An Old Tale

By: Esuna

Chapter Four: An Unexpected Letter

Kurando hurried out of the guestroom as his sole purpose was to seek his mother. Deep inside, he felt real panic overwhelm him. His heart was beating unusually faster because of this. Perhaps, it was fear creeping up on him. However, he still held a stern face, refusing to show the slightest tinge of emotion. So many things had flooded his troubled mind now. He didn't know what to make of it. What pestered him the most was why the girl had left the village and why her sudden disappearance left him feeling so unusually empty deep inside – just a hollow shell, if that was the correct term for it. Perhaps that was how it should feel to lose a close companion. So, was that it? Was she merely a 'companion' to him after such a nice long year they spent together? What else did she mean to him? He didn't know. And perhaps, he didn't want to know. Not yet. Not now anyways. What he did want to know was where the girl had gone.

…The east?

The young man had his head bowed down as he walked away from the guestroom. All he could think about doing was seeking his mother for some answers first. Yes, she probably knew where the girl headed off to. 'You will find your answer to the east' she had said. Yes, the east. Yet, where in the east? Japan was a big country after all… He silently berated his mother for her lack of specificity after the vision she had seen last night. Kurando wandered aimlessly through the residence. He snapped out of his gloomy thoughts when a young woman had called out to him from behind. The young samurai stopped in his tracks and swung around after a short hesitation.

It was Sayori. He knew it was her. Perhaps that was why he hesitated before he turned to her. Nevertheless, the young woman stood with her hands clasped together. She was wearing a light purple kimono with her black hair pulled back into a tight bun. The young woman gazed up at him with a rigid questioning face. Another part of her was demanding an explanation as well. He could tell just by the way her brows furrowed down slightly. Kurando could only stand there in silence, waiting patiently for the young woman to speak. She frowned at him.

"Kurando, what were you doing in Lady Anastasia's bedroom?"

He was quite taken aback by that one blunt question. However, he kept his emotion hidden well behind his stern face and simply remained silent.

Apparently, Sayori had caught him leaving the girl's bedroom when she had in fact, returned for the autumn kimono that she had forgotten to take, which was thought to be the Russian princess' dirty laundry. Not only did Kurando's appearance in the girl's bedroom stir some bitterness in her but his inability to answer her question straight through simply agitated her senses even further. She felt a surge of jealousy rise tenfold. However, the young woman was able to conceal it behind her stiff face. Although she was able to mask her resentment, her voice had betrayed her. It sounded angry clear through.

"Why do you still bother, Kurando? Why do you still bother going to her bedroom when she is gone? Gone!"

Somehow, the word "gone" was all he could hear. Yes, the girl was gone indeed. Nothing could change that fact. She was gone. He placed a gloved hand over his traditional wear, over that autumn kimono she had left behind. Soon, his hand clenched the surface of that material tightly. His eyes deepened with sudden anguish. Why did that one significant word have such a great impact on him? The girl had gone away. So what? No, it did matter. He still had that blood-scented cloth inside his traditional wear. He had to find out what was going on with her.

"Sayori," Kurando finally said in a calm but tired voice, "do you know where my mother is?"

The young woman looked angry clear through now. She demanded some answers from him. Yet she tried so hard and he simply ignored them. A long silence stretched between them before the woman answered rather hesitantly, "…She left the village early this morning."

He was a little startled in hearing that. "What? Where did she go?"

Sayori looked away bitterly. "I do not know," she muttered with impatience. "Now answer me, Kurando. What were you doing in Lady Anastasia's bedroom?"

"It is nothing for you to be concerned of," he said, turning his back on her. "I must find my mother now." Without another word, he left her standing there, fuming with complete rage.

