Reunited – Chapter 46

After hugging and kissing both Aunt Kimie and Lomo, telling them I’m all right and pregnant, they go inside to get warm again. I smoke on the porch with Arata and Jiro while Kumo lies directly on my feet. Miko and Helena join us from inside, and I persuade Miko to try the cake.

“Are you sure this is safe? What about birth defects?” She examines the cigarette in her hand, her eyes narrowed.

“We have a very low rate of birth defects on Orihime… Yūsei. The land is rather unspoiled, wouldn’t you say?” He takes a deep breath and sweeps his eyes over his lush, green garden. “That’s the only good thing about keeping us in the past. Anyway, the atmosphere is clean, the water and soil too, and we get plenty of protection from the radiation of our sun. All women I know smoke or ingest cake during their pregnancy.” He shrugs his shoulders. To him, this is second nature. No one questions it here.

Miko gets the hang of smoking quicker than I did, and Helena too. She was also ambivalent to try but hasn’t been taking pain meds since landing. This should help with her aches and pains too.

“I wonder if I can ask you about something in particular, Sanaa?”

“Of course, Arata. Please.” I hug myself to stay warm, but Terumi steps onto the porch and passes out the blankets.

“My nephew is the cobbler in town, and he, well, he seems to have a crush on your girl, Beni.”

I was right!

“Is she available?” he asks.

Jiro raises his eyebrows at me twice with a slight laugh, and I poke him in the ribs with my elbow.

“Your nephew, what’s he like? Is he available?” I ask. I can’t believe I’m vetting Beni’s romantic prospects but she means too much to me to set her up with just anybody.

“Yes, he is.” Terumi interrupts. “He’s a good man and made a fine life for himself, but we don’t get many travelers around here, at least not until now. He’s never had much luck with dating besides some school romances.”

“Well, he makes beautiful shoes.” I lean over and lift my foot to show off my dark red clogs. Beni picked out perfect ones for me. “Beni is my family, and I’ve always wanted her to have a family. I would hate to lose her, but it’s more important to me that she finds love.”

Terumi and Arata smile at each other. “I’ll set up lunch here tomorrow before you leave. Perhaps we can convince her to stay a few more days or come back once you leave on your trip.”

“Nothing would make me happier than seeing Beni happy.”

“Wow, I’m actually hungry.” Miko smiles and reaches across Jiro and me to pluck the cake straight from Arata’s hand. He laughs, a booming, belly laugh, that makes me giggle. “Can I take some of this back to Yamato?”

“You live at the Rokkaku estate, too?” he asks.

“Yes, I’m married to Jiro’s older brother. Sanaa, Helena, and I have been friends since we were little.” Her eyes glaze over, and she stares out at the stars past the porch overhang. “That feels like ages ago.”

“You can take some cake home, but I’ll also show you what the plant looks like. You probably have some growing wild in the garden.”

“Oops!” I cry, covering my mouth with my hand. “If Oyama and I didn’t think it was a weed.”

We eat dinner together inside in the warmth, even Kumo who doesn’t care if Jiji is around. Kazuo sits as far from me as possible and keeps his head bowed the whole meal. The girls and I eat silently, trying to ignore the tension surrounding us all.

Once dessert is on the table, we head back outside to the porch. Beni wanders the dark gardens with Kentaro and my aunts. Looking at them together, it occurs to me we’ve set up this journey into the countryside, and I’ll be the only woman in the group. Mariko, Beni, Lucy, Helena, and Miko will stay behind. I don’t think Terumi is going either. I’ll be lonely without them.

“Oh good, Sanaa, there you are,” Lucy says, coming up behind me with her tablet in one hand. “I have photos to show you. Mark had them loaded up before you left Yamato.”

“Come sit, Sanaa.” Arata waves me over to a pillow next to him, and I lower myself down to the cushion with a blanket in my lap. He hands me his cigarette, and I take a deep inhale and let it out before holding it in my right hand and taking Lucy’s tablet. Kumo has been wandering around in the garden and sniffing everything he sees. Once I sit down, he comes bounding to me, licking my face before lying down beside me. I love this dog.

