Bunraku (Samurai Mecha Quest)

XXI. Tea with the Powerful

Tenshin Kozakura's family house is a true mansion, sitting by the Pearl River. White walls enclose an elegant and old-fashioned building, two-storied and wide-built, black tiles sloping over white walls. The Tenshin mon, a series of concentric wave-like shapes, floats on a standard above the gate to the gardens surrounding the house. As you approach, you can see a small dock in the river below, attached to the residence; it seems the Tenshin family enjoys some leisurely ceiling.

The carriage halts before the doors of the compound, and the coach opens the door. You climb out and thank the man - it would not have done to walk across the city in your iromuji, alone, when going to meet a Tenshin matriarch. Though on any other day you would have no qualm wearing a practical kimono and walking back and forth across all of Summer, you have to live by the standards of your hosts. You walk in small steps over to the gate, where a handmaid - warned in advance of your coming, greets you with a deep bow.

"Her imperial majesty is welcome in the walls of the Tenshin mansion. If her imperial majesty will follow me, she will be introduced to my mistress."

You give the servant a nod, and she leads you up a stone path; a second servant whom you'd not seen closes the gates behind you. Lush grass surrounds you on both sides, along with trees whose greenery conceal the constant motion of the city outside, creating a bubble of quiet and isolation. You're surprised a city such as Summer, which takes its walls so seriously, has the economy of space required to house such a mansion and its gardens at its heart. Thinking back to your first approach, the city had seemed very large to you, larger perhaps than Autumn; but now that you consider how its stern construction laws enforce strict separation and wide streets where any other city would have hovels piling in on themselves in the poorer districts and a further expansion outside the walls, it is becoming apparent to you that there are fewer actual people than an ordinary city of the same size, or even a larger one.

You are taken into a hallway, where you remove your sandals - you reflexively reach to your waist to also lay down your sword, then realize that you came without it and repress a pang of vulnerability. The handmaid produces tabi socks, which you put on before following her further in.

Lady Tenshin is waiting for you in a room next to the river-facing side of the garden; she is standing, her back to you as you enter, wearing a pale pink iromuji to match your own pale blue one. From the garden you hear a clash of wood on wood; the handmaid motions for you to join Kozakura and fades into the background. You take place next to the old matriarch, looking out a sliding door at the garden, the gentle slope at its end and the river behind.

In the garden two men are sparring with wooden swords. One of them is of middle-age, black hair salted with grey, a scar across one cheek, wearing a simple brown outfit, moving with certainty of purpose and analyzing his partner's moves. The other is young - perhaps a couple years younger than you are - and soft-featured, breathing haltingly as he goes through numerous chains of attacks. His style is polished, if a little uncreative; he has great bursts of strength but lacks the follow-through to capitalize on his opponent's unbalance. Every so often they break apart, and the older man gives advice, phrased as orders, in a sharp voice.

"I don't imagine you've met my grandson Toshiro," Kuzakura says. "He still only rarely goes to court."

"He looks like a strong young man," you say politely. "Skilled at kendo."

Kozakura smiles thinly. "This is all thanks to master Imagawa. He is the finest teacher in all of Summer, and under our exclusive retainer."

She turns to face you and bows, a gesture your return; then she disappears into the room next door. You wait a few moments, then look around you; as you expected, just outside the sliding door is set a stone basin, fed water by a bamboo pipe. You take the scoop and drink a swallow, then wash your hands and follow after Kozakura. The next room door is a tea room, as you expected, and empty; there is a sunken hearth in a square hollow between the tatami, and an alcove in which are set a number of items - caligraphy scrolls, a crimson-hilted daisho, a small and very fine replica of a merchant ship.

You notice that the main hanging scroll, adorning the wall of the alcove as could a painting, is an excerpt of the Life and Times of the Content Man, specifically its third chapter. It extols the virtue of a life well-lived as opposed to a life long-lived, and teaches that the truly enlightened understands and accepts the path of his life and its appointed ending, and the order that must precede this ending.

"For the life of man too is measured in seasons; and for the young warrior, who will be reaped before his hair has been touched with grey, the season of youth and the season of love must come early as well."

Good lord, you know exactly what this meeting is about, and it's too late to run away.

You sit on your knees before the sunken hearth, and the servant behind you closes the sliding door, loudly; as etiquette commands Kozakura opens the opposite door and comes in, sitting in front of you.

"This is quite an elegant scroll," you say, "and a saintly choice. May I ask who transcribed it?"

Kozakura smiles, lighting the brazier and setting the heavy wrought-iron kettle on it.

"My grandson Toshiro; many of my children and grandchildren are working away from our family home, and I wanted to honor the art of one who is still here for now. Do you like it?"

Do you? You look at the scroll again for a moment, then turn back to face Kozakura.

"The stroke is soft, but ends a little early, indicative of a gentle and thoughtful nature, but one which at times stops just short of true perfection; not for lack of ability or talent, but for a misunderstanding of time, and of the right moment to end one's action. Yet it emulates the original motion of the monk Osei almost perfectly without being a slavish imitation. It is the calligraphy of a man of skill, who studies, learns, and repeats all his lessons without forgetfulness or haste, of a kind man, but one who is yet too young to have failed enough to understand how far one must sometimes go."

