(Yuunosuke)
Coming home, I check the mail, and see a small package from oneesan! Eagerly, I rip it open – and I have to read it twice, three times…
Dear Brothers,
I hope Hanako-san is well, and while I don’t have any special family tea like she sent me, I’m hoping the enclosed treats will tempt her to eat! I’m so sorry she’s having a rough time of it so far, but these treats are made with ginger which helps with nausea.
I’m writing to let you know that Hajime and I have separated. It is difficult, but it was not something I could prevent, despite my attempts. Please don’t come to Tokyo to fight him. The fault lies in both of us; he has another woman and I was unable to be the partner I promised him I would be. My wish going forward is for him to continue to be a good father to our girls.
I am in as good as a position as I could hope, as I’ve been given the house I live in and I have a lead on a good job to support myself. I will not go “into hiding” as I did years ago, but I do wish to be prudent with money as to secure Makoto-chan’s and Ai-chan’s futures.
I can anticipate your offers, dear brothers, but I wish to remain in Tokyo, in order not to disrupt the children. Hajime’s son and niece remain with me for now, as well. I also do not wish to make any changes to the girls’ family registry at this time.
Please don’t worry or be upset with me. I will persevere.
With love,
Hide
I… I look to the house. Hanako-san is having a rough time of it, Tamesaburou even told me that the doctor is considering bedrest for the -duration-… and now this. She puts it so… abstractly. That they’ve separated, that he’s moved on to another woman?!? I remember how they looked at each other, after he rescued her and brought her to this house. What the hell happened? It wasn’t -that- long ago???
I’m standing there with the gate open and I didn’t even realize it…. then I feel a tugging on my coat sleeve. “Uncle? Are you coming in?”
I look at the letter, crumpled in my hand. He’ll need to know… but not today. I hand over the box of sweets. “Tell your father that I’m going out with my coworkers.”
I turn on my heel. Of course not them. There’s only one person I want to see right now… well, I’d really like to hop a train to Tokyo and let Saitou-san have it… but I have a feeling how -that- would go. I stop by the precient and ask for Saya-san, only to be told she’s in a meeting. I leave her a note to meet me at a quiet izakaya we’ve met at before.
(OOC – you can chose to RP this interaction or not)
Saya:
Ugh. No matter what I still loathe going to those meetings but I want to show my support to the Chief! He’s been good to me after all… and I don’t want to be labeled as a slacker just because I’m a woman… with a -slight- disability at that.
But I’ve been looking forward to meeting Yuunoske. It’s been a while since we’ve had some fun! I straighten up my skirt before going pass the noren entrance. I look around for the guy!
Yuunosuke
I see her enter the izakaya and… she looks a little weary, but the bit of a smile she gives as she sees me at a table and comes over… I notice how heads turn to look at her, and as she walks her limp is a little more pronounced, I wonder if the cold weather is hard on her? I get up and pull a chair out for her. “Thanks for coming,” I tell her.
“Long day at work? They told me you were in a meeting at the front desk,” I grin a bit as I hand her the paper menu. “Meetings are the -one- thing I think our jobs have in common.” I look over the menu, this izakaya has the regular things you’d expect, but has added a new Western drink, beer. It’s lighter and easy to drink, and goes so well with the gyoza and other fried foods…
I sigh, though, feeling the weight of Hide-neesan’s -brief- letter like a lump of rock in my jacket pocket, dampening the excitement of being in a fun place with Saya-san. The barman comes over to take our orders. “Saya-san, what will you have?” I say, letting her order first.
“Thanks for coming,” “Long day at work?
“Oh I wouldn’t pass up an Izakaya offer after those -boring- meetings!” I grin and take the chair that’s offered. “Though maybe you enjoy yours much more and they’re probably a lot more interesting!”
I’m handed the menu and I notice he sighed? Now that I notice it, he seems down. That’s not like him. I go ahead and order.
“Shochu!” I tell the waitress and pat Yuunosuke’s arm, “My friend and I are going all in! And some fried fish innards and some grilled mackerel fish heads.” I grin. Whatever is troubling him, we’ll at least have some adventurous food and drink!
Though maybe you enjoy yours much more and they’re probably a lot more interesting!
I shake my head, laughing. “Hearing about misbehaving boys… or curriculum meetings, where we talk about which group of 1000-year old poems will try to get those misbehaving boys to pay attention.” I grin at her. “Too bad we’re not allowed to teach with the ones they’d like!” Some of those Heian poems were -bawdy-!
She orders and as usual, sticks to more traditional food, but the more… interesting sort. Fried fish innards! About as unlikely for Hanako-san to make at the Yagi house as gyoza… although right now, there’s one of her sisters around doing the cooking…
“And some of the Super-Garlic gyoza,” I add to the waitress. It -is- the specialty of the house, after all. So much garlic it’s -hot-, just like my beloved wasabi.
