At the age of twelve, Kenichi receives an invitation to Kyoto.
They haven't been by in a while; Tengen is annoyed at Kenjaku over two matters, one of which involved the delivery of an unflattering statue into an open public area at the Jujutsu Society and the other involved Kenjaku's natural body.
Kenjaku still has no particular plan to do anything, and while he can't imagine a reason that he would want to cause someone to possess someone else, he simply wants to keep his options open. Tengen insists that his decision is fundamentally immoral and contrary to the idea that the future might be a less horrifying place than the present.
The natural body remains in suspended animation, although Kenjaku believes the curse that caused this will eventually wear off and it'll decompose, but until then, he keeps it hidden away.
Kenichi is alone at the hideout when one of Tengen's falcons comes and screeches at the door. Since they thought Tengen didn't know about this place, he thinks Kenjaku would be annoyed. But Kenjaku isn't around; he decided to go wander off on his own to find out about something or another. There are times now and then when Kenjaku goes to do something, and he leaves Kenichi alone wherever they are staying.
He decides that he will go visit Tengen on his own, and after leaving a note for his brother, sets out on horseback.
Since he and Kenjaku occasionally separate for brief periods, Kenichi's horse She-Devil has become an important part of his life. They wander around quite a bit, and he hasn't made any real friends since he left Kyoto with Kenjaku.
He loves She-Devil; she's cantankerous, sold at a steep discount at a town they were passing through because she kicked her last owner in the mouth and broke his jaw. She bites, she bucks, she kicks, she headbutts. They have an understanding, although she still enjoys giving him a hard time.
She-Devil is a huge horse, black as the darkest night with a coat that shimmers in the light. She bores easily, and it this puts her in a bad mood, but she loves to run, loves to show off, loves to leap so high it feels like flying for a couple of seconds.
If he draws his bow when he rides her, she steadies her movement so she almost floats, like she wants him to hit, and would be insulted if he did not.
Kenichi spends countless hours with her, washing and brushing her coat, braiding her mane and tail, filing her hooves, and they go on adventures together, where he lets her run wherever she wants as fast as she wants.
He talks to her a lot, and while he knows she doesn't understand, she at least listens and pays attention to him when he's alone.
It's not far to Kyoto; he expects to be there before it gets dark because She-Devil will likely want to run for long periods, but he has coins, and there are places to they can stop for the night if the snow tires the horse.
He doesn't really know what Kenjaku left to do, but it's been a while since he's done anything with other people besides ride to the nearby village and buy food. Visiting the city and doing other human stuff seems like a welcome change of pace.
Over the past couple of years, Kenjaku has left him like this a few times without much explanation, and he sometimes wonders if he should maybe go stay in Nara with his other older siblings, or maybe even Kyoto. Whenever they cross paths with Sugawara, he always tells Kenichi he can always come visit or stay if he wants.
Sometimes he just gets lonely, that's all.
But anyway, the trip is nice.
Riding a big, powerful and somewhat wild-spirited horse down snowy paths is quite an exhilarating experience. The way force of the heavy steps of the horse vibrates through him, the sound of the feet clopping on the ground, the arrogant way She-Devil loves to run and jump now and then, the crisp air…it's all quite beautiful and moments like this make him truly happy and free.
At this moment in his life, Kenichi is somewhat centered, and when he looks into his future, he doesn't see himself as an endless source of terror. He mostly just wants to keep exploring and going on adventures.
He really wants to go back to Ezo and explore, or to the continent, or maybe south instead? The world really is such a big place. Maybe he is ready to make friends and know more people.
Kenichi is riding with his eyes closed, just taking in this superb moment in his life, when the running horse throws her rider flying forward off her back. The twelve-year-old manages to land on his feet after rolling for awhile across the ground ahead of the horse, who crashes to the ground behind him.
"Ooof. Ouch…"
When he gets up, he sees She-Devil has an arrow sticking out of her side.
She-Devil is panicked, trying to stand, but she just falls to the ground again.
A group of young men emerge from the bushes.
Sorcerers.
It has now been almost thirteen years since Nara burned, and the older children that Sugawara spared out of his mercy have grown up and some of them want vengeance.
This actually isn't the first time something like this has happened, but it's the first time something happened when he was alone.
They can't take it against Sugawara, or Kenjaku. Kenshin and Hoshiko are both really powerful sorcerers in their own right, and since they moved to Nara, have begun to build alliances with other clans and organize the sorcerers in the area to support the Jujutsu Society and Sugawara's vision of a unified nation at peace.
