Musashi - Eiji Yoshikawa [286]
“Stop it! If you’re a man, you should act like one.”
“But there’s nothing in the world more important to me. If you want, I’ll get down on my knees and beg forgiveness. I’ll give you my oath. I’ll swear to anything you wish.”
“I don’t care what you do!”
“Please don’t be angry. Look, this is no place to talk. Let’s go somewhere else.”
“No.”
“I don’t want my mother to find us. Come on, let’s go. I can’t kill you. I couldn’t possibly kill you!”
He took her hand, but she wrenched it away from him. “Don’t touch me!” she cried angrily. “I’d rather be killed than spend my life with you!”
“You won’t come with me?”
“No, no, no.”
“Is that final?”
“Yes!”
“Does that mean you’re still in love with Musashi?”
“Yes, I love him. I’ll love him throughout this life and the next.” His body trembled. “That’s the wrong thing to say, Otsū.”
“Your mother already knows. She said she’d tell you. She promised we could talk it over together and put an end to the past.”
“I see. And I suppose Musashi ordered you to find me and tell me that. Is that what happened?”
“No, it is not! Musashi doesn’t have to tell me what to do.”
“I’ve got pride too, you know. All men have pride. If that’s the way you feel about me—”
“What are you doing?” she cried.
“I’m as much a man as Musashi, and if it takes my whole life, I’ll keep you from him. I won’t permit it, do you hear? I won’t permit it!”
“And just who are you to give permission?”
“I won’t allow you to marry Musashi! Remember, Otsū, it wasn’t Musashi you were engaged to.”
“You’re hardly the one to bring that up.”
“But I am! You were promised to me as my bride. Unless I consent, you can’t marry anyone.”
“You’re a coward, Matahachi! I pity you. How can you debase yourself like this? I long ago received letters from you and some woman named Okō, breaking our engagement.”
“I don’t know anything about that. I didn’t send any letter. Okō must have done it on her own.”
“That’s not true. One letter was in your own hand and said I should forget about you and find somebody else to marry.”
“Where’s the letter? Show it to me.”
“I don’t have it anymore. When Takuan read it, he laughed, then blew his nose on it and threw it away.”
“In other words, you have no proof, so nobody is going to believe you. Everybody in the village knows you were engaged to me. I’ve got all the proof and you have none. Think, Otsū: if you cut yourself off from everybody else in order to be with Musashi, you’ll never be happy. The thought of Okō seems to upset you, but I swear I have absolutely nothing to do with her anymore.”
“You’re wasting your time.”
“You won’t listen, even when I apologize?”
“Matahachi, didn’t you just now brag that you were a man? Why don’t you act like one? No woman is going to lose her heart to a weak, shameless, lying coward. Women don’t admire weaklings.”
“Watch what you’re saying!”
“Let me go! You’ll tear my sleeve.”
“You … you fickle whore!”
“Stop it!”
“If you won’t listen to me, I don’t care what happens.”
“Matahachi!”
“If you care about living, swear you’ll give up Musashi!”
He let go of her sleeve to draw his sword. Once drawn, the sword seemed to take control of him. He was like a man possessed, a wild light in his eyes.
Otsū screamed, not so much because of the weapon as because of the way he looked.
“You bitch!” he shouted as she turned to flee. His sword descended, grazing the knot of her obi. “I mustn’t let her escape!” he thought, and started after her, calling over his shoulder to his mother.
Osugi came racing down the hill. “Has he bungled it?” she wondered, drawing her own sword.
“She’s over there. Catch her, Mother!” called Matahachi. But he soon ran back and came to a halt just before colliding with the old woman. Saucer-eyed, he asked, “Where did she go?”
“You didn’t kill her?”
“No, she got away.”
“Fool!”
“Look, she’s down below. That’s her. There!”
Otsū, scampering