Reunited – Chapter 23

Oh gods, we’ve all trespassed on some sacred ground in some sacred town that’s cursed! This is worse than I thought!

I snap a photo of the sign, we close the gate, and double-time it back to the estate, my legs moving so swiftly I’m barely touching the ground. I want to get as far from the graveyard and gate as possible, and Jiro, Usagi, and Kentaro must feel the same way because they are walking as fast as I am. Jiro reaches over and grabs my hand to steady me, and we fall into step with each other though my legs are much shorter than his. This contact and synchronicity suddenly reminds of the twins, Kazuo and Sachi Uchiyama. Where are they? My heart starts hammering in my chest, and my upper arms tingle as panic seizes my body. I glance over my shoulder sure they’re right behind us, but it’s just Kumo running in and out of the underbrush.

Did everyone in Ōmi, our Yamato, die some horrible death? Is that why it’s cursed? Or did someone put the sign there to keep their enemies away? Was there a plague? Was there a war? I have no idea.

As we approach the estate’s gate, the diamond pattern carved on each side post stops me in my tracks.

“What? What, Sanaa? I think we’ll be okay. We’ve been living here for weeks now and nothing’s happened.” Jiro’s drawing the wrong conclusion from my hesitation. Kumo sits down next to me and nudges my hand with his nose.

“I was thinking of the Itō dōjō and Sakai buildings back in Nishikyō. Every building owned by Sakai clan had the family kamon stamped on the front door.” I point to the diamond pattern, and Jiro’s eyes jump back and forth between the two gate posts, his eyes widening as he recognizes what I’ve only just figured out. Usagi and Kentaro watch us both with their arms crossed over their chests.

“Sanaa! You’re a genius!” He laughs and picks me up, swinging me around. “You missed your calling in life as a detective.”

“Mark always said I would make a great detective. I guess he was right.” I reach into my bag and pull out my tablet, unable to contain my curiosity any longer. I need to start digging. “Go get Mark, Lucy, your mother, everyone, and meet me in the front dining room.”

Jiro and Kentaro run off to two sections of the house, but Usagi stays with me and looks over my shoulder as we enter and kick off our shoes.

“Usagi, let’s see,” I talk through my thoughts aloud, “GDB’s archive of all family kamon. Hmmm. The database is divided up by type. Sakai clan is a flower, Taira is an animal, but this is geometric. I should have looked at this archive ages ago. I’ve always loved family crests.”

“Yours is the most famous of them all, Sanaa.”

I huff a laugh, hug the tablet to my chest for a moment, and think about my tattoos. I want more now. I love my wild nogiku but the dedication on my back needs more, more of my family.

“I guess you’re right about that. Let’s see.”

I sit down at the dining room table with Usagi and search while we wait for everyone to show up. Hmmm, squares. This pattern is basically four empty squares, close together, turned on its side as a unit so it becomes a diamond. I scroll through pages and pages of kamon until I find it.

“Here it is!”

“Here what is?” Sakai asks, coming into the room with Lucy, Mariko, and Beni right behind him. Kentaro joins us too.

I search around the room and get up, taking my tablet to a carving in the wood right next to the hallway. I place my tablet with the diamond kamon on it right next to the carving. They’re exact.

“This estate and most of this town belonged to a competing clan, Mark. The Fujiwaras were not the only powerful people to settle here. What if they were enemies and they fought?”

Sakai takes my tablet and examines the family crest before tapping in some other commands into the GDB. After a moment his eyes widen, and he whispers, “Sasaki,” before smiling at me. “This family kamon belonged to Rokkaku clan, though they mostly died out in Old Japan. Still, it was formed by the Sasaki family and they were cousins with Kyōgoku family. All of their crest are similar except for one that’s a crane. Same four squares, some tilted, some not. But here, this is interesting. Though they were the Sasaki family, they named themselves the Rokkaku clan after the estate they lived in in Kyoto.”

Sakai looks up from his tablet and around at the room we’re all standing in.

“Maybe they chose this kamon because they wanted to bring back to life their estate in Kyoto.” It’s my best guess and would make the most sense. I think we all want to bring back the splendor of the past here on Yūsei. “But, Sasaki. Arata Sasaki. Oh my gods, he was right in front of me twice, and I had no idea who he was.”

Arata Sasaki remarked, “If you don’t know who I am then you must not be from around here.” We had a connection. The way he interrupted my confrontation with the drunken men, his horse was drawn to me, and he told us to leave Izumo before anything happened to us. He should have walked away, but he didn’t.

“Mark…” I grab his shirt in my hand and lock eyes with him. “You and Jiro have to find him. He’s our new ally. This is who we need to be friends with here.” When he nods, I turn to Jiro and he nods as well. I release Sakai’s shirt and smooth out the wrinkles with my hand. “Sorry.”

“Sanaa, show Mark the other things we found.”

A wash of cold tingles travels down my spine as I extend my hand for the tablet. I call up the photos of the headstone and the sign on the gate. Mariko and Lucy read the sign over his shoulder, and Mariko groans.

“Ōmi, huh?” Lucy puffs. “Well, it’s Yamato now, and I don’t think this curse will stop us from colonizing here.”

Sakai smiles at her. “It won’t, but obviously, whoever posted the sign was hoping it’d keep out Fujiwara for a long time. He may be a superstitious man, and we can use that to our benefit.”

“So, let’s think.” I pace to the wall and back. “What happened here? Why would, I assume, Rokkaku and Fujiwara be enemies? One was stronger than the other? One had an advantage over the other? I’m guessing it wasn’t a plague that wiped out most of the people here in this town. I think it was Fujiwara. Maybe there was a war and Rokkaku abandoned the town?”

“The Rokkaku descendants must be north of here.” Jiro stares out the door to the back garden, his hand on his chin. “I think we know where to start too. If we had another family on our side, and we took advantage of this whole anti-Heian Initiative thing with Sanaa’s imperial lineage, we…” He sighs and shakes his head in disbelief. “We could accomplish a lot.”

There could be hope for us yet! My heart is beating so hard, it slams against my sternum.

“The enemy of my enemy is my friend.” I stop my pacing and examine the sign on my tablet again. If Fujiwara left this town alone for over ten years after he defeated the Rokkaku, he must be afraid of them still. “They could be powerful allies.”

“And from what I just saw of their history back on Earth, they were aligned with Minamoto clan several times against Taira. That would be a good bargaining chip.” Sakai turns his head to Kentaro, and Kentaro pales, his mouth forming a grim line across his face. Everyone turns their eyes on him, and when he makes eye contact with us all, he steels himself, squaring up his shoulders and nodding.

“I always knew I’d lead the clan someday, but I honestly thought my father would be dead before I usurped him.”

Kentaro is one of my closest friends now, someone I trust with my life. He’s standing still, his eyes unfocused, and his mind must be wandering through his life as he knows it. He’s on the precipice, teetering over the edge, and I’m about to push him over.

It’s time for big words and even bigger actions. I walk straight to him and grasp his shoulders.

“I consider your father a traitor to the throne.” My eyes are soft and sincere, but my words are harsh and imperial. “If he does not die in the capital, his life is mine and forfeit. You must make decisions in his absence, and I think you know exactly what you need to do.”