Returning back had never been in his mind for a long time. At least until now, where he was standing here with Shinrou. Masami and Yuki were mostly back home since someone must be there now. While Kazuho went with Shinrou because he could be attacked on the way back. And that Ayakazu will only have agreed because of Shinrou.
He had known that it was for the best too, as he could not say that he knew anyone else. Mamoru and Kaede counted, but he had asked them so it was for naught to try an ask them one more time. There simply wasn't the point in it. And thus why he was here.
He needed to seek out someone else who knew something, Ayakazu was the best choice. She took in Rin and helped Shinrou to care for her after she left. She was trustworthy, otherwise, there was no way Shinrou will have trusted her enough with Rin. Though Rin was clearly sensible to take care of herself, she was still a child then. It still made her vulnerable. He was a child who thought that he could do it on his own, but it wasn't.
He was still tricked at the end of the day. Shinrou knew that but trusted that Ayakazu will care for her or ensure that she ended up in a good place. And here he needed to ask her about how she came to be Saitou Sachiko; if there was anyone he could ask it had to be her. She will have had some knowledge of what happened to her in the interim.
Or at least allowed him to begin. Having a deal with Sasaki as he knew it was not enough. It was far from enough. It will be taking a long amount of time even if he were to fulfill his bargain, which he didn't doubt he will. It was also in his favor as Sasaki will have found it even tougher to find any information since the Daimyo was now dead. And Daishin had not appeared for years.
But he was foolish to assume that this will be enough. There were many possibilities, Rin could have been forced to keep her silence and agree into it. She may have changed her mind, that even he couldn't extract the reason any longer. There were so many things that could have changed. Kazuho wasn't comfortable in betting on such odds at all. He needed to know.
And that meant looking into where she was last seen as Rin. It was here, from what Ayakazu admitted.
"Do you think I'm foolish for forgetting that?"
"No, you weren't. It was better to ask where she went to than to press for more questions. You can't ask when you barely have an idea as to her circumstances." He didn't make the connection until he knew that she was Sachiko and the changes in how the Saitou clan worked. "She won't blame you, thus neither will I."
Even as he knew that it was he who put her into such a situation in the first place. While Shinrou had hesitated, but only upon the request of Rin that he came to find Kazuho. It was a long time, and by the time he was found it had been months since the incident. And he was in Fukusei, hungry for vengeance against his father.
At the back entrance, he found himself looking at the messenger. The boy waved to him. Kazuho knew that the messenger had come from Ayakazu. Shinrou looked away, clear to know what came next.
"How are you so certain that she can help?"
He gave a wry smile, knowing that there was no avoiding it.
"I grew up here too. She raised me." Kazuho blinked. Shinrou wasn't grinning or anything, which made it all the more shocking. It made sense why he never frequented such places, he clearly saw the struggles of all the women here. "Until I was close to six, where she found me a man to take me in."
Before Kazuho gave a chuckle. "So, you were raised by a Geisha?"
"Not everyone was born with money or normal parents," Shinrou said, chagrined.
He rolled his own eyes. But it was good too, Ayakazu could help them in many many ways. Besides, his parents were dead. Before they found themselves looking at Ayakazu. He turned around and gave a respectful bow. "I was indeed his mother before I gave him away. Now let's go up, it's chilly outside."
Inside, she poured tea for them. This time around it was freshly boiled. She didn't need another guess, even as Kazuho had brought cash over. He had the feeling after he had the chance to take a good look at Murasaki, and it couldn't bring much harm.
Where he sat beside her. Giving Shinrou a better seat, since he was the elder of them. "I suppose you want to know what happened to Rin?"
Nothing else needed to be said or insinuated her situation. Clear that it was all about it now. He didn't need another word to make the guess what he was looking for. "I'll tell who approached Rin and asked her to be Saitou Sachiko. For a price."
A servant brought in a kiseru, which she had picked up.
He figured that it was too sensitive to tell him for nothing. "It isn't that I can't but rather this is something that you will only know if you get closer to the Saitou household. You know what to look for, and there are certain things you would rather with see with your eyes. Am I right Kouya?"
"So you knew." He doubted that there was nothing she didn't know, it made plenty of sense from this perspective overall.
"But I won't tell anyone." She was serious about that at the very least. If he had, he suspected that he had far more. "I will tell you what you need if you agree to help me do one thing."
"What is it?"
There was something off about her. But he had to listen. He didn't have many choices, and he doubted that it could come at a great personal cost. He had left everything and didn't care anything here. All that he cared about was finding Rin, to him, that was all he needed and wanted.
"Turn the shogunate over." It was the one thing he hoped he never had to do or even know that he needed to do it. "Help in the rebellion, you had gotten your friends over."
