Chapter 13: 2.3

The car was driving along the main street for a while, but as it followed Takafuyu’s directions, the road turned into narrow and complicated alleys, and the driver told them, “The car cannot go any further.”

The two got out of the car and walked down the alleys. The area had the atmosphere of Shitamachi, and half of the narrow alleys were occupied by a ditch with wooden planks crossing over it, making it even narrower to walk on. Facing it were tightly packed row houses. The alleys were lined with potted plants and charcoal grills, so if you walked without watching your step, you might stumble and fall. The noisy sounds of babies crying, children playing, and fretful noises echoed through the air. Perhaps due to the recent rain, there was a sour smell coming from the ditch. On the whole, it wasn’t as bad as a slum, but it lacked quietness and cleanliness. Suzuko and Takafuyu, who looked out of place, drew unreserved gazes from the children playing at the small Inari shrine and the women washing clothes by the communal faucet.

Takafuyu stopped at a corner of the alley. On one of the row house doors was a vacancy notice.

“Is this it?”

“Yes.”

“I wonder why it’s vacant.”

While the city’s population continued to grow, there weren’t enough houses to go around. It was said that one of the aspirations of middle-class people was to rent a house in Yamanote, but ordinary people usually lived in row houses. Since workers were pouring in from the countryside, row houses should be filling up quickly.

“Apparently, it’s because it’s haunted by a ghost.”

Ghost—that lady’s ghost?

“Shall we ask about the details?”

Takafuyu said and turned around. The women who were squatting in front of their tubs near the communal faucet and staring at them stopped what they were doing. Takafuyu walked toward them without hesitation. Suzuko followed him.

“Excuse me, ladies. May I ask you a few questions about that vacant house over there?”

At his gentle and mild-mannered smile, the three women all wiped their hands on their waist aprons and stood up. They were middle-aged women dressed in striped cotton and had towels wrapped around their head.

“An acquaintance of mine said he wants to rent a row house, so I’m looking for a good place. How is that house?”

All three women shook their heads at Takafuyu’s question.

“No, no, sir, you shouldn’t go there.”

“There were several people who rented it before. But they all said it was haunted and left right away.”

“Of course they would. The house has a shady history.”

The three all chimed in. It was noisy.

“What do you mean by ‘shady history’…?”

Takafuyu asked with an expression of feigned ignorance. The three looked at each other with looks of “You tell him.” The woman who looked the oldest spoke.

“A housewife and daughter lived there, but the daughter died. Her mother died soon after, as though chasing after her.”

“The daughter, you know, jumped off of Asakusa Juunikai. And her mother died from illness.”

“Eh? Didn’t the wife hang herself? That’s what I heard.”

Even in the neighborhood, the information seemed to be mixed up. “I don’t think she would have jumped from the Juunikai,” Takafuyu said.

“Really? Why?”

“So far, there has only been three deaths resulting from falling to one’s death from the Juunikai. In 1909, three people died one after the other. A 26-year-old man, a 16-year-old girl, and a 30-year-old woman.”

“Then we heard wrong,” the oldest woman said. “The daughter was 18, and she didn’t die in that year.”

This woman seemed to have the best memory.

“Didn’t a lot of people die in Juunikai? It was in the newspapers, my husband said so,” Another woman interjected from the side.

“Are you referring to the series of articles calling themselves the ‘Juunikai Monogatari’? It called the Juunikai the ‘Tower of Death.’ It was serialized a little while ago. It’s full of nonsense. It’s quite a problem.”

Suzuko never heard of that newspaper. After the Great War, the number of advertisements for medicines and cosmetics in the newspapers increased, and the contents seemed to have become more popular as well.

“Nonsense? No, is that true? I completely believed them.”

“But it was certain that the daughter died from suicide. Doesn’t that mean she hanged herself, then?”

“The wife was sick. She wouldn’t kill herself.”

