033. Don't say anything.

I couldn't tell her about my weird dreams and honestly didn't know what had happened to cause these fires. None of it made any sense to me, so I just shrugged helplessly and held my tongue.

"You are useless," she sighed and pushed me out of the way, and headed back upstairs. I followed behind sheepishly and we reemerged out into the back yard where Natsumi announced that for now everyone should just go back to bed and she would sort things out in the morning. The soaking wet Azami stalked past me, dragging her daughter back into their home. Then Natsumi gave me one last stern look before the large woman marched out of the grounds.

I was somehow lost in thought through all this, trying to come to grips with what had happened, sip just stand there in the dark until Kouki came up to me and got pulled on my sleeve. "Let's go back home, Kenji." I looked at her, feeling like I was just seeing her for the first time, and nodded aimlessly. We went back and tried to sleep, but long after Kouki was asleep I still lay just looking at our ceiling blankly for hours.

When the sun came up I stayed unmoving, still lost in some unknown thought. I knew something was wrong with the world, different somehow, but I just couldn't figure out what it was. Kouki started making breakfast and went out to see if we had any fresh eggs from the hens in our barn as she always did, but took a lot longer to come back than normal.

Then I could smell something strange and I realized that what was different. My sense of smell was at least ten times better than it had been. I could smell past the obvious scents of the smoky tinge from last night's fire to more subtle scents like the stale sake from the closed door of my father's room. I could smell even the presence of Kouki and where she was right now and the stink of a dog outside our house.

I didn't know why I smelled a dog, so went out and saw Kouki laughing and happy as she threw a few kernels of corn up and a stray dog was catching them in the air to eat them. "What are you doing?" I called out to her, slightly worried about her with the strange dog, but he didn't appear to be a threat as he panted and begged for the food.

She paused and looked back at me, "Nothing," she said and looked at me, as did the dog which instantly whimpered and took off running. "Awww, you scared it off," she complained.

"Well, that's our feed you were giving him," I scolded her. "Unless you were thinking dog for diner we need that for Ushi and the hens." She knew I was right, but resigned to be upset with me anyway. We ate breakfast quickly and then had me repairing our roof from the fire damage for several hours before I was able to excuse myself from any more chores. I told her I needed to talk to Natsumi again and help her find the source of the fires as I left down the hill for the town center.

Of course, I had no plans of actually talking with the spiteful giant unless I absolutely had to and instead planned on goofing off as best I could. I was heading to my favorite hangout, the tall northern watchtower again, but as I made my way down the small bazaar of homemade goods and foods that springs up every day something tickled my nose. At first, I thought it was just dust, but then I could almost taste something deliciously spicy. I kept walking and saw that beside Yuki's normal family vegetable stand she had brought out a rolling cart with a small fire going in a pot at the bottom to keep a wok hot and she was cooking right there on the street and that was the source of the amazing smell.

I was almost overpowered into approaching her when I saw Natsumi come up and pay for a bowl of her food. I tried to pretend like I'd not noticed them and keep walking by, but Yuki spotted me and yelled out, "Hey, Kenji! Come over and try my pepper stuffed clams!"

I didn't want to shout or disappoint her, so walked over as she scooped and served me a bowl with several steamed clams with cut red peppers and some kind of sauce seasoning it inside their open shells. "Sorry Yuki, but I cannot afford anything right now, I'm broke."

She smiled her never-ending smile as always and pushed the bowl into my hands anyway and said, "Don't worry. First time is on the house." Then she winked and laughed, "Besides I've never made them this way and I wanted you to tell me what you thought of the recipe."

Natsumi wasn't paying attention to me, just eating her own in silence, so I dug in too and opened a clam and let the concoction slide over my tongue. I rarely ate clams, not normally liking them, but what hit me more was the hot sauce and fresh peppers tasted good for all of three seconds before it felt like my mouth was on fire. I swallowed quickly and stuck out my tongue to cool it off, panting and begged, "Water?"

Natsumi must have been watching because she laughed out loud at my discomfort. Yuki however seemed to be expecting this reaction. I never had the pallet for really spicy foods like this and she handed me a glass of milk. I tried not to claw her hand as I took it in desperation. "Yeah, it's a little hot, but that's what makes it good right?"

I guzzled the milk and let it wash over my scorched tongue. It was nice and fresh and soothed my pain away quickly. "That's good milk huh Kenji?" she said with a giggle, "I squeezed that glass fresh from my own breast this morning." I couldn't believe she had just said that and just stared at her, then her own moderate breasts concealed by both her clothes and her cooking apron, then back up to her again.