Stranger Things (3/3)
Stranger Things
pg-13. 20,930. Ohkura Tadayoshi/Kiritani Mirei, Sakurai Sho/Horikita Maki, Ninomiya Kazunari/Yoshitaka Yuriko, plus a few surprise extras.
No one said love during Meiji Japan would be easy, especially if you’re a yokai, or an ex-samurai, a prince-to-be, an artisan, a demon child, or a bum. But hey, stranger things have happened. Originally here.
Written for novemberbaby for je_whiteday 2013. I very much hope I’ve done your favorite pairings & prompts enough justice and that you enjoy this fic. Happy White Day! ♥
This could not have been finished without the super beta handholding of anamuan, dalampasigan & tinyangl. You guys are incredible and I will never have enough words of gratitude and love for you. ♥♥♥
Mirei dreams.
“Will it be okay, Ohno-san?” a tiny voice asks. Mirei doesn’t know why she thinks the voice is so tiny, simply knows it must be true.
“She will be fine, Maki-chan. You got her here just in time.”
Maki-chan. She rolls the syllables on her tongue. It sounds sweet.
She opens her eyes and one of the figures looks familiar-yes, the girl, the last image she can recall. She doesn’t know how long it’s been since then-it could have been minutes, it could have been days. The sun is still high, light streaming in through the windows.
“I’m so glad. So, so glad.” Maki-chan looks on the verge of tears and she hates that. It doesn’t look like Maki-chan’s eyes are made for crying. She wants to keep her from crying, wants to wipe away her tears, but when she reaches out, her hands are too small. Small and black and no good for wiping away tears.
Maki-chan and Ohno-san are talking, but Maki-chan still seems sad and if only she could-
There is a popping sound, a shower of flower petals, and when Maki-chan and Ohno-san turn to face her, Ohno-san quickly averts his eyes and Maki-chan gasps. There are no more tears in her eyes; Mirei was right-she looks much better this way. She reaches her hand over and Maki-chan reaches back and she is delighted to find that her hands look just like Maki-chan’s.
“O-Ohno-san, what-who-who is she?” Maki-chan asks in wonder, mirroring Mirei’s other hand with hers. Fingertips against fingertips, light pricks of warmth.
“Let’s find her some clothing first,” Ohno-san says patiently, just as she opens her own mouth to speak, just as a memory flashes in her mind.
“Mirei.”
Maki-chan dresses her in an oversized robe with the promise of finding something that fits better in the future.
“Ohno-san, it’s okay now,” Maki-chan calls, and everything she says sounds like a song. Mirei thinks she would very much like to speak like Maki-chan.
Ohno-san returns and Maki-chan furrows her eyebrows slightly. “Ohno-san, is she-she was just-I’m not mistaken, right?”
“You’re not mistaken,” Ohno-san replies, patting Mirei softly on the head. It’s a gentle touch, and Mirei thinks she could like Ohno-san just as much as she already likes Maki-chan. “Our new friend Mirei here is-a yokai. A Midnight Rabbit yokai, if I’m not mistaken.” He peers at her curiously. “The last of her kind.”
Mirei frowns: she is not human. She is a yokai. But if Maki-chan is a human and Mirei is a yokai and they are different, then Maki-chan might not like Mirei.
“You’re not scared?” Ohno-san asks, and Mirei steels herself for Maki-chan’s reply.
“Why would I be scared?” Maki-chan asks, blinking roundly, and Mirei thinks that definitely, she likes Maki-chan’s eyes best. “She has cute ears.” Maki-chan giggles and reaches over to pat Mirei’s ears, little black ears standing straight up on the top of her head.
“Yes, but they may cause her some trouble in the future,” Ohno says, regarding her ears thoughtfully. “Many people are not as brave as Maki-chan when faced with something they may consider strange.”
Mirei puffs her cheeks as Maki’s face falls. She picks up a fistful of flower petals and makes a wish-to be like Maki-chan and Ohno-san, to not cause them worry.
When she opens her eyes, the flower petals have scattered by a light breeze from her fingertips and landed in her hair. Maki-chan and Ohno-san stare at her incredulously. When she touches her fingers to her cheeks she feels them, jutting out the sides of her head and not on top. Ears.
“Incredible, Mirei-chan!” Maki-chan says, giving her a giant hug and she is so tiny and so warm. “Mirei-chan,” Maki repeats thoughtfully. “Mirei-Mirei-chan, do you have a surname?”
“Surname?” Mirei blinks.
“Like-I’m Horikita Maki. He is Ohno Satoshi. A surname tells you where you belong.”
Mirei wants to immediately reply that she wants to have the same surname as Maki-chan, that she wants to belong where Maki-chan belongs, but Ohno-san taps a finger to his chin and muses, “How about-Kiritani. Kiritani Mirei. “‘Kiri’ for the paulownia tree you found her under, ‘Tani’ for the valley the tree grows in.”
“That sounds lovely, Ohno-san,” Maki-chan agrees, and Mirei finds she also agrees.
“Do you know the paulownia tree also has another name?” Ohno-san asks, and when Maki-chan and Mirei shake their heads, he smiles. “It is also called a princess tree.”
Princess tree . . .
“Maki-chan, you still here?”
Maki-chan’s eyes light up. “Ah, it’s Tada-nii!” She takes Mirei by the hand excitedly, bows to Ohno-san, who waves goodbye, and flounces toward the door.
He is a boy, maybe a head taller than Maki-chan, but he doesn’t look much like her. His eyes look sad, but bright, and his arms are crossed. “I said to take it over to Ohno-san, not to stay for tea and crackers,” he mutters, shaking his head. “Mom will get mad that you’ve ruined your appetite.”
“I can still eat!” Maki-chan protests, then drags Mirei in front of her. “Meet my new friend! Her name is Kiritani Mirei-chan!”
“Rabbits and then random girls, you make friends too easily, Maki-chan,” Tada-nii sighs, before regarding Mirei thoughtfully. “Did you know you have really tiny ears?”
The dream shifts and she is in her mother’s arms, a shadow veiling her face. She is holding Mirei tightly to her chest, singing; Mirei.
Rei, Rei, Rei, it echoes.
Beautiful one.
Please wait, hang on, just a little bit longer, okay?
Wait and be safe.
Don’t give up on me, don’t!
You will be found.
I will save you.
And then warmth, spreading from her forehead to her cheeks, to the very tips of her fingers and her toes.
⇀
Yuriko is staring death in the face.
She didn’t think death would be such an elegant woman, a woman with jet black hair running straight over her shoulders, tumbling onto the floor. Her face is unearthly, white, with lips painted bright red.
She also didn’t think death would enjoy tea.
“Why are you resisting, my child?” she asks, blowing on her cup lightly before taking a delicate sip. There is no trace of lipstick left on the rim afterward. Yuriko shakes her head-what a strange thing to notice.
“Why is Izanami-sama, the goddess of creation and death, here to take the life of one insignificant, mortal man?” Yuriko counters, taking a stale bite of cracker. She offers one to Izanami, who declines with an upturned palm.
“Even you realize that he is no mere mortal man.”
“He is Ninomiya Kazunari.”
“He’s killed hundreds of yokai, nature spirits, gods’ familiars-”
“He is not Tokunosuke,” Yuriko bites out, before calming herself. It wouldn’t do to lose her temper in front of a goddess.
“Oh?” Izanami seems impressed. “So you know about Tokunosuke.”
“Ohno-san told me.”
“Ohno? Ah, is that the name he’s going by, lately?” Izanami shakes her head, a slow smile growing on her face. “Big civilian life. What a strange one-he always did love his name games.”
Yuriko finds Ninomiya’s hand from under the blankets and gives it a light squeeze. Wake up.
“Well, let’s get back to business again, shall we? The soul clinging stubbornly to his body, I still need to take it with me.”
