The story
Fiction and adapted settings written by Akitsora Gaming for this title, including invented dialogue and events. This is not a historical or folklore reference. The rules and specification tables define the gameplay and math.
Asa no ichi wa, koe de hiraku.
— A morning market is opened by voices. An old saying of the market
I. Before dawn
Five in the morning, the sky over the hills only just pale, and the stall keeper is already raising the white canopies one by one. Wooden crates come down from the cart; the vegetables under their damp cloths still carry the dew of the field.
She lays the white cloth over the stall, sets out the daikon first, then the crate of eggplants — the rule of this stall is that the freshest goes at the front.
II. The two on the left
The two vendors from the next stall are already here: one in a headband with a small basket of carrots and green onions; one in a persimmon-colored vest, holding an empty crate, ready to help carry.
They do not call out. They watch her sort. Every time she lifts something, someone asks whether today's is good, and she always smiles and says, see for yourself.
III. Sale after sale
One vegetable is nothing. 8 or more of the same kind on the stall make a sale — and they do not have to sit side by side.
When a sale is picked up, the produce behind moves forward, and sometimes what moves forward makes another sale. The regulars say the best mornings are the ones when her hands never stop.
IV. The golden persimmons
At the back of the stall sit a few ripe persimmons that glow like gold in the morning light. Now and then she adds one to a sale, and that sale is worth the number it glows with.
On an ordinary morning a persimmon counts only for the moment it is added (×2 to ×20) — once the sale is picked up, it goes with it.
V. The market tags
A hemp rope hangs in front of the canopy with a few plain wooden tags. 4 hung up at once and it is no ordinary morning: the order counter at the back opens, the canopies are drawn up, and for the next 15 rounds the sun stays on the stall.
Once the market is open, a persimmon no longer counts only as it is added — they stack, ×2 to ×500, until the last sale is handed over. 3 more hung up before closing add another 5 rounds, and nothing already stacked is given back.
VI. Closing
The sun reaches the top of the canopy and the last customer walks off with a full basket. The keeper closes her blank ledger and nods to the two vendors. The canopies go back on the cart until tomorrow, before dawn.