Translation of prologue of volume 15

Somewhere in the mountains, towards the rainbow, is “happiness”–

Taking her brother along, she climbed into deep mountains which had only been rarely entered by humans.

(…”happiness”?)

She twisted her lips. Someone had probably said that. Whoever it was, that person had surely known that one would never get to the place where the rainbow ended in the mountains.

And that she would never be able to change her miserable fate.

She continued to climb the mountain with all of her strength, taking her brother by the hand, at times carrying him, making her way even without a path. In the morning, the priestess’s robes which she had just put on were muddied and full of tears, and they were now in such a terrible state that they probably wouldn’t last another day. She was wearing only sandals on her bare feet, which were now cut up from the crass, and bloodied from the countless blisters which had burst. She was panting. Never in her life had she walked like this.

….Sometime, the mist had come out.

In the mountains, there was an unearthly noise. Unlike the noise of the treetops moving, the animals were quiet as if holding their breath and peeking at something. — She felt the presence of something. With countless eyes, with its senses, it was fixedly staring at the young sister and brother from somewhere—she felt this as well.

She had been walking in the mist with her younger brother for a long time, and around the time when her arms and legs had lost sensation, and even her sense of time was going, suddenly, as if someone were opening a path for them, the mist cleared.

When she saw it, her eyes widened, and she drew in her breath.

What had appeared before her eyes was a gigantic pagoda tree, stretching into the sky as if to pierce it. The trunk was so enormous that it would take around five adults holding hands in a circle to encompass it. When she raised her head, she couldn’t see the top. It was if it had existed from the beginning of the world. And more than anything, this pagoda tree was filled with something, something which was both terrible and divine. She did not even realize that she was standing still there, overwhelmed by its majesty. Even her younger brother, who from the time of his birth, had never even once been moved by anything, slowly looked up at the pagoda tree and blinked.

This pagoda tree was said to be the first gate to the heavens, and on the boundary with the underworld.

The tree had been so large that she didn’t notice it, but at the bottom of the tree a spring was welling up, and beside that, there was an small, old shrine, which stood there as if it had been abandoned there by time. Perhaps because the pagoda tree had protected it from the winds and rains, the shrine, which was of the simple sort that someone would kneel and pray at, did not seem to show any damage.

Carrying her younger brother, she approached the spring, dragging her feet. She knelt and prayed first at the shrine, then at the spring.

“God of the sacred mountain and of the shrine… please allow us to rest here for awhile.”

She made her brother drink some water, and wiped his face and extremities with a dampened cloth, and fixed up his tangled hair and clothes as much as he could. While she was doing this, the only thing her brother did was blink his eyes several times.

The sun sunk, and the area around them was dyed gold. It was probably twilight. Had it only been this morning that she had taken her brother and escaped? However, she also thought that she had been walking for several days in the mist. Whether it had been only one day or several, it was certain that soon pursuers would come after them.

Her father had probably realized that his daughter had run to “the outside.”

(….If I escape to “the outside” will another world, another fate, open to me?)

‘Somewhere in the mountains, towards the rainbow, is “happiness”—like those words?

The setting sun dyed her entire body dark red. She closed her eyes, and smiled slightly. Turning on her heel, she put her back to the palace where she had been raised, and her clan, and went back to her younger brother.

Placing her little brother between her knees, she elegantly sat down beside the spring.

“…I made you walk a lot, so you must be tired. Sorry, Riou. Today I can’t play the erhu for you, but instead I’ll sing you many songs, so forgive me.”

As if whispering, she sang a lullaby near Riou’s ear. It was unclear whether Riou heard or not, and he simply blinked his eyes. Despite that, she still sang him several songs. The sun slowly sank, letting loose a golden flame. Then, when its large form had entirely disappeared, at twilight, the boundary between day and night, the pagoda tree shuddered. The waters of the spring rippled. The world made a strange sound. Even so, she held her brother close, and continued to sing gently.

Twilight: the time when spirits and demons would come out.

From somewhere, she heard the sound of wings. When she looked up, she saw a huge crow the color of darkness perched on one of the branches of the pagoda tree. Was it only her imagination, or did it have three legs?

In the dimness, suddenly a man stood before the sister and brother. He had flowing obsidian hair, his entire body was clad in black, and his black eyes, which seemed to look into an eternal void, did not contain a smidgen of kindness. It was if he were the king of the night. The girl, completely unsurprised, stopped singing, and bowed down before him with the utmost courtesy.

