The Retribution Ghost Story (Hoichi the Earless Side Story) [Third Night] Candy and Flowers (Serial Short Story)

A ghost story told every night by the woman of Seikanji Temple.
What is told is the ending of someone who lived in Gion—
However, that ending is not just one.
The same mystery, different endings.
The truth is left to the listener's ears.
The 'Hoichi the Earless' side story, 'The Retribution Ghost Story,' opens here.

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Third Night: Candy and Flowers

The sound of the biwa—

Pluck...

The beginning of love is like the first storm of spring.
You think it has blown through, but it leaves behind only dust on the tatami and notes in the ledger...
But this story is a tale of a wind that does not leave.

Now then, the stage is Gion in the capital.
At the inn 'Renya,' there was a young man.

His name was Yasube. Twenty years old. Handsome. A master of the kitchen knife.
Though he could fill a traveler's stomach, he was a blockhead completely oblivious to a woman's heart.

The one casting passionate glances at such a Yasube was—

The proprietress of the candy shop, O-Haru.
A twenty-eight-year-old widow with fair skin and a sultry voice.
In the morning, she brought candy water; at noon, she brought snacks; in the evening, she asked with a worried face, 'How is your mother doing?'

Though she seemed modest, in truth, she was an older-sister type who was skilled at both bookkeeping and seduction!

Moreover, this O-Haru had a daughter. Her name was Misuzu.
With bright eyes and few words, she was the shop's poster girl, kneading candy with her mother and beloved by the townspeople.

'The young master of Renya has caught the eye of the candy shop mother and daughter,'
the town grandmothers would say while sipping tea, and the young girls would blush and envy her, saying, 'How nice, O-Haru-san.'

—One rainy day.

At the back door of Renya, O-Haru suddenly appeared before Yasube as he was carrying cargo and said,

'What would you like as a thank you for the other day?'

Wiping his wet shoulders, Yasube looked away slightly and replied,

'No, I've only been helped by you, O-Haru-san... I'm sorry.'

Then, O-Haru laughed softly—

'...You won't regret it if you make me your wife.'

At that moment, the shoji screen of the office opened slightly, and a single ray of sunset shone in.


Pluck...

—Three years later.

While the sign of Renya remained the same, the real power was entirely in O-Haru's hands.

'Young master, it's already six (6:00 AM)!' she would say, pulling off his futon,
'The ledger isn't finished yet,' she would say, with a cold hand on his shoulder.

Even so, Renya was prosperous, the proprietress was capable, and the town's rumors were excellent.
Her daughter Misuzu was now ten years old and a popular figure in the flower district, called the 'young master's sister-in-law.'

Meanwhile, Yasube—
While holding a knife in the kitchen, he would occasionally look up at the ceiling and sigh.

('...Well, this isn't so bad, either.')

◇◇◇◇◇

'The candy of a clever, older wife is neither sweet nor bitter.
But with a stickiness that clings to the throat,
once you learn the taste, you can never leave—'

◇◇◇◇◇

Now then, this is one form of the future.
Next, we will move on to another, softer ending.

◇

Pluck...

Now then, everyone,
Candy or flowers—life sometimes wavers between sweets and plants!

Yasube, the young master of Renya, suddenly stopped his feet at the eaves of a flower shop at dusk.
A small back crouching on the wet stone pavement, tying flowers...
Thinking 'Oh?', he approached—

This was the rumored flower shop daughter, O-Hana.

She was seventeen, fair-skinned with gentle eyes, a small voice, and short steps.
A girl who had a habit of starting to speak and then stopping, and who nodded more than she talked.

But, however!

For some reason, when Yasube talked to this girl, his stomach felt relieved.
It was as if he had entered a bath with the perfect temperature, and the tension in his shoulders melted away.

'...Is that crape myrtle today?'

When he spoke to her like that, O-Hana looked up, blushed faintly, and said,

'Yes... the color resembles summer...'

—What a lovely reply that was.

When the wind blew, petals danced down one by one, two by two.
The two of them just stood side by side, talking about flowers in bits and pieces.
For Yasube, this was truly the perfect silence.

Since then—
After morning preparations, between bookkeeping, and on the way back from shopping,
before he knew it, Yasube was passing in front of the flower shop.
Then O-Hana would smile at him.
Just that alone soothed his heart.

—Well, three years passed since then.

The sign of Renya remained the same, and the cooking and bookkeeping were both on the young master's shoulders.
Busy, short-handed, a daily storm of chaos!

But at the entrance, there was always a single seasonal flower placed quietly.
Without being told, he knew it was O-Hana's doing.

In the morning, he was sent off with a 'Have a safe trip,'
and when he returned to the office late at night, under the lamp—
O-Hana was holding the ledger, nodding off.

Yasube would gently drape a haori over her and sit in a chair with a sigh.

'...Ah, good grief. Another day finished safely.'

O-Hana, awakened by his voice, would smile sleepily and say, 'Welcome back.'

Just that.
But Yasube received the strength to live for tomorrow from that smile.

◇◇◇◇◇


'The scent of flowers is fleeting. But there are nights when that scent remains in your heart.
Holding hands with a clumsy girl, laughing and crying, yet adding days one by one.
...That too is a quiet ghost story called happiness.'

◇◇◇◇◇

Pluck...

Now then, everyone, thank you very much for staying with me until here.

'Tonight's story, what's this, neither ghosts nor vengeful spirits appeared'—
Oh my, are there those who thought that?

Heh heh, the woman of Seikanji Temple laughs, narrowing her eyes from behind her fan.

'No. Ghosts have long since been devoured.
Yes, by us 'women'—that is.'

Softened by the sweetness of candy, rounded up by the sharpness of the ledger,
with the scent of flowers and the warmth of hands—
before you know it, you've been devoured to the bone!

'Tell me, which one is scary?'

Saying that, the woman closed her fan with a swish.

'As supple as candy,
as fleeting as flowers,
but—
a woman,
devours even ghosts...'

And, as if called by that voice, deep in the darkness,
a light like the remnant of someone's kiss—flickered once.

'Now, which hand will you take?
The candy woman or the flower girl?
...Or do you think you can escape without being swallowed by either?'

Heh heh heh...

The woman's laughter vanished into the night like the wind...

The sound of the biwa—

Pluck... pluck...

It seems the performance is over.

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