“If his life is so important, why wait so long to take it. Why not stop the the very first vessel that housed Tokunosuke’s soul, why not stop him before he killed so many?”
Izanami sets her cup down and regards Yuriko patiently. “We gods are not allowed to intervene in human lives whenever we desire. Musubi-no-Kami is the god of love and marriage, but he cannot force someone to love or marry anyone any more than I can forcefully take a life.”
“The spirit of Tokunosuke has been exorcised from this body-there is not a drop of ancient anger within him. He is no more malevolent spirit than I am.”
“Are you so certain of your own prowess, my dear?” Izanami asks, words light but razor sharp.
“I have been blessed only by the gifts given to me by the gods.”
There is a hint of a smile on Izanami’s face. “Clever girl, flattery will get you everywhere.”
“Don’t take him.” Yuriko squeezes his hand again. “He is strange and weak and though lives have been lost by his hands, they have not been lost by his heart. He deserves a chance to live his own life, unhindered, unpossessed.”
“And will you take responsibility should his heart waver to darkness once more?”
“Yes.” She squeezes his hand a third time, and his eyes flutter, just the barest flicker. Yuriko widens her eyes, glances at Izanami, who raises her hands in denial.
“I didn’t do a thing.” She rises and is even more elegant standing than sitting. “I shall take my leave now, Yoshitaka Yuriko. But be warned, the gods take their oaths very seriously.” She is gone in the blink of an eye, leaving Yuriko alone with Ninomiya, his hand still in hers.
“Look at you,” Yuriko sighs, brows furrowing. “you’re too weak to be a samurai.”
Silence.
“Nino,” she says, hoping to elicit some response, but he remains fitfully asleep. “Do you remember the first real conversation we had?”
She continues on her own, “I was eating dumplings in the kitchen and you were hungry and I told you to get your own and go away. But you didn’t leave. You ate my dumplings and talked at me, non-stop, until I finally shut you up with a question.
‘Why are you living here now?’
‘I’m injured.’
‘Why are you injured?’
‘I don’t remember.’
‘Why don’t you remember?’
‘You don’t seem to understand the concept of amnesia, do you?’
You could have left then, but you didn’t. You weren’t put off by my questions, were almost amused.
‘Why is it wrong to want a human pet?’
‘Isn’t that just slavery?’
‘Why would someone call someone else strange?’
‘Because they are self-conscious and weak-hearted.’
‘Why-would parents leave behind their twelve year-old daughter?’
You couldn’t answer that, but then again, no one else could. Or would. But still you didn’t leave. So I finally asked, ‘Why is it so wrong to be strange?’”
“It’s not.” His voice is raspy, eyes swollen and red-rimmed.
“N-Nino?”
He doesn’t look at her, shakes his head and squeezes his eyes shut. “I’ve done a lot of bad things, haven’t I?”
She glances at him pityingly. Ohno said he would regain his memories, but they are not so much memories as they are specters, flashes of grim realities that will never disappear. A lifetime taken from him.
“You should have just let me die,” he whispers, lowering his gaze.
“You are of no use to anyone dead, Nino,” she says calmly, “now you have a lifetime to make amends.”
“A lifetime to make amends,” he repeats, nodding. “That sounds good.” His eyes droop sleepily, before opening wide again as he sits up. “But M-Mirei-what about Mirei? And Tada and-”
“Relax, they’re, um,” Yuriko pauses. She can tell the truth or she can lie.
“Is she alive?”
“She is-for now,” Yuriko says delicately. “Horikita-san is working to save her life.”
“Once she’s okay, I think I-I have to leave.”
“W-what?”
“Like you said, I have to go and make amends for all the wrong that have been caused through these hands.” He winces as if in pain and Yuriko eases him back onto the blankets.
“You’re going to leave?”
But he’s not listening to her, is closing his eyes against the tears spilling down his cheeks. “Make sure she lives, Yuri, please,” he begs.
“I’ll try.” She swallows. Humans hold their oaths to each other seriously as well.
When he finally manages to fall asleep again, she retrieves her hand from his, casts one last look to make sure his chest is still rising and falling evenly, before shutting the door behind her. She undoes the jar of ink from around her neck, wets her calligraphy brush and writes on the last paper talisman she has in her sleeve, channels all her energy into one word.
“Live.”
She places it on the door just beside Ninomiya’s, where Tadayoshi is desperately trying to save Mirei’s life. Then she doubles over in silent laughter.
Mirei could die, Ninomiya will leave, and Yuriko is-laughing, putting all of her hopes and energies into a single sheet of paper.
“Yuriko.” Ohno is standing in front of her, with a gentle smile on his face.
“O-Ohno-san.” Yuriko straightens and wipes at her eyes, is surprised by the tears pooling in the corners of them. “I’m sorry I-that is-”
“Yuriko, promise me one thing?” Ohno asks, setting a single, battered cherry blossom into her hands and folding her fingers over it. “When you finally decide to get married-come back to Kyoto and hold the ceremony here.”
She wants to laugh harder, tears rolling down her cheeks, the taste of salt on her lips. “Ohno-san, what are you-I’m not going anywhere.”
“You don’t have to stay just because I once asked you to.”
She shakes her head. “Marriage sounds far too normal for someone like me.”
“I have an inkling about these kinds of things, you know.” His eyes twinkle. “So just humor this old soul and promise me this much.”
Yuriko swallows, balls her hands into fists and dives straight at him, wrapping her arms around his neck, burying her wet face against his shoulder as his hands find her back. “I promise, Ohno-san.”
He kisses the top of her head gently, like a blessing. “You will always have a home at Jojakkoji.”
⇀
Sho is confused. Utterly and thoroughly confused. Upon returning to Jojakkoji with supplies from the clinic, Maki immediately rushed to Tadayoshi’s side. Yuriko, having since returned with Ninomiya’s body, was staying with him in the adjacent room.
This left Sho with Ohno, who went to prepare tea and snacks and has been eating and drinking in silence ever since. Every attempt to engage Ohno in conversation, every attempt to understand recent events, is met simply with a patient smile.
And so Sho resigns himself to sipping tea he doesn't want to drink and eating crackers he doesn't want to eat and waiting for what seems like an eternity until Maki steps out of the room, closing the sliding door behind her.
“Is she-?” Sho asks, springing up immediately.
Maki shakes her head. “We’ve stopped the bleeding, but that’s just the first part. Tada-nii said I should wait outside until he’s done.”
“Then, perhaps in the meantime, Ohno-san can finally tell us what’s going on?” Sho asks, rounding on Ohno, who drinks the last of the tea in his cup, pours himself another, and then sighs.
“Yes, I suppose now would be the best time to tell you everything,” Ohno considers, taking one last sip before setting down his cup. “I believe we should begin many, many years ago, in the small town of Kagami, in the province of Mimisaka.
“In Kagami there lived a woman named Hanano, the most beautiful woman in the entire town, whose widowed father wished desperately for her to find a husband. Wanting to please her father, she traveled to the temple of Musubi-no-Kami, to pray for a match.”
“Musubi-no-Kami? The god of love and marriage?” Sho cuts in, recalling a history text read long ago. “He was the god who jumped out of cherry blossom trees and gave women branches of them to foretell their future love life, right?”
Maki blinks slowly, eyes round, glancing from Ohno, to Sho, then to the battered branch of cherry blossoms lying on the floor next to Ohno.
“Something like that.” Ohno smiles lightly before turning somber again. “Unfortunately, Hanano was confused by the meeting with Musubi-no-Kami-she found that her heart had been unwittingly been captured.”
“A love between a human and a god,” Maki trails off, but doesn't finish her sentence, seemingly lost in her own train of thought.
