Chapter 505:
Shift
I’ve been in this world of my sister’s for three months now and little has changed. There was little that I could care about as the days passed. Doing the barest effort required gets me by, but it’s still just a locked cage. Being a child made doing anything on my own nearly impossible. Even if I could sneak out of the house, which I had done a few times, I didn’t have the ability to survive on my own. Returning back to this fake family was all that I could do. They were the anchor that was tied to me.
As much as it annoyed me, sitting and waiting for things to be resolved was the only option that I had at the moment. And honestly, I wasn’t really interested in seeing the others right now. I still hadn’t figured out how to save Yumi from what she'd been twisted into. They had too firm of a grasp on her right now for her to spurn me like she did.
This had been the first time since it happened that I’ve been able to think about it. Running plans through my head was about all I could do. ‘I’ll prove that woman wrong! She doesn’t know what she’s talking about…’
That damnable woman just wouldn’t leave my thoughts. When I closed my eyes she crept into my mind acting like she knew everything. All that woman was, was fake a creation of that bastard who put that thing into my sister’s head. It’s corrupting her and changing her. She wouldn’t be like this if this hadn’t happened.
I just had to get her back.
Chapter 505 – Awakening Conflict
Today was different from the other days that I existed in. The family that I was a part of came before the local Lord today with me in mind, not that I really was trying to take part in the politics of this false world. But I didn’t get a choice in where they dragged me around to. This was one such situation that I had to simply accept.
What was today?
Simply put, from what I’ve put together was that these adults, pretending to be this body’s parents, were trying to get in the good graces of the Lord. I hadn’t really learned much about the supposed history that exists here, so I wasn’t really clear on what was happening. It didn't matter to me. I wasn’t planning on doing anything that would further their goals anyway. So learning about whatever things that they had invented for this world was beyond me.
Lord Komagata looked to be a cautious man, at least from looking at a glance. A young man by my guess, probably in his late twenties, he didn’t seem like he should have been in charge. I sort of figured it would be some old man with years of experience guiding him. So he likely inherited his position as seemed to be the case for many things around here.
As I already mentioned, I knew nothing about him or the state of things. He was simply something that sat as a wall in front of me. Though only the parents wanted me to be clearing that wall. That was all there was to it.
However, as I could see now, it wasn’t just them doing it. Perhaps this was some special day, something that I didn’t know about. Others with their children were showing up as well. It was almost like the adults were trying to position the next generation so that it was of best benefit to them. It was the most shortsighted thing I had seen quite some time. Immediate gains built from an assumed future of unknown quality. Why would they even bother with such speculation, especially with children hardly of evaluateable quality.
Nothing moved forward without waiting on everyone to arrive. If I had actually been a child, this might have been impossible to deal with. It was still boring and dull, but I could at least not act out. That didn’t seem to be the same case for everyone gathered. Unknown families with their children were gathered in a rigid line of rows filling three deep. With this many gathered, it was no surprise that some were simply too young to even be here. Given how well trained some looked to be, they all went through some sort of rigorous routine before this moment. Some just didn’t get it imprinted on them like others.
Whatever this sorting process before the Lord was going to be like, there were clear losers already. ‘How often does this sort of thing happen? Will I have to come back again?’ Passing or failing this, I had no idea what that meant for my future. The more that I gave it direct thought the more dread built up going forward. ‘Perhaps putting in some effort might be in my best interests to avoid things…’ I remained undecided though, since I didn’t know what was going to be happening. Maybe I should have paid more attention to things, not too sure.
Finally, the waiting seemed to end as someone that looked fairly important, that wasn’t the Lord, stepped forward. Unlike the young man that sat with importance near the wall of the large audience chamber with his feet folded beneath him on the floor, this was an older man, one that looked more suited to rule, if I were to make my judgment. And possibly this man did rule, just using the Lord as a puppet. Who was I to know?
“My Lord Komagata will now grant you an audience. Approach when summoned.”
I tuned in just enough to know if they called for us. Given that this wasn’t my name, it was Norio Hirohata, I hadn’t really been good about responding to it. So I had to put extra effort into listening to what people say. I had enough troubles with that already.
An hour already passed and my boredom set in hard. I had to shift my feet around several times to keep them from falling asleep as formal seiza style wasn’t something I found comfortable. Such formalities were hardly followed in the modern age. Others less disciplined were nearly asleep with their parents unable to control them. It was hard to ask a four year old to do something so static for so many hours. And in all this time I had not been called yet.
Waiting was annoying…
Though I saw that you weren’t free even after your audience with the head guy. You had to go back to your position and just do nothing until they were finished. They were so rigid and process driven.
The next summons arrived, so my ears went to attention. It’d be easier for me to know if I was next if they were even going in line, but that wasn’t even the case. I had no clue how they were deciding this order. “Clan Nagahama, my Lord has summoned you.” I had already almost gone back to zoning out, when I noticed their son bouncing with an unusual amount of energy despite all the wait. If he had that much energy I would have figured him for one that couldn’t sit still, yet from what I could remember he didn’t stand out that much.
I watched him a little bit as they approached the Lord. ‘There’s something off about him… He really doesn’t fit in.’ It was really hard to figure out why he bothered me so much. Maybe it was because he actually seemed excited to be part of this whole show the adults put on. I doubted he even grasped the point of it. He was too young to get it. And if whatever happened did affect him, he probably wouldn’t see any meaning in it for years.
Interest in the boy didn’t last for long though as I couldn’t hear what was being said. In the end, none of it really mattered to me. This fake world would end and I would be free from this nightmare. Being the last world, I couldn’t wait for that to happen. Then I could focus on what mattered.
