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Absolution: Chapter 4 - Contentment

by Sakusha

The weeks passed by quickly. I remember that first day we showed up on Youji’s uncle’s doorstep. We must have looked like beggars to him I’m sure. Youji introduced himself as family, and humbly asked for a job. His uncle, Miko-sama, looked a little taken back at first, but to my surprise, Youji took out a pouch of coins he had kept hidden, and offered it to his uncle in order to buy an apprenticeship. It was obviously the last of his father’s inheritance. Miko-sama quickly took the money in return for a place on one of his cargo ships. Youji was more than grateful. I took an instant dislike to the man though. As family he should not have taken the boy's money, but because he was family, I refrained from saying anything. Youji seemed ecstatic, and that was worth my silence.

With the very beginning of summer, more and more ships were showing up on the docks. The work was grueling but bearable. Youji, though having enough to buy his apprenticeship on board one of the many cargo ships his uncle had owned, did not however have any money left for the day-to-day things he would need as a sailor. I offered to help pay for anything he might need, and Miko-sama then offered me a job working the docks, a portion of my wages held back for Youji of course. It was the very least I could do to help fulfill the dreams of the child who’s life I had shattered.

Youji’s very first trips were a series of small shipments to the south. They only lasted a week or so each. The ship would barely dock back in Niigata, when Youji would bounce off the deck to find me and tell me of some new adventure. Those times held special meaning to me, because Youji had been truly happy in a way he had not been in some time, and because he deemed me important enough to share it with me.

The bunkhouse was the only thing I came to loath about my new employment. There just weren’t words for how filthy the place was. Over 50 men, some of very shady character, lived in the bunkhouse that consisted of sleeping quarters and nothing else save the occasional piss bucket. Youji, for whatever reason, deemed family enough to give a job too, was not family enough to give a room to in his uncle’s home. Though I would have liked to, I could not keep Youji with me under those conditions. Thankfully his apprenticeship meant that he could stay board ship. Really it was cleaner, for the crew only consisted of 23, and safer because security guards paced from dusk till dawn. Youji for his part enjoyed being treated like one of the men. Though I missed the chatter at night, I slept better knowing he was safe, and reasonably cleaner.