A Time Traveller's Guide to Feudal Japan Chapter 16 - Flooding

"…I'm really not looking forward to today."

Rin complained, envisioning the prospect of another day's worth of harassment.

Masaatsu shared a similar opinion.

"Mhm. It's going to be rough."

Trying to lighten the mood, Gengyo offered some positives.

"But at least we no longer have to do any ploughing."

Fuku helped out, offering words of encouragement to her sorrowful children.

"Tadakata's right. You get to do the flooding, and in a couple of days this drama will all pass over, and you can enjoy the easier work."

"What if it doesn't?"

Masaatsu's question was more directed toward Gengyo than anyone else.

Gengyo's reply was confident and resolute, surprising his family members.

"If today is the same as yesterday - which I assume it will be - then we'll set a plan in motion."

"Ha? A plan? What kind of plan can get us out of this mess?"

It was Mirohara that responded with such bitterness.

'There is always one bad apple in an otherwise optimistic bunch.'

Gengyo thought to himself.

"I wonder."

In truth, he had not yet thought of a plan, for he was lacking for inspiration necessary. He planned to let his mind wander throughout the working day, and hope that the dots began to connect themselves.

"Tsch. I knew your words were empty."

Fuku looked depressed at her husband's words, but in truth, she had not expected much from Gengyo either. Tadakata had always been a mild-mannered and weak-willed boy and though his character had certainly changed lately - in her eyes - she did not know of his recent achievements.

Rin and Masaatsu were a little more hopeful, but a degree of doubt still lingered. They loved their brother, and had come to admire him, but the situation was too pitiful.

Shrugging, Gengyo pointed the topic elsewhere.

"That aside, how is your training come along, brother?"

The unexpected question caused Masaatsu to pause a moment as he sat in thought.

"Hmm… I'm not sure whether to call it good or not."

"What kind of things have you been doing?"

"Shooting at birds, squirrels, and the like."

"And?"

"Well, I find my footsteps give me away before I manage to make the shot, so I've only hit 5 animals in the last few days."

"Hoh..."

Gengyo breathed out, rather impressed.

'His training technique is poor, but his success rate isn't bad considering he's learning two skills at the same time - archery, and hunting. In fact, that kind of kill rate having only recently become familiar with the bow is a little extraordinary.'

"I know… It's shameful, but in time I will improve."

"Not at all, it's only that the method you're using to train is rather difficult, but it's likely a better skill in the long run."

Masaatsu perked up at those words.

"Really? Then what method do you use to train?"

"Uh, I just shoot a target. I can hit the bullseye from 60 paces, but of course, it's not a moving target like yours so it's less impressive."

His eyes all but bulged out his head hearing that.

"What!? 60 paces already? I'm only at about 20 paces… How big is your bullseye?"

Gengyo held his hands side by side, giving an indication of the size of his target.

"My god…"

"As I said, it's not a moving target so it's a lot easier."

"I have a lot of work to do."

"Yup. Me too. We need to be able to hit the bullseye at a range of 250 paces if we want to call ourselves experts."

"That's… I understand."

Feeling a little left out at that conversation, Rin made herself known.

"Yeah, I'm training with the naginata so I can become an Onnbugeisha like Tomoe Gozen."

Laughing, Gengyo ruffled her hair, enjoying her joking.

"To be honest, I think you'd make a rather good Onnbugeisha. Though you'd probably be a little too violent for the townspeople's liking…"

Another grizzly reception awaited them at work that morning, with even more people joining in with the insults.

"Look who rocked up to work again today. Here to collect another freebie, are ya kids?"

"Well. It should be harder for them to cheat now that we're doing the flooding."

"You think? Cheating's in their blood. They'll find a way. Probably only fill the bucket half full of some stupid shit."

"Aye, true, that sounds about right."

Gengyo spied Aritada and Yoritomo somewhere off in the corner, as they cast him a pitying glance.

'They made a good choice. Don't join in with the bullshit, but it's not like I want you standing up for me either.'

Baba was running through the process of flooding for the youngsters that had just joined in with the farming this year.

"Alright, so the river's a ten-minute walk from here. Take two buckets with you, and get them filled. When you get back, empty the water into the trench. Then repeat, got it?"

They voiced their understanding, and he nodded satisfied.

'Will this really be easier than ploughing? The buckets seem quite heavy.'

'Oh, but I suppose you can catch a break at the river a bit.'

"If I catch anyone walking too slow, or dallying by the riverside, the punishment won't be pretty."

Baba's words instantly demolished Gengyo's reasoning and he began to frown.

'…Surely this isn't that good? I mean, you're away from the monotony of ploughing all day, but instead you're carrying heavy buckets of water. Then again, the women - like Rin - are doing it, so they can't be too heavy.'

'In the first place, is flooding meant to be done by hand, carrying buckets of water? Though I suppose we're uphill from the river, so we don't have much choice.'

"Here are your buckets. Good work again today please, Miurkun."

"Thanks, Babsan!"

Gengyo received his rather heavy wooden buckets with respect, but as soon as Baba's attention was turned around to Rin, he allowed a frown to fill his face.

'These aren't small… Nor are they light… Could it be, I was lied to?'

Gengyo planned to find the truth of it from Masaatsu or Rin later on, but for now he could only feign a smile and do his best.

He began to walk away, anticipating a hard days work.

