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foxinthestarsToday there was much procrastinating, but I was able to get into a scene that was smooth sailing and made my personal goal of reaching 46k, putting me over the 90% mark. At this point I have three days to write less than four thousand words, so yeah, I'm pretty confident...
The said smooth sailing is the last major bit of Genbu Chapter denouement; as the one character who actually understood all of that as it was happening, Chichiri gets to indulge in a Hercule Poirot moment. The romantic subplot Nuriko wants, however, is on the rocks because she doesn't get Chichiri on some basic level.
I also have a problem here that most of the people I cut away to when I want a buffer between scenes are currently indisposed. Hiro's asleep, Keisuke's busy... Maybe I'll check in on Mitsukake...
Note: in case you didn't know this, I have been going back and tweaking earlier parts of the story and not updating these daily cuts or anything. In this case I backed up one paragraph for an addition, but later on when Chichiri says she almost lied earlier in the story, well, I went back and tweaked that; in the version that was on the blog she flat-out lied (which she's not supposed to.
It was seen that the swiftest route into the western desert of Sairou was to travel on horseback through a certain pass over the border mountains. The Prince of Hokkan provided swift horses from the royal stables and a map showing the best route and advantageous places to change mounts, and Chichiri was able to run on ahead with her traveling spell to each place so that no time would be lost making accomodations. With the Sei of Seiryuu ahead of them, there was no time to be lost, and so, once they had made their plans and eaten a meal, the Emperor of Konan bid farewell again to his sister the princess, and the Sei of Suzaku set off in haste and travelled until nightfall, when they came to an inn to rest.
*******
The hard run had made Tasuki’s horse if anything surlier than when they had begun, and as he tried to dismount, it fidgetted so badly as to almost throw him to the ground, and it tried to bite him before one of the inn’s stablehands brought it under control. Over the course of one afternoon, they had already changed horses more than once, and every one of them had treated him similarly.
“They really don’t like you, do they?” Nuriko asked, still on the horse with Yui in front of her.
“Well, the feeling’s mutual,” he grumped. “Don’t get me wrong, they aren’t bad eating...”
“Chichiri did offer to take you with her instead,” Chiriko pointed out. He had ridden with Hotohori, who was now helping him down.
“I love you, kid, but don’t go there,” Tasuki said.
Tamahome stood by as Nuriko at last dismounted and helped Yui down. Yui’s legs were stiff and numb with fatigue; it wasn’t her first horseback journey, but it was her first time enduring such prolonged hard riding.
Chichiri came out to meet them. “Come on up; I just got us one big room no da. The food might be cold, but I wanted it to be there already when you came no da.”
Yui was glad to hear it, and even happier when she followed Chichiri along with the others into the large room and saw the beds laid out around the room with a meal on low tables through the center. Tama was in a corner, curled up sleeping beside his own dish, and it made her a little envious; she felt as if all she wanted to do was eat and fall asleep, but she also knew that the next day would bring even more hours of the same. If they kept it up for days and exhausted themselves heading into an ambush... “Chichiri...” she asked as they settled in to eat---the food had indeed gotten cold, but no one complained. “Running ahead like that, do you think you can sense the Sei of Seiryuu in time, if they’re going to attack us?”
“I’ll try my best no da,” she said.
She alone wasn’t exhausted, and Yui thought that, if Tasuki didn’t want to go with her using her spell, it was tempting to ask for that place herself. Still, it wasn’t a perfect answer to the question. If only I could still ask Hikitsu, Yui thought, but the next moment she scolded herself for not realizing the obvious sooner. “You can use Hikitsu’s power, can’t you?” she asked Chichiri. “How much can you see with it?”
“Anou... I’m sure I can use his power, but I haven’t managed to yet no da. When I sense chi, it’s nothing any trained magician can’t do, and from what you told me about him, I haven’t ever done anything like that no da... I was even trying it earlier, to watch for when you were coming, but...”
Tasuki finished wolfing down his food and flopped onto the nearest bed with the great sigh of abandoning effort. “Don’t wake me up until we’re leaving,” he said, and was snoring within minutes.
Tamahome thought about playing some kind of prank on him while he was asleep, but was too exhausted himself. “I know how he feels.”
“Don’t we all,” Yui said, picking up the bowl to drink some cold soup. Across from her, Hotohori didn’t say anything, but he ate slowly, and his eyelids were drooping.