When the older woman said this firmly, the other two women asked her in unison, “Why not?”

“She said that she couldn’t die because she had to apologize. I told her to just quit it, but she wouldn’t listen.”

“I see, so you were quite close to her, madam.”

“I wouldn’t go as far as to say we were close. I couldn’t bear to look at her. She was all skin and bones, but she still wore a black-crested haori and went all the way out to Takanawa. It must have been a nuisance for them too.”

The older woman who Takafuyu called “madam” looked up at him.

“That woman’s husband was a drunkard and a good-for-nothing, and he killed someone while drunk. He was an important government official, and apparently he worked hard during the day, but at home he drank and beat his wife. I heard that their neighbors didn’t even notice that the husband was a drunk until then, so he must have kept up appearances very well.”

“It’s a terrible story, isn’t it? There are awful drunk husbands around here as well, but you’ll know them when you see them. They drink all day long.”

“But wasn’t the wife a former geisha who settled into being the wife of a government official, but spent money freely and cheated on her husband?”

“No, I don’t think she was like that. She seemed timid. That was why she was at the mercy of her husband. From my point of view, she should have just left him.”

“That’s right, if he was so terrible, she should have just left him. The reason she didn’t was because she wanted to be a government official’s wife.”

“Besides, if she had properly admonished her husband’s drinking habits, he wouldn’t have ended up killing someone else, right?”

It’s like it’s the wife who was at fault.

Suzuko’s chest started to hurt. It was because she knew the haggard back of the lady.

In her mind’s eye, she saw that “demon” woman from earlier. Chattering away happily with a mixture of truth and falsehood—

“I’m reminded of the Suzuben murder.”

Takafuyu, who had been quietly listening to the women, suddenly spoke. “Huh?” the women said.

“You see, it happened about a year ago. The Suzuben murder. An official of the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce killed a merchant—”

“Oh, that’s right! I remember. That was the one where they dismembered him and dumped him in the river.”

Suzuko remembered that incident well. It became a hot topic in society. At the beginning of June 1919, a suitcase stuffed with a dead body was discovered by the Shinano River, causing a great stir. Not only was the victim brutally beaten to death with a baseball bat and was dismembered, but the fact that the perpetrator was a government official from the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce was probably one of the factors that made it such a hot topic. The motive was a loan to the victim. It was called the “Suzuben murder” after the victim’s name. The perpetrator was sentenced to death later that year.

“In that incident as well, the wife of the government official was blamed for one thing or another. It was a pity.”

The women looked at each other and seemed a little embarrassed.

Indeed, the incident was so shocking that not only the murderer but also his family members were being written about in the newspapers day after day. They talked about how the murderer’s mother was raised in a brothel, that the wife was a bad housekeeper, and that it was wrong for her to be away from home at the time of the crime. Suzuko felt disgusted by those accusations and rarely read newspapers since then.

“I knew a journalist who was driven on by righteous indignation at the time—he told me that commercialism had run rampant and caused such absurd and hurtful articles to be published.”

Perhaps because they didn’t quite understand what “commercialism” meant, the women stared at him blankly, but they began to gather the laundry at their feet as if feeling uncomfortable.

“Anyway, you should give up on that house, sir.”

“I see. Thank you for your help. I apologize for interrupting your work.”

Takafuyu smiled amiably and turned on his heel. In the end, Suzuko didn’t say a single word, but she didn’t have chance to cut into the women’s conversation, and she didn’t know what to say. Their conversation was naturally different from that of the nobility, but it was also different from that of the slums.

“Gambling, drinking, gossiping. I guess the more you need to do something to spend time, the more you become addicted to it. There must be something that makes a person get addicted to it. Gossip is the worst of all, precisely because it doesn’t hurt one’s pocketbook,” Takafuyu murmured as he walked. “The newspapers are taking the lead in encouraging this, and it’s getting out of hand. Newspapers have changed a lot as well. –That’s what that reporter said, though.”

