All Who Wander [Chapter 21 - RICE]

Izuku had to slow down when he got closer to the beach, worried Detour’s feet might start to slip on the shifting ground. The loss of speed was worth it, though, for the beautiful view of the sunset over the ocean that it let him admire.

“Welcome to Tsuricho, Detour,” he said, giving him a fond scratch on the ears. “There’s not much grass around here, sorry, so once I’ve unloaded everything, we’ll find a spot to make you a pen. I’m thinking up by the coffee trees, as long as you promise not to eat any plants. I hope you don’t get too lonely. We’re just gonna stop for a few minutes and say hi first, okay?”

He climbed down from the saddle, grabbing a rope out of the saddlebags to tie him to a pillar, but before he could even tie it to Detour’s reins, there were two arms around him, grabbing him in a hug and squeezing him tight.

“Welcome back! We’ve missed you!” Mina gushed. “I wondered when we’d see you again! Who’s this?!”

“This is Detour!” Izuku said, laughing as he hugged Mina back. “I get here so much faster with his help, and he’s such a sweetheart.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Detour!”

Mina reached out a hand, letting Detour sniff at her, before she reached up to gently stroke his side. Detour made a happy little noise, and Mina cooed at him, only looking away when the cafe door slid open again.

“It’s good to see you, Izuku!” Rikido said brightly. “I heard Mina yell and knew it had to be you.”

“I brought you some gifts!” Izuku told him, grinning at Mina’s grumbled protests. “Nothing new yet, but I got a bunch of oil, vinegar and cheese from Chimura so we can do a ton of cooking!”

He unhooked the Mei Box as he spoke, thrusting it into Rikido’s hands, and getting a laugh in return. It wasn’t like Izuku did any cooking on his own when he was in town, so it made far more sense to leave things at the cafe anyway, with its massive, beautiful kitchen.

“That’s amazing, Izuku!” Rikido said, setting the box inside for later. “We’ll have to create something new together, again.”

“I’d love to! I should really put my stuff down, though, and get Detour set up with some grass to eat. I’m gonna build him a little pen up by the coffee trees, if that’s okay? Hopefully it won’t be in the way, but he’s perfectly friendly, so you can always go in the pen and say hi while you’re harvesting.”

“Go for it! It won’t be a problem at all!” Mina assured him. “I’ll walk over with you, I want to catch up!”

“Me too,” Rikido said, closing the cafe door. “The dinner rush has just finished, so I’ve got plenty of time to come catch up!”

Izuku felt his chest swell; it was so nice to have friends who were ready to drop everything just to hang out with him, of all people. He felt a little guilty letting them, of course, but it was so sweet that they even offered in the first place, and he loved them for it.

“You don’t have to!” he insisted all the same. “I can come right back!”

“Don’t be silly, it’s getting dark, you won’t have time! It’s no problem!”

Rikido grabbed a lantern from the little outdoor seating area, unhooking it from a spot on the wall, and with Izuku leading Detour, they started across the beach. The pair filled him in on the few things that had happened around town, assuring him they’d all been taking good care of his farm area, and Izuku caught them up on his visit home and his time back in Chimura, making jams and soups. He had plenty of jars in the Mei Box to show them all, and a fresh batch of blueberries too, that he prayed Rikido had some spare sugar for, so they could make jam together.

“What do you guys do, for winter?” he asked. “Are there still fish? And coconuts?”

He still didn’t know enough about how fish worked, especially with streams that froze over, but he knew a decent amount about trees and plants, so the coconuts seemed unlikely.

“There are; it doesn’t get cold enough to snow around here, so nothing much changes, though the coconuts grow a lot slower. You could probably still grow some things, if you wanted. We’ve been loving that lettuce, but it seems to have slowed down a lot already.”

Izuku wondered exactly what that meant for his farming efforts; was it just the cold weather and lack of sunlight? Or was there something more going on? Too much sand? Not enough water? Too much heat? Not enough food in the soil? There were so many variables he needed to check.

“I’ll plant stuff for sure!” he assured them. “I got some clover seeds because they’re supposed to be super easy to grow, that way Detour can snack on it, and it can help feed the soil too. And Detour here is gonna help me haul over some good soil, I hope, to give us a head start. I’m so excited to try it out!”

“I bet I know something else you’ll be excited about,” Mina said, grinning at him as she slowed to a stop.

“Really? What?”

She just nodded, looking ahead of them, and Izuku looked up. He didn’t understand, at first. They were just standing on the beach, almost at the spot with the ruined building he used as a wind break, they only had one more building to pass, and then—

“Is this house new?” he asked, frowning slightly. “I don’t remember seeing it.”