One by one, they all had their fill of the food and lay down to sleep, and Chichiri went around gathering the dishes up after them, until only Nuriko was left; everyone else was in bed by the time she put her chopsticks down. “I’m done, Chichiri; let me help you.”
“All right no da.”
They carried all the dishes on their trays down to the kitchen to save the staff the trouble, returned to the room and moved the tables aside. Even then, Nuriko pulled a cushion up by the wall and sat down rather than going to bed.
“Do you think someone should stand watch no da?” Chichiri asked.
“It wouldn’t hurt.”
“I can do that; I had the easiest day today no da.” Chichiri pulled up another cushion and sat down beside Nuriko.
She still didn’t move. She looked around the room for a long moment, until she was satisfied that the others were all asleep. The question she wanted to ask seemed to slip out of the grasp of words, and she turned it over in her head several times before making a sally at it. “Were you really never scared by any of that?” she asked.
“No, not really no da,” Chichiri said. The satisfied smile from the previous night revisited her laughing-eyed face.
“Did you enjoy it?”
“Well, I don’t enjoy everyone being upset and scared, but I knew it would be all right, and it all worked out so nicely, don’t you think no da?”
Nuriko drew up her knees and leaned forward to rest her arms and chin on them. “You knew it would be all right... Did you have a prophecy or...?” She trailed off, belatedly realizing that she was so tired she was exactly reprising her questions from the palace’s dungeon.
“I didn’t need one no da. Of course, I couldn’t explain things right there in front of guards, but...”
“I couldn’t see your face,” Nuriko blurted out, careless with fatigue and impatient with beating around the bush. “That mask of yours, it might be smiling anyway. I couldn’t see how you really felt...”
Chichiri was struck silent for a moment. “Was that it no da?”
“Part of it.” Somewhere in the sheer terror of seeing Hotohori dragged off to what could have been a death sentence...
Chichiri sighed. “Nuriko-chan... I’m only going to do this for you one time no da.”
That commanded her attention, and she turned back over her shoulder as Chichiri raised a hand to her face and took off her mask. The scar on her cheek just peeked out from behind the curtain of her hair, and her eyes were still closed for the first moment, but with natural downward curves of lashes. When she opened them, she looked Nuriko directly in the eyes with an expression that shot straight through her. It wasn’t a hard look, but one with a soft opacity almost more painful; it was a look of graceful, slightly pained disappointment.
“You didn’t trust me no da,” she said.
Nuriko gaped at her, caught by the accusation and speechless.
“There were reasons why I knew it would be all right no da. To begin with, I recognized Tan-chan right away no da.”
“You mean you knew he was Prince Soutan all along?”
She nodded. “I had wandered in Hokkan before, and had visited temples and knew something about the Monks of Genbu no da. Tan-chan’s sash had the knot for each province customary for the imperial family --- not tied in the usual style, but the right number --- and the knot on his hip meant he had worldly duties that precluded a vow of chastity, not to mention that his religious vows kept him from entirely lying about his name no da...”
“Why didn’t you tell us!?” Nuriko hissed under her breath so as not to wake the others.
“I was showing him the same courtesy he showed Hotohori-chan no da. Didn’t you notice him staring no da? That was the other reason I knew who he was, that he would recognize his brother-in-law as looking so much like Umi-chan no da. And of course, now you can understand why he was so particular about not showing his face no da.”
“That doesn’t explain why you were so sure about the rest of it, about Hotohori-sama getting arrested. The guard said she never went to the temple...”
“But I was sure that on that day, it would have been her no da,” Chichiri maintained. “The royal family and the Sacred Order were trying to help us in secret; do you think they would have wanted their royalty to officially go anywhere near it, where it would reflect on them in case it was found out no da? But when I had been in Hokkan, I always heard that Prince Soutan was very indulgent of his wife who worshipped Suzaku, so if that was how it was, I thought he would have wanted to let her meet us no da. That’s why I was sure it would have been her and no one else no da.”
Nuriko rested her forehead on a hand and laughed. “So if Hotohori-sama had just behaved himself, he would have had his family reunion anyway...”
“But it wasn’t meant to be that way no da,” Chichiri said. “I admit, I can’t be as sure about this part, but I don’t think it was only Genbu’s Sacred Order who helped us; I think Genbu himself wanted us to have the Shinzahou. Umi-chan was meant to go into the cave with Yui-chan and act as a sign to the guardians; that’s why it happened the way it did no da.”
“You knew it was Kin’umi-sama and you covered for her,” Nuriko realized. “The incense suppressing his Power of Suzaku...?”
