Chapter 385: 150. I’m back
September is already on the horizon.
In the late summer, the leaves of the trees seemed as if freshly washed, spotless and shining.
In the backyard of the Furukawa Conference Hall, Kitagawa Ryoko walked through the corridor and saw Yukino Ritsuko had moved a chair under the trellis to paint. On the trellis over the pond, the wisteria flowers formed a purple waterfall, as if a velvety cloth adorned with violet flower patterns had been draped over it.
The sun shone brightly, with orioles fluttering and grass growing long.
A woman as beautiful as snow gently lowered her head, lost in her own thoughts. Among the blooming purple flower bushes in the courtyard, that silhouette exuded an indescribable solitude.
Kitagawa Ryoko tiptoed over, wearing her wooden clogs.
"Ah, why didn’t you make a sound?" Yukino Ritsuko seemed startled, shrugged her shoulders, and then closed her sketchbook.
"Hey, is Sister Yukino painting?" Kitagawa Ryoko asked with a smile.
The little girl’s eyes sparkled with a lively and intelligent spirit, and yet there was no ambiguity.
"Finished." Yukino Ritsuko replied irritably.
"Alright, Sister Yukino, wait for me for a moment."
Kitagawa Ryoko turned around and ran back into the house.
After a while, she came with a small red basket.
"What’s this?"
"Afternoon snacks."
"I’m not hungry."
"Let’s eat together."
At Kitagawa Ryoko’s insistence, Yukino Ritsuko had no choice but to sit on the grass.
It was another sunny day, with a gentle breeze and bright sunshine. From under the trellis, the blooming wisteria flowers looked like a thin mist.
Yukino Ritsuko, who taught music classes, wore a beautiful blue kimono with a silk belt as she choreographed a dance. The blue silk kimono suited her so well, making her look many times more elegant than ordinary clothes.
As Kitagawa Ryoko was admiring Sister Yukino’s attire with rapture, Yukino Ritsuko’s voice reached her ears: "We’re leaving the day after tomorrow, right?"
"Mm, yes. Will Sister Yukino dance with us? Or perhaps accompany us with some music."
"I don’t perform for people."
"Why not?"
"Please, I am a Snow Woman." Yukino Ritsuko picked up a fallen wisteria flower, a petal appearing poignantly beautiful in the bright noonday light, "The Snow Woman will not dance for anyone else."
"Even though I am Sister Yukino’s protector, does it not count?" Kitagawa Ryoko picked up a flower, held it between her lips as if it were a flute, and then said, "Any man who comes close to Sister Yukino, I will chase away!"
From the flower bushes came the warbling of orioles, and Yukino Ritsuko sat quietly eating the snacks on the lawn. Her beauty was nearly transparent, bringing her into a mystical and magical realm of beauty, like a precious dream that would never wake.
It wasn’t right to make such a beautiful Sister Yukino unhappy!
In Kitagawa Ryoko’s heart, she repeatedly cursed a certain scoundrel over and over again.
Yukino Ritsuko had no idea what the little girl was thinking.
She propped her chin on her hand, looked at the easel sideways, and softly hummed an old melody. After singing a few lines, she lay down, resting her chin on her hands crossed over her knees. A bite of pastry remained uneaten in her mouth, and the filtered light from the trellis evenly spread over her snow-white attire, gleaming with an icy luster. Her jet black hair was always tied neatly at the nape, revealing the clean white collar of her kimono, which complemented her clearly defined features...
On the branch beside the trellis, a plump, black crow perched.
Yukino Ritsuko always felt that the crow was familiar, as if someone was staying close and protectively guarding her.
Being there in a daze, under the summer sun, the Snow Woman resembled a lonely girl of seventeen or eighteen... It stirred a deep-seated compassion.
Kitagawa Ryoko wondered if that young man she barely knew was somewhere being intimate with another woman, determined not to let him near Sister Yukino again.
"What is Sister Yukino looking at?"
"Hmm?... Looking at the flowers."
"Wow, such beautiful flowers." Kitagawa Ryoko spoke as if to fill the silence, "What are they called?"
"Wisteria."
"What about those trees with yellow flowers?"
"Forsythia."
"The branches are full of flowers."
"When I was still at the meeting hall, I often used forsythia for flower arranging. But once the bridal wreath also bloomed, bridal wreaths became my first choice for arrangements."
"Does Sister Yukino like flowers?"
"I suppose so." Yukino Ritsuko nodded.
"Do you want to pick some now?"
"Flowers, no matter how beautifully arranged, are short-lived... Leaving them on the branch and enjoying the newly bloomed ones each day is more kind and appropriate."
"Sister Yukino is thoughtful." Kitagawa Ryoko agreed, "Would Sister Yukino come here every year? To this place blooming with wisteria?"
"Sure." Yukino Ritsuko smiled slightly.
"Let’s give this place a name!"
"Isn’t it Furukawa Conference Hall?"
"A name only Sister Yukino and I would use. How about ’Purple Field’?"
"It makes people think of the Capital City." Yukino Ritsuko shook her head, "In the North District of Kyoto City, there is a Daitoku-ji filled with wisteria."
"How about ’Violet Path’?"
"Mm, in Kyoto there’s a Path to See Flowers, that’s too..."
Kitagawa Ryoko tilted her head to think for a moment and persisted, "How about ’Hana no Oka’?"
"That’s too bland." Considering Yukino Ritsuko’s elegant sense of aesthetics, she would not accept such a name. Watching the little girl who had run out of words, she thought for a moment and then smiled, "I think it’s better to call it ’Sister’s Chair’!"