Hullo! Hurrah for updates!
I love to travel and so will be away for a while. Life is too short to be barricaded with school, work, obligations, obsessions. Don't fret- you have not been forgotten. With the help of a dysfunctional playlist (dirty R&B, glitzy jazz, bubbly pop, elegant classics) I am finishing this three hours before my flight without compromising anything. An incomplete chapter is a half-broiled chicken. I prefer my work like my chicken- well done. Both of my pieces will be updated. Hope that appeases the lot of you! :D
For this chapter, let's hashtag! It will be so fun! here I start: #YOLO #love #insecurity #youareamercilessdemonfromthesevenhells
I will be # replying to everyone too. Feel free to review that way. Can't wait to see how this turns out!
CHAPTER 17 North Star
Tschiyo stops in her tracks, turning to open the shoji from Ran's chambers.
She finds the young woman in the middle of the room, knees to her chest.
"Ran-dono," she approaches her, "we haven't seen you in the garden for over a moon. Pray tell, what is the matter."
A hand on her arms and the older woman feels fabric and bones. She toils day and night bandaging wounds and cleaning cuts, but no amount of labor could possibly skeletonize this woman.
"Tschiyo-san, I-I-" She couldn't bear to say it, and it isn't because of her dry throat and swollen eyes. Where to start about this chronic madness? This malady that ran her heart so heavy? When he saved her life the first time? The second time? Or when he gave her "gift" that now lies inside a lacquered box by her desk? Or the tears she shed at the temple after the bitter conversation they shared?
Tschiyo places a hand on her back. A warm embrace, reminiscent of mother's from a time that only lives in the past.
"Love is not easy, but there's no need for tears." She pauses just as the younger woman raises her head.
"Nani?" Ran sobs. "Tschiyo-san I am not crying. I am not in love."
She was unwell and it was clear as day to the older woman from the untouched food, forgotten supplies and neglected garden.
"Love, love, love….," she sighs, rubbing Ran's sleeve, "I was in love once with a man in the Toyotomi compound many years ago." The older woman gazes in the distance, seeing but not looking.
"He was a squire. Died from an ambush during his travels. The days we shared short they were, but I will carry to my grave."
"Why?" Her eyes so wild with wonder.
"Why what?"
Ran bites her lip. "Why do you fall in love with a man fated to die a premature death?"
"Ran-dono, no one, man or woman chooses to fall in love," a small laugh escapes the older woman, "just as neither chose when to die."
"You chose to be with him at a time of war, unrest and famine," the younger female nips back, never knowing she could utter such words.
"There will always be war, unrest and…obstacles, Ran-dono," she affirms, uprooting the bitter seed before it takes root in the younger woman's heart, "but is there no greater time for love?"
"I- I don't know what you are saying, Tschiyo-san," she sniffs. "How could anyone choose love during times such as then…such as now?"
The older woman smiles. "There is no better time for love than the Sengoku Jidai. When one can easily be lost in the vicious cycle of hate, revenge and greed, is love not the perfect remedy? Death will pass, but love, lives on."
She takes a deep breath and brushes away tears with her sleeve.
"Tschiyo-san, I am scared."
The older woman looks over to her. "Of what my child?"
"I lied to the man most important to me in order to save his life," fresh tears threatening to fall, "but he thinks of me shameful, dishonorable and a woman of compromised virtue. I'm told never to appear before him."
A choked sob as she rubs her eyes. "My heart aches and I fear I will never be loved."
Tschiyo gives her a wizened smile. "How silly you are! Who could not love you! Kind, smart and-" She places her arms around the smaller female.
"Anata wa kirei desu," she says to her with a grin, wiping her tears, "totemo kirei."
Ran closes her eyes, her words barely a whisper. "It hurts everyday I do not see him. I can't eat, I can't sleep, Tschiyo-san. I wish to forget, to stop."
"You must be brave. Love is not easy," she tells her, hand on her face, brushing away a strand of hair, "have faith. You must not give up."
