Author's Note: I got the idea for this halo from an episode of the podcast, Midnight Burger, and another episode of Psuedopod. It's not as smooth as I want it but I got it to work. I will come back to these two later. I struggled with writing about Yasuke. There wasn't much information about him and I didn't see the anime about him. I think I nailed him just right. (Gently) let me know if I didn't. There is so much that I want to do with Yasuke and Sonomi as the series goes on. Meanwhile, I can see how this season going to end. Just the ending and not much else. Before then, I know what I am going to do for the next two weeks. This season is going until the last week of February. (Yeah, it's a big season this year.) For now, enjoy this week's halo.
Halo Twenty-Five: Yasuke:
The sea can deliver painful memories but it can also bring something beautiful.
March 1581
Yasuke stared out at the roaring waves. It had been two years since he first came to Japan. He could barely remember what home was like anymore. The memories of his mother's face started to fade away. He couldn't hear her voice in his head anymore. Now, he had traded up one master for another one. They stripped him of everything. He didn't even have his birth name anymore.
"Yasuke!"
The stoic man turned his head.
Nobunaga's men were further up the beach. He wasn't alone today. The shogun and his party were out near the beach today. The reason has been lost to time. In any case, it was time for lunch. Yasuke turned and joined his party.
The group ate out on the balcony of the house. One of the men looked up and saw something falling from the sky.
"What is that?" he asked. The other men looked up. They saw an object of light landing on the sand.
"Go out and see what that was," Nobunaga ordered. Yasuke and two other men got up and walked out to the beach. The atmosphere felt eerie. The three men took their time walking along the shore. One of the men had a nervous look on his face.
"Do you think it's an omen of some sort?" he asked. His comrade gave him a weird look.
"What?" the samurai asked. "You've heard the stories!" His comrade rolled his eyes. Not this again. It was Yasuke who looked up in front of them. He ran over for a closer look.
A person lay huddled on the sand. However, that wasn't the first thing he noticed. One giant black wing stuck up in the air. The owner looked like a naked human girl about nineteen or twenty. The samurai had no idea what he was looking at. Was this a human? Or was this an angel?
His fellow samurai ran up to his side. The men stared down at the girl with red faces.
"Who is that?" one of the samurai asked. The other man covered his eyes.
"It's a god," he whispered. The samurai cut him a look.
"What?" the other man asked. Yasuke already tuned them out. Suddenly, the girl started stirring awake. The samurai froze with bated breath. The pale winged girl tried to sit up. Her voice came out in low groans. Yasuke took a step closer.
"Yasuke, wait!" one of his fellow samurai shouted. Yasuke slowly reached out his hand to her.
"Hey," he said. The girl turned her head. Yasuke was just inches away from touching her.
"Are you alright?" he asked. He now had a better look at the girl. Her face and body said that she was from Japan. However, some features didn't look like they came from anywhere else. The way she stared at him told him that she didn't understand a word he said.
"Do you understand Japanese?" Yasuke asked. The girl gave him a blank stare. He tried all of the languages that he picked up to try and talk to her. Nothing. Not a single word got through to her. There wasn't a scratch on her body. Where did she come from?
"Do you think she can talk?" one of the samurai asked. The other man shrugged and shook his head. Yasuke held out his hand.
"Come on," he said. "Let us help you." The girl stared at him. The samurai waited with his hand out. She finally took hold of his hand. She looked like a little fawn learning to walk for the first time as she stood up.
"There you go," Yasuke said in a whisper. He used his gi to cover her body. The four of them made it back to the house where Nobunaga and his party were staying. Nobody said a word. Yasuke stayed by the girl's side. The other two samurai looked over their shoulders at her. Who was this girl? Where did she come from? How did she fall from the sky? And what was with those wings? The girl looked up at Yasuke as they got closer to their destination.
"Who is this?" Nobunaga asked when they returned.
"We don't know, my lord," one of the other samurai said. The men all bowed.
"We think she might be a mute foreigner," he added. Nobunaga looked the winged girl up and down. Strange creature this one was. So pale and so lovely at the same time. Her long black hair came down to her waist. She looked so small next to Yasuke.
"What is her name?" the shogun asked.
"She hasn't said anything, my lord," the other samurai said. "What shall we do with her?" Nobunaga took her in regard for a moment.