“I very nearly lied there no da,” Chichiri admitted sheepishly, an expression to which her brown eyes gave an uncharacteristically sophisticated cast. “What I said was true, but I just let everyone think I was saying it about the person in front of me no da...”
Nuriko half-chuckled. “An act of a god, eh? That’s one way to relax about it...”
“Not just that no da. Do you remember the first thing Tan-chan said to me no da?”
She pondered, but it was no use, and she shook her head.
“I told him ‘you honor us too much’... with the incense,” --- this time she stressed the incense in a way that pointed it up as pasted onto the statement after-the-fact --- “and he thanked Genbu for sending a favorable wind no da. If it had been a calm day when we got to the capital, Hotohori-chan never would have looked up no da.”
Nuriko reflected on it all, shaking her head slowly in bemusement.
“But, Nuriko-chan...” Chichiri looked at the mask in her hand. “Do you think I know any less of that when I’m wearing my mask no da?”
She turned around again, but was at a loss for words; to put the problem into that question made it sound absurd. “Ah...”
“Do you think that if Hotohori-chan or any of the others were in danger, I wouldn’t care as much if I was wearing my mask no da? Do you think that with my mask on, I’d be less sad if they died no da?”
“No!” Nuriko insisted. “Of course not, it’s just...” But there was nothing to offer as what it just was.
“There’s just something about it you can’t quite trust no da ne?” Chichiri was beginning to sound as tired as everyone else, and she closed her eyes and sat there like that, lightly swinging the mask in her hand.
After a moment of silence, Nuriko spoke again. “On the ship, when Miboshi had that thing behind a barrier...” There was no need to explain the question further. “Is it really worth your life?”
Chichiri didn’t open her eyes, but a surprisingly wry smile stretched her lips. “’Of course not, it’s just...’” she quoted. “Maybe I’m a weak woman no da. I really might not know how to live without it no da...”
Nuriko reached to lay a hand on her shoulder, but the instant before it touched, Chichiri’s eyes snapped open. She glanced at Nuriko’s hand and then looked off into space with wide eyes as though some sound had just caught her attention.
“Is something wrong?”
“Nai no da,” she clapped her mask back onto her face, and once again it was impossible for Nuriko to tell if she was giving it a cheery cast or if it was giving one to her. “Did you want me to sit watch for you no da?”
“Well, I’m going to be awake a little longer anyway...”
The said smooth sailing is the last major bit of Genbu Chapter denouement; as the one character who actually understood all of that as it was happening, Chichiri gets to indulge in a Hercule Poirot moment. The romantic subplot Nuriko wants, however, is on the rocks because she doesn't get Chichiri on some basic level.
I also have a problem here that most of the people I cut away to when I want a buffer between scenes are currently indisposed. Hiro's asleep, Keisuke's busy... Maybe I'll check in on Mitsukake...
46195 ★ 50000 (92.39%)
Note: in case you didn't know this, I have been going back and tweaking earlier parts of the story and not updating these daily cuts or anything. In this case I backed up one paragraph for an addition, but later on when Chichiri says she almost lied earlier in the story, well, I went back and tweaked that; in the version that was on the blog she flat-out lied (which she's not supposed to.
It was seen that the swiftest route into the western desert of Sairou was to travel on horseback through a certain pass over the border mountains. The Prince of Hokkan provided swift horses from the royal stables and a map showing the best route and advantageous places to change mounts, and Chichiri was able to run on ahead with her traveling spell to each place so that no time would be lost making accomodations. With the Sei of Seiryuu ahead of them, there was no time to be lost, and so, once they had made their plans and eaten a meal, the Emperor of Konan bid farewell again to his sister the princess, and the Sei of Suzaku set off in haste and travelled until nightfall, when they came to an inn to rest.
*******
The hard run had made Tasuki’s horse if anything surlier than when they had begun, and as he tried to dismount, it fidgetted so badly as to almost throw him to the ground, and it tried to bite him before one of the inn’s stablehands brought it under control. Over the course of one afternoon, they had already changed horses more than once, and every one of them had treated him similarly.
“They really don’t like you, do they?” Nuriko asked, still on the horse with Yui in front of her.
“Well, the feeling’s mutual,” he grumped. “Don’t get me wrong, they aren’t bad eating...”
“Chichiri did offer to take you with her instead,” Chiriko pointed out. He had ridden with Hotohori, who was now helping him down.
“I love you, kid, but don’t go there,” Tasuki said.
