Chapter 9
The women were clearly in state of shock; Tama cradled her shoulders and Tanyuu was plainly shaking. Ginko was shaken himself, too, but put it aside for now to tend to them. He brought water and produced two wraps labeled "sedative" from his box. Only after he saw to them swallowing the doses did he allow himself to think about what happened. And found most of it beyond comprehension.
The women's outward symptoms began to subside. He was dying to ask them what they saw and recalled, but decided against it. Experience had taught him forcing people into talking too soon after a traumatic event was a bad idea. He asked them if they could sleep in one room that night and they agreed. They accepted his help retreating to Tanyuu's room. He managed to tuck them in, and when he was finally alone he just lay on the bare tatami (flooring mats made of plant fiber) in the guest room.
「はああああ」"phew…." he let out a long sigh. Now that the women safely tucked in for the night he could let himself go through his own thoughts and emotions. Frightened as he may have been, curiosity still won out. "So, tokoyami finally decided to come out of me but was attacked? by the Forbidden Mushi? Incredible! But why didn't it happen until now? Why today? What is their relationship? Mates? Enemies? Parent and offspring? What effect did it have on Tanyuu's mark?" The more he thought the more questions he had. So much unknowns, so much events without precedence. Then a thought occurred to him that the women may be frightened of him, too. He wanted to think they were above that, but also could not dismiss it. "Hmmmm," he thought. He could sneak out first thing in the morning, of course. He would quick look in on them before he leaves, but no, he was too curious for that. He decided he would rather face the possibility than to miss whatever could happen otherwise. In any case, his stamina reached its limits.
It seemed to Ginko that he was swimming under water, swiftly and adeptly as a fish. In fact, his consciousness indeed inhabited a fish. The fish lived for some time, long enough for a fish, and then something got it. Darkness ensued. Next he thought he might be a deer, and it lived just as the fish did, and then blank. Then a bird in the same pattern, followed by countless creatures, always ending in darkness. Ginko knew he was dreaming, and wondered if this might be his past lives. The scenes kept unfolding until he inhabited a woman's body. This startled Ginko but he could do nothing but go through it. Her earliest memories of her parents, siblings, the primitive hut she lived in, the field her parents farmed crops, the streams nearby, all details were so vivid it could be somebody's memory. "Memory?" Ginko doubted, but the older she grew that made more sense to him. She lived a rather ordinary life but then something got her. A tragic end. Then the cycle began again of many animals and mushi lives, until his consciousness resurfaced. Before full wakefulness took hold, a thought flashed in his mind; the clothes the woman's people wore, the buildings, the farming implements, all resembled what he imagined of ancient Japan. But what era….? He certainly did not comprehend the language.
His consciousness left the scenery, eventually leading him to the edge of a cliff overlooking a vast expanse of nothing. A boulder sat close to the edge of the cliff. Ginko noted a man sitting atop it and was startled to find who it was.
The figure on the boulder was Ginko. Or rather a mirror-image copy of Ginko. The man on the boulder glanced at the consciousness approaching him. He said something. Ginko the consciousness could not hear it but the thought flowed into his mind; "Where is she?"
"She who?" Ginko demanded. But the consciousness returned to wakefulness before the figure answered.
When Ginko awoke dawn had already broken.「思ったより疲れてたのかな」"Well I must've been more tired than I thought," he explained to himself. The women were already up and sitting by the irori (squre fireplace in the middle of the floor), with their breakfast untouched. In fact both of them wore ashen looks, almost blue in indoor lighting, discussing something. Nevertheless they both smiled and beckoned him by them. Ginko was glad they did not seem to be about to chase him out. Quite the contrary, they seemed intent on a serious conversation. Ginko suspected they had new information which they wished to share with him.
