Novel Vol 7 Intermezzo 2 (Byakuya’s Reminiscence)

Head of Accounting Byakuya (Ep 25 anime)

I am soooo sorry for the very late update! TBH, full-time work is quite demanding (but satisfying too!), and I got side-tracked with making a dress to attend my friend’s wedding (and the dress is made of a used kimono, hence it involves a lot of thinking, unstitching, and resewing…). Anyway, before translating the next chapter (Vol 7 Ch 7), I would like to fulfil the requests of some readers, i.e., making a summary of Vol 12. Fingers crossed I can post it before Season Two starts airing at Crunchyroll!

Please refrain from posting my translations elsewhere. If you need to quote it, please acknowledge my site for the quote, because translating from Japanese hardcopy texts to English is a really hard work...

I will delete this translation when there is an indication that the novel will be translated into English, and I will replace it with the summary of the chapter.  Meanwhile, thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy reading it at least as much as I enjoy translating it. 

Byakuya’s Reminiscence

P244

There was a big cemetery in Yōto.

Although ayakashi folks live a very long life, when they eventually die, this is the place where they were interred.

“Suzume, forgive me. I don’t come here often enough…”

I, Byakuya, the Head of Accounting of Tenjin-ya, after a very long time finally visited Yōto again, paying respect to a particular grave.  I pushed up the hat covering my head and gazed at the grave under a tree. 

Although this cemetery was for ayakashi, in front of me was a human grave. Located a bit further away from the central part of the cemetery, the grave had an old stone, covered in moss. 

“Although Tenjin-ya has been facing many predicaments until now, the crisis this time around is the largest we have faced so far. No matter what, we must bring Ōdanna-sama back…”

A swallow swooped down gently on the grave in front of me and started chirping. 

“Say, Byakuya-sama. I am definitely going to die before you and travel to the Underworld. That’s why, while I’m still alive, I want to live my life to the fullest. To the fullest, I want to have conversations with you, to touch you, 

P245

and I want you to call my name. However, when I die, it’s better that you just forget my name…”

I remembered her words, though my desire to cling on to those words was certainly troublesome. 

“As if you’re giving me a pep talk, Suzume.”

Even now, I could not forget the name you told me to forget. Not even once. 

○

About six hundred years ago. 

At the time, I had been ordered by the King to create a map of the entire Kakuriyo. Back then, I was traveling around the eight lands of the Kakuriyo, investigating the settled political state of the Hachiyō, the characteristics of the lands, and the features or trends of the ayakashi who lived there. I’m quite certain that it was when I was resting on the bank of  a river deep inside the mountains of the Western Land. 

“Heeey~~~, come here ~~~, come here~~~”

Flying around a grove of bamboo, some tube cats spotted me and beckoned me, such that I followed them, wondering what was going on. That was then when I saw a human girl lying unconscious on the river bank. 

P246

The girl was slim with long black hair, but the surprising bit was that she was wearing a shiromuku, a white bridal kimono.

“Was this girl going to get married?”

I was puzzled as to why such a human girl was there in Kakuriyo. However, back then, the boundaries between Kakuriyo and Utsushiyo were vague, such that a number of people could wander back and forth between the two worlds, thus it might not be a wonder after all. 

“Hey, are you okay?”

Some small swallows, ‘suzume’ in Japanese, swarmed around the girl. Since I was carrying rice anyway, I scattered rice here and there. The girl regained consciousness, she was dazed and quiet,  not remembering who she was and how she ended up there. 

That girl was to be my wife, Suzume. 

Her name, ‘Suzume’, which means ‘swallows’, was something I came up with due to the swallows that excessively flocked around her. Besides, it’s troublesome not to have a name to call her with. It can’t be helped. She forgot her name, after all. 

If such a human girl were to be left alone in the middle of a mountain like this, there was no telling what kind of ayakashi might eat her. When she first woke up, the unknown world of Kakuriyo scared her, such that she had no choice but to rely on me, the first person she met, and followed me around. It was actually quite tiring travel around Kakuriyo with a human girl like that. 

P247-248

I happened to know several entrance to Utsushiyo, so I was thinking of bringing her back to her own world. However,

“Don’t send me back. I don’t want to go back!”

The usually quite girl refused point blank my effort to return her to her own world, so I had no choice but to take her along with me.  Maybe she didn’t have a place to return home to. Or maybe she hated the place she was going to be married into. In human term, it was during the Muromachi Period^, and her world was embroiled in an ongoing war. Perhaps some vile things happened to her life.

Since Suzume remembered nothing, that was the extent of my knowledge about her past. Although she remembered nothing, every fibre of her being sent a strong signal of not wanting to return to her own world. I had no choice but to take care of this pitiful creature for the time being. 

Such an ignorant, fragile and airhead girl, not to mention a lot of work, but as we travelled, feelings grew, and eventually, we got married and became husband and wife.  

Until now, I was just serving the King by fulfilling his orders. It can't be helped. It was the nature of my kind, the hakutaku, to be like this. The hakutaku is a type of ayakashi whose destiny was to serve a wise king, share his wisdom, give him advice, and watch over his reign.

P248

I hardly ever sought happiness or the sort for myself. Each day was pure and righteous, and I spent those days indifferently. In other words, my days were bland.

