He seals the letter, summons one of his senior students. Strange to think that he has them, now, that he has been teaching long enough to have had students not only complete their gempukku but actually ascend in the teachings of the School....I am moving to correct the matter, tending to my own house. The possibility of further contamination must be considered, however.
It is a hollow comfort.
Yet the duty still must be done.
Sending the student off with firm instructions--"This goes to Shiro no Shosuro with all possible speed. When the guard asks, tell them you are coming from Painted City with a message regarding the background of a Noh production from 1132. You will be directed appropriately."--he rises, and he makes his way back to the home he shares with his beloved wife.
And she is his beloved, though he knows she does not feel the same way and never has. The incident with her brother, years before, and certain other signs...but she had done her duty and borne him children--twins, even!--and he would not gainsay her.
Nor would he turn aside from his own duty.
Better she should die by his hand than face what would happen otherwise.
He arrives.
"Hatsuki-chan," he says. "I am home."
