Keitaro exited the car, flashing the driver both a bank note and a smile. It was rather unnecessary, after all, someone – probably Tsuruko, had paid the man in advance for the trip. However, Keitaro felt oddly obligated to convey this entirely false "thanks" either out of a sense of propriety or perhaps because it was simply his brains way of driving off the thoughts that had been consuming him on the long road trip – doing something normal and automatic to keep from thinking of the abnormal and strange.
As the car rumbled off into the distance Keitaro looked upon the large gate of the family compound that housed the Shinmei-ryu Dojo. He was annoyed that despite the fact that Tsuruko could have chosen a million other places for their meeting, she had decided to choose the one place that held some of his most recent bad memories. Perhaps this was her intention? To remind Keitaro of the sombre day, or to throw him off guard – not that it would take much, Tsuruko's angry grimace was often enough to instil fear into the timid managers heart.
"I might as well get this over with," he thought to himself as he pressed the button of a decidedly modern looking intercom.
"Urashima for Aoyama Tsuruko-san," he muttered. There was no response for a long time and then finally he heard a buzzer signalling that the gate had opened.
"This figures – she calls me all the way out here, doesn't bother to return my phone calls and won't even meet me at the gate."
If Keitaro had any doubts before that this meeting was going to be filled with bad news, then they had all but been confirmed. He was all but certain that today was going to be five hundred kilometres of bad road and he felt his spirits sink even further.
Inside the gates, things looked pretty much as he had remembered them, and why shouldn't they? It had barely been a couple of months since he had last been here. The ancient buildings off to the side that housed the family members proper, the large Dojo building that dominated the front court yard, even the winding path that led up to the family shrine where he had joined his hand with Motoko in matrimony. Everything was exactly the same – except of course, for him.
He pushed his hands into his pocket, balling them up into fists and then strode purposely into the courtyard. Tsuruko might be intimidating, and almost certainly she was going to try to mess with either him or Motoko today, but he was determined to do his best. He wasn't the same naïve boy that had unwittingly tossed both his and Motoko's fates to the wind and while he couldn't truly say that he regretted being as close to the beautiful swordswoman as he was today, he admitted that if he had to do it over again it'd be on better terms. His terms.
"Of course, she wouldn't have accepted me, but if I had known her then as I know her now, I doubt I would have been able to stop looking at her."
It was with these thoughts stirring in his head and heart that he paced up and down the well-worn cobble plaza. Motoko or Naru? As it stood right now, he didn't see how he could actually allow himself to make a choice in the matter, but he if he could turn back the clock… what would he do? Regardless of how difficult circumstances had been, ought he not be happy that at least he had a good woman at his side that seemed to care for him? Should he feel instead that he had been cheated out of the opportunity to find his own fate with Narusegawa? In a way, didn't his choices lead him exactly to this outcome anyway?
"Ah… Urashima-san, sorry to have kept you waiting," spoke Tsuruko as she approached from the main house. Keitaro looked up from his thoughts and locked eyes on her.
She looked tired and not at all like the violent banshee he had built up in his mind. Her long black hair, similar to Motoko's in every way, seemed dishevelled and dull. Her face was drawn, almost as if she had lost weight since their last meeting just weeks ago and worst of all, he could see that her eyes were rimmed with redness, a sure indication of emotional upheaval.
He sighed to himself. Filling himself up with anger at Tsuruko wasn't going to be an option it seemed. He'd have to find some other way to steel his resolve.
"Why did I need to come here?" Keitaro asked. His voice had a decidedly rough edge to it. Even if he felt sympathy towards the obviously distraught Tsuruko, he wasn't willing to completely make himself available. He'd already gotten into far too much trouble by being so willing to throw himself into the troubles of beautiful women.
Tsuruko walked up aside Keitaro and with a gesture bade him to walk with her.
"There are some things best discussed in private and to be truthful, there are things that I need to show you that are only here," she said cryptically as they departed the courtyard for a path that led from the compound. Keitaro felt the cold grip of fear settle over him as he realized what direction they were heading in.
