Demon Gate

"Are there no other hunters besides you?"

"There are," she admitted, "but I have an important role to play. I can't just abandon my kin."

Perhaps Satou should not be abandoning his kin either. What of Nagao and the other villagers? What would become of them if he should shirk his duties to follow Higa up the mountain? His brother could take his place in time, even marry the Lady Sasaki in his stead. But even if he felt justified in rejecting the sham marriage that had been forced upon him by his parents, he could not bring himself to forsake his shōen and all of the people who lived there. He had left the village angry and exhilarated, but now his head was clear.

"There must be some way to make this work," he grumbled, "some way to make everybody happy..."

"I think that if you try to give everybody exactly what they want, you'll end up being disappointed," Higa said as she finished off her bowl of stew.

"Exactly what they want..." Satou mused, deep in thought as Higa looked on curiously. "You're right," he finally said after a minute of deliberation. "I at least need to try to patch things up with my parents. It's a long shot, but perhaps they've come around. I'll head back down the mountain tonight and see what happens. If my fears are realized and they're still furious, I'll be back again before morning, and my decision will have been made a whole lot easier."

She reached down and ruffled his hair sympathetically.

"Don't worry too much kid, things are rarely as bad as they seem."

***

With the moon lighting his way, Satou descended the mountain. He now knew these forests well enough that he didn't have to rely on the stream to guide him. He had thought it better to arrive after nightfall as there would be no villagers tending the fields, and so he could visit his parents relatively unmolested.

It had only been a few days, but as he emerged from the trees by the edge of the terraced rice paddies, it felt like had been gone for years. The crop was growing quickly, the green chutes reaching higher than the last time that he had seen them, that was good. It was the first time that he had been away for so long, it was so odd not knowing what had been happening within the tightly knit community since his departure.

The village was quiet, the small huts spread out at random between the fields as they made use of what space was available, dirt paths worn away through years of use linking them together. At the top of it all, perched on the highest terrace, was his family's house. It was grandiose compared to the rest, even though the building materials were not too scarce and it was only lavishly furnished in comparison to their neighbors. Even the quality of a person's home was tied to their social status, all of these people could have built similar dwellings for their own families, but some misplaced sense of duty and obedience kept them from doing so. What had once seemed so natural and orderly to him now seemed perverse and unnecessary.

He arrived at the door and rapped his knuckles on the wood, waiting a moment as he heard the sound of shuffling feet from the other side. When it opened, he was cast in a golden glow from the flickering candles within, his mother standing before him in one of her flowery kimonos. She wrapped her arms around him before he even had a chance to greet her.

"Oh Satou, you've come back! I was so worried that you might have gotten lost or hurt!"

He had been prepared for a shouting match, but her uncharacteristic show of affection softened his heart, and he returned her hug. After a few moments, she stepped back, looking him up and down. On top of his clothing, he was wearing a downsized version of Higa's fur cloak, camouflage for when he accompanied her on hunts. Satou had also foregone his straw sandals, choosing instead to bind his feet with furs and strips of tanned hide, more practical for hiking through the rough terrain of the forest. Higa went without shoes, and she seemed to have done so for her whole life, but Satou lacked the tough soles and callouses that she had developed. He must have looked strange to his mother, she had only ever seen him dressed in more formal attire.

"I'm so glad," she continued, "have you finally come to your senses?"

"I was going to ask you and father the same thing," he replied. At that, he saw a shadow cross the room. His father appeared behind his mother, who then bowed her head in deference and stepped out of his way. Satou stared the man down for a moment, his gaze unflinching.

"Have you reconsidered your marriage to the Matsuyo girl?" his father asked, not even taking the time to greet him. He was a stubborn man, as immovable as an ox, and he seemed just as angry with Satou as the day that he had left. Satou wanted to reply in kind, but he wasn't here to butt heads. He had been given a lot of time to think during his descent down the mountain, and something that Higa had said had stuck with him. He might not be able to give everyone exactly what they wanted, but what if he could give them something equivalent, perhaps even something better that they didn't even know was a possibility? He had formulated a plan, drawing from much of the knowledge concerning the operation of the shōen that had been drilled into him over the years by his father, and now he had to set it in motion.

