renko was a good teacher, but she didn’t want to be one. Neither did Azuki. Both the school and the job were too restrictive for anybody dual-natured, or who had other consuming talents. Both girls reeled under this blow, with no idea what to do next.

Other students from town worked on their own projects, listened to Renko as they puzzled over the assigned work, or watched Akira. Map-making was inherently interesting. It was also a skill that Akira, adopted son of a retired sea captain who owned the coaster that had once been Shota’s, needed to learn for his intended career as a mariner. The geography, mathematics and drafting skills required could be expanded on in college. But not by Azuki.

What happened? Shota whispered once Gemba sat down.

Kayoko-san’s been sick, did you know that?

I didn’t, Shota replied. It was usually better to let Gemba tell his stories at his own pace.

The Headman says she might die so she can go live with Amida Buddha in the Western Paradise. Gemba frowned. I’m not sure I want to go live there. It sounds boring. Beppu sounds better.

Maybe Kayoko-san would like to live with Amida Buddha, Shota said. He saw no point in confusing Gemba with the differences among Buddhist sects and their post-life options. The Headman is all right, though?

The old man, with his long-dead wife, had actually founded the hidden village where the sick, the superfluous aged, the handicapped, entertainers, criminals and other social undesirables called hinin, or non-people, could go and make new lives for themselves. The forest was supposedly haunted, although apparently only by them.

Kayoko was one of the very old who was not dumped, exactly, but, since she was also sick, was given to understand that her presence in the world was no longer desirable. In famine times, such as those that occurred around the time Azuki and Shota had been born, some such elders had in fact been taken and dumped. Others had gone of their own volition, trekking into the woods or up into the mountains to die. Many had. Others had not. Some of those found the village, where they stayed, joined by hinin seeking refuge, and made new lives there. Others, like Gemba; his mother, Midori; and the Maeda housekeeper Hanako, found ways to return to society.

He’s fine, except he still can’t walk without his sticks. But Kayoko-san isn’t. She was sick when she came, then she got better, and now she is sick again. I know the Headman thinks she’s going to die. He sent for Kayoko-san’s grand-daughter, and she came. With her husband—and they’re going to have a baby!

Renko heard Gemba’s voice rise in excitement at the thought of a baby. She glared at Shota.

If you’re finished with the equations, Shota-san, she said, Perhaps you and Gemba-san could fill the scuttle for the stove so it will be ready for tomorrow.

Shota sighed theatrically. Getting the information he wanted was slow going. Gemba popped up, happy to be useful. He was nearly as big as Akira and very strong. Lifting and carrying was something he did happily and well.

"Come on, Shota-san. Let’s go get Renko-san some seikitan." The Chinese-style stove by the teacher’s desk burned coal, safely because the stove had an enclosed chimney that vented the noxious fumes outside. It was this seikitan, long avoided in the area because of those fumes, that had built local prosperity when Azuki figured out that the rock that burned was what the foreigners sought to use as fuel for their steam ships.

Akira grinned. He made to get up. A little older than Shota, and a lot bigger, he was a Steller’s Sea Eagle in his other form. He was strong, of course, but also a relaxed and unhurried individual who enjoyed life as he encountered it. Helping others was second-nature to him, always interesting and often fulfilling. Shota quickly shook his head. Akira’s muscles would help with the lifting, since the Eagle-boy was as strong as Gemba, but bringing in coal was secondary to finding out what was happening. Akira raised his eyebrows and sank back in his chair.

"So why did you want Sensei?" Shota asked. He tipped the balance of the coal in the scuttle onto the glowing embers in the stove. Gemba then picked up the big iron scuttle and Shota followed him out the door to the coal bunker, a red brick structure that kept a winter’s supply of coal safe from rain and snow. The school itself was built of wood with a tile roof to a standard rural school plan, but Lord Eitaro, the former fief-holder, was enormously proud of the brick coal bunker, based on an English design, that kept the product of his mines safe for school use. In fact, he’d brought so many bricks to the village where his country seat was located that anybody who had a coal stove had a sturdy new coal bunker to hold the season’s fuel.

