kscans

Chapter 11 - A Waking Dream

On the day of the wedding, Mana sat before her vanity, facing her own reflection. With her hair elegantly styled and her face made up, she looked almost like a stranger. She felt a tension and anxiety she had never known. The party from the Tower had already arrived; all that was left was to put on her bridal hood and step outside, but even that felt like a monumental task.

"Mana, are you ready?" Saimon, dressed in a formal crested hakama, slid open the fusuma door, his movements restless. When Mana turned to face him, his expression twisted with a mixture of joy and sorrow.

"...The most beautiful bride in the three kingdoms. I'm so proud."

"Father." Mana smiled, but tears welled in the corners of her eyes.

"It is time for us to go." As Mana bowed her head, Saimon nodded repeatedly, fighting back his own tears.

It was a magnificent wedding procession. It stretched for half a ri from front to back, an unprecedented spectacle with fifty oxen pulling carts and a hundred horses. The sight of relatives, Tower officials, and dojo disciples forming the line was overwhelming to all who watched.

Everyone thought that the life Mana had chosen was the right one. Neither Mana nor Saimon ever doubted it. It was the dream of every young woman to marry into wealth and status. Mana, who had achieved this dream, was the object of envy for all the girls in town.

That night.

After the grand ceremony concluded, Mana performed a ritual purification and waited for Razan in the Tower Master's bedchamber, sitting formally in a single white kimono. In truth, the wedding night made her more nervous than the ceremony itself. Determined not to make any mistakes, she repeatedly ran her fingers through her hair, retying it again and again. It would be disheveled soon enough, but the beginning was what mattered most.

Eventually, Razan entered the chamber, also dressed in a simple white kinagashi. He sat formally opposite Mana and took her hand. Without a word, he pulled her toward him and pushed her down onto the futon.

Just as Mana wondered if he wouldn't say a single word, their lips met, and her kimono was removed. As her body grew hot from the repeated kisses and caresses, Razan whispered in her ear.

"I'm glad you came. To be honest, I had given up."

"...What?"

"When I saw you in town, you were looking at one man with such pure, direct eyes. I found that beautiful. I had the greedy thought that I might make that devoted gaze my own. How foolish of me."

Mana stared in astonishment at Razan, who had suddenly chosen to say such things in the middle of their intimacy. Razan met her gaze with a cynical smile.

"I have no objection to taking you as my wife. But the passion I felt when I first saw you has faded. It's a shame; had you refused me, my passion would have only grown stronger. I am a man of my word. I was sincere when I said I wished for your happiness. I never said it to try and win your heart. If you had remained true to your pure love, I would have done anything for your happiness. Because that is the kind of woman I fell for."

His unexpected words left Mana shaken. In Razan's seemingly gentle eyes, she could clearly feel a cold, detached emotion.

"Were you lured by status and money? Or was it this face? ...Mana-dono, the women who flock to me for those things are as numerous as the stars. It is a great pity that you were just one among them. But I will take care of you. It seems you at least protected your purity."

After this confession, Razan took Mana's virginity. Mana cried. Was it from the pain that pierced her body, or from the knowledge that she had disappointed Razan?

No. She cried for the dim path that stretched out before her.

A woman who had only protected her purity.

How could she love him after being told something like that? How could she not be furious at a remark that implied her only value lay in her virginity?

Razan would take care of her, she knew. But that would only mean guaranteeing a life free from financial hardship and maintaining her affairs so as not to bring shame upon the wife of the Tower Master.

The sweet, romantic life she had imagined would never come to be. From tomorrow, a tasteless, empty life would surely begin.

Mana despaired at this certain premonition.

The next morning, Mana awoke alone. She pulled the kimono from her bedside over her shoulders and stared at the shoji screen, where the faint morning sun was filtering through. Her eyes were vacant.

"Why did you marry me?" she had asked Razan as he was leaving the room the night before.

"If it's the same no matter whom I marry," he had said, "then I'm better off with a woman I fell for at least once."

Mana had come to Razan expecting the same depth of love she had received from Shintaro. She had reasoned that if two men were equally handsome and their feelings equally strong, it was only natural to choose the one with better prospects. But that was just the excuse of someone blinded by immediate desire. This was her penance for abandoning a love nurtured over three years, for changing her heart for a man she had met only once.

Mana thought of Shintaro and began to cry again. Even after she had betrayed him so cruelly, the way he looked at her had never changed. He had left silently, without blaming anyone. He was the man who could have loved all of her. There were so few people in the world who would love your ugly parts. There was no such thing as an equal love.