Ohno continues, “Unbeknownst to Hanano, she herself had captured the heart of a young man in the village by the name of Tokunosuke. Tokunosuke came from a well-respected family and loved Hanano with all his heart.” Ohno suddenly looks so much older, and so very tired. “You can see where this story goes, I assume?”
“Though Tokunosuke loved Hanano, Hanano’s heart already belonged to another. Though he must have been very upset when she refused his match, I can’t help but feel-what a brave thing for her to do in the name of love.”
Sho falls silent at that.
“Tokunosuke was, well, a rather passionate fellow . . . from what I’ve heard. He was desperate to make Hanano love him, so he followed her, saw the look in her eyes as she spoke with Musubi-no-Kami, and fell into a jealous rage. He challenged a god for the sake of his love.”
Sho cuts in, rubbing his temples with his fingers. “Wait, hold on. What does this story have to do with what happened today? Nino-”
“Nino has been, for many years now, possessed by the vengeful spirit of Tokunosuke.”
The sentence lingers in the air until Sho laughs. “Spirits? You're telling me that this all has to do with spirits? Give us a break, Ohno-san, those kinds of things don't exist.”
Maki looks on silently and Ohno clucks his tongue. “Are you so quick to write off the unknowable, Sakurai-kun?” He looks disappointed. “Perhaps you are unlike your father yet.”
“How-”
But Maki cuts him off, “Ohno-san, I've never heard of a possession by a human spirit. How could he, Tokunosuke-”
“You’re correct, Maki-chan. Most vengeful spirits are condemned to wander the earth with no ease to their suffering, whether they were sent off with an improper burial or because they lived an unresolved life. But Tokunosuke was consumed with anger by Hanano’s refusal-he let it haunt him until his very last breath, and this deep-seated anger transcended death. His spirit leapt from soul to soul, body to body, thirsting for retribution. Gods cannot be killed by humans under normal conditions-their powers fade when people no longer believe. But there is a balance between the human and spiritual planes. If that balance is corrupted, gods-not even gods are safe.”
“So you’re telling us that this man-this spirit of Tokunosuke-roamed for hundreds of years, battling and taking the lives spiritual beings, just because of a scorned love?”
“Hatred is just a refraction of love,” Ohno says softly, glancing back at the room where Tadayoshi is trying desperately to save Mirei’s life, “and I’ve always felt that love was the most powerful motivator of all, wouldn’t you agree?”
As if on cue, the door slides open and a rumpled Tadayoshi exits the room. “She’s stable.” He says, and Maki sighs audibly in relief. “She still has a fever, though, so I’m going to watch over her.”
“I can do it, Tada-nii, you’ve been working for hours,” Maki offers, but Tadayoshi shakes his head.
Outside, the sun is beginning to rise: slivers of sunlight peek into the room as Tadayoshi returns to Mirei’s side.
Sho pauses, mind clicking slowly into place. “Say I believe you, Ohno-san, that Nino was possessed by Tokunosuke’s spirit and he was trying to destroy the balance between the supernatural and human worlds-does that mean Mirei is-”
Maki gasps and Ohno nods his head for her to continue. “I-I was going to tell you earlier tonight, Sakura-sama, but Mirei-chan is a yokai. A Midnight Rabbit yokai.” She smiles a watery smile. “I think you’ve finally found the rabbit you’ve been searching for.”
“She-she could be my-?”
“If I had known, I would have told you earlier, but-”
Sho shakes his head. He had always looked for his half-sister in the vain hope that it would heal his father’s dementia. Then, as the years passed, as a means to end his aunt’s domain over his life. He had never actually considered what it would mean to have a sister. Someone he could confide in and laugh with, share a familial bond with.
He has a sister.
“Sakurai-sama?”
“I need to tell my father-I need-” He looks at Maki, who stares back at him, and he knows they have the same thought flying through their heads.
“The engagement!”
Sho is already out of the temple and racing down the stairs before Maki stops him short. “Sakurai-sama, what are you doing? Do you even know what you’re going to say? You don’t even know for sure if Mirei-chan-”
“This isn't about Kiri-no, this-” Sho shakes his head, then, upon realizing he has made it halfway down the stairs without so much as breaking a sweat, catches his breath. “I mean, yes, if she really is my sister, there are many more questions than answers-but finding my sister was always an excuse to not stand up to my aunt and my family and Japan’s expectations. This is about ending the engagement for-” He glances away from her, can’t look at her now or all he’ll want to do is run away with her.
“I understand, Sakurai-sama.” She smiles. “I’m happy for you.”
Sho laughs into a sigh. “You spend far too much time feeling happy for me, feeling worried about Kiritani-san, feeling proud of your brother-do you ever have time to feel anything for yourself?”
“I feel far more than you might think,” Maki replies evenly. “I am not as nice as you always proclaim me to be.”
“Aren’t you?”
“Not even a little bit.” Maki rubs at her eyes as the sun rises in full. Sunlight dances off her hair, her cheeks, her eyelashes. She looks-radiant.
“Will you come with me? To tell my aunt and my father the news.” Sho gulps uncertainly. “I don’t know if I can manage on my own.”
“You will be fine, Sakurai-sama-”
“No, what I really mean is-Horikita-san, no, M-Maki-san-” he falters, knowing what he wants to say and unsure of how he wants to say it. “The strength to refuse an engagement for lo-um, please lend me some of your bravery.”
She looks back at him with shining eyes and nods. “Yes, Sakurai-sama.”
They make it to his house within the hour, and she smoothes his hair back and arranges the collar of his jacket as he knocks on the door.
“Do you even know what you’re going to say?” Maki whispers in alarm.
“Not a clue,” Sho replies, almost cheerfully. His hand finds hers and he squeezes it as a reminder that she is here beside him, she is his bravery and his reason.
His aunt open the door and simply raises an eyebrow at their twined hands. Maki tries to let go, but he holds on tighter. “There’s something I wish to discuss with you, oba-sama.”
“Sho-kun, you should let go of that hand before someone sees you.” She purses her lips.
“I’m afraid I can’t do that,” Sho replies. He looks confidently at Maki and she squeezes his hand back.
“Then I’m afraid we can’t talk.” She turns on her heel to return to her room. “Get dressed. Your bride will be here shortly.”
Sho gulps, nods to Maki and follows after her, never once loosening his grip on her hand. “I cannot marry your match, oba-sama, because I lo-”
“OBA-SAMA!”
Sho turns, Maki gasps, and even his aunt’s mouth hangs open at the sight of Mirei, standing at the entrance of the house with her arms crossed, bandages clearly visible under her yukata, wound around her arms and legs and her forehead. Her voice is clear and proud.
It reminds him a little bit of his father, Sho thinks, even a little of his aunt.
Tadayoshi pokes his head from behind her shoulder and waves.
His aunt remains impassive. “Has the circus come to our front door?”
Mirei moves quickly, a pink blur reappearing just before his aunt. Sho blinks and realizes for the first time that instead of human ears, Mirei has two little black rabbit ears poking out from the top of her head.
“A costume?”
“No, oba-sama,” Mirei says, shaking her head. “I am a yokai. A half-yokai. I am Sakurai Sho’s sister. ” Mirei glances over at Sho and shoots him a tentative smile, which he returns. “Which means I am also your niece.”
“Do you think I will really believe in the existence of yokai and the idea that my brother would-would procreate with them?” his aunt asks, voice rising imperiously, standing her ground against Mirei.
There is a moment where Sho thinks this will all go horribly wrong. Then his father’s feeble voice echoes down the hallway. “S-Sho?”
Sho’s eyes widen. He takes Mirei by the hand and whisks her toward his father’s room, throws open the doors and chases out the nurses and attendants.
“Kiri-no, Mirei nee-sama, this is my-this is our father,” he says, presenting Mirei to the man in the bed. Though his body remains paralyzed, his eyes are lucid, bright, for the first time in over a decade.
