The Tale of the Magic Radishes

[yinyangwizard]

When Abe no Seimei bows to Bar in greeting, as he usually does when he visits, a radish and a napkin note appear on the Bar's surface.

Seimei, who has been coming here long enough to be suspicious of anything that looks like free food, gives the radish a wary look and reads the note.

He looks at the radish again, this time with more interest. He picks it up and smells it carefully. So Milliways is treated to the odd sight of a man in a summer-weight kimono smelling a radish as if it were a fragrant flower, although granted, this does not even break the Top 100 list of strangest things that have ever happened here.

[Tinytag: Wen Ning]

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[undead_radish_seller]

There is a very pale young man in long dark robes, with stringy long dark hair and a frayed conical straw hat trying to negotiate with the bar about breakfast, just a few feet away.

His eyes almost pop comically when he sees the man with the radish in his hands.

[yinyangwizard]

Seimei notices. He also notices that the young man is walking around dead, which at Milliways is not terribly unusual. But the way he is walking around dead is rather unusual.

"Young sir," Seimei says, "do you happen to know who sold a bunch of radishes like this to Bar-san?"

Because it is normally very difficult (and costly) for the Bar to produce items like these, and because the price she gave him was not a small fortune, Seimei concludes that someone here must have given them to her.

[undead_radish_seller]

"I did, sir" the young man says. "My family grew them, and I was taking them to market when I ended up here. The bar graciously took them off me so I will have money to take home, and not disappoint them."

[yinyangwizard]

Well, mystery solved. Sort of. "These do not seem to be ordinary radishes. Or, at least, they did not grow in ordinary soil."

[undead_radish_seller]

"Oh, I deeply apologise," the young man says. "Of course a cultivator would be able to tell!"

He bows deeply, his hands held before his chest.

"My name is Wen Ning, courtesy name Qionglin," he then says, in a curious mixture of humility and defiance, "and we grew the radishes at the Burial Grounds, where we now live. The land is deeply haunted, but -- Wei-gongzi cleared the places where we live and grow things from the resentful energy, and set wards."

Any cultivator will have heard of Wei Wuxian, the infamous Yiling Patriarch, and the last of the Wen clan that he saved and is protecting; but according to the rules in this place, this cultivator of some unknown clan can't harm him, and he's not telling him anything that every cultivator in their world doesn't know anyway.

[yinyangwizard]

Wen Ning is going to be very disappointed. Or very relieved. Or both.

Seimei bows respectfully, though with his hands at his sides in the Japanese style. “I am Abe no Seimei. I come from Rìběn, but I studied Taoist magic as a young man.”

[undead_radish_seller]

"Oh, from the island all the way to the East, just before the edge of the world?" Wen Ning says. "What sect did you study with? What did you specialise in?"

A cultivator -- but one not embroiled in current cultivation politics, which Wei Wuxian and his Wei protegés are on the wrong end of at the moment.

[yinyangwizard]

“Alas, it was my teacher Kamo no Tadayuki who studied in China and brought this knowledge back to teach me. And whatever politics may have prevailed where he studied, he did not bring them back home with him.”

Probably for the best. Heian-kyo had more than enough infighting of its own.

“When I traveled to China much later, I studied at the Shaolin Monastery.”

[undead_radish_seller]

"Oh, you studied martial arts?" Wen Ning says. "That is a different way of using qi than ours. What do you like better?"

[yinyangwizard]

“Different tools for different work,” Seimei says. If he had a favorite, it would run rather against his philosophy to say so.

“Wen Qionglin, I have no doubt that there is a very interesting story behind your radishes and the spiritual practice of your sect, and I will happily buy you your next meal here if it means I can hear it.”

He was talking to Bar about breakfast, so Seimei is reasonably confident that he still eats.

[undead_radish_seller]

"Oh, I would tell you my story without remuneration," Wen Ning says, "but perhaps -- if I could have a breakfast of the kind you have in Riben? There are so many options here, it's hard to decide."

Pause.

