(Yuunosuke)
I’m surprised when my brother sends word to the school to come home -now-. Oh no… is it one of the children? I find someone to finish up my last class and -run- home.
I get there and find the place quiet. “Tamebo!” I run around the whole house – Hanako-san and the children aren’t there, and I find him in the back room that we lovingly call “the library” and that Hanako-san calls “the place where I’m not even going to attempt to clean”.
“What’s going on?” I ask, and he looks up.
“A letter came today. Express, with a special messenger once it arrived in the Kyoto postal office – it was sent yesterday and is already here.” He shakes his head. “Hide-neesan wouldn’t have spent that money unless it was important.” He moves a pile of cloth-bound ledgers to get to some boxes. The boxes he moves, with a thump of dust, and then he slides back a panel on the floor. “I sent Hanako and the children to her sister’s so we could get some work done.”
I glare at him, waving my hand to disperse the dust. “Could you just tell me what’s going on?”
It’s true I have a lot of stuff in here. But I see it as fulfilling my promise to Kondo-san, on the day he left. I had started my first diary then, marking our days with the Shinsengumi. At first it was just an idle boy’s way to pass time as the terakoya I attended closed as Kyoto became lawless. Now… it may be my life’s work. Funny, since I’m not the academic in the family.
If that weird collector guy knew what we had hidden in here… I laugh a little, as Yuubo reads neesan’s letter.
I nod at his comment about Saitou-san. “Yes, but she still needs information.” I frown. One of the reasons I agreed to let her go to Tokyo was to get her away from all of -this-. That, and to ease the tension between my wife and sister – Hanako never felt like she was mistress of the house as long as Hide-neesan was here.
Not that there was ever danger in Kyoto – just… being pestered. After a while I could see how exhausting it must be, to always be pushed into the past. And she refused any marriages I tried to arrange for her…
Of course, the path she took was never one that I would imagine. I thought her refusal to marriage was due to fidelity to Okita-san’s memory, but my wife only shakes her head and tells me I was very wrong. Women and their secrets! I didn’t even think they liked each other enough to share confidences.
I bring the piles of paperwork to the table in the center of the room. Reaching for plain paper, I give some to myself and some to Yuubo, and indicate the brushes and ink.
“Right, first, let’s get organized. ‘Kano’ could be written several ways – let’s work that out first, and then go through the troupe assignment rolls.” After all, he could -say- he was in the first division, but a lot of people -said- they were, so we may be in for a long night. Then there are communications, bookkeeping records…
I’ve not had a night like this since I was apprenticing to study the law – my eyes are blurry. The tea has long since grown cold, and I think we forgot dinner?
It’s been a lot to go through – there’s no single “roll” for any one team for the entirety of its existence, and we have so much stuff – a few things that were left at our house, but the majority came from the temple. The Shisnengumi had to answer to their sponsors so yes, records were kept. After the war, the temple didn’t want the trouble of it, and all I could think of was Kondo-san telling me to “keep it up” as he patted my head, and I had to save it.
I’m going to have to wait a long time to make this into something. I’m sure that if some people know what we held, it would be troublesome for us.
Some of it is in heavily coded language, and when I asked Shimada-san about it once, he said that it was related to spying activities and declined to translate. I remember him looking at one piece of paper I had brought, where he scanned it and grimaced. “This should be burnt.”
I didn’t burn anything, but put those coded documents in a locked box. However, there’s enough in plain old Japanese that are easy enough to read. As I switch over to the bookkeeping records (as this “Kano” should be listed in there as well – we can see if he even exists), Yuunosuke goes through the reports of “discipline” issues.
“I think I’ve found him!”
I’m reading through some reports about “personnel” issues. A name jumps out to me. “Kano Washio!” I wave the paper in the air. “He was in a love triangle – ” I hand the paper over to my brother. And I find another, and another. He was… popular.
Reading the report, I announce, “after this one, Hijikata-san ordered him to cut his bangs and to get a proper hairstyle for a man,” I laugh. I can almost imagine the “Demon Vice-Commander” doing that. We kids were all so terrified of him. Well, except Hanako-san. “But every time, the sub-commander Ootori-san, of the first division saved him from the worst punishment. He apparently was regarded as very skilled with the sword, despite his other problems.” I laugh, “he’s referred to as a ‘beautiful’ swordsman.”
“Did that end it?”
“That’s the last report I see. February, 1867.”
I’m quiet as I flip through other reports of reprimands. The word “Shimabara” comes up -a lot-.
Meanwhile Tamesaboro is looking over what I found, frowning, and then goes back into the crawlspace and comes out with a locked box.
“What does that have in it?”
He unlocks it, and starts shuffling through the papers. “Most everything in here is written in some code or another – Shimada-san confirmed it but he won’t divulge. Apparently it has to do with spying. But I have one in here, in regular writing.” He finds it and pulls it out, sliding it across the table to me.