“Mirei, Mirei,” his-their father speaks, tears springing to his eyes. Mirei wipes at hers and Sho feels tears tugging on the corners of his as well.
“I’m here, f-father,” Mirei says, taking his wrinkled hands in hers and bringing them to her lips.
“I’m so sorry I could never find you.”
“I was found, I was okay.”
“Mirei, Mirei,” his father sighs. “Your mother was a very beautiful woman. She had the gentlest spirit and the kindest heart.”
This time Mirei really does cry, tears rolling down her face as she nods.
“Mirei-Sho,” he croaks, looking between them both. “I’m so happy you are here with me right now. Please always be happy.”
The light fades slowly from his eyes after that, but there is a trace of a smile left on his face. Sho closes his father’s eyes gently and Mirei gasps into an uncontrollable sob, clinging onto Sho for dear life. He pats her on the back, on the head, pulls her closer and feels so lost. “I’m so sorry. I wish I had found you before. I wish you could have spent more time with him-he was a great man. A great father.”
Mirei gazes up at him with wide, glassy eyes and tear-stained cheeks and shakes her head furiously. “I’m not sad. I’m happy. I’m so happy I got to meet him. I’m so happy to have this memory of him.” She sobs harder at that and Sho doesn’t know what else to do except sob with her. He doesn’t even hear the approach of the others until his aunt mutters, “It can’t be.”
He turns to face her, releasing Mirei into Tadayoshi’s waiting arms, and says, with an authority that he’s never wished for, but that he will carry for the rest of his life, “As you can see, oba-sama, Mirei nee-sama has been recognized as my father’s daughter-my sister. With his passing I am officially the new Prince Sakurai. My first and only wish is to carry out my father’s very last one-to be happy. I cannot be married today.”
His aunt’s mouth staggers at the corners, but she doesn’t say a word.
“Thank you for taking care of me until now,” Sho says quietly. “I know you were doing what you thought was best for me and for this family, and that you raised me with all the proper tools to become a great leader. I hope you will continue to stay and watch over us.”
The shadows cast over her face make it look like she is smiling ever so slightly, but she turns before he can be sure. Her footfalls echo much lighter as she leaves.
“So,” Mirei hiccups after a beat, staring up at Sho with watery eyes. “You’re my brother, right?”
“Yes, nee-sama.”
“And you’re a prince.”
He nods.
“And that makes me a princess?”
Maki opens her mouth to refute her, Tadayoshi is already shaking his head, but Sho simply chuckles. “You can be anything you want to be.”
“So I can request things and people have to listen?”
“You can request anything you’d like, nee-sama.”
Mirei smiles widely. “Good, I want a double wedding.”
“Of course, ne-” Sho cuts off. “Wait, whose?”
Mirei blinks and motions to the four of them. It takes a moment before everyone realizes at once.
“Wha-Mirei-chan, you and Tada-nii-what-when?” Maki gasps, hands flying to her mouth.
“Yokai blood is fiesty,” Tadayoshi replies with a perverse grin on his face. “She was completely healed with a few hours of sleep-why do you really think it took us so long to get here?”
“Please enlighten me,” Sho says, slinging an arm around Tadayoshi’s shoulders, lips tight and fists clenching.
“Ho, ho, I think you should tell me more about yourself and my younger sister, Sakurai-sama.”
“Didn’t you call off your engagement for Maki-chan?” Mirei cuts in, hands on her hips.
Maki glances at Sho with wide, expectant eyes, and he averts his gaze and brings a hand to scratch at the back of his head. “Well, that is-”
“That is?” Maki continues.
“Yes, what is it that it is?” Tadayoshi scowls.
“So a double wedding!” Mirei crows cheerfully, patting Sho on the back.
“That’s not how you do things!” Sho replies hotly, face flushed. “I haven’t even told her that I love her yet.”
“You what?” Tadayoshi and Maki echo at once and Sho slaps a hand over his forehead.
“Maki-san, that is, although this has gone completely out of order,” Sho hedges, fidgeting in place and still not daring to meet her eyes. “Would you-”
“Yes, Sho-kun!” Maki cries, flinging herself into his arms at once.
It took ten long years of searching, of living under his aunt’s rules, and an almost-engagement to a stranger to lead to this moment, to find a sister in Mirei and to have Maki in his arms now, finally, forever. Sho thinks, yes, it was all worth it.
“Does this mean I finally get to become Horikita Mirei?” Mirei whispers to Tadayoshi, who grins and pats her tiny black rabbit ears.
“Of course, Princess Rei.”
Ohno Satoshi paints. Paints the two-toned sky and the pagoda on the temple grounds and the multi-colored foliage of the trees. He paints as the last of the cherry blossom flowers scatter from the branches, sending petals across the courtyard toward the temple patio.
Painting is a meditation, an acute focus of time and energy usually reserved for the quiet solitude of his bedroom. He paints everything-the people he meets, the creatures he sees, the seasons that pass. He paints because he wishes to remember; every tender smile, every speckled fish, every autumn leaf. He paints because he wishes to remember these things long after they have come to an end.
Izanami warned him for being much too sentimental, warned that caring so much about these mortal things would get him into trouble one day.
Today Ohno paints outside because the temple is quiet, empty, lonelier than it has been for a long time. He paints and plans for a wedding, three weddings. Two when spring arrives and one in the winter, someday.
He paints and he contemplates, the love that can exist between a yokai-princess and a doctor, a prince and an apothecary, a man once possessed and a woman once condemned. Yes, sometimes even the god of love himself is surprised by how powerful love is, how awe-inspiring a force, how breathtaking-
“H-hello?”
She is a vision in a red-and-white Western-style dress, mahogany hair sweeping across her face in the breeze, sending chills down his spine. She tucks the hair behind an ear and smiles uncertainly.
“I’m sorry-a nice young couple having a picnic on the bridge told me you might have a spare room available?” She steps closer in his silence. “I was supposed to get married today-though it seems I got dumped, instead.” She laughs a little at that. “I saw him in the gardens with another woman, and they looked so happy together. I couldn’t bear to knock on the door. My parents told me to get married or never come home again, so-here I am.”
When he still doesn’t answer, she presses, gently, “So, do you? Have rooms available, I mean?” She frowns unsurely. “I can leave if you don’t want me-”
“N-no,” Ohno replies, shaking his head. “I’m sorry. The Jojakkoji Temple welcomes all wayward and wandering souls.” He mixes a shade of pink to match her cheeks on his palette. “I’m Ohno Satoshi.”
“I’m-” her voice is drowned out by a gust of wind and Ohno’s breath catches in his throat.
“D-did you say Hanano?”
“Close.” She smiles. “Nana. Katase Nana.” She moves closer and he lifts his hand to take hers, but she reaches behind his ear instead, places a tiny cherry blossom into his hands.
“You’ve cherry blossom petals all over your hair, Ohno-san.”
A love between a human and a god . . .
Well, stranger things have happened.
fin.
A/N: Apologies for there being more Japanese terminology in this fic than intended, but here’s a glossary of terms along with some other misc. reference notes:
pg-13. 20,930. Ohkura Tadayoshi/Kiritani Mirei, Sakurai Sho/Horikita Maki, Ninomiya Kazunari/Yoshitaka Yuriko, plus a few surprise extras.
No one said love during Meiji Japan would be easy, especially if you’re a yokai, or an ex-samurai, a prince-to-be, an artisan, a demon child, or a bum. But hey, stranger things have happened. Originally here.
Written for novemberbaby for je_whiteday 2013. I very much hope I’ve done your favorite pairings & prompts enough justice and that you enjoy this fic. Happy White Day! ♥
This could not have been finished without the super beta handholding of anamuan, dalampasigan & tinyangl. You guys are incredible and I will never have enough words of gratitude and love for you. ♥♥♥
Mirei dreams.