“….Please grant us your forgiveness for trespassing onto sacred ground, master of the gate of twilight, lord of the gaps who rules the darkness….”

When Ruka muttered these titles, the man slowly blinked as if surprised, then smiled bitterly.

“….That is a surprising thing. Has it been some thousands of years, for me to be addressed by that title, rather than as Black Immortal?”

The man’s cold fingertips raised Ruka’s slender chin.

“Girl, why have you come here? If you are fleeing your father and your destiny, then this is the exact opposite.”

“….I didn’t leave to run away.”

“A daughter who has been hated by her father from the time of her birth. A girl loved by no one. Even so, you do not hate your father, and choose to die here? Along with your doll-like brother?”

Riou’s charcoal eyes blinked. Ruka stroked the head of her brother, who had been called doll-like.

From the time he was born, he had been without expression, without words, without even tears or laughter. He had not even cried after his birth. When someone pulled his arm, he would walk, when someone made him drink, he would swallow. But, that was all. Almost as if he was refusing to live, his deep black eyes saw nothing. Ruka was the only one who cared for her brother, who had been set aside. She made him drink cow’s milk, and made him eat his breakfast, played him the erhu, and told him forgotten tales. Even if they were unloved by their father, she was fine with quietly passing time with her brother in some corner of the palace. However, it was none other than Ruka herself who realized that sometime those days would come to an end.

Then, when she knew that day had come, Ruka took her brother and left the palace in the sky.

Not to run away, but to bring things to an end.

“……Great lord, other than that, is there anything you can do? For my father.”
“Pitiful girl, your father has imprisoned you, sealed your magic, tried to brainwash you, and even poisoned you, yet you have not died. Even so, you still call that madman father?”

While stroking her younger brother’s head, she muttered something. Up till now she had thought these words true.

“My father is my father. No matter how distant he is, he is our only father in this world.”

Suddenly, she felt that the man’s cold atmosphere had drawn back like a wave.

“…Girl, because of the sins of yur father, you were born with power beyond humans, and under the star of patricide.”

A daughter hated from the day of her birth because she had been born under a star of misfortune, according to prophecy, and also with enormous powers. This was not the fault of his daughter. It was merely the result of her father’s karma. Her father’s desire and obsession, far too much for a human, had in twisted form, revolved back to him in the form of the births of both Ruka and Riou.

She herself had known this, and yet…

“Despite this, did you love your father?”
He was the only father she had in the world.
“…If Father tells me to die, I will slit my throat. However, not even once has Father come to see me.”

He had not faced her, not even once.
Even when she had been imprisoned, had her power sealed, been brainwashed, he had left that to other magicians. Ruka had kept silent and accepted everything, but even then her father had not tried to sound her out.

He did meet her, or even hit her or curse at her, he merely feared his daughter and continued to evade her, even now, only a child of not even ten years.

“….There is no point in living. You can expect nothing, not out of your only parent.”

With a clear gaze Ruka said softly, running her hand through her younger brother’s hair.

“If it were only me, that would be alright. But Father has noticed that Riou possesses eternal youth.”

Her father, who was reaching his eightieth year, was growing more and more obsessed with his lifespan, had for some reason realized that Riou’s body was special. It was not a spell, but her doll-like younger brother had possessed a body which, from the time he was born, could stop time.

And, he had wished for that unusual body.

That was why Ruka had taken her brother with her and left the shrine.

“Why didn’t you run away? To somewhere far away. Somewhere in the mountains, towards the rainbow, to “the outside”?”

Suddenly, tears began to fall from Ruka’s eyes, as if squeezed out. For as long as she could remember, she had no memory of crying.

“…For what? I know this. No matter where we go, there is no such thing as “happiness.” –There is only here. The house where I was born, my insane father, our twisted clan. Our sealed palace in the sky. Even so, they are everything to me. Even if I know that no one loves me. Even if my brother never looks at me even once, I love him. My happiness can only be found here.”

Only here could it be found.

The man narrowed his eyes. The young girl certainly knew the truth that many humans did not realize. That in the mountains, towards the rainbow, even if one ran to the ends of the world, there was no such thing as a paradise as marvelous as a dream.