"We're not going there?" he asked in a voice that was more distraught than he had intended to let show.
Tsuruko shook her head. "It's on the way, but our intent is further up the mountain. Tell me, has Motoko-han told you much of our families history? Of the purpose of the Shinmei-ryu?"
Keitaro looked uncomfortable for a moment and then spoke with much embarrassment. "Only a little… something about demon hunting or spirit hunting… I don't really know."
He thought for a moment and then added, "I know that Motoko is… religious? I mean, she volunteers as a shrine maiden every holiday… I guess."
Tsuruko grunted. It would be rare to find a person these days who didn't believe that tales of kami or yōkai were nothing more than legends. In fact, most people simply viewed them as just part of the quaint cultural history of the people of Japan, and perhaps in the modern world that was exactly what they were.
However, for Tsuruko and by extension Motoko, they were not just legends – they were a very real facet of everyday life. She'd have to make Keitaro understand this if she was to plead her case.
"This school dates back to the Ashikaga bakufu, which as I'm sure you know, was centered here in Kyoto," she said.
Keitaro, being a native to the region himself was aware of this period of history – it was also known as the Muromachi jida and had begun in the 13th century during the reign of the shogun Ashikaga Takauji. He nodded slowly to Tsuruko to indicate that he was following her.
"It was during this time that there was a shift in society away from Shingon Buddhism and many families that had never fallen into practices like Ryōbu Shinto suddenly found themselves and their teachings to be in much higher regard. Among these people was a priest, an exorcist by the name of Aoyama Yasunori."
Tsuruko stopped moving for a second and looked far off into the distance up the hill. Keitaro felt he knew what was bothering her, as he was unsettled himself – they were awfully close to the place where Motoko had tried to kill herself.
"Sorry," she said as she began to walk again. Keitaro let it pass without comment.
"Yasunori had spent many years traveling the country, helping villagers and offering council against evil spirits. During this period of time he had come to be acquainted with a variety of kami, and one in particular, a Daitengu by the name of Sōjōbō."
Keitaro raised his eyebrows and gave Tsuruko a hard look. He wasn't much of a student of history, but there probably wasn't a Japanese boy alive who didn't know the story of Minamoto no Yoshitsune and how his supposedly peerless sword technique was learned from the benevolent spirit that Tsuruko had just named.
Tsuruko returned Keitaro's look of scepticism with a subtle smile and continued her story as they traversed the rocky path.
"Sōjōbō offered to teach my ancestor a special sword technique, one that would help him in his duty to banish evil spirits, but he listed one condition – that in every generation a swordsman would seek out and take a price in blood from a tribe of Kotengu, lesser crow-like beings that were Sōjōbō's hated enemies. The bargain was quickly struck and from that meeting sprung our school."
Keitaro noticed that the path had become narrower and now he found himself leaning slightly to his left, edging away from the side and the precipitous drop to the ground below. He steadied himself with his hand on a rocky wall to his right and did his best to ignore the unpleasant memories from that night months ago.
"Why are you telling me this?" he asked, "I'm not an Aoyama…"
Tsuruko nodded. "No, but it involves your wife."
The path twisted again and opened up finally as they reached the summit of the hill. Keitaro was momentarily overtaken by the panoramic view of the mountain below him until his eyes were drawn to an ancient shrine standing only a couple hundred meters away. He didn't even notice it when Tsuruko grabbed his hand and led him towards a small copse of trees.
"Now, I'm going to tell you a more recent and personal story," she said as she beckoned for him to sit. Once Keitaro found himself situated under a large tree, Tsuruko lowered herself to the ground directly in front of him, seiza-style. She laid her sword in between them and placed her hands on her knees.
"Of my generation I was the one chosen to uphold Yasunori's pledge," she said softly. Keitaro thought he noticed her eyes start to tear up.