“Will it be okay, Ohno-san?” a tiny voice asks. Mirei doesn’t know why she thinks the voice is so tiny, simply knows it must be true.
“She will be fine, Maki-chan. You got her here just in time.”
Maki-chan. She rolls the syllables on her tongue. It sounds sweet.
She opens her eyes and one of the figures looks familiar-yes, the girl, the last image she can recall. She doesn’t know how long it’s been since then-it could have been minutes, it could have been days. The sun is still high, light streaming in through the windows.
“I’m so glad. So, so glad.” Maki-chan looks on the verge of tears and she hates that. It doesn’t look like Maki-chan’s eyes are made for crying. She wants to keep her from crying, wants to wipe away her tears, but when she reaches out, her hands are too small. Small and black and no good for wiping away tears.
Maki-chan and Ohno-san are talking, but Maki-chan still seems sad and if only she could-
There is a popping sound, a shower of flower petals, and when Maki-chan and Ohno-san turn to face her, Ohno-san quickly averts his eyes and Maki-chan gasps. There are no more tears in her eyes; Mirei was right-she looks much better this way. She reaches her hand over and Maki-chan reaches back and she is delighted to find that her hands look just like Maki-chan’s.
“O-Ohno-san, what-who-who is she?” Maki-chan asks in wonder, mirroring Mirei’s other hand with hers. Fingertips against fingertips, light pricks of warmth.
“Let’s find her some clothing first,” Ohno-san says patiently, just as she opens her own mouth to speak, just as a memory flashes in her mind.
“Mirei.”
Maki-chan dresses her in an oversized robe with the promise of finding something that fits better in the future.
“Ohno-san, it’s okay now,” Maki-chan calls, and everything she says sounds like a song. Mirei thinks she would very much like to speak like Maki-chan.
Ohno-san returns and Maki-chan furrows her eyebrows slightly. “Ohno-san, is she-she was just-I’m not mistaken, right?”
“You’re not mistaken,” Ohno-san replies, patting Mirei softly on the head. It’s a gentle touch, and Mirei thinks she could like Ohno-san just as much as she already likes Maki-chan. “Our new friend Mirei here is-a yokai. A Midnight Rabbit yokai, if I’m not mistaken.” He peers at her curiously. “The last of her kind.”
Mirei frowns: she is not human. She is a yokai. But if Maki-chan is a human and Mirei is a yokai and they are different, then Maki-chan might not like Mirei.
“You’re not scared?” Ohno-san asks, and Mirei steels herself for Maki-chan’s reply.
“Why would I be scared?” Maki-chan asks, blinking roundly, and Mirei thinks that definitely, she likes Maki-chan’s eyes best. “She has cute ears.” Maki-chan giggles and reaches over to pat Mirei’s ears, little black ears standing straight up on the top of her head.
“Yes, but they may cause her some trouble in the future,” Ohno says, regarding her ears thoughtfully. “Many people are not as brave as Maki-chan when faced with something they may consider strange.”
Mirei puffs her cheeks as Maki’s face falls. She picks up a fistful of flower petals and makes a wish-to be like Maki-chan and Ohno-san, to not cause them worry.
When she opens her eyes, the flower petals have scattered by a light breeze from her fingertips and landed in her hair. Maki-chan and Ohno-san stare at her incredulously. When she touches her fingers to her cheeks she feels them, jutting out the sides of her head and not on top. Ears.
“Incredible, Mirei-chan!” Maki-chan says, giving her a giant hug and she is so tiny and so warm. “Mirei-chan,” Maki repeats thoughtfully. “Mirei-Mirei-chan, do you have a surname?”
“Surname?” Mirei blinks.
“Like-I’m Horikita Maki. He is Ohno Satoshi. A surname tells you where you belong.”
Mirei wants to immediately reply that she wants to have the same surname as Maki-chan, that she wants to belong where Maki-chan belongs, but Ohno-san taps a finger to his chin and muses, “How about-Kiritani. Kiritani Mirei. “‘Kiri’ for the paulownia tree you found her under, ‘Tani’ for the valley the tree grows in.”
“That sounds lovely, Ohno-san,” Maki-chan agrees, and Mirei finds she also agrees.
“Do you know the paulownia tree also has another name?” Ohno-san asks, and when Maki-chan and Mirei shake their heads, he smiles. “It is also called a princess tree.”
Princess tree . . .
“Maki-chan, you still here?”
Maki-chan’s eyes light up. “Ah, it’s Tada-nii!” She takes Mirei by the hand excitedly, bows to Ohno-san, who waves goodbye, and flounces toward the door.
He is a boy, maybe a head taller than Maki-chan, but he doesn’t look much like her. His eyes look sad, but bright, and his arms are crossed. “I said to take it over to Ohno-san, not to stay for tea and crackers,” he mutters, shaking his head. “Mom will get mad that you’ve ruined your appetite.”
“I can still eat!” Maki-chan protests, then drags Mirei in front of her. “Meet my new friend! Her name is Kiritani Mirei-chan!”
“Rabbits and then random girls, you make friends too easily, Maki-chan,” Tada-nii sighs, before regarding Mirei thoughtfully. “Did you know you have really tiny ears?”
The dream shifts and she is in her mother’s arms, a shadow veiling her face. She is holding Mirei tightly to her chest, singing; Mirei.
Rei, Rei, Rei, it echoes.
Beautiful one.
Please wait, hang on, just a little bit longer, okay?
Wait and be safe.
Don’t give up on me, don’t!
You will be found.
I will save you.
And then warmth, spreading from her forehead to her cheeks, to the very tips of her fingers and her toes.
⇀
Yuriko is staring death in the face.
She didn’t think death would be such an elegant woman, a woman with jet black hair running straight over her shoulders, tumbling onto the floor. Her face is unearthly, white, with lips painted bright red.
She also didn’t think death would enjoy tea.
“Why are you resisting, my child?” she asks, blowing on her cup lightly before taking a delicate sip. There is no trace of lipstick left on the rim afterward. Yuriko shakes her head-what a strange thing to notice.
“Why is Izanami-sama, the goddess of creation and death, here to take the life of one insignificant, mortal man?” Yuriko counters, taking a stale bite of cracker. She offers one to Izanami, who declines with an upturned palm.
“Even you realize that he is no mere mortal man.”
“He is Ninomiya Kazunari.”
“He’s killed hundreds of yokai, nature spirits, gods’ familiars-”
“He is not Tokunosuke,” Yuriko bites out, before calming herself. It wouldn’t do to lose her temper in front of a goddess.
“Oh?” Izanami seems impressed. “So you know about Tokunosuke.”
“Ohno-san told me.”
“Ohno? Ah, is that the name he’s going by, lately?” Izanami shakes her head, a slow smile growing on her face. “Big civilian life. What a strange one-he always did love his name games.”
Yuriko finds Ninomiya’s hand from under the blankets and gives it a light squeeze. Wake up.
“Well, let’s get back to business again, shall we? The soul clinging stubbornly to his body, I still need to take it with me.”
“If his life is so important, why wait so long to take it. Why not stop the the very first vessel that housed Tokunosuke’s soul, why not stop him before he killed so many?”
Izanami sets her cup down and regards Yuriko patiently. “We gods are not allowed to intervene in human lives whenever we desire. Musubi-no-Kami is the god of love and marriage, but he cannot force someone to love or marry anyone any more than I can forcefully take a life.”
“The spirit of Tokunosuke has been exorcised from this body-there is not a drop of ancient anger within him. He is no more malevolent spirit than I am.”
“Are you so certain of your own prowess, my dear?” Izanami asks, words light but razor sharp.
“I have been blessed only by the gifts given to me by the gods.”
There is a hint of a smile on Izanami’s face. “Clever girl, flattery will get you everywhere.”
