Chapter 1

A.D. 1569, end of the Month of the Cane.

In his eyes reflected the all-encompassing sky that was no longer blue. It was a sky covered with clouds, an overcast that blanketed the lands. The farmers nearby rejoiced at the gift of rain. Women complained and hurriedly kept their laundry. Children sat by the small windows to await the ritual of Sharyu Zuku to begin, and people hastened their footsteps to avoid getting their clothes wet.

Katachi sat there motionlessly with tired eyes.

K: (The sky is vast...)

His face twisted and expressed a deep longing. Naturally, if dreamers were allowed their desires so easily, they would dream no longer.

K: (Can I fly in it, away from here?)

He stretched his left hand up towards the sky and clasped it gently. A small bird flew past and his eyes followed its petite visage. How he wished he could fly freely, like the bird. If given the opportunity, he would have given everything he had in order to escape town. But what had he to sacrifice, a mere child without a name or anything else to give up on? Alas, what the mind wanted was what the body could never have. He relaxed his left arm and it landed on the soft grass and soil with a thud.

"Katachi! Help me keep the laundry, will you?"

A familiar voice called out to him, a little hasty and rushed, yet with a gentle tone befitting of a nun.

K: "I'm on my way, Mother!"

He slowly shifted his weight between both legs and stood up stretching his arms and stomach. Katachi brushed off a few stalks of grass and dirt attached to his ragged pants and headed towards her.

*** ***

Before he even began to remember things, Katachi was abandoned by his parents.

The reason and cause were unknown, and as much as the young man wished to find his real parents he knew he couldn't. What was a nine-year-old supposed to do when nobody was willing to give him the slightest of clue? All he knew was that when he was found, a wooden tablet with "Kotsuba Katachi" carved on it was tied to his ankle. He knew nothing else regarding his parents.

Mother Rinnesfeld, or Mother Rin in short, was a kind soul who found him crying on a soft patch of grass at the outskirts of town. She nursed and raised him as her own against the wishes of the other townsfolk. He was a second mouth to feed at home, but that was not a problem for the formidable nun. The townsfolk, however, did not take his arrival with equal cordiality.

Adults branded him a bastard child. Children hurled rocks and nasty insults at him because their parents encouraged the behavior. The abuse he had to endure was, simply put, inhumane. The only ones who hadn't the desire to gouge his eyes or abuse his stature were the elderly whom he had been kind to, and Mother Rinnesfeld herself.

Katachi's childhood was littered with horrible memories, so many he wished for amnesia. He would rather not recall any of them if it were possible.

His only happy memories were of those he enjoyed with Mother Rin and when he was alone. In the library or open in the fields near where the forests lay, the groves of trees they were warned of; or on the familiar herb ledge where he could admire the carefree children from afar toying and teasing the Plaincoat sheep in morbid silence.

Even when neck-deep in that cruelty and despair, he clung on tightly to hope and isolation in defense. Many would think he'd grow up to become a wretched and cruel person considering the circumstances he was thrown into.

And yet Mother Rin insisted that he should be kind to others.

R: "Listen very carefully, Katachi. It's very important."

The first time he came back crying at the age of four, Mother Rin comforted him.

R: "I'm about to tell you something that will make you sad. I love you a lot, I really do, but I am not actually your mother. Well, that's not quite right... I am not the mother that gave birth to you. You were just outside the town, lying on a patch of grass near a field of medicinal herbs. Your parents may be dead and they may have given their lives to ensure you were safe."

That was bound to crush a child's heart, under normal circumstances. But none could break what was already broken.

R: "But don't worry, Katachi. Mother is here for you. Come."

Katachi remembered the warmth of Mother Rin's bosom and arms clearly when she hugged him. It was that cozy, comforting, accepting warmth which made him relax and feel that he was loved. His urge to cry was suppressed immediately and he reciprocated Mother Rin's motherly snuggle.

R: "That is the first thing you need to know. Mother may not have given birth to you, but Mother wants to be able to love you like how your mother would have wanted to. Is that okay?"

In that sentence, he believed her. He believed in the Mother Rinnesfeld who never saw a reason to lie with the intent to hurt, who always kept that radiant and unfaltering smile regardless of anything in life that impeded progress. She was without a doubt a nun truly worth admiring. Katachi remembered a flashback where one of the adults in town on the pillory accepted all of the bad words and insults from the townsfolk without flinching.

R: "The second thing I want to tell you is also really important. Are you ready?"

With that one adult as his model, he mimicked the man with much effort. Katachi took a deep breath and exhaled, gearing himself to accept anything.

R: "You have to treat others with kindness, Katachi. Though they may be in the wrong, though they may hurl rocks and bad words at you, you must never forget to be kind to them. They may be immature right now and might do silly things in a moment of folly, but you have to bear with it and reply with kindness. There will come a day where they will realize their wrongdoings and regret doing those things."

Her words were empowering and it held a wisdom Katachi took to heart.

R: "I don't want you to suffer from the same fate, Katachi dear. Should they do nasty things to you again, I want you to act in my stead and nicely let their insults slide. Okay?"

Mother Rin's love and guidance coupled with the townsfolk's vicious behavior towards him forced Katachi to warp and mature at an abnormally fast rate; when compared to other children and even the young adults he was perhaps maturing too quickly, forming a rather large anomaly among the children.

R: "So, smile for Mother now, okay? Everything is all right."

Yet, as much as Mother Rin made sense with her insight, he did not run towards her crying because he was bullied. It had been for another reason – One not even she would have expected.

*** ***

K: (This madness... No more shall it plague us. If I must give my life, I shall do so for Mother who has taken such great care of me. Such that the ones to come after me would be free from it... Such that the people after me suffer no more.)

*** ***

In that thought alone he consigned himself to a cruel fate. As he hit the age of ten, he was finally old enough to enroll in a famous institute – the Sage Raufid Magus Academy. Katachi picked up a poster of an event known as the Young Magus Tournament, and he steeled himself to overcome that first hurdle.

He packed his stuff and prepared to set off almost immediately. Being the poor child he was, he had little to carry with him except the clothes on his back and some documents to certify his identity as a new student. Should the worst happen he prepared some herbs with him for the possible myriad of different situations he could end up in.

R: "Be sure to sleep well, eat well and grow up properly, okay, Katachi dear? You can come back any time."

The nun looked back at him with tears in her eyes as she held the wrists of the young boy gently. She was clearly saddened by his departure but it was impossible for change not to transpire. Besides, not all changes were negative in nature.

K: "Of course, Mother. I'll come back and visit every couple of moon cycles."

Katachi straightened the strap to that shoddy and flimsy thing he called a bag and entered the unmanned carriage dispatched by the school. He began his life on a new world stage.