Lucy leans forward over Kumo and smells the smoke with a smile on her face. “I swear this stuff makes me want to go inside and eat every cookie on the table.”

I turn on the tablet and Lucy already has the first couple of orbital images open and ready to go. “What am I looking at here, Lucy?”

She points to the area in the bottom right corner of the photo. “This is the outskirts of Tengoku here. This area to the north and then west is the first mountain range that separates Tengoku from the inner farmland. Then even further west is this mountain range that surrounds us here in Takayama.”

“And this is the Nogusa-hara…” I point to the sea of green, long grass.

“Yes. You should head there first to gauge whether or not we can evacuate to the fields.”

“I don’t mean to interrupt…” Arata leans forward, and I tip the tablet so he can see it. “But we are planning a trip to Owari first which is on the border. The Nogusa-hara is… complicated. You will need to learn this from the Odas.”

Lucy and I glance sideways at each other.

“Okay, then. Lucy, can you transfer these to me, and I’ll look them over some other time? I need to memorize them before we go.” I hand the tablet back to Lucy.

I had goals for my life on Yūsei when we left Earth. I wanted to keep the clans at peace, live out my life with Jiro and my family, and continue learning new skills, all the ninjutsu skills I could never have learned in Nishikyō because we didn’t have grass, trees, rain. We arrived here and everything went sideways. Everything. How do I rein in my out-of-control life?

Something soft rubs up against my arm, and when I look up, Jiji meows at me, climbs into my lap, and makes herself at home. She’s warm and soft and purrs when I scratch her head. I’m surrounded on all sides by furry animals. Kumo raises his head, glances once at Jiji, and goes back to sleep. Stifling my laughter, I sigh, lean over, and nuzzle Jiji’s head.

“Arata?”

“Yes, Sanaa.”

“What’s your weapon of choice?”

“Bow and arrow. Archery.”

Oooh, something completely different. “Do you think you could teach me?”

Helena laughs, her head back and short curls bouncing around. “Sanaa, another weapon? The sword, the staff, the climbing, those other little knife things you throw —”

“Shuriken.”

“Right. Those weren’t enough?”

“Helena, you know how I love to try new things.” I smile at her, and she smiles back weakly.

“I’d be happy to teach you. We’ll have lots of time on the road.”

Kentaro walks over from the edge of the garden and puts his arm around Helena’s waist. “Good, there’s nothing that makes Sanaa happier than learning a new weapon. Walk through the gardens, Helena?”

“Sure.” Her walking has improved the last few weeks with physical therapy, but she still rests her left arm against her body, and with her right arm in an angle up over Kentaro’s shoulder, she walks almost straight. What an improvement.

We all sit in silence, listening to the light breeze, the frogs croaking in the garden pond, the bugs buzzing around our heads, and watching the stars in the sky.

Sakai and Lucy sit next to each other, him holding her hand and stroking her pale skin. I ache when I see Sakai and Lucy intimate with each other, even these small things. Closing my eyes, I try to center myself again, but Kohaku’s face, her eyes, fill my head instead. I force her from my thoughts and find Osamu and Fujiwara, the old lady slapping me across the face. Did that really happen? I have distanced myself so thoroughly from the day at the castle, it doesn’t feel real.

When I open my eyes, Kazuo is at the other end of the porch, minding his own business, twirling a piece of grass in his fingers. Why don’t I hate Kazuo like I hate Fujiwara? Isn’t he just as evil? Look at what he and Sachi did to Helena, and Sachi tried to poison us at Izakaya Tanaka.

But he had a definite hand in getting me rescued. I don’t know. Since he and Sachi worked as a team, I can’t blame anything on just him, but maybe that’s the whole point. I remember the way he yelled at Sachi and Risa on surveillance after that incident. He was very unhappy.

