The Blood Soaks Before You Know It

(The interior of the Nagase House clinic was cast in a warm, shifting amber. The fire blazing with different shades of color crackled, warming the oil lamp and illuminating the room to a certain dimness. But with the momentum of the sparks changing ever so slightly, an unexpected, tense meeting was taking place in front of us, at the bedside of the wounded rebel.)

"You needn't do so much for me, boy, fall in trouble you will."

"Mehhh that ain't worry me."

(Tenkai, Michinori’s friend, exchanged these words with the newly arrived rebel, a man who had seemingly fled the jurisdiction of what was surely his end.)

Tenkai: "I think you'll be good to go soon."

Rebel: "I'm good to go already if anything, trouble I could bring to your village if I stay longer."

Tenkai: "What trouble? You're a refugee who needed help."

Rebel: "Don't think so naively of anyone you meet, boy."

Tenkai: "I know you're someone of great importance to the world out there, maybe even in a bad way—"

Rebel: "There's no maybes, they are looking for me. They want to capture me, they want to kill me."

Tenkai: "Well, part of me believes you're of importance in a good way too."

Rebel: "Have no reason to come to that conclusion, you don't."

(Tenkai pondered the man's flat statement for a brief, weighty moment.)

Tenkai: “I know what you’re thinking—that helpin’ you puts us in danger. But I ain’t the sort who jumps to bad conclusions.”

The rebel blinked, puzzled.

Tenkai: “See… my friends, they dump all their troubles on me. I take it. I listen. I’m their bucket, y’know?”

Rebel: “Kid, what—”

Tenkai: “Wait—lemme land the point.”

“But when I get mad over whatever life throws at me, suddenly those same friends don't do the same for me. Like they flip the bucket around and let me drown in what I was carryin’.”

Realization softened the rebel’s stare.

Tenkai: “But nah—I wasn’t taught to assume the worst in people. I believe they do it because that's their way of helping me. So even if trouble follows you, I’m not obliged to believe you’re only trouble. Because I should always assume the better scenario, the better in someone, I guess.”

"Besides, you look a lot like someone I knew, can't quite catch it but, you got a familiar face alright."  Tenkai mutters at the end.

Rebel: "Tch, you got heart, kid, you kinda remind me of my daughter, not gonna lie."

Tenkai: "Hah, I'm sure she'd be good friends with us too then."

(A moment later, across the darkening village, two wildly disparate voices cut through the stillness of the street.)

Aika: "QUICKLY HANDSOME YOU'RE TOO SLOW!!"

Jinko: "STOP CALLIN' ME THAT! I'M NOTHING TO YOU FOR YOU TO BE DOIN' ALL THAT!!"

(Jinko and Aika were making their way to his house, barely beating the last beams of the setting sun that faded in the eyes of the Shirakawa-go residents.)

Jinko: "I'm... home." (Jinko shouted inside, shutting the door behind them.)

Jinko's Mother: "Welcome Jink— huh?" (Jinko's mom, approaching to welcome her son, stopped dead, utterly startled by the sight of his elegant companion.)

Jinko: "I.. I can explain.." (Jinko was flushed with embarrassment, his cheeks redder than his hilt wrappings.)

Jinko's Mother: "Aika-chan, I never thought I'd see you in real life this soon!" (Jinko's mom recovered instantly, chuckling with excitement.)

Jinko: "HUUUUHHHH???? YO-Y-YE KNOW HER??? (Jinko swiveled his head to Aika) WHY DO YE KNOW HER? (Jinko spun back to his mom) AND WHY ARE YE SAYIN' IT AS IF YE EVEN EXPECTED HER? W-WHAT DO YE MEAN 'THIS SOON' ????" (Jinko was caught with an immeasurable, utterly frantic amount of surprise.)

Aika: "Greetings mother-in-law, I'm so pleased to make your acquaintance." (Aika replied, composed and unconcerned as ever, dipping into a flawless, shallow bow.)

Jinko: "HHHHEEEHHH? QUIT THE MOTHER-IN-LAW CRAP! MA WHAT IS THIS YOU GOTTA EXPLAIN."

Jinko's Mother: "Now now, calm down already. That's Aika-chan, why wouldn't I know her? Your father works under them after all."

Jinko: "PLEASE EVEN IF HE WASN'T A JANITOR THERE'S NO WAY YOU KNOW HER SO WELL TO RECOGNIZE HER RIGHT OFF THE BAT."

