003. Check on the rock you hit.

"Shit!" I groaned, but jumped back up as the pain in my leg didn't feel all that bad. Ushi thrashed a little at my sudden movement, and something was clearly spooking him. "Easy Ushi," I said calmingly as I moved slowly closer to him, getting back on my hands and knees by the broken off plow blade. Wiping away the dirt where my knee had touched it I couldn't feel anything at first. After a few moments though I felt a strangely smooth stone as if it was well polished. I brushed back more dirt and the rock came into view, and it was clearly no ordinary rock.

It was black as night and seemed to suck up all the light since even the bright sun didn't reflect off the smooth surface. I tried to rationalize that it was because it was underground, but it wasn't deep enough to be shadowed by anything else. I pulled and dug until finally, an obsidian cube about six inches long on each side came into view. It was much heavier than it looked and took all my strength to pull out. Then it started to get hot so I dropped it.

I looked and considered it for several long minutes, but it just sat there. I moved to reach out to it again but it seemed to radiate so much heat that it was now quite painful to get close to. I was worried it might light the plow on fire, so moved to unleash Ushi to keep the poor beast from getting hurt, but as soon as I touched him he seemed to go mad, bucking and thrashing. Now I really didn't want him hurt so I unbuckled him quickly and he ran. I got a distinct feeling it was more from me than the cube.

I didn't know what to do and just was locked gazing into the dark little box as it captivated my mind, like I couldn't look away from it. It felt like it was trying to pull me in and trap me inside. At that point an unshakable fear gripped me and suddenly I couldn't stop my legs from running away from it in absolute terror, just as Ushi had. It didn't make any sense, but my mind was a jumble of confusing emotions and thoughts. I had a vivid fear of drowning in a sea of cold fire, and I couldn't grasp why or how, but it just seemed so real.

When my awareness returned I was standing in the center of town again so I stuck my head into the small central fountain to wash off the sweat and clear my thoughts. The water was so crisp and refreshing I just relaxed and let it flow over me for a while. Then someone was talking to me. I pulled out of the stream and saw Yuki again. "Are you alright Kenji?" she asked with honest concern. "You looked like you were trying to drown yourself."

She had come over to check on me, leaving her family vegetable stand unattended. "No, I'll be fine," I insisted.

"Oh, your head," she then commented in a motherly fashion as she spotted the bump from the sake bottle Kouki hit me with. I was about to tell her that bump wasn't really hurting me, but then she pulled my face right into her cleavage so she could get a closer look at my forehead.

Yuki's rack was modest, but just being so close and staring straight down the neck hole of her shirt froze me into delightful bliss. "Does it hurt?" she asked as she poked gently at it.

"A little," I said more to continue her attention than from any real pain. Then some movement to the side caught my eye. I had a poor angle, but I could see someone moving around the end of Yuki's stand. At first, I considered that she just had a customer waiting for her, but a sudden flash of a hand grabbing a large carrot, then a twirl of night-black hair and I knew it was Hazuka stealing from Yuki. It didn't make any sense, but I swear I could almost feel her glee at getting away with it.