"Because of the people!" Gemba opened the metal doors to the bunker, picked up the shovel and started filling the scuttle.

What people were those? Shota dodged out of the way of the coal dust stirred by Gemba’s furious shoveling.

The ones that came with Himari-san and Kosuke-san!

They are Kayoko-san’s granddaughter and her husband?

That’s what I said! Coal clattered from the shovel into the scuttle.

I see. Patience, Shota counseled himself. Gemba was not always able to separate his thoughts from his speech.

"They were looking for Lady Noriko but when I saw they were ninja, like her, I got scared and came to tell Sensei!"

Gemba-san, Shota asked carefully, taking the shovel and putting it away by the coal bunker. "How did you know those men were ninja? And how many were there?"

"They weren’t both men," Gemba said, his tone implying that Shota had missed something obvious. He picked up the scuttle, now full and heavy. Shota grabbed the handle, too, so they could move it out of the way while they closed the bunker’s doors.

"The lady ninja’s clothes were like Noriko-sama’s, Gemba explained. With all those special pockets she puts things in, like nobody else does. The man ninja’s clothes had the same kind of pockets, and not even Sensei has those!"

Shota understood Gemba’s reasoning. More or less. His uncle had been a sohei, a warrior monk, before the murder of his brother and his brother’s wife—Shota’s human parents—led him to return to the laity to care for his dual-natured niece and nephew. While sohei trained in various martial arts—Uncle was an expert with a shakujo fighting staff and currently trained in other combat skills with his wife—he had never learned the martial art of ninjutsu.

"But, Gemba-san, nobody’s supposed to know Aunt Noriko is a kunoichi! That’s a lady ninja," Shota added.

That’s why I didn’t tell anybody! Gemba puffed out his chest with great dignity. I’m not Susu-chan, he said. I can keep a secret.

Susu, Renko’s full brother, was also dual-natured, being both human and dragon like she was. But he was a small child in both his dragon and human forms, though those forms matured at slightly different rates. Susu constantly got into trouble for completely failing to grasp the concept of discretion and his total inability to keep anything secret.

We’re all glad of that, Shota reassured Gemba. "So you wanted to tell Uncle the ninja were looking for Aunt Noriko? Why?"

Noriko could use many titles, mostly martial arts related and at least half of them Chinese, but Renko and Susu’s mother, the Western Dragon Queen Rizantona, had ennobled her and dubbed her Lady Noriko, "Noriko-sama" in Japanese. That was the one that, outside the dojo, stuck. Nobody anywhere, ever, dared gainsay Rizantona, not even Ryuujin, King of the Eastern Dragons, her consort and both Renko and Susu’s father.

If Rizantona said Noriko was a noblewoman then the peasant girl from the lowest class of tenant farmers who had raised herself to become mistress and teacher of several martial arts would be a noblewoman of higher rank even than her husband. Yuta came from a cadet branch of an excellent family. They occupied an odd place in society with fortunes that rose and fell over the centuries. They were low-level samurai, yes, but also landowners without being noble, and farmers without being peasants. He was not Lord Maeda, nor was he Lord Yuta, but as a teacher deeply involved in Japan’s burgeoning educational system and a person of some local importance, he was always called Sensei.

They scared me, Gemba told Shota, picking up the scuttle with an ease Shota envied and returning to the entrance of the school. "You know how Noriko-sama always looks right at you and she feels like she’s nice, no matter what’s happening?"

Shota nodded. He understood what Gemba meant.

This lady looked scared. She kept looking behind her like somebody might be coming after them. She touched the throwing star in her sleeve a lot but kept jerking her hand away. The man looked mad. He kept stroking the handle of his dagger. I didn’t like them.

So you wanted Uncle to know about them.

Before they got here, Gemba said, letting Shota hold the door to the school for him. So I ran.

CHAPTER THREE

Answer it, Yuta said, nodding at the dojo’s outside door.

