Musashi - Eiji Yoshikawa [76]
“He seems fond of Okō. At least, it looks that way to me. I suspect he comes here without me sometimes. Does he?” Akemi laughed but did not answer. “What’s funny about that? I think your mother rather likes him too.”
“I really wouldn’t know!”
“Oh, I’m sure of it! Absolutely sure! It’s a cozy arrangement, isn’t it? Two happy couples—your mother and Tōji, you and me.”
Looking as innocent as he could, he put his hand on top of Akemi’s, which was resting on her knee. Primly, she brushed it away, but this only made Seijūrō bolder. As she started to rise, he put his arm around her thin waist and drew her to him.
“You don’t have to run away,” he said. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
“Let go of me!” she protested.
“All right, but only if you sit down again.”
“The sake … I’ll just go and get some.”
“I don’t want any.”
“But if I don’t bring it, Mother’ll get angry.”
“Your mother’s in the other room, having a nice chat with Tōji”
He tried to rub his cheek against her lowered face, but she turned her head away and called frantically for help. “Mother! Mother!” He released her and she flew toward the back of the house.
Seijūrō was becoming frustrated. He was lonely but didn’t really want to force himself on the girl. Not knowing what to do with himself, he grunted out loud, “I’m going home,” and started tramping down the outer corridor, his face growing more crimson with each step.
“Young Master, where are you going? You’re not leaving, are you?” Seemingly from out of nowhere, Okō appeared behind him and rushed down the hall. As she put her arm about him, he noticed that her hair was in place and her makeup was in order. She summoned Tōji to the rescue, and together they persuaded Seijūrō to go back and sit down. Okō brought sake and tried to cheer him up, then Tōji led Akemi back into the room. When the girl saw how crestfallen Seijūrō was, she flashed a smile at him.
“Akemi, pour the Young Master some sake.”
“Yes, Mother,” she said obediently.
“You see how she is, don’t you?” said Okō. “Why does she always want to act like a child?”
“That’s her charm—she’s young,” said Tōji, sliding his cushion up closer to the table.
“But she’s already twenty-one.”
“Twenty-one? I didn’t think she was that old. She’s so small she looks about sixteen or seventeen!”
Akemi, suddenly as full of life as a minnow, said, “Really? That makes me happy, because I’d like to be sixteen all my life. Something wonderful happened to me when I was sixteen.”
“What?”
“Oh,” she said, clasping her hands to her breast. “I can’t tell anybody about it, but it happened. When I was sixteen. Do you know what province I was in then? That was the year of the Battle of Sekigahara.”
With a menacing look, Okō said, “Chatterbox! Stop boring us with your talk. Go and get your shamisen.”
Pouting slightly, Akemi stood up and went for her instrument. When she returned, she started playing and singing a song, more intent, it seemed, upon amusing herself than upon pleasing the guests.
Tonight then,
If it’s to be cloudy,
Let it be cloudy,
Hiding the moon
I can see only through my tears.
Breaking off, she said, “Do you understand, Tōji?” “I’m not sure. Sing some more.”
Even in the darkest night
I do not lose my way.
But oh! How you fascinate me!
“She is twenty-one, after all,” said Tōji.
Seijūrō, who had been sitting silently with his forehead resting on his hand, came to life and said, “Akemi, let’s have a cup of sake together.”
He handed her the cup and filled it from the sake warmer. She drank it down without flinching and briskly handed him back the cup to drink from.
Somewhat surprised, Seijūrō said, “You know how to drink, don’t you.”
Finishing off his draft, he offered her another, which she accepted and downed with alacrity. Apparently dissatisfied with the cup’s size, she took out a larger one and for the next half hour matched him drink for drink.
Seijūrō marveled. There she was, looking like a sixteen-year-old girl,