"I was young, only thirteen, when I set out to do battle. It is no secret that I was regarded by many as a prodigy with the sword and I was extremely confident in my abilities. Too confident actually."
She stopped for a moment. Keitaro could tell that she was struggling to force out what she was about to say next.
"In my pride I thought to defeat a very powerful demon – one that even my elders would not dare to face alone. I had tracked it to its lair and after minimal preparations went to do battle."
Keitaro blinked. He was having a hard time accepting this story – his rationality telling him that such a thing was the stuff of fantasy, but Tsuruko's face was deadly serious.
Tsuruko sighed as she continued her story.
"I never had a chance to raise my blade. I was ambushed in the dark of the night, infected with some vile poison that robbed my limbs of their strength. I floundered on the ground, struggling to right myself while the monster approached me from the shadows."
Tsuruko had Keitaro's rapt attention at this point.
"The devil tormented me for hours, abusing me, hurling insults upon me and my family. It tried to take everything from me, my body and my mind. Eventually, as the sun rose, it let me go – at the time I thought it was some small mercy, but as the weeks went by I discovered the reason why."
Tsuruko locked a hard glare on Keitaro, almost as if she was challenging him in advance to rebuff what she was going to say.
"The beast let me live because I was pregnant with its seed."
Keitaro's face blanched. His mouth moved to form words, but he was silenced by Tsuruko who simply held up her palm to his face.
"Despite the urgings of my parents, I decided to birth that child and as I held her in my arms I named her…"
Keitaro had a prescient thought that filled him with dread. His stomach did a flip.
Tsuruko continued, her voice soft, almost a whisper.
"I named her Motoko."
Keitaro's eyes went wild and he lost all composure. "Tsuruko!" he shouted in a panic.
"Silence!" bellowed Tsuruko, her previous expression of sadness wiped away with rage.
"This is not easy for me to say and you must hear it! Do you understand? You must!" she punctuated her statement by grabbing Keitaro by his collar.
Keitaro, still confused and shocked, let his body go slack. Eventually Tsuruko calmed down and continued speaking.
"It was decided to raise her as my mother's child. I did not oppose this since the nature of her birth would have caused problems if it was to be too widely known. Some in our clan would see her not just as a monster, but specifically a monster we are sworn to kill."
Tsuruko's voice was hard and cold. Keitaro could tell exactly what would happen to anyone who suggested anything of the sort about the nature of Motoko… her daughter.
"Years passed. I completed my task eventually, defeating another yōkai, upholding our families bargain. Motoko-han was treated as my precious sister, always following me and trying her best to emulate her 'Onneesama'. Things were relatively peaceful, at least until that demon came back to find us."
Tsuruko let out a long sigh and tilted her head, her long black hair falling gracefully over her shoulder. Keitaro couldn't tell what she was looking at – perhaps some landmark off in the distance, or perhaps just long forgotten memory. Despite his speculation, he held his tongue and waited.
"We were away from home, visiting…" she paused for a moment, suspiciously even, and then continued. "We were visiting relatives."
"We should have been safe, secure there even, but the monster used his connection with Motoko to lower the protective wards. It was late in the night, long after everyone had gone to sleep when he decided to strike and when he did, he came not alone, but with other members of his tribe."
Tsuruko eyed her sword, her mouth twisting in a grimace.
"While my parents and family members fought off the demons, I searched desperately for Motoko-han. Unfortunately, the monster that raped me found her first. She was small, you understand? Barely six years old… and when he threatened to take her, just like he took me, I lost all sense of control."
Keitaro felt nauseous as he let the implication of Tsuruko's statement sink in. The idea of anyone harming Motoko like that… let alone a small child… The longer he dwelled on the thought, the more he found his sickness turning into rage. He understood, implicitly, how Tsuruko must have felt.
"I was able to seal the beast, but not before he had traumatized Motoko-han and left his mark on her."
Tsuruko pushed herself up from her knees and stood, dusting grass off her hakama. She motioned again for Keitaro to follow.
