Her motorized tricycle pulled out a heavy trailer from behind it. It was shoddily held to the vehicle by a thick steel chain.
It seemed to hold only because the driver was not going fast with her tricycle, not that the woman cared about speed.
She came a long way from the dumb backwater town she lived in. She was close to Kyoto now, where a new world awaited her.
She endured years of that monotonous, forgettering life. She could wait for a few more hours. She looked at the setting sun above the skyscrapers of Kyoto.
She left it all behind. Her past was better forgotten, and her future was not there either, like an absentee father.
Some doubt remained, but it was quickly thrown away for a small wonder for a new life, and a desire to go forward. Despite the lack of a new day, and the old nights unraveling by the moment, she had to walk the present, no matter how uncertain it felt in her heart.
Now she looked so small, but she was no one in the end. Without a past, and with a future that led to nowhere, such a busy messy, and chaotic place was perfect for her.
‘I’m no one, and I carry the history of nobody.’ Another footnote bound to be forgotten by those who weaved the cloth of fate.
She didn’t care. In this stage of life, she would play the way she wanted, and not be just another one acting their part.
It was the least she could do to spicy this boring and mechanized, standardized life. No greater aims of reaching heaven, and leaving an epic behind, just small anecdotes of being herself, if she could even leave it behind.
Her lips trembled. Maybe she lied to herself to say she could play on that stage, or it was merely anxiety and enthusiasm cracking her shell, but either way, did it matter as long as it drove the path forward?
She didn’t know and doubted anyone else would care either.
Yamada Hanako looked down at her motortrycle’s tank. It was getting dangerously low. She smacked her lips. She looked at the road signs until she found one indicating a nearby gas station. She postponed her goal to getting to Kyoto.
Just a little change in her course wouldn’t hurt.
(...)
“Eh, vida à toa. Vai no tempo vai. E eu sem ter maldade, ma inocência de criança de tão pouca idade, troquei de mal com Deus por me levar meu pai.”
(Oh, life just flows, time won’t rewind, and as a child, so young, so blind, I turned from God in my despair, for taking my father, it felt unfair.)
She sang under her breath, as the sun settled behind her. The aurora of a day’s end was beautiful as ever, fleeting as always.
It shone bright orange with tinges of purple and deep blue.
“Aprendendo na rua, na escola e no lar. Um dia eu me tornei o bambambã da esquina, em toda brincadeira, em briga, em namorar Até que um dia eu tive que largar o estudo, e trabalhar na rua sustentando tudo. Assim sem perceber eu era adulto já.”
(So I grew up and found my way, the streets, the school, the home each day. Soon, I ruled the neighborhood games, in fights, in love, they knew my name. But one day, I had to stand like a man, work the streets, do all I can, without a thought, I was fully grown)
The song of her childhood resonated deep in her core. She was a little lost despite Kyoto being at hand. What would she do? Maybe she didn’t know. It made her heart race, but just a little.
She stared at her reflex on the motortrycle. She looked good, despite the heavy mud on the wheels, and paint peeling off due to traces of saltwater left on her bike.
“A fixer job wouldn’t be bad, would it?” Small things, the type of stuff won’t be quickly recorded, and just erase it from their heads after their work was done. She liked the ring of that.
She finished fueling her trike’s tank. “Time to go out.” She paid for the gas and took her way to the road again.
Kyoto felt like a great beast, it loomed in the distance. It was so oppressive. ‘If the beast’s belly is as tough as its shell remains to be seen.’
Head held high, she drove into the night. A new wonder of tomorrow awaited someone who had forsaken her past.
For a Buried Dagger had no use for the past, and no future to wait for. All that remained was the present and the ground it was stuck in.
(...)
As she made her way to the city, a new sight graced her. A lizard man with a long tail which ended in a knife tip fought against another man with a hockey mask. The lizard man drove the wannabe hockey player through a wall, and then further into the building.
She watched it with a mixed feeling of bewilderment and understanding. After all, she was in the big leagues, big city now. She knew it was probably highly illegal and dangerous to stay there just to watch a fight from the safety of her bike…
But she couldn't help herself. She looked at how they brawled from the hole made in the wall. She stared at it quite intently.
She could never attain that level of brawling. Or strength, and probably much, much more, and yet, she was no less excited about her prospective city life.
While the stars and limelight were not for her, that city had more than enough shade for her to live in.