"Let the ladies of the inn deal with her," he said. The shogun clapped his hands. Two maids walked over to his side.
"Yes, my lord?" one of them asked with her head bowed.
"See to it that this young lady is taken care of," Nobunaga said.
"Yes, my lord," the maid said. She and the other maid walked over to the girl. Yasuke watched as they took her away. The girl took one more look at him before she was walked down the hall.
The next morning, the girl was gone. The maids didn't know what happened. They just gave her a bath and dressed her up in a kimono from their closet. They had to be careful of her wings. The girl ate with the maids and went to bed.
When the maids went to check on her in the morning, they realized that she was gone. They didn't know what to do. Where could she have gone? She didn't seem to know where she was going. There was a debate to look for her or not. They didn't know what they were going to do with her anyway. In the end, they just let the matter go.
The shogun and his party enjoyed their time near the beach before returning to Kyoto.
However, that wasn't the end of the story.
Fast forward a few days later. Things started to go back to some sort of normal. Still, Yasuke couldn't help but wonder what happened to that strange girl. He didn't know much about her. They didn't speak the same language. However, he couldn't explain what drew her to him. It didn't matter.
He was at a small restaurant in Kyoto. There weren't many people around during the closing hours. Yasuke was used to having people staring at him. He'd been in this country for two years after all. The samurai hadn't expected much that night. Just finish his dinner and get home to his current dwellings.
That all changed when everyone in the restaurant heard a crash outside. One of the waitresses ran out the front door. Yasuke looked up to see the waitress dragging in that strange girl. The samurai rose to his feet in shock.
"It's you," he said.
She looked the same as he did when he and his comrades found her on the beach. Her robes from the bathhouse looked like they had seen better days. When was the last time it was washed?
"Do you know this girl?" the waitress asked. Said girl lifted her head when she saw Yasuke. There wasn't any emotion on her face but he still saw a hint of recognition in her eyes.
"I guess I do," he said.
The girl sat across from him at his table. They didn't speak at first. Yasuke didn't know what to say to her. How long had she been wearing those robes?
"What are you doing here?" he asked. The girl stared up at him. The samurai frowned. Was she looking for him? If so, why?
"Where did you go?" he asked. "Why did you leave?"
"Leave?" she asked. So she can talk. Yasuke kept his composure.
"Yes," he said. The girl looked down at the table. She looked like she was about to say something but stopped herself. Yasuke figured that it was something she didn't want to get into.
"Where did you go?" he asked. The girl didn't even look up. Okay, this was going nowhere. Yasuke looked at her robes. She had to have been out on her own for quite a while. It didn't look like she had any possessions on her. Was there anyone even looking for her? And then there was the matter of her wings. Other than her robes, the girl looked like she was in good health. No injuries as far as he could see. She could understand him a little bit. Maybe he could try and help her before he got any information out of her.
"Hey," he said. The girl lifted her head. Yasuke pointed behind him.
"I have some fresh clothes for you to wear at my place," he said. She blinked at him.
"Clothes?" she asked.
"Yeah. But they would feel so much better after a bath," Yasuke said.
That's how she ended up at his dwellings. He let her go into the house first. The girl didn't argue the whole time. After her bath, he let her sleep in his futon. Yasuke just let her stay there.
She would come and go during the day. Yasuke and the girl grew closer in the short amount of time they knew each other. He found her a strange one.
"Sonomi."
"What?"
She rested her head on his chest. "My name."
"Sonomi?"
The girl slowly nodded. Okay, so that was her name. Garden of Hope.
"My name is Yasuke."
"Yasuke?"
"Yes."
Sonomi started to look healthier the longer she stuck around. She would come back wearing the kimono that some of the women of the village would loan her.
"Do you like it?" she asked as she twirled around in the doorway. Today, Sonomi had on a dark green kimono covered in a white spider lily design. She was so small that it looked like it could swallow her whole. The sleeves looked like they would weigh her arms down. The obi had to be wrapped around her waist eight times. The white lily in her pinned-up hair added to her look. Yasuke whistled.
"Where did you get that?" he asked.
"One of the ladies in the village," Sonomi said.
He found her an odd girl. Where did Sonomi come from? What was with her wings? Did she have someone looking for her?