“Sanaa?” Jiro taps on my head. “Ready to go? It’s getting late. How’re you feeling?”

“Better. The rest has helped… and the cake.”

“Come,” he says, smiling down at me. “We’ll go back to the house, and I’ll roll us another one.”

A hollow, unearthly sound starts low and echoes up through the woods and streets, higher and higher. Everyone freezes in place. Kumo jumps up, sits back and howls, making the hair on my neck stand up. Arata leaps from his pillow and races through the house for the front door.

“Everyone inside quickly.” Terumi ushers us to the door. I beckon to Kentaro, Helena, and my aunts to come in from the garden.

“What’s going on, Terumi?” I ask as Sakai rushes to the front door following Arata.

“It’s the warning siren. Something’s happened, but we’ll need to wait for someone from the guard to come tell us.”

I clutch Jiro’s hand hard in mine and start to sway to relieve pressure on my hips.

“Sit down. Here, with Beni.” He leads me to the couch, and I sit down next to Beni, but I refuse to let go of Jiro’s hand. I worry he’ll walk out the door, and I’ll never see him again. Considering the last week, this is a valid fear. He squeezes my hand and smiles reassuringly. “Let me go to the front door and see what’s going on.” I let go of his hand reluctantly and take Beni’s.

Jiro’s not gone long and returns within a minute accompanied by Arata and Sakai.

“Bad news,” Arata says, moving furniture away from the far wall. “There’s a troop of two hundred, maybe three hundred men, approaching from the east. I’ve sent my fastest spies to the two other passes into this valley to see if they’re being approached as well, but this means Fujiwara or perhaps your Taira clan got a head start on things. Regardless, I’m glad they came while we’re still here. I’d hate to be gone and leave my people undefended.”

We leap from the couches, and Arata motions Sakai and Usagi to help with the table. Once that’s out of the way, he throws back the rug, and opens a trap door underneath, climbing down into the floor. Terumi sits at the opening, her legs dangling below, and box after box are shuttled up, out of Arata’s hands into Terumi’s and set aside in a stack. I push past everyone and look down into the hole at Arata. He’s squatting in a storage space piled high with weapons and boxes. How he can live on top of an arsenal like this is beyond me.

The siren echoes through the street again, but this time the piercing noise climbs high and gives three short blasts before falling away again. Arata and Terumi pause.

“Terumi, go pack our bags. Can someone else take over for her?”

Kentaro replaces Terumi at the trap door.

“What’s that mean, Arata? What’s going on?” Don’t panic, Sanaa. Everyone’s watching.

“We’re evacuating, that’s what it means, hence the explosives.”

Explosives. Oh no. This is getting serious fast.

“Mark, Lucy, what can we do?”

Sakai turns from me to Arata in the hole passing up boxes. “What’s your evacuation plan? You must have one.”

“There are about twelve hundred people living here in Takayama,” Arata calls up. “Our original plan was to evacuate everyone to Izumo. This is why I’ve kept good relations in that town.”

“You can evacuate to Yamato, too. We have twelve thousand people living there but plenty of room for you as well.”

“From here the distance is the same. Two days walk. Thank you, Mark. I’ll let people know. In the meantime, I can’t let Fujiwara ever take my home again. None of us can.”

Arata is determined, hatred and revenge crossing his face as he pushes up one box after another to Kentaro who stacks them in the corner. This man has just as much reason to fight Fujiwara as I do, and he’s my ally now.

Just like Kazuo, it’s time to put my money on the winner.

“Arata, we’re your allies now. We’ve pledged our help. Let us help.”

Arata pulls himself out of the storage area and places his hands on my shoulders. “I don’t know how you do it, but you won me over from our very first words. I’ll never forget the way you dealt with those men in Izumo. I’d be honored if you and your family fought beside me.”

“Your fight is our fight. Fujiwara must not be allowed to rule this world. He goes against all that we hold dear.”