"I did not ask for this," she cries, a fresh load of tears cascading down her cheeks. She did not seek shame. She did not ask for the scorn of a man to whom she would sacrifice her chastity. She did not think to be in love with everything she was not.
Tschiyo dabs her sleeve against the corner of Ran's eyes.
"Does a seed ask to bloom into a flower? Does the sun ask to rise?"
She shakes her head and Tschiyo proceeds to wipe her tears away again.
"Neither do we, so do not despair and do not regret," she smiles at her again. "Sakechi is waiting for you."
Mitsunari downs another serving of sake to bate his impatience, a red glow permeating the small establishment.
"He will arrive soon," Ieyasu attempts to placate the fuming General from across the table, pre-occupied with his green tea.
Outside the drunken banter, cacophony of 'music' and sultry voices catalyze his irritation. He had been here once, moons ago and it was more than enough for a lifetime. Filthy, immoral and lawless he thought this place to be, but even Mitsunari cannot deny the wealth of information that circulates within the Red Light District.
"Yo!" A tall man with flamboyant robes and a monkey hurries over to join them at the wooden table. "We meet again."
"Maeda Keiji," the more solemn of the two began, "the information you claim to have concerning Lord Hideyoshi. Speak."
The Maeda clansman casts Ieyasu a look of amusement as the latter gives him a lop-sided grin. "No time to spare, I see."
Mitsunari swigs sake as Keiji takes a seat, Yumekichi preoccupied with pieces of mochi.
"In my travels back to the village where Hideyoshi and I hailed from, I encountered rumors," the vagabond begins. He pauses for effect and seeing no words of protest from either, continues.
He proceeds to tell the two men rumors of Nene, a childhood friend in the village who few knew because she was first to fall when Hideyoshi decided to pursue the path of power. Nene, a country bumpkin, friends with the man whom would later become one of the most powerful warlords in the history of Japan, had been struck down with a single blow…
"Nani? Doshite?" Mitsunari demands with a slam of his sake cup. There must be an error to Maeda Keiji's ramblings. Lord Hideyoshi would never bring harm to the weak- women, children or elderly…
Keiji's gaze is distant, yet firm.
…Because she opposed his grand ideals of warring and conquering lands for the unification of a stronger Japan. Because she disagreed that peace meant military subjugation and that strength meant agricultural monopolization.
Because she loved him as a man more than a warrior.
"Lies and deceit," Mitsunari sneers. Ieyasu frowns.
Maede Keiji gave both of them a grave look. "Nene's will lives on. An heir to the Toyotomi empire, exists."
The world grinds to a halt. All ambient sound gone mute.
"What?" Mitsunari almost flips the table over if not for Ieyasu's grip on his shoulder. The other warrior tells him to remain seated. Inconcievable! There is no documented heir to the Toyotomi Empire! What blasphemy Maeda Keiji spouts!
"Although an illegitimate child born before Hideyoshi's rise to power, an heir exists. It was not disclosed at the time, but after so many years this has finally been confirmed by the village elders who cared for her after Nene's death."
"Her?" Ieyasu repeats, curious.
"The heir to the Toyotomi Empire is a princess," Keiji smirks, "a lovely one."
"Her location." Mitsunari demands, breaking Ieyasu's grip and standing before them. If an heir to the Toyotomi throne exists, he will resume his duties as a vassal for her highness and see to it the empire is restored to its prior glory. His late Lord's descendants he will protect until his last heartbeat. The will of Lord Hideyoshi shall live on.
"The elders were wary at first, reluctant to disclose her whereabouts, fearing assassins, but alas," Keiji continues, hand under his chin, "she was sent away to the war fronts."
Mitsunari makes a fist. The child of Hideyoshi-sama sent to the edges of combat!
"Have no worries, she is in the care of two powerful warlords," the playful man winks at Ieyasu. "Last I hear she saved the lives of many wounded soldiers."
