DREAMS of a CLOUD
Peruse the many random ramblings of a writer-in-training as I build stories and develop my craft.
13 April 2023
Hanako knelt before the shrine and offered a prayer. “Please, let me protect them this time. Help me keep the town safe.”
When she stood, she noticed a miko she’d somehow missed on the way in standing a ways away. She was two to three inches taller than Hanako, and her warm brown hair was tied in a long braid down her back. Their eyes met, and the miko took a step toward Hanako. “Ah, pardon me. Is this your first time here? I don’t think I recognize you.”
“No, I’m new in town,” Hanako replied, with a shake of her head. She offered her hand. “My name’s Hanako.”
The miko clasped Hanako’s hand with both of hers. “Welcome! It’s a pleasure to meet you. You can call me Mikuzume.”
4 April 2023
Chiaki’s gaze pierced into Hanako. “You’ll kill them, right? The shogun. His men.”
Hanako’s blood froze. She’d never considered it before. Take on the shogun himself? “I… I don’t know that I can.”
Chiaki blinked, then slowly turned back toward the wall. Before she closed off completely, though, Hanako added, “But I will do everything I can to stop him. These raids… the way he treats people… it’s not okay. ”
Chiaki turned back to face her. Hanako smiled awkwardly. “But… I definitely can’t do that alone. Will you help me?”
31 December 2022
She glared at the boy who threw it, an ebony oni bigger than the rest with a single horn. All the kids shrank back, terrified. Out of one of the houses nearby a bookish-looking blue oni rushed out and stood between Hanako and the kids, arms outstretched. “Don’t! They’re only children!”
Hanako’s eyes went wide, and she turned away. What did he think she was going to do? To herself, she muttered, “Even among other yokai, they only see me as a monster.”
30 December 2022
The tanuki handed the swordt over, and Lord Isshin inspected every inch of the blade. “Did you know I had a student once, who wanted to learn the sword?”
Hanako cocked her head. Where had that come form? The tanuki meanwhile just shook his head.
“He was a young man. A human, actually, of all things. He had a purity I’d never seen before or since; he was devoted to the sword, but he used it only to protect what was important to him. He had no love for the shedding of blood.” He looked first at Hanako, and then the tanuki. “His name was Kojima.”
Hanako’s eyes widened, and the tanuki’s face turned white as a sheet. With the barest hint of a smile at the corner of his mouth, Lord Isshin asked, “Do you still wish to claim this sword belongs to your family?”
27 December 2022
Hanako’s rage flared awake, but she kept a lid on it, and even managed to make a convincing smile as she approached the tanuki. “Hey, hey. Owner-san. Where did you get that sword?”
When the tanuki replied, he seemed utterly at ease, as if that wasn’t clearly the sword Hanako had brought in just the evening before. “Oh, that? Old family heirloom. My grandfather used it in battle a hundred years ago.”
26 December 2022
When she arrived, she found a warm, inviting inn with an image of a dancing tanuki hanging from the sign post. Inside, she found a rotund, cheerful tanuki behind the counter, and off to the right a handful of other customers milling around the dining area. Among them was a kappa with graying hair, sitting by himself in the corner, sipping tea.
The tanuki gave her a big wide smile. “Welcome, welcome! What can we do for you today?”
23 December 2022
An easy smile fell to Hanako’s lips as she squared her shoulders and walked into the marketplace. A group of kappa drunkenly belted out enka songs from an outdoor pub, while a nekomata couple fawned over each other as they walked down the street, their four tails intertwining. One yokai that looked like a giant umbrella with a long tongue hopped up and down on its single foot as it argued with a tengu merchant.
And mixed in with all that were dozens and dozens of oni. Red, blue, black, white, yellow; anywhere from a single horn to a crown of five; walking alone or whole families herding kids around for a day out. Part of Hanako wondered if she’d died and gone to heaven.
Or at least, she did until she accidentally bumped into a large, blue-skinned oni with a single horn. Hanako turned to apologize, but the oni only wrinkled his nose. “You reek of human.”
19 December 2022
Before she could finish him off, the yellow one released a burst of pressure. “Do you think a lowly red oni like you could do anything to me?”
Hanako cocked her head. “Ne, oji-san. Was that supposed to be scary? Shouldn’t it be more like this?”
And with that, she released all the pressure, all the anger she felt, both from the threat they posed to the Chizu refugees and for this family who’d lost everything. Red stopped in his tracks and began cowering away from her, and both Yellow and Blue fell back on their butts, horrified.
17 December 2022
Hanako found a trio of large, male oni, each a different color but all around eight feet tall, gathered around a fire. Some creature–it looked to be the remains of a horse–turned on a spit above it.
