Light in the Dark

Silence. She found that here, in the lower mountain overlooking the town. It was part of her training officially, but truthfully, she came here to escape that place below. For a little while anyway; too many rumors, too much gossip. It was the usual small town with nothing else to do but talk bad about others: Shintō. Tsu sighed, attempting to clear her mind as she sat cross-legged on a rocky outcrop. She still found herself fidgeting, even with her eyes closed. Then voices wafted up from the village at the base. So much for silence; Tsurara listened in.

"What's the Ihōjin up to lately?"

"I wish I could tell you. She still isn't married yet. She needs to settle down and become a respectable housewife, give birth to Ruri sons and daughters already. At her age I was married and had three kids...at least marry if she wants to quell those nasty rumors"

"Oh? What rumors?"

"Well...that she doesn't like men. It's bad enough that her hold of the father tongue is merely adequate, and her calligraphy is so subpar, not to speak of her looking too much like her mother and born out of wedlock. Is she really a Ruri?"

Tsurara sighed inwardly as she zoned out, leaving the conversation she had eavesdropped in. Didn't they have houses to clean and duties to attend to? Like washing the laundry or something? Or feeding their grandchildren. Or any other of the seemingly endless domestic tasks her extended family tried drilling into her.

She remembered whispers of how it was a "good thing" her mother was "otherwise occupied", that way she'd be a "proper Ruri woman", whatever the hell that meant. Probably something along the lines of docile, bearfoot and pregnant. Plus doing everything that mattered but wasn't appreciated; she'd pass on such a raw deal.

Her thoughts returned to her parents. There was no shortage of requests to tackle demons and other threats to society, so her mother and father were almost always on the road. Her stepmother too; Tsu wondered what people thought of that three-way. None of them were married to each other either; she could see the indignant faces of the old timers now. Envisioning their comical fury was enough for Tsu to crack a ghostly smile.