Chapter 20: June 12th, 1645

Time passes as it always does. It is a stream that never stops and will always continue until the end of the universe. Even if it was over a month that passed, it seemed like a week went by. Nonetheless, it seemed that many things occurred and happened naturally.

For Tatsu, it was a routine event traveling back and forth to the village. Most nights, he would spend his time at the village finishing the construction of a new home with due thanks to the villagers and their knowledge of house construction. Using the vast supply of lumber in the nearby forest, he would go deep into the foliage and slice a tree up to be converted to the home. The home was finally completed at the beginning of the fourth week. The timing couldn’t be any better than he could imagine. Things were going according to schedule, and things were closer to the special day planned.

It was near night again after returning back from Musashi’s cave. It was another day of training. Now with both bokken and an actual katana in his scabbards, Tatsu’s combat capability was slowly improving as each day passes.

Something had started to bother Tatsu, though, as each day got closer to the event planned. He was not so much nervous about it, but it was something he felt needed to be done for this to work.

“I never had the chance to tell her yet,” he said as he walked closer to the middle of the village. “Perhaps I am afraid of losing her?” He stopped as he sighed to himself. “I still don’t know who I was ... only nightmares and brief flashbacks have been my friend besides Haru. If she knew I was a dragon ... would she accept me? Yet tomorrow ... tomorrow ... it will be too late. She wants this to happen as much as I do, but she may never do it if she knows.”

He closed his eyes as he really thought about it. His heart raced as he thought more about it. He feared the moment she knew, he would have no choice but leave the village quickly. The humans were still unpredictable. They were helpful, but only because they knew he was human. Would she truly accept him for what he really was?

He opened his eyes as he continued his walk. “I will tell her ... today I will tell her.”

Tatsu stepped to his house. It was small, made of a simple sizeable wooden floor for a living room, a kitchen like an area, and a bedroom. The main door could be slid open and closed with ease. It was a lovely home, nonetheless. He now had a place of refuge to be able to revert back and forth to his true form without anyone seeing it. No longer did he have to go to the forest during his travels to do it. Some furniture made from a fellow neighbor was to be brought in as the days continued to pass. It was a mad dash to do it. The place was spacious without much inside it. The first night at his new home, he practiced swinging his swords, trying to continue honing in his skills as he trained with Musashi in his cave. A small candle in the corner provided his illumination.

He sighed as he looked at his home. He needed to see Haru, though, as he shook his head and continued to walk into the center of the village. Tatsu saw the home of Noritaka. He came up and took his sandals off as he knocked on the door.

The door slid open to reveal the father as he smiled at Tatsu. Tatsu still wore his black kimono with the two swords connected to his front. It was a tradition to see him walking around the village. Even Kiyoshi seemed to welcome another armed figure in the area as if Tatsu himself was another protector of the village. The village’s small size made it a speck of dust compared to other communities around the island. It was developing but only so slowly. There wasn’t even a name for the place yet. It was merely just a tiny fishing village. Even Kumamato didn’t seem to really bother with the place. It provided the rice and fish to the city, and that was all it needed or at least for the time being.

“Tatsu, I trust your trip east was fruitful as ever?” Noritaka addressed him.

“It was ... How are you?” he asked him.

“I am well. A little bit in pain from the digging yesterday, but my body is doing well.”

“May I see your daughter?” Tatsu asked.

“I am here!... , “ yelled a female voice from a distance inside the home.

Noritaka motioned Tatsu to enter. There was a smile on his face that was directed at the tall man in front of him.

As Tatsu entered the home, he could hear the sounds of someone getting up from the floor. He could hear the noise of a wooden pole slapping wood. The cane was making contact with the floor.

Tatsu was used to this by now. It was a struggle for her every day, but she was used to it by now. He swore to be with her as much as possible now through this new part of life.

She finally reached the open door entrance to her room. Dressed in her white kimono leaning on her cane, she slowly peaked through to see Tatsu watch her. There was a smile on her face.

“Father, it is alright,” Haru told Noritaka. “You know what he will be by tomorrow. There is no shame having him here now.”

Noritaka smiled and nodded. “Of course,” he said as he left home to give them privacy.

“My father is worried that you being here will make an unhappy marriage for tomorrow,” Haru told Tatsu as she shifted the cane and leaned on it hard.

The cane was holding her weight correctly. While it was still slippery on the wooden flooring, Haru was used to it by now. As long as she avoided jolting her weight and used it to help balance on her remaining leg, then that was all that mattered. She could stand relatively safely but do little else inside the house.

“This new cane you made me is better than the last one,” she commented. “It holds my weight so much easier, and it fits around my armpit much more comfortably.”

With her free hand, she gestured him to come to him. “Help me walk outside. I can walk outside so much easier now. I get tired of being inside this home all the time.”