“It is!” Mina said with a grin.

“Did someone new move to town? I’m looking forward to meeting them!”

“Oh Izuku,” Mina said fondly. “Look around, babe.”

Izuku turned his head, looking past the little house, but it was only when his eyes landed on the path to the farm that he finally cottoned on, his head whipping back to the little building again.

“It still gets cold in winter, even if it doesn’t snow,” Rikido explained. “And the winds at night can be terrible. So we thought if you came back during the winter at all, you should have somewhere a little more cozy than a tent.”

“You built a house?”

“It’s tiny, don’t get too excited,” Mina laughed. “Just a little bedroom and a bathroom, with a water barrel hooked up for you.”

“Back when my grandfather passed away, we used to lend his home to traders who came through, to give them a safe and dry place to stay while they were here,” Rikido explained. “There were some big storms that damaged the place, and we just never got around to fixing it, so it fell into ruin like you saw. I made an off-hand comment about how it would have been nice to have it for your visits, and Rody said he could get a new one up.”

“It’s amazing. You guys are way too generous! I promise I won’t outstay my welcome!”

“You could never,” Rikido laughed. “We won’t get many traders in the winter anyway, so it’s all yours, and when you decide to travel again, we’ll just lend it out to anyone who might need it.”

Izuku shoved Detour’s rope into Mina’s hand, freeing him up to run to the door, giddy with glee as he pulled it open. He kicked his shoes off in an attempt to keep the sand out, and stepped inside to find pristine wooden floors and walls, all made of neatly cut planks, pieced together perfectly. A little wooden bed frame sat in one corner, even a mattress waiting on top, and there was a small counter and cupboards in another. There was even a fireplace, made out of stones all stacked and stuck together, with a long chimney sticking up through the roof.

“Apparently, it’s all built with the materials you cleared out from the farm area,” Rikido told him, stepping out of his shoes to follow Izuku indoors. “He just had to add some clay and sand and things, to put the fireplace together.”

“That’s amazing! And it’s so cozy,” Izuku gushed. “I love it so much! I might never leave!”

“By all means,” Rikido chuckled. “We both know you’ll get bored and want to explore, though.”

“That’s true,” Izuku lamented. “But it’ll keep me coming back!”

“I’m glad.”

Rikido stepped out again, and then Mina was taking his place, and Izuku immediately felt guilty for having left her saddled with Detour’s rope. Honestly, he probably wouldn’t have wandered off anyway, even if they left him unattended, but he supposed Mina and Rikido would never have known that.

“Isn’t it so cute?” she asked. “They used up all of the straw you dried on filling the mattress, though, so you might need to start on some more, if you think you’ll need it soon.”

“No, this is perfect! It wasn’t for anything in particular, just to make use of all the grass we cut!”

The fact that everything had been built from those materials was such a beautiful touch that it made Izuku tear up a little. All those hours they’d spent working together, stacking piles and piles of stone and wood, chopping through fallen logs and clearing out trees that looked beyond saving, cutting through long patches of grass and spreading the cuttings on the sand, had gone into making something so amazing, that they could use over and over again for years to come.

“Hopefully you can have a comfy sleep tonight. Do you need any blankets?”

“Nope! I brought plenty!” he assured her. “I’m so excited to sleep here.”

“Horse first,” she reminded him, chuckling as he set down his bag almost reverently on the wooden counter.

“Right! Thank you!”

“Let me help, what do you need?”

They headed back out, tying their shoes again and joining Rikido, where he shyly rubbed at Detour’s nose. Izuku unfastened the saddle, and Rikido helped him lift it off, then they set off toward the farm with just a couple of buckets and a ton of ropes. He was grateful for Rikido’s lantern when they got deep into the trees, unable to see his own hand in front of his face without its glow, and he wished he’d brought his own with him for backup – he’d been so excited about everything, that he’d left his most precious possession behind! Well, one of his most precious; he had a few of those, these days.

Little by little, Izuku managed to set up his rope fences, and Mina picked her way through the dark trees to fill a water bucket for him, while Rikido learned to tie knots. Honestly, considering it was a fishing village, the rest of the villagers probably knew far better knots than Izuku did, anyway. But he had one that worked, and that was the important thing!

“Okay Detour, it’s bedtime,” Izuku said softly, stroking at his mane. “I’ll come by in the morning, okay? Sweet dreams.”

All three of them were yawning, by the time they made it back to the little house, and Izuku quickly grabbed out his lantern, casting a warm glow throughout the room. With last farewells and promises to meet for breakfast, they parted ways again in the doorway, and Izuku watched the two shadowy figures head off down the sand, their little light just barely visible by the time they reached the cafe safely.

