Toyokuni Shrine was dedicated to Hideyoshi Toyotomi, the great warrior who had risen from peasantry to become the ruler of Japan. As such, it was said to bring good luck and success in one’s career. It was a lesser-known shrine that didn’t get as much traffic as others.
After climbing the stairs and entering the grounds, Ensho and Aoi first prayed at the main building before stepping away to continue their conversation.
“Oh, right,” said Aoi. “Congratulations, Ensho. You’ve made an amazing debut on the world stage.”
“Thanks.” Ensho smiled.
“Did you grow out your hair because of the media attention you’ll be getting in the future?”
“Well, I thought I’d look more handsome this way.” He fiddled with his hair.
“That may be true.” Aoi giggled. “It feels strange since I’m used to you being bald, but this look really suits you too.”
“Which do you like more?”
Aoi hummed. “My vote goes to bald,” she said shyly.
“Really?” Ensho asked, surprised.
“Not everyone can pull it off, so I think it’s great that you can.”
Yilin said the same thing, he thought.
As the sun began its westward descent, the evening cicadas chirped around them.
“Oh, cicadas,” Aoi murmured. “I don’t normally like hearing them, but these evening ones that go ‘kanakana’ are kind of nice.” She looked at Ensho. “Come to think of it, I had something to tell you too.”
“What?”
“Holmes told me you were working with Shiro Kikukawa and Fuga.”
“Ah, yeah.” Is she gonna lecture me since she’s a Goody Two-shoes?
“Thank you.” Aoi bowed deeply.
“Huh? For what?”
“You must’ve chosen to work with them in order to settle things, right?” She looked up. “For Holmes’s sake,” she said firmly, looking into his eyes.
Ensho laughed and scratched his head. “Your husband said the same thing.”
“Huh?” Aoi blinked.
Indeed, Kiyotaka had thanked him, bowed, and said, “You chose to work with those two to settle things, didn’t you? It was for my sake.”
“There’s no way I’d do something like that for him,” said Ensho, though in reality, he had grown sick of the men’s persistent antics and told them, “You’re so damn annoying. Can you settle your scores already? I’ll help you get revenge, but after that, you gotta move the hell on.”
Ensho had needed to call Kiyotaka to Hong Kong, because that way, he could make him face Shiro Kikukawa’s and Fuga’s revenge without putting Aoi in danger. However, if Kiyotaka had been wary of the situation, he wouldn’t have come, so Ensho had sent him a farewell poem, knowing the contrarian wouldn’t be able to resist doing the opposite of what he was told.
The plan had been more of a desperate measure than anything. There had been no guarantee that Kiyotaka would escape unscathed or that Aoi wouldn’t have a change of heart. And yet Aoi was still looking at him with appreciation.
Stop that, Ensho thought. He was about to settle the score for real by confessing his feelings. What would she say if he told her that he loved her? He now had a similar hairstyle and outfit to Kiyotaka’s, and on top of that, he had money. Yet there was no doubt that Aoi would bow and apologize. But what if she instead looked shaken and said, “Please let me think about it”? If she blushed and said, “My heart will waver if you say something like that”? It would never happen in a million years. And after imagining it, Ensho realized that an Aoi like that wouldn’t be attractive to him in the first place.
Rikyu had once told him, “You’re attracted to Aoi because Kiyo loves her,” and perhaps that had been the case at first. But now that time had passed, he found that he liked Aoi’s undying devotion to Kiyotaka. That was why he was unsure of his own feelings. When he was a child, his mother had left him and his father, instilling in him the belief that women were not loyal. Perhaps he had secretly been admiring Kiyotaka and Aoi’s relationship because they stuck together through thick and thin.
“Um, Ensho...” Aoi’s hesitant words brought him back to the present. “You wanted to talk to me about something, right?”
“Yeah,” Ensho said, averting his eyes.
“Um...you can say it. I’m ready.”
“Huh?” His heart pounded. “You already know what I’m gonna say?”
Aoi nodded and clenched her hands in front of her chest. “You’re in love too, aren’t you?”
Her phrasing gave him pause. “Hmm?” He furrowed his brow.
“With Holmes,” she said decisively.
“What?” Ensho’s eyes widened.
“For a long time, I’ve sensed an untouchable bond between you two. I think if you were really in danger, Holmes would rush anywhere in the world to save you—and vice versa, since you did all of this for Holmes just now...”
“Wait, no,” he interjected. “I won’t deny there’s some weird connection between us”—as Aoi said, he probably would rush to save him if he was in danger—“but it ain’t like that. I’m not into malicious people like him.”
Aoi’s expression relaxed and she giggled.
“Honestly, I did it partly ’cause I owed him,” Ensho continued.
When Fuga and Shiro had appeared before him, he had originally intended to reject their proposal. However, Shiro’s words had changed his mind. “You must have a grudge against that Holmes guy too, right? Why don’t we settle our scores together?” It had been an opportunity to settle everything at once. Shiro had achieved his goal of returning to Mr. Jing, who would be keeping him out of trouble from now on. Society was better off with him working out in the open rather than scheming in the underworld.
“I’ve done a lot of immoral stuff, but now I’m walking the high road, and that’s thanks to Holmes,” he said.
Somewhere in their hearts, his former colleagues probably also wanted to walk in the light. That was why they harbored grudges against those who cut ties with the underworld. But once you were in the shadows, it was hard to climb out by yourself. You needed help from someone. Just as Kiyotaka had saved him, Ensho wanted to rehabilitate his old friends, and to do that, he needed money—a lot of it. That was why he had decided from the beginning that he would sell his painting to the highest bidder, no matter who it was. The buyer had turned out to be Takamiya, a wealthy man who lived in Kyoto’s Okazaki district. It was fortunate that the painting had gone to someone who had supported Ensho’s father’s work in the past.
“All I wanted to tell you was that Shiro won’t be bothering you anymore,” he said, staring at Aoi.
She blushed, tears welling up in her eyes. “Thank you so much.”
“You really don’t gotta thank me like that.”
“Um, Holmes and I are going to have dinner now. Would you like to join us?”
“Uh, isn’t that a date? I don’t—”
“It’s fine,” Aoi insisted. “We can invite Komatsu and Rikyu too! Let’s celebrate your success. Come,” she said, beckoning him with a broad smile on her face.
Ensho stared at her blankly and shrugged. “Guess I have no choice.” It’d be fun to see the look on Kiyotaka’s face when they went up to him together. He chuckled to himself as he descended the shrine steps with Aoi.
As expected, when Kiyotaka saw the pair of them walking together and smiling, his expression was indescribable. Ensho would be laughing about it for the rest of his life.
What happens now? he wondered. I guess it’s all... “At the mercy of the gods,” he muttered with a smirk.