Nekomata — Rumor

“There are human-eating monsters in the forest nearby.” Nobody knew when this rumor started to spread around the villagers, but it somehow developed into many versions.

A young traveler quietly listened to a young boy and a young girl arguing about this rumor as he blew away the hot steam on his tea.

“It’s a female monster cheated by a man. I heard she loved to dig out men’s eye balls and eat them.”

“Huh? You girls are so much trouble. You just can’t just have any story without love or relationship. It was nothing but an aggressive monster. I’m sure the adults will get monks to cleanse it sooner or later.”

“You are bluffing, Tarou. ‘Nothing but a monster’? You don’t even dare to enter the forest.”

“Shut, shut up!”

The young traveler slowly finished the last bite of his food and interrupted them as the two almost started a fight. “Excuse me, I’d like to enter the forest, but which way should I take?”

“Are you going to the forest!?”

“Wow, you are going to the forest!”

Both the boy and the girl were shocked.

“I am the master of the Shrine. Just like the ‘monks’ this young fella mentioned, I also have the ability to cleanse monsters.”

“Are you serious?” The boy looked at him in doubt. There’s no way that this somewhat handsome man can be a monster fighter.

Seeing their reaction, the young traveler let out a little sigh and gave up asking. Nobody ever believed in his identity, but he had no clue what went wrong.

“Wait a sec,” The boy stopped the traveler as he picked up his hat and prepared to leave. “I— I will take you there.”

The girl looked at him in shock, but the boy headed straight toward a small path full of weeds. He didn’t even look back to check if the traveler was following.

The forest was right at the end of the path. There were weeds everywhere — ever since the rumor of the monster started, no one had ever dared to enter.

At the entrance of the forest, the boy stopped and asked the traveler again. “Are you sure you are going in?”

“Yes.”

“But, there is a… man-eating monster!”

“Have you seen it?”

“No…”

“Has somebody you know got eaten?”

“N—no…”

“Then why are you so sure about this man-eating monster?”

“Because all the adults said so… And how can there be a monster that doesn’t eat humans!?”

“There’s an old proverb that says ‘the only difference between a buddha and a demon is the thought’. Put it in layman’s terms, whether you are a good or a bad person has nothing to do with your origin. It depends on what you want to do. And the same applies to monsters… Aye— You don’t understand, do you…” The traveler looked at the boy and smiled with resignation. No matter how many times he repeated this, humans only believed in what they wanted to believe.

Prejudice isn’t something that can be removed with just a few conversations.

Nekomata — Encounter

The traveler bid farewell to the boy and walked into the deep parts of the forest alone. It was a beautiful and dynamic forest, with lots of sounds made by insects and birds. He saw no monster but lots of man-made traps in bushes and roadside. They seemed to be set up to catch animals.

Ordinary villagers seldom came to the forest, but hunters saw that as an opportunity to catch more preys.

As the traveler squatted down to check the traps, he heard something sharp piercing through the air behind him. He quickly rolled away, and saw a few bamboos canes stuck into the land where he was standing.

He looked up at the direction where the cane came from, and found a pair of red, resentful eyes among the leaves not far away. The pupils had become slit in the sunlight. Two long and thick tails hung from the branches and stuck the tree trunk occasionally as their owner made warning sounds. It was a nekomata. These monsters were often described as friendly and kind; many books wrote that they would transform into young girls and approach humans. However, this one looked very aggressive for no reason.

The traveler quietly moved a few steps to one side, so he could see the nekomata’s hidden body among the leaves. Its right rear foot seemed to be heavily injured. No wonder it was only warning but not attacking.

He thought of the traps along the way. Could this nekomata be those hunters’ target?

It wasn’t a good time for monsters, especially for those who could transform into girls — they could sell a very good price in underground black markets. With this in mind, it was not difficult to understand where the nekomata’s hostility came from.

“Um, I didn’t come to catch you… But you probably won’t believe me, will you? Haha…”

The traveler laughed awkwardly as the cat started hissing immediately when he opened his mouth. Seemed it had zero trust in humans.

He quietly took a bean from the sleeve and threw it under the tree while the nekomata wasn’t paying attention. It quickly sprouted and grew into a vine that spiraled upward along the trunk.

To distract the nekomata even further, the traveler took out an amulet he picked up from a trap just now. It had a very ordinary style and looked quite dated. The embroidered text was difficult to distinguish as the amulet was soaked in blood.

“Do you recognize this?”

When the nekomata saw the amulet, it suddenly went berserk and tried to pounce over with an injured leg. However, the vine entangled it first and slowly sent it to the traveler.

“I knew you could…” He flipped the amulet around and thought for a while as his fingers massaged the two embroidered characters. “I shall use it then. Hope it can make the spell work better.”

“Holding on to the amulet, he started chanting a complicated, difficult spell. Light red energy started to emit from the nekomata’s body and flow into the amulet.

Soon, there was only a cat sleeping calmly on the ground.

The traveler walked up and tied the amulet on its neck, then gently stroked its head.

After the nekomata was sealed, the vine also retracted and turned into a lovely girl.

“Master, why did you put a seal on it?”

“Right now, it has too much hostility toward humans. Instead of simply telling it that there are good people in the world, I prefer to seal all the bad memories away and let it re-learn how to live with humans on its own. Nekomatas have a natural affinity with humans.”

“But… seals are like honey, they will eventually expire. One day, all the memories will break the seal and come back. What shall we do then?”

“Let’s hope that it has enough inner strength to fight the memories by then. Fate can never be predicted.”

