Memories of That Day (1)
"I won't say it twice. Both of us are getting married after we're adults. That's it."
Kneeling properly before Genji, Noah looked thoroughly put out.
Chise had cried.
Even when Noah asked her why, she wouldn't answer. Only after Noah grabbed hold of her and hounded her for a long while did she finally manage, in a voice barely bigger than a mouse's:
"Please marry me..."
A political marriage. For a girl who's only sixteen. They've lost their damn minds.
Noah had hated studying with a passion since she was little. She had refused every lesson this world considered common sense — and heir's education besides — on the grounds that she already knew how to do everything without being taught. Which meant it had never even occurred to her that two women could get married.
She was currently under the impression that Chise was about to be forced into a marriage, and that "please marry me" was a plea for Noah to take her instead.
"......Did I not tell you to marry however you pleased?"
"Not me. Chise. There's no way Mama would decide something this important on her own. Even if it's only in name, she's still my fiancée."
"Minamoto only protects Fujiwara. We do not interfere."
Noah glared at him with a look that said, You're full of it.
"Don't treat me like an idiot. I know Mama is the de facto head of Fujiwara."
"......It's the same thing. I do not concern myself with what Kako does."
"So this was Mama acting on her own?"
"The times have changed."
Genji did not know the full picture, but he grasped the shape of it soon enough.
"Lately, I hear Kako is being treated as an outsider."
"...Then it was the Fujiwara main house that made a move."
"Most likely. Kako wanted to keep a conflict from breaking out. It's been a very long time since Fujiwara last had a civil war."
"...A conflict?"
"This will be a power struggle, I expect."
The situation sketched itself in Genji's mind with reasonable clarity.
The current power structure of the Fujiwara family was clenched in the fist of the Founder's faction. If time simply ran its course and Chise became head, a changing of the factions would follow.
I did warn her that sometimes you have to fill the bellies of greedy men.
Kako had a finicky streak in the oddest places. Pride, perhaps — or Noah's influence. She never went out first to make allies. She always waited, and took in only those factions that came of their own accord to bow. Even knowing full well that the people who already held most of Fujiwara's power were never going to be the ones to bend first.
Worried, Genji had offered advice now and then. Her only answer had been, Looking the other way at those filthy people's conduct is already the limit of my patience.
In the end, it seemed the thing had happened.
"Anyway, you're saying you didn't do anything. What were you up to yesterday?"
Genji smiled quietly.
"I organized the photo albums. Mostly pictures of you as a child. Still adorable, even looking at them again. Shall we look together?"
Noah shook her head.
"No. I know who's the problem now, so I have to go fix it."
The problem, as far as Genji was concerned, was still that Noah had not married. He nodded. And inwardly, he was overjoyed.
To finally go through with a marriage she had put off and put off again would mean she was properly succeeding Minamoto. He would hand over the headship whenever she wanted it — but that would still be ten years, twenty at the least. Under the pretext of heir's education, he would be able to go around with Noah at his side.
What should I give her as a wedding gift?
He was lost in that happy little fantasy when she spoke.
"Talking won't get through to them, so I'll have to kill about half."
"...What?"
"What."
"W-weren't you talking about getting married?"
Noah blinked.
Marriage?
To a man?
Her eyes turned demonic.
"Dad. You wanna die?"
"...Dad needs to live a long life."
"Then don't talk about marriage. It makes me sick every time I hear it."
S-sick...? Then why did she choose Chise? She's my daughter, but I cannot make sense of her at all.
It had never occurred to Genji that Noah might be incapable of even conceiving of marrying Chise. He was thoroughly bewildered.
"Then... what do you intend to do?"
"Obviously I'm going to storm in, smash the place, and walk out."
At that, Genji's eyebrow twitched.
"......You mean to go to the Fujiwara family in person."
Before Noah, Genji had always been kind. The face he wore now was one he showed to other people.
"Obviously."
"That cannot be allowed."
This was not something love for his daughter could paper over. Before she was his beloved child, Noah was the heir who had to succeed the Minamoto family.
Minamoto had to remain lofty.
"Noah. Minamoto does not help Fujiwara."
"...Why."
"Minamoto concerns itself only with Fujiwara's lives. Nothing else."
Noah's voice dropped.
"Even if I want it?"
"We might lend our strength from time to time. But not if the target is Fujiwara itself."
"I'm using my own power."
She looked thoroughly sour. She could not understand it.
Genji sighed.
I spoiled her far too much.
Minamoto had no shortage of enemies. They had killed countless people, and they were still killing them. There were enough people nursing grudges to fill Tokyo and then some. That was why Minamoto children received a household education that could fairly be called abuse.
The first kill was at six. You put a gun in a six-year-old's hands, brought in a death-row inmate, and told the child to shoot. The training was brutal, and from the age of ten they carried out "missions" alongside active yakuza.
Noah had been born with supreme talent. The time it took her to complete her first kill was one second. Training? She had never needed it. From the age of seven, most of Minamoto's yakuza had not even been opponents.
Genji had been glad. A perfect Minamoto from the start had nothing to be taught, and so there had been no reason to be strict.
In this moment, he understood. Physically, Noah was perfect. Mentally, she was not.
......I should have paid a little more attention.
Genji's eyes sank dark.
"I permitted you to live with Chise."
