Chapter Text
Long, long ago in a place where this tongue is rarely heard, there lived a nobleman with four sons and five daughters. His oldest son he trained and taught in his own ways, to care for his lands and manage his people, that his son might follow in his footsteps. His second son he brought to a leader of warriors that his son might learn to lead others and protect his lands. His third son he brought to a holy man, that his son might learn to care for the hearts of his people. His daughters he found husbands to care for them and some of them were happy.
It was in finding a place for his fourth son that he found himself uncertain. His other sons each had important jobs caring for his lands and his people, and there was a place in the world for them. So he taught his fourth son to find a place in the world for himself, and gave him some funds to start on his path, and assured him that if he came home with no place in the world, there would always be a place for him at home, but the nobleman could not promise as respected a place as his brothers.
So, the young nobleman went into town and he spoke with his dearest friend, the second son of a blacksmith. His older brother was learning a prized art, but there was only so much room in the forge, and not enough room for him. The young nobleman and the blacksmith's son hired a warrior to protect them and a cook to feed them and a ship to help them find a place in the world.
The young nobleman searched high and low and across the broad reaches of the earth, and found a place with the most beautiful view. To see the mountain and the ocean from atop this hill, he declared, anyone's heart would be full of love and joy. The whole world should come and see it with the one they love the most, that their future would be forever blessed. He searched the area nearby and found that living by the hill was a carpenter who was willing to help him build a small village of guest houses, that anyone who wished to come see would have a place to rest.
As they built and built, melancholy seeped into the heart of the young nobleman, for although he built a place of love and happiness, he did not know if he could find it for his own. He spoke to the carpenter as they worked and said that he wished to be happy and find a love he was compatible with, for not all of his sisters were happy with their loves. The carpenter worked in silence for some time and then responded, that he lived here and worked with his hands and breathed the air of the sea and these things filled his heart with joy, but to be happy is within your own heart and cannot be given by another. Compatibility, however, he could help with, for he was not just a carpenter, but a carpenter of magics, who could etch qualities into the things he made to act upon the world.
Dive into the sea, the carpenter told the young nobleman. There is a fish of white and orange that lives in a plant that will sting you. This fish is blessed by the world to always over time be compatible with the fish that it loves. Bring me this fish and into a bed I will carve its ability to always be compatible with your love. Anyone who rests in this bed will be so blessed.
So the young nobleman dove into the sea and he found the fish of white and orange, and he reached for it but was stung by the plant the fish lived in. He tried again and again, but each time the fish hid in the plant, until finally he realized there were two fish, and his heart could not bear to take one away from the other. The young nobleman went back upon the shore and wandered as he thought, and he chanced upon a waterfall that concealed a cave. He strode from sea to cave and cave to sea and he thought and he looked and he found that in fact part of the sea was in the cave as well, so he took a shovel and he returned to the place where he found the fish of white and orange and he took the plant in his shovel, striding with it in the water until he reached the cave, where he set it down.
I fear I have not exactly brought you this fish, he told the carpenter, but come with me and I shall show you what I have done. The young nobleman and the carpenter went down to the cave and the carpenter beheld the fish and the plant and the fish and he said yes in fact I can work with this. I shall bring into this cave wood and cloth and my tools, and I shall carve magic such that when you rest here, you will be blessed to be compatible with the one you find to love.
The carpenter gazed upon the fish and he gazed upon the plant and he gazed upon the wood and he began to carve and he began to shape and into the wood he carved magic. Into the wood he carved the blessing of the fish for he saw the fish together and each fish could become compatible with each other if they were not already, and as the nobleman brought the plant as well, into the wood he carved the blessing of any plant, to renew itself in the rain and the sun. Into the wood he carved one more blessing unintended, for such things can happen when a thing you are making to be two could be three instead, and he carved the blessing of this plant to sting those who would harm this fish for its blessing.
It is done, the carpenter said one evening as the five ate in the banquet hall they had built together. It cannot be moved and so it cannot be stolen, but also to gain its blessing you must go to it. Lay on the bed and you shall be forever blessed as the fish has, and your children as well. Some of the sailors heard this but they did not interrupt for it was not their place. The young nobleman and the blacksmith's son went down to the cave for the nobleman could not bear to withhold so great a gift from his dearest friend, and they each slept upon the bed that they might be blessed.
In the morning however, the young noblewoman was distraught. She gazed upon herself and she gazed upon her reflection, and she despaired of what would happen if she returned home. She did not want to be married off as her sisters had, for she did not believe that to be engaged by another was her path to happiness. She ran to the carpenter. Please she begged, you must fix this, something has gone wrong. The carpenter shook his head for the blessing was a good one and it did not harm the noblewoman, and so there was nothing to fix. However, the blessing was not over and it would be with the young noblewoman forever. If she did not like the results, she simply must rely on the blessing again. Spend time with the cook, the carpenter suggests. Learn happiness from the cook. And so the noblewoman went to the cook, a fiery young woman, and asked to learn with her how each part of a dish combines to create a whole that might not be apparent from any part alone. The two spent hours and days together, and in time the young nobleman learned how things may be combined to the greatest impact.
The blacksmith's son went to the carpenter and asked how he might protect his friend from an unwanted engagement and the carpenter suggested that some things can be protected against in one way and some in another but he had no direct experience with protection as a whole. The blacksmith's son nodded and understood that an expert in one matter could not be expected to hold up the whole world alone, so he sought the warrior. The warrior knew one kind of protecting and he knew it very well so he bade the blacksmith's son to join him under the waterfall and train with a blade and the two spent hours and weeks together and the blacksmith's daughter found that her muscles which were already substantial became particularly suited for the arts of protection, that she might use her blade to turn aside any who would harm her dearest friend, just as the plant turned aside any who would harm the fish of white and orange.
The two friends rejoined each other and shared what they knew and what they had learned and together they found happiness, for it was not that they could not find happiness together, only that they could not find it together earlier. With these lessons learned and this training done they found themselves compatible with each other once more, and their love stood against all who may challenge it. In time the warrior and the cook and even the sailors became blessed and their children and all who lived upon this island, and so it became known for love and the young nobleman's dream was fulfilled, as people came from far and wide to gaze upon the sea and gaze upon the mountain and find their hearts filled with love and happiness.
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Akane closed the book. "Thanks, Gosunkugi, English isn't my best subject, and this was a little confusing, but it might be just what I need."
Gosunkugi rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, anything for you Akane. It's a good thing your father warned you about that engagement before this boy you're worried about actually showed up. I don't know if it's exactly what you need, but I looked through everything I could find but this was the only one that mentioned a blessing and avoiding an unwanted engagement."
"It's perfect," she beamed. "I just have to get my dad to bring me to that training ground with the waterfall and sleep in the magic bed, and not only can I avoid the unwanted engagement, but it sounds like it'll help me swim better, too!"
"I'm, I'm not sure..."
"You're the best! See you after the break!" With that, Akane took the book with a map in the front cover and headed home, intent on convincing her father that a little trip was just what she needed.