Kurando spent the entire day looking for Saki. Somehow, he did not trust the sincerity in Sayori's voice when she told him his mother had left the village early that morning. She avoided his eyes when she said it. Not only that, her sudden hesitation had practically given it away. Why would she lie to him about that though? He didn't understand. Perhaps she realized that it had to do with Anastasia. And so she lied to him. No, he told himself. Sayori was not that kind of a person…

All the villagers had told the new Inugami leader that they had not seen Saki all day. None of them had seen her leave the village though. However, none had seen her around the village either. She had simply vanished into thin air. Of course, that was not possible at all. Where could she have gone? He felt terribly frustrated. Nothing was helping him either. What to do? Again, he did not know. He berated himself for his indecisiveness. Why was he always like that? He took a deep aggravated breath before he sighed out loud.

As the sun was beginning to set, Kurando headed towards the waterfall cavern, his hand by the sheath of his sword. He didn't understand why he headed there in the first place. Somehow, his instincts had told him to go there. As he stepped inside the cavern, he was welcomed by a cool breeze. He could feel some of the mist against his face from the waterfall. Slowly unsheathing his sword, he held it out vertically with both hands in front of him and just stared at the sharp weapon. No sooner, he had begun to swing the weapon in various movements, as if he was slicing thin air. His movements were as light and graceful as a feather fluttering down to earth. His intense training throughout the years had sure led him to become a master swordsman.

His mind wandered back to Anastasia just as he was about to swing the sword to the rhythm of those unique movements. He stuttered and eventually came to a halt, glaring at the weapon again. Shaking his head to push the girl out of his thoughts, he concentrated on his sword techniques again. It did not work. As much as he tried, Anastasia's sad, pained face kept flashing across his troubled mind. Kurando finally lowered his sword, sliding the weapon back into its sheath. He couldn't get the girl out of his mind. His hands tightened into clenched fists as he grit his teeth with great frustration.

In truth, he had never seen Anastasia look so distressed. She was always a kind optimistic young girl who tried to cheer her friends up in times of need. Now, she looked terribly aged and tired. A troublesome feeling weighed over him as he recalled the incident late last night. He had chased her out of the village. He had been ruthless. He had made her cry. Yes, she cried. He would feel terribly weak and helpless when a woman cried. Perhaps that was his weakness. As he dwelled upon it even longer, he cursed himself for being a real jerk to her.

What troubled him now was that Anastasia had refused to let him explain his situation twice. Both times, she had spurned him. She simply did not want to hear what he had to say. Perhaps she knew what he would say to her. Was she running away from it? Away from the truth? The longer he thought about it, the more he began to speculate whether he actually meant to tell her about his growing undeniable feelings for Sayori as well. Funny how this all took place just yesterday night. Although it felt like a really long, long time ago.

"Kurando! Kurando! Kurando!" a faint desperate voice pleaded to him.

He looked around himself. There was nothing out of the ordinary. But he could still hear that voice in his head, crying out to him. He walked forward as the voice got louder and followed it by hopping over the stones until he reached the tremendous waterfall before him.

"Kurando! Kurando! Kurando!" the voice persisted.

Kurando's eyes had sharpened intensely as he leaned over to look down at the pool of water. There was the image of Anastasia. A beautiful Anastasia dressed in a powdery pink kimono with her wavy light-brown hair tied up to a long pony-tail. A tall, ruddy faced man was yanking her roughly by the arm into a dark room. He tugged so hard that her kimono had slid off one side of her bare white shoulder. The girl fought back as she lashed out her arms and legs at him but to no avail. Kurando felt his entire body stiffen with immediate rage as he watched that same man slap her violently across the face. Anastasia was wailing out Kurando's name again as tears flooded her eyes. No sooner, the vision had dissipated from there.

He remained hunched over the water in a state of shock. Even with the image gone, he still remained there glaring at the water as if it would continue to show him what became of Anastasia. She was calling out to him. Repeatedly. But he could do nothing about it. Not one goddamn thing. All he could do was watch. Watch! Damn it! His eyes, now a fiery glow with unmistakable rage, grew more intense by the minute. He clenched his fists so tight that his knuckles cracked loudly. Finally, he couldn't take it anymore and lashed out at the water, splashing droplets of them onto himself and into the open air.

