Mei laughed. Her bun was getting loose, the strands of her shiny black hair falling on her shoulder. Her slanted large eyes sparkled with joy as she triumphantly displayed her hand of cards to Yukemori.
- "Ha! Twenty-six! Thought that you would win this one, didn't you?"
Yukemori grinned. He had indeed thought so, but his hand was bested by Mei's. He gulped down a small porcelain cupful of sake. They were playing kame hitoku at his place, and the one who lost the hand had to drink a cupful of sake. They sprawled and laughed, getting increasingly drunk.
- "We are not very dutiful at the moment, are we?" Mei mused. "Kozakura is shaking in its foundations, people losing their homes and getting killed - and we are just getting drunk and playing cards."
Yukemori shrugged.
- "So you have convinced me that we should try to do something about it, as strange as such thinking seems to me."
- "Will of the Celestial ones and all that, huh?" Mei smirked. "But you would do well to remember that there are those to whom it would suit very well that everyone thinks the Celestial ones are acting instead of them."
- "Yes, I can see what you mean. I can see that you have changed the life of many... but I find we must feel this joy of ukiyo, the floating world, once in a while. Otherwise... the weight of heavy thoughts would crush us."
Mei's eyes were like cat's, unblinking and glittering.
- "That is a lot of what the yakuza's business is made of," Yukemori went on. "The floating world. Entertainment. Romance, passion, dance with Lady Gyou... showy duels, the acrobats and showmen, the peddlers of junk... the giddiness lets the soul fly for a while."
- "I suppose," Mei nodded. "For all the noble ones call that worthless, people yearn for it very hard. Even in these times. I am glad... and I fear... that I have found out something. The highest imperial wu jen, Giro-sama paid me a visit yesterday. He wanted me to entertain him with a tea ceremony and singing. I felt as if he was warning me. Or evaluating me. I feel that something is off in him. He is not natural."
- "He is the most trusted magical adviser of the Emperor," Yukemori said. "Did he actually say anything alarming?"
- "No, not really. He just... looked at me. And said that there might be hidden depths in me."
- "Well, he got that one right," Yukemori smirked. "What did you do?"
- "What do you mean do? Nothing."
- "Mei."
- "I did nothing! It would have been reckless to convey any sort of..."
- "Mei."
Mei blushed faintly.
- "Well... now... I sang a song to him. You know, just a perfectly normal, beautiful song, composed by the late emperor Hanoshe IV, may his eternal stay in Celestial Heights always please him... but, someone might think that it contained a message. If one is paranoid, that is."
Yukemori sighed deeply.
- "And what sort of message would this hypothetical paranoid person hear in the song you chose?"
- "That... madmen dream, and they may cause even the dragons to fall. But for all their delusions, it but stirs the Great Cycle, and life will find its way again, and the dragons will fly again," Mei said in monotone.
- "Oh. That song. Well done, Mei. If he wasn't suspicious of you before, he certainly is racking his brain now."
- "But... he was so smug! I can not accept people who see others as mere tools of their maneuvering!" she got going.
- "Yes, I have gathered as much so far. But other than that, do we have any evidence that Giro would be involved?"
- "Not evidence, no. But he definitely has something to hide. He is strongly advocating the idea that the trouble with Kusatte Iru is of divine origin. And he sneaks off the premises at night, I have followed him at times..."
