Chapter 25
Tama saw them off after mid-day meal that day. She sent them off with as many salty rice balls as would keep for one day, plus a sum of money for lodgings. She tried to add a long lecture about propriety fitting for a lady of high standing, but he just walked out in the middle of it. When they took off they were having a lively debate about unified classification system of mushi. She knew Hardly the kind of conversation for a young couple out for indecent conducts. Or what was the vulgar word that those low-class folks used? "Hanky-panky?" recalled Tama, who was glad she did not blurt it out loud, though alone. "worrying too much. She is not a child any more, after all," she reminded herself. Anyway, she still had half of the house to set traps in, plus those scrolls to worry about. "Why do big things happen when Ginko visits, anyway? I should never have allowed him in the house to begin with….." She returned to the shed for more traps and kept thinking. Indeed, just like Ginko had a tendency to turn things upside down at the Karibusa mansion, the whole of Japanese society seemed to be undergoing an upheaval. All the farmers turning the tables on the feudal lords in hyakushou-ikki, the foreign powers on Kurofune forcing it open, new technologies, etc. etc….which she could not care less about unless it helped her with all the cooking, cleaning, washing, followed by more.
Tama's pondering or not, Japan stood at a critical juncture. In fact a lot wider scale and more profound than Tama realized. By nightfall she finished setting traps. After an evening meal she sat alone by the irori. Bikke the cat purred beside her, licking its paws and swiping its face with it over and over. It was obvious by now Ginko had become everything she had hoped Kumado would to Tanyuu; her intellectual equal, a confidant, a friend, and now a partner in her quest to seal the Forbidden Mushi. They always maintained a controlled front, but a bond had developed between them. She entertained a wild idea then. Would he not make a more suitable partner for her than any well-bred aristocrat? However carefully picked? Would that not, perhaps, stand a better chance for the house of Karibusa to survive the storms ahead? Then she realized the gravity of her idea and dismissed it as an utter folly. That decision was not hers anyway.
Her thoughts wondered back to her own youth. There once was a young man with whom she had a similar relationship. But that was ancient memory. He had always stayed in the background throughout the years by necessity, but their love had long been sacrificed for the sake of the house. She sipped more tea. On the day they forced their love to death the young man made a promise: they would swear their allegiance to each other, not in this lifetime but in the far future when they are reborn in a society different than theirs. Present day Tama thought a tear may be appropriate but found that, too, was long gone.
She chalked it up to the strange silence in the house that night.