The answer came soon enough. Tama poured him a cup of green tea, and while sipping it they exchanged ritual morning conversation. Once he was finished they wasted no time. They had much the same questions he had but they had a piece to add. Tanyuu warned him 「肝をつぶすでないぞ」"don't get upset," as she managed to straighten out her leg. She had a good reason to warn him; her coal-black mark was now etched into hexagonal pattern like honey comb, with sporadic circles accentuating it. Each hexagon spanned about one and half inches in diameter, the circles about half. Within each circle was complex shapes. Each border amounted to about one eighth of an inch thick. A drop of cold sweat trickled down her cheek.
They sat speechlessly for minutes. This confirmed Ginko's suspicion but then gave him more questions. Accustomed to bizarre happenings as they all were, this was off the scale. They all worked hard to organize their minds as to where to begin. Ginko cleared his throat and started;
「何時気付いたんだ?」"When did you notice?"
「今朝目が覚めた時。痛みで目が覚めた」"When I woke up this morning. The pain woke me"
Tanyuu answered. Silence fell upon them again, which bore a mark of the enormity of the event's implications. This might be the long sought and much waited eradication method. At long last. Tama and Tanyuu dared not verbalize it lightly, and it seemed uncouth to Ginko as well. He brought his cigarette to his mouth and puffed. For now all he could think to say was a lame「全くえらいこっちゃなあ」"this could be big."
The women nodded, still wearing tense expressions. Tama added 「とにかく、協力頼んでよいか?」"Can we cound on your cooperation?"
Ginko nodded.
「でも、調査といってもどう進行すればよいのか…..」"But how shall we proceed?" Tanyuu wondered out loud.
「極慎重に、さ」"Very carefully" was Ginko's answer.
Tama stood up to clear the trays but she patted Ginko on the shoulder on the way out. She said 「お前も怖い思いをしたろうに、私と淡幽お嬢様の面倒みてくれてありがとうな」"Thanks for taking care of me and Miss Tanyuu when you must have been scared out of your wits too." Ginko returned a perfunctory 「ああ」"Sure." 「やっとタマもお前のいいところが見えて来たんだよ」"I think you managed to impress her finally" offered Tanyuu with a chuckle. 「おや、そうかい」"…'z that so?" Ginko just sighed at the idea, simply a side note. Ginko stood up to fetch paper and stylus, but turned around before he left.
「あっ…..とそれとさ、痣から上さらし巻いてこいよ」"Hey…., um….go get wrapped up with sarashi (large wrapping bandage cloths) above the mark."
「え?何故?」"Huh? Why?"
「若い娘が肌みせちゃはしたねえだろ」"a young lady shouldn't show skin."
「あ、そうか」"Oh" Tanyuu uttered, as if that was a novel idea.
Tanyuu took off on her crutches right away.
Tanyuu caught up with Tama in the kitchen. She told Tama about Ginko's "request" for sarashi, at which she cocked an eyebrow.
「さらし、ですか?」"Sarashi, he says?" she looked down in a thinking gesture. 「滅多に使わない物だもの、この屋敷にあったかしら?」"that's something we don't use often. I wonder if we even have one in this house?" Tanyuu wondered out loud. 「ちょっと、お待ちくださいね。押し入れの奥にあるかもしれません」"well, let's see. There might be one in oshiire (storage space where futon and other things are kept)" Tama answered as she dried her hands. 「まあ、それにしても若い男にしてはなかなか賢明ではありませんか」"well isn't that thoughtful of him for being a young man" Tama said of Ginko, albeit rather dryly. Tanyuu could not remember the last time Tama described someone with those words.
It took a long while, at least so Ginko felt, for everything to get ready. He could hear Tama pulling things out of storage in search for a length of sarashi. Ginko took out a stylus and a sheet of paper. He drew a table with columns labeled "possible cause," "facts," "theory," and so on. He filled in what he could think of. That did not take him long, and his thoughts drifted back to the dreams last night. He was thankful for more restful night of sleep but the dream was just as intense as the man-eating figure. So what if it was all memories of past tokoyami victims? He decided only time will tell and hoped he would have more of the kind. Then it occurred to him he might, he just might, get his own memory back. He inhaled the tobacco smoke deeply into his lungs. What if….? What would he do? That was one more thing only time will tell. Then Tama called him in. Tanyuu waited in the adjacent room siting with her legs extended, wrapped up everywhere under her outfit but her right leg.