Tamahome stood by as Nuriko at last dismounted and helped Yui down. Yui’s legs were stiff and numb with fatigue; it wasn’t her first horseback journey, but it was her first time enduring such prolonged hard riding.
Chichiri came out to meet them. “Come on up; I just got us one big room no da. The food might be cold, but I wanted it to be there already when you came no da.”
Yui was glad to hear it, and even happier when she followed Chichiri along with the others into the large room and saw the beds laid out around the room with a meal on low tables through the center. Tama was in a corner, curled up sleeping beside his own dish, and it made her a little envious; she felt as if all she wanted to do was eat and fall asleep, but she also knew that the next day would bring even more hours of the same. If they kept it up for days and exhausted themselves heading into an ambush... “Chichiri...” she asked as they settled in to eat---the food had indeed gotten cold, but no one complained. “Running ahead like that, do you think you can sense the Sei of Seiryuu in time, if they’re going to attack us?”
“I’ll try my best no da,” she said.
She alone wasn’t exhausted, and Yui thought that, if Tasuki didn’t want to go with her using her spell, it was tempting to ask for that place herself. Still, it wasn’t a perfect answer to the question. If only I could still ask Hikitsu, Yui thought, but the next moment she scolded herself for not realizing the obvious sooner. “You can use Hikitsu’s power, can’t you?” she asked Chichiri. “How much can you see with it?”
“Anou... I’m sure I can use his power, but I haven’t managed to yet no da. When I sense chi, it’s nothing any trained magician can’t do, and from what you told me about him, I haven’t ever done anything like that no da... I was even trying it earlier, to watch for when you were coming, but...”
Tasuki finished wolfing down his food and flopped onto the nearest bed with the great sigh of abandoning effort. “Don’t wake me up until we’re leaving,” he said, and was snoring within minutes.
Tamahome thought about playing some kind of prank on him while he was asleep, but was too exhausted himself. “I know how he feels.”
“Don’t we all,” Yui said, picking up the bowl to drink some cold soup. Across from her, Hotohori didn’t say anything, but he ate slowly, and his eyelids were drooping.
One by one, they all had their fill of the food and lay down to sleep, and Chichiri went around gathering the dishes up after them, until only Nuriko was left; everyone else was in bed by the time she put her chopsticks down. “I’m done, Chichiri; let me help you.”
“All right no da.”
They carried all the dishes on their trays down to the kitchen to save the staff the trouble, returned to the room and moved the tables aside. Even then, Nuriko pulled a cushion up by the wall and sat down rather than going to bed.
“Do you think someone should stand watch no da?” Chichiri asked.
“It wouldn’t hurt.”
“I can do that; I had the easiest day today no da.” Chichiri pulled up another cushion and sat down beside Nuriko.
She still didn’t move. She looked around the room for a long moment, until she was satisfied that the others were all asleep. The question she wanted to ask seemed to slip out of the grasp of words, and she turned it over in her head several times before making a sally at it. “Were you really never scared by any of that?” she asked.
“No, not really no da,” Chichiri said. The satisfied smile from the previous night revisited her laughing-eyed face.
“Did you enjoy it?”
“Well, I don’t enjoy everyone being upset and scared, but I knew it would be all right, and it all worked out so nicely, don’t you think no da?”
Nuriko drew up her knees and leaned forward to rest her arms and chin on them. “You knew it would be all right... Did you have a prophecy or...?” She trailed off, belatedly realizing that she was so tired she was exactly reprising her questions from the palace’s dungeon.
“I didn’t need one no da. Of course, I couldn’t explain things right there in front of guards, but...”
“I couldn’t see your face,” Nuriko blurted out, careless with fatigue and impatient with beating around the bush. “That mask of yours, it might be smiling anyway. I couldn’t see how you really felt...”
Chichiri was struck silent for a moment. “Was that it no da?”
“Part of it.” Somewhere in the sheer terror of seeing Hotohori dragged off to what could have been a death sentence...
Chichiri sighed. “Nuriko-chan... I’m only going to do this for you one time no da.”
That commanded her attention, and she turned back over her shoulder as Chichiri raised a hand to her face and took off her mask. The scar on her cheek just peeked out from behind the curtain of her hair, and her eyes were still closed for the first moment, but with natural downward curves of lashes. When she opened them, she looked Nuriko directly in the eyes with an expression that shot straight through her. It wasn’t a hard look, but one with a soft opacity almost more painful; it was a look of graceful, slightly pained disappointment.
“You didn’t trust me no da,” she said.
