2
JINYA PAID HIS USUAL VISIT to Sakuraba Milk Hall and sipped his drink as he tapped into the manager’s wealth of knowledge.
“You’re looking for a present a woman might like?”
“My niece asked for something. Any idea what I should get?”
“Ah, that one niece of yours, huh?”
Jinya had tried on his own to think of something Nanao might like, but he couldn’t come up with anything. He came to the manager for advice and got some right away.
“How about something like sushi or some baked sweets? Your niece is a sex worker, right? I’m sure she’d be happy with a snack before work.”
A gift that was too much could backfire. For a member of the opposite sex with whom one wasn’t particularly close, store-bought food was enough.
“I’ll try something like that, then. Thanks for the help.”
“Don’t thank me yet. Thank me afterward, if she likes it.” The manager seemed in good spirits; his expression was softer than usual.
Jinya finished his whiskey in one go. With one less thing to worry about, he could enjoy the flavor.
“Ah, finally. I’ve been waiting.”
After picking the milk hall manager’s brain, Jinya returned to Ichikawa with a gift in hand. He found Nanao waiting listlessly for him in her usual room.
“Here.” He handed her his gift. She accepted it carefully as if she were handling a baby, brushing a finger across it lovingly like a mother.
“Sorry for making you go to the trouble,” she said.
“Weren’t you hurrying me just a few seconds ago?”
“Only boorish men bring up the past like that. Are these cookies?”
A box packed with expensive sushi was something of a customary gift for a sex worker, but Jinya brought her cookies instead. The cookies made liberal use of nuts and looked rather filling, so they would be perfect for a quick snack before work. A varied and high-quality assortment like this must have been fairly expensive, and the packaging looked nice too. It was a good gift.
“My, you really splurged for this, didn’t you? Thank you. I’ll eat some later.” The gift appeared to be to her liking, and she accepted it happily.
Jinya breathed a sigh of relief.
She smiled and looked at him with kind eyes, seeming amused by the sight of a master swordsman worrying so much over how his gift would be received. She fixed her disheveled clothes for once, and then her expression changed completely. “Then let’s get to it as I promised.”
With her Not-So-Impossible Request out of the way, they could get to what they were really after. They locked gazes, the room’s peculiar smell still surrounding them.
“Let’s see… Why don’t we start with my mother’s present situation?” she suggested.
“Should you be leaking such juicy information?”
“I told you, I’ve no interest in being her ally at this point. I couldn’t care less whether you know what she’s up to or not.”
Jinya was meeting with Nanao to learn whatever he could about Magatsume and her daughters, but he hadn’t thought Nanao would start by revealing something so grand.
She said, “My mother can’t move for the time being, so you can rest easy. I doubt she’ll pull any schemes until we get closer to the fated year.”
“She can’t…move?”
“Yeah. She’s, how do you put it… She’s gone and hurt herself. She’s cut away too many pieces of her heart and left herself with nothing but her hatred. If you change what’s inside, the vessel changes too. Her body is turning more and more into a monster. She’s gotten stronger, but I think it was at the cost of her presence of mind. She doesn’t have what it takes to come and meddle in your affairs anymore.”
Now it made sense that he hadn’t seen Magatsume causing any trouble during the Taisho and Showa years.
Nanao continued, “That’s why she’ll only make her next move when her ultimate goal is in sight. I’m sure you’re thrilled to hear that.”
In other words, he could be sure the people of Koyomiza wouldn’t be targeted. He was, indeed, thrilled to hear such a thing.
“That about covers it. What’s left… Ah. Say, how much do you know about my mother’s goal?”
“I heard that it involves creating hearts,” he answered, “and that she hates the world and wants to bring ruin to everything.”
“Those are both about right, I suppose. But that’s all just part of the process. There’s a place my mother is seeking, a place she’s been seeking from the start and will only keep seeking from here on out. Creating hearts and bringing ruin to everything is merely the groundwork for this ultimate goal—no more than the ingredients prepared for a recipe.”
Everything she said was news to Jinya, and the more he heard, the more eager he was to keep learning. Intensely, he asked, “What is this ultimate goal of hers?”
But just as they were approaching the heart of the matter, she raised her hand to stop him, saying in a teasing tone, “Oh no you don’t, Mister. Your gift this time only gets you that much.”
He couldn’t hide his irritation. “What?”
“If you want to hear more, you’ll have to bring another gift that’ll please me.”
“What about those cookies? You seemed plenty satisfied with them.”
“Oh, I was. But they weren’t a gift for me so much as they were for a sex worker. Am I wrong?”
She wasn’t. He’d chosen those filling cookies because he thought they would make a sex worker happy, not Nanao specifically. She’d accepted them with a smile, but he hadn’t truly fulfilled the conditions of her request.
“Ah, it seems you agree,” she said. “Then let’s end things here for today. I’m looking forward to your next gift.”
“No, wait—”
She ushered him out of the room with a smile, not bothering to hear his complaints. To be honest, he didn’t really know what he would say if she even gave him that chance. She had outplayed him well.
The women outside the room looked at him and, having seen him get chased out, regarded him with equal measures of pity and amusement. He had spent less than a half hour inside before being shoved out, giving rise to all sorts of sad but humorous possibilities.
“Fine. I accept your challenge.” He clenched his fists, his shoulders trembling with humiliation. He silently vowed to bring a gift that would render her speechless.
“A gift Nanao-san would like?”
He didn’t care about maintaining appearances, so he went to Aoba, his best bet among his acquaintances to learn about Nanao. He questioned her the very moment he returned to her apartment, rendering her a bit surprised.
“Er, I guess I don’t mind telling you, but what brought this on?”
“I need a worthy tribute to speak with her.”
“Uhh…”
Seeing she was still confused, he filled her in on what was going on, leaving out the important bits.
“Wow, so Nanao-san’s your niece? Wait… So you’re Nanao-san’s mother’s older brother? Is that right?”
“It is. Why?”
“Well, it’s just that Nanao-san told me a little about her mother before. She said she was the kind of woman who’d get jealous of her own brother’s lover and throw a fit.”
“That’s about right.”
“Wow. You must’ve had it rough, Jin-san.” She smiled wryly out of exasperation, or perhaps sympathy. “I think Nanao-san likes collecting combs. She once told me she likes ones with flower designs on them.”
“Combs, huh? Thank you. You’re a big help.”
“No worries. Oh, and she apparently likes yellow flowers. She also mentioned that she and her mother don’t like white flowers because they hate snow.”
Jinya avoided commenting on that last bit. He’d gained some valuable information, though. As he made dinner for them both, he thought about his plans for the next day.
“Oh? A boxwood comb. Is this fretwork of a lily of the valley? It’s quite a good make.”