Takafuyu smiled at Suzuko. Suzuko stared at his face.

“What do you think?”

Takafuyu looked a little surprised when Suzuko asked him that. He stopped.

“I have no principles or opinions. I’m like water. I’ve always been carried along by the current, and now I’m here.”

Takafuyu was about to say more, but he kept his mouth shut.

Suzuko was about to speak to him again when she suddenly caught a glimpse of the row house.

A shadow appeared in front of the door of the empty house. The black moldy thing silently moved toward the entrance of the alley—toward Suzuko and Takafuyu. Suzuko instinctively stepped aside. The shadow gradually took on the shape of a woman. A woman in a black-crested haori with her head down. It was the woman she saw in front of the gate to Roku’s house.

She slowly walked past Suzuko and out of the alleyway of row houses. There was a gloomy shadow over her face. Was she on her way to Roku’s house? Suzuko wondered if that ghost was going to do so again and again, forever.

Takafuyu started walking after the woman. Suzuko followed him.

“She’s one step away from becoming a demon.”

Takafuyu said without turning around.

“In that state, no words can get through to her. She only goes to Roku-san’s house to apologize, day after day. Sooner or later, she will turn into a vengeful spirit that will bring about calamity before that gate.”

“How terrible…”

That’s too cruel.

Takafuyu stopped. Awaji no Kimi appeared as though welling up from his body.

She’s going to eat her.

That pitiful housewife’s ghost.

Suzuko covered her nose with her hand, almost gagging from the intensity of the fragrance. Takafuyu glanced back at her and shifted his body. Now Suzuko was no longer able to see neither Awaji no Kimi nor the ghost.

“You don’t have to look, Suzuko-san,” Takafuyu’s voice was extremely gentle. “It’ll be over soon.”

Suzuko stared at his back. He was watching Awaji no Kimi eat the ghost. He was always watching. He watched the ghosts that had nowhere to go, that had nothing but suffering, disappear.

Was it cruelty? Or was it salvation?

This person is…

Takafuyu turned around.

“It’s over.”

Suzuko looked up at his face. The faint smile on his face showed no insight into his emotions. But——.

“…How are you feeling right now?”

Takafuyu’s smile faded and he looked at her seriously.

“Well…I’m not sure myself.”

Suzuko suddenly felt a prick in her chest.

“I think you’re feeling sad. You feel pained by the ghosts that could only be saved by being eaten.”

Takafuyu smiled bitterly.

“Suzuko-san, I don’t have such an admirable character.”

“How would you know what your character is like if you don’t even know your own feelings?”

Takafuyu’s mouth remained half-open, seemingly at a loss for a response.

“I think I understand you a little, but only a little. Even so, I wonder if I can see you better than you yourself do.”

After saying that, Suzuko walked past him to the opening of the alley. Neither the ghost of the housewife nor Awaji no Kimi were there. That house, which was said to be haunted, would probably be rented out sooner or later and a new tenant would enter. How long would the memories of that unfortunate lady remain?

“Suzuko-san, Suzuko-san,” Takafuyu ran after her with long strides. “Let’s go to the Hanabishi estate now, just as promised.”

It was a promise? Suzuko thought, but nodded, “Okay.”

“Once the ceremony is over, you will be the bride of the Hanabishi family, so—”

Takafuyu smiled.

“Let us live together.”

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After the car passed through the Hanabishi mansion’s gate, the same steward as before was waiting in front of the door. Takafuyu, who got out of the car, told him, “Bring the charcoal briquette to the ‘Shiotsuki Room.’” He took Suzuko’s hand and helped her out of the car. “Now then, shall we go?” he said and took her to the inside of the house. He led her to the room they entered before.

“This is the ‘Shiotsuki Room.’ Its name comes from the inscription on the fragrant wood. The inscription read ‘Shio no Tsuki.’ That is the fragrant wood that is being possessed by Awaji no Kimi.”

