013. Ask them to show you the difference.

"Enough!" I shouted at the two screeching harpies clawing at me. They were both taken back by my sudden raised voice and released me as well as being silent for long enough to let me get a word in edgewise. "The only proper way for me to judge what is correct is for me to see how both ways look." I should have known better, because now I'd gotten both of them yelling at me, uniting them with a common foe.

"What, just open up our kimono's in front of you?" Azami shrieked incredulously at me before slapping me in the face.

"I should have known you just wanted to peep under our clothes this whole time!" Setsuko chimed in, then grabbed a shoe and threw it at me, hitting me in the chest.

The positive side to all this was that they had let go of me, so now I made a run for it as both of them screamed out how I was a pervert and a hundred other insults as I ran dodging random things being thrown at me. It was getting dark as the sun had already set, but I couldn't see the moon through all these hedges, so accidentally bowled into one which caught my sleeve and ripped a large hole in it, but not even that was enough to stop me from fleeing.

When I emerged out in front of the manor I was finally sure I was safely away, from the onslaught so took a moment to catch my breath. The nearly full moon had risen high enough for me to see now, and shed its bright pale bluish light over the darkening town. The view was really breathtaking up here.

"Mooooo!" I heard coming from the old temple ruins nearby. I rolled my eyes and walked closer and sure enough, Ushi was standing there nibbling on the vines around the ancient stone obelisk. That couldn't be good for his digestion I worried as I cautiously walked up, not wanting to spook the large beast again, grabbed the harness and Ushi now allowed me to pull him away from the vines.

The moon was much brighter and pale white by then when something made me look at the hole in the vines where Ushi had chewed away to expose the stone underneath. There chiseled in on the rock was the character for 'healthy', but it was also the first character of my given name. I pulled back the vine to look at the next character in curiosity and was surprised that the next one was 'rule', completing 'Kenji'. Then I had to continue, though I knew it was probably just some crazy coincidence. The preceding characters thought really freaked me out. 'Pine' and 'base' declared 'Matsumoto'.

I told myself I was just being silly however since my name was actually a fairly common one. This was probably some history or tribute to some ancestor of mine. I release Ushi's harness to pull more and more on the vines, exposing the text around my name, but there wasn't any. It was only this name as far as I could tell. Breathing hard from ripping away the vines Ushi turned as he cocked his head and turned to walk away. I moved after, not wanting to lose him again, but then I could hear Kouki's voice carrying from our home as she called out "Kenji!" to call me home.

Ushi was similarly called, so I caught up and took his reins again and walked him back before yelling "Coming!" I stabled Ushi back in the barn and returned to our small home to find Kouki had dinner ready. Neither of us spoke about what had happened earlier as she served me up a small bowl of rice and vegetable stew.

After eating in silence I just had to talk so I asked, "Did you know my name is on that old stone obelisk in the temple ruins?"

She sighed and scowled at me, "Please don't tell me you are a vandal now!"