Kuzu-no-ha helped me hobble up the stairs to Surei’s quarters, and then pulled up the leg of my hakama so she could examine my knee. Her efforts were hampered by the two children. Aoi-chan had been badly upset by all the noise of the fight. She kept a tight hold on Kuzu-no-ha’s arm and kept asking me, “Are you all right? Where is Surei-obasan? She wasn’t killed, was she?”
The side of my leg was an angry red color. Kuzu-no-ha made a tsk tsk noise as she saw it. “That is going to be black, blue and yellow tomorrow.”
When Aoi-chan saw my leg, she started crying even harder. “Is Yoshi-ojisan hurt? He’s not going to die like Mama, is he?”
Yoshi-kun jumped on the bed, waving his bokken around. “He’s not hurt! Did you see the way he was destroying that mujina?” He vigorously attacked an imaginary foe directly in front of him, barely missing Kuzu-no-ha with one of his swings. “Whack, whump! I’d have taken care of that stupid mujina if Surei-obasan hadn’t been in the way.”
He jumped in the air and swung his bokken, hitting one of the cedar pillars supporting the roof.
Kuzu-no-ha closed her eyes for a moment. A light brown fawn appeared in the room, looking about shyly. Aoi-chan stopped crying, and Yoshi-kun stopped jumping around. They both stared at it in astonishment. “You must keep quiet, or you will scare her away,” Kuzu-no-ha said, softly.
The children crept closer as quietly as they could. The fawn turned into a fox and scampered across the room to the children’s sleeping area. The children scrambled after it.
Kuzu-no-ha smiled. “Children, if you get back in bed, I will sing you a lullaby until you fall asleep.” They eagerly agreed.
As she left, I called after her, “Make sure you take Yoshi-kun’s bokken from him, or he will never go to sleep.”
I tried to relax and ignore the pain in my leg. Jushichin’s words about Surei kept coming back to me. I had to stop him. That meant I was going to have to kill him since that was probably the only way to stop him. But, I didn’t stand a chance against him, at least not in a fair fight. I rubbed my forehead as I considered what to do.
Surei came in. “Where are the children?”
“With your grandmother. She is getting them calmed down and back to bed.”
Surei glanced over at the screens surrounding the children’s sleeping area. The sound of singing came to us faintly. “I suppose she has things well in hand…”
“She has tricks none of us have ever dreamed of,” I assured her. “What are the casualties? Did we lose anyone?”
Surei sighed. “The one you called Knucklehead is dead. Ryouji and one other man are badly hurt, but I think they will survive. Several women were clawed, but not severely. It could have been much worse.”
Knucklehead’s loss felt like a personal failure, but you cannot teach those who refuse to learn.
“Let me look at your leg.” Surei knelt down and looked at my calf. “It will be all right in a day or so. Let’s put a something on it that will help.”
She got a cloth and wound it several times tightly around my thigh. She had one of the women get a pitcher of cold water from the well. Surei poured it on the dressing until it was dripping wet then applied it to my leg. I gasped at the touch of the cold water. In just a few moments, my leg started feeling better.
“That should help with the swelling,” Surei said.
She sat back on her heels and looked at me. “I’m awakened by a terrible pain in my leg. When I go to see what all the noise is outside my door, I find you in a duel with Jushichin. Next, Kamo pops up and starts conjuring spirit animals. What’s going on?”
“You know Jushichin led the attack on the caravan to Isé. Tonight, he came into my room pretending to be the high priestess, asking about a mirror she gave me after the attack.”
Surei looked confused. “Mirror? What mirror?”
“Well, after the attack, the high priestess insisted I accept a reward for saving her. She claimed she didn’t have anything appropriate to give me, but she gave me an old mirror as a token. I gave it to Aoi-chan.”
“So, this is the mirror that Aoi-chan likes to use when she dresses up her dolls?”
“I suppose. I don’t actually spend a lot of time playing with her.”
Surei stood up. “Let’s take a look at this mirror that has everyone so excited.”
She poked around in the things the children had brought over from the house. When Surei pulled aside a bunch of doll clothes, I saw some familiar silk. “There, it’s in that silk bag,” I said, pointing.
