• The Story of Katakune Tamoku
    (Hardships)

    Chapter 5 - "Summer"


    Last week was winter's finale. It's massive blizzards glided over the whole continent and vehemently struck out houses with cold hard snow, hail, and sleet all in one. It was so sudden I had no time to prepare for it so it broke all of our windows and severely damaged the whole house. Just imagine how hard it was for me to wait for all that snow to melt, then dig out the rest. Who's ever even heard of a nasty blizzard in the middle of March anyway? All I know is that this harsh weather is finally over and it can't get any worse... I hope.
    Okashii wimpered through all of it as we huddled up in my room under the bed. The freezing winds blew through the whole house tragically and scared both of us. It felt like a tornado attack to me, though tornadoes don't strike where I live. After the continental storm I felt like I was standing in a war zone. The inside of the house was torn up and destroyed worse than Okashii tore it up when I first got him, and outside wasn't any better either. I'm just thankful that the house itself wasn't destroyed. "I wonder how that happened," I said to myself looking mischeviously at the Fremere's guard.
    Well it's all over now and it's officially Spring because after that giant storm all the greenery came out of the closet and bloomed to its full extent. My favorite season is spring by the way and I already know this season will be easy for me. All of the flowers are bloomed, the trees are a beautiful forest green, wildlife bore animals and are migrating back. The sun has finally been seen after so long and the gray death clouds are no more. The goosebumps on my body will turn into opened sweating pores and my cold liquid nitrogen-seeming breath will turn into huffing and panting drool. Mother nature will take her abilities to its extreme trying to fight me, but I have more than what she thinks. I am Katakune, I will always find a way to beat the oppenent in an unusual and clever way even if I'm fighting a mere child or a vast war of men, so take that, World!
    A few odd weeks of spring have entered and I've noticed that each animal seems to migrate back pack by pack. first the birds, then the rabbits, then the foxes, then the wolves. I fixed the interior of the house for the upteenth time and decided not to put windows in and just leave them as big open spaces since it's going to be summer soon.
    I went into mom and dad's room and found more interesting things. First I looked through dad's belongings. I found his wallet with about 700 gold. To me that was a years worth, I felt like my heart stopped when I saw all of it, it was that surprising. Before looking for anything else I looked for mom's purse and together found about 1,500 gold total. Well there goes the broke streak, I'm rich now! With that money I went into the market and bought some decorations for our house and a season's supply of food that I neatly stacked in the cupboard. I cleaned up the sink and now it's not rusty, and I fixed the furniture in the living room to make it not so uninviting and dusty. I also updated the training field and started working there now.
    I also bought a weaver which took most of my money. I mixed parts of Tatsuka, mom, and dad's clothes together to make more clothes that fit me. Later when they get too tight on me I can just do the same thing until I move out. With that I have only around seventy gold left.
    More things I found in mom's stuff were alot of grooming products. I found her comb which would really be in handy for combing my well-needed greasy hair. I found a hand-held fan useful for cooling myself off in summer time and I found one of her kimonos which was made of silk that was always really cool.
    Finally, I found some more chop sticks that I could use to eat my food with instead of using my hands.
    Okashii and I lasted a long time on those things, until summer. Summer was mean, it was a cruel and heart-beating season. It could physically tear ur brain out of your eye sockets and kill you with a an arrow of light. Summer was a devastating boxer ready for his next fight after an hour of a break. Summer could make its way past the worst of winter and pull back on you in an instant. What I'm trying to say is, summer was way worse than I thought.
    The weather got still and dry, the Sun got bigger and burned us down with great intensity. You literally couldn't see any cloud anywhere in sight, and the blistering heat made the still air seem to wave like an optical illusion. I started to see mirages and hallucinations. One time I even thought Tatsuka came back, but it was really only a tree. Later and later in the day the sun seemed like it was getting bigger and bigger and more and more I thought it could kill an animal just by looking at it. There was no food left and no rain either. Summer was the season of drought,hunger, and ultimate survival. I had my high doubts that I would not make it. Each day I cut my clothes shorter as I got hotter and it just seemed to get worse. I thought I was living in a desert and not a forest but I knew, even in this heat a desert rose would not make it.
    I hate to think of this as the beginning of summer because it feels like it's been this hot season for months already. It's just the beginning and I'm already begging the Sun goddess to stop this. I never remember a summer as hot as this and really don't want to remember. The grass has been bleached with the same yellow tint as the sun and all the plants have been upright to the sun until they died too. The trees have been drooping to give off more shade but that shade just got smaller as the leaves blew away and the trees withered away and died. I couldn't take these months any more but I knew I couldn't do anything about it. Okashii has been suffering major exaustion even though he hasn't been doing anything and I stopped working out in fear of over-heating. Every afternoon as the sun reached its zenith, Okashii and I would collapse in lack of food and water for days. My mouth has dried up and not even saliva has worked for days. My tongue has swollen and my teeth have ached.
    We waited helplessly for a few more days until we couldn't take it anymore and had to have water soon or else we would die. Okashii was already at the virge of dying and I knew I couldn't lose anyone as precious as him.
    One day I finally worked up the courage to pick up heavy Okashii and run out to the market. My will kept me from collapsing and the whole way there the Anima Adamantea glowed. I just ignored it, paying more attention to the dried up river and scared animals in the bushes. I got there in time right before I finally gave up. The clerk in the bakery saw us and quickly gave us as much water as he had. No one was in the shop because of the heat so I was just alone with him. "I need water quick, mister, please! I haven't had anything to drink for days and my fox is hyperventilating. Please help us!" The clerk spent all of his time on us and practically nursed us back to health. When I told him about what had happened to us he almost cried. I'm starting to really like this old man. Of all the people in this tiny village he seems to care most about me. He's been there since Tatsuka was with me. Then it hit me; how come he remembers me, but never talks about Tatsuka? Does he know he's gone already? I don't really know but I didn't try to spoil the moment by asking him.
