Yatagarasu Series
Volume 1:
Ravens Shouldn't
Wear Kimono
Author: Chisato Abe
Part 5: A New Spring;
Section 3
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“Um, what did you wish to talk about, Your Imperial Highness?”
It was early evening. The sky’s brightness faded to a pale purple like a new bruise. The spring breeze lacking sunshine had the same bite as winter air.
The Crown Prince was watching the cherry blossoms fall when Asebi caught up to him. He answered Asebi’s question with one of his own. “Did you come here because you wanted to become the Princess of Sakura Palace?” he asked.
“Huh? Um, yes,” Asebi said.
The Crown Prince avoided her gaze and replied haltingly, as if he were choosing his words with special care. “You are not like Shiratama or the others. You were not raised being told that you must enter the imperial court. You must have a different mindset than the other duchesses. I’m no prize—I’m a dull, block-headed idiot most of the time.1 Being my wife won’t be easy. You’d have to endure hardships far beyond the ordinary. You would have to live in the Imperial Palace for the rest of your life. You have lived in Sakura Palace for a year and you have already witnessed several deaths. Even the steadfast Masuho no Susuki, who prepared for this for her entire life, decided that she could not endure a life of being married to me. Do you still wish to become my bride, even now?”
Asebi tried to catch his eye, but he refused to look straight at her. Her throat went dry. “No matter what happens, I feel like there is absolutely no way I could ever give up on you, Your Imperial Highness. Perhaps you think me shameless or presumptuous for saying that.”
Asebi sucked in a deep breath, and then she finally said what she’d always longed to say to the Crown Prince. “I wish to become your bride, Your Imperial Highness.”
The Crown Prince went very still. His eyes rested on the cherry trees as Asebi’s speech sank in. He let out a breath and then faced her, still not quite looking her in the eye. “I see… No matter what happens. Is that true?”
Asebi blinked.
The Crown Prince raised his voice and asked, “Did you orchestrate all this, Duchess Asebi?”
“Excuse me?”
“I’m asking why things turned out this way.” The Crown Prince had been cruel and kind by degrees to Masuho no Susuki and Shiratama, but he hadn’t shown them his anger. All his rage burned in his eyes, and it was directed straight at Asebi.
“How could you abandon Samomo and the others to their fate?”
***
“Um…” Asebi tilted her head in genuine confusion, wondering why the Crown Prince looked so frightening.
The Crown Prince took several sheets of paper from his pocket. “Does this look familiar to you?” he asked. He held out a letter that was decorated with a border of inked cherry blossoms. The letter was perfumed with incense. The brush strokes were smooth and even, with no mistakes or spiky letters. The handwriting was unmistakable.
Asebi gasped. She blushed and looked away from the letter. “That is the letter I sent to you, Your Imperial Highness, isn’t it?” she asked. “I am so glad to know that you received it.” Her blush deepened from pale pink to deep red in moments. Her face was the picture of happiness.
The Crown Prince’s gaze fixed on her face. She was delicate and lovely and exceptionally beautiful.
“That’s right. This is a reply to the letter I sent to you to apologize for not being able to attend the Boys’ Festival.”
Asebi nodded in acknowledgment. “Yes, I remember it very well. It was the first letter I ever received from you, Your Imperial Highness.”
“I sent a letter of apology to each of the four duchesses. Strangely, I only received a reply from you. Do you know why that is?” He was back to being calm. His former anger had burned down to ashes.
Asebi matched his demeanor and answered, “Princess Fujinami stole the other letters, didn’t she?”
The Crown Prince nodded. “When did you find out she was doing that?”
Asebi’s eyes widened. “Um, what do you mean by that?”
“Don’t tell me you didn’t know what Fujinami was doing. After all, Fujinami intercepted those letters to help you.”
“Excuse me!” Ukogi called out. She had just entered the courtyard, which was otherwise clear of people.
