Chapter 2: Legends Never Die
I
When Satoshi entered the pavilion, his mother was tending to the garden in the Hiroyuki manor which was resplendent with blossoms of orange, yellow, and reds, much like the legendary phoenix. Blooms of colorful flowers burst into a prismatic display, and his mother appeared a serene portrait among the garden, tending to the flowers. She also worked the loom where she was sewing an Onmyouji regalia for Satoshi out in the garden, working the needle and thread on the rippling silk.
“Welcome home, Satoshi-kun,” his mother, Akiko Hiroyuki, said. “Have you been practicing your Onmyoujutsu?”
“They won’t pass me,” Satoshi said with a frown, but then he puckered his lips in thought. “The one Elder…the one I don’t get along with…he said some nice things.”
Akiko looked gentle and opened up her arms. Satoshi then flew towards his mother and wrapped his arms around her. She chuckled and smoothed Satoshi’s black hair, which was dark like her own. The tell tale signs of laughter in the creases of her eyes told him much about her love and affection for Satoshi and the wonderful zest she had for life.
“I know how he is, Satoshi-kun. Though treat your elders with respect, for they usually have experienced things in life that you young ones haven’t yet. No matter what, I’m proud that you’re my son and that you wish to walk the path of an Onmyouji.”
Satoshi grinned and parted from his mother. “I want that more than anything in the world!”
A more solemn look came across Akiko’s features, as she regarded Satoshi’s words.
“The Onmyouji are a dying breed, Satoshi-kun,” Akiko said. “That is because mankind is losing touch with spirits and the gods. What will become of this world, as mankind continues to build his structures of steel and his weapons of destruction? The land is becoming choked with smoke. I tried to divine through the wind, though I find I can no longer hear the wind spirits.”
Her hands worked with the needle and thread. Her hands never remained idle, always doing needlework and calligraphy and tending to the earth and soil of the gardens she kept in resplendent shape. Even watching her doing something simple like separating the threads and weaving the tapestry of colors together for the regalia she wove for him was fascinating to watch. It reminded him of the theaters and plays that he’d come to see in the spectacles people performed in Jipangu.
Satoshi often loved to watch his mother weave brilliant colors of cloth and silk, her slender fingers dancing among the threads. Red and gold blossomed forth in the highly coveted silk they harvested from their neighboring country. Satoshi imagined it cost a fortune to acquire though his mother only indulged her son in the highest quality materials and things he wished for. The love and pride he held for his mother was regarded as one a dutiful son should bear—of, family, kinship, love and devotion.
He watched in entrancement while her fingers worked the threads.
Satoshi cocked his head to the side and frowned upon his mother’s words. He understood Onmyouji were highly sensitive to the supernatural and heard the voices of wind spirits like his mother. Or they sometimes summoned shikigami to come to their aid. His mother told him his father, a legendary Onmyouji, defied death three times, though he disappeared for reasons unknown. Perhaps death finally caught up with him, as it always did. No one, not even the greatest Onmyouji in the world, lived forever.
“I want to become a great Onmyouji, like father. When I get my shikigami, I’m going to travel into the spirit world!”
Akiko’s smile had a sad tilt to it. “I don’t think that you will find your father there, Satoshi-kun. He most likely has passed into the afterlife…or perhaps he ascended to nirvana.”
“I will find him,” Satoshi insisted. “I know I will.”
The beautiful Onmyouji beside the loom stopped her work. She knelt by Satoshi’s side and patted him on the head. “You are full of hope. It gladdens my heart to see that your heart is still pure and your mind is full of dreams. You will make a powerful Onmyouji someday. Just like your father.”
Satoshi smiled at his mother’s gentle touch, before he wriggled on the cushion he knelt upon. “When will I summon my shikigami, mother? I want something powerful, like a dragon!”
Akiko hid a laugh behind an elegant hand.
She cradled Satoshi’s cheek with one hand. “Be patient, little one. Your shikigami will choose you in time. Now hold on just a moment while I finish my weaving.”
