Chapter Text
How unfortunate must it be when a widow has a baby? How unfortunate must it be when a poor widow has a baby? And just how unfortunate must it be to be the baby? This was little Miyazawa’s case.
A young mother, aged just twenty, sat in her little shed. It was cramped in the building, if you could call it a building, it was her late beloved’s family’s chicken pen. It had doors on each end, from open you could see rain falling on grass, plain, but if you turned to the other side, you would see a primitive gravestone, which belonged to Masaru, her beloved and the father of the little potato-looking human wrapped in her old, ripped skirt.
She sighed as she watched the small unmoving human breathing softly, totally unaware of her plans. She pulled it close to her breasts and got up. Leaving the shed sure gave her space to move and freedom from inhaling the bad smell of chicken feces. On the other hand, it also took away the roof above her head that protected her from the raindrops hitting her face and the little baby. However, she felt like she didn’t care for the baby. It was... meaningless to her. Just another human. It was like all the excitement of being a mother that danced within her mind for the last nine months escaped.
She walked for what felt like hours, like something from above was giving her time to gather her intelligence and stop the nonsense of leaving her newborn on someone’s doorstep for the stranger to find its corpse.
She got to a house of one of the people who would be considered one of the richest if the concept of money was known in the isolated village of Ihatovo. She despised the man who lived there. Why? She didn’t know. All she knew was that her beloved also hated that man. Maybe it was her husband’s envy of the fact a man who couldn’t even stand without a cane owned more cows than his family could imagine.
She placed the skirt down and watched as raindrops hit the baby’s innocent face. She watched for about half an hour, and then she turned around. Her feet splashed water as she walked on the wet muddy pathway.
Sun was rising when the twenty-four-year-old farmer Tomaru Kenji sat up in his bed and stretched. To him, the world was boring, every single day was repetitive. People would say that he could pick up a hobby, but it is easier said than done if you have only one usable leg. When Tomaru was younger he was horseplaying with another boy from Ihatovo. They were in the forest when suddenly the boy pushed him off a hill and Tomaru broke his leg, back then Ihatovo had no doctor, well they did... however, when Tomaru’s adoptive mother ran to the house they found her passed away next to a bowl of mushrooms. Guess everyone thought being a doctor she would be smart, but there she was dying of mushroom poisoning. And ever since then Tomaru walked with a cane. He was mad about it, as you could expect. And the only apology he or his mother ever received was the family of the boy landing them their helper. A grumpy man who did almost nothing but drink alcohol, which was the only reward he asked of Tomaru.
The disabled man walked downstairs to pour himself some tea. He inhaled the steam before sipping a little, careful not to burn himself. He walked to his front door while his walking stick thudded on the floor. He didn’t really have a reason to go look outside, he just felt like it. But as he opened the door, he could feel a weight stopping him from opening the door. “Oh, I swear to god-“ he knew what this was. As this was nothing unusual. The kids from another house in Ihatovo found comedy in putting rocks behind his door. Every normal man would just swing the door open, but he had to hold onto a walking stick as releasing it for just a second could send him to the ground. He pulled himself through the small creak and just as he was preparing to yell at the rascals, he saw it weren’t rocks, but a totally soaked rag in which a human baby was wrapped.
He stood there frozen for about a minute. He knew there was no point in trying to save the infant, judging by how soaked it was it must’ve laid there for hours. He whipped his head around frantically, trying to search for footprints of the culprit, but everything was washed out by the rain. He gulped and reluctantly picked up the infant. He walked inside to dry it off and prepare it for burial. But just as he closed the door, he suddenly felt a wriggle, then he heard a sob that escalated into a full-on cry. His eyes widened and he looked at the now crying baby. “Oh god…” he whispered before walking to the table and placing the infant on the table, it’s face was scrunched as tears streamed down his face. Tomaru threw off his haori and pulled the infant out of the wet rag and wrapped it in the dry piece of clothing. He sat down and cradled it back and forth. Just how was it possible that a human could have survived in the rain? Especially one that looked just a few days old. After a bit the baby was calm, now taking interest in Tomaru’s earrings. They were simple cards with a heron pattern. But to an infant it was something that moved around with each movement of Tomaru’s head.
Tomaru pulled his head away from the baby as it reached out its hand to tug on the earrings. “No, don’t do that. That would hurt!” Something about the sparkling eyes told him to give in, but it wasn’t worth getting his ear ripped.
The door to the backyard opened and Kikue Kan – the helper stuck his head in. “Aye, Kenji Sama, still hadn’t received- Oh!” He looked at the baby with wide eyes. “Is that the thing that woman dropped off here?” “What woman?” Tomaru asked, confused. “Er, just sum young chick dropped something off around midnight.” “And you saw it?” Tomaru asked the obvious, he felt his anger rise within him. “Yeh” “And you didn’t bother to call me over?!” Kikue Kan went silent afterwards. “Oh you’ll be happy if I give you your wine after this! Bu t now I have different troubles, like where this little one ill go…” Yeah, that’s right, there was no way the baby could stay with this grumpy guy.
And so Tomaru walked around the whole village, asking anyone if they had space for a little one, but everyone turned their backs to him. And so, he went to the barn where his cows were. He sat down on the bucket, thinking. “What do you know little one... maybe this is what fate wants… just me and you… Whatchu think? Would you want the young grumpy man with a damned leg to be your old man? Does that sound good little one?” he caressed the baby’s cheek. “Just who was your mother. That’s what I wonder… Unless it wasn’t even your mother to drop you off on my doorstep… it could have been your aunt... grandma... godmother... or someone who wasn’t related to you in any way… Are you perhaps from the outside? I’d be damned if you were… We would be the same. I was born on the outside.. And my parents dropped me off to your grandma, she now lives in a house with other old women, however it wasn’t raining…” he cradled the bay for a bit “Would you look at that,” he thought for a bit, thinking of a name to give the baby boy. “Miyazawa…. My little Miyazawa Kenji… undefeated by the rain"
At that the baby let out a little "haa!" noise "Oh that's right!" Tomaru chuckled and shook his head. Just what had he gotten himself into