Sleep finally started to threaten me a little as I entered what I think was the third hour. After the first hour I sort of lost track of time in any meaningful way, considering that there were no watches for me. The sun was the only judge I had and that only gave me a vague sense of time rather than an accurate one. But I think after three hours, or whatever, of this nonsense anyone would be tested for attention. I could only hold it together, sadly.
“Clan Hirohata, my Lord has summoned you,” the old man declared, my ears thankfully still alert. I couldn’t say the same thing about my legs. I fought with them the whole time and being unmoved for so long it was difficult to quickly move as I wanted. My feet braced carefully on the wood floor finding my balance as my legs started to wake up. The mother and father were already ahead of me moving where I dragged behind. They seemed to me to just keep up without regard for this body’s issues.
Within a few seconds, I recovered enough not to fall far behind and close the gap. A step behind them, the old man directed us to our place. Watching the others, everyone was to sit before the Lord with the child directly faced to the man and the parents flanking. Then only what I could assume as some sort of examination or interview happened.
A square padded cushion, flat with just enough to make it less noticeable a floor was beneath it, marked the place for me to sit. The parents didn't have the same sort of courtesy, I guess they gave some modest attention to the children.
Up close, the man looked a little more business-like and commanding than from afar. There was little more that I could pick up from him without an exchange. I wasn’t too sure what to make of him anymore, now that I was up close. ‘This seems to be some sort of selection process…did I want to go along with this or not?’ I sat down preparing for whatever this stupid world was going to toss at me.
“You’re Norio Hirohata, yes?”
“Yes, sir,” I replied, keeping up the act needed to not grind things to a halt. I might not have cared about this world, but I knew how it treated me if I didn’t play by the rules enough. As tempting as the thought of just dying and moving on, I didn’t relish the thought. Dying still hurt, though I wouldn’t say that I was afraid of that. I was just going to spite this world, it already killed me too many times.
“I’ve heard some things about you, son.”
‘Is that so? What might that be? Something before I came to live in this body?’ In a way, I sort of hoped he would spill a few things, since if this conversation was going to go any sort of way other than falling flat on my face I was going to need some more information. “Exaggerations most likely.”
“Perhaps, doting parents might. So I’ll be the judge.”
“Yes, sir.” I hid my grimace at him not slipping out anything for me to work from.
“Let’s begin then.”
Now I wasn’t too clear on how old this body actually was. The child I guessed based on what I had seen was probably somewhere around six to eight. If that was correct, that meant that they had me before this Lord in what turned out to be what I could only consider an interview at that young age. Though I wasn’t interviewing for a specific job, best that I could tell from his conversation with me. It felt more like a formal introduction, where he was wanting to get to know his future employee better, except I didn’t know the company that I was working for or even what I did. I wasn’t sure if my ignorance was masked by my being a child. All I could really count on right now was that giving me leniency.
Though I did find myself oddly not completely disengaged from the conversation. I wasn’t quite trying hard, but I certainly didn’t want to fall into the world’s traps. He transitioned into less broad topics and left any sort of attempt of being conversation meant for a child. Covering heavy subjects like finance, war, politics and philosophy, I didn’t really even know if I should be answering anymore. I figured I would out myself as being something strange.
Playing it safe might have been the wrong thing to do, but I couldn’t be sure. If I was actually being interviewed, I couldn’t really do anything if I didn’t know what it was for. So I just had to accept things are they were. The meeting with the Lord finished at least and we were directed back to our previous spot. Judging from the reactions of the parents, I guessed that it didn’t go as well as they would have liked. ‘I wonder what they have in store now…’
It was more than the time it took to reach me to finally conclude this circus, which apparently wasn’t finished. The old man stood before everyone to speak on behalf of the Lord. “Lord Komagata appreciates the time you’ve given to meet with each of you. He would now like to speak in private with the parents. The children shall be escorted to the gardens during this time.” He clapped his hands together as two servants appeared to his summons.
I didn’t really have a choice again, so I simply followed them to where they took us. A surprisingly large courtyard that existed behind the audience chamber we were in before. Judging by the size, it easily was larger than that chamber, giving the children plenty of space to split up into groups and entertain themselves. No one was over the age of eight by my guess, so they all seemed to have no issues playing around with each other.
None of that interested me naturally, so I sat on the porch simply watching. I might have had the body of a child, but it felt weird to be with them. ‘This is still not over…damn this whole day…’
“You’re all alone over here!” said a voice out of my narrow view. My eyes turned up to see that it was the boy from before that seemed far too eager about being here. I didn’t remember his name, the more that was announced that it wasn’t me the more I forgot it.
“I’m just tired from everything.”
“Why are you tired? We did almost nothing! You sound like an old man!”
“And you’re annoying…” I paused after I said that and looked at him directly, rather than at half a glance after he appeared. There was something about him that left me a little more annoyed than I should have been. ‘There’s something oddly familiar about him, why?’
The boy only laughed, not really taking it as I expected. He seemed to want to defy my thoughts. “Wouldn’t be the first time! You really should come out and do something. Get some activity!”
“I’m not interested in participating in their little games.”
“What are you talking about?”
“This is another part of their test or whatever. They’re watching us.”
“You figured that out too? Not so apathetic as I thought,” remarked a voice that made me even more annoyed than the boy, for reasons that I couldn’t explain. It wasn’t the soft higher pitch voice, I knew that. There was something deep in my body that reacted strongly. Something that I couldn’t understand, but my body seemed to know.
I looked over to see that it was a nicely dressed girl in a kimono with her hair tied up in two overly decorated gold pins. She had a very firm, yet polite stance that demanded attention even for someone so young and insignificant. It was a very strange feeling. Maybe this was why my body reacted that way. My annoyance with those in authority or acting like they had it, since that was all that this day was about. “And who are you?”
“Aya Izumi.”
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