by Rokuro Inui
“It’s a bleak idea, growing older and older while Eve stays young forever,” Jinnai said, sitting on the verandah beside Kasuga. “How does it make you feel?”
“Me?” Kasuga’s eyes widened. She put her hand to her chin in thought. “Considering what it must feel like for Her Majesty to watch me grow old as she remains in her youthful form, I think I have the better side of it.”
This answer startled Jinnai a little. “Outmatched again, I see,” he said. Where he was uncertain and hesitant, Kasuga was remarkable clearheaded.
In Kyuzo’s younger days, he had surely felt deeply for Eve. He had often claimed that automata had no emotions, no heart, but of late Jinnai had come to suspect that this was simply how Kyuzo had put an end to his own feelings. Still, what lay in the heart of another was as unknowable as the truth about whether automata had hearts at all.
Perhaps Kasuga had the unwavering confidence she did because she and the empress were servant and master rather than man and woman, which called for a different kind of dedication.
Certainly he had never considered the matters he agonized over from Eve’s point of view.
That day, Jinnai, Kasuga, and the empress accompanied Eve to Nakasu Kannon.
The giant tent was back in the plaza beyond Bonten Gate for the first time in ten years. This had been the opportunity Kasuga and the empress had needed to visit Kyuzo’s workshop.
Publicly, the shogun was said to have died in the fire. The new shogun had already been proclaimed—not exactly smoothly but with less turmoil than expected.
The keep of Tempu Castle no longer loomed above the city, and Jinnai hadn’t heard of plans to build another.
Times had changed since the days of Keian Higa’s plot. The shogunate’s authority was as firm as bedrock, unshaken by the minor detail of the man at the top being replaced. Even if Tempu Castle had no keep, the chances of war were slim. Whether that was good or bad, Jinnai could not say.
Kasuga and the empress walked hand in hand ahead of him. They had been the same age once; now, Kasuga looked like an indulgent older sister. The next time he met them, they might appear to be mother and child. Beyond that, grandmother and grandchild? In any case, this was surely what they wanted.
They parted with a promise to return when more repairs were needed, and Jinnai waited for Eve to complete her hundred prayers.
She still prayed to become human one day. As he moved the abacus for her, he prayed that one day he might be able to grant that wish.
Finally she was finished. “Shall we go?” he asked.
How long had Kyuzo’s feelings for Eve lasted? Had those youthful passions smoldered within him to the very end?
Returning to the Kyuzo residence, Jinnai and Eve descended to the workshop basement and approached the table.
Eve smiled slightly, tilting her head. “No need for false modesty,” she said. “Kyuzo told you to learn from my form.”
Jinnai nodded and placed his hands on her collar to remove her clothing.
His heart was ringing like an alarm bell.
“Your hands are shaking,” she said. A mischievous grin.
“Eve … I …” Jinnai felt unable to hide what he felt any longer.
But Eve interrupted him.
“One day, when you have the technique, I hope you will make a body for Tentoku,” she said.
The shaking in his hands stopped.
Jinnai burst out laughing.
“Now I understand why Kyuzo never got around to that,” he said.
And he also understood how Kyuzo had felt, to the very end.
Eve looked confused. “What do you mean?” she said.
“He was jealous. Of your feelings for that stool.”
“Tentoku is not a stool!” Eve said, reddening in anger.
Rokuro Inui was born in 1971 in Tokyo. In 2010, he won the Konomys Award for Kanzen Naru Kubinagaryu no Hi (A Perfect Day for Plesiosaurs) and the Asahi Period Novel Prize for Shinobi Gaiden (Ninja Legend). His other books include Oni to Mikazuki (The Ogre and the Crescent Moon), the Takano Clinic series of mystery novels, and Leipzig no Inu (The Dog of Leipzig).
Haikasoru
The Future is Japanese
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