Vol 5 Chapter 3 (1/2)

Chapter 3: Moonlight Bodhisattva

“Your room number is 507 Here is your key Please enjoy your stay”

“Thank you”

He picked up the white key card from the front counter and inquired, “I believe so here; would you be able to tell me his room number?”

“Chiaki-saive me one moment”

The fee uniforuests and replied with a sano? He hasn’t returned yet, but he is staying in room 611”

“I see When he does, could you let me know?”

“Of course We will call your room”

“Thank you,” Naoe responded, and headed for the elevator

(Well, what next?)

His family business concluded, Naoe had arrived in Nara earlier than he had expected Chiaki and Takaya would already be out on their investigation Putting the two of theether ell, he certainly wouldn’t have to worry about the «power» aspect, but it was a risky co his way here

Co by bullet train had been all very well, but the problem was that he had arrived in the middle of the day Since his beloved Cefiro had been put out of co to use for the investigation

(Maybe I should go through the rental car process today?) he thought as he opened the door to his room

It was a neatly-tidied, spacious single Taking off his jacket and tossing it on the sofa, he surveyed the scenery outside theThe buildings near the Kintetsu-Nara Station blocked the northern es from view The hotel ithin the city, but in front of hiht below

(So Kagetora-saahide aren’t back yet?)

Gazing at the view outside, Naoe lit a cigarette

He could see the Wakakusa Mountain Rangebeyond the city, shi+ in the heat

(It’s been a while since I last came to Nara)

Ten years or so, was it? Nostalgia swept through him He’d been so busy that he could not recall at all

(Ah, right) He suddenly remembered as he loosened his necktie

The last time he had come here had been—

(Before I found him)

Ten years ago, before the «Yaoku» had spun so far out of control

When the fruitless search for Kagetora had dragged him further and further into desperation

A time that had perhaps been the most painful of his life

And when impatience and anxiety had driven hiain to Nara

As if in entreaty

(Why is it I felt like that?)

Naoe gazed at the clock on the bedside table

It was a little past four-thirty, too late to start an investigation And in two, three hours, they would be back

(I shouldn’t waste ti in my room)

He would go pay a visit there, after so long

Naoe softly snuffed the cigarette he had lit moments before and picked up the card key from the bedside table

The sun, after scorching the City of Nara for the entire day, was now on its doard arc, and its light slanted through the trees from the west

As he ascended the stone steps to the Great Southern Gate of Toudai Temple, he looked up at the recently-restored Niou statues

There weren’t many tourists left in Nara Park this late in the day, and the souvenir shops along the path to the shrine were beginning to close down Even the deer which ca the day were scarcely to be seen; perhaps they had already returned to their woods for the night

The destination of Naoe’s visit was Toudai Te with tourists, the temple was quiet now and virtually empty of both people and deer There were still tourists leaving the Great Buddha Hall, but none going in

Evening cicadas chorused around him

He climbed shallow stairs past a stone pillar with the inscription ‘Hall of the Second Month Shrine Path’

(It hasn’t changed)

Although the appearance of Nara City had changed greatly, the unique grace of Nara Park in the eventide was exactly the sao Toudai Teh that innocent vivaciousness was also pleasant, he could recall always deliberately choosing to co crowds

Turning, he could see the golden ridge-tiles at both ends of the roof of the Great Buddha Hall glittering in the light of the westerning sun beyond the trees

Naoe slowly ascended the stone steps

His work as Naoe nobutsuna of the Meikai Uesugi Army oku» he had no leisure time to spend at home, but conversely he felt more at ease both mentally and physically The reason, of course, was that with the addition of Kagetora and Yasuda Nagahide the duties and responsibilities weighing on him had lessened

(Unlike back then)

Naoe paused as he abruptly realized that that was not the reason No, the difference had been the absence of a single person

It was that simple

When the sun sank to its sleep and the city cahts, Naoe would be able to see hietora would probably already be there He would be able to see hiain

(He is here)

That single, simple reason

But that thought alone was enough to evoke a gentle quietude within him He had a home to return to No ed was—at his side

Thirty years ago, the final battle with Oda nobunaga nobunaga’s «hakonha» engulfed Kagetora, and he in turn took the brunt of Kagetora’s «choubuku» And everything ca from the head-on collision of their «powers»

And yet they were not able to «exorcise» nobunaga Irobe Katsunaga, the only one a them who cah his investigations that nobunaga still reetora’s whereabouts, whether he performed kanshou, or even if his soul still remained in the world The horrendous power of the «hakonha» was said to be capable of destroying the soul itself—and if that were the case, then the soul would be lost even from the wheel of reincarnation

Was Kagetora obliterated from the Roku Dou Kai?