Satoshi’s mother then continued to work at the loom, as a brilliant plumage of red and gold embroidery fashioned itself from her skillful hands. The bold colors resembled a bright red bird, perhaps a phoenix. Satisfied with her handiwork, Akiko took the fabric from the loom and held it out in the bright sun. “This is meant for you, my dear Satoshi-kun. When you grow into manhood, you will don these ceremonial robes. The regalia of an Onmyouji.”
Satoshi gently stroked the silken fabric, marveling how the material flowed and rippled. It bunched and corded underneath his hands in a watery-like fluidity. Silk this fine came from the silk worms far in the East, and it was a closely regarded secret by its people that others don’t know how it’s produced. Satoshi wondered how he would travel there, when he got his own shikigami. Or maybe other parts of the world! He could go anywhere, and that sense of novelty and adventure always made him breathless with excitement. His mother, Akiko, said, that this was an age of explorers. People will probably discover all corners of the world, though the sense of adventure was something he should cherish and hold onto.
A bright grin spread across the young child’s cheeks. Satoshi leapt into his mother’s arms and hugged her tightly. He was going to be an Onmyouji someday, just like his father!
“Thank you, Mother! I will try to become worthy of wearing these robes!”
Akiko smiled. “I have no doubt that you will be great. Though I have a question for you, Satoshi. What does it mean to you to be an Onmyouji?”
“What does it mean?” Satoshi said as he scrunched up his face in concentration. “I want to help other people. I want to fight demons and bad guys.”
“I see,” Akiko said with a soft smile.
She gestured for Satoshi to get up from his knelt position. Satoshi did so obediently. Akiko grabbed a lightening staff meant for kagura performances, and sent Satoshi out in the middle of the Hiroyuki grounds. The gardens were resplendent with color from the flowers that grew among the greenery. Satoshi breathed in their cleansing scent and smiled. He enjoyed the flowers in the garden, and he especially liked playing in its center where the birds would come and gather on his open palms.
Akiko took the lightening staff in her hands and tapped the end of the rod onto the ground. The golden decorations at the top of the staff swayed and jingled, letting out a sweet tinkle that soothed the soul with its mesmerizing tone.
“I will show you a sacred dance that is meant to purify the land from evil influences. It originated with the miko priestesses, though it has since expanded and become a ritualistic dance that people employ to their traditions and ceremonies. However, when an Onmyouji wields the power of the kagura dance, they use the power of the elements to balance out the energies and feng shui within the land. Do you know what feng shui is, Satoshi?”
“Harmony with the environment,” Satoshi said, and Akiko nodded approvingly at this.
“You’ve been taught well, Satoshi-kun. Anyway, what do you notice about the feng shui of the Hiroyuki grounds?”
Satoshi closed his eyes for a moment, taking a moment to breathe in the air and concentrate on the auras that he felt emanating from the plants in the garden. The plants themselves were full of rich giving ki, which was spiritual energy within the fertile country of Jipangu. Satoshi could feel the effects of sunlight upon the plants and how it filled the greenery and flowers with vibrant life. Yet he could also sense something else in the air, a faint trace of something that was like a slightly unpleasant odor. It was as his mother said—mankind’s developing of new technology led to smoke and pollution in the air that muffled the plants natural ki giving properties and interfered with the perfect balance of feng shui.
“I sense a taint in the air,” Satoshi said after a while. After listening to the birdsong among the gardens, he then added. “The birds say that smoke are coming from the West, where the foreigners have entered into the country and started to teach a different faith to the people of Jipangu. The old ways are disappearing, and the foreigners are showing the people of Jipangu strange things that they’ve never seen the likes of before.”
“That is indeed correct, Satoshi-kun,” Akiko said as she patted his head. “However, I will show you a sacred kagura dance that will keep the darkness at bay and lead to harmonizing feng shui within the home and outside environment. Watch carefully, son.”