He knew that it was more than that. Something deeper. "Daishin is your enemy, as he is planning to overthrow the shogunate. To replace it with the imperial family. In which the imperial family will still be kept in the same way that they will no more than the symbols of the country."
But the Shogunate will change. It will be governed by men elected into the positions. He wasn't interested, not in any way. Even as Ayakazu looked at him. Shinrou was more surprised at the price, knowing just what it meant for Kazuho. "He won't change the country in a way that will benefit them."
Her eyes were focused, her tone was calm. There was nothing to suggest anything personally; however, there was no way that anyone could have predicted anything to have gone in such a specific direction. All that they knew were the possibilities, but there was never a certainty. Certainties had been the only thing which made it impossible.
He didn't need anything else to know that she was serious. Shinrou was still baffled by such a request, not understanding or even comprehending just what this meant. Or even the depth of her knowledge. "How do you know?"
"He has made an enemy of the shogunate, not one which will willingly relinquish its hold for a better government. Despite all, the Tokumoto clan still maintains a strong standing and the support of the clans and those abroad. Not to mention that he wishes to subdue the Imperial family into submission once more." Those were things which made it almost difficult. It was one to put one of them down, and another to take them both.
It was something that few could accept readily. Kazuho was one who saw the merits of it, but he wasn't foolish to think that it will be easy. He was not the first man with such ideas, and he was not the first man to even try it. Shoguns before him attempted to change, most had been able to ease them into believing that the common man could do things.
And by opening the country, it allowed them to learn and adapt. But to change the system from inside out, it was difficult. There wasn't a need. Anything they lacked, they could buy it. They could export what they had in excess, and in exchange for bringing in what they needed. Expanding into other territories was a foolish move. Even as trade alliances continue to make them vulnerable.
"You are right. But why are you asking me?"
She gave a smile. "You have been to foreign lands, you know how these work better. You know where are the inherent problems of this. Daishin for all his boasting has never been to the land of the republic. Where they overthrew their own king and executed him. Neither has he been to the center of the world, where it is said to be so difficult to manage that their system simply had to be effective for the country to not be in revolt."
He learned ideas, but not how they came from. Both of them had different reasons, one was the situation for the commoners had been so bad that it was impossible. That and plenty of other things. They didn't have that, not yet anyway. "But I sadly must say that I'm not the best. An issue as complex as this is beyond my ability."
He wasn't exactly wrong. These two things alone could make even the best scholars argue. It was a complex problem. The same reason when it came to any country. That if he were to take the burden of solving it he could spend all his life and not change much. History loved to repeat itself.
"You know that Sachiko will be caught at the middle of this." He knew that too.
"Would you rather see her suffer because this is what the coup will do to her. If it hasn't already done that." He held back his own thoughts. He didn't know what to say, or even how he should have gone about it. There was nothing that she could do about that.
Before Shinrou stopped him in that instant. "I think that it will be better to hear from her voice more than anything else."
That he didn't think that this was worth it. That it was worth Kazuho throwing himself in front of danger. "You forget that she will despise herself, to have been used in such a manner."
And that the reason why she left may only come from her or not at all. "You forget that I spent twelve years of my life with her, you may have raised me. But it only goes so far. I know that she will never leave, not without reason." And that she will never have blamed a person that she gave something up for. He was her friend, and she helped him in many ways.
Before he put down his own hand. "How about a compromise?"
It was almost strange to hear that from him. It was weird, strange and almost bizarre. It came too easy. But this was a woman who raised Shinrou and Shinrou had the chance to intervene and do something. "Bring Daishin to me and bring down the shogunate. You don't need to be a part of this."
This was slightly better. Even as Kazuho agreed at the moment. It was an acceptable price, she had paid a huge amount for him. He will do the same to her.
"Fine." Shinrou was a little surprised but knew there was little he could do. He had not seen her for well over a decade, and then a couple more years after that. They couldn't be called close anymore. But the sentiment was still there on some level as she had helped him in the small things.
"The one thing you need to know. Rin came to be Saitou Sachiko because of Daishin. And because he promised to help you leave, and when she finished their end of the bargain he will let her go."
His eyes widened. That changed everything. Shinrou was shocked, as much as he had clenched his own hand in that instant. It meant that he had used Kazuho the whole instant. That when he went back to the promise he had with her, Daishin will hold her leverage. The same had happened to Rin.
As much as he knew just how unrealistic it was. That she had asked to help him get out. When Daishin had not done anything of the sort. He had continued to encourage him to pursue his goals.
"She knows more than that, doesn't she?"
"That and Daishin had made a good deal. To be a daughter, and to take care of her. He has held up his end of that bargain for five years. And showed some genuine concern for her."
"Thank you."
As he stepped out, all he knew was that this didn't just lead him somewhere but he owed her even more than before.