"No, father," he replied.

"Then you have no business in my house," the man said, turning his back.

"Wait," Satou continued, "I have a proposition. A solution that I think will work for everyone."

His father paused, and for a moment Satou wondered if he was going to reject the very notion, but then his mother spoke up.

"At least hear him out," she pleaded, and after a moment his father's shoulders seemed to physically sag as he gave in.

"Very well, but be quick about it."

Satou stepped over the threshold and joined his parents around their table, his father refusing to make eye contact even as they sat across from one another. His mother seemed nervous but optimistic, clearly happy just to have her son back in their home again.

"You have arranged for me to marry the Lady Sasaki," Satou began, laying the groundwork before pitching his recently concocted idea. "You intention is to unite our two families and in doing so, combine our two shōen. We would have a larger workforce, more land, and we would produce more rice."

His father waited, stony-faced as he sat there in silence.

"This cannot happen," Satou continued, his father's brow furrowing. "The marriage was arranged without my consent or my knowledge, and my heart belongs to someone else. However, I have a responsibility towards my family and my shōen, one that I do not intend to shirk. I have a different proposition, a way to expand the shōen and bring prosperity to its inhabitants without me marrying the Matsuyo girl."

"And what is that?" his father scoffed.

"When grandfather founded this community, it was to escape unjust taxation and the mistreatment of farm workers. He wanted us to be free, self-sufficient, is that correct?"

His father nodded.

"And yet even today, do we not pay a significant portion of our rice crop in taxes and bribes? To the point that we have scarcely any for ourselves and must subsist on inferior grains like millet?"

"Now you suddenly concern yourself with finances and bureaucracy?" his father complained.

"Is it not true?" Satou pressed, "how much of our crop do we give away in exchange for being left alone by the greedy magistrates down in the lowlands?" He directed the second question towards his mother, who handled most of the finances herself. She looked to her husband for a moment, as if waiting for his permission, then decided to reply.

"Eighty-five percent of the yield goes to taxes paid to the regional Daimyo and bribes for local officials. Much of what remains is used in trade or sold to merchants."

"What if we could keep all of the rice that we produced?" Satou added, "one hundred percent of it? What if we only had to part with the take that we chose to sell or trade, and none of it went towards lining the pockets of corrupt officials?"

That seemed to pique his father's interest, but the man remained surly and skeptical.

"How would you propose that we achieve such a thing?" he asked.

"I will ask the Oni to carry a message to her people on our behalf, and request an alliance between our two villages. No debt collector would dare come to the valley if they knew that we were allied with Oni. We could also trade with them, they're fine hunters, we could exchange rice and other grains for meat and furs. The entire village could feast on venison and rice every day, we would have ample stores of food for the winter such that we would no longer need to ration during the coldest months."

"Then this Oni that you speak of is real?" his father asked, "it was not an ill-conceived excuse to avoid marrying?"

"She is as real as you or I," Satou replied adamantly. "You see the fur cloak that I'm wearing? She made it."

His father considered, stroking his chin as he went over the details of Satou's plan.

"You would have me reject the rule of the Daimyo, reject the traditions and the laws of my forefathers? You know well that it is not the place of a mere farmer to defy his betters."

"Grandfather removed himself and his people from a society that treated them with cruelty and contempt," Satou argued, "and yet the culture that originated that cruelty still persists. You have brought it with you, kept it alive. Tell me, what does it matter if the Daimyo gets his due from our poor farming community or not? If the magistrate is denied a fraction of his ill-gotten wealth, then what of it? Why cling to these traditions when all they do is harm us? If we are to become truly self-sufficient as grandfather intended, then we should make our own rules, our own customs. The only reward for our obedience is poverty, we get nothing in return for our taxes."