He waited until they were indoors before he left the doorway, closing the door behind him and latching it against any winds that came up off the ocean, then taking a moment to empty out his bags by lantern light, to make sure he knew where everything was, and had it ready for the night and the morning to come. Finally, he changed into his pyjamas and collapsed onto his comfy little bed, a huge smile still on his face that he didn’t think would go anywhere, any time soon. Despite the enthusiasm and joy keeping him upright until that point, he barely found the energy to wrap himself in a warm blanket on the new mattress, before he was immediately out for the count.

———

Izuku gasped when the little island came into view, starting to stand up to see it more clearly, before he immediately regretted it and sat back down. The boat lurched a little, and Eijirou just laughed at him for his moment of panic, still happily rowing through the wavy sea.

When he’d first made the offer, Izuku had thought he was joking. None of them ventured out to the island anymore; it was too dangerous, only the most experienced sailors could get there in one piece, like some of their parents who were far too old to do it these days, and one or two traders who were quickly heading the same way. Izuku had talked about it wistfully, a far-off dream that one day maybe he’d be able to accomplish, but then Eijirou had shown up with a bag of clean clothes and a big smile on his face, gesturing to his boat with a flourish.

“I can do it,” he’d said firmly, without a single doubt in his mind. “I talked to some of the elders about where how to get there, and it sounds simple enough!”

Simple had definitely been an exaggeration, since Eijirou had mapped out a weirdly complicated path to follow. They’d rowed out pretty deep, then put the sail up for a while to let the wind help them out, only to pull it back down and grab the oars again as soon as they’d passed a rocky outcrop. It was strangely convoluted, and a part of Izuku wondered if they couldn’t have just pointed the boat at the island and gone for it, but Eijirou had been so careful about picking out the right landmarks to stop or start or turn at, and Izuku didn’t dare to question him.

The boat was full of bags, too, with all the town’s spare goods that might be useful for trade purposes. Izuku had brought the Mei Box with half of his jars inside, leaving the other half for Rikido to cook with in his absence, but the rest of the town had shown up one by one with bags of their own, telling Eijirou to help the island out if they needed anything; it was so sweet of them all, and Izuku couldn’t have felt more lucky to be a small part of their warm community.

“Alright, almost there!” Eijirou told him, excitement clear in his tone – the more he’d thought about it and talked about it while Izuku was away, the more Eijirou had decided he wanted to see the island for himself, and apparently he’d just been itching for Izuku to come back so they could do it together. “Apparently this whole side is lined with rocks, though, so we’re gonna go ‘round to the other side, and there should be space there to go ashore.”

That was the kind of information the elders had passed on, Izuku supposed. It was a good thing he’d never tried to just grab a boat and see what happened. He was bad enough on the ocean at the best of times, let alone trying to navigate through rocks.

“There it is!” Eijirou said excitedly, when caught sight of the gentle, sandy bay. “Hold on tight, this bit might be a little choppy.”

Sure enough, the boat was soon being battered by waves, sloshed around and twisted sideways before they began being pushed toward shore. Izuku white-knuckled the sides of the boat, leaning into the waves in the hopes he might be able to rebalance it a little, to keep it from flipping over. He was drenched in seconds, hair sticking to his face, clothes clinging to his skin, but still the smile never left Eijirou’s face, as he used his oars to turn them this way and that, riding the wives.

After what felt like an eternity, the waves began to calm, and Eijirou began rowing again in earnest. The boat ran aground, scraping against the sand, and Eijirou jumped over the side, wading in the shallows as he began hauling the boat up the beach. Izuku stumbled his way out to lighten the load, but he couldn’t manage to get up to help, instead just sprawling on his back in the wet sand, letting the warm sun seep into his bones.

“Hi there!”

Izuku found his energy in a hurry, rolling over to look, finding Eijirou waving up at two confused people standing on a stone path.

“My name is Eijirou!” he continued, unphased by their baffled silence. “This is Izuku! We came over from Tsuricho!”

“I’m Momo,” the woman said calmly. “Welcome to Majima.”

“Thank you,” Izuku said breathlessly, hauling himself up onto his hands and knees just in time for a little wave to wash up over his already sodden shoes. “I’ve been so excited to come meet you all.”

“All?” the man asked, the pair exchanging a look.

“The people who live here,” Izuku clarified. “I’m travelling around and learning about all the different towns.”

“It’s... basically just us,” Momo said, giving him an apologetic smile. “We lost a lot of people in the huge storm a few years ago, and people decided to move away, to look for somewhere safer.”

