It’s time, alas, to wrap up our 100 subscriber celebration with the final chapter of ‘Downtime’. We hope that you’ve enjoyed the story so far, and that it’s added to your listening experience. If you’ve been enjoying our fiction releases, let us know! We may have a couple of other stories under our belt that we can put on the site too.
For now, let’s go back to Hirosaka and wrap up all of the business our characters left unfinished in their rush to enjoy their free afternoon.
When Minoru and Yuzume finally make their descent from the roof, it’s well past sunset, and the lanterns hanging outside Hirosaka’s remaining buildings flicker gently in the early evening breeze. Their conversation is more muted as they make their way through the streets, more out of habit than any fear of seeming too friendly to passersby, and as they return to the temple district Yuzume pauses, frowning.
“It occurs to me that I might have to go back to the office,” she says, clicking her tongue. “There’s a chance Doji-san may have attempted to redesign our filing system this afternoon, and I should fix it before tomorrow so that we can make some progress on the paperwork backlog.”
“I wasn’t aware that the filing system needed redesigning in the first place,” Minoru warns gently. He knows the both of them too well to believe that the way in which the office stores its papers is in any true need of overhaul. “Come, we can go back to the inn and have some dinner. Don’t worry about work until tomorrow, please.”
She shoots him a short look, then lifts her thumb up to chew on it gently. The thought has well and truly sunk its claws in, and Minoru realises that she isn’t about to let this go.
“Will you at least let me check? I know you’re both friends, but I couldn’t bear it if he spent the entire meal looking smug about it, darling.”
Minoru pinches the bridge of his nose and sighs. “I can’t tell you what to do with your free time, Soshi-san, but I beg you, don’t do anything that will end in him complaining about it to me tomorrow.”
He watches as her worried pout shifts into a wide smile, and a vision of Eiko marching into his office and snapping his fan at him worms its way into his mind. He can hear the Crane’s dulcet tones as if he’s standing right next to him, expressing his displeasure just subtly enough to be polite, but firmly enough to demand to be taken seriously. It drowns out whatever delighted thing Yuzume is saying, and he reaches out to stop her as he realises that she’s about to take her leave.
“Wait, Soshi-san,” he says, and Yuzume turns to look at him, feigned innocence upon her face. “You’ve reminded me of some unfinished business I have to attend to at the office as well. Allow me to accompany you?”
She pauses just a split-second too long, and he knows that she knows she’s rumbled. Still, there’s no changing their minds now, because their friendship is not yet strong enough to defy society’s centuries-long fixation with saving face.
The walk to the magistrate’s quarter is awkward, and silent.
Minoru at least doesn’t follow Yuzume inside the tent when they arrive. It’s not a matter of suddenly deciding that he trusts her to leave the paperwork alone, so much as knowing that she can’t do anything in ten minutes that wouldn’t make her own work much harder for her come the morning.
He stands outside in the dark, arms folded over his chest, and listens. At first he focuses inside the tent, hearing his yoriki’s shuffling footsteps and nothing else that might be suspect, and so with a short sigh of relief he lets instinct take over, and he lets the other sounds come in. Bugs singing in the night, the wind rolling gently past his ears, and a bokken colliding fiercely with a straw dummy.
His head shoots up at that last one, and despite his better judgement Minoru leaves Yuzume to her own devices to see who else might be making a late-night visit to the office. He knows it’s a gamble; they share this space with the local magistrates for now, until they can focus reconstruction efforts here, and there’s a good chance he might end up face to face with Seppun Ishima.
It’s a risk he’s willing to take, so as not to let the boredom of waiting for Yuzume overwhelm him.
The tent is dark, much to Yuzume’s disdain, because although she should have expected the lanterns to be out at this time of night, she doesn’t particularly relish the idea of lighting them herself. To her further dismay, a cursory fumble around in the general vicinity of the tent’s lanterns reveals that all of the candles have been removed from the room. Curious.
She’ll have to do damage control in the dark, then. Wouldn’t be the first time.
It doesn’t take her eyes long to adjust to the faint moonlight filtering in through gaps in the tent’s fabric, and to her surprise, the table she and Eiko had spent the morning arguing at is still covered in books and scrolls. This has to be some sort of joke - Doji Eiko leaving things a mess? That’s very much her domain, thank you.