"Why are you bringing that up all of a sudden."
"As of today, that permission is revoked."
"...What?"
Noah froze.
"I will begin the heir's education I have been putting off."
"Did you forget? I won a fair match, and—"
"If it is Minamoto law, we do it again. This time I will make the proposal. If you lose, you drop out of school as well."
"Dad!"
Noah surged to her feet, her face furious.
"What's the matter?"
Genji looked up at her, expressionless.
"A match is fair. If you could do it, so can I."
"...Petty."
Noah ground her teeth.
The last match, Genji had gone easy on her. Gun against blade, and the condition had been no more than grazing a collar. In a proper match — if he set the gun down and took up a sword — she could not be his opponent. He had been born with an equally absurd body.
"...Why are you doing this all of a sudden."
Noah sat back down, forcing herself calm.
"Chise is in danger. If she's at Fujiwara."
She knew that at the Fujiwara house, Chise was treated as little better than a bastard child. She knew it was because, in this ridiculous world, Chise had been born with a hair color that was not a joke. That was why they always went everywhere together. No one would dare insult Chise in front of Noah.
So instead of throwing a tantrum, she tried to persuade him. Being separated would be a problem.
"I don't want that. I'll drop it, so let me stay with her."
"Minamoto Noah."
The tone was cold in a way she had never heard from him.
"...!"
"If you will not listen, I will enforce it by force."
Noah glared at him.
"You think I'll go down easy?"
"I will call Kako."
Noah's eyes were full of rebellion.
"Coward."
"If you are Minamoto, use the cards you have. That is your first lesson."
"There's nothing I need to learn from a kept man who still takes an allowance."
Noah bowed her head.
She talked like that, but she was the sort who valued tradition and etiquette. When in Rome, do as the Romans do. That was her creed. She had been born Minamoto, so it was right that she conform to Minamoto.
"......I'll take the education."
Genji eased, a little.
"Leave the dormitory as well."
"I'll leave. Fine. I'll leave."
Noah lifted her head.
"But let me stay with Chise."
"......"
"It's the first time. The first time she's cried like that in front of me."
She could still see it with perfect clarity — Chise clutching her collar, eyes welling up. It was not the first time she had seen Chise cry. But most of those tears had been fake, meant to get Noah to move. She had never cried so wretchedly as she had this time.
"......I'll take the education properly. So."
Genji could feel how much Noah was conceding. From the time she was small, if she did not want to do something, she would not do it even if it killed her. Even getting her into a yukata and making her sit properly had taken Kako's tears to accomplish.
He hesitated.
...If that child cried, the situation must be quite serious.
A crisis. If she overcame it, she would be a Fujiwara worthy of being bound to Minamoto. If she fell, that would be as far as she went.
To judge that, Noah could not be allowed to intervene. The moment she stepped in with that immense power of hers, the whole thing would be solved so easily it would be hollow.
"...No intervention."
Noah clicked her tongue.
"You're really sticking to this."
"If you do not give me a definite answer..."
Genji had never once seen Noah lie. His daughter always kept the words she spoke. That was why he wanted a definite answer here.
"Fine."
Noah's face was set.
"I'll only protect her life. That good enough?"
"...Yes."
She had backed down so readily that Genji was, if anything, suspicious. But he could not pick at it. ...Honestly, he was already worried she would resent him for being this cold.
"...Have you eaten?"
"No."
"Then let's eat toge—"
"No."
Noah stood. She looked down at him with eyes gone ice-cold.
"......!"
The door rattled, then slammed.
Noah shut it behind her with a snap of temper and was gone. For a long time Genji stayed exactly where he was, his face blank, frozen in place.
"Dad really is a weakling. No help at all."
Noah shot one glance in Genji's direction and started walking.
Should she go ask Kako?
No. She had talked to Genji and nearly gotten separated from Chise.
Thoughts crossed and recrossed. Chise was precious to her. Lately she crossed the line now and then, but Noah had filed that under a kind of affection starvation. It was a household that did not permit you to give your heart to anyone else.
She felt like a little sister, and like a daughter. Sometimes she even felt like a wife.
But a political marriage?
Noah could not allow it. Even if Chise had wanted it, Noah would have hesitated — and she had cried.
"But why didn't she tell me the details."
She had spoken in an extremely roundabout way. Please marry me. Noah understood the feeling of wanting to marry a friend rather than go through with a political marriage, but that had been too roundabout by half.
"If it weren't someone as smart as me, they definitely wouldn't have gotten it."
It was a headache either way. From talking to Genji, she now knew this was not simply a matter of a political marriage. A power struggle. A kind of civil war, he had called it. A move to use Chise as a pawn in a political marriage rather than as an heir.
She had always thought a move like this would come someday. She had not thought they would try to force a marriage.
...First I'll calm Chise down. Then I need to know the exact inside story.
Back at the room, Noah opened the door as she spoke.
"Chise."
"......"
The place felt hollow. Frowning, Noah flipped on the light.
There was no one in the room.
"...Bathroom?"
She poked her head out into the hallway.
Suzuki was standing there with his hands folded, and there was no telling how long he had been there.
"Jesus. Make some noise."
"...I'm sorry."
"Where'd Chise go?"
Suzuki was silent for a moment. Then, slowly, he opened his mouth.
"Lady Fujiwara has returned to the main house."