Nuriko gaped at her, caught by the accusation and speechless.
“There were reasons why I knew it would be all right no da. To begin with, I recognized Tan-chan right away no da.”
“You mean you knew he was Prince Soutan all along?”
She nodded. “I had wandered in Hokkan before, and had visited temples and knew something about the Monks of Genbu no da. Tan-chan’s sash had the knot for each province customary for the imperial family --- not tied in the usual style, but the right number --- and the knot on his hip meant he had worldly duties that precluded a vow of chastity, not to mention that his religious vows kept him from entirely lying about his name no da...”
“Why didn’t you tell us!?” Nuriko hissed under her breath so as not to wake the others.
“I was showing him the same courtesy he showed Hotohori-chan no da. Didn’t you notice him staring no da? That was the other reason I knew who he was, that he would recognize his brother-in-law as looking so much like Umi-chan no da. And of course, now you can understand why he was so particular about not showing his face no da.”
“That doesn’t explain why you were so sure about the rest of it, about Hotohori-sama getting arrested. The guard said she never went to the temple...”
“But I was sure that on that day, it would have been her no da,” Chichiri maintained. “The royal family and the Sacred Order were trying to help us in secret; do you think they would have wanted their royalty to officially go anywhere near it, where it would reflect on them in case it was found out no da? But when I had been in Hokkan, I always heard that Prince Soutan was very indulgent of his wife who worshipped Suzaku, so if that was how it was, I thought he would have wanted to let her meet us no da. That’s why I was sure it would have been her and no one else no da.”
Nuriko rested her forehead on a hand and laughed. “So if Hotohori-sama had just behaved himself, he would have had his family reunion anyway...”
“But it wasn’t meant to be that way no da,” Chichiri said. “I admit, I can’t be as sure about this part, but I don’t think it was only Genbu’s Sacred Order who helped us; I think Genbu himself wanted us to have the Shinzahou. Umi-chan was meant to go into the cave with Yui-chan and act as a sign to the guardians; that’s why it happened the way it did no da.”
“You knew it was Kin’umi-sama and you covered for her,” Nuriko realized. “The incense suppressing his Power of Suzaku...?”
“I very nearly lied there no da,” Chichiri admitted sheepishly, an expression to which her brown eyes gave an uncharacteristically sophisticated cast. “What I said was true, but I just let everyone think I was saying it about the person in front of me no da...”
Nuriko half-chuckled. “An act of a god, eh? That’s one way to relax about it...”
“Not just that no da. Do you remember the first thing Tan-chan said to me no da?”
She pondered, but it was no use, and she shook her head.
“I told him ‘you honor us too much’... with the incense,” --- this time she stressed the incense in a way that pointed it up as pasted onto the statement after-the-fact --- “and he thanked Genbu for sending a favorable wind no da. If it had been a calm day when we got to the capital, Hotohori-chan never would have looked up no da.”
Nuriko reflected on it all, shaking her head slowly in bemusement.
“But, Nuriko-chan...” Chichiri looked at the mask in her hand. “Do you think I know any less of that when I’m wearing my mask no da?”
She turned around again, but was at a loss for words; to put the problem into that question made it sound absurd. “Ah...”
“Do you think that if Hotohori-chan or any of the others were in danger, I wouldn’t care as much if I was wearing my mask no da? Do you think that with my mask on, I’d be less sad if they died no da?”
“No!” Nuriko insisted. “Of course not, it’s just...” But there was nothing to offer as what it just was.
“There’s just something about it you can’t quite trust no da ne?” Chichiri was beginning to sound as tired as everyone else, and she closed her eyes and sat there like that, lightly swinging the mask in her hand.
After a moment of silence, Nuriko spoke again. “On the ship, when Miboshi had that thing behind a barrier...” There was no need to explain the question further. “Is it really worth your life?”
Chichiri didn’t open her eyes, but a surprisingly wry smile stretched her lips. “’Of course not, it’s just...’” she quoted. “Maybe I’m a weak woman no da. I really might not know how to live without it no da...”
Nuriko reached to lay a hand on her shoulder, but the instant before it touched, Chichiri’s eyes snapped open. She glanced at Nuriko’s hand and then looked off into space with wide eyes as though some sound had just caught her attention.
“Is something wrong?”
“Nai no da,” she clapped her mask back onto her face, and once again it was impossible for Nuriko to tell if she was giving it a cheery cast or if it was giving one to her. “Did you want me to sit watch for you no da?”
“Well, I’m going to be awake a little longer anyway...”