The idea here is to get vengeance on all of them by killing the family's precious little baby, the youngest and most vulnerable of the Kenji Fujiwara's children. At least, he understands that as the situation.
Kenichi, like his oldest brother, has denied both the duties and privileges of the Fujiwara clan, and therefore, he doesn't think he should be forced to inherit these grievances either. When he thinks of his dad, he sees a face in his mind and it is not Kenji Fujiwara's, because he has no idea what he looked like in the first place.
He didn't care about what their stupid parents did to each other; what he cared about was being a young man on a wild horse, racing down a road through the snowy wilds with the wind in his hair. It made him happy, and he felt alive, and now his horse was stumbling and struggling to rise from the ground with an arrow protruding from her side.
Was she going to die?
Why should she?!
Because these people said so?
Kenichi looks from one of his attackers to another, and estimates they're maybe fifteen, twenty, maybe twenty-two or so. Significantly older than him and at adulthood. They're wearing their clan crests on their clothing, and he really can't remember what is what despite the fact that Kenjaku made him a chart with all the clan crests. He really just didn't care to listen to drivel about the clans unless it was about an interesting sorcerer. And certainly, no one rushing out to ambush a twelve-year-old orphan over the sins their parents committed is interesting.
To them, he was just the baby of the Fujiwara clan, low-hanging fruit for them to pluck and devour so they could feel like they had avenged their elders.
"Are you scared, you little Fujiwara pig? We know who you are."
Kenichi answers, "And what?"
"We will introduce ourselves."
The boy replies, "I don't care who you are. The only thing I care about is the fact that you shot my horse."
They laugh at him because he is young, without respecting the fact he is the largest twelve-year-old any of them will ever see in their short lives, and he is also the same age that Kenjaku was when he became the reason their elders failed.
"He has to touch people to cut them," another one answers before his hand falls off.
It's maybe interesting that they know something about his technique, but this has recently become false and he has gained the ability to cut basically anything that he wants.
The archer takes an arrow from his quiver, and fixing the boy in his sights, pulls the bow string back, only to feel it lose all of its tension, as it has been cut. The bow comes apart, and his aiming eye suddenly blurs, obscured by a dark red curtain as blood and fluid ooze from his eye.
Then the pain comes, and he holds a hand over his face. "H-How did you?"
The top half of another young man's sword follows, but the attack that cuts it continues on into the woods and several trees are also sliced in half and fall, giving them a tiny glimpse of what this boy could do to them by merely flicking his fingers at them.
Kenichi throws his winter coat off, revealing a sleeveless garment beneath it that allows all four of his arms to move freely. Since his lower arms are usually concealed under his clothes in some sort of way, the fact that he is four-armed is quite a surprise to his attackers.
One of them asks, "His mother was the one that was possessed by that evil statue, wasn't she? The four-armed god?"
This is the first time the dark idol has ever been mentioned to Kenichi in any capacity, so he has no idea what they are talking about but thinks someone is wrong about something because his sweet, dead mother certainly wasn't possessed by anything powerful.
Whatever weird misinformation they've acquired, it seems to visibly frighten them.
Kenichi doesn't care about any of that anyway. They shot his horse, and so they are going to die.
Kenichi cuts the arrow from the horse as quickly and cleanly as possible, knowing that clean cuts will cause less bleeding than if he tears it out, and then he rests his hand on the horse's back.
"Don't worry. We will be okay."
He flashes a grin at his attackers, with teeth that are awkwardly huge in a mouth that hasn't reached full-size, with a couple of his adult cuspids still growing in. He speaks in a high voice that is just beginning to gain a bit of depth, but that doesn't make that smile any less frightening.
They wonder why he is smiling, and why he isn't the one who is scared?
Kenichi doesn't have the normal emotional switches that might otherwise cause him to be afraid for his own life or cause him to feel wary of violence. Violence, abuse, and murder were common on the island where he was born, and he frequently saw his mother's customers hurt her. Even as a toddler, he would sometimes attack them, biting and scratching despite being unable to do much damage. Many times, he shared in the abuse himself, and yet it never stopped him.
If he wants to fight, he's going to fight. He isn't afraid of getting hurt, and there's no reason to be afraid to die—when it happens, being afraid of it or not being afraid of it won't make a difference.
Kenichi doesn't know what his chances are, or how strong his opponents are. They're older than he is, certainly. But it doesn't matter who they are, if he knows himself, does it?
