Chapter 25

Despite having two eventful encounters in as many days at Shrine of the Celestial Snake, Kaede’s demeanor during dinner at Nagato wasn’t as subdued. She hungrily devoured every bit of food that Yukiko had set out for the trio and that had put Yurika’s mind at ease.

Gakuto wasn’t so easily soothed. It wasn’t that he doubted Kaede, either. That concern came from the fact that she had had multiple encounters with supernatural and mythical entities in as many days.

Actually, three.

“Kaede, why hadn’t you mentioned that dream from the ferry until earlier?”

Kaede blinked, looking over at Gakuto, the tips of her chopsticks in her mouth having just taken a bite of the pork dish that was fed to them this evening. She pulled them back, placing a hand over her mouth as she chewed the tender morsel, before replying: “I thought Gakkun would tease me about it.”

Gakuto sighed, picking at his own bowl of meat. He couldn’t exactly argue that she was wrong, but hearing that as the reason kind of stung.

“He is the type to do that.” Yurika chimed in, as she was scooping more rice into her bowl.

“Right?” Kaede reached over to the kettle, carefully topping off Yurika and Gakuto’s teacups before refilling her own. “I also didn’t want to worry you. I knew you were already feeling guilty about everything, Gakkun!”

Gakuto glanced over at Kaede. “So you were trying to be considerate?”

“Of course!” She smiled brightly at him and it honestly made him question if all the strange things were even weighing on her mind.

Yurika’s eyes were moving between the two of them as she held the bowl close to her face, scooping the sticky grains into her mouth with her chopsticks.

Kaede clapped her hands together, showing thanks for the meal before she brought her finger to her chin, her eyes on the ceiling as if she was contemplating something.

“There was a part of me that was also trying to just brush the whole thing off as a dream too. I mean, it was too real to be a dream and much of it was me only observing something that I already had a vague familiarity with, so it really didn’t feel like something to discuss.” She looked from Yurika to Gakuto, a self-deprecating smile on her face. “Besides, it happened when I was sleeping and if I had said it meant something, it would sound like I was grasping for something more, right?”

Yurika and Gakuto quickly exchanged a glance..

“That’s true.”

“You’re probably right.”

Kaede covered her mouth with her sleeve, giggling slightly. “See how quick you both agreed to that? I guess what I’m trying to say is, on its own, it wasn’t anything of note until it was.”

“That’s probably true…” Gakuto had quietly said his thanks before crossing his arms, leaning back in his chair, turning his gaze to Yurika.”...do you think Kaede seeing this shadowy figure is related to the bells and mirrors?”

Yurika leaned back in her own chair, looking up at the ceiling, working on her fourth helping of rice. It was a good thing Yukiko wasn’t in the dining room, otherwise the island girl would be getting scolded for her lack of manners before being teased for eating more than the local fishermen.

“I can’t honestly say. The Hound of Canaan is an island legend, going as far back as I know. There are endless stories of encounters with the being, but who can honestly say if they are all actually real incidents? After all, anyone would want to say they saw a myth, right?” She set her bowl down, spinning the hand still holding her chopsticks in the air before pointing them at Gakuto.

“But, if you just want my opinion…” Her voice trailed off, as if to build suspense.

“...I don’t think so.”

Gakuto almost fell over in his chair. “I thought you were going to say something more interesting.”

Yurika grinned, folding her hands and resting her chin on them as she leaned towards Gakuto. “Oh, you wanted me to say more? I’m sorry if I got your hopes too high.”

Gakuto sighed as Kaede was covering her mouth with both sleeves, trying (and failing) to hold back her laughter.

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d swear you and I had known each other a long time.”

A small, melancholic smile briefly crossed Yurika’s lips before she replaced it with a wide grin. “That’s just because you’re so easy to tease, Gakkun!”

Kaede looked between the two of them, with a slightly confused look on her face. She was glad they were getting along so well yet she felt a strange uneasiness when she heard their back and forth.

The rain had been falling steadily since the trio had returned to Nagato, which probably hadn’t helped Yurika’s swirling thoughts. It had been a whirlwind of activity since the arrival of the two from the palace, from Kaede’s vision of the moon princess, the three bells and now the appearance of the Hound of Canaan!?

That was a lot for a simple island girl to take in!

Yurika hadn’t expected the two guests would bring so much excitement with them, especially for a pair her own age. She loudly sighed, as she continued to clean up from dinner.

Kaede had retired to her room whereas Gakuto had decided to find a dry enough area of the yard to practice more of his hitoden. That had left Yurika on her own with the chores (not that she had expected their guests to help and in fact, Kaede had offered to) which was normally fine.

But, it left her alone with her thoughts.

Yurika had grown up with the stories of the moon princess as company, having been surrounded by the three shrines on Tsuiraku. That, paired with the fact there weren’t a lot of people her own age in the village, had left her feeling kind of isolated for most of her life. It wasn’t that the island was filled with only older people, she was born in an odd spot compared to most of the other younger villagers.

Yurika wasn’t particularly bothered by it either. She loved Tsuiraku as her home and didn’t want to leave it, and she got along alright with everyone. Perhaps that’s why she had latched onto Kaede and Gakuto so readily, once again having someone her own age around to talk to and laugh with.

There was only one other time she could recall having a friend her own age around and that was almost ten years ago. There had been a boy that came to Tsuiraku with his father, an acquaintance of her own father no less, that she had played with. It was only for a few weeks, but it had been an enjoyable time and she would be lying if she didn’t admit that the past couple of days hadn’t given her shades of back then.

Even in spite of the complications that had come with the Yuilen court pair.

Yurika sighed again, just as Yukiko was entering the kitchen.

“I’ve told you that sighing is a great way to lose your happiness, Rika.”