Surei brought the bag over, opened it, and removed the lacquered box. She took the lid off. The mirror rested face-up in its wooden cradle. “This is beautiful work,” Surei commented, turning the lid over in her hands. She stared at the inlaid design, which used golden oak to represent the sun rising over the horizon. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like this.”
She put the lid aside and picked up the mirror. When she saw her reflection, she said, “This is the finest mirror I’ve ever seen.” She rotated the mirror in her hands to look at the markings on the back. She gasped, and carefully laid the mirror face-down back in the box, then backed away, as if it were a poisonous snake.
“What’s wrong?”
Still looking at the mirror, she said, in a hushed voice, “Yoshi, do you know what this is?”
“Yes, it’s a mirror the high priestess gave me. What about it?”
“No, this is Yata-no-Kagami, the mirror of Amaterasu. This is one of the three Imperial Regalia.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, my grandfather handled them and left drawings in his secret writings. I recognize the symbols on the back. And I can feel the power.”
I opened my mouth to reply and then shut it. There was nothing I could say. The Imperial Regalia were the most sacred possessions of the imperial family. Without the Regalia, it was impossible for a new Emperor to ascend to the throne. I started to panic.
“That can’t be,” I said. “Yata-no-Kagami is kept in the Great Shrine at…”
“…Isé under the care of the high priestess,” Surei finished. “Apparently, she decided to give it to you for some reason.”
“Why?” I said. “What did I ever do to her? I even saved her life!”
Surei stood up and started pacing back and forth. “Tell me exactly what she said to you when you talked to her and she gave you the mirror.”
I recounted our conversation as best as I could remember. When I finished, Surei sat down opposite me. “So, she was worried about who she could trust, and she gave you this mirror then told you to come see her when you got to the shrine, right?” I nodded. “Maybe she was afraid one of her associates would try and take the mirror. She already knew of one traitor in her retinue. You had proved your loyalty, so she gave it to you, assuming no one would think to look in your baggage for it.”
She stood up and started pacing again. After a moment, she stopped and faced me. “Why didn’t you give it back to her?”
“Well, I stopped by the shrine, but she wasn’t there because she had been defiled and they wouldn’t tell me where she was, and I didn’t want to wait…” my voice trailed off.
Surei resumed pacing. “This puts us right in the middle of the conflict between the Retired Emperor Sutoku and Emperor Go-Shirakawa. Jushichin and Kamo must be working for the Retired Emperor. There would be no need for the Emperor to hire someone to take the mirror. He could just ask the high priestess for it.”
She sat down and wrapped her arms around her legs, as if she was trying to pull into herself and disappear. “If either side discovers we have this, they’ll crush us without a second thought.”
I cleared my throat. “The Retired Emperor knows we have it—otherwise Jushichin and Kamo wouldn’t be attacking us.”
Surei glared at me. “Thanks, Yoshi. That makes me feel so much better.”
I tried to reassure her. “We can take it first thing in the morning and give it to the Emperor.”
“The Emperor? Are you sure we want to do that? He might lose to the Retired Emperor. Maybe we should hang on to it and see who is going to win and then give it to them.”
I was shocked. “Really? You want to hold on to a piece of the Imperial Regalia on the off-chance you can trade it for some favor at a later date. Are you crazy?”
“If we give it to the loser, the winner will probably charge us with treason. I really wanted to avoid having to take sides in this conflict.”
I stood up. “I don’t care. It belongs to the imperial family, so it needs to go to the Emperor.”
“I have an idea,” she said. “Let’s look in the mirror, it might instruct us what to do. It is supposed to represent wisdom, and we certainly need some now.”
“No!” I said hotly. “We have no right to use the mirror!”
“Thanks to you, Aoi-chan has been using it for almost a month to play with her dolls! How can us using it possibly be any worse?”
I started to snap out a nasty retort but stopped. There was something slippery about her reasoning, but I couldn’t figure out what. Finally, I said, “I don’t know, but I just know it’s wrong.”
Kuzu-no-ha returned from putting the children to bed. “That was fast,” Surei commented.
“They dropped off quite quickly once I sang them a little song I know. What are you two arguing about now?”
I held up the box with the mirror. “This is Yata-no-Kagami. Surei thinks we should look in it.”
Surei said, “All we are doing is trying to discover the will of Amaterasu. How can that be wrong?”
I shook my head. The whole thing made me uneasy, but, as usual, Surei managed to argue me into a corner. This would end badly, I was sure.
