コドク
Kodoku
Kei: Okay, Tsudzura-chan.
I put my hands to my waist and stare her down, sternly. Kei-oneesan is a little angry right now.
Kei: Care to explain things for me?
Tsudzura: Explain? Explain what?
Kei: Explain what? Explain everything. Is it true that you're the successor to the Wakasugi Group?
Tsudzura: ......Though there were many children of legitimate birth who didn't make it.
Tsudzura: Including all the legitimate heirs, the candidates numbered in tens, and I was the only one left.
Tsudzura: Grandpa...... though I was never allowed to call him that... expected me to take the president's chair. I hated that, and so ran away from home.
Kei: But then you came to this place?
Tsudzura: In any place under the public eye, I would have been found out immediately. My being discovered here can be attributed to little more than bad luck.
Kei: That's true. It didn't seem Uzuki-san came here looking for you.
Tsudzura: Well, even supposing they were not searching for me, I think I would still have chosen an isolated house to settle into, such as yours.
Kei: Why?
Tsudzura: Because, I hate people.
With the same air of simplicity as if she were naming her least favorite foods, she says this with a severe expression.
Kei: But Tsudzura-chan, it didn't seem like you were......
Tsudzura: I do not allow it to show. If I was unable to at least hide that much, I would have been eaten alive long ago.
Kei: ............
The wind passing between us abducts the words on my tongue and carries them off. Like a passing tree leaf, they are spirited far away.
The moon must have been hidden by a cloud passing in the wind, as the sky is engulfed in a billowing, silent and overruling dark.
Tsudzura: Onee-san, do you know of Kodoku?
What lifted those words from the lull of darkness may have been the moon's gravity, as it stole a peek through the gaps in the clouds.
Regardless of her asking me, she doesn't look my way, muttering as if to herself with lips faded pale in the moonlight.
Kei: ......You mean, being left behind by yourself?
Tsudzura: Written as three insects atop a plate, ko (蠱), and with the same "doku" as in "dokueki" (TN: liquid poison - 毒液), Kodoku (蠱毒)------ it is a well-known method of sorcery.
Tsudzura: You see, you take poisonous insects, and close them all into one container. You give them nothing to eat, so they begin to cannibalize each other. The truest expression of "survival of the fittest," yes?
Tsudzura: And then the last, remaining survivor... is the strongest insect, with the strongest will to live. Using the life of that insect, one becomes able to cast powerful curses.
Tsudzura: The Wakasugi have adopted something similar to that, as a method of determining the successor.
Kei: Umm... you mean like a test?
Tsudzura: It is nothing nearly so lukewarm. The Wakasugi serving as Onikiri no Kashira belong to an onmyouji bloodline, so rather than an analogue, they perform the ritual as it is.
Kei: But, if they did that, the police would---!
The exact same Kodoku... for determining a successor------
Supposing it really isn't a parallel ritual, then the insects who lose in the contest would all......
Tsudzura: You are right. To think there would be a cannibal blood feud to decide family headship, an "anachronism" would not come close to describing it. Things like that do not happen in a constitutional government like ours of today.
Tsudzura: But you see, Wakasugi holds more influence than an average country. Much in the same way an embassy has extraterritorial diplomatic immunity, they can hush up most anything that happens in their borders. That is why------
Tsudzura: ---you can imagine... there are truly awful things that go on inside.
The thin bent to her lips... almost like a different person.
Kei: But, if you don't want to do it, can't you release your authority, or...?
Tsudzura: I was in a position where withdrawal was not an option. Ever since I was small, I could dispense in almost any task with ease.
Tsudzura: Mother was overjoyed that "a pigeon gave birth to a hawk." Back then, that hawk was still a chick who knew nothing of hiding her talons.
Tsudzura: By the time I came to my senses, I was the most prominent candidate. It might seem outrageous they would do this with a child, but they said they would not accept any other successor until I was taken down.
Tsudzura: Grandfather had approved of this in secret, which made my life into one big mess...
Kei: Tsudzura-chan......
Tsudzura: Many things happened after that, and then I was alone.
Tsudzura: Because I was raised in that kind of environment, being alone is easiest for me. It is harder when I'm not alone.
"So I want you to leave me alone," she says outside of her words.
But------ but still------
でもひとりは嫌なんでしょ？
But you really hate being alone, don't you?
ひとりで生きたいなら------
If you want to live on your own------