“Stand with your shoulders parallel to the ground.”

Another day training recruits. Today, we were focusing on the yumi. The trainees were quiet, more focused than usual.

“Raise.” Each one lifted the yumi overhead, arrow loosely held between the fingers of the right hand.

“Draw.” Lowering the yumi to eye-level, each archer pulled back on the bow string until the arrowhead was just touching the wood curve of the yumi and the right hand was resting on the archer’s right cheek. I looked them over and nodded in satisfaction. Their form was good, their grip solid with no trembling of the arms from fatigue.

“Release.” With a loud thrum, the archers discharged their arrows at the same time. A cloud of shafts flew across the training yard, most of them striking their targets.

“Good. Very good.” The previous day’s skirmish had demonstrated that the level of skill among our archers was high, but I still had a cut on my earlobe. I wanted them to have that final polish that could be the difference between life and death in a battle.

I looked the group over and shook my head. Shirabyoushi, musicians, gardeners, kitchen drudges, and stablehands. These were not people raised to fight. But they were determined to do so in defense of themselves, their mistress, and the Spring Palace.

Who knows, we might even pull this off. At the least, a few arrow volleys like that should scare off ordinary looters.

“Again.” Everyone reached under their right arms and pulled an arrow out of the quiver on their back.

“Yoshi-san.” A young came running up. One of Cook’s youngest, I thought. “The mistress has asked you to join her in the shrine garden.”

I nodded, and the boy took off. I motioned to an older bushi we had hired. “Kanasuke, take over.”

The shrine garden was near the back wall of the Spring Palace. This portion of the property contained Surei’s personal quarters. Only Spring Palace employees were allowed on this part of the estate. Surei had erected a wisteria covered pavilion overlooking a small shrine to Ame-no-Uzume, the kami of dance. I couldn’t look at the shrine without briefly recalling the dancer who had played Ame-no-Uzume for us in Ōtsu and her predilection for taking off her clothes. Surei often practiced with her shirabyoushi here in the garden, but today, she sat alone in the pavilion.

I stopped to study her for a moment. She sat with her head turned looking at the wisteria plants twining up and over the pavilion, the sunlight reflecting off their light purple flowers. The light gave everything a faint lavender cast. She had an indefinable air of melancholy about her. I found the sight deeply moving.

I approached the pavilion and gave a formal bow. “Hyacinth-sama.”

Surei looked at me with surprise, then nodded her head in acknowledgement of my bow. “Minamoto-sama,” she answered, equally as formal.

She regarded me for a moment. “How are you feeling today, Yoshi? I trust you slept better?”

“Yes. Nothing but ordinary dreams.” Dreams of my father and brothers being slaughtered, but that had nothing to do with any ghosts. Those dreams had plagued me for years. I sat down next to her. “But, I feel a bit hollow. As if something has been taken from me. I guess I am missing Akiko.”

Surei nodded absently, not answering, staring back out at the wisteria.

This is worrisome. She should have some response to that. What is bothering her?

“How are you, Surei? I know the exorcism took a lot out of you.”

“Fine.” A gentle breeze set the wisteria to swaying. Dislodged petals fluttered to the ground around us, but Surei didn’t seem to notice, staring blankly at the restless movement of the branches. “I wanted to let you know that Governor Abé has decided to leave the city tomorrow. He is taking Mayumi and the children to the house at Lake Awaumi. Tonight, we are having a farewell dinner as a family. I’d like you to join us.”

I didn’t conceal my relief. “I’m glad he is leaving. Both the Emperor and the Retired Emperor are threatening the heads of the large bushi clans with treason if they don’t support them. If Governor Abé stays in Kyoto, I am afraid that they will be after him, too.” I laughed. “If our ‘troops’ weren’t mostly women and peasants, they would probably be coming after you, too.”

Surei didn’t react to my joke.

This is not good at all.

I sighed. “All right, Surei, what is it? What’s bothering you? The children and Benkon leaving? The failure of the exorcism? Akiko attempting to kill you? You can talk to me about it. I am an expert on abandonment, failure, and people trying to kill me.”

Surei’s head snapped around to face me, her eyes narrowed. “This is not a joking matter! I have loosed Akiko on the capital! Who knows what she will do?”

I shrugged. “Bad things, no doubt. None of which you can stop by sitting here tearing yourself apart.” I took her hand and stood, pulling her to her feet. Placing my hands on either side of her head, I looked her directly in the eyes. I softly said, “People fail, Surei. Your problem is you don’t fail very often. When you do, you think that means there is something wrong with you. The only people who never fail are the people who never try. Yes, your attempt at exorcism failed. We just need to think of something different to do.”

Surei pulled away from me and turned her back. “Do? What am I going to do?” she shouted, almost in tears. “I can’t do anything. I am just a shirabyoushi. The only skill I have is enticing noblemen with my dances and then sleeping with them for money.”

“You are more than a dancer—”

She whirled to face me, her face contorted in anger. “NO! No, I am not!” She threw her arms out and looked up into the sky. “There is magic in my blood!” She faced me again, her eyes brimming with tears. “How did I say that? I believed it! I thought I was special. That if I learned enough, I could be an onmyouji.”