The Crown Prince directed his attention to Asebi’s attendant. “Your mistress knew that Shiratama, Masuho no Susuki and Hamayū had received no letters from me. Surely you must have considered that suspicious,” he said.
Asebi’s shoulders trembled noticeably. She looked at Ukogi like she wanted her attendant to rescue her.
Ukogi stepped forward. “Your letter was handed directly to me by Princess Fujinami, Your Imperial Highness. There was nothing suspicious about it. The letter was sent by the Crown Prince to Duchess Asebi, who was deeply saddened by his absence. What’s so suspicious about that?” Her tone was confrontational.
The Crown Prince scoffed. “You are not just an ordinary lady-in-waiting, but your mistress’ main attendant. Didn’t you spare a thought for what Princess Fujinami was doing? After you learned that the other duchesses were not receiving letters, you could have asked Princess Fujinami. You could have condemned her for giving Duchess Asebi an unfair advantage.”
“Please don’t blame Ukogi,” Asebi said. She put herself between the Crown Prince and Ukogi, hoping to spare her attendant from the Crown Prince’s wrath. Tears gathered in the corners of her eyes. “I was so happy to receive a letter from you. I barely noticed what was going on with the other duchesses until much later. I didn’t think that far ahead, and I didn’t expect my attendant to, either.”
“I can’t believe you noticed nothing strange,” the Crown Prince said.
Masuho no Susuki entered the courtyard. Hamayū stood behind her. The former Nanke duchess slid the door to Wisteria Hall shut.
“You may be a bit naive, but you’re not an idiot. We know that well, having spent this past year getting to know you,” the Crown Prince said to Asebi.
“It’s not Asebi’s fault!” Princess Fujinami wailed. She forced Wisteria Hall's door open and pushed past Hamayū and Masuho no Susuki. Takimoto was fast on her heels, trying to restrain her but failing.
Princess Fujinami threw herself at her brother’s feet. “I was the one who lied! It was my fault. I told Asebi that you were only writing letters to me and to her. It’s not Asebi’s fault,” she repeated. “Please, brother. Choose Asebi as your bride. If you don’t, I won’t be able to stand it,” she said, her voice drowning in her tears. “I wanted Asebi to enter the imperial court no matter what. She is blameless for my own lies.”
The Crown Prince considered this. “Why? he asked. “Why must it be Asebi?” His expression was tightly controlled. He gave none of what he was feeling away.
Princess Fujinami cried harder. “I… I, brother, please…” Sobbing and struggling to speak, Fujinami stared at the Crown Prince’s face as if she wanted to bore a hole through it. She opened her mouth to speak several times, swallowing her words each time. “Do you… do you love me, brother?” she choked out.
The Crown Prince nodded immediately. “Yes, of course.”
Fujinami’s face relaxed slightly.
“Even so, what you did to Samomo and the others is something that cannot be easily forgiven.”
Fujinami stopped trembling. Her tears ceased. She froze in place, looking like a woman who’d lost her soul.
“What?” Kikuno asked. “What did Princess Fujinami do to Samomo? And… others?” she asked.
The Crown Prince turned away from his sister and a stricken Takimoto. “That’s for later. I was talking to Asebi.”
Asebi had watched Fujinami’s desperate plea without saying a word, growing more nervous by the second. “Yes, Your Imperial Highness?”
“In this past year, you have written to four men: the Lord of Touke and three others. Is that correct?”
“Yes,” Asebi said, all honesty.
“Well, then. Why did you choose not to say anything? You knew what Fujinami had done. If Hamayū or Masuho no Susuki had possessed the same information as you, I believe that they would have investigated the matter more thoroughly.”
“Because…” Asebi replied, still looking troubled. “If I had done that, it would have caused trouble for Princess Fujinami, right?” Her face was as pure and clean as an angel’s.
Silence fell over the courtyard as all eyes turned to Asebi. The lovely girl with the beautiful smile before them suddenly transformed into something entirely different. The presence of that unknown “something” made everyone’s skin crawl. Asebi inspired dread in all who witnessed her change.
