Well, I finally finished this book. Now onto Gaiden 2. This book struck me as a bit overly long, and some of the points about Eigetsu were a bit hammered in. And although I like Ryuuren and like his character development here, the current significance of his inclusion here escapes me; the main events of the plot wouldn’t have changed if he hadn’t been here. Like previous Saiunkoku novels, somewhat irritatingly, what actually goes down seems to be less important to the overall plot than what is revealed, again raising the question of where the storyline is going. (much is revealed about the mystical/supernatural overplot here). Also, caveats: I don’t have perfect knowledge of Japanese, I may have misunderstood some things, and also I’m biased and write the most about the parts that interest me.

Eigetsu in jail: We open with yet more Eigetsu flashbacks! It ain’t called the Eigetsu Arc for nothing. It with a flashback of Eigetsu’s ‘death.’ wait wait, didn’t we get this opening before? There is more to this, though, than meets the eye. Author, ain’t it kind of cheating to replay the whole scene again? In it, we again hear about the cruelty of Eigetsu’s early life. A sardonic “he” watches as Dr. Ka weeps over the dying boy, and as the boy’s souls dissolve (confusingly, there are four of the souls going to heaven and seven going to earth? Maybe this is some kind of ancient Chinese belief being referred to), the entity enters his body, but is stopped upon hearing the boy (Getsu)’s wish, “I want to live.” On a whim, the being grants his wish, that he will live for an undetermined amount of time as his shadow.

Okay, now gentle reader, does this not remind you of another scene in the novels? The Sa Sakujun death scene. So, my speculation is that Sa Sakujun also had his life extended by a mysterious being. Er, and by “mysterious being” I mean “one of the Immortals of Color.” Yeah, we find out in this novel, eventually, that Yougetsu=Byakuya (White Night), so he’s the white one. (Frankly, except for the fact that there are too many of them, the color thing is beginning to remind me of a sentai squadron.) Yougetsu sort of regrets his decision later, because Eigetsu is adopted by Ka Shin, who annoys him by being too nice, so nice that he even smiles at and loves Yougetsu as his own son. Although swears at and insults Ka Shin, he also at one point saves his life when a deranged person attacks him, and later, as Ka Shin dies of the plague, he fulfills Eigetsu’s wish, splitting Eigetsu’s remaining life to revive him. But, in his heart, Yougetsu too has grown to love the doctor, so in truth, it is also his wish that Ka Shin live on a little longer.

Speaking of Eigetsu, he’s been locked up by the cultists. One of them, we find, has somehow taken over the corpse of Ka Shin. Although they’ve been using the name “Senya,” it seems that Sakujun is not really among them. This makes Eigetsu, really, really angry. BTW, they have Eigetsu locked up in a mystic circle and have semi-crucified him by attaching him to the wall with stakes through his hands. Although he’s lost an enormous amount of blood, he still lives, because he’s already in a dead body. Anyway, the people behind his kidnapping are the Hyou clan, and they are after Yougetsu. Somewhere, Ryuuren has somehow learned of Eigetsu’s kidnapping, and, very upset, sets out. Also, in the village, two children, Shuuran and Riou, are waiting where Eigetsu was last seen. Shuuran is a child of the village. However, Riou isn’t. He one day appeared. We later learn that he is Hyou Riou’s son. Yes. They have the same name, written with the same kanji. For the sake of simplicity, let us from now on call him Riou Jr. in places where it is easy to confuse the two. He seems to be around seven or eight years old, but honestly, he sure doesn’t act like it. (Ensei, seeing them later, says that the two argue like a married couple) After some discussion, Shuuran, whose mother is ill with the sickness, decides to convince the other villagers to evacuate to the nearest city so that they will receive medical help earlier.

Meanwhile, in Kiyou, Kokujun swears his loyalty as the head of the Sa clan to the emperor. So far, he’s the only clan leader to swear his loyalty to Ryuuki. Ryuuki tells him to grow and surpass Enjun. (Hmm. I wonder if Kokujun will later reenter the plot. I hope he continues to grow. Later, Shuurei is escorted by Ran Shuuei and some of the other soldiers to the border, at top speed. The rumors have spread, and the populace blames her for the sickness. At the checkpoint, they meet resistance despite carrying the flag of the army, but Ensei and Sai Shou overpower the guards and meet them. Shuuei delivers the sword Kanshou to Ensei, then leaves. It seems that Seiran has chosen instead to go with the second group, along with Yuushun and the rest. Shuurei tells Ensei should it be necessary, to sacrifice her in order to save the people. Seiran, of course, would not be able to do this, but Ensei says that should she order him to, he will sacrifice her and have her die “as an official,” even if it means being hated by all who love Shuurei. Of course, Shuurei is not madly thinking about throwing her life away, but is just considering the worst case scenario. (Goodness. He says that even if Seiran pursues him, he’ll bring her head back to the capital to Shouka and the king.)

