After a long hiatus, I am now working on draft 4 (even though I have yet to finish the story, sorry!) Updates will be irregular as I am in graduate school while also attempting not to live off ramen as is stereotypical. Thank you for your patience, and I hope you enjoy!

It was a long time now that the oceans were born and the earth laid down within it. The worlds were one then. The water people, the dragons, were the first people. To them, the gods gave dominion over the oceans. And so it came to be that the most beautiful castle grew of the water like a great reef at the western border of the Great Sea, where one dragon brought his bride, Amaterasu. Since then, the worlds have been violently cleaved. Amaterasu has long since left. Her husband has died. The palace has passed through the hands of generations of their children. This is where our story begins.

On this day, an old man came to this palace. He looked to be eighty years old at least. In truth he was much older. He muttered to himself as he walked, so involved in his thoughts that he didn't seem to notice any of the wonders around him. He was not stopped nor questioned. Doors opened before him unprompted until he reached the antechamber of the throne room.

A younger man stood there on the dais. He had angular features and a short black beard. His long hair was tied back loosely, and hung until it blended into the shadows of his flowing, floor-length kimono. Seeing him, the old man lost his preoccupation.

"My prince," he greeted the younger man, bowing low respectfully.

The prince only acknowledged this deference with the slightest of nods – an insult. "You're here to see my father," he said curtly.

It wasn't a question – another insult – but the old man gave no indication of taking offense. "Yes," he agreed mildly.

"As you can see, he's busy. Too busy to attend to any business of yours, Tenryu. Especially if it concerns your obsession with the humans."

"My prince, would we walk away from all that we have loved and protected for eons?" Tenryu asked. "Walk away from our homes and from our very souls?" Tenryu was not surprised that the prince was acting this way, but had hoped otherwise.

"If we stay, it would only be to repulse the slime," the prince said lightly, as though discussing the weather. "Not to coddle the devils who are slaughtering those very homes and souls."

"The humans aren't evil, my prince. They have only made a very grievous error."

"Are you blind and deaf, Tenryu?" The prince spat, "or have you been cowering in your den these past centuries? Have you not tasted the poisoned air and breathed the sickened water? Did you not feel the earth shaking only yesterday in protest to the abomination the monsters have unleashed? In many places I can no longer feel starlight on my scales, and it breaks my heart. It breaks my heart more than the spilling of blood on my slopes. No more. They will have no more from me. They are evil, greedy, ungrateful beasts and still you stand up for them." He calmed himself down with a visible effort. Then, steadily, he said, "You are a fool, Tenryu, and my father will not hear you."

For the first time since Tenryu had entered the room, he looked toward the corner where yet another young man stood silently in the shadows, and acknowledged his presence. This young man, barely out of boyhood, was just reaching his man-height, merely tens of thousands of years old. Tenryu spoke as if half to the prince and half to this silent figure: "There is a girl who would prove you wrong. She is the child every one of us holds dear in our hearts, even you, my prince."

The prince followed Tenryu's gaze and glared at the young man in the shadows, ignoring this last comment. "You think he can get you an audience with the king? Kohaku, my disgraced brother? They killed him. They stole his power, and you think he'll side with you? You think he has the strength? Look at him, Tenryu. They have almost made my baby brother one of them, a pathetic human. You should pity him, and look to the ones with power. And they say you are wise."

Kohaku acted as if he had not heard, but his eyes were bright as they met Tenryu's. Behind the calm façade, he seethed.

"What is your stance on the evacuation, honored Father?" Kohaku sat opposite the kind in what he now thought of as his father's study.

"No one has asked me to intervene," the king replied impassively. "Thus, I have no stance."

Kohaku said nothing, so the king continued, taking valuable time to explain the way of things to his youngest offspring.

"Kohaku, you know how dragons are. We're proud and solitary. The king is only the judge, not the ruler. If all decide to evacuate, there is no need for the king to take a stance."

"So you disagree."

"It does not matter whether I agree or disagree. The king's opinion counts for little if there is no one willing to plead his case. It counts for even less in the year of the coronation. It counts for nothing. Such is the burden of the arbiter. In that way, I have less say than the weakest of my subjects." He looked intently at his son. "Kohaku, as long as I am king, you are one of my subjects as well as my son. Bring your evidence. Plead your case. I will hear you just as I hear any other dragon who wishes to be heard."

Any other dragon who makes it to the council room, thought Kohaku, but keeping the thought to himself did not stop the king from hearing and replying to it.

