Kachiku no Naku Koro ni, When The Livestock Cry Options

[Hasfusel]

家畜のなく頃に; or When The Livestock Cry
By Hasfusel~ [Note: For translation issues as well as avoiding confusion, although the story is set in Japan I will - with the exception of the protagonist - leave character names as they were in the English language versions]

Part One: In which a farm is inherited, and fateful events are set into motion

Shōwa Year 58 (Gregorian calendar 1983)
Forget-me-not Valley, unnamed island off the Japanese archipelago
New Year's Day

The sun was rising, bathing the clouds and the fields in an orange glow. The sound of cicadas, crickets and grasshoppers resonated through the cold, crisp morning air, and the light reflected off the dew drops clinging to the foliage on the side of the path, giving them the appearance of tiny glimmering crystals.
The young man took a long drink from the bottle of water in his hand, and sat down on a large boulder on the side of the dirt track he had been following since last night. He had preferred to travel under the light of the moon, and the great pale orb of the new year had provided a beautiful, clearly illuminated night to begin his journey.
It had been an almost magical experience since getting off the fishing boat he had hired in Kushiro the previous evening. The little road he had followed up from the tiny fishing village on the island coast had been lit by glowing fireflies as it passed through the uncultivated fields towards the rolling hills. He had walked, the peace and beauty of the countryside providing an excellent atmosphere for thought and reflection.

Since the age of one he had spent his childhood in the care of his aunt and uncle in a small town on the southern coast of Hokkaidō, after his parents had died in a fire. His mother's siblings, they were his only relatives other than a grandfather on his father's side of the family, and the authorities had seen fit for him to be delivered to their care, although he later learned that his grandfather had been more than willing to adopt him.
His aunt and uncle, somewhat regretting their decision to adopt him once he had grown past infancy, had never really treated him as a child of their own, though they had tried their best to drill into him some sense of morals and duty towards society, which he rejected with a rebellious spirit. His uncle, a balding and overweight man in his late fourties who worked as an accountant in the nearby city, attempted to prepare him for a similar career, seeking to settle his waywards nephew and find him what he saw as a suitable place in society, and as such he ensured that his nephew had a rigorous (if somewhat sterile) education throughout childhood. For a boy who disliked intensely what he perceived as the boredom and stress of city life, and would rather have spent his afternoons enjoying nature than being buried in numerals, it did not make for a pleasant upbringing.
As an adolescent, he longed for a free existence away from his reluctant family, his hated studying and the remnants of a miserable childhood, and he spent many a dreary afternoon daydreaming about living on his own somewhere isolated from the rigours of mainstream society, as he sought desperately to avoid the fate of living his life in an office somewhere in a dusty city. He thought he would rather die than live like his uncle.

The opportunity had come on his sixteenth birthday, when his grandfather, who had been keeping a farm on a small island a little ways into the North Pacific ocean, had disappeared under unknown circumstances; he was thought to have had a fatal heart attack or stroke whilst out fishing on his small boat or walking in the woods.
A search of his house revealed that he had some time before written a will that left all his land and possessions to his only grandson, with the sole condition being that his grandson would move to the island and take the farm over. Laywers found the will to be valid, and with no relatives to give trouble (the aunt and uncle that the grandson had been living with were on the other side of the family and had no claim to the inheritance), the young man became the owner of his grandfather's farm promptly.

It was like the wonderful gift from the gods he had been waiting for. Leaving his aunt and uncle with little ceremony or regret, the young man packed his few possessions and set off as soon as he could towards his new residence. With a small stipend provided by his uncle, who was not entirely disappointed to see his nephew leave, he hired a fishing boat to take him from the port town of Kushiro to the island where lay his precious inheritance. The farm was located next to a small settlement, in a valley named Forget-me-not (忘れな草) after the small, fragrant blue flowers that bloomed in the surrounding woods. The island also had two slightly larger villages called Flowerbud and Mineral, the latter of which shared a mayor and various services with the inhabitants of Forget-me-not Valley, as well as tiny fishing settlement where the few boats to and from Kushiro would moor. For the young man, who had only dreamt of such an ideal rural existence, the inheritance was seemingly his every desire come true.

The young man smiled and got up, replacing his water bottle in his rucksack alongside his possessions and remaining provisions. A quick glance to the map he had acquired at the fishing village told him he was nearly at the intersection where one road would lead to the valley and the other to Mineral Town. The terrain was getting more wild, with fields giving way to sparse woodlands and cherry blossoms. As he walked along, he noticed a number of bright yellow and orange grasses (the fisherman who had ferryed him to the island knew a little local lore, and said they were edible and quite nutritious) growing in small clumps away from the path, standing out quite clearly amongst the green foliage. He had never seen such plantlife before on the mainland, and, uprooting a handful of the yellow variety, sniffed tentatively at the herbs before tearing off a few leaves and chewing them. The herbs had a strong, slightly bitter taste like lemongrass that was not at all unpalatable, but they made him feel a little thirsty, and he finished his water, stopping himself from dropping the plastic bottle on the grass with a mental admonishment. The natural beauty of the area was pure and untainted, and he had not seen any evidence of human interference since the little fishing settlement where he had landed.

Hiro Nakagawa (not the name he was born with, but the name he had given himself for his new life to disassociate himself with his childhood; he had begun thinking of himself as this already) breathed deeply and contently as he walked along the path towards Forget-me-not Valley; towards his fresh existence as a farmer; and towards a fate that nobody could have imagined would lie in store for him.

The cries of insects echoed through the air as the sun rose and the shadows of the day lengthened.

[Note: The title and date are a nod to the When They Cry series, but everything else is entirely my own, original work, other than obviously the setting and characters. I'll try to write the next chapter tomorrow or something. Hope y'all enjoy~]

[Mizukithepanda]

Okay, well... the fact that I really want to take my big red proofreading marker and go to town on this aside, I do rather like the way you set the scene. Though the wording in some sentences is a little awkward (and you spelled existence wrong *petpeevepetpeevepetpeeve*), I thought that the intro flowed nicely and had some good imagery. The protagonist's family situation could've been explained with a little less brevity, but it doesn't really take away from anything, so I wouldn't worry about it. I don't think the end of the chapter itself is particularly bad in any way (despite what you may think), but I will say that I feel the last paragraph is a little.... disconnected. It's kind of feels like someone threw a stone in the river just before it widens into a pond.

Overall, it was a nice read and I look forward to seeing what else you'll post of it. :D

[Hasfusel]

Merci bien :D
Yeah, I see what you mean. I haven't proofread it yet or anything, I just wanted to get something written. I'll go over it in a little bit to brush up grammar and stuff, and improve various parts. I know this is a fanfic, but I want to improve the rhythm and flow and stuff as well. Thank you for comments. I think the story will go quite well :3

EDIT: Have made edits and improvements, will do next chapter tomorrow *yawn*

[Charmy]

Ah.
Refreshing and so descriptive. I think it's brilliant Hafusel!

[Oscar]

This is nice, Hasfusel. Fun to read and pretty detailed, too. We need a story like this in here. I'll look forward to the rest. I love Forget-Me-Not.