Philipines, year 1611

Sayar is a small village located somewhere close to the coastline, its history was not very big since its one of the newest villages at that time. Its population is around 120 people, its creation was caused by Spanish people who wanted to introduce Christianity to Philipinian people, and ones who didnt want to abandon their culture and beliefs, created several small villages all across the Philippines.

Since Sayar is close to the coastline it was the first village Otowa felt safe in, perfect for starting a new life. Since she was from another country and didnt speak any of the languages popular in the Philippines at that time, she couldn't communicate with people which led to several people not feeling comfortable around her or her kids, but the majority of the village said that as long as she doesn't affect them, she can live in their village so nobody bothered her.

Otowa knew she still couldn't take a break since now she has to take care of 6 children, all by herself. She was lucky that the people of the Philippines didnt kill her but can't rely on them to keep her alive.

Otowa started to get into fishing. She and her kids barely survived the first couple of weeks until she got better and started catching more fish. At first, she would get straight to the coastline and try to catch something but would rarely even see some fish, let alone catch it, in that time they would usually eat berries and similar plants.

After a few days of trying to find a lake or river somewhere close, she decided to ask one of the fishermen. His name is Marco, he is old and doesn't have any kids nor anyone else, but he seems like a good person, he doesn't speak any Japanese so they can't communicate, it took Otowa a lot of sketching, mime, onomatopoeia and an hour to ask him to show her where the closest lake is and maybe even show her how to catch some fish. The man even showed her how to catch fish.

They lived in the abounded house that belonged to an old lady who died just a few months before they arrived. House looked old but strong, was circle-shaped, and had two doors, one on the west and one on the south side. It was the smallest house in the village but barely enough for 6 kids and a mother. It had a hole in the roof that never got replaced and a loose fence in front of the main door. Most of the house, like furniture and walls, is made out of thatch and bamboo, and several parts consist of wood, like one wooden chair Otowa would sit and breastfeed Hana in. The walls were very thin which helps keep the temperature down on hot days.

Her oldest kid was only six years old and couldn't help much, but was a very nice kid and did everything he could to help. The rest of her kids were just too litle, young, or incapable of helping her with anything. She is grateful to her oldest kid for trying but sometimes he just makes more mess than he helps. Otowa was never seen angry, even if her oldest makes a mistake, she knew he was just trying to help but would always point to him what has he done, not in order to humiliate or attack him, but to make sure he grows up in strong and responsible man, like his father.

When it comes to their father, the second to oldest would often ask what is with Kojiro, where is he and why doesn't he help them. Otowa never told them what actually happened to him, and would usually idolize him in the stories. Sometimes when her kids couldn't sleep, she would tell them stories and would always use the same protagonist, Kojiro. Kids never knew she was talking about his father but they definitely enjoyed her stories, even tho some are not true. The second oldest once asked "Can I create my own story, and then can you tell it to us before bed?" in which Otawa agreed, so the next day, he created a story about a mysterious man named Kojiro who could jump to the moon and who fights dragons with his sword made out of the fire.

All of the kids were absolutely blown away by this story and wanted to participate, obviously, just the ones who could talk at the moment. So they created this mini tradition of creating their own stories which she would always tell to them every night and each night there would be another story someone thinks of, some of the stories were similar to each other, like the one about a man name Kojiro, who fights big spiders and lizards with his sword and who can also jump from planet to planet. This story seems rather familiar to the one I told you before, but for a few kids, that was enough. Even Otowa would participate, but as a grown woman and very creative as well, she would sometimes write some serious stories, some mysteries, some comedies but she never gave it much thought and never thought of actually writing a book or something. Since she was never in a good relationship with anyone, there was no one she could share her stories with. One of her favorites is about a man named Kojiro who betrayed his friend, wife, and boss in order to protect an orphan, unfortunately, gets killed by his boss in the end, she also likes the one where Kojiro, after getting traumatized, became very aggressive but gets killed eventually.