Kozakura stares at you for a brief moment, her perfect composure betraying her surprise only in three quick blinks.

"You truly are a woman of the art," she says, "to see so much in one scroll."

"There is no single separate scroll," you say, slowly shaking your head. "There is one scroll, and that is every scroll; all characters, all words, all sentences partake of the same nature, draw from the same well that is a soul. It is shameful that I need a whole scroll to say this much; my teacher could have deduced it from a single character."

Kozakura is quiet for a moment, tending to the composition of the tea.

"I suppose you must have left that teacher in Autumn," she says, and you feel a pang of hurt.

"Him, and my master-at-arms," you say darkly. "I have not been in Summer for long, and I have not had time to find new teachers here. My service to lord Summer has taken up much of my time."

"I must apologize, then," Kozakura says with a soft chuckle, "for having taken the best master of the city already."

"It is all right; I would not expect you to do anything else for your family."

"I hope you are finding Summer to your taste; and are enjoying all the comforts that befit a woman of your status, majesty - a Princess and a puppeteer both; our lord must be as honored to have your allegiance as you must be to serve one of the once-masters of Heaven."

'Once-master,' 'our lord must be honored'... This isn't sedition, not by a long shot, but Kozakura is clearly signaling her relative independence and her critical outlook in a deliberate choice of words. You smile faintly.

"It is a harsh life, to be new in such a city; but a worthy one as well. I have not had the opportunity to find a place of my own yet, but lord Summer has extended his indefinite hospitality to me, and kindly granted me the services of his workshop to maintain my Hope for the Harvest in a state to serve Summer with all its power."

"The generosity of a lord is a wonderful thing," the matriarch says with an approving nod, "to those who have taken the harsh road, to those who have lost much or left much behind. My granddaughter, Sakura, she is a puppeteer like you; she relies on us, her family, to help her in this way. Just as we rely on her to uphold our name in battle and bring honor to our name."

Water simmers in the kettle; she takes the mixture of thin tea and begins the preparation of the cups.

"I hope to distinguish myself in battle time and again," you respond, "and in so doing to repay my lord in kind, and bring honor to his name as your daughter does yours."

Kozakura nods. She finishes pouring a steaming cup for each of you.

"How long have you served the Empire, majesty?"

She's not asking about the day you first took up arms.

"I am twenty-three years old, and will be twenty-four come this year's harvest."

Your hands take the clay cup, feeling its heat spread up your fingers.

"It is no wonder then that you are already a warrior of such note!" Kozakura says with an amazed expression. "Your skills and experienced must have been honed in many battles before, and in you Summer finds not merely a untrained youth, but a true warrior, a paragon of the Empire's fighting arts. Autumn's men must have been sitting as mendicant monks outside your door, begging for a glance from you."

You are too old to be unmarried, and now you are in a city where no one knows you and your fame holds no sway. Where will you find a match now, before no one wants you anymore?

"I have had my fair share of suitors," you say with an appropriately coy smile, "but I was my lord's blade; my devotion was to him and his life. Such duty came before love."

"Your lord must have been greatly honored to receive such dedication from an Imperial Princess, when in living memory tens of thousands had gone to war in the name of your line. And you are no mere Princess - you are a samurai too, one who commands the mightiest armor forged on earth."

You hold the two facets of power: legitimacy in your name, and might in your bunraku. You don't answer immediately, instead rising the cup to your lips and tasting it.

Heavens be damned, but it is good tea. The taste subtle, the brewing perfect, the seasoning harmonious. This is what you've been missing ever since you left your home.

"It pains me to know that one of Summer's most brilliant warriors would go without the best of all things. I, too, am a servant of our lord, and I desire nothing but the prosperity of our city. Please, allow me to help you. I am quite sure that young Toshiro would be honored to practice with one of such high breeding and skill, and as I have said before, master Imagawa is the best teacher in all of Summer. I would extend his teaching to you, that you may practice under the best, and with a skilled partner as well; would you do me the honor of accepting?"

You smile your most tasteful and polite smile.

The wretched hag is playing matchmaker. She's heard that Summer's last new samurai was an Imperial Princess and a bunraku puppeteer, yet also a disgraced warrior who had failed in battle and was a ronin a mere week ago. She is trying to get her hands on you while you are still poor, without home of your own, without connections or allies, and foist you onto some grandson who likely isn't even the eldest of his line. Then she grants her family the legitimacy of an Imperial name and the power of an additional bunraku.

But dammit, she is right; you are poor, homeless and without backing. A master-at-arms is only the beginning of what her favor could grant you.

[ ]Accept Kozakura's offer. (While this does not lock you into marriage, this is an implicit acceptance of his courtship and tie you more closely to the Tenshin family the more you let it happen.)
[ ]Reject Kozakura's offer. (There is an etiquette for doing this without offending Kozakura, but this will likely will cut any further involvement with the family.)