Akiko then began a graceful flourish of her arm, clanging the trinkets on the lightening staff together. With each clink, Satoshi could visualize the aura purifying the land with each movement of her rapturous dance and the sweet tinkling laughter of the chimes. With each step, his mother seemed to be floating on air, with her light footseps barely making a sound. With each sound of the chimes, Satoshi could feel the purification ritual slowly working its way into the ground, the roots of the plants, and in the air surrounding them. Once his mother was finished with the sacred purification ritual, she smiled, and turned to look at Satoshi.
“There. You see how it’s done? Don’t you notice that there’s a cleaner quality in the air? Can’t you hear the birds singing their songs much more sweetly than before? And the plants seem to be bursting with more green within them?”
“I noticed, Mother,” Satoshi said. “Though what else do Onmyouji do? I know that they can use the five elements and even summon a shikigami! Please Mother, show me your shikigami?”
“Normally I summon her when I need her, though I suppose that I can make an exception for this,” Akiko said with a smile, before she got out a tag from the sleeve of her kimono. Then, invoking the name of her shikigami, the kanji within the tag floated from the paper and into the air, before spiraling overhead and evoking a great white tiger into existence.
Saotshi stared in awe at the brilliant shikigami before him. The white tiger was just as beautiful as his mother, and it was a fitting partner for someone like her. They were both regal and graceful without the pretentiousness, yet a hidden power was contained within each controlled movement of their bodies. Satoshi stepped forward towards the white tiger, looking at his mother and saying, “May I?”
Akiko nodded. “It will be all right, my son. She knows that your my son and she won’t do anything to harm one of my own.”
Satoshi smiled at this and began petting the white tiger. The tiger seemed to purr in contentment to the soothing motions of his hand upon her back, and Satoshi grinned widely at this. He always admired his mother, and seeing her shikigami in the flesh was an amazing experience. This only stirred a deep longing in Satoshi for his own shikigami.
Satoshi then straightened, and he turned to face his mother. His mother smiled down upon him with fondness, and gathered her son in her arms and gave him a soft kiss atop his forehead.
“You will make a fine Onmyouji one day,” Akiko said. “But remember your training. You may not be able to summon a shikigami yet until you’re thirteen years old, though you can still practice manipulating the five elements. Have you been doing your training?”
“Well…kind of,” Satoshi said while he glanced away and tapped his foot in the ground. “It’s just…the beginning stuff is so boring! To learn Fire, I must learn to keep the flame on the candle wick. For Air, I must concentrate on the breathing in my lungs. Water is feeling the direction and course of a river, Earth is feeling the qi energies in a simple stone, and Cosmos is looking at the stars in the sky and naming their constellations.”
“Yes indeed, it may be boring at first,” Akiko said. “Though they’re fundamental to your training. To learn how to control Fire, which is considered one of the most destructive arts, you must learn to control the small flame on a candle wick and prevent the flame from melting the candle too quickly. Breathing is a fundamental part of everything; it’s how we live, and it’s the breath that concentrates ki within our bodies and lets us perform on Onmyoujutsu in the first place. Feeling the course of a river let’s you know the versatility of water—it can be still and stagnant, or it can be flowing and gentle, or it could be a tidal wave that surges in the storm—and knowing water and its different states will help you, surely. And feeling the ki within a simple stone let’s you know that something as inanimate as a rock still has energy that can be drawn upon and manipulated. Naming the constellations in the sky may seem trivial, though it’s through these constellations and alignments of the stars that you learn how to control the fifth element.”
Satoshi hung his head. “I guess I still have a lot more training to do.”
“It is fine, Satoshi-kun,” Akiko said. “Just keep these things in mind, and practice them whole-heartedly. You may find yourself being able to control all five elements with ease after you’ve mastered those simple things.”
“I will train, Mother. I will become even greater than Father!”
Akiko smiled at this, before kissing her son again. “I believe that you can change the world.”
