"Here's your hoe for the day Miura-kun. You worked hard yesterday – same again today please."
Old man Baba praised, whilst handing a good solid hoe to Gengyo, and then moving onto the next person waiting in line.
The day was hot, though it was still early.
'This is going to be really rough… I can barely keep my eyes open.'
The sleep deprived Gengyo thought to himself, whilst moving to his spot in the field.
All the Miura family were working in different fields to Gengyo, so he had no one to share conversation with whilst he worked, which made the day that much longer. The Tadakata of old had it especially hard, as he worked next to his childhood tormenters.
"Another hard day's work today please!"
Hijikata Aritada shouted over toward him, his voice thick with sarcasm.
His friend Yoritomo couldn't wait to join in.
"Yeah! It's bothersome for us to have to throw stones, you know?"
At this, they shared a laugh, before losing interest in the already working Gengyo who spared them no attention.
"Mmm, the ploughing is almost done, and then we'll be able to start flooding the fields. I always enjoy that part."
Yoritomo said lightly.
"Yeah, the flooding and seeding are decent. It's just this hoeing that's a pain."
Aritada agreed, leaning on his hoe as he took in the morning air.
"How many years have we been doing this for now?"
"Hmm. Well, we're 18 now… so around 3 years?"
Yoritomo smiled at this.
"Only three years, eh? We'll be soldiers soon! And then we won't have to do this shit anymore. The women will respect us too."
Aritada was a little less optimistic, and voiced his doubt.
"Dunno. We'd have to do something pretty special in order to be fulltime soldiers, else we'll be back here working this soil for the rest of our life."
"Yeah bro. That's why I've been training. If I have to work another year here I'll kill myself."
"Haha, why wait? I'm sure your family would be proud if you sacrificed yourself to fertilise the soil."
"Fuck off. Have you been training too?"
Aritada looked away before responding.
"…A bit."
"You haven't, have you? Come on man. You won't be able to do anything if you don't train. We're not rice farmers. We're soldiers!"
"Yeah, I know. Just work tires me you know? But man its hot today."
Aritada expertly changed the topic by complaining, having to wipe his brow before he'd even begun to work.
"Yeah. Speaking of hot, guess who's in our field today?"
"Who?"
"Haru. She got moved."
Aritada's curiosity was captured, and he searched the field for her.
"Where is she?"
"Over there man. See?"
"Ah… Yeah. She's fucking hot man."
"Yeah… if I could get a wife like that I'd be a happy man."
"Get lost. I had her eyes on her first."
At that Yoritomo simply shrugged.
"Well, it's up to her in the end, isn't it? She'll probably end up falling for my charms."
Not a single word of their conversation escaped Gengyo, and he smiled at this new piece of information.
'This should be interesting.'
The day passed slowly, and there were many times where the workers needed to stop in order to relieve themselves, or fetch water. Such breaks were allowed, but taking too long to do so would result in punishment.
Gengyo continued to work, straining to keep his eyes open despite the monotony of his task.
'Those kids mentioned that we'll start flooding the field in a couple of days. That should be better. Even after doing this for only a day and a bit I'm already sick of it.'
'Mm. Since this job really isn't for me, what could I do in the future to support my family? Something that doesn't require much effort… A merchant perhaps?'
'Nah… Trading would be too demanding, even if the money is good. Something simple where I just need to work during the day, and then I can go home and forget all about it.'
"Wait! It's her man. Look. Damn she's sooo good dude."
Gengyo's thoughts were interrupted by the enthusiastic urgings of Yoritomo.
"Where? Over by the water? We're going."
Aritada could not resist, and quickly began to walk towards her.
"What? Wait for me man!"
Yoritomo ran to catch up, and then blushed slightly as Haru glanced across the field towards them.
Gengyo grinned, and then began to follow.
'This should be fun.'
"Hi… Gou-san. Is the water good?"
Gou Haru regarded Aritada mildly as he desperately sought conversation with her.
"Uhm… Water doesn't really have a taste, but I guess it's nice?"
"Haha! Right. Right…"
He downed some water, scratching the back of his head wildly in an attempt to conceal his embarrassment.
Yoritomo watched from behind, shaking his head at his friend's foolish attempts. But he did not have the confidence to take his place.
"I'm Hijikata Aritada by the way, do you remember me?"
Haru shook her head lightly, concentrating more on drinking.
"Nope. Nice to meet you Hijikata-kun."
Aritada looked slightly depressed at her curt response.
'Well… of course someone as good looking as her wouldn't remember me.'
He thought to himself bitterly.
Gengyo casually moved in between the two, approaching Haru himself.
"May I?"
He asked, pointing to the water.
She motioned towards the trough.
"Help yourself."
Aritada and Yoritomo shared a glance, jealous of Gengyo's confidence, and slightly baffled by it.
'Since when was that Tadakata so confident around women?"
Aritada asked himself.
'It seems to be that even Tadakata made a better impression than Aritada did there…'
Yoritomo thought with a hint of humour at his friend's pathetic attempt.
Gengyo filled his cupped hands full of water, and stared around the field with loose disinterest as he sipped slowly at it.