"Nii-san, where are you going?"

He spun around to see his siblings following him, and raised an eyebrow.

"Are we meant to be doing this together?"

Masaatsu and Rin shared a glance that contained a good amount of concern.

"What do you mean? That's is the best part. We did it last year and the year before..."

Gengyo frowned, scratching his head. His lack of knowledge of Tadakata's past was a little troubling at times.

"Are you sure? We'll be putting water in different fields, which are different distances from the river."

Masaatsu shook his head.

"No, you're misunderstanding brother. All the workers fill one field at a time - as we've always done."

'Heh… I thought they wanted to split the workers up, but I suppose working this way makes more sense.'

"Well, we better hurry then. Best not give them even more excuses to mess with us."

And so the day passed by with idle conversation, and was accented by brief instances of remarkably dull conflicts.

One overeager young man sprinted past them with water buckets in hand - which of course were spilling - and left them with a parting comment.

"Hurry up idiots!"

They could only offer up a silent prayer for the young man's parents, having borne such a son.

'I imagine his body finds it rather upsetting having such a poor host.'

A few seconds later the boy was stopped by a rather cross Baba.

"Katou-kun! What hell are you doing? Those buckets are barely half full. Go back and fill them up again - and walk back sensibly this time."

The boy's reaction was splendid as he walked past them, red from head to toe.

They could not help but giggle.

"Wow… He's even dumber than you used to be Nii-san."

Gengyo's eyebrow twitched, even though it wasn't technically 'him' who that comment was referring to.

"Was I really that bad?"

"Yup. Worse at times."

Masaatsu nodded deeply in agreement.

"Which is why I'm so surprised by what you've been up to lately. Have you been hiding your intelligence from us all these years?"

He awkwardly scratched the back of his head as he searched for a suitable explanation.

"Uhm… Not exactly… Kinda?"

But luckily they did not press him.

"Well, whatever happened, I'm glad it did. Nii-san is much cooler now!"

The day was nearing its close, and Gengyo very much looked forward to getting out of the scorching heat.

Though he had a relatively pleasant day - apart from the little eccentricities of other people - the constant movement and the overpowering sun had left him feeling drained.

"Day's almost over, Nii-san."

Rin had noticed crouch down for longer than usual to fill up his water bucket, seemingly relishing the cold water.

"Yup. And all three of you have done fuck all, good work!"

A gruff, balding middle-aged man came up behind them, followed by his buddies who gave a hearty laugh at his remark.

Gengyo turned to get a glance at him, and before deciding that he was not someone he knew - nor someone worth paying attention to - he turned back to filling his water bucket.

The man perceived a slight at his lack of concern, for the older brother and younger sister were cautiously moving away.

'Probably just thinking he's a tough guy.'

The man thought to himself, deciding to mess with the kid a little.

He walked up till he was almost directly behind Gengyo before pausing.

'The kid knows I'm here, but he still isn't reacting? What a pretentious brat.'

Taking advantage of Gengyo's crouched position the man delivered a vicious push into the middle of his back, sending him flying headfirst into the river.

Rin shrieked at the sight, worried that her brother wouldn't be able to make his way out of the river, for it was rather fast-flowing, and the depth was not something you could gorge due to the muddy taint that polluted the liquid.

"TADAKATA!"

Masaatsu ran to the bank, slipping his sandals off, intent on jumping in.

A split second before he could complete his dive, Gengyo's head surfaced, and he swan toward the shore. It was shallow enough that he could have walked, but there were other reasons for his actions.

He climbed the bank, as the people around stared at him in silence.

"Ah! The water was quite refreshing - just what I needed."

He then turned to the man who had assaulted him earlier.

"Thank you, kind sir, for your assistance. My name is Miura, what might yours be?"

All present were baffled by Gengyo's tone and mannerisms, as though he was conversing with an amiable neighbour. They had first been caught off guard by his strange swimming technique, and now he behaved as though he did not understand what had just happened.

Gengyo continued to look toward the gruff man - who was still struck dumb - expectantly.

It took a while for the man to process what had happened, and in the meantime a silence reigned, accented only by the smile that hung on Gengyo's lips.

Before long the other man was smiling too, and a second later he was laughing.

"Fuck me. You're an interesting kid. Kushizu Ujimasa's the name, nice to meet ya."

Rin and Masaatsu felt as though the world was about to open up and swallow them. What exactly was going on?

"It's a pleasure to meet you Kushizu-san."

Gengyo responded good-naturedly.

A man behind Kushizu tapped on the back, before whispering in his ear.

"Kushizu… That kid's the son of Miura, you know? They're gonna be trash too, are you sure you want to -"

Kushizu rounded on the man angrily.

"Watch your mouth. I just fucking hit this kid in the back, with all the force I could, and he comes out smiling. Is that not insane? Someone - in this shitty little village of ours - can act like that?"

He then turned back to Gengyo.

"They say your father's trash kid. Cheated. But you don't seem much like trash to me."

"Thank you very much. But my father - whilst not the greatest man history has known - did not cheat. I will make sure to prove his innocence."

"Hoh… Good luck with that, kid. I don't know if you'll manage, but I'll be watching, so be sure to make it interesting, yeah?"

With that, the man by the name of Kushizu Ujimasa concluded his first conversation with the genius that was Miura Tadakata, formally, Gengyo.

Chapter end