Tatsu walked up to her, and he bent his knees a little bit as she wrapped her arm to lean on him. With his hand, he wrapped it around her waist and lightly carried her as she hopped on one leg towards the door that led to outside.

“I think marrying you is the best decision on my part,” Haru said as they reached the door. “I know that I want to have you before I am supposed to marry any other man.”

“Even though I was the one that took your leg?” Tatsu asked.

They opened up the door as they stepped outside.

“I was doomed to die in that forest if no one found me,” she replied. “The cost of a leg was worth it. Especially to the man who saved me. I know that it wasn’t easy for you either.”

“It wasn’t, but if it meant you were living longer, then I would do it.”

They stood outside as Haru let go of Tatsu and began to walk freely on her cane. Her body was fully situated on the cane, ideally as she began to take small steps. Her clothing covered up her missing leg well, but it was apparent that walking was difficult for her. She hobbled away from the home as they walked together down the path that led to the beach.

“Anything new when it comes to dreams?” she asked him.

Tatsu shook his head. “Still just fragmented memories. I sometimes get nightmares of a dark creature. It was massive ... so massive that it could eat everything. I just don’t know what it was.”

She thought about it some more. “What about ... family? Do you see anything dealing with family that you had?”

“You are worried again that I am previously married. I told you before if there was another woman that I was with, then I would have remembered her by now. That being said, though...”

There was a look of fear in her eyes as she staggered a little bit in her steps. The grassy path led to the beach sand as they walked to the nearby beach. The sound of the crashing waves was all but evident as he kept his thoughts out loud for her to hear.

“What is it?” she asked.

“I do see faint images of a woman though in my dreams. She looks nothing like you, but ... she wasn’t ... she wasn’t my wife.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s like ... the few children I see in the village ... like she is someone close to me, but again she isn’t a wife. It’s when I keep seeing children playing in this village I get faint, blurry images of a child I am with. I just...”

“I know... , “ she replied back. “I am just worried we will get married, and then suddenly, the real woman that you meant will come walking to this village. Then ... I will lose you.”

“I assure you, I sense no previous wife. Nothing in my gut tells me that what we are doing is wrong.”

Haru seemed to calm down a little bit as her cane supported her weight. The sand, however, was making things difficult to traverse.

“I can’t walk on this beach sand,” she complained. “How much I miss having my leg...”

She was unable to finish her sentence when the cane drove deep into the sand, and she lost her footing. Tatsu was quick as he caught her before she fell to the dirt.

“I got you ... I got you,” he told her.

“Dah ... thank you, my...” she recomposed herself. Tatsu helped guide her to the grass away from the beach. “You almost had me calling you husband ... that isn’t till tomorrow,” she said with a smile.

Tatsu himself smiled as he thought about it. “I am ready...”

“I know you are. I see it in your eyes.”

Tatsu started to display some regret in his eyes as she turned her head to look at him as he let her walk again on her cane.

“I still feel pain down there ... my leg,” she commented. “Even if it’s gone, it’s like it’s still there. I even feel the urge to itch sometimes.”

Tatsu sighed as he listened to her speak. She put her free hand to his face.

“I have you to thank for ... you got me this cane and made new ones to fit me better. I can’t appreciate what you did for me. You have spent so much time trying to take care and help me though. That I cannot forget.”

Tatsu stayed quiet as he listened to her talk. He would nod his head as he kept walking.

“You know...” She continued. “I would walk down the beach as far as I could walk. Sometimes I would just pick a direction and just go. I walked for hours south along the beach. It was so nice. I would feel the sand beneath my toes. I worried my father sick I felt so bad ... it just felt so wonderful to be so close to the ocean, though.”

“I felt the draw to the ocean as well,” Tatsu replied, watching her walk and hobble with her cane. “I had the option to go east or west when I lost my memory. It felt like I should have headed west. That was what ultimately drove me to meet you in the first place.”

“It would have been a horrible death if you had not found me. That path that you take, the villagers prefer the northeastern path. It is easier and quicker to Kumamoto than that path.”

“Why didn’t you take the other paths if you were trying to run away?”

“Because there would have been a less likely chance for pursuit in that direction ... Of course,” Haru shrugged with her free arm. “It also meant that there was a less likely chance anyone would ever found me when I got hurt. Again thank you.”

Haru would look at Tatsu and see his face look away as if something was troubling him. It was bothering her, and finally, it bugged her enough that she had to ask him.

“You have had that face as the day of our marriage nears...” She told him as she displayed worry. “Please don’t tell me you are having second thoughts.”

Tatsu stopped Haru by putting her hand to her shoulder. He breathed hard, and he started to display actual fear for the first time. “Haru ... it isn’t that. I want this marriage to go through; I truly do. It’s just ... it’s just.”

“What is it?”

“I have had a little bit of time to study about ... mythology or beliefs of ... Haru what if I told you that the myths were real?”