Mana finally understood, but the time she had lost would never return.

*

Meanwhile, Shintaro, who had decided to live by the sword, felt his heart lighten. He bid farewell to the days spent endlessly looking back and turned toward a future where a glimmer of light had begun to appear. Reflected in his eyes was a sky that seemed to hold the entire world on his side. Sahei's words, "The world is wide," now resonated within him as a tangible reality.

It was all thanks to Saneyuki, Shintaro thought with sincere gratitude. But Saneyuki just scratched his head, looking troubled.

"No, not at all. I was struggling with a lack of good people, so you're actually the one helping me out. There's no need to thank me."

It seemed he wasn't lying. The dojo they visited on their journey was dilapidated. In the distance, Shintaro noticed a black tower that looked remarkably similar to the one in the capital, but the state of the dojo was even more concerning. The garden was poorly tended, the roof tiles looked as if they hadn't been replaced in years, and the peeling plaster on the walls had been left to crumble.

"Disciples?"

"Oh, we have quite a few of those. About fifty or sixty."

Shintaro's eyes widened. The Hokura dojo had two hundred disciples even during its slowest times. He was grateful to be welcomed as an instructor, but it seemed the road ahead would be fraught with difficulty. He surveyed the inside of the dojo once more and gave the floor a light stomp.

It was old but solidly built—sufficient for ordinary training. But it was an unreliable foundation for Shintaro to unleash his true abilities. His legs were capable of superhuman leaps, and the force of his steps could sometimes even splinter rock. To withstand that, the floor needed to be thick and flexible.

Shintaro turned to Saneyuki with an apologetic look. "Normal practice would be fine here, but a match would be difficult. Is there anywhere we could use outdoors?"

Saneyuki gave him an odd look. Of course he would; he was a very sensible man. It never would have occurred to him that the floor might break from a simple step.

"It's not that there isn't a place... but this should be more than enough, right?"

"Want to try a match here, knowing you'll have to bear the loss?" Shintaro's tone implied it was a bad idea, which only fueled Saneyuki's competitive spirit.

"Fine. I accept your challenge, and the risk that comes with it."

A few minutes later, Saneyuki wished he had refused.

The floor screamed under Shintaro's very first step. Saneyuki registered the unpleasant sound, but he was in the middle of a match. He couldn't afford to be distracted. Shintaro had leaped nearly to the ceiling and was now brandishing his wooden sword, gliding down like a hawk.

Saneyuki scrambled to dodge. Shintaro's swing cut through the empty air, creating a gale that slammed into the wall. The entire building shook with a creak. Not only Saneyuki, but also Sahei, who had been watching silently, broke into a cold sweat and instinctively grabbed a pillar.

Next, as his feet touched the floor, Shintaro spun without pause and sliced through the air. The wooden sword cut through the scenery like a real blade, splitting the hanging scroll on the far wall clean in two. The scroll was nearly twenty shaku—about six meters—away, but distance seemed to be meaningless.

The dojo is going to break!

Screaming inwardly, Saneyuki decided there was no surrender more pathetic than this, but he cast aside all pretense and prostrated himself on the floor.

"I give up, I give up! Please, stop!"

Shintaro, who had been about to step forward for another strike, barely managed to halt his foot. He lowered his arm and apologized.

"My apologies. I didn't mean to threaten you... but this is what happens when I swing without regard for form. I'm not really suited to be a dojo instructor."

Shintaro looked pitiful even to Saneyuki, as if to say how ridiculous it was that he was even trying to become one. Saneyuki also thought it wouldn't be right for this rundown dojo to be the final stop for a man who had sealed his own sword for the sake of a single woman.

"I can't spend much money, but I have some manpower. I'll make the dojo look presentable, at least. I'll also set up an outdoor training area. How about we agree on that?"

Of course, the Imperial Court was waiting beyond that, but he wouldn't mention it here. He didn't want to make Shintaro unnecessarily wary. The Emperor, too, had been vague. But Saneyuki had no choice but to trust what he could clearly see.

Shintaro, knowing nothing of this, saw no reason to refuse and nodded. A future that had been taken from him was now within his grasp, even if it was just a facsimile. If it was mutually beneficial, there was no reason to hesitate.

I'll become a swordsman renowned throughout the West.

Though he felt it was an audacious dream for someone like him, Shintaro made his resolve.