"Understand that Motoko-han doesn't know any of this. She thinks my parents… our parents, died that night in a car crash," she said.
Despite the shock of Tsuruko's sudden revelation, Keitaro finally managed to find his voice. "So… Motoko-chan doesn't know that you're her…" he struggled over the word, "…mother?"
Tsuruko shook her head as she continued forward with Keitaro towards the lone stone structure in the distance.
"It's my shame," she said in a voice tinged with anguish. "My intentions were good, but in the end I robbed her of a mothers love. Come, there is something else you must see."
Tsuruko stopped in front of the entrance of the shrine. Calling it old wouldn't do justice to the obviously ancient architecture. It looked like something out of an epic chanbara film; pure fantasy conjured from an imaginative mind. Keitaro watched as Tsuruko bowed her head and clapped her hands three times. Softly, she murmured a prayer under her breath and then with a steady gate entered the building with Keitaro in tow.
"This place is a jiryoudo… it's a sacred place where we store items that we have sealed spirits or demons in," she said. "The one I want you to see is over here."
Keitaro followed behind cautiously, watching his footing in the dim interior light. All around him were various charms and wards placed on a variety of objects, most of them large stones or statues of some type or another. To him, it looked like he was simply traveling through the world's largest shop of pre-Edo era masonry. Eventually Tsuruko halted her steps and turned to Keitaro to speak once more.
"This stone holds that demon," she said as she beckoned to a large oval shaped stone. It was encircled by a shimenawa, a traditional type of rope made from rice straw and festooned with multiple shide, essentially paper streamers shaped in a zig-zag "lightning bolt" style. A week ago, Keitaro would have been at a loss to identify either object correctly, but he had since seen Motoko preparing them by herself at the inn.
"That couldn't be a coincidence, could it? Could her subconscious mind be guiding these actions?" he asked himself.
Tsuruko raised a hand over the stone and uttered another prayer; the effect was immediate and caused Keitaro to gasp in shock. If he had his doubts earlier about the veracity of Tsuruko's tale, they were quickly beginning to fade as the stone itself started to radiate a dark blue nimbus of light.
"Observe the structure of the crack running up from the center – that is where the ward from the sealing is breaking," said Tsuruko as she held her hand in place.
Keitaro, still befuddled, slowly drew his face closer. He had to squint through his glasses, but he could make out a series of spindly, almost spider-like cracks emanating through the warded stone.
"What does that mean?" he asked. It seemed to him to be the obvious question.
Tsuruko lowered her hand and the light faded. "This is what concerns Motoko-han. The seal is coming undone."
Keitaro gave Tsuruko an uncomprehending stare. All this… magic and spirits and demons, was far beyond the experience of a modern man such as himself. Tsuruko saw the look on his face and blew out a strong breath; her cheek bulged to the side and then folded her hands into the sleeves of her robes.
"When I said the beast marked Motoko-han, I meant that literally. He marked her as his own, as a conduit for his power. This is a dangerous and old type of magic, if left unchecked it would make her susceptible to…" her voice quavered at this point, "… demonic possession."
Keitaro pinched the bridge of his nose and adjusted his glasses. "This is just too much to believe," he complained. "I mean, I've seen some amazing stuff… I've seen Motoko-chan practically split boulders with a wooden bokken… that should be impossible, right? But this…" he was at a loss for words.
Tsuruko locked a hard stare on Keitaro and ignored his protestations. "It doesn't matter if you believe it or not, it's the truth and it's also the truth that your wife is in danger." Her voice was cold, but with a hint of sharp steel that made Keitaro's stomach leap into his throat.
"She is a hanyō, a half-demon, and the mark on her needed to be defeated. To do so, we sealed away the yōkai side of her nature as well as her memories of that night. Let me ask you this Urashima-san, do you know how far that fall was that the two of you survived?"