It took hi kanshou on this body—on the fetus of Tachibana Yoshi+aki—to heal the dae done to hiot in contact with Katsunaga Katsunaga was able to confirahide and Kakizaki Haruie Whether or not Kagetora’s soul still lived was the only question they were unable to answer

He had intended to resign himself

In a ht was—it’s over His own existence lost all etora ceased to exist So this was the end of the road for a life already lived for far too long

But he would never be able to undergo reincarnation even if he stopped perfor kanshou No, he had no doubt that he could if he wanted to do so To have this soul sullied by the passage of four hundred years be cleansed, to have four hundred years of memories and sin and all else swept away, and then to be reborn as a purified soul And yet—

He could not do it In a world bereft of Kagetora’s existence he could not allow his own He could not allow himself to exist, all oblivious, in this world where he did not

If he could not return to ‘nothingness’, then nothing remained to him but insanity

Tachibana’s parents worried day and night over their child, who turned into a living puppet before their very eyes School was impossible, so they did not try to send hied to have him enter the priesthood and became a monk at the temple He embraced the asceticism of priesthood wholeheartedly

He convulsively tried to kill himself several times, but was restrained by his father’s strict discipline

You see, therehere His father adain

That’s a lie, he thought That isn’t true He lived for Kagetora Kagetora was the only reason for his existence But Kagetora was no longer here And if he was no longer here, then! Even if there was such as thing as Heaven’s will, his existence no longer held any

“There ”

Naoe looked up at the trees reaching toward the late afternoon sky

(I suppose those wordswere not a lie)

Kagetora was still alive

Even if he had lost his memories, he was alive—

The «Yao as the onryou of Sengoku warlords began to awaken in rapid succession all across the country Awareness of his duty as a ave him the determination to stay alive Kenshi+n had cooku warlords; even without Kagetora, their mission remained

No—

In actuality, he cared not one whit about the mission

He only wanted sos

He never believed his father’s words

Even so, a thread of possibility fought against the despair eating into his mind and heart, a hint of hope which he could not abandon

He passed a plaza with a line of souvenir shops Cliht him out in front of the Hall of the Third Month

Naoe walked alone toward the temple as the late afternoon sun continued to sink towards the horizon

He passed a shrine visitor with his fans of other people He paid the entrance fee at the reception desk and stepped within

Cool air wrapped around his body

No lights were on inside the tehts that ordinarily illuminated the temple had been turned off now that so few visitors remained

Red light froh the latticed s

He paused with the sun against his cheek The dozen or so Teh the dimness

He moved to stand directly in front of fukuukenjaku Kannon, the principle buddha of the Hall of the Third Month He quietly closed his eyes as he pressed his hands together

He could hear the chirps of evening cicadas

There were no other sounds

Separating his hands, Naoe looked up once more

To confront these enor He had heard the Hall of the Third Month contemptuously dismissed as a ‘museum of stuffed buddhas’, but it was not so for him On the contrary, to stand alone in front of these exalted beings was to brace his heart against an overwhel terror

He stood frozen in place, his inner al cross-examined

Why have you come here?

What are you doing?

All of the answers of him at once

He was barely able to suppress the impulse to run out of the temple At the same time, he wanted to prostrate himself before them and confess all that was hidden within his heart But to do so did not mean that one would be saved That, he knew quite well

The buddhas’ salvation

(Probably a thing born out of nothing but our foolish delusions)

Naoe softly cast down his eyes

The buddhas’ salvation A thing that was probably, in truth—

A distant longing eternally beyond his reach

He felt as if there were always so for him here

A bodhisattva stood on each side of fukuukenjaku Kannon It was these bodhisattvas that he caain to see

The bodhisattva facing hiht was the Sunlight Bodhisattva There was entle foria The fukuukenjaku Kannon looked quietly down at hiently res of the world

They hite flames to his eyes

Thite fla toward the sky

A face inevitably appeared in his mind each time he came to see this bodhisattva No, the reverse was true: he came here in order to see her

The face he saw in that of the bodhisattva belonged to the woman who had saved him

(Minako)

Hers alone

He first o Everything began when they saved Minako and her faulfed like so h countless battles to protect them—in no time at all and all unawares, he and Minako fell in love