Koi Tears

When Senren opened his eyes, he expected to see the walls of a prison cell.
Much to his surprise, however, his gaze instead found nothing but a beaming and relieved pirate woman.

“Rise an’ shine, Yankee!” Sumire was standing over him with a smile. She looked a little weathered from the ordeal, yet nothing seemed to dampen her spirit. “Ya sure took your time waking up. We've been waiting for ya!”

“Sorry to keep you waiting,” Senren chuckled. He began to sit up slowly, guided by Sumire's caring hands.

“I'd be careful if I were you,” a cheerful voice rang out in the room as Nezu walked towards them. Despite her friendly tone, she looked a little bit like a mother about to scold her child for doing something careless.
“What you did out there was noble, but kinda stupid. You shouldn't be blocking razor sharp scales when you have hemophilia. If I hadn't been on this ferry, things would have been pretty grim for you.”

“Ah, right… Forgive me for acting reckless and making you all worry. I must take after my captain.”

“Hey, I'm not reckless,” Sumire countered incredulously. “I'm proactive.”

Nezu couldn't help but giggle at her enthusiasm.
“Call it whatever you like, it'll still get you killed one day.”

Senren watched Sumire pout stubbornly at the medicine woman and felt his heart warm. He got the impression that she didn't have many friends, especially not female ones, so seeing the two of them so comfortable with each other brought the ronin some joy.

“You two seem quite familiar with each other,” he stated warmly. “How did you become acquainted?”

The question seemed to make Sumire light up.

“Senren, this is the healer who saved me when I was a kid!”

“I-is she?! But she looks barely older than you. Amazing…”

“Heheh, and that's not all,” Sumire grinned smugly, placing her hands on her hips. “She's also got a lead for our little adventure.”

Senren blinked, a bit stunned. “A… lead… on the Koi Tears..?”

“M-hm,” Nezu nodded, crossing her legs in her chair. “While you were taking an extended nap, Sumi filled me in on the details of your endeavor. And, since our sleepy friend over there gave us an extra hour or so on our ferry ride, it's a perfect opportunity to share my knowledge and help you out.”

As Sumire and Senren began to listen intently, Nezu's playful demeanor became much more serious. She shifted her position, and because speaking with an almost enchanting aura of wisdom and mystery.

“Let's begin. Firstly, I haven't fully introduced myself. My name is Nezu Mikon-Tsubame, descendant of Ayurva Mikon-Tsubame, founder of the Ayurva healing practice.”

While Sumire's face was painted with whimsical intrigue, Senren seemed to be much more struck by the information. “Incredible,” he remarked, eyes wide. “Ayurva is the most common practice in all of the Isles… Its development saved the entire country from plague centuries ago, securing the Tsubame Clan as one of the governing territories.”

“Looks like someone knows their history,” Nezu continued. “Guess that's the infamous Imperial Education, huh? Well, you understand then that my family has centuries of history behind it, and I'm now the successor to all that history. We still pass on stories and traditions through our family that would otherwise be lost to time. One of those stories is that of the Koi Dragon.”

“A Koi Dragon?” Sumire thought for a moment, then pointed to the recovering Wani. “You mean like him, but if he was like…white and covered in spots?”

Nezu chuckled.
“Not quite. Actually, there used to be a race of Koi Yokai that lived in the Yamato Isles a long, long time ago. But during the Great War of the Pon Dynasty, these beautiful and serene creatures were nearly wiped out by humanity’s reckless fighting. As their people were lost one after another as collateral damage to the war, the Koi Yokai sent their children away to be saved.

“The children fled from their homes and swam upstream through the Ryusui River. Unfortunately, this was no easy journey. There were many perils and trials in store for the little Koi children, and many of them didn't make it to the end…

“But, there was one Koi Yokai that made it all the way up the river, to the very top of Mount Takiyan. They persevered through every trial, obstacle, and challenge, and at the end of it they became a powerful dragon.”

Nezu was an amazing storyteller. Sumire was left hanging on her every word with anticipation, and by the end her mind was consumed by whimsical fantasies of magical fish and perilous adventures. Luckily, although Senren was captivated, he was also of a clearer mind.

“It's a harrowing tale,” he said. “But what does the Koi Dragon have to do with the Koi Tears and how to find one?”