Noriko raised a brow and tilted her head. He was good, but she was better.

I think I’ll stay right here, Yuta added with a smile.

Noriko nodded her understanding. The rack of fighting staffs, shakujo, stood on the porch just outside the dojo by the stairway and gallery to the house. She clicked the locks on her weapons cabinets as she crossed to the door. The shurikan in her hand vanished, but if she needed it or any one of the several other weapons distributed about her person, they were right there.

She carried weapons, yes, but had trained extensively not to need them. A lot of her skill was directed at using anything in the environment as a weapon at need: that was the basis of her kind of ninjitsu. Noriko’s hands and feet were calloused with striking surfaces nearly as hard as fighting sticks, and, since they were propelled by her intelligence, always deadly.

May I help you? she called, silently stepping sideways after she spoke to conceal her location.

"Is this the dojo of Maeda Noriko Lao Shi? The speaker, a women, used the Chinese term that meant Sensei."

The dojo was clearly signed on a plaque by the door and did use the Shaolin Taijitu as its crest, though the Maeda family’s plum blossom mon was also featured, and appeared in the name of the dojo itself.

It is, Noriko said. She unlocked the door. On her stoop she saw a hefty man and a petite woman, dressed as commoners in decent clothing that could use a wash. The woman’s fingers begin to move in signs Noriko recognized.

Please come in.

They stepped into the genken and removed their shoes. As he placed his shoes on the shelf, the man stared at Yuta who returned his gaze impassively.

Come in, sit and have some tea, Noriko said. She signed back to the woman, acknowledging her communication. She moved one hand behind her back where she likewise signaled her husband, using one of the Mochizuki mudras she had taught him. She knew they’d come in handy someday, and this was the day. She couldn’t say about the man, but the woman had identified herself as Mochizuki. She was a kunoichi and Noriko’s guild sister.

Yuta stayed where he was, allowing Noriko to show the guests to cushions surrounding the low table. He let her build up the fire and put the kettle on. She set out three cups, he noted with amusement, and prepared a pot.

The man kept his gaze firmly fixed on Yuta, clearly pegging him as the more dangerous of the two. That an obvious error, Yuta thought. Noriko was the head of this dojo, the Lao Shi, or mistress-teacher, of the school, and the sifu, the mistress, of those who trained here.

Noriko folded smoothly onto a cushion between the new arrivals. I am Maeda Noriko. What is your business with me? And what shall I call you?

We apologize for the rude interruption, the woman said with a bow. This is Daiki-san. She waved a graceful hand at the man. I am called Mitsu. We are travelers on a mission.

The crows have risen, Daiki said abruptly, speaking to Yuta. We have been delayed and must move on quickly.

That told Noriko all she needed to know about this man, at least for now. He would underestimate and ignore any woman in favor of any man, and that would give her an advantage. Mitsu could have told her had any of them been in danger from him, but she had not done so. He had used a code phrase Noriko knew belonged to a different ninja school. Though Mochizuki kunoichi frequently used sign language among themselves, they had spoken codes and they did know at least some of the spoken codes of other schools. The men shinobi of the other schools—Noriko smiled her tiny sidelong smile—were at least officially unaware of that. She signed to Mitsu. Women of all the schools tended to ally with each other.

"My wife is Lao Shi here, Yuta said. She is the one who will decide if we can help you and how."

The kettle whistled. Both her guests started. Minoru’s invention always gave Noriko pleasure. She pulled the kettle off the heat and wet the tea.

The corners of Daiki’s mouth twisted in what looked to Yuta like disgust, but Yuta was not impressed. The man had no way of knowing if he was shinobi or not—and he was not—but since Noriko’s name was on the door, even if he was her superior in some way, Yuta thought this man should let her take the lead until she revealed her leader. If she had one, which, here, she did not.

Sister, Noriko said to Mitsu as she poured, first for Daiki and then for Mitsu, please tell me about your situation.