“It’s not safe here?” Izuku asked, eyes going wide. “Do you need help?”

“It’s safe,” the man said firmly. “People just got scared.”

“Shouto refused to leave,” Momo explained. “So I stayed with him.”

The man – Shouto – immediately clammed up again, his lips tight, and Izuku felt guilty for even bringing it up.

“Then I’m glad to meet you both!” he said brightly. “I would shake your hand, but I’m a bit of a mess.”

“Rough landing,” Eijirou laughed, wrapping an arm around Izuku’s waist and hauling him onto his feet. “But we made it!”

“You’re the first in a while,” Momo said. “There’s one trader who occasionally stops by, but only once a season, if that.”

“Well, I know how to do it now,” Eijirou said proudly. “So I can stop by once in a while, too! How are you guys doing for food?”

“Food?” Momo asked.

“Yeah!” Izuku agreed – in the heat of the moment, he’d somehow forgotten. “Do you grow vegetables? Or raise animals? What do you eat?”

“Umm... It depends on the season,” Momo told them. “But we eat a lot of rice.”

Eijirou grinned at Izuku knowingly, before he’d even said a word.

“I’ve never had rice,” Izuku informed her. “Do you think you could show me?”

“Oh. Sure!”

She glanced at Shouto, but he just nodded slightly, turning to walk back down the path without another word. Izuku watched him go for a moment, but with Momo beckoning him over, he didn’t have time to be distracted. He grabbed a couple of bags from the boat, Eijirou taking the rest, and they trudged their way up through the sand, until they finally met solid ground.

“We brought some stuff from home,” Eijirou informed her, when she glanced at the bags. “In case you want to trade or anything.”

“Thank you, that was kind of you. Come right this way, we’ll stop at my house and you can get dry before we walk up to the fields.”

Fields.

Fields.

He’d only used that word to describe the animal farms, before, where herds of cows or horses or sheep roamed. But Momo was talking about rice, whatever that was, and fields of it. Was their soil so good and well-fed that they could grow fields of it?

“Feel free to use the washroom” she instructed, as she opened the door to a huge, beautiful house. “There’s one just to your right. Do you have dry clothes?”

Izuku reached into his bag to check, but everything was equally drenched, and he sighed as he shook his head.

“You can hang them outside to dry,” she offered. “It’s windy today, so it shouldn’t take long. I’ll get something of Shouto’s for you, in the meantime.”

“That’s so kind of you, thank you!”

She showed them out to where lines of clothes already flapped in the breeze, and together Eijirou and Izuku quickly hung their own belongings among it. While they worked, Momo disappeared for a minute, and by the time they’d finished hanging, she was offering them neatly-folded piles of clean clothing. Eijirou insisted on Izuku going first, to get changed, so he hurried into the bathroom to dry off, barely pausing to wipe off the sand and dirt with his wet gear before he pulled on the too-long clothes. He quickly switched places with Eijirou, only then stopping to roll over the hems of his pants, so he wouldn’t walk all over the seams. The fabric was beautifully soft and thick, just like his father’s old clothes that Izuku hadn’t quite grown into yet, but one day, his mother would insist on him adopting.

“They’re so comfy,” he explained, when Momo gave him a shy smile. “Thank you.”

“I’m glad.”

Soon, Eijirou was back, and rid of their wet, heavy gear, they set out on a walk.

The island was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.

The beach alone was something to marvel at, with the sun shining on the sparkling waves as they lapped at the sand, but to the other side lay emerald-green hills, their stone path winding through them on an ambling path, like the hills themselves were more important than the people walking. A river wove through the lower levels, the bank occasionally marked by some kind of device that he was sure Mei would be proud of, from what little he could tell at a distance.

“Our water pumps,” Momo explained, when she caught them both staring. “Do yours look different?”

“We use barrels,” Eijirou explained. “They have a kind of pump attached so we can use them in kitchens and bathrooms, but not like that.”

“We just have a well and a bucket,” Izuku said sheepishly, catching Momo’s eyes widen before she schooled her expression into something more polite. “I come from a very small town. Well, I guess it has more people than your island, apparently.”

“But we used to be a big town,” Momo said knowingly. “It’s different.”

“Exactly.”

“Well, the rice needs a lot of water to grow,” she explained, and Izuku felt himself deflating a little – of everywhere he’d been so far, he didn’t think anyone could handle that. “So the pumps allow us to keep the water levels sufficient. Shouto and I wouldn’t be able to maintain them, otherwise.”

