“An impure sword makes for a dull blade, but my dull blade was what let me get by without killing you. This is the first time I’ve felt appreciation for my weakness.”
“Hmph. So what? I’ve been dancing in the palm of your hand this whole time?”
They did not share a particularly special bond. To Jinya, Aoba was no more than a deceptive young woman who made a cowardly sneak attack, but his indecision stopped their bond from being severed.
“It’s not like I had control over your life. Everything leading up to this moment is the result of your own choices,” he said.
“Well, yeah… All right, fine. I get it. That fight ended with me winning, and I’ve succeeded in my revenge on you over these past twenty-three years. Looks like you’ve done nothing but lose this whole way.”
“I’m home!” Just then, a young suntanned girl ran in—Aoba’s daughter, Nanao. “Oh, there’s a customer? Eh heh heh, sorry for the noise. Wait, aren’t you that Sodo-san guy from before?”
He looked at her in surprise. Nanao took after her mother greatly. It had never occurred to him that the sex worker apprentice he had known would start a family of her own.
“A daughter, huh? Time’s really a mysterious thing. To think the young woman I knew has become a mother.”
“Ah ha ha, I’m surprised myself, to be honest. Come here, Nanao.” Aoba beckoned Nanao to approach, and the girl made a face. “This is an old acquaintance of mine. Greet him properly, ’kay?”
“’Kay. I’m Yunohara Nanao. Nice to meet you.”
The girl was named after the benefactor who gave Aoba a place to belong after she arrived in the Dove District. It was the name of someone dear to her, someone Jinya had killed.
“How’s that, Jinya? You couldn’t take much from me after all, could you?” Just as Jinya’s expression began to cloud, Aoba hugged her daughter with a broad smile. “You may have killed Sahiro-san and Nanao-san, but I have a loving husband and a darling daughter now. I guess the oh-so-scary Demon Eater wasn’t all he was cracked up to be, huh?”
“Aoba, you…”
“I told you, didn’t I? I’ve dedicated all this time toward my revenge, and what a good revenge it’s turned out to be. No matter how much you took from me, it didn’t mean a thing. I turned out happy anyway.”
She showed him that no matter what he might have done, it had had little effect on her life. That was her revenge.
“That’s some revenge… You got me.”
“Heh heh. You messed with the wrong girl. I guess the humble spirit hunters of Kogetsudou have something to brag about now.”
“Brag all you like. The only human who’s managed to defeat the Demon Eater so soundly is you, Aoba.”
It had taken many years, but a clear winner and loser had emerged. However, there was no grudge held by either party, only smiles all around. In this instance, revenge had led to a rather refreshing result.
“Oh, sorry. I shouldn’t overstay my welcome,” he said.
“No, no, you don’t need to worry. Why not come upstairs for a bit? I’ll bring out some tea and snacks.”
“I wouldn’t want to impose. I’ll take my leave here for today.”
He was glad to have met her again. After a brief farewell, he turned away and left without a hint of hesitation. Aoba made no attempt to stop him. The two of them might have been reluctant to part, but it would’ve been tactless to draw things out here.
“Mom, who was that man?” The instant Jinya was out of sight, Nanao questioned her mother like she couldn’t wait a second more.
“He’s someone I lived with for a while, long ago. Oh, but keep that a secret from your father, all right?” Aoba answered with the truth but in a roundabout way that would lead her daughter to misunderstand.
Nanao’s eyes went wide. “H-huh? You mean…he’s an old boyfriend?”
“Nooo way, we didn’t have anything romantic like that going on. We just happened to live together for a time.” Aoba looked in the direction Jinya had gone, as though she was searching for a trace of him. He’d always returned when he left before, but this time he would be gone for good. Perhaps it was improper of her as a wife to miss a man when she had a family of her own.
“Hey, Mom?”
“Yes?”
“Did you ever love that guy?”
Thinking about that question would probably lead nowhere. Just what were her feelings for him, who knew he was being deceived but was kind to her anyway? She could no longer recall.
She gently brushed her fingers through her daughter’s hair and answered, “Who can say? In the end, it was all nothing more than a dream.”
Nanao frowned at the ambiguous answer, but Aoba thought it was apt.
There might have been feelings left unsaid at some point, but some things were beautiful precisely because they ended as a dream. She could say with pride that she had enjoyed their time together, as rooted in deception as it might have been, and she would remember him in her heart like one recalled a precious dream.
And so, time flew on by.
The antiquated Kogetsudou still stood in Asakusa well into the Heisei era. Its owner, now an old lady, thought back on the past every now and then.
In April of year thirty-three of the Showa era, the red-light districts all vanished. Only a mere decade after the war, their golden days became simply a memory. With the passage of the Prostitution Prevention Law, most brothels became apartments and lodging houses, the buildings living out their remaining lives as ordinary residences. They’ve weathered like you would expect over the half century leading up to the present Heisei era and scarcely bear a resemblance of their former glory.
The sights, old feelings, and even promises once sworn—all were swept away by time.
…But every now and then, I still thought back to the Dove District that couldn’t possibly exist and the strange events that occurred within it.