Once inside the room, Suzuko found it still filled with the strong smell of incense.

“The wood itself is located in Awaji, at the shrine. Pieces shaved off from that wood are kept here, and whenever we run out, we go to Awaji to collect some more. That is how it works.”

The stand with the incense burner in the center was still the same as before. The difference was the incense burner. The painted one had been replaced by a celadon porcelain one.

“This is a kinuta celadon incense burner. Good celadon porcelain comes from the continent, but the finest of them all comes from the Yue prefecture, and the finest of the pieces that came to this country from Yue prefecture is the ‘Flower Vase of the Higashiyama Treasure. That’s why this type of porcelain is called ‘kinutade’—I know it’s a pain to remember, but you should know it. Awaji no Kimi prefers the most high-quality things.”

Just as he said, the incense burner had a beautiful color. The pale, bluish green color was like the spring sky.

“The incense burners are stored in a separate room, but most of the tools for burning incense are here. Over there—”

Takafuyu pointed to a shelf by the wall. It was a shelf with a paper sliding door, with a tray on the top and a box placed at the bottom. The door depicted flowers and birds of the four seasons, such as sakura and pheasants, and snow and herons. Takafuyu walked over to the shelf, shifted the tray to the side, and placed the box there. It was a beautiful box, with the Hanabishi crest drawn with maki-e lacquer over a nashiji background. There was a string attached to the lid. Takafuyu untied it and removed the lid. The inside was lined with bamboo sheath. Inside was a beautiful cloth bag and several small maki-e boxes.

Takafuyu took out a box and pulled out a paper packet from it. “This is an incense packet. It contains chiseled pieces of the fragrant wood.”

The front of the packet had a picture of waves and the moon, with the inscription “Shio no Tsuki.”

“The wood is wrapped in this way to prevent the scent of the fragrant wood from permeating. It is wrapped twice. It is first wrapped in a type of paper called bamboo paper, and then it is wrapped in a piece of paper with this image on it.”

Bamboo paper was said to be thin bamboo sheath backed with paper.

Takafuyu placed the incense packet on the tray.

“This has nothing to do with koudou1, so there isn’t any etiquette involved. Please feel free to burn it without reserve.”

What? Suzuko looked up at him. “I’m going to burn the incense?”

“That’s right. From now on, it will be your job to burn it.”

“By ‘from now on,’ you don’t mean starting tomorrow, do you?”

Takafuyu had said something like, “Let’s live together after the ceremony is over,” but she had turned him down because she felt put on the spot by suddenly being asked to live here tomorrow.

“You may move in here whenever you like, but please do so as soon as possible.”

“Huh…”

“I will explain it properly to the Takigawa family.”

“…You’re very good at removing obstacles in the way of your objective, aren’t you?”

“They do say that if you want to win the daughter, you must first begin with the mother.”

Just then, there was a knock on the door. A voice called out. “Master, I’ve brought the briquette.”

The steward who entered was holding a tray with an incense-burner-shaped object on it. After Takafuyu took the tray from him, he left.

“His name is Yura. He’s young, but he’s an old-timer. If there’s anything you need, he is the fastest person to ask.”

Saying that, Takafuyu approached the pedestal in the center. “I’m sorry, but would you mind holding this for a moment?” He handed the tray to Suzuko. Inside the tray’s incense burner, there was a charcoal briquette burning brightly with a net over it.

“This is a hitori burner. It’s a vessel for carrying fire. The tools used for burning incense are elegant in every way. It gives a sense of aristocratic culture.”

There was a cylinder with tools under the stand, and Takafuyu took out a pair of tongs from it. He removed the netting of the burner with the tongs, then gripped the briquette and buried it in the ashes. The ashes were poured over the top.

“In this way, the ashes are heated, and the heat is used to produce the fragrance. If you burn them, the fragrant wood will smell burnt.”