Yasuke ran his hand down her back along her wings. Sonomi settled back into place in her sleep. This had been one of the more peaceful nights she had been asleep.
Last night, Yasuke awoke to her mumbling in her sleep. He whispered her name but she didn't wake up. The samurai could only understand one word out of her mouth.
"Mama."
Tears ran down her cheeks. Yasuke lifted his head. That was the first time she mentioned anything about family.
"What happened to your mother?" Yasuke asked her the next day. Sonomi had a somber look on her face.
"She died saving me," she said. "Mama. She had a heart condition." The girl struggled to tell her story.
"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to," Yasuke said. His lover shook her head.
"It's fine," she said. She lifted her chin and took a breath.
"My homeland was doomed before I was born," she said. "The sun was dying. Most of my people died from illness. Those who still could escape did so as soon as they could. Mama could've taken her medication to save her life but she didn't have time. She died crossing the fields to get me to safety." Tears rolled down her cheeks. Yasuke didn't know what to say. He pulled her into his arms instead.
"Thank you," she whispered.
"I barely remember my mother," he said. "I haven't been to my homeland in a long time." The realization began to slowly sink in for the samurai. He shook his head.
"I'm sorry," he said. Sonomi shook her head.
"We are two lost souls with no homeland to call our own," she said. Usually, her words made no sense but this time Yasuke could see what she was saying.
However, the blissful days couldn't last long. Sonomi didn't belong here. She wasn't supposed to stay here for too long. Back then, she still hadn't mastered jumping through time. She didn't know what she was looking for. It wouldn't be long before she remembered her mission.
"I will have to leave you soon," Sonomi told him one night in bed.
"Why?" Yasuke asked. She looked up at him.
"I am not from here," the girl said.
"I figured as much," he said. Sonomi shook her head.
"No, it's more than that." She pressed her lips together for a beat.
"This is going to sound crazy. I am not from your time. I come from the future." Sonomi looked him in the eye. She half-expected him to laugh or dismiss her words. Instead, he listened quietly. Sonomi took a breath and broke down her past and how she met someone she called her "savior".
"And you think traveling through time will save him and your home?" Yasuke asked at last. Sonomi lowered her head as she closed her eyes.
"Yes," I said.
"And you don't where to start?" he asked. She shook her head. The samurai tried to think of something to say but came up with nothing.
"How long before you have to leave?" he asked. Sonomi frowned.
"Let's not think about that," she said.
"How long?" he asked again. His lover sighed.
"Three weeks," she said. "Look, can we not talk about it? I just want to spend what little time that we have left." Yasuke rested his chin on her head.
"Fine," he said. Sonomi kissed him on the chest.
"Thank you," she said. She rested her head back on his chest.
They tried to savor the time that they had left. The night walks for home were the highlight of Yasuke's night. They didn't have to say anything. Just having her by his side was enough. She rested her head on his arm. What he could not foresee was that this relationship would have a lasting change on him.
On the last morning together, Sonomi got up early. She dressed herself in a purple kimono with white cranes. The girl looked at herself in the mirror. She looked behind her. Yasuke was still sound asleep. She picked the perfect time to slip away.
Nobunaga was dead. Yasuke had joined forces with his oldest son. Within days, they were going to war. Sonomi couldn't talk him out of it. He was a samurai. This was all he had left. After all, they were two lost souls with no homeland.
Sonomi leaned down and kissed Yasuke on the forehead. She whispered something to him before she vanished into thin air. The girl felt a slight twinge of pain in her chest before she disappeared.
Yasuke was used to waking up alone on some mornings. This one should have been no different, but he knew better. He probably wasn't going to see her again.
Days later, Yasuke would be off to war with his former master's eldest son.
Present Day
"What are you talking about?" Michiko asked. Mikado's fingers worked feverishly on his keyboard. The woman frowned.
"Mikado? Mikado?" she asked. The tadpole smiled as he hit enter. A webpage popped up on the screen.
"Found him!" he said.
"What the hell is going on?! Who are you looking for?" Michiko asked. Mikado moved aside for her to get a good look at his screen. She squinted with a confused look on her face.
"Who is that?" she asked.
"One Yasuke Ndamukong," Mikado said. "And he's going to be the key to finding and stopping Sonomi before this all gets out of hand."