Now and Forever...Itsumademo... - Chapter 21C

[unare_haineko]

Title: Now and Forever…いつまでも…

Author: Unare Haineko

Pairing: [Juntoshi] Matsumoto Jun x Ohno Satoshi

Rating:  R-ish, but NC-17 for this chapter

Summary: [Revised] Three years after the ending of ‘Kodoku kara Umareta Ai’ (which you can read here), we have Juntoshi trying to raise their son Ayumu while the demons from the dark shadows that

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Analyses & Commentary, Chapter 21, Section 5, part 4

[mmestrange]

As I have mentioned in a much earlier commentary, true knowledge is to know, hear, taste, feel, experience and see for oneself with irrefutable proof that something is indeed true. It is different from opinion. But Sho doesn’t make the distinction between opinion and knowledge. He assumes that because he thinks something of a given situation, it must be true. Recall his response to the blood orange chocolate Isabelle offers him in an earlier chapter - Sho jumped to the wrong conclusion based on incomplete knowledge and selective hearing. The same could be said for Sho’s handling of the situations in his life. Unlike Aiba who actually bothers to investigate his suspicions before making any definitive conclusion, Sho would just jump to one end and stay there. If something should deviate from his conclusion, he recoils and flees in the same manner he did from Isabelle’s office.

Now, we come to another question:
(03) Why did he go to see Isabelle? What was his original purpose in going to see her? What did he want to talk about? Aiba? Iris? His own situation?

(04) Did he really forget himself when he fled from the scene or did Isabelle say something that disquieted him because it came too close to his own situation?

Notice also that when Isabelle rescued Sho from Vesuvius, Sho mopped his brow with a crimson handkerchief. It’s an unusual choice of colour for hanky, and Haineko mentions it for a reason. In medieval times to the Elizabethan era, crimson is the colour of the Church. Cardinal Wolsey was often depicted wearing bright crimson robes. Don’t know who Wolsey is? I would not trust him - he was famous for persuading Henry VIII to get rid of Wife no. 1 Katherine of Aragon in favour of Anne Boleyn. He was one of those types who liked intrigue for its own sake. Later, he brought all those ridiculous and trumped charges against Anne Boleyn to get her beheaded. And he later fell into disfavour and was put away as it were when he persuaded Henry VIII to marry wife no. 4, Anne of Cleves whom Henry didn’t like. That aside, let’s get back to crimson. The symbolic meaning of crimson was of fire (i.e. burning in it) and associated with power and importance. And indeed crimson is a colour that stands out. The question is whether the crimson (and the power associated with it) will burn you alive as it did Cardinal Wolsey. Crimson also has a Biblical meaning symbolising the presence of God and the blood of martyrs. It is the Christian liturgical colour for Pentecost and represents atonement and humility. Well then, Sho is indeed burning for the belief that he could have it all. Sho is also spilling the blood of innocents such as Aiba (who cuts himself), and Sho certainly lacks the humility to see that he is beyond his depth. More importantly, Sho has to realise that he has to atone for the wrong he has done in leading everyone (Mme Sakurai, Iris and Aiba) astray in his manner of going with things without considering the consequences to himself or them in the long run.

So, a question now:

(05) Will Sho be consumed by the crimson flames as indicated by the hanky? Or will others burn on the pyre for him as he watches in agony as they die before his eyes? Or will he atone for what he has done so far and learn humility?

[NB - more to come either tonight or tomorrow]