"And what of the Matsuyos? Would you have me go back on my word and disgrace our family too? I promised them a marriage and an alliance."

"Marry the Lady Sasaki to my brother. There is legal precedent, the practice of gyauenkon. But only if he consents. The two are very alike, both bookworms who prefer to spend their days indoors. I'm certain that they will get along well, but the choice must be his alone to make. Arranged marriage is an ugly custom that we should have left behind on the lowlands."

"But your brother is too young to support a family," his father protested.

"He's only a few years younger than me, and this was always going to be a political marriage. The girl will live here with you regardless. A wife is married as much to her new family as she is to her husband, so what does it matter? The goal is to unite the two shōen, heirs will follow in time."

"Then you would give up your title and your inheritance so that your brother can take stewardship of the shōen in your stead?" his father asked. "If so, how will you forge an alliance with the Oni that you speak of? Without a title, you cannot bring their family into the fold through marriage."

His father was still thinking in such rigid terms, as if he could only see the world through the narrow lens of lineages and inheritance.

"It would be an alliance of friendship, not of blood," Satou explained. "They have things that we need, meat and furs. We have things that they need, grains that they can't grow up on their peak and goods from the lowlands that they can't access any other way. Just imagine it, two shōen and an entire village of Oni, all trading and cooperating together. We would have access to the yields of both farms with no taxation, enough rice and meat for everyone, furs enough to make a coat for every villager during the winter. The whole mountain would become like a nation unto itself."

"And you are sure that these Oni would protect us in the event that the Daimyo sent tax collectors after us?" his father asked.

"Why would they not? The benefits are obvious for all parties. Even if the Daimyo marched an entire army of Samurai up the valley and demanded tribute, a single Oni could knock them down like a game of daruma otoshi. I've seen one of them kill a bear in a single strike with an iron cudgel that was longer than a man is tall. The threat alone should be enough to dissuade them."

His mother and father exchanged glances, clearly surprised and intrigued by what Satou was suggesting. He had presented a solution that they didn't even know was an option, and it would benefit everyone who had been wronged by his refusal to marry. Even his father's expression had softened, could he be winning the old man over?

"This is...a lot to take in all at once," his father finally said. "It seems too good to be true, and it will be a challenge to convince the Matsuyos. It all sounds like an elaborate excuse to get out of our obligations. I must admit that I am not yet convinced myself."

"What would it take to convince you?" Satou asked.

"I would like to see this Oni with my own eyes, for one."

"We should hold a meeting," his mother interjected, her excitement at the prospect making her unusually outspoken. As the bookkeeper of the shōen, perhaps she had more insight into the potential financial gains than either of the men did. "We should invite both the Matsuyos and the Oni to the village and hold a meeting between all three parties. Then they would be able to see for themselves that Satou's Oni is real, and we could discuss the arrangement in greater detail."

"Very well," his father said, "I accept your proposition Satou. We will send word to the Matsuyos and have them send a delegation. It will be your responsibility to bring the Oni here. Do not let me down again."

Satou knew that all was not forgiven, but at least now he had a chance to make amends in his family's eyes and to fulfill his obligations to the shōen. If everything went according to plan, the villagers would become far more prosperous than if he had simply gone through with the marriage.

His parents stood, and Satou followed suit, rising from his kneeling position at the low table.

"It will take at least a full day for a courier to reach the Matsuyo shōen and then return with their answer," his father said. "Return tomorrow night."

The implication was obvious enough, Satou's father did not want him staying in the house overnight. His wife glanced at him, but she didn't try to make Satou's case. It was of little concern, he preferred living with Higa in the woods anyway.

His parents escorted him to the door, and then he gave them a respectful, low bow before vanishing into the night.

***

"But I can't make this decision for my village, I'm just a hunter!" Higa protested. Satou leaned forward and stoked the fire with a long stick, a plume of grey smoke rising into the starry sky.