She stopped on a path edge, looking down, and Izuku finally understood. Below them, not far from the river banks, were the fields Momo had described – and it was true, Izuku thought, they seemed massive. While signs of crops poked up where he could just barely see them, most of the field space was completely flooded.

“These ones have been growing for a little while now,” she told them. “The ones further along the path there are almost ready for harvest, but these ones will take a bit longer.”

“Why do you flood the fields like that? Does the rice need it?”

“It can grow with less,” she assured him. “But the flooding helps prevent weeds and bugs, which makes it easier to maintain. We plant the rice down here where it’s easy to flood, and keep the dryer space up the hill for the cabbage and cotton. In the rainy season, we don’t even have to touch the pumps.”

When Eijirou looked at him, Izuku knew his face must be giving away all of his emotion. He was weirdly overwhelmed, hearing all the new words, but also so damn excited.

“Please teach me all about it!” Izuku begged, getting a little smile out of Momo. “I want to learn everything there is to know!”

“I don’t think I can do that in one day,” she said, with a little giggle. “But I can definitely show you around.”

“We’ll have to get going in time to make it back before dark,” Eijirou reminded him. “But we’ve got a little time before that!”

“We should really do any trading they want, too,” Izuku lamented. “So we can take stuff back to Tsuricho.”

“All in good time,” Momo assured them both. “For now, let’s go down to the rice! Some of it might even be ready for harvesting.”

She led them down a set of steps cut into the hill, a little soft and muddy in places, but much safer than the slope itself. The field closest to the stairs wasn’t flooded like the rest, the soil just soft and a little goopy in places instead, and Momo crouched down to take a look, smiling as she showed them one of the bushy rice plants.

“See these big fluffy parts?” she asked, pointing out the yellow sections that hung heavy from within big green leaves. “When they all look full and yellow like this, it’s ready to go. We’ve been waiting about a week for these ones to finally get there, but they’re looking good! Grab me that sickle over there?”

The tool in question was just leaning against the water pump, and Eijirou brought it over without hesitation, offering her the handle-side.

“From here, all we do is pull up on the plant like this, and cut it off at the base. Then we chuck them over the side here, so they can dry out for a few days. See the ones down there?”

Sure enough, further along the hill was a collection of similar cut plants, laid out where the sun was currently hitting them. With all the hills on the island, it must have been hard to get enough sun on them, he couldn’t help but think.

“Like you do with the grass,” Eijirou said.

“Yeah! Is the rice like the seeds, maybe?”

“Exactly,” Momo told him. “We keep some to replant and grow more, but the rest, we break out of the husk, and what comes from inside is the rice grains.”

“It sounds like so much work.”

“It is,” Momo lamented “It was much easier when we had more people living here, but we get by!”

“Let me help?” Izuku requested. “I’m no stranger to hard work, I promise I’ll learn quickly!”

“I’d love that,” Momo agreed. “But it’s slow going, we won’t be able to do every part of it today.”

Izuku sighed, and Eijirou patted him on the back sympathetically.

“We’ll come back again,” he promised. “We’ll get better at the landing, too.”

Momo paused, watching them, then glanced out the fields again, contemplating.

“Would you like to stay?” she asked. “I can offer you a room in my home, if you’d like to stay a few days and learn. It would help me out, too, after all.”

“Oh! I wish I could, that’s so nice of you,” Izuku whined.

“You can,” Eijirou said quietly. “I can come back and get you in a few days.”

“I have to get back to Detour, and I promised to cook with Rikido again!”

“Rikido would punch me if I let you decline just for cooking,” Eijirou pointed out. “And I can take care of Detour.”

“That’s so much extra work! You have to fish! And he might miss me!”

“Rody will, then. Mina and I will fill him in on how. He won’t get lonely, and we’ll remind him you’re coming back soon, so he doesn’t think you got hurt.”

Izuku hesitated. He felt terrible for it, still, but...

“Really?” he asked weakly.

“I insist,” Eijirou said warmly. “I’ll give you a few days, and then the next time the weather is good enough, I’ll come back again and pick you up. I’ll even wave at the island from the fishing boat every day, to let you know we’re doing well.”

“You fish?” Momo asked. “We used to get fish when the traders came through, but it’s been a while.”

“We haven’t had much to spare,” Eijirou admitted. “It gets harder and harder to catch enough of them. That’s why Izuku here is learning all about crops and farming, so we can try to grow other things to eat instead!”

Momo looked at him with what he thought was admiration in her eyes, and he stood a little taller, trying his best to live up to it.

“What do you say?” she asked, offering him the sickle. “Would you like to cut some rice?”

Izuku smiled, nodding as he accepted it gratefully.

“I’d like nothing more.”