She looked down at the floor of the pavilion, staring at the wisteria petals as they blew in circular patterns on the cedar planks. “Before I became a shirabyoushi, I dressed as a boy and studied onmyoudou.”

She looked up; tears were running down her face. “I wanted to be powerful, respected.” She closed her eyes and shook her head. “I wanted to be Abé no Seimei.”

I shook my head in disbelief. “You’re a woman. Those idiots would never respect you. They don’t even respect Kamo Onmyoushi despite his power, and his only failure is not being an Abé.”

“I know. It was stupid. I’m just a weak woman with foolish dreams beyond her station.”

With a harsh laugh I said, “Surei, that’s foolishness.” She looked up at me, hurt. “The people of the highest ‘station’ are drunken lechers, idiot nobles, and incompetent fools. As you pointed out the other day, their ‘wisdom’ has the entire capital on the edge of destruction.”

Walking over to her I took both her hands in mine. “I suspect that my opinion isn’t important to you, but I respect you. I have always admired your intelligence, your courage, and your spunk. Recently, I have come to see you are also patient and wise.”

She looked at me in surprise.

I cocked my head as if in thought. “Well, maybe not so wise. Anyone who thought haunting the Daidairi would be a good idea…”

Surei pulled away from me and hit me on the arm. She was laughing, but tears were still streaming down her face. “I don’t know what to do. I feel so alone and helpless.”

A petal from a wisteria blossom fluttered past my head. I reached out and caught it. Cupping it in the center of my left palm, I presented it to Surei. “Without a family, we are like this flower. No roots, nothing to keep up from being blown about by the slightest breeze.” I dropped it. Surei and I watched as it fluttered through the air and landed on the floor of the pavilion.

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Surei glanced up at me. “You came back looking for a family,” she said, softly. Suddenly choked up, I didn’t answer, only nodded.

She looked at the wisteria again. “Akiko sensed that and welcomed you. I was too angry. And too afraid.”

“Afraid of what?”

“That you wouldn’t like what I have become. That once you came to know me, you would leave again.”

I opened my right hand and looked at the palm, at the scar there. “No Surei. I wouldn’t do that. You are my brother, remember? You are all the family I have left.”

She stared at me in confusion. Still holding out my palm, I ran my finger across the faint white scar tissue in the center. “We swore an oath.”

She opened her left hand and stared at her palm. There was a faint, narrow scar nearly identical to mine.

“In the original Chinese so it would be ‘extra-official,’ remember?” I smiled at the recollection.

Surei began laughing again.

I watched the petals blow in the breeze. I had walked away from Surei once. It hadn’t worked out well for either of us. Vengeance for the dead could wait. The living needed me now.

“You are not alone, Surei. We will find a way through this together. You might never be an onmyouji, but you are my brother. And I will be by your side as we face this thing together.”

My eyes drifted to the heavens. Father, I know I have been a disappointment to you over the years, but I think this is what you would have wanted me to do. I am not giving up restoring our honor, but it is time for me to rejoin the living.

*****

I went back to working with the recruits. One of the stable hands managed to shoot an arrow into the behind of one of our experienced bushi. It took me a good part of the afternoon to talk the bushi out of killing the stable hand, so I was late for the family dinner.

Governor Abé, his wife Mayumi, and the children were already sitting around a table with Surei. Sachiko and three children were in and out, serving food and running errands. Masanori had stayed at the house with the yojimbo, standing guard. When Surei saw me, she called me over and motioned me to sit down. I was surprised and gratified to hear the life in her voice. She showed little sign of her earlier distress.

She was talking and smiling at the children. “If you children are good, maybe you will be able to spend the night here.”

“I want to get my bokken so I can fight with the yojimbo!” Yoshi-kun yelled.

“Yes, you can bring your bokken.” Seeing Aoi-chan’s frown, Surei continued, “and you can bring your mirror and dolls, Aoi-chan.”

Aoi-chan laughed delightedly and clapped her hands together.

Governor Abé was a bit taken aback by Surei’s offer. He looked at her questioningly. She told him, “Don’t worry, the children have slept here before. They will be all right.”

At her assurances, he relaxed. “Well, it is up to you.” He looked at his wife and leered. “I won’t deny that a night by ourselves would be pleasant.”

One of the girls came running up. Surei frowned as she approached. The girl bent and whispered something in Surei’s ear. Surei’s expression suddenly hardened.

Surei turned to her guests. “Would you please excuse Yoshi and me for a short while? Something has come up that requires our immediate attention.” Without waiting for me, she stood up and started to walk back to the Spring Palace. I had to run to catch up with her.

“What is the emergency?” I asked. “And why do you need me?”

“Grandmother.”

“Your grandmother? Kuzu-no-ha?”

“Yes, I have been trying to reach her since she brought you back from Isé, and she has finally decided to put in an appearance. There are some things we need to talk about.”

She didn’t say anything further until we reached her office. Kuzu-no-ha was sitting on the floor at a low table, demurely drinking some water.

Surei stomped into the room and stood glaring down at her great-great-great-grandmother, the fox-spirit. “I have been trying to contact you for more than a month. Where have you been?”