    He suddenly burst in tears and laid his head on my shoulder. I got surprised. I didn't know this feeling in me. It's never come out before but I patted his back and leaned him closer to me, comforting him. I felt kind of akward comforting an old man after he has done so to me but inside I felt good, like I was supposed to do this in the first place. Without a thought I cried with him and Okashii jumped in my lap and seemed to start crying too. A sheltering bakery followed by a questioned sobbing ritual, I finally asked him something I had never even thought about. "What is your name, kind sir?" A silence came shortly after and he answered, "Meisou," I closed my eyes and looked down, giving a moment of silence, then replied, "Lost in mourning."
    I thanked Meisou for his kind and unselfish deeds and walked back home carrying Okashii in my arms. I closed my eyes and thought, "What strange animal will I encounter this time, and what will happen to Okashii?" I re-opened my eyes, determined, "Whatever happens, they will not get Okashii no matter what!" Emphises on the not.
    And of course I encountered an animal-- animals. I saw three wolves in front of me, not too big as to be an adult, but not too small as to be a baby, but normal size. They immediantly set their eyes on Okashii and I set my eyes on their meat. I set Okashii down behind me and opened my arms in fighting stance. I screamed at the top of my lungs, "You will not get Okashii! Just come and get me you nasty wolves, let's see what you're made of!" My Anima Adamantea glowed in a furious blue fire which enflamed my hands. I wasn't scared, not at all, but a little bit surprised; the fire was cold, and not hot. Apparently the wolves weren't the least bit scared either, I noticed, as they raced towards to me. I reached one arm back and right when the wolves got near enough, I swept my right arm in the path of all three of them. The azure spirit that dwelled inside of the cold hard shell of the Anima Adamantea finally awakened and used its powers with mine to protect Okashii and I, and quickly killed the wolves I'd later use for food. Shortly after, the azure spirit, I call it, evolved. I could now wear it as a forehead crest, a collar, or a belt. I could also activate it anytime I wanted to. The thing that amazed me the most though, was the little mechanical egg it evolved into.
    Okashii and I walked home carrying the wolves and the new egg. Once we got home I took the fur off the wolves then skinned them. I took out the organs then clensed the carcasses. Next I ripped out the skeleton, all the bones, and finally used the Fremere's guard, what I now call, "The Scarlet Spirit", to roast the meat for Okashii and I to eat. It was a very good meal and I couldn't wait until the next time we have wolf, neither could Okashii.
    It's the middle of summer now and I've decided to start having Okashii help me on my hunts. He's gotten bigger and I think he's ready to hunt with me. "Okashii, it's time for you to help me get food now, do you think you're ready?" He replied with a encouraged "yip!"
    "Good boy! let's go find some more wolves!" I laughed to myself at that understatement. What I encountered was a little more than wolves. To my surprise, when I was walking in the cooler part of the forest, Okashii and I found a pack of bucks and does. "Jackpot!" I whisper-shreiked half to myself and to Okashii. I quickly hid when one buck looked up in my direction. "That was a close one," I thought to myself. I looked at the Azure Spirit on my wrist and smirked when it gleamed a bright blue light. I told Okashii to go out in front of them as a distraction and right when they turned around, "BAM," I captured them in the blinding blue icy fire of the Azure Spirit. At least, that's what I thought I did, but in reality, I didn't do anything, it was actually Okashii. I walked to him a little and saw blue flames hovering in a cirlce around him. It made him look more intimidating, with his fur sticking up, canine teeth showing, and growling. With one sweep of his ghostly fires he knocked out an entire pack of deer.
    I stood in awe, I didn't know Okashii could do anything like that. Then I remembered what Tatsuka told me about foxes. He told me that some animals are foxes, but others are kitsune. Kitsune are different from foxes, they are known more as fox spirits. They are foxes that have died in the past already and have reincarnated back into a regular fox. They say that for every 100 years, a fox grows another tail, just like the nine-tailed fox demon. Okashii only had one tail though, so he's probably only been alive for one to one hundred years already. Such a big number surprised me, but I doubted it. When I first got him he was very small and couldn't have been over 100. The other thing I know about them is their ghostly fox fire and their ability to shapeshift.
    I praised Okashii the whole way home until we got to the kitchen and started to eat venison. What a meal that was!
    The whole summer was tough for me but I got through it by a string. Okashii got through it too, luckily. I learned alot about Okashii this summer and can't wait to learn more about him; I'm just going to have to wait for that though. I've accomplished exactly a year by myself and now I'm finally getting the hang of this. Fall went by in flash, I just stayed home and cried as the storms passed. Winter was a bitter season that nipped me from behind in all of its slips and slides always coming back for more. Spring was an easy one; I found new things at home that helped me survive. Summer, though, was harder. It pushed me to my limits from hunger to thirst, and from courage to helplessness.
    The first test that Tatsuka put me through was now completed. "Live a year alone by myself, check." I would have never have gotten through it without Okashii or the fire spirits. Sometimes I feel like Tatsuka planned all of this to happen, and deep down, I really think he did. I know it'll still be a long time until I see him again but I also know it's going to be worth it.
    Tonight is the night of the Red Moon and also the same exact day he left. New winters and new summers will await me for years to come and I can't wait to see them. What I really dream for though, is Tatsuka. "Someday, brother, someday..." Okashii and I finished the night with a giant howl to the blood red moon, the elegy for Tatsuka Tamoku.