Common Link

As the first of the sun's rays illuminated the sky, the sleepy little rural village in the mountains began to stir with the crow of a rooster calling the villager's farmers to leave their beds. Figures began to move about; some would tend the coops and select eggs to bring back into their wooden huts, while wisps of smoke would slowly rise and snake towards the multicolored sky of dawn, as the day's first meals were being prepared.

The humble country village would seem to slowly wake up with its people starting their days. As the streams of light crested over the trees and spilled into the valley, it greeted those who had left their homes earlier to tend to the rice paddies, gardens and herds.

Autumn colors had started to touch the leaves of the forests around them, so the villagers worked cohesively in preparation to pull their fall harvest before the mountain's winds would turn bitter and chilly. The colors of fall were but a herald to the cold winter to come, and this, they were perfectly aware of.

This village was rather small, its population being no more than three hundred. One of the smaller ones in the prefecture that was handed to a jito from the Miura clan for management under the new Kamakura shogunate.

[[*jito – literally meaning "land head" is a steward in feudal Japan and a term that rose during the late Heian period of Japan, but became an official position under Minamoto no Yoritomo, who would later establish the first shogunate of Japan, the Kamakura shogunate]]

[[DISCLAIMER: I have not, and will not, claim to be an authority on the subject of the history of Japan, thus there are likely to be some inaccuracies in future depictions within this novel. This is where the work leans to being more of a historical fiction. However, when uncommon terms such as above are used, I will do my best to define them and give you some background information that I find slightly beneficial to you, the reader.]]

The wooden cottages were rather primitive in the village, and could be better described as huts, but would accommodate sizable families of peasants. A few would have dirt floors while many others had wood planking that would cover at least part of the bare ground, if not all of it within the structure apart from the doorway and firepit inside.

One of these cottages stood at the edge of the village that was adjacent to the fields and lay closer to the forest that made the perimeter of the valley. Not too far from it, just visible within the trees, a red torii could be seen where it marked a path that led further into the forest towards the mountain.

[[*torii - Japanese gate and in this case, one that leads to a temple or shrine]]

It is from within this hut that a passerby who got close enough could hear a cough followed by a "PUUUWAK!"

The young beauty inside had just woken up to cough up blood, which threatened to stain her porcelain white skin around her lips. As she reached over to pull out a piece of linen to wipe the mess from her rose red lips, her fine, silken black hair fell forward to frame her thin, yet rounded face.

If she had been placed in the modern era, this girl would have drawn the attention of recruiters for the entertainment industry for sure. She could be regarded as a prime example of natural beauty by just her face alone.

However, she didn't seem to be in great health at the moment, and even her jade white skin seemed to be paler than it should be. Not to mention that her frame seemed to be on the frail side with how thin she was, as if she had been suffering from the malnutrition that was common amongst peasants in this time period.

As she cleaned up the blood from her skin and dabbed at the corners of her petite mouth, she paused in contemplation, her bright golden amber eyes flashed with sudden enlightenment. This girl, who appeared to be somewhere in her mid-teenage years of 15 or 16 years of age, tossed the soiled linen aside and pulled aside the blanket that had been laying on her to get up.

Though she was clothed in a rather plain hadajuban, it didn't fail to highlight that although she was as thin as a rail, she had some moderate curves to her. Her backside, for one, was not what one would call flat, and the still budding chest of what would be considered generous amongst many grown women could be made out.

[[*hadajuban – most intimate part of a kimono that usually was in direct contact with the skin and was made to be the easiest to clean as it served to collect the oils and moisture on the skin and keep it from damaging the following juban, or layers of a kimono]]

Stacked to the side of the makeshift futon bed laid the clothes that the girl started to habitually dress in. One of the first being the heavier juban of a solid white color, which she layered over the hadajuban. The second in the stack, she carefully set aside and preceded to what laid at the bottom, a red hakama that would be normal for a miko's joso shozoku.

[[*miko's joso shozoku – let's break this down for a moment here... a miko is a Japanese Shinto shrine maiden (not to be confused as a priestess), and the shozoku is their uniform or outfit, with the joso shozoku being their "ordinary" one, as they have variations depending on their duties of the day. However, the most recognizable piece of this uniform is the red hakama, or pleated skirt, that is paired with the white "purified robes". Don't worry, I won't use the terms too much beyond this as I will simplify it as "robes", "garb" and the like.]]

After finishing with dressing herself in the garbs of a miko, the girl wrapped up the final layer and stored it into a box off to the side. Yet curiously, she retrieved a much smaller box that was sitting near an aged koto and opened it to withdraw a beautiful jade ornament that had a carved depiction of a phoenix.

[[*koto – Japanese stringed instrument that was derived from the guzheng, or Chinese zither]]

As she held the jade and turned it over in her hand, her mind wandered over past recollections, for this same jade had appeared before. Ryuka Sakurai had gotten this jade from her friend who had mysteriously appeared in her life shortly before her father went out on a pilgrimage and passed away.

After it made its first appearance in Ryuka's bizarre dreams, she had taken it out and wondered about the coincidence, but quickly discounted it as the object didn't seem to hold any significance in her dreams.

In truth, Ryuka has had lots of strange dreams since her powers started awakening. Sometimes they caused her harm, like this morning, while most benefited her in giving her inspiration on how to harness and control the abilities that she had awakened.

Yet, these last set of dreams of a world filled with unheard of concepts of school and horseless metal carriages called cars didn't seem to be providing anything beneficial to her. Which led to her reconsidering the jade, as it was the only thing that seemed to be shared between herself and the girl in her dreams, Jasmine. The only noticeable common link.

There were other similarities in truth, such as the last drawing that Jasmine had made before the accident of a girl in a kimono. Although it was nothing more than a sketch, it did kind of look like her, Ryuka thought.

Then there is the fact that the jade had been a gift from the girl's older brother, Ethaniel, who had some similarities with her own friend who had gifted the jade to her. Even so, the similarities were only their eye color and some of the shared demeanor which had made Ethaniel's appearance feel somewhat familiar to Ryuka, otherwise there was more differences than similarities.

Thinking along these lines, she carefully placed the jade back in the small box and stored it away again. Then, dusting herself with her hands, she quickly surveyed the room that made up her cottage.

It was rather small as it was under 60 square meters (less that 200 sq feet), but it had to be so for the heat of the small firepit in the middle to be able to warm the space. Most of the cottage had wood planking for a floor and there was little in the way of personal belongings.

There was the koto, a memento from her deceased mother, the box holding the jade, a few other boxes that held necessities such as blankets and clothing as well as the tools such as those to mend her garments. Next to those, a few pots were stacked with a sack of rice leaning against the wall as well as a few woven baskets for gathering.

All in all, it was a simple life that she lived. Yet, it was also a simple life where she hadn't been exposed too much to the world outside the village and the Inari shrine that she maintained.