Arata squeezes my shoulders and turns back to his storage space and Kentaro.

“Mark, Lucy, Mariko, we continue as planned,” I say turning to address them. “Everyone but me, Jiro, Mark, Kentaro, Usagi, Kazuo, and Oyama are to return to Yamato. Lucy, call in both shuttles. We should move out any sick, pregnant, or elderly Takayama residents and everyone else can walk at least until they’re out of danger and can be shuttled from another location. Then it’s time to put plans in motion with Maeda. He said he’d help protect Yamato. You must make him keep his word. Mark, I don’t know what Arata has planned but…” I glance at the boxes of explosives. “Whatever it is, it looks dangerous. I think we should deal with this and then all sneak out somehow to start our journey. This seems to be a Fujiwara diversion. Something to keep us occupied and scrambling while they prepare a bigger attack.”

“I agree,” Jiro says. “A force of two hundred is not a lot of soldiers. Other Fujiwara contingents or Taira must be gathering at another pass north of here. This attack is enough to keep us busy while they amass more. It’s important we get Sanaa on the road as soon as possible.”

“Fine, yes,” Sakai says, running his fingers through his hair and securing it back. “Evacuation first. Then we help Arata with whatever his troops have planned. If anyone makes it through, we’ll have to fight them with swords until we can get out of the northern pass, assuming it’s clear. If it’s not, we exit west and loop around.”

Everyone breaks and jumps into action. I hug Beni, Miko, Yoichi, and Helena, and hope it’s not the last time I do. Aunt Kimie doesn’t cry but Aunt Lomo does, and I hold her extra long. While Kentaro, Usagi, and Oyama, make their goodbyes to everyone, Jiro pulls me outside to the front porch. The streets are busy as people filter from their homes, bags on their backs, children and belongings in carts.

I hug Jiro tight around his chest and tilt my head up to look at him.

“Sanaa, I want you to know, before we go into this fight, that I love you with all my heart. I don’t know how you stole it so thoroughly when I thought long before I met you that this could never happen.”

“You really thought you’d never fall in love?” I ask him, my voice quiet. “I always hoped I would.”

“I protected my feelings with all of my other girlfriends because I didn’t think anyone would understand this life. How could they?”

Before I met Sakai, I never dreamed life could be like this, fighting with swords, honor, life, death. I thought life was walking to work in the morning, meetings all day with your coworkers, drinks out with your friends in the evenings, meeting someone and having kids amidst it all. I’ve stepped back in time, dangerously.

“I both love and hate these moments when we feel we have to say everything because it may be our last time.”

“Like before hibernation.”

“Or before you left on your trip —”

“I’m sorry I left you when you needed me most. I’m sorry I was so stupid and hurt you. You’re my soulmate, and I’m so glad I found you, even if it’s all cut way too short.”

“I’m sorry I yelled at you before you left. I thought about that a lot when I wondered if you were still alive.”

“It’s okay. That was quite a night.”

We stand together, enjoying the last bit of peace and stillness before we’re forced into action.

“Can you do this?” he asks me. “If you can’t, tell me right now, and I’ll take you back to Yamato. I can’t imagine what you’re going through — pregnant, sick, and abused at the hands of Miura and Fujiwara — but we’ll figure something else out if we have to.”

“I can do it. I’m strong. I’ll push past everything, the pain and the fear. I work best under pressure. You know that.”

He nods and sighs. Darkness falls on the town, and the houses are oddly silent after everyone has left. Over the rooftops, a bright red flare shoots up into the sky, and we follow it with our eyes until it extinguishes.

I reach up and into Jiro’s hair and pull him down to me. Our blood races, both of us, and our breath quickens as the excitement of an impending fight heats us up. It’s almost as exciting as the first time we ever made love to each other, and knowing we’re about to put our lives on the line makes me want him even more.

His arms wrap around me, our lips meet, and I kiss him like it’s the last kiss of a lifetime.

Because who knows? It just might be.