“Don’t take him.” Yuriko squeezes his hand again. “He is strange and weak and though lives have been lost by his hands, they have not been lost by his heart. He deserves a chance to live his own life, unhindered, unpossessed.”
“And will you take responsibility should his heart waver to darkness once more?”
“Yes.” She squeezes his hand a third time, and his eyes flutter, just the barest flicker. Yuriko widens her eyes, glances at Izanami, who raises her hands in denial.
“I didn’t do a thing.” She rises and is even more elegant standing than sitting. “I shall take my leave now, Yoshitaka Yuriko. But be warned, the gods take their oaths very seriously.” She is gone in the blink of an eye, leaving Yuriko alone with Ninomiya, his hand still in hers.
“Look at you,” Yuriko sighs, brows furrowing. “you’re too weak to be a samurai.”
Silence.
“Nino,” she says, hoping to elicit some response, but he remains fitfully asleep. “Do you remember the first real conversation we had?”
She continues on her own, “I was eating dumplings in the kitchen and you were hungry and I told you to get your own and go away. But you didn’t leave. You ate my dumplings and talked at me, non-stop, until I finally shut you up with a question.
‘Why are you living here now?’
‘I’m injured.’
‘Why are you injured?’
‘I don’t remember.’
‘Why don’t you remember?’
‘You don’t seem to understand the concept of amnesia, do you?’
You could have left then, but you didn’t. You weren’t put off by my questions, were almost amused.
‘Why is it wrong to want a human pet?’
‘Isn’t that just slavery?’
‘Why would someone call someone else strange?’
‘Because they are self-conscious and weak-hearted.’
‘Why-would parents leave behind their twelve year-old daughter?’
You couldn’t answer that, but then again, no one else could. Or would. But still you didn’t leave. So I finally asked, ‘Why is it so wrong to be strange?’”
“It’s not.” His voice is raspy, eyes swollen and red-rimmed.
“N-Nino?”
He doesn’t look at her, shakes his head and squeezes his eyes shut. “I’ve done a lot of bad things, haven’t I?”
She glances at him pityingly. Ohno said he would regain his memories, but they are not so much memories as they are specters, flashes of grim realities that will never disappear. A lifetime taken from him.
“You should have just let me die,” he whispers, lowering his gaze.
“You are of no use to anyone dead, Nino,” she says calmly, “now you have a lifetime to make amends.”
“A lifetime to make amends,” he repeats, nodding. “That sounds good.” His eyes droop sleepily, before opening wide again as he sits up. “But M-Mirei-what about Mirei? And Tada and-”
“Relax, they’re, um,” Yuriko pauses. She can tell the truth or she can lie.
“Is she alive?”
“She is-for now,” Yuriko says delicately. “Horikita-san is working to save her life.”
“Once she’s okay, I think I-I have to leave.”
“W-what?”
“Like you said, I have to go and make amends for all the wrong that have been caused through these hands.” He winces as if in pain and Yuriko eases him back onto the blankets.
“You’re going to leave?”
But he’s not listening to her, is closing his eyes against the tears spilling down his cheeks. “Make sure she lives, Yuri, please,” he begs.
“I’ll try.” She swallows. Humans hold their oaths to each other seriously as well.
When he finally manages to fall asleep again, she retrieves her hand from his, casts one last look to make sure his chest is still rising and falling evenly, before shutting the door behind her. She undoes the jar of ink from around her neck, wets her calligraphy brush and writes on the last paper talisman she has in her sleeve, channels all her energy into one word.
“Live.”
She places it on the door just beside Ninomiya’s, where Tadayoshi is desperately trying to save Mirei’s life. Then she doubles over in silent laughter.
Mirei could die, Ninomiya will leave, and Yuriko is-laughing, putting all of her hopes and energies into a single sheet of paper.
“Yuriko.” Ohno is standing in front of her, with a gentle smile on his face.
“O-Ohno-san.” Yuriko straightens and wipes at her eyes, is surprised by the tears pooling in the corners of them. “I’m sorry I-that is-”
“Yuriko, promise me one thing?” Ohno asks, setting a single, battered cherry blossom into her hands and folding her fingers over it. “When you finally decide to get married-come back to Kyoto and hold the ceremony here.”
She wants to laugh harder, tears rolling down her cheeks, the taste of salt on her lips. “Ohno-san, what are you-I’m not going anywhere.”
“You don’t have to stay just because I once asked you to.”
She shakes her head. “Marriage sounds far too normal for someone like me.”
“I have an inkling about these kinds of things, you know.” His eyes twinkle. “So just humor this old soul and promise me this much.”
Yuriko swallows, balls her hands into fists and dives straight at him, wrapping her arms around his neck, burying her wet face against his shoulder as his hands find her back. “I promise, Ohno-san.”
He kisses the top of her head gently, like a blessing. “You will always have a home at Jojakkoji.”
⇀
Sho is confused. Utterly and thoroughly confused. Upon returning to Jojakkoji with supplies from the clinic, Maki immediately rushed to Tadayoshi’s side. Yuriko, having since returned with Ninomiya’s body, was staying with him in the adjacent room.
This left Sho with Ohno, who went to prepare tea and snacks and has been eating and drinking in silence ever since. Every attempt to engage Ohno in conversation, every attempt to understand recent events, is met simply with a patient smile.
And so Sho resigns himself to sipping tea he doesn't want to drink and eating crackers he doesn't want to eat and waiting for what seems like an eternity until Maki steps out of the room, closing the sliding door behind her.
“Is she-?” Sho asks, springing up immediately.
Maki shakes her head. “We’ve stopped the bleeding, but that’s just the first part. Tada-nii said I should wait outside until he’s done.”
“Then, perhaps in the meantime, Ohno-san can finally tell us what’s going on?” Sho asks, rounding on Ohno, who drinks the last of the tea in his cup, pours himself another, and then sighs.
“Yes, I suppose now would be the best time to tell you everything,” Ohno considers, taking one last sip before setting down his cup. “I believe we should begin many, many years ago, in the small town of Kagami, in the province of Mimisaka.
“In Kagami there lived a woman named Hanano, the most beautiful woman in the entire town, whose widowed father wished desperately for her to find a husband. Wanting to please her father, she traveled to the temple of Musubi-no-Kami, to pray for a match.”
“Musubi-no-Kami? The god of love and marriage?” Sho cuts in, recalling a history text read long ago. “He was the god who jumped out of cherry blossom trees and gave women branches of them to foretell their future love life, right?”
Maki blinks slowly, eyes round, glancing from Ohno, to Sho, then to the battered branch of cherry blossoms lying on the floor next to Ohno.
“Something like that.” Ohno smiles lightly before turning somber again. “Unfortunately, Hanano was confused by the meeting with Musubi-no-Kami-she found that her heart had been unwittingly been captured.”
“A love between a human and a god,” Maki trails off, but doesn't finish her sentence, seemingly lost in her own train of thought.
Ohno continues, “Unbeknownst to Hanano, she herself had captured the heart of a young man in the village by the name of Tokunosuke. Tokunosuke came from a well-respected family and loved Hanano with all his heart.” Ohno suddenly looks so much older, and so very tired. “You can see where this story goes, I assume?”
“Though Tokunosuke loved Hanano, Hanano’s heart already belonged to another. Though he must have been very upset when she refused his match, I can’t help but feel-what a brave thing for her to do in the name of love.”
Sho falls silent at that.
“Tokunosuke was, well, a rather passionate fellow . . . from what I’ve heard. He was desperate to make Hanano love him, so he followed her, saw the look in her eyes as she spoke with Musubi-no-Kami, and fell into a jealous rage. He challenged a god for the sake of his love.”