The Crown Prince’s gaze was sharper than a sword. Hamayū and Masuho no Susuki’s expressions matched his. They looked like they’d just swallowed a bitter tonic.
“So everything was for Fujinami’s sake?” the Crown Prince asked.
“Yes.” Asebi nodded, looking sadly at Fujinami. “I lied to Duchess Shiratama and Duchess Masuho no Susuki. It was very painful for me. I didn’t ask Princess Fujinami to intercept the letters of the others. She took pity on my situation and acted alone. It is unreasonable to blame me for Princess Fujinami’s actions.
“Besides, even if I may have suspected something, I had no evidence. I would not have risked putting Princess Fujinami’s reputation at risk based on pure speculation.”
Masuho no Susuki opened her mouth to ask a question. The Crown Prince silenced her with a look.
“I see. I understand your explanation, at least for now. Here’s the next question,” the prince said in a low voice. “Is the name Kasuke familiar to you?”
Ukogi sucked in a breath, but the expression on Asebi’s face did not change.
“Kasuke is a servant at the main Touke estate,” Asebi said.
“Kasuke was one of the men you corresponded with in the past year, correct? You wrote letters to me, your father, and him.”
“Yes, among others,” Asebi said.
“He was the one who broke into Sakura Palace and died.”
“Oh, is that so! I didn’t know that. How terrible!”
“You didn’t know? Really? He had feelings for you. He came to see you and he was killed.”
“Kasuke came to see the duchess?” Ukogi asked.
The Crown Prince nodded.
“How could this be? Why did this happen?”
Asebi looked a bit sheepish. “You didn’t tell me about my mother, and Kasuke said he couldn’t write about it in a letter. My father wouldn’t tell me, either. I thought that if I met Kasuke in person, he would tell me. So I invited him to Sakura Palace in secret.”
“You knew that was against the rules,” the Crown Prince said.
“Well, yes,” Asebi said, “but Kasuke was a servant in my father’s household. I didn’t expect that meeting with him would cause any problems.” Asebi tilted her head innocently.
The Crown Prince met her gaze firmly. “He was still a man.”
“He was a commoner,” Asebi said. “His status is different.”
“It doesn’t matter,” the Crown Prince said. “In Sakura Palace, a man is a man, be he servant or noble. Secret meetings are not permitted.”
“Secret meetings?” Asebi raised an eyebrow. “I wasn’t after anything of the sort. I just wanted to meet with a servant for a short while and talk. I misunderstood the rules. I am truly sorry!”
“Apologizing is not enough,” the Crown Prince said. “A man is dead.”
“He died because what he did was deserving of death,” Takimoto said grimly. She was the one who’d dealt the fatal blow to Kasuke. Her face was red from repressed rage, but her eyes remained clear and determined. “Not only did he sneak into Sakura Palace, he tried to assault Duchess Masuho no Susuki. Truly, his crimes were deserving of execution.”
“Kasuke committed no violence,” the Crown Prince said. “He only sought to escape. Surely it would have been easy for the Fujimiyaren to capture and question him before killing him. There must be some reason why you skipped straight to execution.” He paused, then said, “You were afraid that Kasuke would talk about Samomo. You killed him to silence him.”
“That is a dangerous accusation,” Takimoto said, her lips twisting into a frown.
Fujinami sat in a shaking puddle at Takimoto’s feet.
“If Kasuke were to enter Sakura Palace in secret, he would require a guide,” the Crown Prince said. “Samomo seems a likely choice for that. Asebi could have easily convinced Samomo to help. Samomo might think that meeting briefly with a servant from Asebi’s home would be harmless. However, Asebi never had any intention of meeting with Kasuke in the first place.
“Samomo realized what was happening. She noticed that Asebi was trying to bring Kasuke to the Autumn Hall, not the Spring Hall.”