Someone who knew in what position she was put because of her husband, could argue that she created most of her stories because she was mad at her husband, which may be the reason why a man named Kojiro dies in all of them.

That is not true, the whole reason why that tradition even started is because she couldn't stop talking about her husband and would tell her kids about him and would make him such an admirable person in all of the stories that her kids wanted to make their own, but what connects all of the stories they create is that in all of them, the protagonist is the same man, Kojiro.

Weeks pass by and they slowly adapt to their new lifestyle, Otowa becomes a realy good fisher, not as good as other people in the village of course but at least now she knows that food isn't a problem. She even started selling some of the fish so she could buy her kids a pair of new clothes once in a while.

"Pinagpala ka" said the old woman who by now became a regular customer, she is one of the first customers Otowa got when she started selling fish. Otowa decided that its best to sell fish for a low price since in that way she would have more customers, which some people in the village didnt like because she was stealing their customers and money. Not fish, but xenophobia, was probably the main reason for their hatred towards defenseless and harmless women.

Right after sunset, two men decided to get revenge for what she has done. While Otowa was putting Hana to sleep, they rushed into her house and started looking for her. The first thing they saw was the oldest kid playing with his youngest brother, strange men just yelled at them to stop crying and when Otowa rushed to see what is happening in the living room, she bumped into one of her kids not even realizing it.

"What are you doing!" Otowa yelled at them, especially at the shorter and uglier man.

That's when they slowly approached her and started beating her, mostly in the stomach and limbs. When she fell on the ground they started kicking her and when she threw up they cursed her.

Hana started crying in the next room, younger kids traumatized started both crying and trembling behind the wooden chair, and the oldest kid started throwing stuff at two horrifying men while they were spitting on his mother.

"Why?" said Otowa crying and all in pain, again talking to a shorter and uglier one "Please stop, Marco, dont attack me anymore please, dont hurt me"

As her Tagalog is not that good and because of the shock she is in right now, she couldn't say anything of that in Tagalog but in Japanese so they didnt understand anything she said, even if she did understand anything they wouldn't stop anyway.

"Aghh!!" said the taller and more pretty man, as he was struck by something sharp. It was a knife thrown by the oldest kid.

Two men now went for the kid and when Otowa tried to stop them, she realized that she couldn't even stand up, her right arm was turned to the wrong side, and her legs are damaged.

That night was horrifying but at least it ended. Three of Otowa's limbs were damaged and two men killed the oldest son.

Years pass by and they never got revenge on Hana's brother, only a few days after that night, Otowa killed both men in their sleep, but that was not enough. Now Otowa doesn't have a son, and both men are dead, both families are sad and neither can get their loved one back.

Excellent!

It's now May 1616

Hana is now 5 years old, sadly for her she has lost another brother in the meantime, but this one was killed by the plague just several weeks before. During these years she has developed hatred towards the people of Sayar, who treated her mother so well that she ended up with most of her limbs damaged limbs and several mental illnesses, scarred for her life.

One night, both Otowa and Hana were woken up by strange screaming from their neighbor's house, Otowa was woken sweaty and scared, she ran towards the window to see if something is going on in their house, but she didnt see anything and screaming and she couldn't hear anyone scream, also nobody else went to see if everything is alright so she thought its nothing, and went to bed.

The next morning Otowa once again heard someone screaming from the same house but when the screaming ended, it sounded strange as if it ended in the middle of the scream, not the end. Just after the screaming ended, a child crying was able to be heard from the house, Otowa rushed into the house to see what is happening. The was a kid crying over his grandma's corpse, eaten by the same plague her son died from.

"It must've been a woman screaming, she realized she is going to die so she screamed in the hope someone would come and take care of her grandchild"

That whole day she was trying to find someone to adopt the kid but nobody did, people of Sayar had bigger problems. The plague killed most of the village, and most of the food resources were taken away by Spanish cities. That's why Otowa decided two things, they will go away to a bigger city, she will try to find any job she can with her current state, and since nobody wants to do so, she will adopt the kid.