By: Bayushi Chisa
Togeriso Story Conest 4 Entry
**
Shinjo Beranmee surveyed the mingling courtiers. They seemed so much like buzzing bees with their mysterious dance of intrigue. Look at the Crane dart from Phoenix to Dragon. Note the Crab bushi trying to studiously ignore everyone until he was drunk enough not to care what he said.
Beranmee smiled broadly. Winter Court was so much fun. During the rest of the year he was a magistrate in Ryoko Owari, and although Winter Court and the City of Lies never lacked for excitement, Winter Court was at least considerate enough to keep all the troublemakers in one spot. You knew you could find a suspect if you stayed in court long enough.
And talking about suspects, here came his favoriteone! Beranmee's eyes followed the swirl of red and black that denoted Bayushi Kyogou. Beranmee decided now was as good as a time as any to go talk to the Scorpion.
As the Unicorn Magistrate approached, a girl stood next to Kyogou looking around shyly. Beranmee could not see any of her face; it was completely covered by a weeping Noh mask. However, her close stance and hunched shoulders showed that she was nervous and her head bobbed back and forth as if she was trying to take everything in at once.
"Konnichiwa, Kyogou-san!" Beranmee proclaimed as he neared the Scorpion. He thrust out his and grabbed the other man's and pumped it firmly in a handshake. Beranmee never tired of tweaking Rokugani people's noses with the strange Unicorn practices. His smile, which was practically permanent, deepened as he noted the Scorpion pull his hand back.
"I have not seen you in quite some time," Beranmee stopped as if thinking. "Why it has been almost six months since I last had to visit your fine establishments, Kyogou-san. I was starting to think you did not like me anymore."
Now that he was closer, the Unicorn could see the girl's eyes. They were wide and young looking. He almost gasped in surprised as he saw they were a vibrant violet color. Most interesting.
"Hajimemashite," Beranmee said politely to the girl. "I have not had the pleasure of meeting you before." Smoothly and before the girl could respond, Beranmee gently took her hand and brushed his lip across them.
"Konnichiwa, Magistrate Shinjo Beranmee-san," Kyogou said icily. His mask was a thin veil that did not cover much of his features, although it did move with his words. The scorpion design on it seemed to dance as he talked. "Magistrate Shinjo Beranmee, this is my younger sister, Bayushi Tereyako."
Beranmee made a great show of surprise. "You never told me you had a sister! We have known each other for almost ten years now and you never once said a word." He turned to the girl, making a tsking noise. "Shameful excuse for a brother isn't he?"
The girl raised a dainty hand to her face, her eyes amused. "Cat have your tongue? I guess I will have to remove your mask to check." Beranmee raised his hands,but Kyogou intercepted his body between the two of them.
"Magistrate Shinjo Beranmee-san, as this is my sister's first Winter Court, I fear that she has tired easily and we must retire for the night. If you will excuse us." Kyogou turned and practically herded his sister out of the room.
"You don't have to be so formal, Kyogou-san," he called out. "Beranmee-san is fine with me."
As they left, Beranmee could hear Kyogou's voice tight with anger, "Stay away from him sister. He is nothing but trouble for us." The magistrate smiled. Winter Court had just begun. Three months of this would be all sorts of entertaining.
**
It was a few days later when Beranmee was taking a walk through the gardens before he saw Tereyako again. Despite his better judgment, the Unicorn had been talked into a contest to see who could navigate the mazes to the Kirin statue in the middle first.
Beranmee had long since stopped hearing the giggles of the other contestants and was fairly certain that if he continued on his current course he would make it back to dinner before too late. Already Lady Moon had replaced Lord Sun in the sky and it was getting cool.
As Beranmee rounded a corner, he literally ran into the younger girl. Both fell to the ground with a sound thud. "Well," Beranmee laughed, "at least I know I am not the last person still alive."
The magistrate jumped back to his feet and offered his hand to Tereyako. She timidly took it and he pulled her back to her feet. "No pesky brother about, I see." Beranmee looked up and down the maze corridor, peering carefully. "Did Kyogou-san get lost or is he waiting in the shadows to sting me to death?"
Tereyako's shoulders shook with silent laughter as she shook her head. Beranmee crossed his arms and cocked his head to the side. "You do not talk much, do you? Well, we cannot stay here all night yakking it up. Let's see if we can find out way out." Beranmee took her hand and started walking.
As they walked, Beranmee told her about the decorative statues in the maze. Some of the stories were actually true too. Eventually, they rounded a corner and found themselves in the center of the maze. The Kirin statue glowed in the moonlight.
"It figures when I try to get out of the maze, I only end up in the center," Beranmee muttered good-naturedly. "At least we cannot get any deeper, right Tereyako-chan?"
"Why does my brother hate you?" Tereyako's voice was soft but pleasant.
Beranmee turned to look at her in surprise. He waggled his eyebrows. "Ah, so you *can* talk after all. Tricky Scorpion."
The Scorpion girl giggled. "Did Kyogou really tell you that he hated me?" Beranmee asked.
"No. I can just tell." Tereyako pulled her hand from Beranmee and held it close to her body. "I do not understand though. You are kind and funny."
