Kaida sleeps lightly. She's separated from the nakama, and she doesn't know where they are or what they're doing. It's hard to go into a deep sleep when there are so many unknowns, and she may need to act and make quick, clear-headed decisions at any minute.
She has a strange dream. She herself is not even in it. It's as if she's looking at a painting-- but the figures are moving, there is sound, and there are even. She sees a city with many beautiful temples, shrines, and mansions. I can only be Heian Kyo, the capital. She sees a young woman in a nice kimono in richly furnished room, but she knows that she is a servant of the house.
It is nighttime. The woman goes out of the house, watching carefully to stay unobserves. She is now on a bench under a roof in a garden. A young samurai with dai-sho and a kind, gentle face comes. Kagetora. Her lover, the man she loves with all of her heart. She stands. He holds her two hands as they kiss. The young man says sadly,
I know that they will take you away. Perhaps you will return when Heian Kyo is cool again in the autumn. He doesn't say it, but Kaida knows they both feel that they will never see each other again. The young woman is alone again on the bench. She cries.
The young woman is now in a different house. Kaida knows that it's this house in provincial Kofu, but in a room that Kaida hasn't seen before. The woman lies on a futon, sleepinbg.
But like Kaida, mentally half awake, unable to fully let down her guard and fully sleep. Quiet male footsteps are heard, a shoji is quietly slid open, and middle-aged man the robes of a noble
kuge enters the room. Incongruously, he wear a tall
eboshi cap, as if going to court.
Kaida knows that the man is the master of this house, and that he misses his mistresses and courtiers in the capital. And that the servant girl dreads and detests his nightly visits.
The young woman is bring a tray of delicacies to the
kuge and the lady of the house.
The lady incongruously wears the seven-layers kimono of the
kuge lady, as if she is entertaining guests. Kaida knows she is always harsh to the young woman, sometimes to the point of cruel torment. And that she is usually dull and depressed, hardly moving around the great halls of the house. Her only relief from her depressed ennui seems to come from inflicting sadistic cruelty on the young woman. The wife knows all about the master's nightly visits. But at this moment, the hateful mistress is lively and cheerful. As the young woman places the dishes before her and the kuge, she says,
Dear, I have a letter, and news. Tragically, Tairo no Kagetora of Heian Kyo has tragically been killed in a battle with the Minamoto. By a stray arrow, without even having a chance to draw his katana and face an enemy. He had only married the beautiful samurai lady Miura no Asae two months before. It is said that she is heartbroken, wretched despair at the loss of the husband who loved her so. But, it is also said that she has the comfort of knowing that she is with Kagetora's child. The woman lifts her eyes to the young woman's, a smile on her lips.
Then, her face above the seven-layered kimono has transformed.
She slowly, slowly, incredibly slowly rises to her feet. She raises the outer kimono over her head, changing the number from seven, the number of Heaven's good fortune, to six. The number for Nothingness.
She says in the hissing voice of a human-demon-hag of Hell,
You long to return to Heian Kyo, to see if Kagetora's grave is there. So you pray for his soul's repose, give your benediction, and say your farewell. It is there. They retrieved the body and brined it. But not the head. That, the Minamoto took for their own. Foolish servant girl, you should know that you will never return to Heian Kyo!. We are Taira, in a Minamoto city. We will sell this hovel to the most greedy, crass, and ignorant country merchant we can find! And you with it! He and the merchant wife will be much pleased-- each for their own reasons-- to have a girl from the capital who formerly served the highest nobility. You are bound to here. Forever.
Beside a swift, river, the very one Kaida knows from below mountain slope of The Village, but broader and deeper here in Kofu, the young woman kneels. She takes a sharp fillet knife from the hanging rectangle of her kimono's sleeve. It's an isolated spot in provincial city. The sound of human traffic and voices can be faintly senses in the distance. But there is no one else around.
Kaida enters the dream. First-hand, as herself. She has gone far away, to a city she used to live in and she knows well. She's at a party of many sympathetic, easy-going, and very intelligent and kind people. Two young men, friends of each other, are taken with her. Her One brushes his hand on the back of her hand, and she knows that it is deep friendship, deeper than romance. True friendship and love, with everlasting romance. Then, Kagetora-sama appears at the party. He's only visiting this town for a few days break, then he has back to his work. All of the girls take notice and fawn over him, eager to push forward and get to know him. He can't help but notice. It's been a long time, years and years, since he and Kaida have been separated. And been forced to do best and move along....
Kaida wakes, and slowly realizes that she's coming from a dream. She's in a guest bedroom in the merchant Tanaka Jiro's mansion in Kofu. All is dark and quiet. She overslept though. It's been hours since she's seen the nakama, even Minoru, who was just outside the wall when she knocked at the gate. Fuma and Jinsei, detected and alerted on by the young man servant, followed by the loud yard dog. A place like this must have some bladed guards. How many? Probably just the right amount for....
She suddenly feels a weird sensation. As if she's in the room, the
kakuriyo world of magical traversing, and back in the dream again. She smells the essence of temple incense smoke before she hears the voice.
I'm so sorry, shinobi-sama. I'm sorry, I don't know your true name and how to truly address you. Please help me. Please, please help me, I ask of you. Take me to Heian Kyo. If you will, I will help you however I can. I promise.
Kaida's eyes dwelling in the
kakuricho perceive an image of a presence in the room. But it is so large, strong and full of will, she guesses that anyone of the nakama would have perceived it, had they been there.
But now the image is gone. But not gone. Kaida again fades into an exhausted sleep, with dreams. "If you will take me to Heian Kyo, I'll find the grave site on my own. I will help you however I can. I promise."
Maybe with the help of pious layman Minoru. Gakusho have some expertise on the subject of ghosts. But Minoru is not a full professional gakusho, and he's a first-level rookie as well.