(Jinko's mom chuckled more, her eyes twinkling as if she had expected this exact reaction and awaited it for years, enjoying the spectacle.)

Jinko's Mother: "Oh Jinko, when you two were born around the same time we decided you two will marry when you grow up, so every year we would get photos of her to see. It's kind of a deal we had with the kind Kōdō Arinori-san."

Jinko: "HUUUUUUUUHH WHAT'S THAT EVEN MEAN??? AND THAT TOO WITHOUT MY CONSENT?? MA C'MON THIS IS BEYOND ABSURD. WHAT PICTURES????"

Jinko's Mother: "We only ever kept them to ourselves ya'know." (His mom couldn't help but laugh.)

Jinko: "Wait a min', ye said 'a deal'... A deal can't be made without two parties mutually agreein' to give a share fer the other's benefit." (Jinko assumed out loud, his brain struggling to apply logic to chaos.)

Aika: "Oh my gosh, my husband is so smart he figured out what a 'deal' means!!" (Aika said with the most sarcastic, patronizing tone imaginable.)

Jinko: "SHUSH AIKA. (Jinko snapped his head back to his mom) And if that's the case.. THEN IS THAT WHY YOU GUYS TOOK INDIVIDUAL PHOTOS OF ME EVERY YEAR?? ARE YOU SAYING HER FAMILY WAS SEEING HOW I GREW UP TO BE EVERY YEAR AS WELL???"

Jinko's Mother: "Wow you're connectin' dots faster than corns can pop." (Jinko's mom exclaimed, laughingly.)

Jinko: "MA WHAT THE HELL. I'M SO FRANTICALLY UTTERLY DISAPPOINTED WITH YOU GUYS I DON'T KNOW HOW TO REACT ANYMORE."

Aika: "Oh just shut up and get along with it, Ma is there anything to eat I'm staaarving." (Aika said to Jinko dismissively before turning to his mom, calling her 'Ma' with cheerful ease.)

(As they walked into the house, heading for dinner, their conversation carried and quickly faded from Jinko's listening vicinity.)

Jinko's Mother: "Yes! You're in for good stuff, I made some tasty-tasty yōshoku!!"

Aika: "Yum!! My chef doesn't know how to make them properly, y'know."

Jinko's Mother: "If that's the case you should bring 'em to my house and I will teach them!"

Aika: "Better yet, you should come over, Ma!"

(Jinko remained fixed in the front of the house with the door facing his back, his entire world having been upended by tea-time revelations. He was internally struggling to keep up with so many absurdities on the same day. He looked down and questioned why he even woke up, urging to slap himself to ask if this was all just a fever dream.)

(We cut back to the dim, warm light of the Nagase House, where Tenkai was still tending to the Rebel.)

Rebel: "When are you even going to leave, boy?"

Tenkai: "Weeellll, my parents don't mind me bein' out so, as long as you require me, old guy."

Rebel: "Don't kid yourself, I'm only pushing 40, plus why are you the one taking care of me?"

Tenkai: "The doctors of this clinic, the Nagase House, occasionally hire me to take care of patients when they're overdue with work for the treatment of relatives of the Maeda Lords they once served."

Rebel: "You don't say.."

Tenkai: "Say old man, what's your daughter like, you seem to be speaking well of her a lot these days."

(We cut back to Jinko's house. The family, including Aika, was having dinner around a low table, the Chabudai.)

Jinko's Mother: "Well Jinko's dad did leave for Edo as soon as we finished shifting work to Shirakawa-go so I'm sorry he couldn't be around to witness you and Jinko coming to our house together." (Jinko's mom laughingly empathized.)

Aika: "Oh don't worry, before I was on my way he was the one who recommended the two shinobis to be guarding me. It's only ever why I made it safely here, Ma." (Aika responded, after swallowing her food.)

(Jinko was on the other side of the table, his eyes closed, his eyebrows furiously furrowed, and his right cheek twitching in a state of utter grimace.)

Jinko's Mother: "Say, Aika-chan, how's your father doing?"

(From that simple question, Aika's cheerful demeanor instantly changed. Aika’s chopsticks paused mid-air. The light in her face thinned—quietly, almost politely, but unmistakably.)

Aika: "Well—"

Rebel: "Well—"

(In unison, from one corner of the town to the other, we hear both of them say, their tones laced with a shared, unknown gravity.)

Aika / Rebel: "I think there's a lot to be said about that."