They don't take another step toward him, and he advances with the bloody arrow in hand.
Grappling with someone who has four arms is just a very specific skill that no one has, after all. Normally, when two people fight, they try to control each other's arms, but Kenichi still had two arms free and a sharp object, and he didn't need a weapon to hurt anyone in the first place.
He just felt like he really wanted to return the arrow to the archer, and so he did, several times until it broke, and then a few more times after that, stabbing the shaft into his stomach, chest, neck, and eyes.
The other two watch Kenichi brutally stab the archer to death, and as soon as he releases him, the head of the oldest both just slides off onto the ground, leaving his body standing with for a couple of seconds with blood gushing out of the neck like a fountain.
Only the youngest of his attackers is left, and as he runs into the woods, he is pursued by an angry Kenichi, who is able to catch up to him easily because he's quite tall and has powerful legs.
For this one, as soon as Kenichi touches his back, he explodes into pieces that are scarcely identifiable as human. He just looks like a pile of scrap meat pushed off the butchers table into a bin to feed to dogs.
Was that it?
Kind of lame, actually?
Kenichi turns back and runs to She-Devil, to examine her wound.
The horse is still struggling to get up to flee from the area, and he barely manages to calm her. He presses his head against her side and doesn't hear any gurgling or strange sounds when she's breathing, and her heartbeat is quite fast, understandable.
The arrow pierced the muscles near She-Devil's shoulder. It was a deep wound and there was a lot of blood, but he doesn't think the arrow was able to pierce any vital organs.
The situation was still quite terrible.
If he leaves to go get her help, wolves will surely eat her, so he takes her saddle off, then washes the wound with alcohol and makes poultice from the medicine in his travel bag. He didn't really have what he needed to bandage a horse, so he cut up his haori so the fabric could wrap around her, then cut leather from a bag and wrapped her lower legs to keep them warm.
Horses are just naturally very hot, so when she was moving at a decent pace, the cold didn't bother her, but if they can make progress, it's going to be slow and her legs will get cold so he wraps them as well as he can.
Kenichi doesn't think her injury is fatal, and Lord Sugawara's father in law is an animal healer who is in charge of the health of the territory's military horses. If they can make it the rest of the way, he is sure he can get her the right help. He doesn't think Sugawara would deny him the favor.
Besides, while it wasn't difficult to kill the three who attacked them, they might know other people who would be a bigger pain, and he wants to leave the area. Getting closer to Kyoto will make it less likely they will be attacked again because they risk being spotted by Six Eyes or Tengen.
He brings She-Devil water and what food he brought, although this is a journey that should have been completed before sundown. There will be places to resupply further along, so after the horse rests for an hour, he uses his strength to help her get up.
They have to stop often and rest overnight twice so she can sleep in a stable and eat, but they eventually do make it to Kyoto. Kenichi can tell she's suffering so much, and she can't get up off the ground without his help, but lasting two days probably means she can survive.
When he arrives at the Sugawara estate, Michizane is surprised to find Kenichi had come and that he had come alone. Kenichi is distressed almost to the point of tears about his horse and not about the fact he killed three people on the way, but the times are what they are.
Sugawara can tell from the fact that Kenichi cut up his own coat and travelled sleeveless in order to keep his horse warm that she is very important to him, so he sends for his father in law.
Kenichi won't leave She-Devil's side until she's been examined, medicated, fed sweet oats with fermented apples, and is resting peacefully on a pile of blankets.
Sugawara even has some pillows brought out because being kind to the horse is the same as being kind to Kenichi. They don't know much about what he's been up to and there have been conversations between Sugawara and the older Fujiwara kids about the fact that Kenjaku seems to be keeping Kenichi very isolated.
He doesn't think Kenichi has any friends, but he has this horse, which makes the horse not just an animal at all.
When he finally gets Kenichi to let the horse rest and head with him to the house, the lord says, "It'll probably a while before she can make the trip back home. You're welcome to stay with us, of course."
"Thank you for taking care of her. I'll be a better guest this time. Sorry about all that stuff that happened when I was staying here before."
"It's fine. We've been talking about you lately, about how long it's been since you came around. So what brings you to Kyoto?"
This is a confusing question, and Kenichi says, "Tengen sent a letter saying she wanted to see me."
"Tengen is in some sort of altered state right now and hasn't been awake in almost two months."
"What? Did something happen to her?"