However, since I met Suzume, my days were filled with serenity and richness, and before I knew it, my days became colourful. Her smile healed my troubled heart and gradually cleared my eyes, which had become cloudy from seeing only ugly things. 

After traveling for a while around Kakuriyo, we bought a house at the foot of the mountain on the northern side of Yōto and lived there as a couple. 

Suzume tried her best to prepare our meals, but she wasn't particularly good at it. However, there was one and only dish that she could do, and that is tofu dengaku. This dish is a tofu dish slathered with miso paste, and it was invented and became popular during the Muromachi-era. In those days, the technology for making miso and dashi was developed in Utsushiyo, and was brought later to Kakuriyo. Tofu itself had been existing in the underworld, and was often eaten by the nobles of Yōto. Making dengaku just involves involves marinating it in spicy miso, skewering it on a bamboo skewer and grilling it. It was a simple dish, but it was also excellent as a snack to go with alcohol. Above all, Suzume often made it for me, so I ate it every day. Just by eating it, I felt a strange 

P249-250

surge of energy and was able to live each day healthily.

The spring when we met. Then the colourful summer passes, and after the harvest of autumn comes the pale grey winter. Our married life was glorious like the four seasons, but it started to lose its colours.

Yes, winter has come.

We both started to notice the difference in the passage of time. 

It was so fast. To me, the time we spent together was like the sweet spring breeze that passed in an instance…

Suzume grew older and fell ill. 

Such fragile creatures, humans. She hadn’t reached her fiftieth year yet. 

Rather, perhaps by being my wife, her life had taken a toll more than it should be, for that cursed Raijū, with whom I was in conflict for many years, had been harassing my wife and I to no end.

While I was taking care of Suzume, I did search for a medicine that would work on her. However, I was aware that an elixir of immortality that would help people overcome the thorns of life itself would not make people happy.

Laying on the floor, Suzume grasped to my hands tightly despite her lack of strength, while I was too scared to be left behind. 

“When I die, it’s better that you just forget my name. After all, I am just returning the name that you gave me.”

P250

I couldn’t even do that. 

Even Suzume was well aware of it, hence her request for me to forget her.

“I am happy to have met you. My life was happy. However, Byakuya-sama, you have such a long life ahead of you. If you cannot be happy from now one, even when I die, I cannot truly move on. Above all else, moving on is important for living beings. After we pass away, we should not be attached to anything. Forgetting things is okay. That’s why, from now on, do get close to important people, find a place to belong. I am watching over you, after all. Always…”

With those words and a smile on her lips, Suzume left this world.

I still remember that smiling face, even until now. 

I built her grave under a large camphor tree at the backyard of our home where we lived together. 

I must have felt a sense of loss after losing Suzume and, consequently, was feeling somewhat depressed. At that point, that cursed Raijū took advantage of this opportunity and snatched away my position, relegating me to a disadvantageous position even within the royal palace.

To be honest, I was feeling a little tired anyway. 

P251

There were nobles in the royal palace who only thought about their own selfish gains, and at that time I began to question why should I bother doing anything for such people.

That’s right. I could no longer nonchalantly ignore those things like I used to. I couldn’t help casting an ironic smile, realising that even I used to be so indolent. 

Not sure how many years had gone by, but one day, Ōgondōji-sama summoned me to the garden of her estate. That was when I met a young lad. An oni-child, frolicking around with sparrows underneath a camphor tree. 

Oni. A being most hated in the world of ayakashi. On top of that… he was a jyaki. 

Ōgondōji-sama’s sealing technique had hidden the child’s jyaki’s energy, such that it wouldn’t have been discovered by others. However, to my eyes, it was plain to see that he was a jyaki. 

This oni child was a jyaki who should’ve been sealed away in Kakuriyo. Despite his giggling, when he alighted in front of me, he stared at me with his red eyes that were more mature than those of a child. He extended his hand.

“Say, Byakuya. Yōto seems boring for you. If you’re sick and tired of protecting the King and the nobles, why don’t you join me transforming a land dripping with oni blood into Kakuriyo’s heaven on earth?”

Having served many kings for a long time, my eyes saw in him a royal vessel.

I soon realised that this oni was the next being I should serve. 

P252

It was an epiphany. 

It was as if Suzume's wish had given me a new place to belong and imbued me with important strength to give birth to Tenjin-ya of the Oni Gate. The largest paradise lodging in Kakuriyo, utilising the local hot springs abundant in psychic power. It took a whole while before I was called the Head of Accounting of Tenjin-ya, though. Together with Ōdanna-sama, Saraku, and Zakuro (who ran the courtyard teahouse at that time), I continued to work hard for Tenjin-ya. 

I have watched Ōdanna-sama grow from a young child. To me, he was like my own child. However, he was also an intimidating presence in his own right…

Yes. I started to find something precious in Ōdanna-sama and the inn called Tenjin-ya. 

And thus, my days began to be filled with a different kind of brilliance. 

-TBC in Vol 7 Ch 7 -

Author’s note:

P247

^ Muromachi Period was between 1336 to 1573, and it ended when Oda Nobunaga drove out Ashikaga Yoshiaki out of the old capital Kyoto.