I see, Suzuko thought as she watched his hands. Takafuyu’s demeanour was gentle and elegant, but his hands were surprisingly sturdy and firm. His fingers were long, and his nails were beautifully shaped.

“Did you understand all of what I showed you?”

Suzuko returned to herself at Takafuyu’s voice. She had been captivated by his hands. The ashes had warmed up, and all that was left was to place the fragrant wood there.

“The process is surprisingly easy. All you have to do is heat the ashes and put the fragrant wood on top. But if you aren’t accustomed to it, there is a danger of burning yourself. Let’s do it together, as a morning routine.”

Thinking that it would be confusing to do alone, Suzuko nodded.

“Then, shall we begin?”

This was the beginning of the ceremony. Suzuko took in a breath and stared at the incense burner.

Takafuyu used a different pair of tongs to place a small piece of fragrant wood on top of the ashes. It looked like a mere dark reddish-brown wood chip. After a while, the scent rose. It was a clear, deep, yet somewhat lonely scent.

The scent spread and filled the room. It seemed to seep into Suzuko’s hair and skin. She wondered if she, like Takafuyu, would come to have this fragrance wafting from her body.

I’m being engulfed by the scent.

That was what it felt like.

A thin wisp of smoke wavered in the air, and a woman in juunihitoe appeared. Awaji no Kimi. She had a white oval face, eyes like black gemstones, and small red lips. Her dark eyes narrowed, and the corners of her mouth lifted.

Awaji no Kimi extended her hand to Suzuko. The tips of her sakuragai-like nails were pointed towards her. The smoke trailed. It loosely surrounded Suzuko and clung to her. It bound her and covered her.

It’s like I’m being eaten, she thought.

All the members of the Hanabishi family might have been eaten by this jourou. They were trapped and couldn’t escape. Maybe that was the kind of curse placed on them.

Before she knew it, Suzuko had closed her eyes. The scent became stronger, and when she slowly opened her eyes, Awaji no Kimi’s face was right before her eyes. Suzuko swallowed back a scream.

Her dark eyes were like empty voids, like the dark sea on a starless night. Her white skin was so translucent that streaks of blue veins could be seen underneath it, and her lips were red to the point of garishness and chapped. Her bloodless lips were forcibly painted with rouge.

Her heart was pounding. Goosebumps rose on her flesh, and a cold sweat broke out on her back. It was terrifying. Awaji no Kimi was the most terrifying ghost she had ever met.

She felt a prick of pain on her ankle. Awaji no Kimi’s smile deepened. With that expression on her face, she faded into smoke and disappeared.

Suzuko’s knees were trembling and about to give way, but Takafuyu held her up.

“Does it hurt anywhere, Suzuko-san?”

Suzuko shook her head. Her whole body was trembling, not just her knees.

Takafuyu slowly helped her sit down on the spot. “How are you feeling?” he peered into her face and asked worriedly.

“I’m fine…I just…feel a little exhausted…”

“You’re shaking.”

Suzuko looked back into his eyes. “Aren’t you scared?”

Takafuyu looked confused at her question.

“Of Awaji no Kimi. I’m scared of her.”

Takafuyu stared at Suzuko. The pain in his eyes made her gaze at him.

“…I’m sorry, Suzuko-san. I was the one who dragged you into this whole mess. If I hadn’t met you on that day, Awaji no Kimi would have never found you.”

But, Takafuyu dropped his gaze, and then raised it again. He looked straight at her.

“You are now a Hanabishi. You cannot escape from Awaji no Kimi. Please forgive me.”

To Suzuko, Takafuyu’s eyes seemed to be filled with a variety of emotions. And he was suffering from them. It was something more than just involving Suzuko into this whole thing.

Takafuyu embraced her. The warmth from his large hands softened the fear that had shaken her.

Suzuko realized that the fragrance was no longer only coming from him, but also herself.

She simply closed her eyes and let the scent envelop her.