At this Ieyasu lets out a sigh. The irony of bonds. He then breaks into a fit of laughter, leading Mitsunari to assume the Tokugawa heir had reached the pinnacle of his lunacy.
"The Princess' name," Mitsunari demands from the vagabond, "now."
Ran bolts as fast as she could down the beaten path, approaching downhill steps leading to the Hanamachi area. Her heart hammering as fast as it did the day Mitsunari carried her back to the Ieyasu compound. Her cheeks as scarlet as the day she awoke indecent after the river incident. Her mind inked with resolution like the moment she lied for Mitsunari's sins.
She aches to see him, even if momentarily to tell him the immutable emotions imprisoned within her chest. Her eyes blur again at the thought of him shunning her away, but she brushes away the doubt.
"Don't despair and don't regret."
Perhaps it is the recklessness of youth that compels her to sprint to Mitsunari's disclosed location in the middle of the night alone, but she also supposes it is something more.
Something along the lines of not having seen him for months that makes her heartache.
Something along the lines of a justified self-service so she would not become like most of the elderly women of this war-torn era with bitter, regretful eyes wearied of this world.
Something along the lines of love and how it alone would dictate all things foolish, brash and spontaneous in this life and the next with adequate reason.
The stone steps snake downwards to the busy, glowing hamlet. The sides of the stairs lined with bamboo thickets, although are more difficult to travel, present less of a chance encounter with denizens of the night.
Step by step she trudges through until her heart freezes over fast, calculated footsteps echoing from the dark forest ahead. Her limbs stiff and eyes wide. The common man would not travel this way…
Kami. Please let it pass.
Her heart rate spikes, telling her to go on to steps where moonlight reached. Go now and be safe. But her hands remain glued to the branches, glued to the goal. Her breath becomes bated after the footsteps grow slow, and stops.
She almost sighs but the rustling restarts. Faster and louder they are than before. And a voice, so thunderous booming through the brush she barely comprehends! Her kimono feels damp and her heart slams against her ribcage, sending a rush of blood that makes the world swirl. Her knees grow weak. Hide and wait. Hide and wait. Again the voice booms, but the words are inaudible over the hammering in her chest.
Thieves?
Marauders?
Bandits?
Drunks?
Assassins?
She could see a dark silhouette punching through the vegetation and she slams her eyes shut, tears escaping through the corners because she will never get to tell a certain arrogant general how irrevocably in love she is with him.
A thunderous crack of bamboo sends her screaming and then silence…
"Why are you here?"
It's even but breathless.
She opens her eyes to see Mitsunari sheathe his sword with a flick of the wrist. He had mistaken the glow from her kanzashi against the moonlight for a weapon belonging to thieves of the night.
"M-Mitsunari-dono?" Eyes wide in disbelief.
He stalks over, deliberate and erratically slow despite his usual agile gait. He kneels before her, followed by a pregnant pause.
"…are you hurt?"
"Mitsunari-dono, Mitsunari-dono!" First a whisper then a cry, throwing her arms around his neck in wild abandon.
A barely audible sigh escapes the Ishida general, all intentions of confronting her scattered with each succession of her wailing in his neck, amor and all. It could wait.
"I went to find you," she chokes between sobs, not willing to release him for fear this be a cruel dream. "I had to see you, Mitsunari-dono. Please I need to say-"
A voice in the distant, echoing from bottom of the stairs.
"Did you meet anyone on your way here? Are you hurt?" He repeats, eyes locking onto hers for the first time without its usual sharpness.
She shakes her head, scarlet clawing up her neck at the close proximity. "B-But I have to tell-"
"We must go," he lifts her in his arms upon hearing a second voice. The musk and steel from him sends her mind swirling so much that she barely notices being placed on his horse.
"These are dangerous times, you would do well not to venture out unattended," he warns, manning the reins of his warhorse. With the Tokugawa residence in sight, Mitsunari slows his horse to a trot.
She murmurs in agreement, arms wound tight around him out of fear, but not of falling unlike last time. The tranquil path, veiled by fluttering leaves, is one she wishes would last forever. Wouldn't it be wonderful be in a time unchanged, unhurried without war and its facetious promises and empty glory.
