Probably last Mirage-related post for a bit

[petronia]

Okay. I'm back. =_= There's not much left to the story per se - the coda is basically Ujiteru and Tsunashige discussing the incident while flower-viewing, and Ujimasa finally piecing everything together. It turns out Ujimasa was the first and only person to see Saburou stumble in that morning disheveled and bruised and covered in sand, looking utterly traumatized, but when he asked what had happened Saburou wouldn't tell him. Soon afterward the Matsuda disappeared, and Saburou started drinking heavily and breaking dishes and shutting himself in his room and whatnot, but up until this point Ujimasa had never realised these facts were connected.

What conclusion Ujimasa arrives at in the end is crucially and deliberately left unclear. You're supposed to be aware reading this book of what he tries to do in the Mirror Arc, and of the things he says during their last fight that - mercifully - Takaya is then unable to understand. Much of it is ideas Matsuda Takahide put in his head. >_> The bit about Kagetora having a demonic sexual nature that lures men to their doom, say (at least one of his rapists committed suicide by way of self-castration afterward - yeah, I'm not quite sure what to say to that either), and especially the bit about him being the Hojo's "evil omen". The seven Hojo brothers were the stars of the Big Dipper (goes the story), but "because" an eighth son was born - Saburou - the eldest son and heir died, and it fell to Ujimasa to see the clan destroyed on his watch. Thing is, given the circumstances you're not quite sure if he says these things because he really believes them, or half-believes them, or was casting about for the most damaging weapon in his verbal arsenal. I think he half believes the omen bit, anyway, because there's nothing like a superstition that plays into one's own insecurity. You know from Ujiteru's observation that Ujimasa became even more driven afterward than he was before, as if he has something to prove, but Ujiteru never found out why.

As for Kotarou... that's left unclear too, actually. Ujiteru assumes he overheard Ujimasa and Takahide's fight/discussion, and so do I, because if he was close enough to take Takahide out at any time he would've been close enough to hear. I mean they were yelling half the time. ^^; But when Ujiteru asked he performed his best clamshell no jutsu, and he's been clamshelling ever since.

The story after Gunjou is Shichigatsu umare no Sirius, which is totally about how Naoe takes Takaya out on a date on his birthday (7/23, for the record, that's in less than a week). It's the second time I was walking down the street reading Mirage under the same stars as the characters - sorry am dorky okay. Read Sabaku Junkyou too. Same idea, heat wave these past few days in the concrete jungle of Montreal, so I got really dehydrated and ended up ordering the next few books with express shipping.

In the meantime I have to read the new Harry Potter. Believe me I'm bitter about not being allowed to do this on my own time, but if I don't read it now now now the race'll be on to see whether my sister kills me first for not reading or I get inadvertently spoilered by my flist (because in 24 hours or so people will stop caring about spoiler cuts when making jokes - or lj icons). And no, JKR doesn't write well enough that being spoilered won't half ruin the thing. :P

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[worldserpent.livejournal.com]

HP has become a collective event, something which serves its own purposes and uses for the fandom as well, I gather. Like Christmas or the Olympics or something. Thankfully this one goes pretty fast, although that might be because I was entirely bored by some of the subplots.