“What?” Kikuno asked. She had accompanied Masuho no Susuki outside, serving as her silent shadow until now. “That can’t be… But how?”
“The red kimono,” the Crown Prince said. “The hall with a red kimono on display was a signal. In the Autumn Hall, beautiful kimonos are displayed on racks and changed daily. In particular, the famous red kimono made from dyed sappan wood silk, a specialty of Saike, was frequently on display.”
“Please wait a moment!” Asebi cried out, flustered and endearingly embarrassed. “I did try to speak with the servant. I wrote a letter to use the red kimono as a signal. I tried to display a red kimono in the Spring Hall.”
Ukogi gasped and then lowered her head. “Yes. And I took it away from you.” Her shoulders slumped. “I never thought you were trying to use the kimono for something like that. The only red kimono you have is made of sappan wood silk that was gifted to you by Duchess Masuho no Susuki. I thought you were just trying to show off,” she said softly. “So it’s my fault things turned out this way. Duchess Asebi had no ulterior motives at all.”
“I don’t think that’s true,” the Crown Prince said. “She could have anticipated that you would refuse to let her display a gift from Masuho no Susuki, who was her rival. You’ve known each other for a long time, haven’t you?”
“Duchess Asebi…” Ukogi looked at her mistress. “No. She has asked to leave Sakura Palace several times. I can’t believe she would do something as heinous as have a man killed just to enter the imperial court.”
“But the fact remains that Asebi is here now. In fact, you were the one who stopped her from leaving, weren’t you? That alone is proof of something.”
“You don’t understand Duchess Asebi at all,” Ukogi said, flatly denying his accusations. Her face was like a demon’s.
The Crown Prince remained unfazed. He was not intimidated in the slightest. “I’ll return those same words to you. If the same thing happens twice, it’s only natural to start thinking something is strange.”
Ukogi was silent.
“Do you know why Duchess Futaba was unable to come to Sakura Palace?”
Ukogi frowned, uncomprehending.
“I heard this directly from Duchess Futaba’s own mouth,” the Crown Prince said. “It happened during the New Year’s party. She was not suffering from smallpox; she was not ill in any way. That night, while her ladies-in-waiting were away from the estate for the celebration, she was attacked by an intruder.”
Kikuno covered her mouth with her sleeve. The subject was so vulgar; she felt embarrassed to hear it spoken of directly by the Crown Prince.
“What happened?” Ukogi asked faintly.
“It seems the man mistook Duchess Futaba for someone else. I heard that he only called her ‘duchess.’”
Masuho no Susuki gasped. The intruder who had broken into the Autumn Hall had called her ‘duchess,’ but he had not said her name. Were the man who’d attacked Futaba and the man who’d infiltrated the Autumn Hall one and the same?
“How careless, to use the same trick more than once,” the Crown Prince said. He glanced at Ukogi. “Where was Duchess Asebi during the party?
“She was at the secondary estate,” Ukogi replied.
“My stomach hurt,” Asebi said, speaking over Ukogi. She said again, “My stomach hurt. So I was at my family’s secondary residence, resting.” Asebi tilted her head, blinking her large eyes again and again.
There was no pity or understanding in the gazes that surrounded Asebi and her attendant. No one said a word. Time passed in silence.
“I’m still curious about that red kimono,” Hamayū said. “Samomo had to have noticed it. Few servants know how to read. If Duchess Asebi gave the servant a signal of a red kimono, then Samomo would have had to tell him of it. She would know about it. And then she saw the beautiful red kimono displayed in the Autumn Hall and put two and two together. Stunned by her realization, she froze to the spot in the Autumn Hall, where she was discovered by Kikuno. After that, Samomo was acting strangely, so when we were alone, I asked her what had happened. She mentioned something about Asebi, but she feared that she was mistaken and wouldn’t tell me the details,” she said, rubbing her forehead roughly. “And for that, she died. How terrible to be killed over something like that.”