He frowns at her unusual silence.
"Look there," he gestures to a bright glow studded in the dark heavens. "The North Star."
"It is beautiful," she breathes, never having noticed it.
"It is constant," the young general corrects, "should one lost his way, he needs only seek the North Star to navigate home."
Constant. It appeals to her. Unchanging, reliable.
Her mind begins to churn. She had sacrificed for consistency, for continuity, for him.
"We're here." He halts the ebony equine, dismounting with ease before reaching for her.
She glances up at the North Star momentarily before her feet meet the ground. Constant is good in a tumultuous, revolutionary era, but distant and alone is not for an age so transient and precarious.
"Mitsunari-dono," Ran calls out to the young man paces from her, though it may as well be an eternity between them.
His back towards her, turns his head slightly to attention.
"I…" her throat runs dry and heart palpitates on the brink of failure.
"Nani?" His tone stern and even, but without its usual edge.
Her heart rushes to act, but all the million and one words she initially had for him shrinks to three in the silent night. Three words rapidly slipping from her grasp like water through fingers.
"I-I wish stay here," she blurts out instead, face a dark crimson in the silver moonlight, "to stay by your side. I-"
Too late. Words she almost died to say months ago, now lost to the wind, lost to the stars. Irretrievable, irreparably misplaced, irreversibly denied.
He stands poised in the beautiful night silver.
"Ah," came his clipped reply finally before stalking ahead to the Tokugawa residence.
Ran sleeps not a wink the night of, and the next morning is even harder.
"Maeda Keiji-dono," she bows before him, pausing her daily routine of watering iris saplings to greet the young vagabond and his furry friend.
He hands her the purple omamori, the same one her mother had given her in childhood and the next few moments were but a mad blur.
"Maeda-dono, I'm afraid I do not know of what you speak."
A mistake of names and surnames, she surmises.
"How can this be? There must be a mistake."
Definitely, a sloppy error involving her kind, submissive mother and a belligerent, oppressive warlord.
"Maeda-dono, that cannot be true."
An egregious fiasco designed to further confuse her origins and heritage. She knows her mother and those that cared for her throughout the years. The village elders, sensei, Tschiyo-san, Ieyasu-dono, Mitsunari-dono- they are enough. Her mother is enough. Ran's life is enough without the insinuation of "princess", "heir" and "empire", especially from a flamboyant stranger she barely knows.
"Ran, I speak the truth," he affirms. "You must know because enemies of Lord Hideyoshi will soon come for you."
Without batting an eye, she meets him with a gaze so even it could only be borrowed from Ishida Mitsunari before excusing herself. "Forgive me Maedo-dono, but there are more responsibilities I must tend to. Please, enjoy your stay."
Salome Maranya: #thankyou #thatjerk #nomercy
EphemeralDream8: #itry #muchlove
XionNight: #mitsuloser
No One Important: #comeback #misses
Itsuki: #thatjerk #backhand
HeavenlyCondemned : #imglad #happy
Konoha'sYellowFlash : #forreal #mitsuloserjerk
jet44444 : #sokind #whereisbasarashow #noquitting
seraphicMia : #relieved #greatmindsthinkalike
suzu84 : #mitsuneverletyoutalkari #newname #Ishidaloser #newsurname
lolteammate166 :#agree #noloveforhim #ohnohedidnt #ohyeshedid
Guest: #sameperson? #typosneedwork #mitsunaribrokemyfingers
CIoud-09 : #mitsuloser #girldeservesbetter #thankyoufordrawing #kirei
THISISIMPORTANT : #THISIS2ndyear #itokay #feellike3though #muchlove
Secret tribute of this chapter to the insecurities we overcame, because girls are more than shells, more than pretty faces, more than obeying rules. Because they're diamonds in the rough, sparkling with aspirations and a toughness that know when to bend/break rules. Just food for thought.
peace, gravism