"And I can have anything I want while my family has congee and radishes for breakfast. I feel silly."

[yinyangwizard]

“A traditional breakfast in my country often includes rice gruel and pickled radish,” Seimei says. “But also a few other things.”

Seimei orders them both bowls of rice gruel with slices of pickled radish, hardboiled egg, and dried seaweed, with a cup of warm miso soup and sencha green tea. Wen Ning must think the egg rather extravagant.

“I can send send home some eggs with you, if you like, to share with your family.”

[undead_radish_seller]

Wen Ning looks at the breakfast, and nods. "The aunties and granny are pickling radishes, but they're not done yet," he says. "Thank you very much. This looks very good, and the eggs would be appreciated."

Not so extravagant that Wen Ning would have to lie much, but very helpful for everybody.

[princeinexile]

Zuko, who most definitely looks Japanese but dresses like Han Dynasty China and Shogun Era Japan had a baby, has only seen this kind of interest in a vegetable, and it's that guy who froths at the mouth over cabbages.

(Hasn't seen the guy in ages, but then, he hasn't had the freedom to travel for ages, either.)

He quirks an amused smile, but doesn't speak. The man can inhale the aroma his radishes in peace, maybe.

[yinyangwizard]

Seimei notices he is being watched. "Young sir," he asks, "do you happen to know who sold these radishes to the Bar?"

[princeinexile]

"I cannot say, no," Zuko replies. He's not really one to comment on produce, because he's a Prince and has literally only shopped for supplies with help, because he's woefully ill equipped to know the value or price of anything, let alone what constitutes quality versus inferior vegetables.

"Are they good radishes?" he hazards to ask, because... he's never seen anyone sniff them like that.

[yinyangwizard]

“They were grown in a good place,” Seimei says. “Sacred ground, or at least some place where the mortal world and the spirit world are very close together. I think.”

That gives them a very interesting smell. To Seimei, anyway.

[princeinexile]

Zuko's remaining eyebrow goes straight up his forehead and vanishes underneath his bangs.

"Are you, ah-- forgive me if this sounds strange, but -- Are you an Avatar, sir?" Because he heard the magic words of "Spirit World" and came to the wrong conclusion entirely.

[yinyangwizard]

“Oh, certainly not.” Seimei is thinking of Buddhist avatars, but he’s not the other kind, either. “I am an Onmyoji, a master of Yin-Yang magic.”

[princeinexile]

"Ah!" They have the concept of Yin and Yang in Zuko's world, but... not so much anyone that does magic with it, after all. He has to ponder a minute to see if he's somehow missed something. "I have never heard of a practitioner like that."

"Are you from Earth?" It's the next logical question, after all.

[yinyangwizard]

“Yes. I will make an educated guess that you are not.” Otherwise, he probably wouldn’t be asking.

[princeinexile]

"No, I am definitely not. I've visited, though," Zuko offers helpfully. He did like his time on earth, and he made both friends and family there. He's missed them a bit. "But it was during what my friend called a 'modern age' or -- post industrial? My people are still firmly in our industrial revolution."

He somehow doubts a person dressed like they walked out of the Earth Kingdom is going to be post-industrial, but he knows he could also be wrong.

[yinyangwizard]

“‘Post-industrial’ sounds about right,” Seimei says. “There are some stereotypes about people from the Kansai region being old-fashioned and in my case” - he gestures down at his attire - “they are true.”

Seimei dresses like he comes from the eighteenth century, but he lives in the twenty-first.

[princeinexile]

"I see," Zuko says, tilting his head. That's very traditional dress for someone in the modern age. He only studied the Asiatic countries so deeply, they seemed to resonate in odd ways, and some that made him uncomfortable. (Japan's own imperialism reflected in the Fire Nation, for example, made for some squirming.)

"My name is Zuko. Can I ask yours?"

[yinyangwizard]

“Abe no Seimei,” he says, bowing. “I do not know which countries you visited on Earth, but in mine, the surname comes first and the given name second.”