Kuzu-no-ha looked interested. “How did you get it?”
If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.
Surei said, in a sweet tone, “The high priestess gave it to Yoshi for rescuing her.”
“Oh, I see.”
Surei watched Kuzu-no-ha, apparently expecting more of a reaction. When nothing was forthcoming, she turned back to me. “All right, let’s look into the mirror.”
Surei held it so we could both see, and we gazed intently at what it showed us. Kuzu-no-ha peeked over our shoulders. After a few moments, I commented, “All I see is our reflection. Nothing’s happening.”
Surei lowered the mirror. “This mirror embodies Truth. Anyone who uses it has to be completely honest.”
No wonder it won’t work for us.
“I’ve found that people who proclaim their devotion to honesty are almost always trying to cheat you,” I said.
Surei glared at me. “Shut up and concentrate. Think about the truth.” She raised it up again.
The mirror fogged over and showed us a clearing in the forest. It was a bright summer morning.
Kuzu-no-ha clapped her hands in excitement and exclaimed, “Oh, you two were so cute at that age…”
*****
A young man barely past his coming of age faced a practice dummy, bokken in hand. “And so it ends for you, Michinaga,” the young man said. “Let this be a lesson to anyone who would abuse his position for personal gain.” He raised his weapon…
“Whatcha doin’ Yoshi? Playing Evil Tax Collector Michinaga again?” The young man whirled at the sound of the girlish voice. In doing so, he threw himself off-balance and stumbled into the wood-and-straw dummy he had been striking only moments before. It fell on top of him. Peals of feminine laughter filled the air.
As he climbed out from underneath the dummy, he asked crossly, “What do you want, Surei?”
It was a little while before she could formulate an answer. She was doubled over in laughter, so much so she dropped the bag she was carrying onto the ground.
“That was hilarious!” she finally gasped out.
Mimicking the tone his father took when talking to a child, Yoshi said calmly to Surei, “I was not ‘playing.’ I was just completing my training exercises for the day. I don’t think trying to liven up boring and repetitive drills constitutes ‘playing.’ There is nothing to laugh at.”
Surei stopped laughing. She looked at Yoshi seriously, then nodded. “You’re right, Yoshi, this is nothing like playing.” She bent over and picked up Yoshi’s dropped bokken then stood over the dummy. Holding the weapon out in front of her, she struck a dramatic pose and started declaiming in a loud voice, “Beware, evil men and corrupt officials everywhere, for I, Minamoto no Yoshimitsu, the renowned yóuxiá, am here to see that your oppression of the poor peasants ends now. You shall pay for your crimes!” She struck the target dummy, then dropped the bokken and dissolved into laughter again.
(“You know, you were a real pain in the neck when you were a girl,” I whispered to Surei.
She shot me a dirty look. “Why are we seeing this?” Surei complained, “This isn’t important, it’s just kids playing around!”
“Shhhhh!” Kuzu-no-ha shushed us. “I’m trying to watch.”)
Yoshi growled and snatched the bokken from the ground. “I should never have let you start sparring with me,” he told her in annoyance. “This is no place for a girl. What do you want, anyway?”
Surei stopped laughing and her face reddened. “Do you know what my father said to me today? He said I couldn’t come and see you down here on the practice field anymore. He told me I am going to be a woman soon and it was inappropriate for me to be alone with any man but him or my brother.” Her voice throbbed with righteous indignation as she thought about the massive injustice of it all. “It’s not fair. Neither of our fathers has cared if we spent time together before now.”
(“So, naturally the first thing you did was come to see me,” I whispered.
Surei glared at me.)
In a disgusted tone, she said, “He said other men might try to ‘take advantage’ of me. What a silly idea.”
Yoshi hesitated for a moment, then said, “Well, Surei, when a man and a woman really like each other … I mean they can do things—”
“Yes, yes, I know all about that,” she said impatiently. “My father has a Chinese scroll I read with all these pictures showing men and women and a bunch of sex stuff. It was stupid.”
She looked at Yoshi and her eyes narrowed. “You don’t think of me like that, do you, Yoshi? That’s what I told my father.”
He took a long look at Surei. She was dressed in a child’s robes with her hair up in twin ponytails. She had just recently started growing and was beginning to display the curves of a woman. It would be a year before her coming of age ceremony, but no one seeing her could think of her as a child.
