By the fourth month, Rue had finally taken his first step.
It was an unbelievable feat, one that made Kiku and Yuto fawn with pride over their eldest and only son.
Rue was overflowing with joy, finally after such a proplounged time of idle wait, had he finally reclaimed some of his body, all he needed to do was conqueror the rest of his vessel.
By now Rue had enough time realised the falsehood in his previous promotion, fortunately he had not transmigrated.
Especially into one of those Chinese themed worlds, rather something more illusive had taken place— Regression.
Sprung into an unwarranted birth, Rue was born on the 14th day of, 7th month of 1733rd year. His location was now no longer an enmity, he knew better now.
日本 or "Nihon", an utterance his mother made to a stranger in passing who had asked for the general direction of their home town— an utterance that Rue understood.
Within the first semester of his freshman year, Rue had taken a semester of Japanese, while not being fluent or actually grasping any of the content, he had recalled "Nihon" given it relevance in a quiz.
At first he pressed the mere word as coincidence, but as time passed more and more of these so-called "coincidences" began to become apparent. First the distinction between Chinese architecture and Japanese, the language of their characters while similar are drastically different.
So, quickly gathering these clues and his ever growing vernacular in his parents tongue, Rue now began to piece together a crystal picture as to where he was.
His previous endeavors now seemed flogged like a dead horse.
Given his birth date, Rue found it awfully amusing, The "United States" or so it was called in the future— was still a colony of Great Britain. His previous home—the place in which he was raised, wasn't even a musing yet!
It was still the idea of fiction! A notion which many people saw as preposterous, or as mere slander. Beseech anything similar to that, and you were going into the slammer.
The declaration of independence wasn't even initiated until 1776, or a whole 43 years in the future!
Rue regressed to a time before the U.S. was even of fruition!
Rather he was in a country he knew very little about, Japan. Sure he watched a few anime in passing, but such an ordeal was rare.
All he knew was that Japan was their declining population—that people apparently fawned with reverence over Idols as religious people would with their holy ones— and he possessed an unreasonably extensive amount of knowledge detailing the Edo period of Japan.
Coincidence or not, the Edo-period was the very era of time he was currently in.
It was Japan's Edo period, or a golden era of sorts for Japan. The Edo Period, also referred to as the Tokugawa Period, sprung forth in 1603 when Tokugawa Ieyasu established the Tokugawa shogunate after his victory at the Battle of Sekigahara.
This victory marked the beginning of the centralized feudal system and the end of the country's long civil war.
Edo, now known as modern day Tokyo, became a bustling hotspot for patrons, merchants, business men, and politics— Swiftly it became the political center of Japan.
The economy was good, war was a thing of the past— of course, not without the small skirmishes here and there—schooling was a thing that was quickly becoming more popular among lower classes, rather than a scarcity held by the higher classes. The monster of the sword himself —Miyamoto Musashi— the literal incarnation of a man who transcended the sword, his death was a little over a century ago. It was the time when legends were born, and a time where those who wielded cold arms, samurai, were still declared noble, Katanas, those awesome lightweight weapons that still appealed to weapon culture. The world was ruled under cold weaponry.
It truly was a time to live in, it granted hope towards a prosperous grand future. The techniques of cultivation that farmers and the gatherings of fishermen helped with the ever growing population of this time.
Among the ruling elite, samurai were both the military and the administrative class. Given the lack of war, many moved from battlefield service to office work.
Now that Rue thought about it further, the insanity of it all seemed more sane than he previously assumed.
Armed with his insights—-and deep knowledge of this era, Rue found his sudo golden finger, one that grant him a vast leap in advantage, compared to his peers.
…
…
"Shogan Tokugawa Ieshige, what of him?" His mother pressed to his father
With a deep seated sigh, he replied with a tinge of annoyance"The territory Lord, has increased tax of rice by 5%"
"What!" stroking her hand through her black locks, as a way to calm herself from venting in front of their child, with a deep breath— Kiku pressed "Did they at least mention why?"
Scratching his chin in thought, he meditated the inquiry "The Bakuhan gave an elaborate red herring when I mentioned why, though I can see his point it still unsettles me"
"So what was it he uttered?" She laminated, softly squeezing her husband's hand.
"Well it had something to do with the ever increasing population of Japan, the economy demands for more food to accommodate the population." He ruminated with a small shrug.
The atmosphere became slightly tense… before, "We'll make it work" Kiku said with a determined expression "Like we always have" She closed her eyes and smiled as she cusped Yuto's face softly.
With an affectionate gesture, she traced her thumb in a circular motion against his cheek "Just look at our Rue," She held her breath with a bright smile "as then we will face this adversity, and triumph, and we can look at the silver lining, with more produce being grown, we could inadvertently increase our relevance within the province, and out soft income would relatively spike." she uttered with vigor
…
…
'Learning Japanese was relatively easy,' Rue mused with an internal chuckle 'Take that Mr Ruiki, I'm now bilingual–kekekek,'
It wasn't a surprise that Rue learned Japanese with relative haste, by the 3rd month Rue was nearly fluent in its tongue, and by the 4th his fluency was commendable. Though this goes without saying— He had nothing else to do— such an endeavor was more or less expected.
With his small strides given his small gate and frail body, Rue much toil could now effectively take over 70 steps before his legs would give out.
This was a major improvement!
'How many times have I cried over this?' He thought with a giggle.
Though his mental, was as stable as a tower of cards, he was an emotional mess—the untimely death, and the loss of his past self's identity had created a dislocative feeling within, it was a self solicited vendetta.
The only thing had connected his past and present, or future or past, was his mere name, in that Rue felt rueful. However, the lad was glad, and content with his new life.
Sure being breast fed felt annoying, but it felt nice to know that someone was caring for him. In the beginning Rue scrutinized his father, due to his past prejudice— with them, but after seeing his father's toil and warm attitude with his mum, Rue began to warm up to him—-he felt rather guilty for belittling his old man with his past life's grovelings.
'7 months already, huh' Rue thought with a sigh, 'Man time flies when you're not having fun' laughing at his oxymoron, Rue lifted himself from the ground once more.
With practiced ease, Rue was able to balance out his body against the ever pulling force of gravity, his head swayed due to its excess weight—his little body trembled, but he was able to successfully stand.
He would regain control over his body!
Thus with a soft smile playing at his infant-like features, Rue began to walk.
From the rice paddies, Kiku who was taking a break stole a glance at her kin. Noticing that he was once more practicing his stride, she shook her head with a smile, "What a stubborn little one,"
By the day's end, Rue was physically and mentally strained.
With the sun setting, and the star filled tapestry of the night sky appearing once more—Rue was placed into his simple wooded–pine rocker.
The night was silent, Rue laid awake for several hours after his mother and father's own departure into sleep, as the night wore he laid in his rocker idle, merely gazing at the wooden ceiling, the soft sounds of breathing filled its interior.
He wondered if he was going to have that same recurring dream about those tree monsters.
It was tranquil, Rue after pondering for a moment longer had finally succumbed to the sand man's touch. His eyes shut, his mind began to drift and with a final 'coo' Rue had fallen from the waking realm, before those interesting dreams appeared once more.
Before he had known it a year had already passed…