SanyakuChapter 2Haruto had no problem with the mental task of walking the twenty miles south to the farming village that Ryoji had mentioned. A journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step, right? He heard that somewhere. A proverb from China, perhaps. He was an excellent student of literature, which in his case came exclusively from China. How glorious would it be to visit the mainland, the endless continent full of wonders and spirits and dragons and...Haruto didn’t see the rock at his feet and jammed his big toe right into it, causing him to trip. He threw his hands out to break his fall, which he did gracefully, but the impact was still severe. He got up, dusted himself off and took stock of everything. Sword, here. Sandalwood, here. Big toe, hurts. It was then he noticed that a shard of wood had jammed itself into the skin of his palm. Alarmed, he pulled it out and it began to bleed almost im
SanyakuChapter 1四天王寺 持統天皇十年Temple of the Four Rulers of Heaven, Tenth Year of the Reign of Empress Jito(Japan, 696 A.D.)Haruto sat motionless on a wooden balcony, his legs folded under him and his hands palm up resting on his thighs. He was seventeen years old and loved meditation. The other teenage monk-initiates had trouble with the hours of silence and contemplation, but to Haruto it was his favorite part of the day. He didn’t have to do chores, he didn’t have to read, recite, or copy the sutras. He just got to sit and daydream.He was shaved bald and incredibly skinny, even for a growing teenage boy, so he certainly looked the part of a young Sakyamuni Buddha. He even had a face that was hard to hate: innocent and all-absorbing, if only in a blank, almost simpleton level. He liked temple life and he was given food daily, even if it was only a single small bowl of millet or if he was lucky, cold ri
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