Okay, there’s more story here, but I’ll be a bit less tl;dr here, because there’s less exposition.

The second story opens with some flashbacks of Kokujun and Shunki’s relationship, and two mysterious people… oh, forget about it, it’s Hyou Riou Sr. and Hyou Riou Jr., who are after Shunki.

Eiki calls Kokujun in, and says that she’ll get straight to the point: How far has he gotten with Shunki? I don’t blame Kokujun for being 0_o at this. Most people do not want to discuss their sex lives with their significant other’s grandmother. Eiki is irritated to learn that he hasn’t gotten beyond first base, and after much verbal abuse, tells him to get in a home run! (She also then says he’s not worthy of being compared to Enjun… great, I’m sure Kokujun wants to hear about that aspect of Enjun’s life.) Kokujun protests, saying that he wants to respect Shunki, and because of all the deaths, they should be in mourning for at least a year. Eiki won’t hear any of these excuses, and tells him it’s an order, while whacking him with her fan. (Oh dear… grandmothers now encouraging kids to have premarital sex?)

Back at the governor’s office, Shuurei and the others are discussing how Sakujun’s body hasn’t been found. It seems the autumn festival (which seems to be sort of like Valentine’s day in Japan, except that women give handicrafts instead of chocolate) is coming up, some kind of Sa Province regional thing. Then, after a hard day’s work, Shuurei returns with Eigetsu, Seiran, and Ensei to the governor’s mansion, where they live with Kourin. Suddenly, Kokujun busts in, intent on having a man to man talk with Ensei and Seiran. It seems that Eiki locked Kokujun and Shunki up in a bedroom together. Kokujun broke the window and escaped, because he feared he might yield to temptation, not really understanding that Shunki does want to get it on with him. Ensei tells him not to regret it, and they advise him to do what Eiki says, but he says his decision is final. Then Shunki shows up. Shunki feels that K-jun thinks she’s not adequate as a bride and decides to go and live in the governor’s mansion, while planning to seduce Kokujun. K-jun is sad. He visits and mopes around the house, and then begins to angst about whether Shunki might leave him.

Sai Rin later shows up. She reveals that she is in love with someone, and that she proposed to him years ago, but each year she was rejected. So, this year is the last time, and she’ll give him one last gift and wish him future happiness. Shuurei has no idea that Sai Rin is in love with Yuushun, despite the way Ensei begins to smile and Yuushun appears embarrassed when she asks them. Ensei is disturbed when he hears about Rin’s plan to give up, but Yuushun says nothing.

It seems that Shuurei is suffering from horrible nightmares as a result of the psychological trauma after Sakujun’s death. Eigetsu tries to treat her, but it doesn’t seem to help much. Everyone is worried about Shuurei, but it seems she doesn’t even remember the bad dreams. (This explains Eigetsu’s fury at Sakujun later, BTW). Meanwhile, Eiki is sort of being held prisoner by Hyou Riou(s). Riou Sr. tells her she’s looking pretty good for her years, to which she can only glare at him, cause he’s really in his eighties. Riou is irritated that Eiki hid Shunki’s powers. Although Riou is not as active as his elder sister, he will move to protect the family. So he’s trying to capture Shunki.