"It's complicated, but she's asleep. It's probably something she herself is doing intentionally, but Tengen definitely didn't invite you to visit her. Tengen and I don't even know where you two have been hiding, if we're being perfectly honest," he answers.
Kenichi digs into his bag and shows him the note. "It came by falcon."
Sugawara examines it, and while it does have Tengen's seal, she also curses the wax so the people who receive the letter know it's authentic. In this case, there's no traces of Tengen's power on the seal.
Narumi has been doing what she can to compensate for Tengen's inexplicably long nap, but the handwriting on the note isn't anything he recognizes. There's no residue on it.
"This is some sort of hoax. It might have been sent by enemies who discovered your location and wanted to lure you out onto the road to ambush you. It's strange Kenjaku didn't realize the letter was inauthentic."
"He's travelling on his own right now. He got excited about something stupid as he does."
"That sounds like him. By the way, you're getting huge."
"Thanks. I eat a lot."
This is the healthiest and most normal that Michizane has seen Kenichi; he's outgrown a lot of his moodiness and at dinner, he's quite funny and gracious. He seems happy to have other people to talk to. All his kids laugh at his stories about him and Kenjaku and their strange and oftentimes humorous adventures.
Learning Kenjaku has been leaving Kenichi at home during some of his trips is really interesting because before Tengen's coma, she was convinced Kenjaku might be involved in a string of…messes that seemed to be caused by someone feeding flesh from living cursed spirits to different people.
One of the most compelling arguments against Kenjaku as a suspect is that Kenjaku had been keeping Kenichi with him at all times and they don't think he would do anything like that in front of him. Finding out that Kenjaku was leaving Kenichi at home and disappearing for periods was disappointing.
Kenichi goes out to check on the horse again before bed, and Michizane catches him bringing a blanket out to sleep in the stable and gives him a little talking to that he and the horse both need rest.
And frankly, the boy smells like he's been sleeping with the horse for a few days.
It's late and nearly everyone else is turned in for the night, and Michizane practically drags him to the estate's huge bath with him, and they talk for a while they scrub down and then start their soak.
Sinking under the water up to his nose, the boy asks, "Can I ask you a really personal question?"
"Sure."
"I mean really, really personal."
"Whatever it is, it's okay."
"Offensively personal."
"Just ask."
Sugawara is entering his fourth decade of life now, his face showing a few signs of wear and tear. He's been married three times, mourned three loves, had children, seen the rise and fall of many, buried many of his friends, spilled staggering amounts of blood, and built a kingdom.
He can't imagine being offended by anything he had to ask.
Kenichi asks, "You have to do that with your wife for her to have babies right?"
"Are you asking me about sex?"
"Yeah."
"I'm guessing you probably don't have a good idea about sex in your head. It didn't seem like you really understood what went on with your mother when you were little, but I'd imagine at your age, you've put the pieces together."
"Yeah."
"She was a mom who would do anything to take care of her precious son. It's best not to think too much about things. If you stare at a painting long enough, maybe you will notice something new now and then, and memorize all the details, but the picture will always be the same as the first time that you looked at it."
It's clear from the thin little tufts of pink hair under Kenichi's arms that he's starting to go through the early stages of puberty, which means there is a part of his brain that's probably starting to think about sex.
Having the talk with Kenjaku of all people was probably awkward.
Michizane says, "When people care about each other, it's different."
"My mom had to do all that to take care of me because my dad did that to her though, right?"
"When you get a little older, and start having feelings for someone special, you'll understand."
"What were you to her?"
"Like a brother in the end, I guess? Close family friend?"
"Did you want to be more? All men liked my mother. Whenever she would just be out in the village, every man would look at her. The only men who didn't stare at her are the ones who liked other men. I don't think you're a homosexual what with all the marriages and babies."
This line of question was quite rude, and Sugawara perhaps does not appreciate it, but it's also very perceptive, because Momo will call herself Ayame's sister, and he didn't ever say he was her brother. It was sort of true, after a certain point, but not really? It seems wildly unhealthy that this boy is mapping out his mother's life because he clearly still thinks about her.
He's at the age when he should be thinking about his own future, his own hormones, having silly little crushes and making friends and all that.
He explains, "Ayame Tengen was the love of my young life, but it never went anywhere and it didn't work out. We both moved on and loved other people instead. We never kissed or anything like that."
Kenichi says, "You got demoted to 'just a friend.'"
"I did, yes."
They soak in silence for a while, and Kenichi asks, "Have you ever heard a rumor that my mother was possessed by an evil statue?"
