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 6, part 7

[mmestrange]

There are people like Ai-chan who is the type who likes to think well of people. Isabelle and Miyazono don’t. It’s not that they don’t trust people. They do trust certain individuals. It’s just that there is something cold about them. People like Ai-chan are the sorts who think, ‘I don’t mind going out, wheeling and dealing and making the money. But if you ask me to sit down with an accountant and count every dollar and cent, I will find it sickening.’ He doesn’t want to sit down and do the calculations on his wealth/knowledge, he rather go out to make the money/gather knowledge and have someone else take care of the mundane monetary needs and so he shares his money/knowledge with this someone else (such as Iris). It’s almost like Ai-chan saying, ‘I’ll go out and find the money. You just look after it and pay the taxes and all that.’ Iris, on the other hand, has certain liberalities with the money, she can spend it on himself and she gets to use the knowledge how she likes and rule over all the other people in Ai-chan’s academic palace. And to her, Ai-chan will always cough up the money/knowledge because Ai-chan is a big name academic. On the surface, it looks like a relationship beneficial to both of them. But what isn’t seen is that they both come across as somewhat naïve. Well, if you look at it in terms of money, then a person like Ai-chan is like your typical capitalists who unintentionally exploit the people who work for him/her. And Iris, who thinks she gains quite a bit, is actually being exploited by Ai-chan. But what this exchange is really about is how to govern and make use of your household/finances/knowledge so that it isn’t depleted.

To people like Isabelle and Miyazono, the person who is most content is one who can acquire the most while keeping to what is just, use the most while keeping to what is noble. People like Iris and Iago believe that the happiest person is one who has a lot and spends a lot. Iris and Iago have a very traditional notion of wealth/power/knowledge. They think of money in terms of conventional wealth and it tells in the way they wield the knowledge they think have. Miyazono and Isabelle have a more radical notion because to them - the people they work with are the forms of wealth they look out for. It’s cold and calculative of them to look on people that way, but they do. Whereas people like Ai-chan aren’t all that interested in having and spending or in having and using. They simply like the active life. Look at Ai-chan and the types of consultative job he takes on (even though said jobs have no bearing on his work). What does that say about Ai-chan? He wants to go out and have fun; he doesn’t want to stay at home. He now finds that he can do exactly that because he now has found someone who will take care of his wealth/knowledge for him, i.e. Iris. Well, most people who want someone to take care of their wealth too, so I can see how many people will approve of this arrangement. In that sense, Ai-chan is nobler than Isabelle and Miyazono because he genuinely wants to share and isn’t bogged down by the vulgar cares of getting, having, using or getting more. Commoners and aristocrats think very differently, the same can be said of doers and thinkers. People like Ai-chan give without thinking about granting rewards, unlike Isabelle and Miyazono who calculate everything. Ai-chan is genuinely liberal, and in that sense, he is much far nobler than Isabelle and Miyazono. Yes, he likes the excitement of making money and getting knowledge but when it comes to spending it or using it, he’s not that interested. That’s why he gives a carte blanche to Iris and say, ‘Go ahead and use the knowledge and resources I have. I won’t begrudge you. I only ask that you leave some for me. When I return, treat me well and treat me like a guest. I won’t need much. But in the meanwhile, keep my wealth safe and look after things for me.’

Analyses & Commentary, Chapter 21, Section 6, part 8

[mmestrange]

You may say he’s stupid. Yet that’s the kind of guy he is. He can’t help being noble. In that sense, he is much more generous in a way that Isabelle is not. It isn’t that Isabelle is ignoble. No, she cares for what is just and what is just to her - that which is expedient. She is actually rather cold. Cold individuals are very often less noble than the genuinely warm hearted.

There’s this passage in 8.4.22 in the Cyropaedia where Cyrus and his men are discussing about what sort of wives they would like. It starts off humorously with jokes like men with hooked noses need snubbed women to even them out and things like that. The ancients believed a great deal in physiognomy, we must remember. Then Chrysantas cracks a joke about Cyrus and asks, ‘By the gods, would you be able to say what sort of wife would be advantageous for a cold king?’ We are told twice more in the Cyropaedia that Cyrus is cold, not just as a king but as a man as well. There is an element of truth in this observation even though it is said in jest. Cyrus is cold, especially with regard to that little exchange in what would be a suitable wife for Chrysantas. His principles are utilitarian, shrewd and elastic. In that respect, Cyrus is icy cold because his thoughts are always pragmatic based on whether A should go with B and that A plus B always happens at the expense of others. And that is how Isabelle and indeed Miyazono think. It is for this reason that Miyazono is wary of people who volunteer too much and Isabelle deliberately avoids questioning those who come to her too deeply.

A question at this point:

(12) Who will use which pieces of knowledge they have against whom? And who will be in exploited for this knowledge in return?

A contract with the Law - the Sawaguchi connection

Sawaguchi makes another appearance in chapter with the academicians. As I earlier surmised in the Miyazono section above, Sawaguchi is not a mere legal secretary. She has talents and ability that go beyond the nature of her office. That she is valued and trusted by Miyazono is obvious, and she is indeed possibly the only person he trusts in the whole office.
(13) This of course leads to some speculation as to why he trusts her so much. What does he know of her or her past that he is unafraid of her taking what she knows of him or the way he does business to others?

Analyses & Commentary, Chapter 21, Section 6, part 9

[mmestrange]

I speculate that she has some kind of a past, possibly spotted if not outright unsavoury. It could very likely be that she was some kind of lady cat burglar along the lines of Arsene Lupin. The fact that she claims antique locks to be her speciality hints at that aspect of her past. Notice that she picks the locks. Most other locksmiths would just cut the lock and force the door open. That’s what they do when you phone them and tell them that you’ve locked yourself out of your house at 1am in the morning. What sort of person picks locks, takes them apart and studies the mechanism in them? And we are indirectly told Sawaguchi has studied the locks because she can say exactly what was forced and where. Due to these instances, I am half convinced that Sawaguchi has a chequered past. Assuming I am right in this conjecture, then it is likely Miyazono had at some point defended her as his client in exchange for having her abilities at his disposal.

(14) Now, the fact that Isabelle phoned the law offices instead of Mme Sawaguchi personally hints that she’s not that close to the woman. She still has to get the woman at her legal office. So, who recommended Ms Sawaguchi to Isabelle? What exactly is the connection between Sawaguchi and Isabelle?

I foresee Iris having further trouble with the restricted materials archive not only because the locks have been changed but because there’ll be Friend Vesuvius with whom she would have to contend.

(15) Just what is it Iris needs from the restricted materials archive? And why hasn’t she spoken directly to Dr Etrange about things?

(16) I posit that Iris is not only ignorant as to that which she’s doing with the locks, but also, she doesn’t know what she wants. But really, it could also be that the thing behind the door is so horrifying she wants no one else to get to it. So, what is it behind the door that is so frightening to Iris? A reflection of her soul? Or knowledge so hard-hitting and shocking that it is far beyond her ken to understand?

At the very end, we learn that they are fumigating the building housing Isabelle’s office. Which insects will shortly be crushed? Run, scamper mad but will they even where the exit is when it’s at point non plus?

[NB - Thus concludes the commentary for this chapter! Ah, your little package arrived today! Kyaaah! They're so cute~]