Yasu is surprised how easy it was to find the Kawaguchi onsen. He is met by a five year old kid who shows him the way to the base. He hopes Masako is here, he has missed her so much. Then he opens the door to see Naru and Lin.
He shouts, "Hey Lin, and Naru, miss me?"
The two of them regard him with nonchalance and maybe annoyance. Then he hears footsteps behind him. He has a huge smile plastered on his face when he see his girlfriend running up to him. He meets her halfway.
Masako knows it is him. She runs out of the room and her heart explodes in happiness when she sees it is, indeed, Yasu. She runs up to him. He comes to her halfway. She throws her arms around him, as he grabs her by her waist and hoists her up from the floor. She giggles, grateful that he is so much taller than her.
They pull back and stare at each other, taking it in. Masako whispers, "You know, I was just wishing I could see you."
"I heard you," he whispers back. He presses his lips against her. She kisses him back, their longing conveyed in more than words.
Naru sighs at the lovey dovey scene. He has had enough. He coughs, loudly. The couple finally release each other. Masako blushes, while Yasu quips, "Geez Naru, I haven't seen my girlfriend for days."
Naru glares at him, "You can tell me why you are here."
Yasu smiles stupidly at Masako, "I was missing her." Naru smacks his forehead. Yasu laughs, "Okay, okay. I have a shit load of information for you, my lord." He even bows.
"Get in here," Naru points at the base, "Masako…no wait they have been here all along."
Mai and Ayako who had their heads out of the door, are unperturbed at being caught by Naru. They were just curious to see what made Masako fly out of the room. Ayako supports Mai (who protests that she can walk on her own) and they get to the base.
When everyone is at the base and they have taken their seats, Naru says, "So? What are you doing here?"
"I am here to blow your mind," Yasu declares as he pulls out a foolscap paper out of his backpack. He unfolds the paper till it is at least three feet across. "Professor Watanabe is a gem. He has contacts everywhere. Sure he is an odd egg, but he is quite cool. It took him two days to chart this. Plus it helped that the family was once upon a time very famous!"
Mai crawls over, "What is it?"
"A genealogy chart going back from today to three hundred years." Everybody looks at Yasu in shock, even Naru who looks down at the sheet. Yasu continues, "Remember how I said I found two Tamakos around here? One Tamako had settled in Oda, Shimane while the other up north in Ono, Fukui. Turns out they belonged to the same family. They were brothers—Kenji and Saito Tamako. They were powerful feudal lords—subordinate only to the shogun. Now listen to me very closely—it gets real confusing. Okay, so Kenji's line as you can see ended by 1702. He had three sons and they all died. But Saito Tamako, he had two daughters and one son. The son died. I won't go all across but here's the gist of it, Saito's younger daughter, Michiru is the direct ancestor of the Kawaguchi's."
Everybody is stunned into silence. Mai gasps, "Kenji Tamako married Nanami Kagura! Could they be the couple I saw in my dreams?"
Naru nods, "Most probably. I can see that a lot of men die in this line. It can be safely assumed that Tamako was the original one cursed."
"But," Mai asks, "What do these dotted lines mean?"
Yasu replies, "Oh they are all children out of wedlock later adopted by someone else. Man, this family was scandalous. We have lovechildren. We even have incest here," he points at names on the chart, "Oga Teppei got his own cousin, Yoshimi Morita, pregnant. The kid was later adopted by Yoshimi's sister."
"Maybe that is why the curse did not work for some generations," Lin comments, "Nagisa probably got confused."
"The kid was named Koichiro Maruyama," Mai exclaims, "That is Ryo's grandfather!"
Naru's attention falls on a particular name on the list. He says, "What about this Yoshiro Kurosawa? His line isn't here."
"Well, he couldn't be traced. I am not sure what happened to him. His mother, Ono Yagami and his father, Sakito Kurosawa, moved to Hokkaido in 1822. There is no trace of them after that," Yasu explains.
Suddenly a knock is heard on the floor, following by Sakura sheepishly smiling at them, "Shibuya-san, I found the key you were asking for." She hands them the small, ornate key. Naru takes it. He says, "You can stay if you'd like. We have some things to say. Yasu tell her what you found."
Yasu starts explaining as Naru unlocks the box. A musky smell hits him. It has been closed for centuries now. There are a few quills, a little box of dried ink and yellowed sheets of parchment rolls. He runs his fingers under the lid, over the silk lining. His eyes fall on an embroidery in it with gold threads. It is in kanji. He beckons Lin over. He tells, "I am no good with this."
Lin reads the name and is stunned. He whispers it to Naru, who is equally stunned.
"Sakura-chan?" Naru says. The woman turns to look at him. "I have three questions. One, who did this box belong to?"
"Well, my grandmother had it but it originally belonged to her father. So it belonged to my great-grandfather."
"Okay. Two, what is your maiden name?"
"Kurosawa."
"Three, where are you originally from?"
"Well, my great-great-grandfather moved to Hokkaido during the 1820s. I don't know where he used to live before that."
"Okay."
"Shibuya-san?"
"Yes?"
"Why are you asking me such questions?"
"I know now why you and Tsugumi can see the writings."