Damn it! He had to find Anastasia now! But how? He couldn't possibly know where she had gone. His mother had told him to seek his answer to the east. The east. If it meant searching through the entire east of Japan, he swore, he would do it if it meant he could find her again. Wait for me, Anastasia, he promised silently, hoping that the message would somehow transcend to her. Kurando swung around and ran out of the waterfall cavern.

A woman had hopped gracefully down to the ground from behind the small gentle curves of the hills that surrounded the cavern. She flicked her long dark brown hair back as she gazed at the exit of the cavern. "Yes, you must hurry before it is too late. There is nothing more I can do to guide you now, my son."

Kurando headed towards the residence so he could pack some of his belongings. It was going be a long journey. He knew not where to begin. But somehow, that did not matter. He could care less if it meant he would go on searching for the girl until the day he died. However, he shook his head at that thought. He was determined to find her before anything like that. Why though? Why…?

Just ahead of him, he could see Sayori standing by his bedroom door. Her head was tilted down to read a letter in her hand. By the banister, there stood a tolerant, well trained pigeon that was snow white in colour, which tilted its head from left to right at the young woman while she read the letter it brought.

"Sayori, what are you doing?" he asked as he stepped up beside her to touch her gently by the shoulder.

The woman was startled after being so engrossed in reading that letter. She swung her head to the side at Kurando with much alarm as if he had just caught her in the middle of a crime. Almost panic stricken, she hid the letter behind her back. "N-Nothing," she said as she avoided his fiery eyes.

He shut his eyes tiredly before opening them again. "You are hiding something from me."

She hesitated. "N-No. I am not."

He released her shoulder as he stood in front of the pigeon thus seated on the banister. It tilted its head up at him with great curiosity. He took the bird gently between the palms of both hands and turned to the young woman again. "Then explain this to me," he said, holding the bird out to her.

Sayori went pale. "I…"

Allowing the pigeon to stand on his shoulder, he held a hand out to the young woman. "The letter?"

She took a few steps back as fear clouded her entire body. Kurando's fiery eyes burned like a blazing inferno as he gazed into her frightened dark brown eyes. Never had she seen this young man look at her like that. She had never even seen him this angry before. The longer she gazed into his infuriated eyes, the more intense the fire seemed to burn in them. At last, Sayori surrendered to him as she held the letter out in front of her. Again, she avoided his eyes, fearing that the longer she peered into them the more his gaze would overwhelm her.

Kurando took the letter without glancing down at it. He still kept his burning eyes fixed on her shamed face. However, he soon looked away in order to read the letter in his hand. All this time, the young woman had remained silent before him. She dared not leave right this instant nor did she intend to stay either. But somehow, her feet refused to leave its spot. She waited for the young man to speak now.

He folded the letter neatly and shoved it into the front of his traditional samurai wear. He reached his hand up to the pigeon on his left shoulder to touch its puffy white chest with a finger. "I've never known you to lie to me, Sayori," he finally said through forced calmness.

The woman's cheeks flushed with obvious shame. "K-Kurando, I…"

He stepped past her to face his bedroom door now. "I cannot emphasize just how disappointed I am with you. Perhaps, I was wrong about you all along. I have made a terrible mistake," he said coldly. With that last final statement to her, he opened his room door and stepped in, closing it silently behind him.

Inside his bedroom, Kurando pulled the letter out from his traditional wear. He began to read it again just as the pigeon on his shoulder leaned forward to gaze at it as well. It was an unexpected letter from his Master, Naniwa Kawashima. 'You must come to Yokohama at once,' he stated. 'She is here' was the last thing he wrote in the letter.

Kurando lowered the letter from his hand as his mind focused on that one place: Yokohama…