“I’ve read this before and I remembered that name.” He looks over it again. “This is a list of the men who left the Shinsengumi to join a group called the Goryo Eji.”
I look at the list and see Kano. I also see Todo-san – he was one of the ones who played with us, sometimes. I remember him leaving but not -why-.
Then I see the name at the bottom, written in a different hand than the rest. Saitou Hajime
I look up at Tamesaburo. “So what was this group about?”
My brother finally answers. “Well for one they planned to assassinate Kondo-san.”
(OOC – pls let me know if you have any objections to this information)
OOC: No objections.
(Tamesaboro)
I watch as Yuunosuke reacts, there’s so much he never knew. “I think I might have to write that book just to get you caught up,” I sigh.
“Some of these guys were real hotheads.” I point at one of the names, “that one came by a few months after the war ended, maybe a week after the final battle in Hokkaido? He asked for father, because he wanted to laugh at him for being a fool. Instead, when I told him that otou-san was dead, he punched me.”
“Really?” Yuunosuke said, sitting up, “So what was this group? Why did they leave?”
I shake my head. “Again, some were hotheads. And the politics were complicated – it wasn’t just pro or anti bafuku, there were layers of disagreements. Some were just out to improve their own social standing or make a play to power and had no ideological concerns – just personal.” I’m still struggling to understand it all, as those who will tell me stories were often removed from the central issues.
“One thing I do know, though, is that this split was the beginning of the end.” Suddenly I feel very sad, remembering. In a matter of two years, my childhood idols were all gone. Then my father…
“Then why was Saitou-san involved?” asks Yuunosuke, looking at that name again. I understand the feeling. In another time it would be a curiosity, but now this man holds our sister’s happiness…
“It goes back a bit, when a man named Ito Kashitaro joined the group. He was very…” I search for the word. I never interacted with him much. “Smooth. From what I’ve been told he tried to displace Hijikata-san in Kondo-san’s esteem. However, he and Kondo-san couldn’t have been more apart in political opinions.”
“I don’t know what finally drove it, but in early 1867 he left, along with the rest of these guys.” I indicate the list. “Losing Todo-san and then Saitou-san, who had been there since the beginning, was a real hit to morale.” I frown as I remember, “I think – Saitou-san didn’t go at first? Maybe that’s why someone else wrote his name?” I shouldn’t be speculating.
“It all ended that winter after a party Kondo-san invited Ito to – Ito ended up dead on the way home. Then when the Goryo-Eji came to get his body, the Shinsengumi were there. Todo-san was among those who were killed.”
“So what happened to Kano? And Saitou-san?”
“Kano? No idea, but I guess we know where he is -now-. I know that some of them popped up in other groups, but sadly, I don’t have those records,” I grin a little. “As for Saitou-san… well, one day a man named Yamaguchi Jiro joined the Shinsengumi. I heard Hide-neesan complaining to Otou-san that she was stonewalled about it because he looked like Saitou-san… he of course -was- Saitou-san. Rumor I heard later was that he was a spy for Hijikata-san, but I’ve heard that thrown around about him in other situations.” It seems like his name got attached to every assassination.
From the window, I notice that the sky is taking on a grey cast… have we really gone all night?
Tamesaboro flips through a little book, full of notes. “I don’t have anyone from the first troupe that I -trust- asking questions to. It had a lot of talent, and it could be very competitive. Other than a universal adoration of Okita-san, the few I’ve talked to are all mad at each other -years- later. And I wouldn’t go near any of the Goryo-Eji guys either – and they certainly won’t speak to us.”
We’re quiet for a minute, going through a few more likely groups of papers.
My older brother speaks quietly. “I’m reading things here about Saitou-san…” he shakes his head. “I know this was years ago, but is an accurate portrait of who he is now? ” He looks up at me. “Back when she was carrying the first child, something terrible happened between them – you didn’t see her, brother. How… broken she looked.” He looks down. “Is he a good man? Will he take care of her? Be good to her?”
I’m quiet, remembering that brief time in Ito. “He is a good man,” I answer. “To both Hide-neesan and Makoto-chan. I got to also see how he treats those who work for him. And from our sister…” I stop.
“It was her smile, ‘niisan.” I sigh. “I’ve never seen her smile like that. He would come into the house and… they would just -look- at each other.” It’s hard to describe, because looking at it seemed so personal, but I couldn’t look away from the transformation of my sister.
My brother is quiet for a long time. “Then let’s do everything we can to support her happiness. And of course, use what we know to help her.”
And it’s then that I tell my brother an old secret, and I can -feel- him exhale. “You’re right.” He smiles, looking out at the first bits of sun painting the sky. “That… makes me feel better about him as a man, despite everything I’ve seen in here. There’s a lot not in the papers, after all.”
“But how to get it to her? I mean, the mail is secure…” I guess after a night spent in old dusty secrets has made me slightly paranoid.
“I have two ideas. But first, let’s get some breakfast before we attempt to summarize everything.” He stands and claps his hands.
(OOC – End thread)