Takafuyu watched the car carrying Suzuko exit the gate, then turned around. He told Yura to get Mikoshiba and went up the stairs. Mikoshiba was the butler. Takafuyu entered the private room and sat down in a chair.

“Scared,” huh…

He thought Suzuko wouldn’t be afraid. She was someone who didn’t get perturbed about things. But even she was afraid of Awaji no Kimi.

After all this time, Takafuyu felt like cursing the Hanabishi family.

When he was in this house, the childhood memories of being shunned and abhorred by his parents without knowing why and being doted on by his grandfather tormented him. It wasn’t until his grandfather’s death and it was decided that he would be adopted by another family that he learned the “reason” behind it all.

I wonder how I would have met her if I hadn’t been a son of this family.

He was imagining something foolish. For example, what if he were the biological child of his adoptive parents in Yokohama? They kindly welcomed him and gave him the warmth of family. He always thought how wonderful it would have been if he was their real son.

But if that was the case, he probably wouldn’t have married Suzuko.

He sighed deeply and closed his eyes. Various thoughts and feelings were stirring in his chest. His thoughts were incoherent, and his feelings were unsettled and wouldn’t calm down.

When he closed his eyes, the image of Suzuko looking straight at him emerged in the darkness. She was trying to get to know him. Even though she was reluctantly marrying him, she was still trying to confront it with a sincere heart.

Compared to that, what about me?

Takafuyu pressed his hand to his forehead and hung his head. He could see the chest out of the corner of his eye. It was the chest containing his brother’s belongings. What if Suzuko saw it?

She wouldn’t immediately assume that his brother was the killer just because he had a “pine crest.” But she would certainly ask him why he had kept quiet about it, and he would lose her trust. He didn’t want that.

If only he could thoroughly examine his brother’s belongings and be certain that he wasn’t the killer. No, that was no use. Even if there was evidence that he was the murderer, there wouldn’t be evidence that he wasn’t the murderer. No one could prove that. Except for finding the real culprit.

Yes, if only he could find the real culprit—but what if it was his brother?

Takafuyu ran his hand through his hair. At the very least, he had to investigate his brother. He knew that. He knew that, but—.

“Master, you called for me?”

There was a knock on the door, accompanied by Mikoshiba’s voice. “Come in,” Takafuyu said, and the elderly butler quietly entered the room. Mikoshiba was from a lineage that served the Hanabishi family for generations, and he was his grandfather’s right-hand man. Therefore, he was the only servant in the house whom Takafuyu could trust.

“What can I do for you?”

“Dispose of all of my brother’s belongings.”

When he said that, even the unflappable butler widened his eyes in surprise.

""

“I see…Everything, sir?”

“Yes.”

“Are you sure, sir?”

The butler rarely asked him for a confirmation. He always bowed his head and said, “Yes, sir,” and listened to Takafuyu’s orders without hesitation.

Takafuyu dropped his gaze and pondered. Was this the right choice? Once he disposed of them, he would never get them back. Suzuko would never see the “pine crest” again.

“Yes, I am.”

“…Yes, sir. I shall get the preparations ready.”

Mikoshiba was about to withdraw, but Takafuyu stopped him with a “No, wait.”

“Wait—no, it’s fine. No, don’t dispose of them. That’s what I mean. Forget what I said before.”

Mikoshiba immediately bowed his head. “Yes, sir.”

After he left, Takafuyu leaned back in his chair and exhaled.

The servants might divulge the “pine seal” to her if I dispose of my brother’s belongings.

If Suzuko found out that he disposed of the belongings then, he would lose her trust. The servants, who favored his brother, would revolt against him even more. It was a bad move.

My judgment has dulled…

Leaning back in his chair, Takafuyu looked up at the ceiling.

Even though they had only parted not too long ago, he thought, I want to see Suzuko-san.

Footnotes

Koudou is the art of appreciating Japanese incense.

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