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Reiko’s Manners

Chapter 62

Treat me to a Ko-Fi to give me more motivation!!!

*****

What happened to Fuki afterward remains unchanged from what I had heard before. While working as a maid-in-training and attending school to study, Fuki was a brilliant and beautiful young girl. Mari-sama reportedly grew extremely fond of her.

「What was Father doing around that time? He was still just a young child, wasn't he?」

「Touru-sama was being raised in the Kujouin residence. Even within the same mansion, Mari-sama never dined together with Touru-sama. Whenever they occasionally crossed paths, she would sigh, dismissing Touru-sama as a failure who possessed neither musical talent nor a good head. Wanting to spare Mari-sama from bearing a sorrowful expression, I took the utmost care to keep Touru-sama from coming into contact with her as much as possible.」

Mari-sama was even more of a piece of garbage than I had imagined. Did she really sigh over her own young child just for being mediocre? If I had been mediocre, would I have been treated the same way?

According to the story, my father attended the elementary division of Meisei Academy—the very same school I attend—until he finished primary school. Around that time, Mari-sama resumed her full-scale performance activities in America. Having been a brilliant young prodigy active in Europe before the war, she was welcomed warmly in America as well. Fuki, who was no longer fifteen but actually sixteen by then, accompanied Mari-sama. Fuki spoke of those days with a dreamy, enraptured expression.

「She truly looked like a goddess. The citizens of that victorious nation offered their applause to Mari-sama without reservation. Mari-sama was more beautiful and noble than anyone else. Hoping to instill me with proper culture, Mari-sama even hired an English tutor for me while we were in America. When we were in Japan, I studied flower arranging and the tea ceremony, but in America, I was drilled in social dancing and European-style manners. Neither Mari-sama nor I spoke American English. It is such vulgar English, after all.」

「...Is that discriminatory mindset something you learned directly from Mari-sama?」

「My, my, Mari-sama never paid any mind to the lower sorts. Though she was always so affectionate toward me, of course.」

「So you decided for yourself that it was vulgar English, Fuki-san.」

「Indeed. That is vulgar English, plain and simple.」

「You are a bundle of prejudices, Fuki-san. You look utterly foolish.」

We both fell silent.

After that, Fuki spoke about Mari-sama's traffic accident. Mari-sama had been struck by a taxi in Midtown Manhattan. Remembering those days, Fuki's eyes grew moist with tears.

「Mari-sama's life was saved. But she could no longer play the piano.」

Unable to play the piano anymore, Mari-sama screamed and threw tantrums at first. Before long, she stopped reacting to anything altogether, her eyes turning hollow. One month after the accident, my grandfather, Juuichirou Kujouin, came to fetch Mari-sama and brought her back to Japan.

「The master carried Mari-sama back with the utmost care. Although he was an extremely busy man, he truly loved Mari-sama. Originally, it seemed they married because it was mutually advantageous for their careers as international figures, but I believe there was genuine love between the two of them.」

Having lost her purpose in life, Mari-sama sank into a depressive state at the Kujouin residence in Tokyo. She stopped eating, reduced to a condition where meals had to be forced upon her. Even as the mistress of the house, Mari-sama had never been capable of handling domestic affairs in the first place. Everything had been managed in her stead by Secretary Sugiyama, who had served as her close attendant even before the marriage. The servants whispered among themselves that if this was all the mistress she was, it would be better for the master to divorce her and take a young wife.

「I fired every single one of those foolish servants. I worked together with Secretary Sugiyama. We wanted to protect Mari-sama.」

However, an opponent appeared at the Kujouin residence whom neither Fuki nor Sugiyama could match: my grandfather Juuichirou's elder sister. She pressed my grandfather to pay Mari-sama a sufficient alimony settlement, divorce her, and take a new bride. The Kujouin family had only my father as their sole son. It was a lineage that was naturally dwindling, so she argued that a spare was necessary. My grandfather flatly refused, yet she persisted, urging him to at least take a mistress—to make a mistress bear a child.

「Although Mari-sama did not seem consciously aware of it, she loved the master. I thought that if a young mistress were brought into the picture, she would never recover. Therefore, I... therefore...」

Fuki lowered her head, fell silent for a moment, and then began to speak in a quiet voice.

「I thought it would suffice if I became the mistress and bore a child. It was obvious that I adored Mari-sama far more than the master did. Both the master and Mari-sama were well aware of that. And so, one evening, I entered the bedroom hoping to be taken by the master.」

However, Fuki's nocturnal visit ended in failure. My grandfather turned her away. And by coincidence, Mari-sama happened to witness the scene—my grandfather driving away Fuki, who was clad only in a disheveled long undergarment. Mari-sama, who had been spending her days as if devoid of emotion, suddenly flared with anger.

Having incurred Mari-sama's wrath, Fuki was married off to the Takanashi family.

「There was only despair. Though from an outsider's perspective, it must have looked like a marriage into wealth. The Takanashi family is exceptionally affluent, and I had caught the eye of their young head of household. Until then, Mari-sama had insisted she did not want to let me go, and the master of the Kujouin house had rejected the proposals on my behalf. When my husband told me that after our marriage, I deeply regretted that foolish act from the bottom of my heart. And I prayed that I might once again return to Mari-sama's side.」

Fuki was treated with great deference as the mistress of the Takanashi household. She even gave birth to a son who was the grandfather of Takanashi-sama. It should have been a life of happiness. Yet Fuki maintained she was unhappy.