Still confused, the girl squatted down and patted on the cat’s head too. “Welcome to the Mahjong Soul Shrine, little kitty.”

Nekomata — Confusion

The boy waited for the traveler anxiously outside the forest.

A long time has passed,just when he thought the traveler was already eaten by the bonster, he saw a man walk out of the forest with a cat sleeping in his arms.

“Did you meet the monster?” The boy rushed to him. He peeked at the cat in his arms, confused about what really happened in the forest.

“It’s nothing but a rumor. There is no monster in the forest, but I found a little cat who had lost its way.”

“But…”

“If the monster is real, how could I come back alive?” The traveler adjusted his hat and squinted his eyes under the brim’s shadow, resembling some kid of cunning animal. The boy was only half-convinced, but could not find any reason to reject him as the traveler looked completely unscathed.

If this weak-looking man can come out of the forest alive, this place shouldn’t be as dangerous as the rumor suggests, should it?

“It was nothing but a rumor spread by poachers to scare the villagers off. Don’t worry.” The traveler gave the boy a pat on the shoulder and headed away with the cat. He seemed to be mumbling something though. “Ouch— you little on hit me really hard.”

Little one? Does he mean that cat?

What a chaotic day, the boy thought. But he started to think about what the traveler said. What are monsters? And what makes a human?

Can monsters really live like humans and refrain from eating them?

Tenhoukaku

“You dishonest liar!”

“Yeah. My family heirloom has been passed down 18 generations. How can it be a fake?”

A huge crowd was making lots of noise in front of a jewelry shop. Two men in suits, who looked like father and son, caught the most attention as they argued fiercely with a smiling woman leaning on the front door. They were trying to prove the authenticity of a brilliant stone in their hands.

“Look at your gem. It’s got a crooked tip, some dig marks, as well as some cloud-like haze inside it. Hehe, our shop will never take such a poorly crafted stone.”

“B-but it has been passed down for hundreds of years in my family...”

“So what? If you’re trying to say this is old, take it to an antique store, not a jewelry shop.” The woman never looked at them again as she turned away and walked into the shop.

The crowd looked up to the shop’s sign, then walked off without making any further drama. There might be many famous jewelry shops in Ichiban City, but all the ocala knew the Tenhoukaku in the city west had the most variety of gems. The shop owner, Miki Nikaidou, was a smooth and shrewd beauty with renowned gem-identifying skills. She could tell the value of a gem quite accurately by simply looking at it.

As such, people often took their “family heirloom gems” to Miki Nikaidou, for she only charged a small fee but could potentially get them a highly recognized certification.

But given the nature of identification, not all of the visitors would get the answer they wanted. Miki Nikaidou never showed any mercy despite the claims of “heirloom”, and consequently made a lot of enemies.

That didn’t quite seem like the action of a jewelry merchant. But did it really matter?

“Gems are the most beautiful things in this world! As they age, they become shiny and resilient. No matter how much time has passed, or how tough the environment is, they will only become stronger and prettier. How can those ignorant and vulgar understand such beauty? Hehe!”

Agate

“Squeak—” A plump hedgehog with a few red fruits on its back tried very hard to climb up the lower hem of Miki Nikaidou’s dress. However, its short legs really didn’t have enough strength to pull itself upward, so it was still at the original position after a few minutes, staring at its owner with round, innocent eyes.

Smiling, Miki Nikaidou took the hedgehog and put it up on her shoulder. “Agate, what did you do this time?”

The hedgehog, nicknamed Agate, fawningly arched its back full of fruits towards Miki, then struggled to turn around looking at her.

Miki Nikaidou realized what it was doing and put a fruit into her mouth. The sweet and sour taste made her feel a lot better.

Agate was nothing but an ordinary wild hedgehog. When it was still a hoglet, it was taken away from its mother by some naughty kids, then abandoned outside Tenhoukaku after they had enough fun of it.

Miki Nikaidou never saw herself as a kind person, but when Agate—which was still unable to open its eyes—helplessly held onto her fingers, she felt it would be nice to adopt this little creature. After all, it wouldn’t harm anyone. Maybe except when it tried to climb into the arms of pretty girls.

A few years quickly passed. When having Agate around became a habit, the little hedgehog also became a necessary part of Miki Nikaidou’s life.

Mahjong Competition

Miki Nikaidou loves Mahjong and is great at it. However, sometimes she cannot tell if she enjoys Mahjong itself more, or the players’ various emotions on the table: confusion, perplexity, joy or anger.

A few years ago, she participated in a mahjong competition held by Mahjong Soul Shrine, but no one knew it was her first and last competition. After that remarkable competition ended, the master of Mahjong Soul Shrine was nowhere to be found again.

Many Mahjong competitions were held in Ichiban City afterward, but she never had the interest to take part again, for none of them was comparable to the first she had.

Rumor also had it that the prize of the Mahjong competition was a wish. The winner could make a wish, and it would be fulfilled no matter what it was.

Miki Nikaidou could not tell if it was a rumor or not. When she took part in the competition, the winners were four noble ladies.

She once saw them from afar; they each had a distinct style. While all four of them were beautiful in their own way, they seemed to carry a common “color”.

Many years later, she finally understands what the “color” was. It’s the color of hope when things were born, as well as the color of expectation like the ripe fruits of autumn.

She cannot give a firm definition of such “color”, because she knows she will never become one like them.

And she prefers the life as is now: one shop, a few Mahjong friends.

Life is always ordinary. All one needs to know is how to find happiness in the ordinary.