The waitress nods and leaves, and I smile over at her. This spirit of hers never fails to lift me. Usually above the banality of my day-to-day life… “I had a letter from my sister today.” The waiter comes with the shochu and a small bowl of pickled vegetables. I go ahead and pour for the both of us. “It seems that her and Saitou-san broke up.”
He laughs and I’m glad he did. I don’t know much about Heian poems, unfortunately by the time I was in “service” it was more important to be able to dance, laugh and sing than have an intelligent conversation with a customer. No one there would fall in love with the mind but with the “show” that show “potentially” what may happen afterwards.
He adds the house specialty and I say with a grin, “Good call. I’ll count how many garlic gyoza you can down and you count how many fish eggs and bowels I can eat! We won’t count the shots though…”
He pours and I drown the first shot right away… And I guess it’s a good idea as he just comes out with it.
“It seems that her and Saitou-san broke up.”
I almost spit out the shochu. “What?” I blink.
I thought they’d be together forever. He certainly gave me that impression. So much so that I got out of the way.
“That’s impossible. What happened? Are you -sure-?”
“I’ll read you some of the more… interesting ones sometimes,” I offer, with a wink. “But I’ll mix and match them with the austere ones about a season.”
She seems to agree with my order, “alright, but don’t eat all of my gyoza like you did last time,” I sigh, shaking my head.
Saya-san downs her drink… and almost spits it out as I tell her the news.
That’s impossible. What happened? Are you -sure-?
“Hide-neesan doesn’t say much, her letters are -always- this terrible,” I pull it out of my pocket. Had we not been brought in to help with her recovery during the kidnapping, she probably would have written us a month later, ‘was kidnapped, badly injured, but home now and resting. Will write more later.’ “She said that she didn’t live up to his promises, and that he has another woman.” I hand her the letter.
The waiter comes with the platters of food. I watch her, now worried… after all, she loved him once. I wonder, sometimes, when I try to get closer to her, if … she still does.
“She said that she didn’t live up to his promises, and that he has another woman.”
I’m sure my eyebrows are probably higher than my head right now. No -way-. The waitress comes with some piping hot gyoza and fish but I’ve lost all interest in it but not wanting to waste the food, I do pick a few pieces… More like picking on it as I move it around with my chopsticks just -thinking-.
Yuunosuke-san hands me the letter and I take a moment to read it. Still eventhough I read it and it’s definitely -real-, it’s hard to swallow. With a sigh I pour another drink for myself and look past Yuunosuke, just thinking.
Another woman? Has he gone -insane-?
“He was always a bit weak in that regard.” I say under my breath, “When he was with that unbearable wife of his, he would see me.” Though I often wondered if he was seeing someone else. “Then he met Yagi-san and I thought, he finally met a woman who didn’t drive him crazy and comes from a good family.”
“And what’s all this about promises?” We already went through a lot of mended promises back in Ito. I shake my head and drown the Shochu and I notice Yuunosuke-san hasn’t even touched his.
“What do you plan to do?” I ask. I know what I’m going to do.
Saya-san looks so surprised, that she’s even ignoring the food, well, just messing with it. I’m thankful as she pours us each another drink.
He was always a bit weak in that regard.
I nod. “In the old days… another member called him ‘rotten with women’, but I thought that he was just a troublemaker… or that was all -long- in the past.” I down half of my drink. In another time, I’d be enjoying how nice it is to be able to drink with Saya-san. That if there’s nothing else… at least I have a true friend. Even if I -want- more.
And what’s all this about promises?
“I have no idea – but it must be something fairly significant, if he’d leave her for another woman,” I say, frowning. “Or was the other woman there all along, making other problems worse? There’s a Western expression, ‘the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence’ which means that the things you don’t have look better, from a distance than the things you have.” I finish my glass of shochu. “She has those injuries, and all those people at their house…” I shake my head. “I don’t know. Her letter isn’t very helpful.”
What do you plan to do?
“Go there. Get to the bottom of this…” I take a gyoza, popping the whole thing in my mouth, chewing slowly. “I’d like to…” I sigh, feeling -belittled- as a man, unable to take care of her as a brother -ought- to do. “She said don’t fight him, and I know she knows that I couldn’t take him in a fight. Or he’d just let me get it out, like a child having a tantrum. He’s -that- sort,” I say. I observed how -remote- he could be, back in the old days. I thought he had changed. That oneesan, and maybe time, had changed him. “Not just for her… but he’s abandoned the house, it sounds like, if she still has his son and other kin. And not made provisions for their children, if she’s explicitly telling us not to register the girls in the Yagi family.”
“What about you?” I ask.
“In the old days… another member called him ‘rotten with women’, but I thought that he was just a troublemaker… or that was all -long- in the past.”