Keitaro's memory of the fall itself was mostly non-existent. Other than the sensation of reaching out for Motoko, he couldn't recall a single thing. The doctors at the hospital had assured him however that this was entirely normal – often when people suffered head trauma they lost memories from the moments before the injury. Still, he had never inquired before how far they had actually fallen…
Keitaro shrugged in defeat.
"300 meters," said Tsuruko with a serious face that brooked no argument. Keitaro tried to imagine how far that actually was and came up with several scenarios, most of them involving football fields lined up back to back. Sure, he was tough… but a fall like that, it should be impossible to survive.
"That can't be right," he said. "A drop from that far… we should have been squished like bugs."
Tsuruko nodded and then removed her hand from her sleeve. "This is how you survived," she said as she held a closed palm out towards Keitaro. He moved his own hand under hers and then she let drop what she was holding – a clump of pure white feathers.
"I watched the whole thing," Tsuruko stated. "You fell the first thirty or so meters together, it was brutal and the pair of you bounced off rocks the entire way down. Then you spun out from the face of the cliff, completely over the darkness and began to plummet. I think… I think if it had just been Motoko-han, then it would have ended there."
Keitaro contemplated what Tsuruko was telling him. What did she mean?
"But you were with her and I suspect that as distraught as she was, she couldn't let you share her fate. Motoko-han broke her own seal, at least a little bit. You didn't fall Urashima-san, she carried you to that canyon floor." Tsuruko's voice was filled with such conviction that Keitaro had a hard time trying to deny her. Still, the rational part of his mind refused to give up.
"What do you mean? Like she…" he stared at the feathers in his hand, "What?" he exclaimed. "Are you saying that she flew?"
"You are holding the proof," replied Tsuruko with an imperious tone.
"But how?" demanded Keitaro, his mind still reeling from the barrage of insanity Tsuruko was throwing at him.
She smiled softly and then spoke, "Wings… glorious white wings."
Keitaro felt like he had the wind knocked out of him and he reeled backwards on his heels, stumbling until he found himself on the floor. Tsuruko stepped forward towards him, a look of concern on her face. "I'm fine…" he muttered as he waved her off.
"I'm just stunned… this is just too incredible," he stated. Truly, it's not every day that a guy like Keitaro Urashima heard such things.
"You wife is a half demon, oh and her sister is really her mother and finally, she's in danger of being possessed by evil spirits. Would you like a cup of tea? How about a cracker to go along with it?"
He shook his head to clear his thoughts. Still, he had questions of his own.
"So, again… why did you tell me all this?" he asked.
Tsuruko offered a hand to Keitaro and helped him up from the ground. When he pulled away, he found that Tsuruko had left a small object in his hand. He carefully examined it, holding it up between his fingers – It looked like a small calcified egg of some sort, perhaps from a bird.
"I'm giving you a choice, one that I cannot make any more because I gave up my rights over my daughter," she said with obvious sadness.
"That egg has been prepared in such a way as to break the remainder of Motoko-han's seal," she stated.
Keitaro looked at the tiny egg and mused, "Why would I want to do that? Isn't that seal keeping her safe from this… Kotengu creature?"
"Yes, but if the seal is broken then it's likely that she will be able to restore her body," replied Tsuruko.
Keitaro felt that there was something more to this, something that she was omitting. He took a gamble and pressed her in return. "And?" he asked, "What else will happen?"
Tsuruko hung her head, "I believe her memory loss is due to the nature of the seal that was placed upon her. Originally it was meant only to seal the memories of that one night, but now it seems to have stolen everything," she turned away from Keitaro in an effort to mask her sadness.
"So… this might not only heal Motoko's body, but her mind as well?" gasped Keitaro. It sounded almost too good to be true.
"Yes, but… it might also erase her memories, or at least… some of them," added Tsuruko. She carefully made an effort to avoid Keitaro's gaze.
"Some?" he inquired. Obviously, just as he had predicted, there had to be a catch somewhere.
