It was early morning and the dew on the grass was still fresh. A man with a large hat walked along an empty muddy road. A motorized cart followed close behind the man. The sign on the cart written in bright crimson characters read, “Taro’s Sundries”. It was several miles to the next town. Taro stopped and grabbed a bottle from his cart to quench his thirst. He listened to the song of the mejiro in the nearby pine trees. Pine needles crunched under his feet as he shifted his weight from side to side. He looked back towards the direction that he came from. Another man leading a white horse was coming his way. Taro stared at him through the slit in his bronze jingasa. Taro had taken that road to the market more than a dozen times and this was the first time he had ever seen anybody on the way. The man was thin and muscular, with a youthful gait. Taro waited by his cart to see if the man would pass, but he knew that he wouldn’t. The sun slowly rose and started to burn the dew away. The birds went silent as the man approached with his horse in tow. Taro noticed the horse’s blanket was draped over the saddle.
“Morning!” The man greeted Taro as he approached the cart.
Taro nodded back at the man.
“What have you got for sale?” The grinning man asked.
The cart came to life. Lights flashed, the cabinets on the cart opened up, and a cheerful robotic voice chimed in.
“Welcome to Taro’s Sundries, We have mushrooms, berries, honey, bamboo shoots, and tea.”
“How much for a cup of tea?” The grinning man asked.
“500 copper.”
“OK, one please.” The man said.
The man reached for his coin purse. Taro shifted his weight to the balls of his feet. The man dropped the 500 copper coin in the cart’s slot. Two robotic arms deployed from the cart and poured tea from the kettle inside. The man took the tea from the cart with mocking effusiveness. He tried to make small talk, but Taro just nodded. He finished his tea and left it on the cart. Taro waited for the man to disappear over the horizon. He double tapped the side of his cart and the robotic arms cleared away the cup, closed the cabinets and sliding doors, and turned off the flashing lights. He continued down the road to the market. He had a hunch about where the attack would come from. There was a blind corner about a mile ahead. He slowed his pace as he got nearer.
“You can come out now.” Taro said.
“I guess there’s no fooling you.” The grinning man said, “What gave me away?”
“Horse blankets go under the saddle, not over.”
The man leapt from behind the thicket and shot at Taro, and missed. Taro closed in on the man and stabbed him in the neck with his kitchen knife. White blood spewed out in rhythmic jets from the gash. He checked the grinning man’s belongings as he gasped and sputtered out. The android’s white blood pooled and poisoned the ground beneath Taro’s feet. He found a note written in code, but he couldn’t decipher it. He showed it to his cart, but it couldn’t decipher it either. Taro chopped the android up and threw the parts in a bag. He could sell it for scrap or parts in town.
Before he got into town, he cleaned the android blood from his clothes and changed into his spare outfit. One of the washer women in town could get the stains out. He setup his cart next to a woman selling candied mochi. He didn’t sell much of his foraged goods, but he got 50 silver coins for the robot parts, more than enough to keep him going.