The guard paused for a moment as Muneshige approached him. The usual contented smile on Lord Tachibana's face was gone, replaced with anguish, worry, apprehension... a cocktail of emotions and none of the lighthearted kind. Muneshige bowed his head to the guard slightly, taking a deep breath. "I heard the news. Ginchiyo is..."
"She's in there." The guard motioned to her chambers, a clamor of doctors walking slowly and somberly from the room when Muneshige glanced back. He took another breath, attempting to keep his composure. The expressions on the men as they left... surely they didn't mean...?
"By the way..." Muneshige began, crossing his arms and observing the faces of the doctors as they left. "How bad is she? I... was told her heart gave out while I was gone." It pained him to add the last words there. As if it wasn't insult enough to Ginchiyo's pride to lose her sight.
"The doctors say there's no way to save her. My lord..." the guard trailed off for a moment, and Muneshige leaned in, prompting him to continue. "You're going to need to say your goodbyes."
Muneshige took a step backward, eyes wide in horror. No. No... that can't be...! They hadn't even grown old together yet...! They hadn't had children! They hadn't even seen the end of this age of chaos! She couldn't die, not yet. Muneshige felt his knees grow weak. They had had this discussion so many times...! They promised each other they wouldn't die. So why now...?! He brushed past the guard, forgetting to thank him in his haste, rushing into the room as quickly as he could. He had to see her. Speak to her.
Muneshige entered the room and stared at the horrifying sight before him. Ginchiyo lay on a futon, nearly unmoving. She looked so frail and weak just laying there, so thin as if she hadn't eaten in days. A shell of the headstrong, powerful woman he was so used to. The booming thunder he had bound himself to now dissipated to little more than a small spark. It was the first time he found himself relieved that she had gone blind-otherwise she would have easily spotted the tears forming in his eyes. It all was so real to him at this moment. Ginchiyo was little more than skin and bone.
He finally heard her speak up, only barely. Her voice was brittle, quiet. Little more than a whisper. "Who's there...?"
Muneshige took a breath and attempted to swallow back the lump in his throat. "It's me, my dear."
"Muneshige..." he saw the tension leave her shoulders as she said his name and he approached her. He knelt by the futon, taking her hand in his, holding it delicately like a fragile piece of porcelain.
"Ah... how are you feeling-"
Ginchiyo cut him off, snapping her hand away from his. "Stop it." He was taken aback for a moment, and was searching for words to respond when his wife continued. "Just stop pretending... that this isn't what it is... we both know what's going to happen."
Muneshige's breath hitched in his throat. He knew she was right. He knew, but he didn't want to admit it. "Ginchiyo... Ginchiyo, no..."
"Tell Tadashige... that I expect great things from him..." She coughed, and she reached for his hand once again, voice breaking.
"Nonsense, you can tell him that when you get better." He shut his eyes, and tears fell. "You can beat this. You're so strong, I know you can-"
"Shut up... It's not going to happen." She cut him off again, more forcefully than before, but even then nothing to match her usual intensity. That moment was when Muneshige knew. There was no hope of saving her.
This really was goodbye.
Ginchiyo took a few breaths before squeezing her husband's hand weakly. Her strength was leaving her, bit by bit. "I called you in here because... I... wanted to hear your voice one last time..."
He swallowed thickly, attempting to keep his voice even. Ever since she lost her sight, her hearing had gotten much more acute-he knew she could sense his tears through his breaking voice. "...What do you want me to say?"
"Anything... just... hold my hand and tell me a story..."
Muneshige forced a chuckle. "You're usually the one to tell me stories. I don't know what story you want me to tell you..." he took her hand in both of his, cradling it gently between them. "But I can make one up, if that's what you'd like."
Ginchiyo smirked slightly, and Muneshige's heart sank. "Well, you've always... had an infuriatingly active imagination."
He attempted to force a laugh, but it sounded more like a grunt. There was no forcing humor when there was none to be found. "Let's see..." he began, attempting to think of something. Finally it came to him. He knew she'd like this one. "Once upon a time, there was a girl and a boy who lived near a hill. They were the best of friends growing up. His father was a retainer of her father's, you see, so they saw much of each other... they would play tag and hide and seek and all the other games that children would play, all on that hill right by her father's castle."