"Prince Nigihayami Kohakunushi," he said sternly. "At this moment you are in no place to even think disrespectful thoughts about Fujisan." His tone softened. "So you are dissatisfied with the way things are. What are you going to do about it?"

"What could I possibly do about it, Father. And after this year, I will have even less power than I do now, if that were even possible," Kohaku said bitterly. "You can't mean for me to pursue the throne. What good is a crippled king to his people?"

The king looked at his son without pity. "King or now, you are not powerless as your brother seems to think."

Monday, March 3rd

Dear Diary,

We're reading Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass in English class for the last few weeks of school. (The last few weeks! Then I'm off to University!) Yumi's gang dragged me out to see the movie when it came out, which I actually enjoyed, surprisingly. (Why do they insist on seeing so many romcoms? And watching every TV drama that comes out? They're all the same. I wonder if any of them ever pick up a book outside of school.) The book looks nothing like the movie - except maybe for the illustration of the Jabberwocky.

We've been talking about the old religions in history, and we're discussing some of the more famous folktales for the rest of the year. I need to buy an edition of the Kojiki that I somehow manage not to own yet. Risuni was smirking at me all class. She knows it's already hard enough to keep my mouth shut about whatever story I'm reading that day. Now it'll be absolutely impossible, since I'll have to listen to the girls complain about them day and night. Maybe they won't care enough to bring it up. It's not like grades matter anymore. There's a final paper, but I don't know why the teachers bother. No one's mind is on school anymore.

Thursday, March 6th

Dear Diary,

The book has nothing to do with the movie. Lewis Carroll makes absolutely no sense. He thinks he can make up words any which way and his story goes everywhere, like a dream. It makes my head hurt.

Yumi was bragging about kissing one of the boys on the soccer team yesterday...
I don't get it. They're all cocky and obnoxious and without a gram of real self-confidence. What's the attraction? Besides, it's not like we're going to be here much longer.

We went shopping for school things today. Sheets and laundry detergent and clothes hangers. It still hasn't really hit me that I'm leaving.

Later. Nuclear meltdown at Onagawa on TV, thankfully far from here. Still, I wish we didn't live so close to the Hamaoka reactor.

Friday, March 7th

Dear Diary,

None of the girls even mentioned Onagawa today. It's like they hadn't heard the news, even though I know they did. The story played straight through their favorite show, but they can't bear to say that they care. It's all the teachers will talk about, to each other, at least. They're just as worried as I am. The only thing that distracts me is Alice.

I was wrong about Alice. I can't put it down. There's just something about falling out of reality and into Wonderland that strikes a chord...I'm already on Looking Glass.

This poem. The mad hatter recites it in the movie. I've already memorized it.
"'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
did gyre and gimble in the wabe.
All mimsy were the borogoves,
and the mome raths outgrabe."
-Jabberwocky

I have no idea what any of it means but the words feel deliciously wicked in my mouth, not at all crisp and flowing like Japanese. It's all these "th"s and "s"s. We're only supposed to be halfway through the first book but I can't stop.

Wednesday, March 12th

Dear Diary,

While doing research for my history paper, I came across this old worn-out copy of the Kojiki in the library. I would have missed this had not for my weakness for old books. (It's the vanillin! That's why they smell so good!) It's not like I don't own a copy - I have four now, but this one had a story that's missing in mine. It began with the usual origin story but it kept going past the usual ending. It said that human greed caused the world to split in two, one for humans and one for the spirits. It's such an interesting idea. I'd been thinking for years that society is losing its spirituality. I didn't have time to copy it down. I'll have to go back when I find time.

The weirdest thing about the story was that it wasn't written in the past tense, like most of the folktales I read, but more like it was going on right at this moment. More than that. There was no ending. Maybe Risuni or her parents will know more about it. I need to remember to ask them. Sometimes I wish I had Risuni's parents.

I finished Through the Looking Glass. When she "woke up" at the end and was back in the real world, I cried. Why? It wasn't a sad ending. Wonderland is far from ideal and it has the most frustrating laws of physics, like a nightmare, the way you run as fast as you can and still end up within the monster's grasp. It's a nightmarish place, that's what.

Friday, March 14th

Dear Diary,

There were earthquakes all around Mount Fuji last night. Mostly small ones, but still, so many. You could feel the ground trembling all day, like it feels just as nervous as we are. There's also a plume of smoke coming from the mouth, and scientists say the small earthquakes could be predicting an eruption. I can only just see Mount Fuji in the distance but the town council held a mandatory meeting today to give everyone the procedure for an evacuation, on the chance that Fuji erupts. I hope not, kami preserve us.