Michizane narrows his eyes. "We asked Kenjaku not to discuss that with you for now."
"I didn't hear it from Kenjaku? The guys that attacked me said it," he answered.
"Oh, well, in that case, I don't know anything."
Kenichi stares incredulously at him and says, "You asked Kenjaku not to talk to me about something you don't know anything about?"
"I was honestly hoping you were still young enough that you wouldn't catch that."
Annoyed by this conversation, Kenichi asks, "Yes or no—was my mother possessed by an evil statue?"
"Yes."
Kenichi thought they were joking, but the way that Michizane uttered the word 'yes' made the conversation actually very serious, and he is now very confused.
Michizane really didn't want to discuss this with the kid yet, but information about Ayame definitely existed among the survivors of the Kamo clan's former allies. If Kenichi wanted information, he could definitely find it, and there was no chance what he'd hear from others at this point would be accurate or meaningful.
Kenjaku, Tengen, and himself agreed when Kenichi was first found that they wouldn't tell him about the dark idol until he was older, but the disclosure has already been made. Not talking to him will only make the boy trust them less.
"It's a long story. Let's get out and get some snacks and tea."
In his office, over dried fruit and tea, they talk.
Michizane really hadn't wanted to have this conversation alone; he feels like Kenjaku will be annoyed that he's not been asked or included on the decision since he has been Kenichi's primary caregiver. Tengen also isn't here, and he has no idea at this point if she is ever going to join him for a conversation again.
Kenichi isn't a tiny kid anymore, and he has glimpsed the knowledge of himself without knowing it was him.
The version of events told to Kenichi so far simply excludes any mention of the dark idol. He knows his mother grew up at a shrine, but without someone explicitly detailing what kind of shrine it was or what they were doing there, they knew he'd just assume it was some ordinary shrine on the side of the road.
Michizane explains that the shrine was secluded on a mountaintop because it housed a legendary and extremely dangerous cursed object that held some sort of unknown power, told him about the pink haired man—likely his maternal grandfather—who had come looking for it, and that his pink hair probably comes from whatever distant place that man traveled from. And some months later, Ayame appeared in the world.
Then on to how the shrine was destroyed and what they assume happened based on what they know.
There are a lot of things they don't know and will likely never know about the strange link between Ayame and the dark idol, like why she was able to live near it without being affected by it or why it chose her or why becoming a vessel didn't kill her.
"So this scary power possessed her?"
"It didn't possess her properly. It didn't control her body or anything like that. It was almost like it was hiding inside of her. It was so still and quiet that your father never detected its presence."
Kenichi says, "So this scary power went inside of her, and then…did nothing?"
"That's not actually true either. The dark idol actually killed quite a few people while inside of Ayame. If someone did something cruel to her, it would curse them. She ended up in Nara because a series of selfish and greedy people dragged her around trying to sell her even though she was very sick. All the people involved in that process were cursed and died under terrible and suspicious circumstances."
"My mom killed people?"
"Ayame didn't know."
"You're sure my mom killed people."
"Yes, we are absolutely sure. We believe it may have fully manifested at least one time, when an assassin came into her room and was cut into pieces."
"And she had no idea."
"None."
Kenichi says, "If she had this scary power that was protecting her, then what happened to it? I was with her all that time and I never saw anything like that happen. If she had a power that cursed people, every man on that island should have died."
Michizane answers, "It sort of…grew arms and legs and left her body on its own."
"That sounds ridiculous."
"It really does, but it's the truth."
"And when did this happen?"
"Twelve years ago?"
"The year I was born?"
"We are almost there, Kenichi."
When it hits him, he's surprised and puzzled. "Are you saying?" he asks, pointing at himself.
Sugawara nods.
When his attackers said he had four arms like that statue, the strange markings on his body, his power…
Kenichi whispers, "Am I a curse?"
"You're not a possessed vessel or anything like that. As far as Six Eyes can tell, you're a natural human being, so I tend to think you're probably the reincarnation of whoever was involved in the dark idol's creation. The important thing is that you're you. You certainly have an extraordinary power, but what you choose to do with it is up to you."
"And my mom never knew about any of this?"
Michizane says, "Up to the point when she was taken from Nara, she didn't know. Those idiots from the Kamo clan might have told her. Even if they didn't, you look like the jade statue. When you were born with four eyes and four arms, she probably figured out you had some sort of link to it."
Kenichi doesn't even know what to do with this information. It's all just so bizarre, because stories he's heard about his mother from before she was taken to the island make her sound like a leaf that floated on the wind to Nara.
