Sakuya: ------With that outta the way, you've had enough, right? Time to pack your bags and get your butt home.
In the midst of munching noncommittally on her breakfast, Sakuya-san casts her voice from on high.
Adhering to the established pattern, the appearance of nutrient supplement foodstuffs, dry bread, and canned goods all lined up, goes much farther to create the image of a band of natural disaster refugees than that of a harmonious tabletop.
Tsudzura: Kei-oneesan, what is this that is "out of the way"?
Kei: Sakuya-san, what is it?
Sakuya: To think I'd hear "what is it?" from your mouth... let alone all that happened ten years ago, are you sayin' you forgot everything from last night, too?
Tsudzura: Something about your beginnings with Onee-san's mother?
Sakuya: Not that. I mean what happened afterward.
Tsudzura: You mean to say that something happened afterward?
Kei: Ah, this was while you were asleep, Tsudzura-chan, but------
About my being attacked at the hands of the ghost twin girls and a red snake, I summarize the details and explain.
Tsudzura: Now I see---
Kei: "Now I see"? Tsudzura-chan, you don't think "that's a lie" or anything like that?
Tsudzura: Ah, actually, I was born from a family with leanings in that direction, so not especially. Also, I have confidence in my ability to distinguish lies from truth.
Kei: You do?
Now that I think of it, in the card games last night, my bluffs didn't work on her at all, did they?
Though I admit, that could just be because I'm awful at bluffing.
Tsudzura: At any rate, Kei-oneesan, you are not telling a lie. Supposing it is, you would be of a party outside, unknowing that it is a lie, I would think.
Kei: Huh.
Sakuya: If you understand the situation that well, then I don't need to explain, do I? I'll give you a lift to the station, so as soon as you're done eating, it's time to pack your bags.
Kei: Why?
Sakuya: Whaddaya mean "why?" Honestly, do you have the slightest idea what they're after?
Kei: ......Probably... me.
My blood.
Obvious though it may be, if I lose my blood, I'll die. Being in this place is dangerous, and I know that's why I'm being told to go home, but still------
Kei: Why am I the one being targeted? Because I'm related to the Ohashirasama?
Sakuya: It's because the blood flowing through your veins is especially precious, and it's got nothin' to do with familial ties. It's the quality of it you're being hunted for.
Kei: The quality? You can't be serious------
Tsudzura: Oh no no, such things tend to be the case, you see. Kei-oneesan, do you know the story of
Saiyuuki?
Kei: The one with Sanzou Houshi and
Son Gokuu?
The story of the Sanzou Houshi, who travels to India to attain powerful Buddhist sutras. His companions aside from Son Gokuu are the pig, Cho Hakkai, and the Kappa, Sa Gojou.
Tsudzura: This is that same Saiyuuki. Though "Sanzou Houshi" is actually an honorific for monks who have mastered the teachings of the "Three Pit.aka" - the
Sutta Piṭaka, the
Vinaya Piṭaka, and the
Abhidhamma Piṭaka - so the "Sanzou Houshi" of Saiyuuki is actually named Genjou, you see.
I'd thought it was Sanzou as the name, with Houshi being the honorific, but I guess I was wrong?
Tsudzura: So, would you perhaps understand why that Genjou Sanzou would take Son Gokuu, an unmanageable berserker who was sealed by Shakyamuni, to be his traveling companion?
Kei: Maybe it was such a long trip, it would be too difficult to go alone?
Tsudzura: If it was such a reason, would he truly go through the trouble of forcing Son Gokuu, by putting a ring on his head that tightens with an incantation, and dragging him out?
The shiny golden ring on his head is apparently written "tightly" enclosing "hoop," and read "Kinko."
Kinko (緊箍) - not that I could write that, or even read it, but Son Gokuu without his Kinko is the very image of an unhinged hooligan.
Even the same monkeys who were his companions were a far cry from the kind who'd take to you with just one of your grandma's homemade
kibidango.
Kei: ......So, why?
Tsudzura: In the world of
Saiyuuki, it is told in that setting that eating the flesh of a monk of great virtue confers eternal youth and immortality. That is why Genjou Sanzou becomes targeted by demons.
Kei: Ah......
For some reason, I find myself cringing.
Kei: Okay, I can see what you mean. But, is my blood really that special?
However you put it, eternal youth and longevity are a bit much...
Kei: I guess if it was on the same level as a specialty store health tonic, like snapping turtle blood, they'd be a lot more willing to give up......
Sakuya: You're comparing a snapping turtle to the Moon.
Kei: Which one's the Moon?
Sakuya: Your blood is the Moon, naturally. The Moon is said to hold water that restores youth. It's way outta the league of your run-o'-the-mill health tonic.
Tsudzura: You mean the
Ochimizu, then. In
The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, Kaguya-hime's parting gift was the medicine of immortality, and the Moon is the treasure found in many stories of that era, you see~
Picking up where Sakuya-san left off, Tsudzura-chan fills the gaps in her explanation.
She did say her family is heavily accustomed to leanings such as these, but... who in the world is this girl, really?
Tsudzura: It so happens that medicine was taken to the top of a mountain and burned, and so the fushi no kusuri (TN: elixir of life) became a fuji no kemuri (TN: endless smoke stack), and therefore, "Mt. Fuji" - so the end of the story goes!
Kei: A pun?
Sakuya: ......Not only that. It's also an unneeded digression.
Tsudzura: Tahaha, excuse my imprudence. Do please continue.
Sakuya: What I mean to say, Kei...
After clearing her throat with a single *gohon*...
Sakuya: The Hatou blood flowing in your veins is every bit as precious as that same elixir of immortality. To inhuman beings, that is.
Sakuya: The Hatou blood flowing in your veins is every bit as precious as that same elixir of immortality. To inhuman beings, that is.
Her stern eyes say to me, "I'm not overplaying this."
Of course, after those frightening events I've already encountered, I can see easily enough that she isn't.