“Asebi, you were afraid that Samomo might betray you to Hamayū, weren’t you?” the Crown Prince asked. “If Fujinami received a report that Samomo was planning to do something that might harm Asebi, how might she act?”
Everyone looked to Fujinami.
“It was you, wasn’t it, Fujinami, who caused Samomo’s death?”
The night that Samomo had broken in to the Autumn Hall, Asebi had visited Princess Fujinami.
“What should I do, Princess Fujinami?” Asebi had asked. “After what happened today, Samomo will surely hate me. I invited one of my father’s servants here to speak to me. Samomo said she’d help me meet him, but… well, what if she thinks I invited him here for nefarious reasons? There could be a scandal. If Samomo tells Hamayū about any of this, what will become of me? I’ll have to leave Sakura Palace. Princess Fujinami, please help me.”
“Fujinami, how did it come to this?” the Crown Prince asked.
Fujinami snapped back to herself. “I never intended to kill her,” she cried out, clutching her head. “That night, I told her to leave here right away. I thought I had to drive her out of Sakura Palace as soon as possible.”
Samomo had become a threat to Asebi, so Fujinami had expelled Samomo from Sakura Palace as soon as possible. She had called Samomo to her the instant she’d finished speaking to Asebi that night.
“Samomo wasn’t born in the imperial palace,” Fujinami said. “I was certain she’d be able to transform and fly away. And I thought that she would be all right for awhile if she could sell the kimono that Masuho no Susuki had given her. That’s why she was found wearing it. I wrapped it around her, and then I… I pushed her out of the Midsummer Gate.”
Fujinami shook her head. “She pleaded with me to listen to her. She told me that Asebi wasn’t the person I thought she was. Hearing that made me so angry! I never expected her to turn on Asebi like that. I told her to leave and I pushed her. She fought, but not enough. She screamed.” Fujinami would never forget the sight of Samomo falling into the mountains below, her white hands reaching up in supplication. She had expected Samomo to transform into a bird and save herself. She didn’t have to die. Every night since then, her dreams were haunted by Samomo’s face.
“Why?” Fujinami whispered softly. “She didn’t have to die. Why didn’t she turn into a raven?”
“You said she was wearing the kimono that Masuho no Susuki gave her,” Shiratama said. She was hugging Kazumi and hadn’t let go of him since setting foot in the courtyard. “You put it on her. Even if she’d managed to transform, she wouldn’t be able to fly while wearing the kimono.”
Fujinami still didn’t understand.
“Everyone knows that you can’t transform while you’re wearing a kimono,” Shiratama added. “Even if you did, the kimono would get tangled up, and there’d be no way to fly properly.”
“But…” Fujinami looked at the attendants standing behind her older brother. “Fujimiyaren and imperial attendants all wear kimonos, don’t they? During the Boys’ Festival and the Star Festival, they all wore the same black kimono as my brother does now.”
“Those are feather robes, Fujinami,” the Crown Prince said. His voice was heavy with sympathy.
“Huh? What’s that?” Fujinami asked.
The Crown Prince sighed. “It will be easier to show you. Yukiya!”
“Yes, Your Imperial Highness!” Yukiya called out. He was one of the Crown Prince’s attendants. He saluted, then ran forward holding what looked like a black kimono.
Yukiya handed the black kimono to the Crown Prince, who settled one sleeve over his left shoulder. He spread his arms.
It was like witnessing a young tree grow from a seed in a single moment. With a crackling sound, the Crown Prince’s arms transformed into magnificent wings. The arm wearing the black kimono became a beautiful wing, with the black garment itself forming part of the feathers. The arm covered by an ordinary white kimono got caught inside the sleeve during the Crown Prince’s transformation, causing the wing to bend awkwardly.
The Crown Prince gently flapped his wings, demonstrating the problem he was trying to explain. “A feather robe is like an extension of the body,” the Crown Prince said. “Anyone capable of transformation can produce one. That is why all commoners have a feather robe. They rarely wear kimono because they can’t afford them. Warriors also like to wear feather robes so they can quickly transform into raven form during battle. That’s why warriors and commoners dress the same way. You can’t transform instantly while still wearing a kimono.”