Sho cuts in, rubbing his temples with his fingers. “Wait, hold on. What does this story have to do with what happened today? Nino-”
“Nino has been, for many years now, possessed by the vengeful spirit of Tokunosuke.”
The sentence lingers in the air until Sho laughs. “Spirits? You're telling me that this all has to do with spirits? Give us a break, Ohno-san, those kinds of things don't exist.”
Maki looks on silently and Ohno clucks his tongue. “Are you so quick to write off the unknowable, Sakurai-kun?” He looks disappointed. “Perhaps you are unlike your father yet.”
“How-”
But Maki cuts him off, “Ohno-san, I've never heard of a possession by a human spirit. How could he, Tokunosuke-”
“You’re correct, Maki-chan. Most vengeful spirits are condemned to wander the earth with no ease to their suffering, whether they were sent off with an improper burial or because they lived an unresolved life. But Tokunosuke was consumed with anger by Hanano’s refusal-he let it haunt him until his very last breath, and this deep-seated anger transcended death. His spirit leapt from soul to soul, body to body, thirsting for retribution. Gods cannot be killed by humans under normal conditions-their powers fade when people no longer believe. But there is a balance between the human and spiritual planes. If that balance is corrupted, gods-not even gods are safe.”
“So you’re telling us that this man-this spirit of Tokunosuke-roamed for hundreds of years, battling and taking the lives spiritual beings, just because of a scorned love?”
“Hatred is just a refraction of love,” Ohno says softly, glancing back at the room where Tadayoshi is trying desperately to save Mirei’s life, “and I’ve always felt that love was the most powerful motivator of all, wouldn’t you agree?”
As if on cue, the door slides open and a rumpled Tadayoshi exits the room. “She’s stable.” He says, and Maki sighs audibly in relief. “She still has a fever, though, so I’m going to watch over her.”
“I can do it, Tada-nii, you’ve been working for hours,” Maki offers, but Tadayoshi shakes his head.
Outside, the sun is beginning to rise: slivers of sunlight peek into the room as Tadayoshi returns to Mirei’s side.
Sho pauses, mind clicking slowly into place. “Say I believe you, Ohno-san, that Nino was possessed by Tokunosuke’s spirit and he was trying to destroy the balance between the supernatural and human worlds-does that mean Mirei is-”
Maki gasps and Ohno nods his head for her to continue. “I-I was going to tell you earlier tonight, Sakura-sama, but Mirei-chan is a yokai. A Midnight Rabbit yokai.” She smiles a watery smile. “I think you’ve finally found the rabbit you’ve been searching for.”
“She-she could be my-?”
“If I had known, I would have told you earlier, but-”
Sho shakes his head. He had always looked for his half-sister in the vain hope that it would heal his father’s dementia. Then, as the years passed, as a means to end his aunt’s domain over his life. He had never actually considered what it would mean to have a sister. Someone he could confide in and laugh with, share a familial bond with.
He has a sister.
“Sakurai-sama?”
“I need to tell my father-I need-” He looks at Maki, who stares back at him, and he knows they have the same thought flying through their heads.
“The engagement!”
Sho is already out of the temple and racing down the stairs before Maki stops him short. “Sakurai-sama, what are you doing? Do you even know what you’re going to say? You don’t even know for sure if Mirei-chan-”
“This isn't about Kiri-no, this-” Sho shakes his head, then, upon realizing he has made it halfway down the stairs without so much as breaking a sweat, catches his breath. “I mean, yes, if she really is my sister, there are many more questions than answers-but finding my sister was always an excuse to not stand up to my aunt and my family and Japan’s expectations. This is about ending the engagement for-” He glances away from her, can’t look at her now or all he’ll want to do is run away with her.
“I understand, Sakurai-sama.” She smiles. “I’m happy for you.”
Sho laughs into a sigh. “You spend far too much time feeling happy for me, feeling worried about Kiritani-san, feeling proud of your brother-do you ever have time to feel anything for yourself?”
“I feel far more than you might think,” Maki replies evenly. “I am not as nice as you always proclaim me to be.”
“Aren’t you?”
“Not even a little bit.” Maki rubs at her eyes as the sun rises in full. Sunlight dances off her hair, her cheeks, her eyelashes. She looks-radiant.
“Will you come with me? To tell my aunt and my father the news.” Sho gulps uncertainly. “I don’t know if I can manage on my own.”
“You will be fine, Sakurai-sama-”
“No, what I really mean is-Horikita-san, no, M-Maki-san-” he falters, knowing what he wants to say and unsure of how he wants to say it. “The strength to refuse an engagement for lo-um, please lend me some of your bravery.”
She looks back at him with shining eyes and nods. “Yes, Sakurai-sama.”
They make it to his house within the hour, and she smoothes his hair back and arranges the collar of his jacket as he knocks on the door.
“Do you even know what you’re going to say?” Maki whispers in alarm.
“Not a clue,” Sho replies, almost cheerfully. His hand finds hers and he squeezes it as a reminder that she is here beside him, she is his bravery and his reason.
His aunt open the door and simply raises an eyebrow at their twined hands. Maki tries to let go, but he holds on tighter. “There’s something I wish to discuss with you, oba-sama.”
“Sho-kun, you should let go of that hand before someone sees you.” She purses her lips.
“I’m afraid I can’t do that,” Sho replies. He looks confidently at Maki and she squeezes his hand back.
“Then I’m afraid we can’t talk.” She turns on her heel to return to her room. “Get dressed. Your bride will be here shortly.”
Sho gulps, nods to Maki and follows after her, never once loosening his grip on her hand. “I cannot marry your match, oba-sama, because I lo-”
“OBA-SAMA!”
Sho turns, Maki gasps, and even his aunt’s mouth hangs open at the sight of Mirei, standing at the entrance of the house with her arms crossed, bandages clearly visible under her yukata, wound around her arms and legs and her forehead. Her voice is clear and proud.
It reminds him a little bit of his father, Sho thinks, even a little of his aunt.
Tadayoshi pokes his head from behind her shoulder and waves.
His aunt remains impassive. “Has the circus come to our front door?”
Mirei moves quickly, a pink blur reappearing just before his aunt. Sho blinks and realizes for the first time that instead of human ears, Mirei has two little black rabbit ears poking out from the top of her head.
“A costume?”
“No, oba-sama,” Mirei says, shaking her head. “I am a yokai. A half-yokai. I am Sakurai Sho’s sister. ” Mirei glances over at Sho and shoots him a tentative smile, which he returns. “Which means I am also your niece.”
“Do you think I will really believe in the existence of yokai and the idea that my brother would-would procreate with them?” his aunt asks, voice rising imperiously, standing her ground against Mirei.
There is a moment where Sho thinks this will all go horribly wrong. Then his father’s feeble voice echoes down the hallway. “S-Sho?”
Sho’s eyes widen. He takes Mirei by the hand and whisks her toward his father’s room, throws open the doors and chases out the nurses and attendants.
“Kiri-no, Mirei nee-sama, this is my-this is our father,” he says, presenting Mirei to the man in the bed. Though his body remains paralyzed, his eyes are lucid, bright, for the first time in over a decade.
“Mirei, Mirei,” his-their father speaks, tears springing to his eyes. Mirei wipes at hers and Sho feels tears tugging on the corners of his as well.
“I’m here, f-father,” Mirei says, taking his wrinkled hands in hers and bringing them to her lips.
“I’m so sorry I could never find you.”
“I was found, I was okay.”
“Mirei, Mirei,” his father sighs. “Your mother was a very beautiful woman. She had the gentlest spirit and the kindest heart.”
This time Mirei really does cry, tears rolling down her face as she nods.
“Mirei-Sho,” he croaks, looking between them both. “I’m so happy you are here with me right now. Please always be happy.”