He has a thousand questions, and Michizane answers them honestly, disclosing that the dark idol cursed his first wife, which started a chain reaction where Fumiko told her brother Lord Katsuragi how she had become cursed, he sent an assassin to Nara, the assassin was likely killed by the dark idol's power, and Kenji Fujiwara retaliated by killing Katsuragi, which in turn led to his mother orchestrating the slaughter of Katsuragi clan and installation of the Kamo clan as one of the island's great powers, a fact that directly linked to the catastrophe the night Nara burned, which ultimately resulted in Kenichi being orphaned.
Kenichi thinks it was maybe cruel for them to not tell his mother, but he also thinks his mother would have probably freaked out of she found out she had a monster secretly living inside of her body and that it killed people. The fact that it also killed Sugawara's first baby and tormented his first wife over something that maybe wasn't deserving of such a fate was actually really bad and his mother would have been devastated.
"So you guys were trying to keep me sealed in a statue and now I'm walking around in my own body doing whatever I want?"
"That's too broad of a summary, but yes."
"I think you might have messed up."
Sugawara says, "Yes, well. Do you want me to fix it?"
"I like being alive, actually."
"I like you being alive too, so we'll just keep going and hope nothing bad happens."
Kenichi heads to bed after this conversation, but spends hours laying awake, thinking of everything.
Listening to anyone who has managed to survive for a while in this world involves hearing stories about people who were simply devoured by the violence and cruelty of the world. The other lords that Michizane met when he was a teenager are all long gone now, and there is only him, because he was the strongest.
How was anyone supposed to live? What were they supposed to live for?
Even at this age, Kenichi can't imagine himself falling in love and settling down and living like most people do. For some reason, he just understands that is never going to happen for him and that he never wants to do to a woman what those men did to his mother. That is the act that burdened his mother with children who only became orphans, and the reason she would cry while she washed the bed linens in the stream on the island while other women glared at her and whispered.
The thought of it disgusts him, really.
He lays awake thinking about becoming a Jujutsu Society sorcerer; that involves pay, seems exciting enough. Or maybe he'll just go on adventures by himself and see what happens. Maybe he'll stay with Kenjaku or go stay in Nara sometimes with Kenshin and Hoshiko.
Sometimes he thinks about his sister a lot because she's very beautiful, like their mother was. Grown men have been talking about how lovely she is since she was very young, but Hoshiko doesn't suffer the attention of men like his mother did because she can set people on fire.
Despite being third youngest, and the drastic advantage Kenjaku has being in a mature body and Kenshin has with Ten Shadows, Hoshiko is the first of Kenji Fujiwara's children to successfully execute a domain expansion. In the world of sorcery, it's a very big deal because she's not even four years older than he is.
He's heard men in bars where he eats with Kenjaku complaining about this era because it is dominated by powerful sorcerers who are women: Tengen, Narumi, and now Hoshiko.
Kenjaku said men can't stand it when women are beautiful and intelligent or powerful because they have to tell themselves that lovely women are stupid. Otherwise, they can't justify their entitlement toward them.
The world is disgusting and horrible, really.
Everything about it.
People trying to make it better seem to be a rare exception rather than a rule. They're trapped in endless cycles. Everyone just goes in circles, over and over and over again.
The only way to stop the next generation from their turn is if there's no next generation. If Sugawara had killed the Kamo clan and their allies to absolute extinction instead of letting the children live, they wouldn't be around to die playing the same stupid games their elders did.
Yet if Sugawara could do things like that, he wouldn't be the kind of person who could build a better world in the first place, and everyone seems to universally agree that they're all lucky he's not as evil and cruel as most warlords have been.
In the morning, Kenjaku arrives, having returned to their hideout to find the note that he'd left to go to Kyoto to see Tengen. This made him suspicious, and he rushed to Kyoto right away.
There are more children running around Sugawara's home, a couple of pet squirrels, some cats…a one-winged eagle in the garden yelled at Kenjaku at his arrival. It's lively as always.
There had been a time that Sugawara had reportedly been incredibly depressed, but it's hard to think that's possible now, when he sits for breakfast with Kenjaku, telling him everything that happened.
Kenjaku had wanted to be present for the discussion about the dark idol because he wanted to know exactly what was said. He found out about the dark idol from his mother, who obviously didn't know as much about it as Tengen or Sugawara. It seemed possible to Kenjaku that Sugawara might have told Kenichi things that he didn't know.
