Airship Nion

I never really thought much.

Well despite saying so I've thought many things my whole life. But the concept of complex deep diverse thoughts such as 'are we alone in the universe' 'is life meaningless or pointless 'what is the point of life' etc. Those sort of thoughts. The ones that force you into a black hole of deep thinking and most if not all the time leaves you in a depressed mood. Sure many are fascinated by these concepts with good reason. But some are afraid of them.

So yes, I've thought of those topics. Just when I brushed up on an answer or some sort of plug to make the unanswered thought answered, it would quickly go away. The thought became meaningless and forgotten...most of all, why did I walk into this room again? I can't seem to recall...

"There he goes again..." the grannies waved their paper fans, sitting on the deck chuckling at me.

Right, and I'm often called an 'airhead,' a lot.

My grandpa just said I'm slower than other kids, and some doctor lady mentioned I might have autism. Then again she was drunk off the wine the inn had served and before long she had passed out.

My family owns and continues to run a ryokan Japanese Inn. Apparently, twelve generations have continued to run the place and it's popular for its hot springs. I, Kuro am a candidate to inherit the business. Actually not really. My future appears to be filled with odd jobs around the inn until the day I die, like most of my other cousins too. I'm not particularly academic and definitely not competitive. Plus working here as a part of the family has its perks. The family is so large we don't need to hire anyone outside of our family. I'm not particularly fond of hard jobs and this one is as simple and filled with leisure, as any job gets around here.

Or so my grandpa says.

"Hey Kuro how about getting me some watermelon to clear your frazzled thoughts?" A grannie smiled warmly and I couldn't just say no, so I nodded yes and left the deck pondering just why I had walked into the room...

"Topher!" I called out hands cupped to my face. The little robot with a big belly got up from its resting pad and zoomed over to me on its wheels. The little head looked funny compared to its big fridge belly, I often called it a chubby brother. Aunty said I was weird for doing so.

"Master Kuro, how may I be of assistance?" A rather pleasant voice emitted from the thing. "Three slices of cut watermelon please," I held up three fingers, and after the belly coughed up three plates with three slices of cut watermelon on top, did I solute the robot and march off. Satisfied at the task well done I bent down and gave the three grannies their plates.

"Thank you young man, rather hot today isn't it?" The blue-clothed grannie commented pulling her hair up into a ponytail.

"Yes, yes I'm sweating so much from just lifting my arms!" The red-clothed grannie intercepted with a complaint.

"That's because you don't exercise enough!" The yellow-clothed hawk-eyed one flung an insult and swiftly took a bite of watermelon.

I watched their interaction in silence for a moment, then I suddenly remembered what I had walked into the room for! "Ah, I just remembered! I was to tell you that the airship Nion will be passing overhead our inn during the late afternoon hours."

The three gasped and then childish smiles of mirth flaked their wrinkled faces, "really? I heard it's quite a sight."

"By then the air would have cooled~"

"Kuro by any chance will you be joining us in the sights? Eye candy would surely make it even better of an experience," the three burst out laughing like teenagers and I scratched my cheek in confusion but still held my "business smile". These three have been visiting the inn for a while with regular visits every summer and have always been a mischief bunch.

Grandpa said not to get too close to these three foxes...

"I'm sorry I don't have the time, I have to clean west wings springs today."

"What a pity," the three chutted, and I bowed and took his leave.

I walked in the traditional hallways, still holding an ancient vibe, readying myself for a few hours of cleaning. On the way I bypassed many of my cousins and gave greetings to each I saw.

My grandpa was an only child therefore only heir to the inn after his parents passed away. He had to build the place up again with the potential of the inn going bankrupt. He married my grandma and had six children.

3 males and 3 females, my grandpa said it was a sign of good fortune to have an equal pair of gender.

Aunt Song had 5 children, Aunt Hana had 9 children, and Aunt Sora had 2. Aunt Song's husband already had 3 children going into the marriage also, so they actually have 8 kids.