The light fades slowly from his eyes after that, but there is a trace of a smile left on his face. Sho closes his father’s eyes gently and Mirei gasps into an uncontrollable sob, clinging onto Sho for dear life. He pats her on the back, on the head, pulls her closer and feels so lost. “I’m so sorry. I wish I had found you before. I wish you could have spent more time with him-he was a great man. A great father.”
Mirei gazes up at him with wide, glassy eyes and tear-stained cheeks and shakes her head furiously. “I’m not sad. I’m happy. I’m so happy I got to meet him. I’m so happy to have this memory of him.” She sobs harder at that and Sho doesn’t know what else to do except sob with her. He doesn’t even hear the approach of the others until his aunt mutters, “It can’t be.”
He turns to face her, releasing Mirei into Tadayoshi’s waiting arms, and says, with an authority that he’s never wished for, but that he will carry for the rest of his life, “As you can see, oba-sama, Mirei nee-sama has been recognized as my father’s daughter-my sister. With his passing I am officially the new Prince Sakurai. My first and only wish is to carry out my father’s very last one-to be happy. I cannot be married today.”
His aunt’s mouth staggers at the corners, but she doesn’t say a word.
“Thank you for taking care of me until now,” Sho says quietly. “I know you were doing what you thought was best for me and for this family, and that you raised me with all the proper tools to become a great leader. I hope you will continue to stay and watch over us.”
The shadows cast over her face make it look like she is smiling ever so slightly, but she turns before he can be sure. Her footfalls echo much lighter as she leaves.
“So,” Mirei hiccups after a beat, staring up at Sho with watery eyes. “You’re my brother, right?”
“Yes, nee-sama.”
“And you’re a prince.”
He nods.
“And that makes me a princess?”
Maki opens her mouth to refute her, Tadayoshi is already shaking his head, but Sho simply chuckles. “You can be anything you want to be.”
“So I can request things and people have to listen?”
“You can request anything you’d like, nee-sama.”
Mirei smiles widely. “Good, I want a double wedding.”
“Of course, ne-” Sho cuts off. “Wait, whose?”
Mirei blinks and motions to the four of them. It takes a moment before everyone realizes at once.
“Wha-Mirei-chan, you and Tada-nii-what-when?” Maki gasps, hands flying to her mouth.
“Yokai blood is fiesty,” Tadayoshi replies with a perverse grin on his face. “She was completely healed with a few hours of sleep-why do you really think it took us so long to get here?”
“Please enlighten me,” Sho says, slinging an arm around Tadayoshi’s shoulders, lips tight and fists clenching.
“Ho, ho, I think you should tell me more about yourself and my younger sister, Sakurai-sama.”
“Didn’t you call off your engagement for Maki-chan?” Mirei cuts in, hands on her hips.
Maki glances at Sho with wide, expectant eyes, and he averts his gaze and brings a hand to scratch at the back of his head. “Well, that is-”
“That is?” Maki continues.
“Yes, what is it that it is?” Tadayoshi scowls.
“So a double wedding!” Mirei crows cheerfully, patting Sho on the back.
“That’s not how you do things!” Sho replies hotly, face flushed. “I haven’t even told her that I love her yet.”
“You what?” Tadayoshi and Maki echo at once and Sho slaps a hand over his forehead.
“Maki-san, that is, although this has gone completely out of order,” Sho hedges, fidgeting in place and still not daring to meet her eyes. “Would you-”
“Yes, Sho-kun!” Maki cries, flinging herself into his arms at once.
It took ten long years of searching, of living under his aunt’s rules, and an almost-engagement to a stranger to lead to this moment, to find a sister in Mirei and to have Maki in his arms now, finally, forever. Sho thinks, yes, it was all worth it.
“Does this mean I finally get to become Horikita Mirei?” Mirei whispers to Tadayoshi, who grins and pats her tiny black rabbit ears.
“Of course, Princess Rei.”
Ohno Satoshi paints. Paints the two-toned sky and the pagoda on the temple grounds and the multi-colored foliage of the trees. He paints as the last of the cherry blossom flowers scatter from the branches, sending petals across the courtyard toward the temple patio.
Painting is a meditation, an acute focus of time and energy usually reserved for the quiet solitude of his bedroom. He paints everything-the people he meets, the creatures he sees, the seasons that pass. He paints because he wishes to remember; every tender smile, every speckled fish, every autumn leaf. He paints because he wishes to remember these things long after they have come to an end.
Izanami warned him for being much too sentimental, warned that caring so much about these mortal things would get him into trouble one day.
Today Ohno paints outside because the temple is quiet, empty, lonelier than it has been for a long time. He paints and plans for a wedding, three weddings. Two when spring arrives and one in the winter, someday.
He paints and he contemplates, the love that can exist between a yokai-princess and a doctor, a prince and an apothecary, a man once possessed and a woman once condemned. Yes, sometimes even the god of love himself is surprised by how powerful love is, how awe-inspiring a force, how breathtaking-
“H-hello?”
She is a vision in a red-and-white Western-style dress, mahogany hair sweeping across her face in the breeze, sending chills down his spine. She tucks the hair behind an ear and smiles uncertainly.
“I’m sorry-a nice young couple having a picnic on the bridge told me you might have a spare room available?” She steps closer in his silence. “I was supposed to get married today-though it seems I got dumped, instead.” She laughs a little at that. “I saw him in the gardens with another woman, and they looked so happy together. I couldn’t bear to knock on the door. My parents told me to get married or never come home again, so-here I am.”
When he still doesn’t answer, she presses, gently, “So, do you? Have rooms available, I mean?” She frowns unsurely. “I can leave if you don’t want me-”
“N-no,” Ohno replies, shaking his head. “I’m sorry. The Jojakkoji Temple welcomes all wayward and wandering souls.” He mixes a shade of pink to match her cheeks on his palette. “I’m Ohno Satoshi.”
“I’m-” her voice is drowned out by a gust of wind and Ohno’s breath catches in his throat.
“D-did you say Hanano?”
“Close.” She smiles. “Nana. Katase Nana.” She moves closer and he lifts his hand to take hers, but she reaches behind his ear instead, places a tiny cherry blossom into his hands.
“You’ve cherry blossom petals all over your hair, Ohno-san.”
A love between a human and a god . . .
Well, stranger things have happened.
fin.
A/N: Apologies for there being more Japanese terminology in this fic than intended, but here’s a glossary of terms along with some other misc. reference notes:
- yokai: usually loose shorthand for “monster” or “spirit,” although it technically seems to mean any kind of mysterious phenomenon
- kodama: nature spirits in Japanese folklore that generally live in trees
- kappa: imp-like water spirits in Japanese folklore; they like cucumbers
- Kyu-bu-u-bu-ri-bi: “Kyuuri,” meaning cucumber, spoken in “babi language,” where ba-bi-bu-be-bo follows each syllable. Mirei introduces and speaks it during her Himitsu no Arashi-chan VIP room appearance.
- bakeneko: shape-shifting cat spirits (see also bakeneko prostitutes)
- kimono: traditional Japanese dress
- yukata: a casual, lighter kimono usually worn in the summer
- samurai: japanese warrior/knight
- nii/onii-sama: older brother
- shabu-shabu: Japanese hot pot
- nekomata: split-tailed cat spirits
- oba-sama: Aunt
- shamisen: a three-stringed Japanese instrument
- sake: Japanese rice wine
- nee-sama: older sister
- Kyoto/Arashiyama map & information
- Jojakkoji Temple
- Jojakkoji = the everlasting Pure Land
- Amami Black Rabbit/Ryukyu Rabbit
- Kiri(桐) = Paulownia (also known as princess tree), Tani(谷) = Valley
- Musubi-no-Kami Temple Folklore - the Hanano & Tokunosuke story
- Oh (大) = big, No (野) = civilian life
- Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai - translated Japanese yokai stories/tales