Off to the side, a father and daughter were trussed up, quivering in fear. The girl couldn’t have been more than ten years old. The ruins of a wagon rested on the other side of the fire, its contents strewn about, either broken or devoured. A bit of bile rose into Hanako’s throat, and she desperately hoped the mother of the family hadn’t been traveling with them.
29 October 2022
Once she arrived, over half of it was already aflame. Soon she arrived at a makeshift tent that had been set up, which seemed to serve as a hospital of sorts. Among the handful inside, the boy who’d lifted a sword too big for him lay on a cot, clutching his stomach. His sister sat next to him, clutching his arm as she pleaded, “Satoru! Satoru!”
28 October 2022
“I only do the will of the shogun.”
They held each other’s gaze for just a moment. With a yell, they charged at each other at the same moment. Once they’d crossed paths, the blade of the general’s sword fell to the ground where it had been cut, and he began to bleed at the throat. Yet he still had time to whisper, “Magnificent,” before he collapsed to the ground.
Moments later, Hanako sank to her knees, and for the first time she noticed the tears that had been streaming down her face. She looked down at her blood soaked hands, and then screamed to the sky.
24 October 2022
The archers fired at Hanko, but she dodged them and closed in on the nearest swordsman. She drove her fist into his solar plexus and dropped him, and then kicked one of the fallen trees into the chest of the other one.
Suzune began to laugh, and unable to contain herself any longer, she jumped in. She swung the kanabo down as she landed, but Hanako rolled backward, clearing the log behind her.
21 October 2022
After my short hiatus, where I struggled with motivations, I started trying to plan out my big battles with the shogun’s army for this mini-arc. It occurred to me, though, that their status as “monster hunters” is kind of an informed attribute at this point. They don’t feel like a real threat; Hanako curb-stomps them way too easily. That… is still the case, actually, but I at least wanted to come up with strategies and things the army would use to handle creatures with superhuman abilities so they don’t feel so completely incompetent. And this was my way of doing that.
14 October 2022
From the side, Lieutenant Nakamura, one of the youngest of the senior officers, snorted. “Another intelligent oni? Isn’t one enough?”
Several of the officers glanced up at the horns on Suzune’s head, but she ignored them. “Even the more bestial youkai have a certain measure of cunning, Lieutenant Nakamura. And losing to one of them would cost you more than just your dignity.”
12 October 2022
Suzune stood among the other officers along the tent wall. It was dark outside; when Captain Takamoto’s squad had arrived with half their members, without the supplies, the general had ordered an emergency staff meeting.
“And this lone oni girl forced your entire squadron to retreat, Captain?”
“Yes, General. But she fought like no other oni we’ve ever encountered. She was no enraged beast, but a blade in the wind. Please do not underestimate her.”
When she heard that, Suzune’s blood began to boil, and she barely kept herself from grinning. Here, at last, was a worthy foe. Perhaps, if she performed well here, the other officers would look past her horns and cobalt blue skin, and she’d stop hearing whispers of “the shogun’s pet oni”.
11 October 2022
General Suzune, head of the Dragon’s Battalion and the adoptive daughter of the shogun, looked down at Captain Takamoto, who bowed before her. “And a single oni forced your entire squadron to retreat?”
“Yes, General. But she fights like no other oni we’ve encountered; rather than an enraged beast, she was a master swordswoman. Please do not underestimate her, despite our weakness.”
“I see.” She resisted the urge to smile; perhaps here, finally, she’d find a worthy foe.
7 October 2022
Burtin’s hands shook as he held the sword up, pointing at the soldier in front of him. His sister clung to his back, shaking as much as he was. The soldier sneered. “You sure you want to do that?”
Burtin didn’t take his eyes off the soldier, but he told his sister, “Get inside.” Rather than listen to him, though, she just tightened her grip on his shirt.
The soldier snorted and drew his sword, but as he raised it to attack, a girl with bright red hair flew in and drove her knee into his jaw.
6 October 2022
The leader scanned the room, but focused on Chiaki so quickly Hanako wasn’t sure he’d even seen her. He gestured the soldiers towards Chiaki and said, “Take the girl, and anything else that looks valuable.”
The faces of both the innkeeper and her daughter turned white, and the innkeeper wailed, “No! Please! Don’t take my daughter!”
The leader backhanded her across the face and roared, “Do you intend to interfere with an officer of the shogun’s army!?”
His two men moved to grab Chiaki, but they froze as soon as they saw Hanako. She gave them a feral grin and stood up. “Hey, robber-san, robber-san! It’s been a while. How’ve you been?”