“Hmm,” Nezu made a hum of thought, as if trying to choose her words properly. “Well, ironically, you actually already have one.”

She pointed behind Sumire, where the pirate's giant conductor sword leaned against the wall. Sumire's and Senren’s gaze both followed with complete shock.

“That… That?”

“My sword?!”

“Well, the gem in it,” Nezu continued. “That little amethyst orb is a genuine Koi Tear — they're Mana conductors that can amplify your inherent abilities. It's no surprise that one responds so well to you, Sumire, since your Mana is naturally attuned to amethyst.”

“But…” Sumire began to stammer incredulously. “But they're supposed to grant wishes! Oh, crap, do you think I used up my wish already?!”

“I should have known not to trust such an outlandish fairy tale,” Senren chimed in. Seeing their dismay, Nezu quickly called their attention back to herself.

“Hey, hey, don't get so discouraged yet,” she said. “Didn’t I say that some of this history was all but lost to time? Most people don't really talk about or remember the story of the Koi Dragon, but some places do still tell vague versions of it to kids as a sort of bedtime story or fable about perseverance. The part of it that's lost is in the unadulterated details.”

Seeing that her temporary students had settled down a bit, Nezu continued in a much more mysterious tone.

“See, swimming upstream is no easy task, even for a Yokai. So, all of the Koi children swallowed little gems and river rocks to try and stabilize themselves against the current. Some of them sank or got swept away immediately, but others learned how to circulate their magic energy around the stones in their bodies. This circular motion of Mana created a sort of gyroscope, keeping them afloat against the current and eventually amplifying it enough that it made them stronger.”

“Oh, I get it!” Sumire suddenly declared with enthusiasm. She then began swirling her fingers in different directions around an imaginary orb. “All that energy just going around and around the little stones like this ended up turnin’ ‘em into perfect spheres. And being a perfect sphere makes it a better conductor for more energy like that!”

“Spot on,” Nezu praised her. “They’re awesome magic items for our use today, but none of them were strong enough to get the Koi all the way up a river and waterfall. As they got fished from the river, or as the stones separated from their dead bodies and washed towards land, humans began to find them. Since there were only so many of these stones they got known as rare treasures, and over time they became lost, or broken, or maybe even shipped overseas. As their presence dwindled, Koi Tears became a dusty old legend, named for the pain that all those poor souls endured.”

“Those poor little fish…” Sumire mourned the Koi children somberly. It gave her a newfound respect for her sword. After all, a child died to produce it, after putting painstaking effort into perfecting its abilities and trying with all its might to survive. Sumire couldn't help but feel she was carrying all of that perseverance and pain forward with her, so that the young Koi who created it didn't die in vain. She would cherish it.

“I just don't understand,” Senren seemed to be grappling with the tragedy in his own way. “Why would those Koi think to even attempt such a thing? How come one of them managed to succeed while so many others failed?”

“It's because that Koi Yokai, the one at the helm, had this.”

From the bag on her waist, Nezu removed a small pen. A prismatic light flowed from its tip, which she used to draw an orb in the air that was several times larger than the core of Sumire's sword.

“This is the real Koi Tear you're looking for, the one which can grant wishes. Not much is known about it, but one of my ancestors' journals says that it was gifted to the Koi Yokai by the Prism God. The one who made it to the top of the mountain and became the Koi Dragon must have been carrying this relic, and the other Koi were trying to mimic it.”

“So…” Sumire seemed to be contemplating this information, but her excitement was quickly overtaking her. “We just have to climb this mountain, beat up a dragon, and take its cool orb? Easy! We've totally got this!”

Her companions seemed to be of different opinions. Senren eyed her with concern while Nezu chuckled.

“I don't know what exactly you'll find at the top of Mount Takiyan,” she clarified, wiping the air-drawing away with her hand. “But to find what you're seeking, I'd suggest completing the journey the same way as in the legend.”

“Meaning we'll need to travel upstream on the Ryusui,” Senren added. “Then, presumably, climb a waterfall.”

Nezu nodded. It was no secret that doing so was a daunting and near impossible challenge, one which none of them had a clear idea on how to conquer. But Sumire wasn't going to allow any of that to dampen her spirits — to her, this sort of adventure was what being a pirate was all about.

They were already so close to their goal. Sumire wasn't about to stop now.