One afternoon, as the weeping cherry’s branches cast shadows on the river’s surface, Hasshi, rare for him, folded his wings and landed on the stone bridge railing .
“Sonchō. It’s forty years today, apparently.”
Sonchō, halfway through a sakura mochi, answered without looking up, “Forty years since what?”
“Since the first hero set off on his journey. The city papers were making a big deal of it. Sent off by the king, he went alone to defeat the demon lord . That was forty years ago today.”
Hasshi rested an elbow on the railing and gazed at Frog Mountain across the river. The old bones of his wings ached faintly. Rain might come tomorrow.
“…I did something similar myself, once, when I was young.”
Sonchō slowly peeled back the leaf wrapping his sakura mochi. The smell of the river drifted in, damp with grass.
“I walked around with a sword, imagining a demon lord to defeat. On some battlefield. But whether I ever managed to defeat it, I couldn’t really say.”
“Why not?”
“When I struck down the one wearing the demon lord’s face, there was another face behind it. Feh-feh.”
Sonchō laughed, and the river seemed to ripple as if catching its breath.
“So what did you do after that?” Hasshi asked. Far off, Kopo was shouting about something, but the words didn’t carry this far.
“I set down my sword. And came here.”
Sonchō finished the rest of his sakura mochi and quietly touched the old scar near his neck.
“A hero, you know, only truly begins their real journey after defeating the demon lord. Where that hero from forty years ago walked after that, I couldn’t say.”
Hasshi spread his wings and took off from the bridge railing. Sonchō watched his back grow smaller into the sky upstream, shading his eyes with one hand, then pulled an old book from his robe . Its cover had nothing written on it.
The river’s surface glowed orange in the evening light.
Margin note: That night, Hasshi tried to trace the route of that forty-year-old hero’s journey with his wings, but his wings stopped at the edge of the map. What lay beyond wasn’t recorded anywhere.
【Today’s Motif】
- 40th Anniversary of Dragon Quest’s Release: On May 27th, 1986, the Famicom RPG Dragon Quest (Enix) was released in Japan. In the forty years since, the “hero and demon lord” structure has remained deeply carved into Japanese game and story culture.
- Hyakunin Isshu Day: On May 27th, 1235 (Bunryaku 2), Fujiwara no Teika is said to have completed the “Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.” A hundred poems, carrying a hundred feelings, still passed on today.
This is an English translation of “勇者のいない旅”, part of Tales of Amencho Town (蛙鳴町奇譚).