Niki Sawamura's Arc

Chapter 1 of 1

Niki Sawamura touched the small scar near his right eye and remembered the noble who put it there. Years had passed. The purple leopard should have hated the man. Instead he lay awake in his stilt home each night, wanting to find him, wanting the man to look at him with something other than scorn. Wanting, if the world allowed it, to be loved by him. It was a foolish thing for a peasant to want. Niki knew the one fact that ruined every plan: he had no idea where the nobleman lived now. The old estate stood empty. Niki had gone there twice and found only broken gates and cold ashes. Nobles moved when their fortunes changed, and they did not tell leopards in patched clothes where they went. Without a location, Niki could not begin. He could not walk a road that had no end. So he went to the one creature who collected such things. Toshi Takamichi, the round-glassed dove from the orphanage, sat under a red-leafed tree with a worn leather book open on his knees. Toshi had read himself out of poverty. He knew names, houses, and old family lines the way other people knew their neighbors. "You want a noble," Toshi lisped, not looking up. "Everyone wants a noble. Most of them want money. What do you want?" Niki knelt in the grass. "I want to know where one moved. His old estate is empty." Toshi finally raised his eyes. He studied the scar without asking about it. "Describe the crest. The gate. Anything carved." Niki closed his eyes and remembered. He described the twin birds carved above the ruined gate, the color of the stone, the shape of the iron. Toshi's feathers ruffled. He flipped pages fast, muttering, tracing lines with one wingtip. "There," the dove said. He turned the book toward Niki and tapped a hand-drawn map. "That family sold their old land three winters ago. They took a new house in the hill country past the river valley. Half a day's walk, maybe more. I copied the record myself." Niki stared at the mark on the page. His chest tightened. For years the man had been nowhere. Now he was somewhere real, half a day away, close enough to reach. "You should not go," Toshi said quietly. He watched Niki's face. "A man who scars a stranger does not welcome him back." Niki stood and slung his frayed travel bag over his shoulder. "I know what he did. I still have to see him." Toshi sighed and closed the book. "Then take the copy." He tore the page free and held it out. "You will need it more than I will." Niki folded the map and pushed it deep into his bag. He had wanted the answer for years. Now he had it, and it pointed him straight toward the one person who had every reason to turn him away.