Three of them sat down to brain storm. They had plenty of facts but nothing else. They agreed that its effects may yet to be seen, so they resolved to wait on that. They noted every detail they could recall but eventually came to an impasse. No idea as to its cause, which was obviously the crucial piece if they were to replicate the incident. Tama stood up, saying she had household chores to tend to, but she will be around. Ginko asked Tanyuu to move closer to engawa where the light was better (this was before electricity in Japan). Bikke the cat was in and out of the room. When it tired of running around it picked Tanyuu this time and rested on her shoulder. Ginko began to examine the now patterned mark more closely, and draw the likeness of each one in close details. It proved to be a tedious task using nothing but a crude stylus and ink on paper. He counted thirteen of them. When he started on one he soon realized the drawing needed to be magnified, botching a few. Plus, he never considered himself much of a visual artist. Drawing just one in sufficient detail took two hours. He clucked his tongue in irritation. Nevertheless, he managed to complete two that day, which revealed a few common elements between them. Then a wild idea flashed in his mind. What if they represent something, like pictographs? He considered the implication of it but found he could not wrap his mind around it. He would consider it later.
On the back of her knee, he noted, were five circles positioned around a single hexagon. Just one more would have surrounded it.
He was deep in thoughts, carefully observing and considering. On Tanyuu's part, she was going back and forth between trying to think about the issues at hand and reliving last night. She knew she should be all about the prospect of accomplishing her goal ahead of schedule. But her heart was stirred so. The way Ginko picked her up with not much effort, how he carried her down the hallway and gently put her down. She had her arms about his neck and how he looked from that angle, with his stubbly jaws and prominent throat. When he put her down she almost expected him to press his lips on hers even though she knew he would do no such thing. Ooh no she's thinking about that again…how impure! A young lady should not entertain such a thought, but her heart would not be still.
Bikke awoke and jumped off onto Tanyuu's lap, stretched where she landed, went around and around in circles before she finally settled down. Ginko noticed its antics and chuckled. 「いつもこんなに座る前にくるくる回るのか?」"does she always do that?"
「そう。猫ってみんなそうよ」"Uh-huh. All cats do that." She glanced over her right leg. It was a strange sight. It struck her how neatly the hexagons were shaped and arranged. It was as if the pattern was a work of an artisan. Next moment she wondered why Ginko staring at her with his eye bugged out, his cigarette fallen out of his mouth, and the stylus about to follow. She thought she must have spoken it out loud. Before she could think of what to say next, Ginko recovered and replied「人工物? まさか」"You say what? Man-made?" followed by a tentative 「そんなわけないだろ、馬鹿」"that's impossible, silly."
「おま、突拍子のないこと言うなあ」"you and your wild ideas" he spoke, but then his expression turned pensive, he grabbed the sheet, and began to write furiously on it. "If the marks represented something, then something or someone made this. But that would imply intelligence. Perhaps even at a very high level" he reasoned in his mind. That was what Ginko could not let himself think earlier. His stylus flew furiously all over the table. Tanyuu tried to interrupt saying 「ただの観察よギンコ」"that was just an observation, Ginko" but it was no use.
He finished that he relaxed a bit. 「ギンコ? 何をそんなに必死に書いておる? 見せて?」"Ginko? What are you writing so fiercely? Can I see?" Tanyuu interrupted when she was finally able. She took the paper, stared at it, and Ginko could see her goosebumps on her neck. The sun was setting then. He wanted to continue but had no other choice. Ginko felt the need to lighten the mood a little.「なあ淡幽、異人さん達の写真機っていう仕掛け物の噂聞いた事あるか?」"Have you heard about this contraption called 'camera' of the foreign folks have?" he asked her in a casual tone.「うん、」"Yes," she answered. 「今日の様な場合には便利だろうな」"That would have been handy today." From there their conversation grew into a chit-chat about various things concerning the foreign folks that came on the black ships. Tama walked by and caught snippets.