“Yes, yes…” Yurika waved off her mother’s comment as she finished wiping the last dinner bowl dry. Then, she turned suddenly, looking directly into her mother’s eyes.

“You’ve always said that mainland men were so dense and yet you still married dad. Why would you do that to yourself?”

Yukiko blinked, surprised by the sudden question before breaking into a slight laugh. “Oh, you’ve got it backwards, Rika. I say that because of your dad. Do you know how many hints I had to drop on that blockheaded swordsman before he finally got it? I swear, I thought I was going to have to challenge him to a duel with myself as the prize before it finally got through his thick skull.”
Yurika leaned on her hands against the counter as she glanced up at the ceiling. “I guess that makes sense. Even with this resthouse, there’s no way you could know that all the men are lunkheads…”

Yukiko laughed again. “Don’t get me wrong, Yurika! There’s a strong likelihood that all of them are. Which, if you think about it, isn’t all that different from the island men, wouldn’t you say?”

Yurika tilted her head in contemplation for a moment before nodding, agreeing with her mother as Yukiko continued on.

“It’s all just about finding the dense man that you can accept being with. Ryuho was that for me.” Yukiko’s voice trailed off with a slight softness as Yurika turned and looked at the rain still hitting the window.

“I take it, he doesn’t remember this place?”

Yurika shook her head slightly. “It doesn’t seem like it. You’d think he would’ve said something by now. Especially after seeing Master Isshin today and the mural in the shrine.”

Yukiko stopped over and patted Yurika on the head, smiling slightly. “The best counter to a dense man isn’t subtlety, but making yourself stand out.”

Yurika didn’t look up at her mother, her gaze still on the raindrops rolling down the windowpane.

“Next to Kaede-chan, I’m not sure how to do that…” Yurika said quietly, a glum smile on her face. “...especially if Gakuto doesn’t remember coming here eight years ago.”

Yukiko ran her fingers through Yurika’s hair, mussing it up, earning herself a glare from her daughter. “Since when has my Yurika been anything but unforgettable? The daughter I raised has never compared herself to others, always doing her own thing. Isn’t that why you learned so much from your father?”

Yurika didn’t have a response for her mother as she gazed listlessly out into the rain.

Kaede had been sitting on her bed, looking over the dizi, the bells still bundled on the bedside table. With everything that had happened the past few days, she had nearly forgotten about the inscription she had discovered on the flute and she had hoped a new puzzle might calm her nerves. Despite the vagueness of the legends, Kaede would be lying if she said that she wasn’t anxious about having encountered The Hound of Canaan…

So, she had put her mind to work, giving the flute a very thorough examination, which was made easier by the light in her room as opposed to the fading moonlight she had on the ferry.

Kaede’s gaze was focused as she traced her finger across the edge of the bamboo façade on the dizi. She was now very sure there was some message or statement on it now, but the size of the script and how it seemed to be only the outline of the leaves shooting off each break in the stalk, only made that more difficult.

Yet, Kaede persevered. She kept running her finger along each section, trying to find one part of it that made sense in her head, because surely, that would lead to other parts she could comprehend!

Kaede sighed, falling to her side and letting the instrument fall from her grasp onto the bed, her eyes getting sore and tired from the seemingly futile effort. As it bounced on the bed, the ferrule with the sapphire popped off from the embouchure and Kaede jumped up in a panic, hoping she could just pop it right back on.

Holding the ferrule, between her index finger and thumb, up to the light, Kaede realized how vibrant the sapphire’s sheen really was. It was quite translucent and when she held it up to her eye, it seemed to distort things much like using a looking glass.

Kaede stopped in her tracks, before looking at the flute in her other hand before she turned around quickly, holding both up with the lantern directly over her shoulder. She ran the ferrule over one of the stalks and the inscription was magnified!

Kaede made a quiet cheer with a small jump in excitement and started her examination again, the words of the mysterious merchant playing in her head: “A master only becomes one once they have the proper tools.”

Sure enough, with the makeshift lens guided over bamboo facsimile, Kaede could easily see the words that outlined the bamboo, spread over the various clusters of leaves:

“Only once brought

To the Moon’s fallen peak

Only then will her true avatar,

The full embodiment of her resilient will,

Be able to pen the poem of salvation

And create a harmony that will allow

Its Celestial light be properly restored”

Kaede ran the sapphire lens over it several more times to be sure and then pulled back, gazing out towards the moon, her mind racing rapidly, trying to make sense of the hidden poem. She pushed the ferrule back into place, as her eyes went wide, looking down at the dizi with a sense of understanding.

“...I didn’t mean for this week to be this eventful…”

Gakuto had only found a small corner of the yard, underneath a maple tree, that was mostly protected from the rain and so he had been running through some of the smaller parts of hitoden’s stances. He decided to take a quick break and sat at the foot of the tree, examining both sides of the dagger more thoroughly, trying to figure out what made it so special to end up in that shady merchant’s tent.

He also hadn’t forgotten about the fact that the tent disappeared from the matsuri when every other stand and booth was still intact, but that detail didn’t seem all that important with them stuck on Tsuiraku for a few more days.

Gakuto ran his thumb over the gemstones, as he eyed the blade. It looks well-honed so it was easy to claim that one of the stones kept the blade’s sharpness, but the color and clarity of the stones were meant to tell their power as magic tools.

Gakuto was not well-versed enough in magic to even make broad assumptions on the abilities hidden in the dagger’s hilt. All he could do was wait for the blade to either give its own indication or just try several things until it showed what it was capable of.

Oddly though, as he turned the blade over in his hand, a single word came to mind: “Setsuna”.

Gakuto had no context to give meaning to that word, but he had been so focused on the blade that he hadn’t realized something.

The entire radius surrounding him and the tree hadn’t seen a single raindrop since he had unsheathed the dagger.