Only in the cold reality in one’s hands could one’s “happiness” be found. Though she knew it was where her happiness was, that place continued to reject the girl.

“I can’t live anymore. If I continue like this…. I will someday kill my father.”
The day when she would no choice but to kill her father would come. Some day, she would give up on her mad father. Ruka feared that day when she would, as the prophecy foretold, kill him.

“It is natural for Father to hate the daughter who is destined to kill him. It can’t be helped. The only way for me to not kill my only father is to die before him.”
She could not run, or remain, or leave her brother.
Her doll-like brother. Her father had said, that since it was like he was dead anyway, what was wrong with using his body?

…Her father had had with the women of their clan many “white children” like Riou. However, most of them were short lived, and died soon after they were born, or at the most, rarely reached their twentieth year. Probably that was their punishment for violating the taboo: they had forced the moon out of the sky–pulled down an Immortal. Even so, because the amount of children with magical powers was incomparably above what it had been in the past, her father continued to have more children be born. Her doll-like elder sisters were further used up for “Bara-hime”‘s bodies.

Perhaps her father’s words were correct. Even Ruka did not know whether her younger brother lived or not. Her empty younger brother. No matter how much she cared for him, he gave back nothing. He did not even look at Ruka.

However, Ruka could not agree with her father.

“—You can’t do it.”
The man said this without much animation.

“You can’t kill yourself. Probably because of that, you climbed this mountain. Because you couldn’t kill yourself, you chose to be killed. By beasts, by demons, by me. At first I had thought I would go along with your wishes, but now I’ve changed my mind. —Can you hear them, the voices calling you?”

There was the noise of the leaves of the pagoda tree rustling. Riding on the wind, voiceless voices reached Ruka’s ears.
………dy…..our lady….
—Our lady—-will you come to us? ….will you return to us?
……Please, don’t leave us…..
Ruka understood who was calling her. From as long as she could remember, from time to time she had heard these voices which were not voices. Lady, play us the erhu. Sing us a song. Play with us. Listen to us. Thank you for listening to our voices, looking at us, thank you, our lady…. Ruka’s face grew pale. The man laughed in his throat. There was a slight bit of pity in it.

“Yes, you can’t die. Because you can’t give up on them. Your mad father, your clan, your brother. The other “white children” who cling to you and call you. Your pride, the clan you love.”

She had said that her “happiness” was only there. That they were everything to her.

Even if her father didn’t love her, she could live for her clan’s sake. For her there was only that.

“If you leave this mountain, you will probably undertake a merciless purge of your clan with your sealed powers. You will choose your clan over your father, and someday, the love you have for your father will weaken. Your clan will fear you, the world will fear you too. Although you will gain everything, you will live in the midst of an eternal loneliness, loved by no one. No matter how much you care for him, you know even the brother who you feed every morning and night will not look at you. For even if someone fills your brother’s empty heart someday, that person will not be you. Your powers beyond that of a human, will one day eat away at your spirit. If you return, for you, like your father, there will only be the destiny of madness. Even so… you will return.”
She couldn’t run away. She couldn’t leave them. That was why, she had gone to this mountain, not to “the outside.”
The pagoda tree hummed. The gate of twilight. The only gate which could save the sister and brother from their twisted fates. A gentle death. However…

The girl’s face twisted. Within a silence like eternity—-she stood up.
Towards the sealed sky palace. Towards her own destiny.
The man coldly smiled. What she had chosen was, rather than a gentle death, a life cruelly smeared with blood.

“…..Show me, then. There is one difference between you and your father. For how long can that lofty pride of yours protect your soul from isolation and insanity—from the same destiny as your father’s?”

Notes:
The pagoda tree is known in Japanese as “enju.” The kanji for this tree is composed of the kanji for tree added to the kanji for oni (demon, although in older times, spirit).

Three legged crows exist in Asian mythology, and are often associated with the sun.

Twilight is also known as “ouma ga toki,” and during this time, youkai and other spirits are said to come out. The boundary between day and night is considered an unlucky time, at least in Japanese mythology.

Commentary: Well, finally we get some more background on Ruka.

Also, damn, it’s like it’s in her contract that the author HAS to start with a luridly angstful opening, usually involving a child being abused by his/her parents or traumatized in some other way. Anyway, this explains a bit more about the Hyou clan.

tags>>saiunkoku|translation