Ginchiyo raised an eyebrow, her smirk fading. "...Is this about us...?"
He smiled. Caught. "… Perhaps. Would you like a tale with a bit more fiction...?"
There was a pause for a moment as Ginchiyo stared off into nothingness, her milk-colored eyes averted away from him. "No, this..." she finally said, "this is perfect."
His eyes welled up again at the notion. Blinking away the stray tears, Muneshige attempted to compose himself. He mulled her words over in his head. A Tachibana should never cry, Munetora. You disgrace our name by doing so. "Anyway," he finally began, his voice breaking as he pushed it past the lump in his throat. He coughed once, hoping speaking coherently would become easier. It didn't. "One day, the boy and the girl found out they were to be married when her father adopted him. They didn't know what to do, or how it would change them... so they promised to never let it change them. They would still sit with each other on that hill and hold hands and watch the stars."
"I liked that hill..."
Muneshige paused for a moment, reaching out to stroke her hair. She shifted for a moment at the touch of his fingers, but her tension didn't last long, for the most part because she was too weak to make it last. "I did too..." Muneshige finally replied, a slight smile spreading across his face. "Do you remember when I was a small boy, I tripped and fell, and landed in the pond by the hill, and a frog jumped on my head and I panicked...?"
"You were afraid of frogs for weeks after that." Ginchiyo attempted to laugh, but it soon gave way to fits of violent coughing-a bit of blood dribbled from her mouth, and Muneshige quickly cleaned it up, biting his lip to try and keep himself from breaking down. She weakly apologized, making it even more difficult for him to keep himself composed. There was another pause as Muneshige once again caught a glimpse of her weak, frail form. Surely the gods would take pity on someone like her? Someone who was once so strong and admirable, beaten and broken by her own body so much that she lay here, a shell of who she once was? The thought that some higher power hated her so much to make her suffer like this made him sick to his stomach.
He finally spoke. "I... Ginchiyo, I don't want you to leave. You're going to go on a grand adventure without me in the next world... I've always wanted to see new places, you know, and..."
Ginchiyo looked directly at him, as if she could see him perfectly. Muneshige had to take a breath for a moment and remind himself that neither of them were so lucky. "When I see you next..." she shut her eyes, breath brittle as she sighed at her word choice. "When I see you next... I'll surely tell you of all my adventures..." Her voice became quieter. Barely a breath emanated from his wife, and he concentrated on watching her breathe to try and understand how much time they had left together. She was fading fast.
Muneshige's voice became more desperate as his eyes welled up again. "I don't want you to go yet. Please, stay here just a little while longer. I'm begging you." Curse these emotions...!
Ginchiyo gripped his hand as tightly as she could, her words coming in slow, shallow breaths. "I don't... know... how much longer... I can hang on."
His eyes shut, tears threatening to spill out of them. "Ginchiyo... I love you."
And hers fluttered shut as well. "I love you, too."
She'd never said that with such earnest... hell... it was rare she said it at all. Muneshige couldn't say anything in response; he feared that if he opened his mouth he would burst. She still held his hand tightly and said, "It's... okay if you cry, Muneshige... I won't tell..."
He squeezed her hand, tears finally streaming down his face, and he attempted to speak through his heaving breaths as he sobbed. "I... I didn't expect that response..." he finally managed.
Ginchiyo's breath labored again, but her muscles relaxed slightly-either she had accepted her fate, or she was too weak to fight anymore, and knowing Ginchiyo Tachibana, Muneshige assumed it was the latter. A Tachibana never accepts defeat. "I do..." she spoke a final time. "I love you... And I'm glad you're the last that I... I'm so glad..." Her words stopped, her eyes still shut.
"Ginchiyo... Ginchiyo, please don't go yet... I haven't finished my story..."
Ginchiyo inhaled one last time, and with a gentle exhale, her tension was gone, and for once, Muneshige saw her face at peace.
His vision clouded through the tears, and he broke down once more, cradling her body to his as he finished his story.
"Soon, the boy and the girl were married." He ran trembling fingers through her hair. "And the boy knew that he was happy. If anything ever happened to her, he would never know what to do."