The idea of Kenichi keeping secrets with those two makes Kenjaku feel a little sour.
Kenichi is still asleep when they finish eating, which isn't surprising to anyone as he was both tired from his ordeal and likely had too many things to think about.
Sugawara decides maybe Kenjaku's appearance could be helpful to them, and he asks, "You know a lot about sorcery and the human body, right?"
"What makes you say that?"
"It's not an accusation. I would actually like to borrow your expertise."
He takes Kenjaku to the bottom of the cavern at the Jujutsu Society, where Tengen is sleeping under the watchful guard of her former student Narumi.
Tengen is always a fascinating topic for Kenjaku, because the former owner of his current body was obsessed with her. Kenjaku isn't interested in controlling Tengen as a curse because he doesn't see a reason for it. He can kill any sorcerer he wants except one, and controlling Tengen wouldn't give him the ability to kill Sugawara at his current level.
But her body is fascinating.
It's not just that Tengen is asleep; she is changing.
Her hands are bigger, her fingers longer and her nails dark and elongated like they're turning into claws. Her head seems to be squarer than it is supposed to be as well, and she is physically larger.
Sugawara says, "I'm sure you've heard about this incident, but around the time you were born, Tengen had an episode where she began transforming into something we'll just call a living curse."
The problem is obvious; Tengen has slowly begun to turn again. They talk, and Sugawara tells him that he believes Tengen put herself in a coma to slow the process or maybe to try and reverse it, but while she's been asleep, the claws are getting longer. Therefore, he and Narumi are certain that her condition is accelerating.
Kenjaku considers all of this and he does have an idea of sorts, but he decides he isn't going to say it in front of Sugawara.
"Sorry, I'm afraid I'm not sure what to do. Tengen is special, and even if I've been researching and trying to learn, the world is a big place and I just don't know very much," Kenjaku answers.
Michizane is disappointed because asking Kenjaku was somewhat of a last resort. Tengen doesn't like him, and she would have been really annoyed to wake up and find out he saved her life. Michizane meanwhile doesn't care who he has to ask for help; there is literally nothing he won't do to save Momo.
After the meeting at the Jujutsu Society, Sugawara leaves to take care of some business, and Kenjaku catches up with Kenichi.
Kenjaku wants to talk about the dark idol, but Kenichi doesn't care one bit about any of that and has already moved on.
He cares about his horse, and when the Sugawara's father in law comes to check on She-Devil, all he wants to do is talk to the old man, because he knows everything about horses.
It's just offensive and frustrating to Kenjaku that he can finally talk to his youngest brother about his status as one of the sorcery world's spookiest secrets, and all Kenichi wants to do is talk about horses with the old men.
The old man makes some warm compresses for Kenichi to hold near the wound, to relax the muscles near the point of injury, and says, "You take very good care of She-Devil. She's the kind of lady that won't suffer a weak rider. How would you like to leave She-Devil to rest, and you can go with me to the central stables? I can show you how we take care of different kinds of problems in case you need to know."
Kenjaku interrupts and says, "Actually, I—"
But Kenichi has already run off without even ending the conversation properly.
This is one of the most normal times in Kenichi's life so far, and he spends a few days following the old animal doctor around, learning and helping while She-Devil rests. He truly enjoys it, it makes him happy, and the old man seems happy for his company too.
While Kenichi was somehow growing into someone who could be normal around other people and have things that he truly enjoyed, Kenjaku quietly stewed. Since Kenshin and Hoshiko were living in Nara, and they no longer needed him, sometimes he viewed them as traitors who had abandoned him after everything that he did for them.
They had invited Kenichi to winter with them in Nara and Kenjaku simply never told him about the invitation because he didn't Kenichi to leave him.
Kenjaku has never really been alone, yet he's never had tons of people in his life either. As a little child, only Ayame and his father really played with him. Then he became a big brother, and he wasn't lonely anymore. He was a good brother, but then Kenshin and Hoshiko had different dreams, and they left.
Is Kenichi going to develop different dreams and leave him too? Kenjaku wonders if he will be left alone, despite everything he has done.
Kenichi is just so busy thinking about horses, and he's getting along nicely with Sugawara family too, letting the little ones wrestle with him and not hurting them at all. It was just very different when Kenichi was unhappy and couldn't get along with anyone but Kenjaku.
Kenjaku goes to visit Narumi in her apartment at the Jujutsu Society and denies being annoyed when she accuses him of being annoyed, because he understands it would be petty and awful of him to admit he was mad his youngest brother was talking to other people when he himself talks to whoever he wants.
