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Kazankyō Shiba came to a stop at the edge of the forest, only a ten minute walk from the ancestral home of the Shiba clan. On his broad shoulder sat his youngest child, little Ganju. Ganju was tiny for a child his age — then again, Kazankyō's parents had described him as having been much the same when he was a child, before he had a growth spurt and ended up towering over… well, pretty much everybody.
Kazankyō hefted Ganju off his shoulder and placed his feet on the ground. "Watch this," Kazankyō said.
He took a few steps away from his son and squatted down, inhaling deeply. Then, he traced a spiral, the Shibas' tumbling current, into the ground — a motion he had repeated hundreds, if not thousands of times over the course of his life.
"Turn to sand!" he shouted, slamming his palm into the grass. "Seppa!"
A perfectly round circle of sand formed in the grass, as big across as Ganju was tall.
Ganju rushed over next to his father, getting down on his knees and brushing his hand against the sand. "Wow!"
"Now it's your turn, eaglet," Kazankyō said.
Ganju looked up at him, blinking. "Me…?"
"Yes, you," Kazankyō told him. "It's a spell that only us Shibas can use. You were born to do it!"
Kazankyō didn't know that for certain. The thing was, neither Kaien nor Kūkaku had ever been able to use Seppa, and it was not unheard of for the spell to skip a generation.
Kazankyō turned Ganju around, then gently took his little hand and guided him into tracing the spiral into the ground. "This is our crest, remember?"
Ganju nodded astutely. "Uh-huh!"
"Now, do you remember what I said?" Kazankyō asked.
Ganju glanced behind himself at the circle of sand his father made, as if that might jog his memory. "Umm…"
Kazankyō chuckled, before whispering the incantation in his son's ear. Ganju nodded furiously, then turned his eyes back to the ground, tracing a spiral into the grass.
"Turn to sand, Seppa!" he squeaked.
Several silent seconds passed, and nothing happened — Kazankyō felt his heart drop like a stone. Ganju, however, was not nearly as deterred as his father — he attempted the spell several more times, but each try ended in failure. Kazankyō could only hope that if Isshin ever decided to settle down, maybe one of his kids would be able to use it.
Ganju took a deep breath and squeezed his eyes shut, his little brows furrowed in concentration. He traced the spiral into the ground once more, slowly and carefully, then whispered the incantation.
Kazankyō sighed. "Come on, eaglet, let's—"
Poof!
Kazankyō blinked. Right on the ground in front of Ganju was a circle of sand, as big around as a soup bowl.
"I did it!" Ganju squealed. "Daddy, I did it!"
Kazankyō let loose a loud laugh of disbelief, before he swept Ganju up in his arms. "You did it!" he cheered. "Good job, eaglet!"
Ganju grinned, before squirming. "Lemme down…"
Kazankyō set Ganju's feet back on the ground, ruffling the boy's hair as he pressed handprints into the sand.
"What are you boys doing?"
Ganju sprang to his feet the moment his mother made her presence known, hurrying over to her as fast as his little legs could carry him. "Momma, momma! Look what I did!"
Kazankyō flashed Mayumi a smile as Ganju grabbed her by the sleeve, tugging her over. Their son then pointed at the circle of sand he made. "See?"
"That's very good," Mayumi said, crouching down next to Ganju. "Now, daddy told you not to do this in the house, didn't he?" Mayumi glanced up at Kazankyō with a quirked brow, repeating, "Didn't he?"
Ganju looked back and forth between his mother and father. "I can use it in the house?"
Kazankyō blanched. "No, you most certainly may not!"
"Aww," Ganju groaned.
"C'mon, sweetie," Mayumi said, scooping Ganju up. "It's time for your nap."
"I'm not tired," Ganju told her, clinging to the front of her kimono.
"You always say that," Mayumi said, the lord and lady of the Shiba clan heading back in the direction of home. She poked the very tip of her son's nose and continued, "And you always fall asleep anyway."
Two hours would pass before Ganju would attempt to use
Seppa
in the house.