Daiki drew in breath as if to speak but Mitsu silenced him with a gesture and said sharply, "Noriko Lao Shi is a sister of my school. We can speak easily and freely."

What about him? Daiki jerked his head at Yuta.

"Maeda-sensei is not shinobi but he is trained as a sohei and he is my husband. He is fully trustworthy and a valuable counselor." Noriko’s tone was firm.

I suggest you trust my wife, Yuta said to Daiki. I do.

Daiki didn’t look happy about it, but he settled back and turned to Noriko.

Husband? She gestured at the table, poured tea into the third cup and set it on a coaster opposite her own position. Do join us.

Yuta nodded. Excuse me for just a moment, please.

He stepped outside and slid the door shut.

Azuki-san? he whispered into a dragon-made communication device called a Wishing Rock. Originally commissioned by the Eastern Dragon King Ryuujin to communicate with his younger dual-natured daughter, Renko had later made others and so had he, creating a communications network that functioned beyond the narrow bounds of mental speech. It encompassed all the dual-natured plus a few others, notably Dragon Queen Rizantona and her son, Prince Irtysh, both of whom could use the network without requiring an actual rock with distinctive circular inclusions. Yuta did not share that talent, though he could manage some mental speech. His rock rested in its accustomed place in his inryo pouch, secured to his obi with a netsuke.

Azuki rose and bowed to Renko as she was nominally in charge and left the classroom at a measured pace as though she was going to the privy enclosure. She didn’t have to announce it; it was obvious and nobody would question it. She actually turned in the direction of the privy.

Yes, Uncle, she said. I am alone.

Your aunt has visitors and I need to stay here. Please let Renko-san know. When you finish the mathematics—

We have, Azuki interrupted.

Then all of you work on outstanding assignments or do something else productive until the end of the day. That’s not far off. You may leave early if everyone works diligently.

I’ll tell Renko-san, Uncle. Azuki smiled. How am I supposed to know this?

The two of you can figure it out, Yuta said. He also smiled. His niece was clever and so was Renko. Fostering independent action was also part of their education.

Azuki looked around and spotted her explanation. Midori-san stood on the stairs to the village sento, no doubt seeking Gemba. She might have known where her son had first gone, but his limitations meant she would worry more than another mother might. Because of Midori’s own disability, Azuki waved, but gestured for the woman to stay while she ran across the school yard and up the little road by the small river.

Gemba-san’s back, Azuki told her. "He’s at the school. He wanted to see Sensei."

Midori clucked and shook her head. "That’s too bad of him. I know he likes Sensei, but Sensei is busy at the school! Please do send him home. He has chores here!"

It’s all right, Azuki said. "There were visitors on the way and Gemba-san wanted to tell Sensei before they got here. Uncle went to greet them. Gemba-san is welcome to stay at the school until classes are dismissed. Uncle said we could leave early today."

Isn’t he in the way?

I don’t think so, Azuki reassured the bathhouse operator. Akira-san is working on nautical charts and everybody likes watching that. We finished with our regular work. Unless you’d like me to send him home?

People are so good to him here, Midori said. She remembered how she ended up in the Outcast Village, crippled, with the handicapped child resulting from an assault that got her dismissed from her position and forced to rely on her own limited resources until she was certain they would both collapse and die on the side of the road. That was when someone found her and took her deep into the Ocean of Trees, where among the outcasts she and her child could begin a new life.

Gemba-san is easy to like, Azuki said.

He’s different, Midori said. Some people don’t care for that.

Don’t worry about it. None of us have to. Not here. Azuki waved a farewell as she turned to return to the school. Gemba wasn’t the only person in this coastal village who was different.

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Man with Sword and Woman, Utagawa

CHAPTER FOUR

Mother! Verechelan nearly choked on a flame as his mother, the Western Dragon Queen Rizantona, burst into his audience chamber in the mountains of Slovenia. Her magnificent wings stirred the air, lifting his painstakingly drafted charts and maps of the mountains of his domain, sending them flying.

Where is your brother? Rizantona would probably not incinerate Irtysh when she