"Shinichi Shinichi! You little brat! What's going on in your head? Where's the money for today?" The loud yell snapped the thin pale boy back to the present. His worn-out baggy clothes drooped on his frame, and his black hair showed an unhealthy yellow shade.
He shuffled to the short table, pulled two coins from his grimy pocket, and let them fall into the clay jar. "Just twenty coins? What a worthless kid!" the rough voice boomed again, but Shinichi didn't react. After dropping the coins in the jar, he moved to a corner of the crumbling temple and crouched down.
after, over a dozen kids of various sizes wearing clothes like Shinichi's, queued up to put all the cash they'd made from panhandling into the clay pot. As the coins stacked up, the bald guy sitting behind the short table looked pleased.
The bald guy was tough and well-built. While his hunting outfit wasn't fancy, it was a far cry from the worn-out rags Shinichi and the other kids had on.
It was obvious that the man was a nasty character who bossed around beggars. He depended on the orphans under his control to beg every day and bring in money. These types weren't rare across Matsudaira Prefecture.
The bald guy went by the name Ohei Saburo. He looked after twelve kids, with the oldest being fifteen and the youngest around five or six. But no matter their age, Ohei Saburo saw them as nothing more than ways to make money.
As Ohei Saburo tallied up the coins, Shinichi and the other kids got their tiny dinner: a small bowl of old rice with two shriveled black veggies on top. Eating this kind of food day in and day out explained why the kids looked so worn out. Still, each child wolfed down their meal knowing that if they didn't, they might die from hunger.
Shinichi gulped down the rice. His black eyes showed no feeling as they stared in one direction.
After the meal, Ohei Saburo left with some coins. Shinichi and his friends, a group of orphans still hungry, didn't want to play. They all found spots in the old temple to sleep.
As darkness fell, moonlight lit up the area, and a small shape crept out of the old temple. His calm black eyes looked around. After making sure no one was there, Shinichi said , "Enji Enji..."
Whoosh! A tiny shadow burst from the nearby bushes. In a flash, a furry ball tumbled into Shinichi's arms. With its black and white fur, a red tongue, and bright eyes, the black Shiba Inu wagged its tail and yapped , "Ahhh!"
Petting the small Shiba Inu Enji, Shinichi's once blank black eyes showed a trace of warmth. He dug out a rice ball from his pocket and gave it to Enji. Gazing at the moon above, Shinichi murmured, "Three years have passed."
Three years back, Shinichi went by a different name and lived outside Japan. Back then, he was just a regular student. He never thought he'd end up in a story straight out of a book or anime. He had jumped through time.
Shinichi woke up to find himself in a skinny body surrounded by people speaking a language he didn't know. He realized he'd landed in another era. Unlike heroes in stories, Shinichi had no special powers or tricks to help him out. As a normal college kid in this new world, he couldn't do much when he couldn't even talk to anyone.
Shinichi had no last name because he was an orphan, and he felt stuck. By luck, Ohei Saburo picked him and some other orphans to use for making money. For three years, he lived in a fog.
Shinichi teased Enji when someone snuck up behind them.
Bang! Shinichi, who was cool before, jumped up fast spun around, and knocked the person down. A shocked voice yelled, "Hey! Brother Shinichi! It's me!"
Five minutes later, the small kid with a snotty nose smiled showing a hole where his front tooth used to be, as he ran after Enji to play.
Shinichi watched the peaceful scene in front of him. Soon, the weary boy came back holding Enji. He sniffed and told Shinichi, "Big brother Shinichi, you always look so serious. Even Enji doesn't want to play with you when you seem so distant. Can you smile more often?"
The little boy's carefree grin seemed to affect Shinichi, who nodded in response. The boy pulled out half a dorayaki and put it in Shinichi's hand. "A nice old lady gave this to me this morning. Big brother Shinichi, I kept half for you. Cheer up!"
As Shinichi stared at the dorayaki half in his hand, he felt a strange feeling in his heart. During his three years in this world as an orphan, he had seen too much evil and darkness. In that time, four kids who tried to escape ended up buried behind the old temple.
Ohei Saburo kept these poor kids under his tight control. To stop his money-makers from running off, he used many ways to push and pull them. He even got some kids to spy on the others. If anyone tried to escape, Ohei Saburo made sure they faced something worse than dying.
In this setting, over a dozen kids lived scared and in the dark missing out on the joy and innocence they should have had at their age. They grew unfeeling, but the boy standing before Shinichi was different from the rest.
Despite being just five years old, this kid's upbeat nature wasn't affected by those around him. His face always had a smile, and his bright green eyes shone with life. You wouldn't think a lively sweet child like Junbo would be a homeless orphan. People liked Junbo more than Shinichi and the others. He always brought in the most money when they begged each day. Ohei Saburo was nice to Junbo seeing him as a way to make money.
Each day, Junbo repeated the same words to Shinichi: "Smile, Brother Shinichi smile more, okay?" Among the orphans, Junbo liked Shinichi best. Even with his upbeat attitude, kids often have a sharp sense about people. Junbo could tell who cared about him.
Junbo valued the real care and worry behind Shinichi's cool face more than the envy of his friends and Ohei Saburo's greed hidden under his grin.
"Brother Shinichi, Grandpa Tanaka, the fishmonger, told me a story today! He said you shouldn't go out by yourself at night, or you might run into a scary ghost that eats people! The ghost is scared of the sun, so it shows up when it's dark! It has long sharp claws and can roar louder than any animal!" Junbo said opening his small hands and acting like he was scary and scared.
"A ghost that eats people? That's more frightening than seeing a ghost in this old falling-apart temple," Shinichi said looking back at the crumbling building. Deep down, he found this temple way scarier than any ghost that ate humans, but he'd been making plans for two years, and he'd soon break free from this nightmare!
"But Grandpa Tanaka also told us that besides the people-eating ghost, there are ghost hunters who look after humans and beat the bad spirits to keep things peaceful!" Junbo cut in moving his small arms around with excitement.
Shinichi ran his fingers through Junbo's hair and asked in a low voice, "Junbo, would you like to visit Kyoto with me someday? The city has lots of tasty food and fun activities. You'll see stands selling sugar-coated hawthorn fruits all along the streets."
Junbo's face brightened. "Sure! Let's go to Kyoto! You better keep your word Shinichi!"
Shinichi didn't buy into the tale about the flesh-eating spirit. Who would fall for such stories meant to frighten kids? Still, the story rang a bell. In his past life, he thought he'd come across a similar narrative in some anime suggestion. What was its name? Ghost Hunter? But it didn't matter...