"Well, you see. Kyogou-san and I have this little disagreement. He thinks he can run brothel houses and opium dens. I do not. I must have busted at least three dozen of his operations over the years. Beranmee shook his head in bemusement. "And in that whole time, he has always addressed me as 'Magistrate Shinjo Beranmee-san". Kyogou is too formal."
"So, you are using me to get information on my brother," Tereyako's voice as suddenly as icy as her brother's.
"Feh, no. I am a Unicorn. We believe in judging people for their own merit, not that of their family. Besides, I never have enough witnesses to convict Kyogou himself, so at this point I see it as a type of game. I close down an illegal drug run; he kills one of my horses. I shut down a brothel; his goons vandalize my home. That sort of thing."
"Then why are you so nice to me?" Tereyako was still suspicious, though seemingly not suprised at what sort of person her brother was.
"Why not? I want to know you because I do not. It is that simple." Beranmee threw his hands up in the air. "Honestly, you Scorpions and your plots."
"I believe you, I do not know why, but I do."
The Unicorn smiled. "Good, now let us see if we can get out of here, Tereyako-chan." When they finally exited the maze, Beranmee was holding her hand again.
**
The next couple of weeks passed in a haze for Beranmee. Time was filled with seeing superiors, visiting old friends, politics. But time was well spent when he was with Tereyako.
Beranmee could spend a whole afternoon with her playing go by a fireplace. Sometimes he filled the room with chatter about his career as a magistrate, and sometimes the only sound was the clicking of stones on a board.
After awhile, Beranmee would look for Tereyako's weeping Noh mask not so he could tweak Kyogou's nose, but because he was eager to talk to the young courtier again. Tereyako never said much, but when she did Beranmee was filled with a desire to remember every word.
Tereyako was the most pure person Beranmee had ever met. If he had not known better, he would have thought her a Unicorn before any other clan. If he had been asked why, Beranmee could have only shrugged with a smile and said, "You only have to talk to her to know."
One night, they were back in the garden maze sitting on a bench. Lady Moon was high in the sky and as far as Beranmee could tell, they were the only people still out. The voices of other lost courtiers had long ago faded away.
They had been sitting quietly for sometime before Beranmee turned to Tereyako. "You know, I have noticed many Scorpion have many different masks. You on the other hand only have that one." He gestured to the weeping visage. "And in all this time, I have never seen any sign of your face other than your eyes. Why is that?"
"It is...complicated," Tereyako's voice was so low, Beranmee almost did not hear her.
"I like complicated," the man gently took her hand. "And I promise I won't tell anyone."
"Especially Kyogou-oniisama?"
"Especially him."
Tereyako sighed and then the words tumbled from her almost as if she could not be rid of them fast enough. "He's not really my brother. I am his half sister. My mother fell in love with a retainer of his father, Bayushi Tochi. When I was born, the retainer went before him and confessed of the love affair for he felt guilty for betraying his lord. The man asked to raise me as his own, to teach me how to speak to the kami."
"How did they know you were not the Bayushi's daughter?"
"The shugenja had very unusual eye color. It came from his intense study of the kami." Tereyako raised her hand to her mask and caressed it slowly. "It was the same color as mine. He knew from seeing those same eyes, that not only was I his daughter, but that I would have the same relationship with the earth kami as he did.
"My father refused and had the two of them commit seppuku. It was an honorable death as he loved her very much and did not want to smear her image in death. Despite his indiscretion, the shugenja was a loyal man in the end.
"I was allowed to live. Father always said it was because I had done no wrong, but I believe it is because I was to be a reminder, a lesson. That love hurts.
"Kyogou-oniisama eventually went to the Bayushi Courtier School while I was raised by wetnurses. I was left alone and mostly forgotten. They were never cruel to me, just indifferent.
"On my gempukku, Father explained everything to me. I was hurt at the time, but it helped me understand why. He asked for me to don a concealing mask as I reminded him too much of her. It was one of his last commands before he took to the monastery."
Beranmee could tell she was holding some back. The magistrate understood; you do not tell all your ghosts to someone at once. It is too painful for you and the listener. She would tell him in her own time, and he would be there to listen.
He placed his hand on hers. "I would like to see your face," he said softly. She stiffened and turned to him, her eyes wary. He gently traced his hand up her arm and place one hand on each side of her mask. Her hands covered his.
"I do not think..."
"Shh," he whispered. She sighed and took her hands away. He removed the weeping Noh mask and gasped. "You are beautiful."
Tereyako was young, barely past her gempukku. Her face was almond shaped with full lips. Her violet eyes, so big and innocent without the mask surrounding them, gazed directly at him. She seemed perfect to him. efore she could reply, he leaned forward and kissed her. Her mouth was slightly open and he could not resist lightly licking her lips.
She gasped and he pulled back quickly. "I am sorry," he said. "I should not have."
She threw her self against him and hugged him tightly. "You have been more kind to me this last month than anyone has my whole life." He could feel the wetness of tears on his kimono. "I think I am falling in love with you."
He smiled and stroke her black hair, "That's okay, I think I can deal with that."