Surei picked up an extra bokken lying near the dummy and struck Yoshi on the shoulder with it. He yelled “Hey! That hurt!” and started rubbing his arm. “What was that for?”
“Why did you have that stupid look on your face?” She glared at him, bokken raised in preparation for another strike. “You weren’t thinking about me like one of the women in that stupid scroll, were you?”
He answered her quickly. “Oh, no, I would never think of you that way.”
(Surei looked at me. “Liar!”)
Her face relaxed and she lowered the bokken. After a moment, her eyes narrowed and she raised the bokken again. “Why not, do you think I’m ugly?”
For a moment, Yoshi looked around desperately. He pointed and said, “What’s in the bag?”
Surei looked where he was pointing, then said, “Bag? Oh, yes.” She dropped the bokken and opened the bag. She took out a small brazier for burning incense and set it on the ground.
(“You always were easy to distract,” I muttered. “I don’t know how many times that has saved me…”)
She looked up, her face animated. “Father said I could only see him or my brother, and that gave me an idea.”
Yoshi got a look of panic on his face. “The last time you had an idea, we got—”
“All right!” Surei shouted. “Yes, I admit I may have overlooked one or two things last time. This, however, is a marvelous idea. I can guarantee nothing will go wrong.”
Seeing Yoshi’s expression, she demanded, “Well, do you want me to lock myself up in a dark room and hide behind curtains the rest of my life?”
Yoshi’s face fell and he sighed. Surei nodded in satisfaction. “That’s what I thought,” she said, smugly.
“I still think this is not going to end well,” Yoshi muttered to himself.
(“I was right, too,” I whispered.
Surei looked at me. “It wasn’t my idea to go after the oni.”)
Surei went back to emptying the bag. “Take my word for it. This can’t possibly get us into any trouble. All I am going to do is to make you my brother. Then my father can’t complain if we spend time practicing weapons and exploring together.”
She had the brazier, some incense, a black tantou, and a rolled up scroll. She filled the brazier with incense and started it burning. Yoshi asked, “What exactly is it that you plan to do?”
Surei looked up excitedly. “Do you remember the tales of the Three Kingdoms? When Liu Bei, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei swore the Oath of the Peach Garden?”
“Oath of the Peach Garden?” Yoshi looked at her, a blank expression on his face.
Impatiently, Surei said, “You know, when they swore an oath to be brothers forever. They did it in a garden with peach trees, so it is called the Oath of the Peach Garden. My father had me translating the stories last winter, so I have a copy of the oath. We are going to take that same oath!” She wore a triumphant smile on her face.
Yoshi said slowly, “So, we are going to swear this ancient Chinese oath to be brothers, and you think that will convince your father to keep letting us see each other?” Surei nodded her head in agreement, beaming. “I don’t think he is going to agree to this,” Yoshi warned her.
“Of course he will,” Surei answered dismissively. “He loves these stories more than life itself. They all make clear these three became real brothers after the oath. He can’t possibly go against the stories. I have the exact same oath as they swore right here,” she said, picking up the scroll and waving it around in her hand for emphasis. Then she offered it for Yoshi’s inspection. “Here, see for yourself.”
He took the scroll and opened it. He stared at it a few moments, shifting it back and forth as if to get it to come into focus. “All right, it looks like that oath.” He handed it back to Surei.
“See, it is in the original Chinese, which makes it an extra-official oath,” Surei said, happily.
“I don’t think your father will care,” Yoshi muttered.
(“And I was right,” I couldn’t help adding.
Surei said, “Shut up.” She muttered to herself, “I still don’t understand why we are seeing this.”)
Surei read the scroll out loud, translating as she went.
We three [Liu Bei, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei], although born of different mothers, come together in common purpose; we will rescue each other in trouble, and we will aid each other in danger. We three swear to be brothers and if any of us do anything to betray this oath, may we be stricken dead. We were not born on the same day, we simply ask that we die on the same day. We pledge to fight for the oppressed citizenry and support the rightful government. May the gods of Heaven and Earth and the Buddha bear witness to our pact.
Yoshi seemed impressed. “That sounds like the oaths the yóuxiá swear when they promise to protect the peasants from evil officials.” Suddenly, he grew excited about the idea. “We could go around the country, protecting the innocent from injustice and overthrowing the wicked.” He looked down at Surei. “You can be my faithful follower.”