Uncle Shiso had 3 children, Uncle Yau had 8, and my dad only had 1 child. That was me.

So to put that all together, I have 30 cousins. Grandpa said he likes the way our family is so big and that our inn will continue to run for 12 more generations and more.

"Kuro get the rags!" Yui threw a bucket my way causing me to groan in complaint. "Why can't you just ask the robot," I sighed trudging to the hidden supply room and sliding it open sharply.

"Because!" I could still hear her yell from far away, and like always, never gave me a definite response.

She was my closes cousin and probably the only one I remembered the name of— so as you can tell, my family and me aren't very close. Apparently, I'm the odd one out and not just in appearance.

Grudgingly grabbing fistfuls of white rags used for the customer's usage I trailed back down to the hot springs. A Steam wall instantly hit me in the face, it was really too hot for a hot spring currently. The only time people visited was during the cold of the night, which I found understandable. The most popular time was usually during the spring and winter months, spring was the couples year, and we're usually packed with young recently married couples.

"Fold them and place them on the racks," Yui gave me another order continuing to mop the stone flooring, "take off your yukata! You'll get it dirty," Aunt Song, Yui's mom scolded watching her other children clean, and didn't even do anything! Blah blah blah, always something to blabber about...

I changed coming back quickly and started the grueling process of folding each rag.

"I'm getting married soon, you know that right Kuro?"

Here we go again.

"Mhm," I hummed.

"Well, since we're the same age, don't you think you should look for a partner too?" She started inching her way towards me to talk more subtly.

I glanced at her and then looked down again, pretending to not notice her movements. "I don't know Yui, grandpa said I can do whatever I wanted."

"So does that mean you don't want to get married?" Her voice sounded oddly strained.

I simply shrugged not sure myself, "I'm only 23, I have time."

"That's what someone says and then they turn 50 and say they still have time!" She groaned and thoughtfully went to another spot to clean. I'm sure she'll bug me again on the topic of marriage. But I'm not as handsome as my other cousins so I don't think anyone would like me. To most of my cousins I look weird, cause my mom's not from here...

My father left the family one day and mysteriously came back with a child in tow, that was me. I lived seven years of my life with my father in a different country. One day he said he needed to go back home and so we left our apartment to this place, the Belladonna Hot Spring Inn. I wouldn't take the name seriously though.

My mother was apparently a foreigner but I never met her, I didn't even know everyone had to have a mom, I thought it was just my dad. After we came here I discovered a completely alien lifestyle and was thrown into this new world. A year later my father died from an illness and grandpa raised me.

"Kuro! Do you hear that!?" Distracted by Yui's loud cry of excitement I strained my ears for what she was talking about. "It's an airship," I mumbled before my heart lurched in anticipation, the air buzzed with its force and you could feel its vibration.

"Airship Nion!" Everyone stopped what they were doing and Yui grabbed my arm running to a more open view of the sky.

The robots cleaning the inside of the hot spring were the only things that didn't still at the sight of the airship. The world turned quiet with only the buzzing hum of the engine in the sky. The massive shadow of the airship had patches of the inn turn nightfall and when it blocked their view of the setting sunset the world made the airship the focus of its attention.

The burly mass surpassed anything I've ever seen or dreamed of seeing. Because I never thought much, not too deeply and not on a regular basis. I swam through my daily life on my back kicking my legs to have me go forward, not even thinking about the future of the next day. But the airship broke the air in its path confidently becoming the predator of the sky, looking forward to the future, creating its own future, breaking the shackles of wind in a clearcut manner and leaving behind a trail of ghostly white smoke to mark that a beast that could produce white clouds arose in this area like a dragon god.

Even at night, through my bedroom window, I could still see the cloud that stretched out a path in the sky. The fireflies reflected the stars in the sky and for a moment, as my eyes closed, I couldn't tell up from down.