We Find Comfort In The Apricity

Measure 22: The Ninth Tale

Not gonna lie, if someone walked up to me and told me that they've known about me for a long time, I'd be ready to rip out my brains for not remembering someone.

This day just seems to get more and more confusing. Ruri took all of us into her little priestess hut and explained somethings.

"Heh thanks for explaining. Everything makes sense now. Why do you and Ruri clearly have foreign blood in you? Who made this village in the first place? All the mysteries are solved!"

"No sorry I still don't get it." -Kohaku

"I'm actually with her on this. Please elaborate Senku, we can't read minds."

"Yeah, how do you just happen to have the same name as the village?" -Chrome

"Soo Ruri already knew about you? Like she knew you were coming?"

"Haha, I probably come up on your priestess mythology huh?"

"Yes." -Ruri

"I- I wasn't expecting such a straightforward yes umm."

"You mean like Momotaro with the gorilla and all of that?" -Chrome

I still have no idea what Momotaro is. I never watched or played whatever that is.

"No wonder your people know about animals you've never seen before and folk tales."

"Y-Yeah! Ruri taught us all about this stuff! They're the stories the priestesses pass down through generations, the Hundred Tales." -Kohaku

"Before my mother passed away...she told me the hundredth story. A kind and beautiful tale. And the title was...Ishigami Senku." -Ruri

PFTTT WHAT?! EXCUSE ME?! THAT IS SO CREEPY!!!!! WHO THE HELL JUST HAS STORIES PASSED ON ABOUT STRANGERS FROM GENERATION TO- wait elephants do that.

"Wait a minute now that I think about it. Elephants do that. There used to be a story that said elephants have such good memory that they passed it down from elephant to elephant. And one day there was such a horrible drought that killed this specific pack of elephants. The eldest elephant had no one to pass down her stories to, so she ended up taking them to the grave..."

The room fell silent. Oh shit, wrong timing. "I-I mean I'm sorry! I didn't mean to ruin the mood-"

"A-Anzu right?" -Ruri

"I- Yes! That's me!"

"Did anyone call you Zu before?" -Ruri

My heart paused. My expression dropped. That was a memory I'd buried a long time ago. It was so far into the ground that I forgot it existed.

"U-Uhh y-yeahh..." I looked at Senku with a weirded-out expression. And he only looked down. There was just one person that called me Zu. "W-Wait a minute this is getting too creepy ahaa."

"Miss Anzu...you are the thief from the mountains." -Ruri

"I- excuse me? Are you- What? Why?! Who told you?! What's going oooonnnnnn!!!!" I ruffled my hair in confusion. I'm so confused. Why is she calling me a thief?! Do I look that ugly?!

"You may want to sit down, I'll tell you the ninth tale out of the Hundred Tales...The Epic Of Anzu." Ruri sat down on her little throne and I sat in front of her. The others surrounding her as well.

Oh my goodness. We're already off to a bad start. The number nine in Japan is considered an unlucky number because it sounds like the Japanese word for torture or suffering.