Surei was busy looking down at the scroll and fooling with the tantou; she seemed not to hear him.
(I felt a sudden sharp pain in my arm.
“Faithful follower?” Surei asked.
I shrugged.)
A little louder, Yoshi said, “All right, what do we need to do?”
She picked up the tantou. It was nearly as long as Yoshi’s forearm, with an ebony hilt covered in mystic symbols and a deep black blade. She showed it to Yoshi. “This tantou belonged to my mother’s great-grandfather. Remember I talked about him? He was a powerful onmyouji who worked for the Emperor.”
She pointed to the brazier. “I have already lit the incense. We will use the knife to cut our palms, drip the blood onto the burning incense, then recite the oath. The smoke of the incense will carry our words on the winds to the gods and the Buddha, and our blood will seal the pact.”
Yoshi looked dubiously at the knife. “Why do we need our blood for the incantation? Isn’t the oath enough by itself?”
Surei gestured impatiently. “When they took the original oath, they sacrificed a horse and an ox to seal the pact. Shall we go get some animals to kill?”
Yoshi shuddered and said hurriedly, “No, no, that is fine. We will use our blood.”
“Good,” Surei said. She took the knife and drew it sharply across her left palm, then handed it to Yoshi. He hesitated a moment, then made a similar cut across his own right palm and gave the knife back to Surei. She wiped the blade clean on the grass and stuck it into the sheath in her belt.
Both of their hands were bleeding freely as they held them above the burning incense. Surei awkwardly held the scroll in her other hand, and they both began reading, Surei in fluent Chinese, Yoshi in a much more stumbling fashion.
As they recited the oath, the blood dripping into the brazier flashed with a dark light as it struck the burning incense. The smoke billowed out wildly, enclosing Surei and Yoshi within its darkness.
The mirror showed the faint lines connecting all life. The tie between Yoshi and Surei was much thicker and brighter than any of the others, perhaps due to a karmic bond they had forged in a previous life. Under the influence of the magic of the oath, it thickened and brightened even further.
(“Is that what happened? Did the spell actually work?” Surei asked. “I thought I was just dizzy from all the smoke.”
“What do you think drew me that day? It was powerful magic indeed,” Kuzu-no-ha stated.
Surei looked alarmed. “Does that mean we are going to die on the same day?”
“Possibly,” Kuzu-no-ha said. “You should probably do your best to take care of each other.”
Surei snarled, “I’m not the one who has Yoshi fighting mujina!”
“Shhh. The mirror!” Kuzu-no-ha said.)
The scene widened. A white fox with five tails watched the scene from behind a nearby bush. Further away, an impossibly beautiful woman who literally glowed with light appeared. Although the children were unaware of her, she watched with interest as they took their oath. When the oath was finished, she smiled and nodded in apparent satisfaction.
(In a panicked voice, Surei said, “Amaterasu-Awaumikami watched us take the oath? Why did she nod?”
“You asked the gods of heaven and earth and the Buddhas to witness your pact. She witnessed it and accepted your oath. That is probably why she allowed Yoshi to obtain her mirror.” Kuzu-no-ha said.
“Oath? You mean ‘to fight for the oppressed citizenry and the rightful government’? I was just mad at my father. I didn’t really mean it!”
“I meant it,” I said.
Kuzu-no-ha smiled. “You both took the oath. It is binding on both of you.”)
The mirror went dark for a moment, then showed an old man in elegant court robes walking along the lakeshore. He held a small, thin box in his left hand.
(“Look!” Kuzu-no-ha cried in delight. “It’s Seimei!”)
When he reached the edge of the water, he continued without stopping, marching into the water of the lake until his head disappeared under the surface. A confusing series of images gave the impression of travel at great speed. Finally, he appeared standing next to a large gate. He knocked and the gate opened, allowing him inside. He approached a man on a coral throne, and the two greeted each other cordially.
(“Who’s that?” I asked.
“That’s the Dragon King of the Lake,” Kuzu-no-ha said. “He and Seimei were great friends.”)
Seimei handed the Dragon King the box he carried. The mirror focused in on the box until it filled the entire view. The image froze for a few moments, then the mirror cleared to show just our reflections.