She shakes her head and begins to pick up the items left out on the table, squinting so as to make out which text is which and where it should go, and otherwise making a bit of a show out of acting like she can’t hear the flap of the tent being pushed gently to one side, or the footsteps coming up behind her.
“Working on your night off, Soshi-san?”
The voice is smooth, soft and smug, and Yuzume rolls her eyes before turning around to face Eiko, who seems to be staring more generally at her silhouette than anything specific. He probably wouldn’t be able to see her make a few choice gestures at him in the dark, but alas, her hands are full, and he continues.
“How it warms my heart to see you showing the responsibility and diligence that your new station demands,” he continues. “Allow me to assist you in putting these documents back in their rightful place.”
Yuzume smiles out of habit more than anything else, though she can tell that he’s still having trouble with the darkness.
“Oh, but Doji-san, I couldn’t possibly,” she coos. Her court voice has always been more upbeat and amused than his, projecting a warmth and harmlessness that has worked to keep her safer than any weapon ever could. “It simply wouldn’t do for such an esteemed colleague to sully his hands with filing, especially after I left you in such a hurry this morning. Please, enjoy what remains of your evening and let me do the hard work for both of us.”
“But you forget yourself, Soshi-san,” he says calmly, stepping forward, and Yuzume can just about make out that ever-present thin smile of his. “Are we not equals now? If it is work that you see fit to take on, then it would be discourteous of me to just stand by and watch.”
“Then do not feel as though you have to,” she says, biting back a smirk as her voice loses some of its charm.
“Oh, but I must,” Eiko retorts pleasantly, not taking the bait. “Since as we are - for reasons I cannot fathom - standing in the dark, it would only make sense for me to stay and ensure that things do not accidentally end up in the wrong place.”
“Are you accusing me of trying to continue our work on addressing the errors in our filing system without your assistance, Doji-san?”
He smirks and feigns shock. “I would never accuse you of such a thing, Soshi-san. I am simply offering you my aid, so that we can join the others for something to eat sooner rather than later.”
“Such a happy coincidence that you arrived when you did,” Yuzume scowls, and steps forward to press the armful of papers she carries into his arms. “And with such noble goals in mind. Perhaps I should count myself lucky that someone tall enough to reach the top shelves just happened to stop by.”
“Just as lucky as I am knowing that you are so effortlessly able to reach the lower ones,” he says, just a little too happily, and turns to begin putting things in their place.
Yuzume watches after him, annoyed that the paperwork isn’t making its way to the shelves that she would have chosen, but surprised that his pattern isn’t following the one he suggested this morning. He’s just following their already-established system, the one they inherited from Shogo.
There is a comfort in that, she realises, but she makes no mention of it as they finish their work in silence.
Minoru follows the sound through the maze of tents and rubble that makes up the magistrate’s grounds, the clacking of wood getting closer and closer as he rounds each corner. When he reaches its source, he has to stop and catch himself as he takes in the sight before him.
Asahina Hajime stands in front of a straw dummy, gripping a bokken in both hands as he steps forward to strike. There’s a familiar look of intent and focus on his face that should be obscured by the darkness, if not for the fact that Hajime stands in the centre of a wide ring of brightly lit candles. Their presence is unusual, and Minoru knows he should question it, or perhaps even scold his yoriki for them being there, but he can’t muster the energy to care.
It will just have to be a problem for Tomorrow Minoru, he thinks, and steps into the ring.
“Asahina-san,” he says gently, and his yoriki whirls to face him, the end of the bokken hovering inches from Minoru’s nose. He takes two fingers and gently pushes the end of the weapon to the side once recognition spreads across Hajime’s face, later than he’d thought it would. “I didn’t expect to see you here so late.”
Hajime sputters an apology as he brings the bokken to his side, not quite able to look MInoru in the eye.
“Doji-san said he had some work from this morning to follow up on,” he offers weakly. “And I thought perhaps while I waited for him to finish, I would work up an appetite for dinner.”
It’s a poor excuse for someone who knows Hajime, who has never once needed to work up an appetite for anything, and Minoru knows him well enough. He might even comment on it if not for what Yuzume had told him about their trip to the Porcelain Heron. But unlike her, and much like Hajime, he has no control over his encounters with the otherworldly, no open conversations or give-and-take relationship to fall back on that lets him know he’s safe. He knows that telling lies and focusing on something else entirely is often the only way to get that sense of control back, and he won’t deny it to Hajime when it’s exactly what he would do in his stead. Has done, many times before. So he steps past him to collect another bokken from the rack behind the dummy, passing it from hand to hand to get a feel for the weight, and then returns to his position in the centre of the ring.
