NakamuraHikaru Name: Nakamura Hikaru aka Oragami-Daisensei Location: The Hanzo Market, Kyoto District, City of Amber In the words of Samanosuke Reynard... Hikaru is one of those lucky few that looks younger than he really is. I figure he's at least 70, to hear him talk, but he doesn't look much older than 50 or so. He's still very fit, and very quick, no matter his age. Take my word for it. He runs a vending booth in the Market, and that was where I first met him, back when I was -- maybe four or five. I was a bit wild, if you believe my Aunt's stories, and Hikaru-sensei thought learning Origami would calm me down, give me focus. Come to think of it, I learned about Budō and Bujutsu, and the differences between the two, from Hikaru-sensei. He told me stories about samurai, about battles, about loves found and lost, and about the Diaspora that eventually gave birth to Kyoto. I asked him once why he was so willing to tell me these things, to tell me anything -- I was gaijin, an outsider, a foreigner. Before him, only my Aunt Kitsune seemed to think I was worth anything. Hikaru-sensei asked me, in turn, if I felt like an outsider or a foreigner. I told him I didn't, of course, I was born and raised -- for all my tender years -- in Kyoto, in that culture. He simply smiled, rapped my knuckles with a miso soup spoon, and told me the I could not have lunch until my paper crane was done. Reputation: Nakamura Hikaru is known beyond Little Kyoto as The Oragami Master. If it can be made from paper, of all types, shapes, sizes and colors, it is said that Hikaru can make it. He has made Paper Lanterns that hang in Castle Amber, and other works that are displayed throughout the city. He makes no mention of this on a regular basis, in fact, you would have to own one of his works to know that was the case. He does no advertise, he does not brag, and he has been known to look at his own work, scratch his head, and claim not to remember whether or not he made it. "I am an old man." -- is a common claim. He mans his booth every day without fail, and rarely leaves it. The other vendors feed him, particularly Takei Kaito, who believes a man of Hikaru's advanced years and learning should be respected. He has been called the Little Daimyo of Hanzo Market, and seems to know every vendor by name and craft, a task that has proven nearly impossible for the Blackcloaks. He sells nothing that is not hand made, by himself, or by his students, and it is not uncommon for Hikaru to draw visitors to his booth into an impromptu lesson in the art of Origami. When he is not at his booth, he is often seen browsing the Market and visiting friends, moving carefully through the crowd with a cane made of bamboo about the height and thickness of a hanbo. It is assumed that he lives somewhere in the Arc, but oddly, no one is sure. He seems to be a fixture, a personage that is nearly as old as the District itself. |