"She may gain back all her memories prior to her… 'accident', specifically from when she started to break her seal, but in exchange, lose all those gained since." Tsuruko sounded somewhat apologetic about that and it took a moment for Keitaro to comprehend why.
"Oh," he said with a stunned voice, "So she might forget everything since the wedding…"
Keitaro winced involuntarily. He didn't know if he could outright admit it yet, at least not openly, but the idea of Motoko forgetting the moments that they had shared over the last couple of months… it made his stomach churn with anxiety.
"Isn't that selfish thought? What if she has an opportunity to walk again, shouldn't she take that opportunity? Look at all the things she's had to give up… it's not fair, but this might fix it…"
Tsuruko could see the moral conflict playing out on Keitaro's face. The boy had never been really good at holding his cards to his chest, but she felt it did him some credit that she would so seriously consider what was best for Motoko.
"Let's say that this seal is broken… she's still 'marked' as you said, right? What could happen then?" he asked.
Tsuruko turned her back to gaze again at the warded stone. "We can strengthen the wards here. Dull the creatures influence. Perhaps even train Motoko-han on how to resist."
Keitaro considered this new information. Even if he wanted to give back Motoko her legs or her memories, was that worth the apparent risk? If he said 'no' was he really thinking of her safety, or was he just being selfish and wanting to preserve the status quo of their relationship?
"Dammit… again I'm expected to have all the answers!"
Keitaro felt a strong hand rest on his shoulder and he looked up to see Tsuruko smiling awkwardly at him.
"I'm sorry Urashima-san," she said apologetically. "As you said, Motoko-han is your wife and hence this decision is one that you need to make with that in mind."
Keitaro nodded abruptly. He didn't like it, but he knew that Tsuruko was saying – it would be up to him to either guarantee or help Motoko to find her happiness. Either as a swordswoman, or as a wife, but potentially not both.
Tsuruko withdrew her hand and gently guided Keitaro out of the shrine. As they slowly walked their way back down the mountain, she had only one last sentence for him.
"Urashima-san," she whispered, "I want you to know that I've always trusted you when it came to my daughter."
Keitaro thanked her politely and then retreated into his thoughts, only becoming aware again when they reached the part of the path where he and Motoko had made their ill-fated 'leap of faith'. Tsuruko watched him as he carefully made his way to the edge of the cliff in the darkness. The conditions, right down to the moonlight, were almost the same now as they had been then.
Slowly, Keitaro peered over the edge and into the yawning darkness below. He knew he wouldn't find any answers in that pitch black void, but he needed to feel the fear of gazing into the abyss that almost had swallowed him whole.
Now all he needed to do was decide how to climb out.
LH-LH-LH
Authors Note:
So, there was a lot of shinto spiritualism, legends and history in this chapter, huh? I hope people enjoyed the alternate folklore interpretations in this chapter and how it relates to the mysteries of the Shinmei-ryu and our two favorite swordswomen. It was particularly hard to write since it was so dense with information and as I'm sure you noticed, lots and lots of details.
That being said, we are probably over half way through with this story. I'm sure that most of you can tell that I've been building rising action as the plot advances and it will culminate in a decision or two in the future that may have dire consequences for our protagonists. To be entirely truthful, I actually have the final chapter of this story written and on ice (It's one of the reasons why this one came so much later than the others, the other reason being I wrote 2 other chapters for other stories in the intervening time).
Also, I'm very curious that now that I've lain out everything explicitly in this chapter, if there was anyone who didn't know that either Motoko was Tsuruko's daughter, or that Motoko was a hanyō? I know a couple of people have sent me PM's previously asking me about this and I affirmed it to them, but I hadn't seen much discussion or questions about it in the reviews, so I wondered if I had been too subtle in dropping all my hints in this story!
Once again, thank you all very much for reading and reviewing this story. It's really encouraging to see so many people write positive reviews or give advice and especially to see how quickly this piece has made it onto so many people's favorite list (it was only started a little over a month ago!)
Until next time…
QC