Unperturbed by Surei’s obvious irritation, she smiled and said, “It is good to see you, too, kit. Is there something wrong?”

I could hear Surei’s teeth grinding. “I had some questions to ask you.”

“Of course, dear. I am always happy to help you younglings.”

That was apparently too much for Surei. “Help! When I asked you to keep an eye on Yoshi, you almost got him killed by getting him involved in this business with the high priestess.”

Kuzu-no-ha said in surprise, “Killed? He didn’t even get hurt.” She looked at me admiringly. “It was masterful how he drove off the raiders.”

“No, he didn’t get hurt that night, but he was almost killed a couple days later.”

“That was his own fault, not mine,” Kazu-no-ha said primly. “He should have known better than to ride into an ambush, drunk, that late at night.”

Surei looked sideways at me and said, “Possibly.” Turning back to Kuzu-no-ha, she continued, “But why did you wake him in the first place?”

“Well, I couldn’t let Jushichin kill the high priestess.”

I burst out, “Jushichin? The man in the brown jacket? You know who he is?”

“Yes. He is an old and wicked mujina. He and I have tangled before. Anytime he is involved, there is much suffering and death.”

I felt myself becoming hysterical. In a high, nervous voice, I asked, “A mujina? You mean I was fighting a badger spirit? A malevolent animal spirit with supernatural abilities to shapeshift, possessed of immense speed and strength?”

Kuzu-no-ha looked at me and smiled. “And you did very well, dear.”

I sat on the floor, unable to stand anymore. “A mujina,” I muttered to myself.

Surei was staring at her grandmother, her mouth open. She closed it and seemed to be trying to say something, but no words came out. Finally, she just shook her head.

“You sent Yoshi after a mujina,” she said unbelievingly. “He could have been killed.”

“You worry too much, dear. He is more capable than you believe.” Kuzu-no-ha stood up. “You have guests, and they have the smell of family on them. You must introduce me.” Before Surei could respond, her grandmother was headed in the direction of Surei’s personal quarters.

Surei gritted her teeth as she stared after Kuzu-no-ha. Then she looked at me and threw her hands up in the air. She hurried after her grandmother.

I stood and followed more slowly, still contemplating the folly of fighting a mujina.

Kuzu-no-ha’s arrival at the dinner caused a great deal of excitement. The children stared at her, and even Governor Abé seemed a bit overawed. Kuzu-no-ha told Surei, “I was just introducing myself.” Looking at Governor Abé, she remarked, “Your scent is familiar.”

He gave her a deep bow. “I had the honor of meeting you when I was a little older than Yoshi-kun here, Grandmother. It is a great privilege to see you again.” He turned to the children. “You have heard the stories of Kuzu-no-ha?” They nodded, eyes wide. “She is the mother of your great-great-great-grandfather, Abé no Seimei, the greatest onmyouji in Japan. You are fortunate to meet her.”

Mayumi bowed deeply and said in a hushed voice, “It is truly a great honor.”

Kuzu-no-ha waved her hand in dismissal. “This is silly. We are all family here, no need to be so formal. Just call me ‘Grandmother.’” She knelt down in front of the children, so her head was at the same level as theirs. “And what are your names, my dears.”

Seeming to lose some of her awe, Aoi-chan said, “I am Aoi and my brother is Yoshitomo.”

Yoshi-kun burst out, “Can you actually turn into a fox?”

I winced at his bluntness. Governor Abé and his wife both had expressions of horror on their faces. Even Surei looked a bit startled.

Kuzu-no-ha just laughed. “Indeed I can, Yoshi-kun. Would you like to see it?”

Both he and Aoi-chan nodded their heads eagerly.

Still kneeling in front of the children, Kuzu-no-ha’s form shimmered slightly, and a beautiful white fox appeared in her place. Her fur was immaculate, her five tails thick and luxuriant. Everyone except the children was startled by the sudden transformation. The fox looked around then opened her mouth in a canine grin and made soft yipping noises that sounded like high-pitched laughter.

The fox shimmered and Kuzu-no-ha again knelt in front of the children.

“That was fantastic!” Yoshi-kun yelled.

A little stiffly, Surei asked, “We are having a family dinner, grandmother. Would you like to join us?”

“Why thank you, dear. Yes, I would.”

At first, there were awkward pauses in the conversation, but Kuzu-no-ha soon had everyone enthralled with stories of Abé no Seimei.

Finally, Surei said, “Children, it is time to get ready for sleep. Go back to the house and get your things. When you return, then you can stay up a while and play, but you have to go to bed soon.”

The children protested they weren’t tired, but Surei was firm. Sachiko led them back to the house.

Governor Abé and Mayumi stood and bowed. “Grandmother, thank you for coming by. It was a great honor and pleasure to meet you again.”

After they left, Surei asked her grandmother, “Would you care to join us for the night?”

“Oh, I can never relax enough inside buildings to sleep well. I will just find a convenient bush and curl up for the evening. I will see you tomorrow.”

“I should get some sleep,” I told Surei.

As I walked back to my sleeping area, I kept thinking about how badly a fight with a mujina could have turned out. It was still bothering me as I lay down to sleep.