Later, Shuurei, Shunki, and Kourin go into town in order to see a certain blue-robed fortuneteller. Kourin probably wants to ask about Eigetsu, while Shunki… wants to ask for advice in making Kokujun attracted to her. (I gather the way she says this is somewhat untoward, given that Kourin and Shuurei stiffen. It seems that because she’s just been restricted to writing for years, Shunki often says inappropriate things.) They tell her that might not be what to ask the fortuneteller about, but then Shunki nods and says perhaps more than sex appeal, maybe what she needs is enough strength to push Kokujun down. (……) So they finally find the fortune teller, who starts with Kourin, and says something that upsets her. (Also, in the course of a conversation, Kourin at one point says that if Shuurei were a man, she would marry her right away…) Next, Shunki goes, and then when it’s Shuurei’s turn, it suddenly starts to storm. Also, BTW, Shuurei is followed around by these two weird creatures like black balls, who seem to be agitated by the fortuneteller’s presence. Actually, the fortuneteller is actually Hyou Riou Sr. in disguise, but before he can say much, a thunderstorm hits and Shuurei runs off. However, Shunki is now behaving strangely, like a zombie or something. When they go to ask Eiki about this, she mysteriously says “three days.” They attempt to cure her, but nothing helps. The only thing she does other than staring into space is work on an embroidered handkerchief. On the third day, suddenly Shunki gets up, because the Hyou clan is calling her. Sai Rin and Kourin try to stop her, but Shunki uses her voice on them. As she is leaving the mansion, Kokujun appears and declares his love for her, and Shunki appears to be sort of snapping out of it, but suddenly the fortuneteller appears. Shuurei, who just got home, chases after him, but he tries to capture her instead, and is about to carry her off when Yougetsu appears. Riou Sr. drops Shuurei (ouch), and confronts Yougetsu. Yougetsu recalls, at the time Eigetsu’s village was destroyed by the plague, that the Hyou clan minions destroyed the letters sent so that no aid arrived (sounds kind of like a retcon, as this wasn’t mentioned before). This was to ascertain that after the fatal illness, that Eigetsu was really the host of Yougetsu (Byakuya). (The illness is 100% fatal, but someone who hosts a sennin can’t die). Riou withdraws, and Yougetsu says that he’ll return Shunki to normal.

The Rious retreat, and Riou Jr. is impressed that Eiki was able to keep the Hyou clan’s technicians(?) in the Sa mansion for three days. This was also to test Shunki’s power. If she was the real thing, she would be able to undo it by herself. Although she wasn’t able to break the spell, she was able to break the practitioners(?) kekkai (haha, what am I supposed to translate this as?), which was sufficient, but Riou Sr. decides to leave her alone.

So finally it’s the autumn festival. Shuurei finally learns that the person Sai Rin was in love with was Yuushun. Rin goes to give him the present, but he’s asleep. She reflects that this is the last time, as because the Sa clan is finally under control, he’ll return to the capital. She wishes him happiness, and then turns to leave, but suddenly someone grabs her wrist… (It seems he woke up but was just pretending? How sneaky.)

Ensei later explains the reason Yuushun continued to reject her advances was that he didn’t want to involve her in the dispute with the Sa clan, so he became very depressed every time he had to reject her, because he was in love with her before she even proposed, but didn’t think he had a chance because of the age difference. So, Shuurei shouldn’t be worried, because now that the Sa clan situation has been resolved, Ensei and Sai Shou will no longer have to watch the ongoing drama. Seiran bets that Yuushun will be able to convince Sai Rin to marry him. (Uh… is that even hard? She’s been running after him for what must be almost a DECADE. ) [In the main storyline, it's just really abrupt how Sai Rin shows up after Shuurei and Eigetsu become governors, and then we have a time jump in the story to months later, and then as Shuurei is leaving, we learn that Rin is coming along, and coincidentally she happens to have married Yuushun. In the anime this is somewhat of a bizarre detail. ] She then gives Ensei and Seiran some gifts (I guess this is like giri-chocolate haha). Ensei is aghast to receive a stomach-protector thing. Then Shuurei thanks Ensei and Seiran for worrying about her nightmares, and she reflects that Sai Rin and Sakujun are opposites, because Sai Rin wished for the happiness of the person she was in love with, even when she was giving up.

At the end Shunki tells everyone, much to Kokujun’s embarrassment, that they have in fact spent a night together. However, this happens offstage. So in the end, there is no pr0n and Saiunkoku remains G-rated.

Commentary: This story was quite long. For some reason, Yuushun and Rin are cute in this part. (Crap, what’s wrong with me? I’m into the old people. Eigetsu and Kourin, I have nothing against the pairing, but it doesn’t do anything for me as a shipper. I think I’m just a sucker for people who cannot get together because of some sort of duty.) As for K-jun and Shunki, I have to say the best parts of this story were K-jun’s attempts at preserving his chastity. The mystical part I felt was just too confusing because the magic isn’t central to most of the Saiunkoku plot, so it’s not very solidly worldbuilt. It feels like a lot of handwaving, and everything Riou Sr. says is so cryptic and vague, I just want to ignore him until we finally get some explanations. This story feels like a lot of forewhadowing for volume eight, so it’s too bad I didn’t read it before I read that.