There is a reason he has come to visit Narumi, however, beyond indulging himself as they do from time to time.
Opportunity has come at an odd time, but it has come nonetheless and Kenjaku has no intention of missing his chance to answer a rather grand question.
Kenjaku also desperately wants to save Tengen for reasons that are purely selfish and have nothing to do with her wellbeing or mission in life.
While laying in bed with Narumi after a tryst, he says, "I do have on idea about how you might be able to save Master Tengen."
"You do?"
"I just thought of it right now. Whatever is wrong with Tengen's body, yours is fine. You might be able to somehow combine with her. It would be risky, but I think it will probably work."
Kenjaku did not just think of this theory right at that moment; it had been simmering in his brain for years and the possibility of combining the star plasma vessels into one super being was actually an idea first thought by Zhang, the original owner of Kenjaku's current body.
There are a multitude of other people who would never allow this plan to even be spoken to her if they knew about it.
Tengen herself would be violently opposed to the idea, and Kenjaku doesn't even know if it will work. He assumes the outcome will probably be bad whether or not it saves Tengen. There is a very high likelihood that something absolutely horrific will result from this effort, and yet Tengen is going to die without it anyway and Narumi's life is not as important as this experiment is.
His fingers skate over her naked body; he does enjoy their occasional sex, but he can find another woman to lay with out of boredom. Narumi is the only one who can do this.
Narumi would die for Tengen, who helped her grow from a scrappy kid off the streets into a giant of the sorcery world. Narumi believed in Tengen's brighter, better world, and in the mission of the Jujutsu Society, but she also knew that vision would never happen if Tengen was not there to lead them.
Kenjaku tells her that it's certainly too dangerous, but if she wanted to do it, she could it exactly this way. He gives her detailed instructions like he's casually thinking it all up on the spot, disguising careful plans as the musings of a curious sorcerer.
He knows she will do it.
He also knows it's important for no one to know that the idea came from him, because Tengen already doesn't trust him very much.
With most circumstances, the risk of a burned bridge was all that really existed for him, but a burned bridge would do little to stop Tengen or Sugawara if they thought he was in any way responsible for Narumi doing something to herself that is probably several degrees worse than suicide.
Narumi doesn't love Kenjaku and is as suspicious of him as anyone, and yet in her eagerness to save Tengen, she doesn't question Kenjaku's motives.
By the time Kenjaku leaves her side, he is certain that he will never see her again. What surprises him is that instead of experiencing grief or regret, he feels an exhilarated rush because he believes he successfully controlled someone else's choices.
He is slowly starting to learn that sometimes he can make people do what he wants if he says or does the right things or presents someone with a problem where the best solution is the thing that he wants them to do.
Forcing Narumi to attempt to merge with Tengen is impossible, but if he can convince her to do it herself, he can simply skip all the risks, and it will happen anyway.
Kenjaku can sit around and watch the aftermath without anyone knowing who caused the tragedy to happen, and if Sugawara still feels like trusting his expertise, he might even get to see the result with his own eyes.
It's all very exciting to him.
In the morning, Kenjaku checks in on his brother and finds him all chatty with the old man, who holds a prestigious position and clearly has better things to do besides wake up at the crack of dawn and talk about horses with a random orphan. Doesn't he have a job to do?
The idea that someone else is meaningfully investing time and emotion into his youngest brother makes Kenjaku feel oddly jealous.
Kenichi rode off by himself, defended himself when attacked, and he is apparently able to make friends with and talk to other people now. Before, he was so troubled that being with this family in this town on this estate caused him incredible emotional turbulence, so much that Kenjaku took him away for everyone's wellbeing.
Now, seven years later, he's just flowing with everyone. Getting along with Michizane, and his children, even being gentle when they want to play, being respectful and grateful to his wife, and of course, following Sugawara's father in law around like a little duckling.
Kenjaku feels deeply jealous that he would look up to anyone, or have relationships with other people, or make plans for himself.
There is a light that has penetrated Kenichi's heart and illuminated it, and that just isn't acceptable, because he's supposed to be like his big brother. Different from everyone.
Kenjaku believes he is supposed to show Kenichi the way through the darkness so he can embrace his true power. Since Kenjaku is his oldest living blood family, he is certain that he knows what is best.
There's one clear path to correcting all of this as far as Kenjaku is concerned.
Under the cover of night, he sneaks into the stable and poisons the horse.