Laughter is the Worst Medicine, Part 3
“Surely you know the saying ‘happy wife, happy life’,” Fujiwara replied.
“You didn’t hear the laughter. Whatever is killing all those towns, it’s dangerous. No place for my wife.” Reizo said truthfully.
“It’s perfectly safe inside Gogo. Besides, someone from the area will notice things neither of you will. After you investigate, visit your in-laws for a few days. Whatever is killing the towns doesn’t stay around. When merchants visit, they are unharmed. No one wants to re-settle there, but who can blame them? Perhaps it’s a new type of curse, or a yokai we’ve never encountered. Do you know any yokai who laugh and kill?” Fujiwara asked Taru.
“I do not,” Taru replied after careful consideration.
Reizo tried again. “But certainly you want to know what is going on as soon as possible.”
“Write a message on Taru’s paper. It will reach me quickly.”
Taru nodded at Reizo. “I shall give you some extra sheets for your magic as well. Lord Fujiwara says it helps with your onmyodo.”
“Thank you, Taru Papermaster. That is a very generous gift,” Reizo was pleasantly shocked. Perhaps that’s Fujiwara’s secret.
Reizo’s delight didn’t last long. My wife owes Fujiwara a favor, and travel is dangerous. But if he says it’s safe, it’s safe. He’s never led me wrong. That left one question. “Who is Gogo?”
Fujiwara’s and Taru’s faces lit up and they looked like teenagers instead of middle aged men. “Come this way.” Fujiwara walked down a path that led behind artfully arranged plants.
Reizo sat a moment longer. “Lord Taira, you’ll like this,” Taru smiled at him.
Laughter drifted from the veranda. Reizo saw Suki, Lady Fujiwara, and Junko Papermaster playing a card game. Reizo and Suki had never met before the first night of their Three Cups wedding ceremony late last fall. Taru’s older daughter held a small, furry Papermaster in her lap. Reizo had long ignored Taru’s non human shape in his kami-sight, but the perhaps young Papermaster hadn’t mastered changing back and forth.
Reizo arrived at the end of the path. The artfully arranged plants hid a well-lit large stable from the veranda and the stone benches. Inside the stable was a large palanquin. “Gogo, come out, we have a guest,” Fujiwara called.
Two shimmering translucent horses appeared and rose, taking the palanquin with them. The horses didn’t shake their heads or whinny, they just walked stiffly towards the three men. That’s unnerving, but nothing like Gin’s laughter, thought Reizo.
Taru stroked both horses just above their noses. “One day, you’ll appreciate pets, Gogo,” he said softly to the motionless animals.
“This is Gogo,” Fujiwara said proudly. “Taru and I have worked on her for a long time. Just look! She’s the ultimate combination of onmyodo and Papermaster magic. Every protection you can imagine is here. She hides, she has a tornado to protect from arrows, she can fly, she drives herself. And most important, we don’t have to feed or pick up after her! Although those two horses are new. Taru, are you encouraging Gogo? This is most strange and we should study her further when Taira returns.”
Fujiwara touched one of the horses. Reizo did the same. He felt a strange resistance, then his hand went through it. *I’m hurting her somehow. He quickly moved his hand. Instead, he marveled at Gogo with his kami sight.
Gogo is made out of paper! And look at all the kami inside of her, waiting to be released. How did they keep the breeze kami in place like that? There’s sound eating kami, and yes, there’s a tightly wrapped ball of overlapping kami that hide her. And there is a tiny tornado! The two horses were solid, but motionless. Reizo had never seen anything like that. From the sounds of it, neither has Fujiwara. A mystery for another time, I have bigger problems.
A song drifted about while he looked at the kami. “Make the paper, drink the wine. Make the paper, drink the wine.”
Inside, Gogo could seat six people comfortably on rich furnishings. Benches at the front and back were covered with silk cushions. The curtains covering both doors were brightly colored brocade silk. It was fit for a Ministry Head.
Reizo reached towards the waiting kami. They looked at him and waited for instructions. "Hide Gogo," he told them. The ball of overlapping kami spread out. The peaceful garden shimmered, indicating that Gogo was now hidden to those without kami sight.
Taru carefully inspected his handiwork, stroking the palanquin fondly. “The paper holds,” he said when he finished.
“Impressive, isn’t she?” Fujiwara stated. “If things get dangerous, Gogo is a mobile fortress. Retreat inside her and fly to The Capital,” he added seriously.
“Yes, sir,” Reizo replied. "Stop hiding Gogo," he told the kami. The overlapping kami shrank back down into a tiny ball inside the palanquin. "Ministry Head, how did you do this? Kami forget their instructions as soon as they completed them. I've never managed to keep the kami around longer than that," Reizo said the last part mostly to himself out of frustration.
"Don't be discouraged, Taira. One of these days, you'll probably discover the secret on your own."
Fujiwara never gave out compliments lightly, so that was high praise. That's the second time he's complimented me this evening.
Fujiwara carefully tested all of Gogo’s protections twice. With all his bluster, it was easy to forget Fujiwara was the most powerful onmyoji in The Capital, until you saw how well the kami listened to him. When he called the tornado, he told it to spin like a gentle breeze. “She is behaving normally,” he finally declared.
“Gogo, you need an ox to pull Lord and Lady Taira home. Put away those horses and show an ox and a driver,” Fujiwara told her. One horse moved to the side, like a child dragging it across the ground, and transformed into a driver. The other horse grew into a normal looking ox.
“That answers one question. Those two horses are still simple kami, or they wouldn’t have listened to me. I couldn’t stand the embarrassment of sending you off in a defective mobile fortress. That would be nearly as bad as Kitsune living in a Ministry onmyoji’s granary,” Fujiwara said.
Picture by Daphne Zaras - http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/headlines/dszpics.htmlOriginally uploaded at en.wikipedia; description page is/was here., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2130165