Story 3

So, after the events of book eight, Shuurei and Eigetsu are very busy with their work. Seiran comes in and says that the cultists (actually flunkies of the Hyou clan) whom they captured but later escaped have been found mysteriously dead. Shuurei and Eigetsu finally receive a two day holiday. When they return home, they meet Ryuuren, who has been living with them, and Kourin, who is irritated that Ryuuren’s basically freeloading. On their second day off, they decide to have a banquet and invite everyone. On the first day, they’ll see the famous sites of Koren, along with Kourin, with Ryuuren as guide. Unfortunately, Seiran and Ensei can’t come along, because they have work. Their first task out of seven is to investigate a nearby mountain where monkey demons are said to appear. And there they find…. that Shurei and co. have arrived also. It seems Ryuuren had gotten a copy of the petitions and made them out to be the new famous sites. The monkeys turn out to be Shourin and Youshun (those boys). The other five places turn out to be similarly not supernatural at all, and I won’t really describe them in detail. (The seventh Ryuuren left out of the itinerary, because it was really just a nest of bandits.) On the next day, they have the banquet, and Kai Yu, the next governor, shows up, and there are a lot of farewell/thank you scenes between characters.

Some interesting things: Kokujun recalls meeting Kurou in Kiyou, and they have something in common, being both the youngest brothers whom the brunt of the responsibility has fallen upon. He tells Kokujun to write to him if he needs any advice, and says that as heads of their clans, they have a responsibility to the people of their provinces. Kokujun reflects with surprise that Sakujun and Kurou are around the same age, and thinks, if only Sakujun could have met Kurou, because he might have been able to sort him out. (uh huh) [Actually, this now makes Sakujun's relationship with Shuurei kind of creepy when you consider he's old enough to be her uncle...]

Later, when Kai Yu and Yuushun chat, Kai Yu is rather ominous, asking Yuushun whether he is prepared to stand alone at the end, and saying that supporting a king who does not take up a sword is harder than supporting one who rules after having pacified the land.

Shuurei opens a box containing letters from Ryuuki and the straw doll he gave her. She reflects with sadness that Ryuuki has always been nothing but kind, despite his pain. Since she became an official, he no longer sends her letters. However, mixed in with the mail Kai Yu brought her from the capital is a silk cloth, with a sakura flower on it, which I guess means “I’m waiting.” When Kai Yu received this from Ryuuki, he tells Ryuuki that he resembles his father, who also only loved one woman. Ryuuki is surprised by this, because his father had many wives, but it appears that the woman he loved refused to marry him, and he simply married the other women for political purposes or to have children. However, this woman is now dead.

Dr. You talks to those weird ball-like creatures, and it’s revealed that it was he who killed the cultists. He also recalled that Shuurei consulted him about something about her body, but annoyingly, he does not elaborate.

Commentary: Mostly a light, amusing story, that sets up the next arc.

Extra story: This is mostly about Ryuuki. He wakes up and walks around the palace reminiscing about his past. He recalls how he met Shuurei. Later that day, Ryuuki has been working especially hard, and when taking a break, remarks to Shuuei and Kouyuu that they are of marriageable age. This confuses Kouyuu, and Shuuei gives some nonsensical answer about always being in action. Afterwards, Ryuuki visits Shouka. Shouka says that he knows that Kurou told him that Kouyuu and Ryuuren had both sent (well, their families did) marriage proposals to Shuurei. We get some more stuff about how Ryuuki will be satisfied being #2 (behind their families) to Kouyuu and Shuuei. Later Ryuuki spars with Sou Taifu, and then asks Shusui to teach him embroidery. But since she’s bad at it, he later becomes better than her. …

tags>>saiunkoku