He sniffed the air a few times before turning to Aritada, pulling an expression of disgust.
"That smell… it couldn't be you, right Aritada?"
"What?"
Aritada just stared at him in surprise. Not once had Tadakata referred to him so casually, so he had trouble even processing what he had said.
Gengyo simply continued on innocently, as Yoritomo watched Aritada, wondering why his friend was allowing the likes of Tadakata to insult him.
"Jeez man. That's rough. If you're stomachs that bad you can visit my place later. My mum's good at making medicines to help with stuff like that."
Haru put a hand to her mouth, struggling to hide a giggle.
It was only then that Aritada understood, and he blushed wildly, attempting to explain it away so that he wouldn't lose face in front of Haru.
"No! Gou-san… it's not like that… I didn't!"
Haru couldn't hold it in at that, and openly giggled as she struggled to respond in what she thought would be a lady-like manner.
"It's okay, don't be embarrassed. Everyone gets gas."
She quickly hurried away, as her laughter threatened to consume her, condemning Aritada to be forever unable to explain.
When she was a certain distance away, Aritada showed his true self, as he reached to grab the front of Gengyo's kimono.
"You little punk!? Do you want to get beat that badly? The fuck was all that about?"
His face was red with anger, as he held onto Gengyo's kimono, cutting off his retreat.
Yoritomo was helping too, and was behind Gengyo, locking his arms. But Gengyo had no interest in escape in the first place. He merely smiled in response to their aggression.
"Are you sure you want to do that? Old man Baba is going to walk over that mound any second now. You sure you want to get your entire family court martialled?"
Anyone slowing down the production on this land would have to either pay a fine – which Aritada could definitely not afford – or have their family will face punishment.
Aritada glanced toward the mound that Gengyo was referring to. He couldn't see Baba but that did not mean that Gengyo was definitely lying. Baba walked around all the fields as the day went on, to make sure everyone was behaving. And he had yet visit their field.
There was too high a chance that what Gengyo was saying was true. Despite how much Aritada wanted to punch him – he couldn't risk it.
"Aritada… I think he might be telling the truth. I saw Baba heading this way earlier."
Yoritomo also didn't want to have to face punishment for the likes of Tadakata.
"Fuck. Whatever. You live for now, punk. But we'll get you back. Mark my words."
Aritada pushed him backwards, releasing him, and spat in his direction before marching angrily back across the field.
Moments later Baba ascended the mound and caught sight of Gengyo.
"Miura-kun. I know the day is hot, but you must still hurry back to work."
The old man said, not too unkindly as he sent Gengyo on his way.
Gengyo was only too happy to oblige, and began to walk leisurely across the field receiving the death stares of Aritada and Yoritomo.
Gengyo merely shrugged. Though what he had done had broken the social etiquette that men should follow when courting women – never sabotage a buddy – Aritada had been nothing if not deserving of such treatment.
'It's not going to end there, either.'
Gengyo thought to himself. He would continue making their life difficult until they stopped doing the same for him, and he was confident it was a game he could win in.
'They're just a couple of kids after all.'
'Anyway. That Haru isn't even that good looking. Imagine getting that flustered just from her? Even Rin is probably prettier.'
Being the age he was, Gengyo's standards for beauty were rather high. But that did not mean he would be unwilling to have a relationship with a woman simply because her looks were not outstanding. Quite the opposite. He was simply better at defining such beauty, so he was able to maintain his cool when dealing with them.
A stone came his way, interrupting his thoughts. He regarded it lightly, and dodged with little effort required.
Another came flying, but this one was off course, so Gengyo merely glared at its thrower innocently as it flew past his head.
Aritada was fuming.
'What is up with this kid?! Since when was he like this?'
He asked himself, as he almost entirely forgot his task, and instead continued to hurl stones at Gengyo.
Gengyo continued to work, but as the stones came his way, he struck a variety of different poses, finding evermore inventive ways to dodge.
After the last stone was dodged by Gengyo nonchalantly doing a star jump, Aritada was ready to explode.
"FUCKKKKKK!!! Yoritomo, help me out would you? This little punk's making fun of me."
Yoritomo couldn't help but grin at the enraged state of his usually arrogant friend, but still assented and began to help out in the artillery war against Gengyo.
'Where are they finding all these stones? Isn't it bad to have a field so full of stones?'
Gengyo thought to himself mildly, as he lifted he held his hoe like a baseball bat, anticipating the next stone.
"What's he doing?'
Yoritomo asked, curious about Gengyo's stance.
"Who cares? Just keep throwing."
Aritada said irritated as he continued to search for more stones.
The stone was thrown and Gengyo struck perfectly with the metal of his hoe.
A loud TING resounded throughout the field, and all attention was drawn towards them.
Only, Gengyo was seen to be busy at work, whilst the two friends had disregarded their tools and were instead playing around with stones.
Some of the older workers shook their heads, disgusted with the work ethic of these two youngsters.
Gengyo could not help but chuckle. These two were far too young and innocent.
'Lunchtime is going to be fun.'