Anyway, in the city of Korin, the mayor has accepted the villagers, against the wishes of many townsfolk, including the military officer Shuon. The villagers, including the healthy ones, are separated from the rest of the town, while rumors continue to fly about Shuurei. Also, Kourin arrives at the deserted village, but is mistaken for Shuurei and kidnapped by the cultists. They soon discover her mistake, and keep her there and make her care for the sickened villagers they took hostage.

Later, Shuurei learns the villagers have gone to the city, and quickly arrives there with the doctors, but is greeted by a mob of angry men. Although Mayor Hei tries to oppose them, the situation is getting out of control. Shuurei thinks that there would not even be any point in sacrificing herself, because these men are just looking for a scapegoat to blame the mysterious illness on. Shuurei attempts to reason with them, but Shuon speaks against her, and then Shuuran suddenly runs in and yells for them to stop, asking why they are turning against the woman Eigetsu said would arrive to help them. There’s a lot of arguing, and Ensei smacks down Shuon, and then a group of townswomen come, announcing that they’ve made preparations for the medical care, and admonishing the mob.

Okay, compressing this next part: Dr. You (who, if you recall correctly, is in fact the Yellow Immortal) demonstrates the surgery to get rid of the liver parasites for the young doctors, who are intimidated, but eventually gather their courage and operate on the patients. Shuurei and Ensei help a bit, and Sai Rin thinks of ideas for better medical implements. Anyway, three days later, Shuurei plays the erhu while the corpses of the patients who didn’t make it are burned. About one in three patients died, one in three hovered in the boundary between life and death, and the other third immediately began to recover. (So, they were able to help about half of the patients).

Later, Ensei and Shuurei set out to find the Eigetsu and arrest the cultists. Shuuran (whose mother made it through) and Riou Jr. come along with them to the village. And meanwhile, Seiran sets out from Koren. In the mountains, “Senya,” the person who is possessing the body of Ka Shin, who is actually named Ren, a member of the Hyou clan (to reduce confusion, from now on let us refer to him as Ren) is taunting Eigetsu, who is rather angry at him. Ren says that they did warn the villagers to boil their water, but Eigetsu angrily says that unlike Ka Shin would have, they put no effort into trying to convince the villagers. Ren also says that they’re after Shuurei, which confuses Eigetsu, as she has no special powers that he can see, and that the Hyou clan is normally run by the women, who tend to have special powers. As a male without supernatural powers, he is considered useless by “Mother,” Ren has a rather immature mentality (in reality, he’s a boy about sixteen or fifteen), and is somewhat deranged, especially regarding women; he enviously says that Eigetsu must have been loved by his mother, but is rather taken aback when Eigetsu says his mother planned to kill and eat him. His followers tell him that the spirit inside of Eigetsu as powerful as Bara-hime, meaning at the first rank of “sen” (immortals/spirits). “Mother” plans to use this spirit to revive the clan. Meanwhile, Ensei and Shuurei have arrived in the village and conclude that Kourin must have been captured by the cult, and that the cult is still imprisoning sick and dying villagers. Suddenly, Ryuuren, extremely upset, arrives.

In the capital, Ryuuki meets with Hyou Riou (Sr.) the head of the Hyou clan. He tells Ryuuki he is different from the previous emperor and his elder brothers. In response to Ryuuki’s questions about the Hyou clan’s involvement with the Jyasenkyou cult, Hyou Riou first insists on telling him that the Hyou clan is normally run by the women, but he and the previous head, his father, were among the few Hyou men with mystical powers. His elder sister made him the head of the clan, but right now, she, who should have been the leader, has great authority. Anyway, most of the time they’ve agreed, so he did not interfere with her, and besides, he says he’s lazy and only bothers with things that interest him. He cops to taking some steps to obtain something in Sa Province useful for the continuation of the clan, but the main actions were taken by his elder sister, who ended up interfering with him. He does not elaborate on what this thing is, and when asked about Shuurei, also says nothing. Despite this, and despite knowing what the Hyou clan has done in the past, Ryuuki still asks whether Hyou Riou wants to have tea with him, which amuses him.

This is getting too long, so I shall continue in the next post.

tags>>saiunkoku