“Would you object to having some company while you wait? I believe Soshi-san is helping him, and you know how easily they get distracted with their work.”
Hajime’s smile is brief, but his eyes light up as he nods his consent, and the two begin to circle one another, weapons raised. Minoru is faintly aware of two familiar voices drawing near, arguing about whether or not salmon can be constituted as pink, orange, or both, and he deftly drowns them out as Hajime lunges toward him. Neither of them have a dominant hand, and so it’s always a coin-toss as to if he’ll be able to dodge easily or not. This time he makes it by ducking down and to the left, and steps forward to strike the Crane from below.
He’s met with disappointment, Hajime managing to draw his weapon defensively just in time, and the two jump back from one another before surging forward to clash once again. It’s the same each time, with neither able to land a hit, dodging and parrying and deciding on their next steps with an instinctive speed that their audience could never understand. Because there is an audience, even if it’s only of two, and Minoru can hear them taking bets on the winner from the direction of the tree they must be sitting under.
Well, the paperwork’s done then, he thinks as he steps right, only to be met with a hard smack on the shoulder. He shakes his head to see Hajime grinning at him, the grim focus on his face replaced with exhaustion and victory, and then he feels the pain blossom across his arm.
“Well-fought, Asahina-san,” he says with a bow. “Clearly I will need to get more practice in for next time.”
“I am at your disposal,” Hajime beams as he returns the gesture, and maybe it’s because now there’s a promise of a next time more than because he won at all. Minoru can’t be sure, and the two stand in silence, catching their breath and contemplating the thousands of ways this match could have gone differently. A feint here instead of there, taking the high ground instead of the low, or perhaps even just basic footwork - they both know that they’re more or less evenly matched.
For now.
But the doubts about his performance aren’t given the time to worm their way in, because Eiko and Yuzume are getting up from the tree they’ve been sitting against and walking over to them. The Crane looks quite pleased with whatever it is he’s won from her, and it’s enough to have given her a face like thunder.
The two do not enter the ring so much as break it apart, with the shugenja picking up one of the larger candles as though the melted wax doesn’t harm her at all. Minoru chooses to believe it’s the kami at work, and leaves his wonderings at that.
“As stunning a display as that was, gentlemen,” she starts, offering them a short smile. “I think we had best put these all back before someone notices they’re missing.”
“I’m sure the Imperials would ask us to compensate for their loss, and their taste might run on the more expensive side,” Eiko says from behind her, nodding cheerily, as though his own tastes wouldn’t give the Imperial families a run for their money.
Hajime scratches the back of his neck nervously.“I apologise, everyone. The lanterns weren’t as bright as I’d have hoped, and I, um… I must have gotten quite caught up in my search for extras.”
“Nothing wrong with taking what you need, dear,” Yuzume says off-handedly, snuffing out the candle with her fingertips before handing it off to Minoru and gathering up another from the floor.
“Indeed. If the lighting out here is insufficient for your needs, then I can request more lanterns be put up. It would be such a shame if anyone using these facilities at night were to become injured because it was not well-equipped enough,” Eiko says, as Yuzume slowly starts to fill his arms with candles as well.
Hajime’s smile wobbles, and Minoru claps him hard on the back before he can say anything, passing him the candle.
“Come, Asahina-san. It will take hardly any time at all with the four of us working together, and no one will be any the wiser tomorrow,” he says conspiratorially, and after a moment the Crane nods back at him, reassured.
“And then… perhaps we can all have some dinner, finally?”
Minoru can’t help but chuckle at that, and pats Hajime on the back a few more times for good measure as he reassures him that yes, dinner is next on the agenda, and Hajime begins to openly wonder what the inn will be serving when they arrive. As if on cue, Yuzume and Eiko start up an entirely professional discussion on the most efficient way to carry the bundles in their arms, and even though it’s much darker now without the flames encircling them, Minoru can tell that Hajime will be alright.
And if Hajime can be alright after the kind of day he’s had, then maybe, just maybe, Minoru will be able to handle this new job after all.