He waved his wings, and then they were arms again.
Fujinami stared at him, speechless.
“You didn’t know that, did you?” the Crown Prince asked.
The Yamauchishu had kept this quiet, but when Samomo’s body was found, she was half in human form and half in raven form. She had tried to transform and save herself, but she hadn’t succeeded. If she’d been wearing a feather robe, she probably wouldn’t have died.
After Samomo’s death, Kasuke lost his means of communicating with Asebi. Undeterred, he found a secret way into Sakura Palace by climbing up a cliff. He made it inside Sakura Palace and saw a red kimono hanging in the Autumn Hall. He’d mistaken the Autumn Hall for the Spring Hall. He’d realized his mistake too late and had fled to Wisteria Hall.
And Takimoto, who knew why Samomo had died, killed Kasuke. Fujinami protected Asebi, and Takimoto protected Fujinami. This was the result.
“Oh, what have I done?” Asebi burst into tears. Covering her face with both hands, she cried out, “It was all my fault! My careless words and actions led to this tragedy!” Asebi wept. If the rest of her activities weren’t well-known by now, she might have been described as pitiable.
“I’m so sorry, Princess Fujinami. I never imagined, not even in my wildest dreams, that you would misunderstand in such a way.” She sobbed innocently like a little child.
The Crown Prince gave her an icy stare. “You apologize only to Princess Fujinami?”
“Of course, Samomo and Kasuke, too. What an unfortunate fate! I feel so sorry for them.”
If only I could have taken their place, how much better things would have been, Asebi thought.
“Duchess Asebi,” the Crown Prince said in a voice completely devoid of kindness or warmth.
Asebi lifted her beautiful tear-stained face to him.
“I’ll say this: I can never forgive someone who believes that everything is excusable as long as there is no ill intent. I do not think such a person should be forgiven.”
“Brother!” Fujinami screamed. “Please, wait! You’re wrong, Asebi is not at fault!”
“Princess Fujinami, Empress Oumurasaki is calling for you. Come, let us go,” Takimoto said.
When Fujinami showed no inclination to move, Takimoto lifted her up bodily and carried her back to Wisteria Hall. The courtyard was quiet after she was gone.
Asebi wiped her tears on her sleeve. “Crown Prince,” she said, “you may not remember, but I saw you once when we were children."
The Crown Prince’s gaze became more searching than hostile.
Asebi gave him a soft smile. “Since that day, I have always admired you.” At that moment, Asebi was truly, breathtakingly beautiful. Her outer robe was a darker pink than her karaginu, which was covered in embroidered cherry blossoms. Her attire was perfect for the Flower Ceremony. Her light brown hair fluttered softly in the night breeze, dancing over the gold-embroidered cherry blossoms. The tears overflowing from her large eyes sparkled in the moonlight like large crystal beads. Her cheeks were flushed a cherry blossom pink, and her half-open lips were as fresh and dewy as a bud about to bloom. She looked like the essence of cherry blossoms transformed into human shape.
The Crown Prince looked at Asebi for a long moment before speaking. “I remember,” he said. “That was the first time I thought a woman was beautiful. It seems you have become even more beautiful since then.”
Asebi looked surprised and delighted at his words.
But then he added, “That is all.”
Asebi frowned in puzzlement. “But during the Doll Festival, you smiled at me.”
“It wasn’t you I smiled at. That much is certain. Thank you for liking me,” he said, turning his back to Asebi. “But I’m sorry. I don’t like you at all.”
The Crown Prince walked out of the courtyard. He didn’t look back once.
Asebi gaped like a fish as he went, looking like an absolute fool.
Translator's Note
1 朴念仁: The Crown Prince describes himself as bokunenjin, literally “simple idea man,” usually translated as “blockhead.” ↩
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