"Think about it, you'd have all the rice that you could eat, amongst other things. Goods from the lowlands, medicines, you name it. Do you think that your leaders would refuse the offer?"

"Well, no," she grumbled. "I'm sure they'd jump at the opportunity. We never sought to build a relationship with the human settlements on the mountain because of their superstitions, we assumed that they would drive us off. Remember when your friend told you that I would eat you, or cause an earthquake to destroy your village?"

"Yeah," Satou replied. It had seemed humorous at first, how off the mark Nagao and the other elders had been, and yet it posed a serious threat to Higa and her people. Even now it would take some convincing to sway the more superstitious villagers, but if she had his father's blessing, then the rest of the shōen would no doubt fall in line.

"But I don't have the authority to make promises on my people's behalf," she continued.

"Who does?" Satou asked, "do you have tribal leaders or a Shogun or something?"

"The oldest among us make the decisions together," she explained. "But there's no way that I can climb up to the peak, ask them to deliberate, and then return with their decision in time for the meeting. The journey takes days."

"You're confident that they would agree, though?"

"Pretty confident, yeah."

"I'm sure that both shōen would agree to postpone the deal until you can bring back a decision from your elders, but if you don't make an appearance in the village, then nobody will believe that you exist. Oni are creatures of myth to us, like Kappa or Dragons."

"Just wait until the Dragons hear about this," she muttered.

"T-There are Dragons!?" Satou exclaimed. She shot him a grin, and he leaned over to punch her arm playfully. "Very funny, now are you going to visit the village or not?"

"Fine," she conceded, "I'll go."

"Thank you!" Satou said excitedly, a wave of relief washing over him. "If they can just see that you're real with their own eyes, then everything will work out, I'm sure of it."

"You know, it's funny," she added. "Your father insists that you'd make a terrible leader and that you only try to avoid your responsibilities, that you never listen to him and don't pay attention to your studies. But look at you now. You're brokering a deal between three different clans that will benefit everybody, you're drawing from all of the knowledge that you supposedly ignored. Sounds like the behavior of a leader to me."

"You think so?" Satou asked, his cheeks flushing.

"How else would you describe it? Maybe the people in your village need a fresh perspective, someone who is going to take risks and try new things. See, that's the problem with adhering to tradition, you can't adapt to changing situations."

Satou stared into the dying embers of the fire pit, feeling a swelling in his chest. Was that pride?

"Well, I've given up my title and my inheritance to my brother, so I can't be their leader. But if I can make this work, then I will have done enough good that I can leave with my head held high."

"You think they'll still want you to leave after all of this?"

"I...don't know," he replied. "By law, if I have no title, then I have no status, and a person with no status is a vagrant. They can't stay in one place for too long. It makes me the lowest of the low, worse than a peasant or a merchant. That said, we're going to be bending a lot of rules to make this happen, maybe they'd be willing to bend a few more."

Higa ruffled his hair again, then stood, yawning widely and exposing her sharp tusks.

"We should get some sleep, come on little Satou."

He perked up at that, rising to his feet and following her towards the tent. Sleep would no doubt occur, after a time...

***

The Matsuyos had sent their reply. They were open to Satou's plan, and they would attend the meeting so that they could see the Oni for themselves. The date had been set, and now it had arrived. The Matsuyo family was traveling to the Hisatomo shōen and Satou had been tasked with bringing his giant companion.

Higa walked beside him as they made their way down the mountain towards the village, her fur cloak draped over her shoulders, and her giant cudgel slung across her back. He had been a little wary of letting her bring the weapon along, but he thought it best to demonstrate the martial prowess of the Oni. It should make the two families feel more confident about defying the tax collectors.

"I've never been to a human village before," she said, "are there any special customs that I should observe?"

"Not really," he replied, "just let me do the talking. They'll probably be too scared of you to raise a fuss if you fail to bow at the right time or if you mess up a tea ceremony. I've never seen you nervous before," he added with a chuckle.