I sigh. “I don’t want to sound like I’m defending him but he had reason to be rotten to his wife. I think the reason he goes to the brothel was to contain his anger and find respite… He was my patron and during that time he was seeing no one else.” That must mean something doesn’t it? I’ve met others who were truly rotten with women and it didn’t matter who was available that night as long as their legs were open to them.
There’s a Western expression, ‘the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence’ which means that the things you don’t have look better, from a distance than the things you have.” “She has those injuries, and all those people at their house…”
I don’t say anything anymore. I don’t want to seem too biased in favor of him. I merely nod. But I doubt it was her injuries unless… Like mine perhaps he thought… But still he made it up to me. Why not to Yagi-san who I thought meant more to him?
Yuunosuke tells me he’ll go but then seems to back track on that as his sister forbid him to fight and he’d likely be treated as a child. “You’re right that’s exactly how he can be.” When pushed to a corner. I can probably handle him better than Yuunosuke ever could.
“Not just for her… but he’s abandoned the house, it sounds like, if she still has his son and other kin. And not made provisions for their children,
“Which means he left in haste…” Perhaps something else is driving him away? Could there be another threat, so soon after this one or is he just making sure there wouldn’t be another one?
“What about you?”
“I’ll be leaving this weekend for Tokyo.” I look at him. “So if you need me to find out something, I can relay it back.”
She tells me some of her past, and with Saitou-san. “So he was loyal to you, during that time…” I muse. “In the old days, the stories only have him with one woman in particular, one he stole from the Goryo Eiji to buy her freedom.” I wonder if that was true, and what happened? Ah, but that was a -long- time ago.
I don’t think Saya-san believes my theorizing, but that’s fine. We don’t -know-. But my sister is stubborn and it makes her blind, and prone to… dramatic gestures, like when she and Okita-san would have problems and she’d not talk to -anyone-. Or the way she self-exiled herself to Ito…
I’ll be leaving this weekend for Tokyo. So if you need me to find out something, I can relay it back.
“I’ll go with you. I have a good excuse – the baby is 100 days old, and I -know- how important Hide-neesan takes these milestones. My brother…” I sigh. He doesn’t need more worries, not until we better understand it -all- beyond her useless letter. I look at her, as I’ve been keeping her informed. “Hanako-san will probably be on bed-rest until the child comes. She was very healthy for the prior four… but this way I can go without them knowing what’s going on.” I may be the younger brother (as he often reminded me, and still does) but I can be of use to all of them.
“Friday overnight train or first one out Saturday?” I ask her. I grin a bit, even if I -know- she’s going for him at least we can travel together. “I’ll bring some poetry…?”
I push the plate of fish innards at her. “Eat, you probably skipped lunch today, like I did.”
A woman from old Kyoto? “I see.”
I’ll go with you. I have a good excuse – the baby is 100 days old, and I -know- how important Hide-neesan takes these milestones
For a moment I wonder if it’s a good idea to just drop by especially if there’s an important occasion. Would Yuunosuke and I ruin it by dropping by unannounced but I’m sure she’s expecting someone to come right? “Well she didn’t tell you not to come for the baby.” I smile at him. Besides if he’s move on, he won’t be there which makes things a lot less complicated. We can get information from Yagi-san and then I’ll corner him later perhaps in his office. Besides, I have an excuse, he’s been waiting on updates from the Kyoto police.
“Friday overnight train or first one out Saturday?” “I’ll bring some poetry…?”
“Let’s try to be “normal” and come in on the Saturday train. That should get us there by mid afternoon.” And he smiles at me and I smile back and shake my head. “Unless you want me sleeping on your lap all the way to Tokyo.”
He gives me the innards. -Coward-. With a grin I go ahead and eat most of it.
(OOC you can close)
Well she didn’t tell you not to come for the baby
I smile back. “Yes, and knowing her, she’ll have plenty of food.” Ohh, Hide-neesan’s cooking. Never spicy enough, but good. Hanako-san has improved so much but… well. I still eat it every night.
But a friendly visit for a family event will make it easier to get information out of her. It’s that stubbornness again…
Unless you want me sleeping on your lap all the way to Tokyo.
“Who said the poetry would be -that- bad?” I can’t help but grin at her. “But as for the lap-sleeping… you’re always welcome.” The idea of it… stroking her hair while she sleeps… although she puts up with my academic side. I know she didn’t have an education – hell, girls like oneesan didn’t, either, not a proper one – but she’s so bright in so many ways. She’s beautiful and charming, yes… but it’s that spark in her eyes that makes me want to be with her.
She grins as I hand her the innards, but I make a show of popping a fish head in my mouth before finishing the gyoza. “Fish guts all day, but a little garlic…” I tease. Even though it’s not a little garlic, it’s a -lot- and -hot-…
I still feel a sense of foreboding about all of this, that we could just make it all worse for oneesan and her little family, but…. I try not to -dwell- like she does. I’ll be able to report something more solid back to Tamesaburou at a time where he can’t carry more worries.