Updated Mar 23, 2026 • ~5 min read
Chapter 6: Yuki’s position
KEN
He told Yuki about the deflection list.
This was, he acknowledged, an error in judgment, because Yuki laughed for approximately ten minutes and Ken was obligated to wait it out in the shrine’s inner courtyard with the cedar tree and a cup of tea that went cold before Yuki finished.
“She ranked them,” Yuki managed, at some point between the third and fourth minute. “By evasion difficulty—”
“Yes,” Ken said. “I said that.”
“And she was wrong on three—”
“Because I’d been front-loading the deflection for her. Yes.”
Yuki said: “You told her that.”
“It seemed useful for her research.”
“You told her how to ask questions that you would find harder to deflect,” Yuki said. “You identified the weakness in your own evasion strategy and shared it with the person conducting the investigation.”
“It’s not an investigation.”
“It is an investigation,” Yuki said, in the fond tone he used when he was being accurate in a way he knew Ken found irritating. “She’s been investigating you since she looked at your tails and reached for her notebook. You’ve been telling her how to do it better.” He paused. “Why did you do that?”
Ken looked at the cedar tree. He thought about this, because it was a reasonable question.
He had told her because she’d shown him the deflection list. She’d shown him the deflection list because she was a researcher who believed in transparency about methodology. She’d been tracking his evasions with the same careful attention she brought to everything, and when he’d looked at the list — at the structure of it, the ranked order, the three questions misclassified because she’d been inadvertently front-loading the deflection — he’d found himself telling her about the misclassification before he’d decided to.
The same thing had happened at the festival, with the transliteration. He’d corrected it before deciding to. He’d disclosed before deciding to. He’d agreed to three sessions before deciding to. The pattern was legible and he was choosing not to examine it too closely because examining it too closely led directly to the conclusion Yuki had been circling since day one.
“She’s good,” he said. “At research. It seemed wasteful to have her working with a suboptimal methodology.”
Yuki said: “You helped her so she could investigate you more effectively.”
“When you say it that way—”
“It’s what happened.”
“It’s what happened,” Ken agreed, after a moment. “She’s going to find the material she’s looking for either way. She found the source text by herself. She found the secondary sources in the tradition. She’s been building toward this for three years and the work is thorough and she’s going to reach the correct conclusions with or without my intervention.”
“So you might as well make the process accurate,” Yuki said.
“Yes.”
Yuki said: “You know what I’m going to say.”
“I know what you’re going to say.”
“You sought her out. You disclosed within forty-eight hours. You’re helping her build the investigation that ends with the conclusion—”
“I know what the conclusion is.”
“Do you want me to say it?”
“No,” Ken said. “I don’t want you to say it.”
Yuki was quiet for a moment. Then he said, in a different register — not the delighted one but the older one, the voice he occasionally used when he was being genuinely careful: “Ken. How long has it been since you wanted to go somewhere?”
Ken considered the question honestly, because Yuki used that register rarely and it deserved an honest answer.
He said: “A long time.”
“Before the Matsuri. Were you going anywhere?”
“The observation points,” Ken said. “The usual — shrine maintenance, territory management. The spring festival circuit.”
“Things you’ve been doing for two hundred years.”
“Yes.”
“And now you’re going to a tea house in Yanaka on Fridays.”
Ken said: “And Wednesdays. She was specific about the schedule.”
“She has a schedule,” Yuki said. “For talking to you.”
“For the interviews, yes.”
Yuki was quiet again. Then: “She writes everything down.”
“I know.”
“She tracked your evasions and ranked them.”
“I know.”
“She told you about the deflection list because she believes in transparency about methodology.”
“Yes.”
“She’s transparent about her process,” Yuki said, “and she wanted you to know what her process was.”
Ken looked at the cedar tree for a long time.
He said: “Q14.”
“What about it?”
“She’s going to ask it on Friday in the direct form. I told her to bring more than one recorder.”
Yuki said: “What is Q14?”
Ken told him.
Yuki was quiet for a significant amount of time.
He said: “And you’re going to answer it.”
“Yes,” Ken said.
“When were you going to — not that you need to tell me. I’m merely noting that Q14, in the direct form, answered honestly, is going to—”
“I know what it’s going to do,” Ken said.
Yuki said: “You’re going fast.”
“I’m going at the speed of the evidence,” Ken said. “She has the evidence. She’s been building toward the evidence for three years. I could slow down, but all I’d be doing is managing the timeline. The conclusion is the same.”
Yuki looked at him with the expression that was half exasperation and half something much warmer.
He said: “I want the record to show that I’ve been saying this since day two.”
“The record shows it,” Ken said. “You’ve been saying it very loudly.”
“Good,” Yuki said. “I like being right.”
“I know you do,” Ken said. “Go home.”
Yuki went, and the shrine settled into the Yanaka evening, and Ken sat with the cedar tree and the cold tea and thought about Friday and the direct form of Q14 and how long it had been since he’d wanted to go somewhere.
A long time.
Not much longer.
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