"You do not understand," she practically whimpered. "I am a... I am a Scorpion. You are a Unicorn. It could not work."
"Please," he laughed. "If Bayushi Shixiang can survive, then I think anyone can. I do not care about your brother or your family. I care about you."
Beranmee kissed Tereyako again and held her. The younger girl gripped his kimono tightly, weeping. "Kami help me, I love you."
**
"Brother, you summoned me."
"We have been here for two months. Your first Winter Court has been rather interesting, has it not?"
"Yes."
"All because of a certain Shinjo Magistrate."
"Yes... Brother, I am with child."
"Oh?"
"I wish to marry him."
"No. He is my enemy, and I will not have him in my family. You will raise the child and we will teach him to hate his father. It is our way, sister."
"Kyogou-oniisama, Beranmee-kun is a good man. Please, I beg you. This would ruin him."
"Tereyako-chan," Kyogou's voice was kind, but the words were cold. "You have your loyalties, you know your duty."
Tereyako felt her heart freeze. She nodded and silently left.
**
Beranmee whistled as he walked. Today would be the day he would ask Tereyako to marry him. The magistrate loved her and saw no reason they could not spend the rest of their lives together. Sure, her brother hated him, but permission of the family did not matter in Unicorn marriages. Besides, Beranmee figured that amily had lost all rights to Tereyako a long time ago. To raise a child so coldly chilled Beranmee to the bone.
Beranmee looked forward to asking Tereyako. The question would make her smile and she needed to do that more in her life.
Beranmee stopped suddenly as he was hit with a bad premonition. Tereyako was in trouble. The man did not know how he knew, but when you are a magistrate you learned to trust your instincts to keep you and your loved ones alive.
Barreling several courtiers over, Beranmee ran to the Scorpion quarter yelling Tereyako's name. When he reached her door, he threw it open without knocking. For a second, he breathed a sigh of relief when he saw her sitting there peacefully. A piece of paper with calligraphy sat before the young girl and her mask lay beside it.
Then he saw the dagger in her chest.
"Tereyako-chan," Beranmee wailed. He practically sailed across the room and grabbed the young courtier as she fell forward. Gently, he pulled the dagger from her body.
The girl's face was full of guilt. "Did... not... want you... to see this." Tereyako's voice was little more than a whisper. She tried to smile but only coughed up blood.
Beranmee's magistrate mind took in everything. The way she was sitting, the calligraphy, the dagger. She had plunged the dagger into her chest and not her throat, but the intention was clear. "Why did you try to commit jigai, Tereyako-chan?" His tears rained on her small face, mingling with her own.
"It... was... the only... way I could... save you," her eyes fluttered. "Love you...."
The Seppun guards found Beranmee still there an hour later, cradling the girl's body in his lap and whispering her name over and over.
The case was more or less open and shut. Beranmee had been seen multiple times with the girl during Winter Court. On the day of her death, he had been witnessed to running into Scorpion quarters screaming her name. And a short time later the girl dead. It did not take much to add two and two together.
Beranmee said nothing in his defense. Whether from shock or guilt, no one knew. As the magistrate proclaimed the charge to the Unicorn, he mildly thought, "Me hurt Tereyako-chan? But I promised to take care of her."
"Shinjo Beranmee, I deem you guilty for killing Bayushi Tereyako. For this, your punishment-" The magistrate stopped as a figure in red and black made his way to the front of the room.
"Wait, I wish to give testimony on behalf of Magistrate Shinjo Beranmee." Beranmee turned and realized that it was Kyogou who was talking. The judge nodded and the Scorpion continued. "It is a little known fact that my sister is actually the result of the union of my mother and a Yogo shugenja."
Beranmee felt his knees buckle as he remembered Tereyako's words. "He knew from seeing those same eyes, that not only was I his daughter, but that I would have the same relationship with the earth kami as he did."
Kyogou continued, not apparently noticing Beranmee's reaction. "My sister had requested marriage to the Shinjo, but I had refused. In an act of final protest, she committed seppuku. Here in my hand, I hold her death poem."
As the Scorpion courtier raised the paper, Beranmee could see Tereyako's handwriting. It was the same paper he had seen in her room.
"Lost within a maze,
Twisting, turning in moonlight,
For us, time stood still."
Tears burned in Beranmee's eyes. He did not notice the miharu release him or fellow samurai offering congratulations on his innocence. The magistrate saw only Bayushi Kyogou.
Stumbling, his knees still feeling weak, Beranmee made his way to the Scorpion. Kyogou watched him, his eyes smiling.
"You knew this would happen, you hoped for it," Beranmee growled. "You did all this as some sort of petty revenge. SHE WAS YOUR SISTER!" Tears ran downhis face unabashed.
"You look tired," Kyogou said solemnly. "Maybe you will stop by one of my geisha houses to relax when you return to Ryoko Owari," he paused with a sincere smile, "Beranmee-san."
The End
***
Special thanks to Jeremy Puckett for editing this story and introducing me to L5R, Gisei for giving the fic a name, and to Justin Yap for insisting that the best revenge against a Unicorn is to poison all his pregnant mares.