「A world without Mari-sama is of no use to me.」

Fuki turned to Sugiyama, Mari-sama's secretary, for help.

「Sugiyama-san loved me, so I made use of him.」

Fuki manipulated the master—who doted on her—into taking a mistress. Not just any ordinary girl would do; she had to be the daughter of a fine family. It had to be a family of such standing that he would be forced to take responsibility and marry her. Fortunately, Fuki's husband was handsome.

「My husband had a face very similar to his great-grandson Ryou.」

And so, she decided to set him up with an eighteen-year-old daughter of a former peerage family. It was Sugiyama who arranged for them to meet repeatedly under the guise of coincidence. He was remarkably competent. That young lady became infatuated with Fuki's husband.

Then the plan was executed. They sent that young lady to the heavily intoxicated husband, lying to her that the master was calling for her. It didn't matter if nothing actually happened between them; it was enough for the rumor to spread that a daughter of a good family had been defiled.

「My husband declared he would give up all his wealth rather than part with me, but I left the house anyway. And I headed straight for the Kujouin residence.」

With Sugiyama's guidance, Fuki reunited with Mari-sama. Even after seven years, Mari-sama's eyes remained hollow. Her naturally pale skin had turned bluish-white, and she had grown so thin that her large eyes looked even bigger than before. With the permission of my grandfather, Fuki returned once more to Mari-sama's side.

「I was truly happy. After all, I could live with Mari-sama once again.」

A sudden wave of goosebumps broke out across my body. This obsession was abnormal.

「What about your son?」

「I didn't care about him at all. As long as I had Mari-sama, everything else was utterly trivial.」

Before long, my grandfather passed away, and my father returned to Japan.

「I thought Mari-sama would sink even deeper into depression following the master's death, but it was the opposite. If anything, she developed a fierce sense of mission that she had to protect the Kujouin family. Because of that, she began treating Touru-sama with even greater severity.」

The story that followed was identical to what the landlady had told me. Fuki had indeed committed truly monstrous acts against the landlady.

「Why on earth should Mari-sama ever deign to speak to some jumped-up, rustic girl from the countryside? Furthermore, she was a hibakusha. It would stain the Kujouin family name. My judgment was entirely correct.」

Fuki terrified me. Just what was it that had driven her so completely mad?

「When that girl disappeared, Touru-sama cried and wailed just like a child. He was such a troublesome person, entirely lacking the self-awareness required of the next head. But even those matters ceased to matter once the date for Mari-sama's hand surgery was decided. After all, it meant I would be able to spend time alone with Mari-sama once again.」

Fuki must have been recalling those days. She wore an enraptured expression.

Parameters: Fuki-san! How can you be so devoted to Mari-sama?! I simply don't understand. You tormented the landlady, you made a fool of my father. Why, Fuki-san, why...!!

I rebuked Fuki, but she answered my plea with dark, dead eyes.

「Reiko-sama. What could someone like you possibly understand? You have lived your life without ever facing hardship. You were loved by Mari-sama. You monopolized the love from Mari-sama that I was never able to receive. Mari-sama held high expectations for you. She would say you were a miraculous existence combining the talents of both the master and herself—that whatever you were taught, you memorized instantly, and that your musical talent for the piano likely surpassed her own. What could you possibly understand, you who effortlessly obtained the very love I desired yet could never grasp!」

I had no idea Mari-sama felt that way about me. I always thought she hated me. Even finding out after her death does nothing to change it. I would have been better off not knowing!

「You really are an odious child. To tell you the truth, I tried to kill you on several occasions. Yet whenever I reached my hands out toward your neck, you would simply smile. Without a single trace of doubt toward me... I couldn't bring myself to do it.」

Fuki was completely deranged.

「I cannot comprehend this. Fuki-san, you were loved by your husband, and you were loved by Secretary Sugiyama as well. Why are you so fixated on Mari-sama?」

Fuki remained silent for a while, staring up at the sky. Then, she slowly began to speak—talking about the days when she was a stray child, living hand-to-mouth with other children while being treated like a mere insect. Fuki had struggled desperately to survive. When men tried to target her, the boys in her group protected her. Yet in the end, she was violated by the very boy she thought was protecting her. Treated like an object among her companions, she was eventually forced onto the streets as a streetwalker. By chance, she was bought by an officer and ceased to be a stray child, only to become the mistress of a man with pedophilic tastes. Fuki was beautiful. She possessed a beauty capable of captivating all sorts of men.

Mari-sama was the only one who desired her without viewing her with sexual lust.

Mari-sama was the only one who treated Fuki as a human being.

Fuki wanted to take revenge on everyone other than Mari-sama—on the people who had trampled her human dignity underfoot.

To Fuki, anything and everything outside of Mari-sama was worth less than mere dust.

*****

Hibakusha (被爆者) is the Japanese term for the surviving victims of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. Literally translating to 'explosion-affected people,' the word officially refers to people who were:

Within a few kilometers of the hypocenters when the atomic bombs were dropped.
Exposed to the radioactive fallout shortly after the bombings.
In utero while their mothers were pregnant and exposed.
Exposed to radiation from the aftermath (such as people who entered the cities to help rescue survivors or search for missing family members).

Survivors often faced severe, long-term health consequences—including radiation sickness, an increased risk of cancer, and birth defects—as well as significant social stigma and discrimination in post-war Japan (such as difficulties in finding employment or marriage partners due to unfounded fears about radiation).

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